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Thursday, September 4, 2008
Can Nesbitt handle the BC defense?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Five burning questions as we head into the second weekend of the season:
1. How will Josh Nesbitt handle the Boston College defense? The Georgia Tech quarterback played well in the opener against Jacksonville State. He showed more poise and good decision making than I expected for a first start.
But on Saturday Nesbitt will take a definite step up in class when he faces the Boston College defense. If you count linebacker Brian Toal (injury) and DE B.J. Raji (academics), who both sat out last season, the Eagles return eight starters from a defense that finished No. 2 nationally against the run (75.5 ypg). Last week Boston College held Kent State’s Eugene Jarvis, the nation’s leading returning rusher (1,669 yards last season), to just 51 yards on 11 carries. DC Frank Spaziani will make sure that Nesbitt will be under a lot more pressure in this game.
2. What will be Dan LeFevour’s final numbers against Georgia?: The junior quarterback from Central Michigan had 3,652 yards passing and 1,122 yards rushing last season. He’s only the second player (Vince Young of Texas was the first) to pass for 3,000 yards and rush for 1,000 yards in a season. He is used to putting up big numbers. He had 213 yards passing and three touchdowns last week against Eastern Illinois. He’s a big guy (6-3, 226) who has a knack for getting down the field. But good defenses can contain him. Last season against Clemson LeFevour completed 20 of 34 for 204 yards and two touchdowns. He ran for only 31 yards in five carries. Hold him to those numbers on Saturday and the Dawgs will have another comfortable win.
3. Will the Florida-Miami game be competitive? It’s hard for me to get a handle on this one. My gut says Florida has too many weapons and gets a big edge by playing at home. WR Percy Harvin is scheduled to play for the first time this season. I also believe the Florida kids are going to get geeked up to play Miami with a chance to break the Gators’ six-game losing streak to the Hurricanes. I also think that while Miami has improved its talent base in two years of recruiting under Randy Shannon, the Hurricanes are still a long way off from where they used to be. Other people have told me that Miami is due for a breakout game under Shannon and that this might be it. With an 8 p.m. start at the Swamp, it should be quite an atmosphere.
4. Will Chris Smelley lock down the QB job tonight for South Carolina? Tommy Beecher still has a bad shoulder after getting his bell rung last Thursday against N.C. State. So Chris Smelley, who came off the bench to play well against the Wolfpack, gets the start tonight against Vanderbilt (8:30 p.m., ESPN). The South Carolina defense pitched a shutout (34-0) last week and looks like the real deal. If the Gamecocks can just get decent play at quarterback, they could have a respectable season. But keep this in mind. Vanderbilt had the SEC’s No. 4 defense last season and the Commodores are pretty good again on that side of the ball. They will try to turn this into an ugly game.
5. Will Alabama be sharp, or flat, against Tulane? The Crimson Tide will certainly beat Tulane Saturday at Bryant-Denny. I don’t normally look for style points in a game but in the case of Alabama, it will be instructive. How will they play after receiving almost universal praise for a week for their dominating performance against Clemson (34-10) last Saturday? In my conversations with Nick Saban he is always concerned how this group of players will handle both adversity AND success. Both, an old coach used to tell me, are poison if you swallow it.
If Alabama builds on the Clemson win and comes out and takes care of business against the Green Wave, there is reason for optimism in T-Town. If they take a step back and sort of slop their way through this game, that means there is still a lot of work to do.
Fortunately for Alabama, it has one more exhibition game next week against Western Kentucky before opening the SEC season at Arkansas on Sept. 20.
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