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Monday, September 22, 2008
This just in: Georgia’s No. 8 is pretty good
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Five things we learned over the weekend:
1. Georgia’s No. 8 is pretty good: There are very few freshmen at this level of college football who really live up to the recruiting hype. Fortunately for Georgia, A.J. Green is one of them. It was clear going into Saturday night’s game with Arizona State that Georgia OC Mike Bobo wanted to work really hard to get the ball to Green and it paid off with eight catches for 159 yards. I’ve seen a lot of really good receivers at Georgia from Lindsay Scott, to Andre Hastings, Brice Hunter, Reggie Brown, and Gibson. It is a long list of All-SEC players.
But consider this: Georgia has never had a consensus All-America player at the wide receiver position. Green has a chance to become the first before he leaves Georgia if he stays healthy and listens to Bobo and Mark Richt.
The passing game should be open all season because opposing defenses will decide they are not going to let RB Knowshon Moreno and the Georgia running attack beat them. If Matt Stafford and the receivers keep playing like this, the Bulldogs are going to be hard to beat.
2. Tech puts the ACC on notice: Mississippi State coach Sylvester Croom told me last week that he started working on his Georgia Tech game plan back in the summer. Why? It was because Paul Johnson’s offense, when it is clicking on all cylinders, is impossible to prepare for in just four days. On Saturday we found out why the rest of the ACC has to be concerned about Georgia Tech as a force in this league-sooner rather than later.
I promise you that every defensive coordinator in the ACC already has a copy of Tech’s 38-7 destruction of Mississippi State. They are starting to wonder how they will defend this attack after watching the Yellow Jackets roll up 438 rushing yards.
And here is what’s really scary. Josh Nesbitt gets hurt and Jaybo Shaw, who is barely old enough to shave, comes off the bench and the offense never misses a beat. That’s coaching.
3. Tennessee, Fulmer, in trouble: Over 106,000 people turned out at Neyland Stadium turned out Saturday because they were convinced that Tennessee had a chance to beat Florida. After two kicks to Brandon James, who may be the best return man on the planet, Florida led 17-0 and the game was over. For the second time in three games, Tennessee made so many mistakes one hardly knows where to start. Quarterback Jonathan Crompton has an adequate arm but does not appear ready to play at this level. He is being asked to do more than he can really do and is making mistakes a redshirt junior should not make. Tennessee started 1-2 a year ago and fought its way back to reach the SEC championship game. I thought Phillip Fulmer did one of his best coaching jobs ever holding that team together.
But I just don’t get the sense that this team is tough enough to do that. Florida beat Tennessee Saturday and, if we’re going to be candid, the Gators really didn’t have to break a sweat. It was just too easy. That is what should concern Tennessee fans.
To me, it’s too early to speculate about Fulmer’s future as head coach. But here is the immediate question: If Tennessee loses at Auburn this week to start 1-3, how many empty seats will there be in Neyland Stadium for the Oct. 4 game against Northern Illinois?
4. LSU can absolutely defend their national championship: We said early in the season that if LSU could just get good-not great-but good play at quarterback, the Tigers were talented enough to defend their national championship. What redshirt freshman Jarrett Lee did in the second half against Auburn Saturday night was remarkable. After a horrible first half, he came off the bench when starter Andrew Hatch suffered a concussion. His two touchdown passes led LSU to the 26-21 win. “If they get that kind of play at quarterback the rest of the season they will be hard to beat,” Auburn coach Tommy Tuberville said Sunday. I agree. We’ll find out a lot when LSU goes to Florida on Oct. 11 and hosts Georgia on Oct. 25.
5. We still don’t know how good Florida is: Because of Tennessee’s dumb mistakes, the Gators got up 17-0 early at Knoxville and so Urban Meyer never really had to open the playbook. But it has to be encouraging for the Gators-and pretty scary for the rest of the league—to know that they can win on the road and Tim Tebow doesn’t have to do all the heavy lifting. There are a lot of different ways this Florida team can beat you and the defense does appear to be better. But Tennessee never put the Gators under any kind of pressure and Ole Miss and Arkansas don’t figure to do it either over the next two weeks. Florida will not have to pull out all the stops until Oct. 11 when the Gators host LSU,
