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Home > Terence Moore > Archives > 2008 > August > 29
Friday, August 29, 2008
Georgia’s instructions for a 12-0 season
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Despite a schedule that suggests otherwise, let’s ask the question: What must Georgia do to go undefeated this football season, starting Saturday in Athens against Georgia Southern through that little event in Jacksonville in November to the national championship game in Miami?
Here we go.
• Georgia Southern: Don’t get cocky. Never mind that Georgia Southern isn’t Appalachian State this season, especially since 17 of the 22 players on the Eagles’ two-deep depth chart will take the field for the first time Saturday. Tiny teams can shock gigantic ones, but only if those gigantic ones forget they’re supposed to crush those tiny ones.
• Central Michigan: Ignore the “Central” in front of Michigan. This team from Mount Pleasant has been more impressive in its conference in recent years than that other team from Ann Arbor. The Chippewas have taken the past two Mid-American Conference titles, and they are MAC favorites again this year.
Ever hear of Dan LeFevour? He’s Central Michigan’s starting quarterback, and he rushed and passed for more yards last season than some Heisman Trophy guy named Tim Tebow.
• At South Carolina: Hold your ears during the week. South Carolina coach Steve Spurrier enjoys whipping the Bulldogs with his players and his tongue. He did so often at Florida, and he did so last season between the hedges with an inferior South Carolina team. Georgia can’t fall for Spurrier’s mind game, and they’re coming.
• At Arizona State: Remember the USC of the Pac-10 is way more potent than the USC of the SEC. The point is, Arizona State is among the top challengers to that other USC (otherwise known as Southern Cal) in the Pac-10, which means Georgia must treat this as a BCS-caliber game.
This also will be one of the few trips ever for the Bulldogs out of the Southeast, so they must keep from getting spooked by a flight longer than a couple of barks from their Uga mascot.
• Alabama: Imagine that Bryant-Denny Stadium is between the hedges. Otherwise, the Bulldogs could get lulled into complacency with Alabama at home this season. As for last season, Georgia won for just the second time ever in Tuscaloosa.
So, to keep the edge, the Bulldogs need to play mind games with themselves against a rising but flawed team that nevertheless could shock them.
• Tennessee: Think revenge. It’s ridiculous that the Volunteers have taken three of their past four games from Georgia. Just like Alabama, Tennessee lacks Georgia’s quality and depth. As a result, no way the Bulldogs should lose this time to Tennessee, not unless they cringe with fear instead of with anger at the sight of orange.
• Vanderbilt: Send chocolates and flowers to the Commodores, either literally or figuratively. Remember? After the Bulldogs’ last-second victory in Nashville last season, they stomped on Vanderbilt’s logo at midfield. An angry group of Commodores could interrupt their rebuilding year to upset the Bulldogs.
• At LSU: Listen to anything and everything that coach Mark Richt has to say about Death Valley. Obviously, he knows what he’s doing, especially when it comes to scary places. Under Richt, Georgia is 25-4 in an opponent’s stadium, and that includes 9-2 against ranked opponents.
• Florida (Jacksonville): Don’t fret over the fuming Gators. And, yes, they will do something crazy to counter Georgia’s excessive celebration in the end zone last year after scoring the game’s first touchdown. It’s just that Georgia can’t be preoccupied with whatever the Gators might do at the expense of blocking and tackling.
• At Kentucky: Forget something and remember something else. First, Georgia has to forget about whatever happened the week before in Jacksonville. In contrast, Georgia has to remember that they lost the last time they traveled to Lexington in 2006.
• At Auburn: Send whatever chocolates and flowers are left over from the Vanderbilt game to Auburn. Just a guess, but coach Tommy Tuberville and his War Eagles probably weren’t pleased last season when Richt turned Georgia’s home game against Auburn last season into a “blackout” game, where players and fans wore all black.
This already is an intense rivalry game, but Georgia should be prepared for more sizzle to the fire in this one.
• Georgia Tech: Practice against the triple option every day. One reason this offense works well is the element of surprise. This is the Yellow Jackets’ first year under Paul Johnson, the architect of that offense, and they’ll be better with it by the time they roll into Athens after Thanksgiving.
The Bulldogs don’t want to resemble turkeys either before or after that game, and they won’t. Not if they follow what we just suggested — and get lucky.
Really lucky.
Permalink | Comments (18) | Categories: UGA/SEC
Johnson finds plenty of faults in Tech rout
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
They passed on the first play. That was different. They’re never supposed to throw in this run, run and then run some more offense.
Plus, despite the Yellow Jackets’ bashing of mostly pitiful Jacksonville State with ease Thursday night at Bobby Dodd Stadium, there was Paul Johnson, interrupting his calm during much of the first half with a red face and a speed hop toward his Georgia Tech center who just botched a snap to his quarterback.
When you’re a perfectionist as a head coach, and it’s all about your offense during your first season in town, you always want to make sure the corpse is dead by shooting it again and again.
That Tech led 27-0 at the time along the way to a 41-14 blowout meant nothing to Johnson. Neither did all of those other little signs of hope for his triple option offense that rarely is used or seen among major colleges. His B-back, Jonathan Dwyer, already had more than 100 yards rushing, and his quarterback, Josh Nesbitt, already had 61 yards rushing while nearly attempting more passes before halftime (nine) than his Navy team averaged per game (10) last season.
It’s just that Tech had more than a few ugly moments during their fancy scrimmage disguised as their season opener, and Johnson responded accordingly.
And loudly.
We already told you that Johnson wasn’t (ahem) pleased that center Dan Voss blew that snap to interrupt the Jackets’ drive for more bullets in the Jacksonville State corpse. He also screamed up close and personal at Zach Krish after the reserve guard returned to the sideline in the third quarter after he jumped offside to blow a fourth-and-short attempt for Tech inside the red zone. Then there was Johnson yanking off his headphones before engaging in a one-way shouting match with Bret White after his high snap caused Scott Blair to miss badly on a short field goal attempt.
It’s all about the offense. Which means, whenever you mention anything involving Georgia Tech football this season, it’s all about Johnson, because he is that offense. He invented the plays. He calls the plays. So, whatever the offense does in his first year as the Yellow Jackets’ head coach after successful stints at Georgia Southern for five years and Navy for six years after that, he’ll take the credit or the blame.
This should be interesting.
Well, it better be. If nothing else, Johnson’s triple option offense needs to entertain until his players fully know what they’re doing with A-back, B-backs and all of those other kind of backs in this thing.
“Our fans are very excited by this offense, because they understand it’s a little different, and one of the things we try to do here in our athletics program is, we need to be good and different,” said Georgia Tech athletics director Dan Radakovich, watching a lively crowd of 45,706 spend much of the pleasant evening cheering the Jackets in general and Johnson’s offense in particular. “You can’t line them up all the same way being here at Georgia Tech, and that was one of the main reasons I thought Paul Johnson was a great fit for us with what he does.”
Jacksonville State doesn’t count much in the big picture, by the way, because the Jackets used their size and speed to overwhelm their Division I-AA opponent as much as that quirky offense. Never mind the Gamecocks are the favorites to win the Ohio Valley Conference. What will count regarding Johnson’s offense will be what the Jackets do against their ACC brethren and other legitimate teams.
Like beginning next week at Boston College.
Permalink | Comments (55) | Categories: Tech/ACC
