Southerland a flawed NFL prospect?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Don’t know if you’ve had a chance to check out the newly formatted daily online paper the Sporting News is producing but it’s definitely worth a glimpse if you get a chance. Our former college editor Jeff D’Alessio is running the show over there now and it really is a neat concept.
That said, I’m not sure I’ve ever read more horse-patooie than I did when I perused Russ Lande’s draft projection on Georgia fullback Brannan Southerland. Lande projects Southerland as a fifth-round pick and I have no qualms with that. That’s probably a reasonable slot for a fullback as far as I know but I have never been able to figure out what in the world NFL scouts are thinking and I’m not going to try now.
What I disagree with is most of what Lande writes under “weaknesses” for Southerland. This is a subscription deal so I don’t know if y’all will able to follow the link so here’s what Lande wrote under that heading:
“Weaknesses: Is not a premier athlete. Struggles to bend knees for low lead blocks, limiting movement. Tends to stop moving his feet after initial blow and will fall off the block. Shows stiff hip movements, struggling to block moving targets in the open field. Is not a strong and powerful runner inside - gets tripped up by low arm tackles.”
I have to assume this guy Lande has seen Southerland play in person or at least on video because how else could he possibly write authoritatively on this subject if he didn’t spend time doing that. But “struggles to bend knees for low lead blocks, limiting movement? and “shows stiff hip movements?” Are you joking?
Tell that to Auburn linebacker Tray Blackmon as he’s knocked out of the play on this long run by Thomas Brown. Perhaps Lande should consult the two Yellow Jackets taken out by Southerland on this TD run last fall.
And maybe Southerland is not the greatest runner in the world but Georgia doesn’t ask him to do it much other than around the goal line. That’s where most of his 21 career TDs have come from, five of them on receptions. Last time I checked NFL teams are drafting tailbacks to do the running and fullbacks to do the blocking.
These draft “experts” crack me up with their references to “hip movements” and “knee bend.” It’s like they all go to Mel Kiper Jargon School to learn how to verbalize the tiny flaws only they can see. Never mind that Southerland is a little over 6-feet tall, weighs 248 pounds, runs a 4.6 40-yard dash and is the third-strongest player on Georgia’s team, linemen included. Never mind that he’s a model student. Never mind that he’s the consummate football player.
NFL GMs be warned: Southerland has stiff hips!
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Do Eagles have any shot vs. Georgia?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The start of the season is right around the corner and, as a result, Georgia is shifting some of the focus off itself and putting it on its opponent, in this case Georgia Southern.
The Eagles are an interesting first-game opponent for the Dogs. Of course, they’re in Division I-AA (I don’t care, that’s what it is to me, not “Football Championship Subdivision”). So that effectively makes it a no-win situation for Georgia. Win big and you were supposed to. Let them keep it close and you’re overrated. Lose and you might be run out of town on a rail (see Appalachian State-Michigan and Lloyd Carr).
But to UGA’s credit it has agreed to play its good neighbors to the South every four years or so. It’s represents a financial bonanza for Georgia Southern, which receives several hundred thousand dollars for the game, and gives the program some exposure it otherwise might not receive.
I haven’t delved deeply yet into what all the Eagles will be bringing to Athens. But I’ve seen enough to know Georgia shouldn’t be in grave danger. I know I’ve always felt Chris Hatcher was one of the great up-and-coming coaches around, and he’s been up-and-coming for a while now. I know they bring nine starters back on defense from the team that finished 7-4 last season and tied for third in the Southern Conference. I know they lost eight starters on offense, including the quarterback.
In fact, a pretty good quarterback race has been going on in camp this preseason. According to Chad Bishop in the Statesboro Herald, redshirt freshman Lee Chapple is the current starter but Ohio State transfer Antonio Henton is closing in on him hard. Sounds like there might even be a chance the Bulldogs see both of them.
Meanwhile, Georgia Southern does very little like anybody else. They run a derivative of West Virginia’s 3-3-5 defense and Hatcher has been running a Hal Mumme-style spread offense for years, way before the spread became vogue offense in college football.
That said, I don’t expect Georgia to struggle quite as much with Southern this year as it did last time they played in 2004. The Dogs won 48-28 but were ahead only 13-7 at halftime and gave up 348 yards offense. I counted 70 freshmen and sophomores on the Eagles’ roster in their media guide and that’s not generally the makeup of an underdog team getting ready to pull an upset or even a scare.
So what do y’all think? You believe Georgia Southern can make a game of it? Will you be disappointed if Georgia doesn’t win by at least 50 points? Or do you just not care and want to hurry up and get this win and get it over with without injuries regardless of score?
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Richt on A.J.: ‘We’ll get him in the game’
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
This just in: A.J. Green will play this season. Probably in the first game. Probably a lot eventually.
OK, that’s probably not breaking news. It has been pretty evident since Green committed to Georgia nearly two years ago that he was probably going to see the field the first time he trotted through the gap in the hedges the day of a game. But coach Mark Richt removed all doubt yesterday when asked about the long, tall wideout from Summerville, S.C., who has been sidelined much of the preseason with a hip flexor injury.
“He’s just missed so much, you know?,” Richt said at first, making you think he was about to say something different. Then …
“All I can tell you about him is we’re going to get him in the game. I don’t know when but we’ll get him in the game.”
Here’s the deal: Green has struggled a little with grasping the offense. The thing is, in Georgia’s system, when Matthew Stafford calls a pass play in the huddle, it’s not as simple as the split end (Green’s position) runs a deep post on said play. Once they get to the line of scrimmage, the coverage that the secondary is in will dictate the route. Both the quarterback and the receiver have to recognize that and agree on it silently. Often, the quarterback may check out of one play and into another based on the defense. Now another whole set of options is introduced.
Said Richt: “[Green’s] still got a long way to go. There’s still some things he just does naturally extremely well. But there’s still that learning curve to try to understand the offense, a particular route, how we want it run, how we want it run against different coverages. There’s lot of nuances he’s got to get comfortable with. But it’s good to get him back going.”
That said, it’s still just football and there’s nothing stopping offensive coordinator Mike Bobo from just calling specific plays for Green on occasion. You can pretty much count on the Dogs, trying to hit him deep a couple of times in the first couple of games. But by the time they get to South Carolina in game three, the sophistication of the defenses will jump 10-fold. It’ll get more complicated.
But something tells me you’ll see the Dogs go to Green a lot in Columbia. The Gamecocks went after Green hard, especially after he committed to Georgia. I’m sure the Bulldogs would love to showcase him.
We’ll see soon enough.
Sing it: SEC better than Big Ten
You have to check out the song — and accompanying video — written by college football enthusiast Ryan Parker. The title says it all, “SEC Is Better Than the Big Ten.” …
CBS schedule leaked
Wondering what games may end up on CBS later this year? It’s normally a closely-guarded decision not finalized until the last possible moment. But apparently it intentionally or unintentionally leaked its tentative schedule on the Internet. You can see a copy at SouthernSaturday.com.
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No. 1: Harder place to finish than start
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Consensus No. 1. That’s one heck of a note for Georgia.
It was a big deal when the Bulldogs were tabbed the preseason top team by the coaches. It’s an even bigger deal that that they’re No. 1 in both major polls. I have to admit I was surprised when the writers seconded that vote in the AP poll over the weekend. These are, after all, some of the same writers that picked the Dogs second to Florida in the SEC East at Media Days last month.
But that wasn’t the main thing. Sure as the world I thought the media masses would take into account preseason injuries and the schedule and drop Georgia down a peg or two. By the way, I should interject here that no AJC employees vote on the AP poll. A bunch of us used to vote on that and the Heisman Trophy and other things but stopped voting on all polls and awards shortly after the AP poll became a part of the BCS formula. Of course, it isn’t anymore but we still stay away from that stuff just the same.
So anyway, the poll came out and Georgia was No. 1 in AP, too, and the die has been cast on the 2008 season. There’s really only two ways for the Dogs to go from here: Either it will be the greatest season ever — considering the expectations and the schedule, et al — or short of playing in the BCS title game, a colossal disappointment.
I’m not going to get into whether I think they can do it or not. We have plenty of eloquent columnists that get paid to do that. But you probably won’t be surprised to know that very few preseason No. 1s finish the season with that ranking.
In fact, according to the AP, out of the 57 polls it has produced since 1950, only 10 preseason No. 1s went on win it all. That’s 17.5 percent, or 1.75 chances out of 10. By the way, the ones that managed to go wire-to-wire are: Southern California (2004), FSU (1999), Florida State (1993), Oklahoma (1985), Alabama (1978), Oklahoma (1975), Oklahoma (1974), Oklahoma (1956), Michigan State (1952) and Tennessee (1951). You’ll note that coach Mark Richt was was on the staff of the two FSU teams that did it.
So that’s just some food for thought going forward. Grab onto something folks because I can promise you it’s going to be on wild and crazy ride this season. We’ll be with you every step of the way.
The Knowshon Zone
I don’t know much about its genesis but you’ve for to check out the new fan site for Knowshon Moreno called The Knowshon Zone. Pretty simple really but let me know what y’all think… .
Tate gives up football
According to the Cartersville Daily Tribune, prospect Donavan Tate, the son of former Georgia standout Lars Tate, has given up football to concentrate on his baseball career. He’s supposedly a top 10 draft candidate in baseball. I’m sure it was a tough decision for the kid. I always think of George Lombard when I hear about these kinds of things… .
Trouble in Gatorland?
Real interesting “podcast” from the Miami Herald reporter that covers the Florida beat. At the paper’s sub-site known as Gator Clause Joseph Goodman states flat out that Percy Harvin is a bad team guy and blames him as the instigator of a recent sideline fight with teammate Chris Rainey. Listen for yourself… .
Eyeing No. 120
Great story in the New York Times about a guy that has seen all 119 Division I-A teams play in person. He plans to make it 120 when Western Kentucky moves up in 2009… .
Behind the curtain
You probably always hear those of us covering Georgia mention the name Claude Felton. Well the Bulldogs’ Hall of Fame sports information director was recently honored at an event in Augusta and the Augusta Chronicle chronicled it. Pretty much anybody in the business will tell you Claude’s the best.
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Knowshon back deep IS intriguing
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Reggie Bush did it. Desmond Howard did it. Will Knowshon Moreno do it, too?
I’m not talking about winning the Heisman Trophy, which those first two guys did. I’m talking about returning punts and kickoffs. But I can tell you this — the two things aren’t mutually exclusive. Returning kicks helped win those first two guys those two Heismans.
Now that’s not the reason Georgia should have Knowshon return punts this season. If I know anything about coach Mark Richt or the Bulldogs, I’m sure they wouldn’t attempt something of the sort to help a player garner votes for an individual award.
But you’ve got to admit the idea of Moreno returning kicks of any sort is very intriguing. Richt revealed yesterday that Moreno has been handling punt returns (along with freshman Carlton Thomas and quarterback Logan Gray) during preseason practices. Not surprisingly, Moreno has looked the best so far.
Think about the excitement a home crowd would feel after the Georgia defense has stoned an opponent and No. 24 comes trotting in from the sideline and wanders back there all alone as the deep safety. You’ve seen what he can do with a little daylight on a toss sweep. Imagine what he can do if he really has some room to run.
I know, I know. The risk of injury is certainly greater fielding a ball out of the air as 11 players barrel full speed down the field after you. But is it significantly greater than when you’re carrying the ball 25 or 30 times out of the I-formation? I’d say Bush was pretty valuable to Southern Cal, as he is to the New Orleans Saints today. And Howard was pretty important to Michigan, too. And if special teams are truly as important as Georgia claims they are to its success and Moreno is the best at this, why have anybody else do it?
It would be a bold move, for sure. But I think I like it. What about y’all? …
Speaking of Knowshon
There was a nice piece on him in ESPN The Magazine’s college football preview issue. There’s not a lot folks around here didn’t already know or have heard about Knowshon. But certainly interesting seeing it told again to a national audience… .
Most powerful: Saban
Surely by now most of you have heard — or seen on the cover of the magazine in stores now — that Forbes Magazine has declared Alabama’s Nick Saban as the “most powerful coach” in all of sports. I haven’t read the whole article myself but between the amount of money he makes, the structure of his contract (no buyout I think) and the way he runs his program, the business-oriented magazine’s editors have determined Saban’s the man. Perhaps the clincher between him and Bill Belichick and was going 6-6 last season and not ending up on the hot seat.
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Latest comments
The whole UGA offensive unit is flawed. No Yards after catch in the passing game even when recievers do catch the ball. Richt likes Vanilla plays as well. Now UGA has Field Goal Kicker issues. False hope for the mutts!... read the full comment by Feet IN Tar | Comment on Southerland a flawed NFL prospect? Read Southerland a flawed NFL prospect?
Lynn Cain?... read the full comment by Hunk Erdown | Comment on Southerland a flawed NFL prospect? Read Southerland a flawed NFL prospect?
i guess cause they have Mo Mass, A.J., tony wilson, israel troupe, walter Hill, and Tavarres King playing at a much higher level or atleast practicing that way... read the full comment by BLEEDING RED & BLACK | Comment on Southerland a flawed NFL prospect? Read Southerland a flawed NFL prospect?
i guess cause they have Mo Mass, A.J., tony wilson, israel troupe, walter Hill, and Tavarres King playing at a much higher level or atleast practicing that way... read the full comment by BLEEDING RED & BLACK | Comment on Southerland a flawed NFL prospect? Read Southerland a flawed NFL prospect?