Bulldogs must contain Central Michigan’s LeFevour

Athens — One reporter thought he had gotten a great scoop when he asked Central Michigan coach Butch Jones if he planned to do anything different for Saturday’s game against No. 1-ranked Georgia.

“Yeah, we’re changing our whole offensive system for this game,” Jones said. “We’re going to the Wing T. Going to put a couple of wideouts at quarterback and run option all day long. We’re going to force [Georgia defensive coordinator] Willie Martinez to prepare for that.”

He was kidding.

The reality is the Chippewas (1-0) are going to do what they always do, which is put the ball in the hands of junior quarterback Dan LeFevour and see what he can do with it.

Last year LeFevour did more with a football than any other player in the country, leading the nation in total offense (4,774 yards) and accounting for 47 touchdowns (27 passing, 19 rushing). Not coincidentally, Central Michigan won it’s second consecutive MAC championship.

“His statistics are really pretty staggering,” Georgia coach Mark Richt said Tuesday. “If it wasn’t for what [Florida’s Tim] Tebow did last year, then everybody would be talking about how amazing he is. … The productivity of this guy is unbelievable.”

Richt said the Chippewas’ spread offense is similar to Georgia Southern’s, except they’re not “trying to break in in two rookie quarterbacks.”

Jones is not ruling out his team’s chances of pulling off the upset — “part of building a program is going into every game with the mentality that you’re going to win,” he said — but at the very least he’d like to have a better showing than the last time they came south. Central Michigan lost 70-14 at Clemson last season.

Georgia, he said, is better.

“In 22 years of coaching football, I can tell you they are deserving of all the accolades,” Jones said of Georgia. “It’ll be a challenge. But our kids have been through the wars a little bit. They’ve been educated.”

Offense must help

Georgia’s defense will not be alone in trying to slow down Central Michigan’s offense. The Bulldogs say their offense will have to do its part, too.

“We’re gonna have to stay on the field as long as we can,” quarterback Matthew Stafford said. “We need to be efficient on third downs and try to give our defense a rest.”

Last week Georgia ran only 59 offensive plays to 71 for the Eagles and had the ball seven fewer minutes. Richt said he felt the defense fatigued and “didn’t really finish like they should.”

A little more ball control from the offense could help that.

“In a perfect world you’d like to win the time of possession and score on your drives,” offensive coordinator Mike Bobo said. “Last week we were able to score, but it was quick and it probably didn’t help our defense much. It’s something we’re conscious of, but it’s tough. We have to figure out how best to get the ball in the end zone, but we have to consider what’s best as a team. That’s a philosophical discussion we have every week.”

Several connections

Georgia assistant coaches Martinez and John Jancek worked with Jones at different times at Central Michigan. Martinez was defensive backs coach and assistant head coach from 1998-2000 when Jones was an offensive assistant. Jancek, who came to Georgia to coach linebackers in 2005, was defensive coordinator and line coach for the Chippewas from 2003-04.

CMU running backs coach Jeff Beckles was a graduate assistant at Georgia from 2002-04 and earned a master’s degree from UGA. Beckles played for Richt as a wide receiver at Florida State in the early 1990s.

Interesting returns

• Asher Allen, who set a school record for kickoff return yards last season (690), didn’t have one in the opener against Georgia Southern. But he did have three punt returns for an average of 12.3 yards.

• Ramarcus Brown, who closed out the 2007 season with a 90-yard kickoff return in the Sugar Bowl, was back deep for all four kickoff returns against the Eagles. He returned three for 49 yards, increasing his career average of 28.5 yards (on nine returns). The other was fielded by an up back.

• Reshad Jones (two) and Logan Gray (one) were back deep on three other punts, but only Jones got to return one (32 yards).

Etc.

Captains for Saturday’s game, chosen by the coaching staff based on their performances in the previous game, are Stafford and fullback Shaun Chapas for the offense, tackle Corvey Irvin for the defense and free safety/punt returner Reshad Jones representing special teams.