Something to Prove on Rocky Top

The hype surrounding Georgia this week has been both exhilarating and nerve-racking. After their great performance against Mississippi State last Saturday, Georgia moved up to  #7 in the AP Poll, and there have been a lot of questions about whether or not Georgia is a legitimate CFP contender. At the same time, there is just a little too much Georgia in me not to think that this is exactly when our entire season comes crumbling to the ground.

As Georgia heads north to take on Tennessee, you couldn't have a more stark contrast between two programs.

While Georgia is riding high, seemingly with all the talent in the world, and a coach who has his players ready to go each and every week, Tennessee fans are just looking for a reason to get rid of Butch Jones.

Ignore for just a minute how bad this guy is at talking to the media. (He famously called last year's Tennessee team Champions of Life even though they had a disappointing season, and just last week accused Tennessee beat writers of buying into Fake News when reporting that there was a locker room fight between two of his players). Jones had a chance to put away Florida a few weeks ago, but managed the end of the game so poorly that it gave Florida the only chance it needed to throw the game winning Hail Mary as time expired.

Jones took over after a terrible three-year run from Derek Dooley, and he immediately got Tennessee's recruiting heading in the right direction. However, despite solid recruiting classes, Jones hasn't been able to make a big change on the field. Jones is 33-22 in 4+ seasons in Knoxville. He has never beaten Alabama, Tennessee's biggest rival. He has never won the SEC East. He lost to Vanderbilt last year.

If Tennessee loses tomorrow, it is likely that Jones will be fired at the end of the season.

While the two teams seem like they are heading in different directions, the reality is that there isn't much separating them. Tennessee is incredibly talented, and with their backs against the wall, Georgia is going to get their best shot on Saturday. If Georgia has been reading the headlines instead of preparing for a SEC showdown, the Dawgs are going to fall flat on their face tomorrow afternoon.

However, that isn't going to happen.

As fun as last week was, and man, it was fun. Tomorrow is going to be better.

Throughout the past five seasons, Georgia has had some really high moments. Beating South Carolina and LSU in 2013 to get back on track after a close loss at Clemson to open the season is one example. But after barely beating Tennessee a week later, Georgia came home and got beat by Missouri, then lost on the road to Vanderbilt and the season was over.

What will be fun about tomorrow is that we are going to see just how far Kirby Smart has brought this program. Georgia is going to take care of business by giving a solid overall performance that might lack the glitz and glamour of last week's win, but it will show just how good this team is.

Georgia is going to play great defense like they have all year, and they are going to run the ball all over this Tennessee defense.

Georgia 27    Tennessee 13

Go Dawgs!

Georgia makes a statement against Mississippi State

It has been a while since the Classic City rocked the way it did on Saturday night. Just off the top of my head, I would say this was the biggest win and the most electric night in Sanford Stadium since Georgia beat LSU in September of 2013. From start to finish, Georgia dominated a solid Mississippi State team who came in with all the hype after their big win against LSU last weekend.

It has been a while since we have seen Georgia play like they have in the first month of this season. Georgia started the 2015 season 4-0, but that year quickly spiraled out of control when Georgia was crushed by Alabama in Sanford Stadium. This 4-0 feels much different, but the season will still have to play itself out.

There are a few things that I think we can feel comfortable with as we head into the meat of the 2017 schedule.

First, this is the best defense Georgia has had since at least the early 2000’s. I know people like to admire the 2011 and 2012 defenses, and they were good, but those teams played more of a bend but don’t break style. The best term I can think of to describe this defense is “Controlled Fury.” They are aggressive on every single play. The snap of the ball seem unleashes an energy that explodes from all 11 players. On television, it just looks like there are 20 guys out there going crazy. But the most amazing part of this defense is the fact that they are always where they are supposed to be. When the opposing offense makes a play, like Mississippi State did a couple of times on Saturday night, they defense is there to limit the damage. There don’t seem to be any big plays to be made against the Georgia defense right now. Offenses will get first downs, they will complete some passes, but you are going to have to march down the field on a 10 play drive if you want to score a touchdown, and to this point, that isn’t happening very often.

Georgia won the game 31-3 last night and threw the ball 12 times. The game was over as soon as Georgia scored a touchdown on the first drive of the second half, because there was no way Mississippi State was going to score multiple touchdowns on our defense. Georgia ran the ball almost exclusively in the second half because they could. My confidence in this team moving forward is much higher than I am comfortable with, but it is all because I don’t see teams having the chance to score a lot on our defense.

The next thing we know might be a little bit controversial, but here it goes: there is no quarterback controversy at Georgia. Jake Fromm is Georgia’s starting quarterback and it would be a huge mistake by Kirby Smart if that changes as long as Fromm is healthy. I have changed my mind about this, but I don’t see any reason to take Fromm out. My thought process was based on the fact that Eason won the job over the course of the spring and fall, so the coaches obviously believed he was the best of the two quarterbacks. The problem is that from the moment Fromm came in the game against App State, he has looked better than Eason has at any point in his career. Fromm is in control of the offense, he is calling audibles at the line of scrimmage, and he is talking with his receivers after plays. Fromm is the leader of this offense, and the other players on the field seem comfortable with that.

By comparison, Eason has always seemed robotic and uncomfortable. I chalked it up to him being a freshman and the offensive line being so bad last year that he could never get comfortable. Eason has all the arm talent in the world, and Georgia fans have been told for years that he was going to be the next great quarterback in Athens, and I do think he will get a chance to be a great quarterback, but it won’t be at Georgia. My guess is that Eason will be the backup this season, and then transfer to a school with a shotgun based spread offense where he will thrive.

The final conclusion that is safe to draw after the first four games of this season is that Georgia is the best team in the SEC East. Now, that isn’t saying much. Florida did manage to beat Kentucky by a point last night, but their offense is offensive. Tennessee is still coached by Butch Jones, so while they may be champions of life, they are not good enough to be champions of the SEC. Vanderbilt got cocky over the past week leading up to their game against Alabama, so the Tide had to remind them that they are indeed Vanderbilt and they have nothing to be cocky about on a football field. Missouri is quickly becoming the worst program in the SEC. I was genuinely worried about South Carolina, but after the past two weeks, I think they are still a good bit behind Georgia. Kentucky is a team to keep an eye on. They are much more talented than any Kentucky team I can remember, and they are going to win some games, but they showed last night that they aren’t quite ready to truly contend in the East.

Now comes the tricky part. After last night, Georgia will move into the Top 10, and we will have the entire college football world singing our praises, just like they sang the praises of Mississippi State last week. If this team is truly as good as I think they are, they will go to Knoxville next weekend and prove just how good they are. A win in Knoxville would set this season up to be a special one, but the ghost of Georgia teams past has to make us a little nervous. Just when we think we are heading for greatness, soul crushing disappointment has followed.

Over the first four weeks of this season, Kirby Smart has proven that his team can win the big game. For the next three weeks, his team has to prove they have the ability to beat the teams they should beat. 

The Dawgs Visit South Bend

What an opening weekend of college football. From Texas A&M snatching defeat from the jaws of victory, to the nerds of the North Avenue Trade School finding a way to lose to Tennessee, to Alabama proving that year in and year out, there is no other program like them in America, it was a great weekend of college football.

Would you believe me if I told you that week two could be better?

Auburn takes on Clemson. USC hosts Stanford. Ohio State versus Oklahoma.

And of course, the most important game from our point of view, Georgia travels to South Bend to take on the Irish for only the second time in school history. Georgia is 1-0 all time against Notre Dame, with that sweet victory in the 1981 Sugar Bowl that clinched the 1980 National Championship.

This is one of the most anticipated games of the last few years, just because it is unique. One of the greatest venues in college football will host the Dawgs for the first time ever. Notre Dame Stadium only seats about 80,000 and from the way things sound, there could be a lot of Georgia fans in the stands on Saturday night.

According to the word counter on this document, I have managed to write 200 words of this blog without mentioning the quarterback situation at Georgia, which should entitle me to some type of award.

It is all anyone wants to talk about, so here is my take. Jacob Eason is Georgia’s starting quarterback and he won that job through spring practice and fall practice. I wasn’t at practice, but from media reports, the quarterback competition was decided very early on during fall practice, indicating that Eason was, in the coaches’ minds, far ahead of Fromm. So Eason is Georgia’s starting quarterback, but he is injured and the backup is Jake Fromm. At this point, there is no reason for anyone to go any farther than that. There are a ton of if’s and but’s that you could begin to throw out there, but none of them carry any real weight and can be dismissed immediately with a simple counter argument. Let me give you one example:

What if Fromm comes in, starts the next four games (ND, Samford, Miss. St., and Tennessee) and Georgia wins all of those games, is Eason going to just go right back into the starting lineup?

That’s  a great question, but there is no way of knowing that answer. There are too many variables. Think back to Richt’s last season. Georgia was 4-0 in November. Now that sounds really good. But they weren’t playing well. It took overtime to beat Georgia Southern at home, so just saying Georgia wins or loses and then trying to decide how that will affect the quarterback situation is fun, but pointless.

Let’s look at what we know. Eason is the starter. Fromm played really well against App State. Fromm is the starting quarterback until Eason is healthy. We don’t know when Eason will be back.

That is it. That is what we know. We might think a lot of things, but that is all we know. So let’s just let it play out.

One thing I do trust completely is that if Fromm gives Georgia the best chance to win, he will play. This is a huge year for Kirby and he’s not going to let the best quarterback on the roster sit on the bench while the team goes 7-5 again. The coaches know a lot more about each of these guys than we do, and they have a lot more on the line than we do. Let the coaches do their job based on how the players are doing their job. As fans, we have only one job, support the guys on the field, and Saturday night, that means supporting Fromm.

Now, on to the game itself. Georgia is the more talented team, but the Irish are at home and they looked good against Temple last Saturday. It will be a match up of strength versus strength when ND’s offense squares off with Georgia’s defense. The Irish have a mobile quarterback and a solid offensive line, but Georgia played well against the mobile quarterback against App State. Any time you play against one of these guys that can get out of the pocket and run, you are going to give up a few plays in a game, the key is limiting how often and how big those runs are.

Fromm will most likely have a freshman moment or two on Saturday. A delay of game. A bad interception. Something that reminds us that he is making his first career start. But I’m sure the game plan will be to rely on the running game and let Fromm throw off play-action, which he did really well against App State. Chubb, Michel, and Swift are going to have a big night against a defense that ranked 70^th last year against the run.

I don’t think Georgia will go in there and blow out Notre Dame, but I do think they will win comfortably. I like Georgia, 34-21.

Typically I would end the blog with my score prediction, but this week I wanted to give a warning to Georgia fans watching the game on Saturday night. For years, I have heard fans say that it feels like the announcers are rooting against Georgia. Most of the time, I don’t feel like that has happened, but this week it absolutely will happen. Georgia/Notre Dame will be broadcast on NBC, and NBC is the exclusive home of Notre Dame football. If you tune in early, there will be a pregame show, but the announcers for this game follow the Irish and broadcast all of their home games, so there will be a slant towards Notre Dame. Mike Turico and Doug Flute are the announce team for the Irish this year, so they are pretty good. Turico used to do Monday Night Football, so the quality of the announce team will be strong, but just be ready for some Notre Dame bias as the broadcast goes on. Either way, there is no way the broadcast will be as bad as what ESPN offered us last week with Tommy Tubberville on color commentary. He was awful.

Anyway, enjoy the game and Go Dawgs!