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 70th 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!
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