Sunday, July 18, 2010
WHAT’S THE WORST THAT COULD HAPPEN?
When you take a quick, superficial look at the upcoming football season for the DAWGS, you will either see a team riddled with holes and questions or you will see a team that should once again be considered a contender in the SEC Eastern division and therefore a contender for the SEC and national championships. We here at the BEAST can see both, depending on the day…the humidity in Dublin…the lake levels at Hartwell…and which way the wind is blowing in Toccoa. Point is no one knows how the season is going to play out…and that’s part of the fun of it…but today we encourage you to channel your inner Larry Munson as we point out just a few of the ill fates that could befall our beloved DAWGS in 2010.
Aaron Murray
How does a program like Georgia end up with no better option for a starter at quarterback than a freshman (RS)? We all know the twisting road that led the DAWGS to this point and I am not going to rehash it here, but this is the situation the Georgia program finds itself in and the tide of the upcoming season will probably rise and fall with how well Murray handles the rigors of his first Southeastern Conference campaign. Regardless of how talented Murray may be, we’ve seen what can happen when your team lacks experience at the most important position on the field. In 2006, true freshman Matthew Stafford…the same Matthew Stafford that would eventually lead the DAWGS to a #2 national ranking in 2007 and become the overall #1 pick in the 2009 NFL Draft…struggled mightily between the flashes of the brilliance that was to come and the DAWGS finished the regular season at 8-4. In 2009, Joe Cox…a fifth year senior that was a DAWG through and through and that had performed pretty well in spot duty while backing up Stafford…provided Georgia with serviceable play at the position, but failed to play up to the standards the coaches, the fans and even Cox himself expected and the DAWGS finished the regular season 7-5. Murray may be turn out to be great, he may even be great this season, but history says it will be a tall order.
Todd Grantham
Ding-Dong the witch is dead. Georgia finally has a new defensive coordinator and he has been wholly embraced by the DAWG Nation. Grantham comes with an NFL pedigree, the Nick Saban seal of approval and he’s promising a style of defense that will have both his players and the Georgia fans frothing at the mouth before the pre-game warm ups are done. Sounds great and I can’t wait to see it. But I haven’t seen it yet. None of us have. G-day served up the vanilla well enough to rival your closest Bruster’s and that just ain’t enough to make the DAWGS opponents cower in fear. Not to mention that along with this new defense come new positions, techniques and responsibilities for most every player on the unit. Heads will be spinning inside those red helmets early in the year to be sure. We’ve often wondered over the last few years how a team with as much talent as Georgia has on the defensive side of the ball can be gashed the way they have been recently…is it the fault of the coaches or have we seriously overestimated that “talent”? I guess we’ll all find out together. We’re all looking for big things from this new defensive brain trust, Mark Richt included, but until we see it on the field this will remain a much talked about question mark for the 2010 Georgia squad.
Offensive Line
What? How can an offensive line that allowed the fewest sacks in the league last season and returns all five starters…not to mention the possible return from injury of an All-American at tackle…be a downfall for the DAWGS? In this case, too many cooks could really spoil the DAWGS stew. Depth is a blessing in football, especially along the lines of scrimmage, but how long it takes the coaching staff to sort out exactly which combination of pieces allows them to put the best five players on the field could be the key to whether the 2010 season will be a success or something much less satisfying for everyone involved. You can’t win a championship in the first month of the season, but you can certainly lose one and two road trips in the first four games along with a home game against a team with a high-powered offense in Arkansas in week three will be quite the challenge. If there is still shuffling along the offensive line a month into the season, then it’s a safe bet that the very things that the DAWGS are counting on to buoy them in the early going…a productive running game and Murray not being put on the turf every time he drops back to pass…will not be there and Georgia will be lucky to get out of the first month at 2-2 with virtually all hopes of an appearance in the championship game having gone by the boards.
Wow. I know, right. What a bummer.
Good news is…that is only one side of the coin. We will be coming to you live and in color very soon with some of the reasons that this very same Georgia team could be lifting the SEC Championship trophy in early December in Atlanta so keep your eyes peeled. Or, you could always stay up to date with the BEAST by becoming a fan of the blog on Facebook or you can follow us on Twitter….with options even…HERE or HERE.
Glory, Glory.
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4 comments:
David Greene did pretty well his first year (ie: SEC Freshman of the Year) though granted, he still went 8 and 4. -GK
Absolutely, GK. Greene showed early on that he had a special make up about him. I hope Murray will prove likewise and have similar success.
David Greene, who knocked the lid off the program with the Hobnail Boot win over # 4 Tennessee vols his Freshman year, lost to South Carolina of SEC East in week 2 that year the offense scoring only 9 points, lost to Florida of SEC East the offense scoring only 10 points, the following week lost to SEC West Auburn the offense scoring only 17 points, and then lost the bowl game to at the time unranked Boston College the offense scoring only 16 points.
6' 3' 226 lbs. David Greene could take a hit.
He really never was injured in his entire career, picked pick # 87 of the NFL draft, and never throwing a pass in the NFL - other than practice games where he was not good at all.
Colt McCoy owns the NCAA record for most wins by a starting QB.
Christian LeMay is a lot faster than little Aaron Murray who at 198 lbs barely is over 6 feet tall. This has led to him throwing the most interceptions of all UGA Quarterbacks, and also led to Murray having 3 injuries the last 2 seasons to both his leg and ankle and then all last Fall throwing his arm out missing 21 practices as a result of the sore arm.
There is no reason with this soft schedule that UGA cannot be
12-2
this season.
David Greene, after the Hobnail Boot in 2001 never did ever recreate that, having never again beat a Top 10 Final AP Poll team.
His passes were mostly dump-offs over the line, and he was most inept at running the football.
In 4 years, he won 1 SEC Championship in a very down SEC that year.
2002 Alabama was on probation and not ranked in the Coaches Poll, Auburn was the only other ranked team at # 14 in the final polls. It was nice being # 3 but we lost the big games, for certain.
2003 was a year we lost to LSU and then of course lost to Florida keeping us for the SEC Championship game.
2004, his senior year, he finally did beat Florida to finish 1-3 vs Florida for his career; but, he lost to Tennessee and lost to Auburn thus again preventing us from the SEC Championship Game.
David Greene was also completely different from Aaron Murray in his very few interceptions.
If your objective is to be on the outside looking in, David Greene did a steady plodding job of that, after the 1 win vs the Final AP Poll Top 10 team his freshman year to knock the lid off the program.
For the 9 years of the Coach Richt Era to-date, UGA averages the # 52 NCAA Total Offense.
38 games we have played where we scored no more than 2 touchdowns and we lost 27 of those.
After DJ Shockley, who ended up with an even smaller interception percentage than David Greene, UGA has been 38-14 the last 4 years leading the nation in arrests suspensions penalties interceptions fumbles and losses to Final AP Poll Top 10 teams.
Coach Richt is the # 5 SEC Coach at his current school against ranked teams, according to Chris Low last week.
And, Coach Richt for all 9 years is 3 wins out of 11 games vs the Final AP Poll Top 10 teams.
Florida at # 5 is the only ranked team on our schedule. Surely we all expect to lose that game, again 2-7 coming in. If Florida were to lose 2 games as many expect this season, there is an outside chance UGA could play Alabama then in the SEC Championship Game. I am fairly certain we all know how that would turn out.
David Greene, who knocked the lid off the program with the Hobnail Boot win over # 4 Tennessee vols his Freshman year, lost to South Carolina of SEC East in week 2 that year the offense scoring only 9 points, lost to Florida of SEC East the offense scoring only 10 points, the following week lost to SEC West Auburn the offense scoring only 17 points, and then lost the bowl game to at the time unranked Boston College the offense scoring only 16 points.
6' 3' 226 lbs. David Greene could take a hit.
He really never was injured in his entire career, picked pick # 87 of the NFL draft, and never throwing a pass in the NFL - other than practice games where he was not good at all.
Colt McCoy owns the NCAA record for most wins by a starting QB.
Christian LeMay is a lot faster than little Aaron Murray who at 198 lbs barely is over 6 feet tall. This has led to him throwing the most interceptions of all UGA Quarterbacks, and also led to Murray having 3 injuries the last 2 seasons to both his leg and ankle and then all last Fall throwing his arm out missing 21 practices as a result of the sore arm.
There is no reason with this soft schedule that UGA cannot be
12-2
this season.
David Greene, after the Hobnail Boot in 2001 never did ever recreate that, having never again beat a Top 10 Final AP Poll team.
His passes were mostly dump-offs over the line, and he was most inept at running the football.
In 4 years, he won 1 SEC Championship in a very down SEC that year.
2002 Alabama was on probation and not ranked in the Coaches Poll, Auburn was the only other ranked team at # 14 in the final polls. It was nice being # 3 but we lost the big games, for certain.
2003 was a year we lost to LSU and then of course lost to Florida keeping us for the SEC Championship game.
2004, his senior year, he finally did beat Florida to finish 1-3 vs Florida for his career; but, he lost to Tennessee and lost to Auburn thus again preventing us from the SEC Championship Game.
David Greene was also completely different from Aaron Murray in his very few interceptions.
If your objective is to be on the outside looking in, David Greene did a steady plodding job of that, after the 1 win vs the Final AP Poll Top 10 team his freshman year to knock the lid off the program.
For the 9 years of the Coach Richt Era to-date, UGA averages the # 52 NCAA Total Offense.
38 games we have played where we scored no more than 2 touchdowns and we lost 27 of those.
After DJ Shockley, who ended up with an even smaller interception percentage than David Greene, UGA has been 38-14 the last 4 years leading the nation in arrests suspensions penalties interceptions fumbles and losses to Final AP Poll Top 10 teams.
Coach Richt is the # 5 SEC Coach at his current school against ranked teams, according to Chris Low last week.
And, Coach Richt for all 9 years is 3 wins out of 11 games vs the Final AP Poll Top 10 teams.
Florida at # 5 is the only ranked team on our schedule. Surely we all expect to lose that game, again 2-7 coming in. If Florida were to lose 2 games as many expect this season, there is an outside chance UGA could play Alabama then in the SEC Championship Game. I am fairly certain we all know how that would turn out.
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