News

Again, Bama lists a 3-man front, but that’s not necessarily the case as a LB stays in a 3-point stance. What I don’t know is which DE plays interior, as both listed DEs are similarly sized (6-4 or so, 267 each). At DE are Sr Wallace Gilberry and Jr Bobby Greenwood, who lead the team at 3.5 and 4.0 TFLs respectively. Gilberry has had a nice career with 32 TFLs and 120 tackles, so he’s obviously experienced. Starting NG Lorenzo Washington is a GA native. At 6-4, 283, he’s not the hole-stuffing 320-pounder you look for in a 3-4 front (more proof this is a 3-4 in name only). Washington is a sophomore that started great this season but struggled against the physical Arkansas front. He’s quick, but lacks bulk. He’s backed by a freshman and they’ve struggled with depth.

I’ll start the LB review with the guy who’s actually playing DE. They term the position the “Jack” LB, and it’s manned by Sr. Keith Saunders who is 6th on the team in tackles although none are for loss. At 6-4, 251, he’s got the size of a DE anyway. The 3 actual LBs are pretty large as well, with MLB Rolando McClain being the largest at 6-4, 255. He’s a freshman but leads the team in tackles and has 2 TFLs. He’s looked good this season but struggled some against Arkansas (pretty much their whole D did) last week. WLB Darren Mustin missed a chunk of the Arkansas game but is listed as the starter again although he’ll likely be limited some with his shoulder injury. If he hadn’t missed that time, he’d likely be the team leader in tackles. SLB Ezekial Knight doesn’t have a ton of experience but has played decently and is tied for 2nd on the team in tackles with 18.

The best player in the defensive backfield is all-SEC CB Simeon Castille. At 6-1, 193, the senior has the size, speed and experience you want in a CB. He has 10 career INTs though none this year. Opposite Castille is another big CB in 6-2, 182 pound Lionel Mitchell. Not near the talent that Castille is, Mitchell’s size will nevertheless make for some tougher perimeter blocking situations for our WRs. FS Rashad Johnson is the stud at safety. He’s tied for 2nd on the team in tackles and played well against the formidable Arkansas running game. SS Marcus Carter is a senior with considerable experience but hasn’t really produced to his preseason billing (2nd team All-SEC according to some mags). Kareem Jackson, a freshman, has started two games as an extra DB.

Bottom Line: Saban enjoys bringing pressure, especially against young, easily confused OLs (remember playing his LSU teams twice in 2003 when we had that young OL?). I would expect him to bring considerable heat early and often, but looking at the stats this year, they only have 4 sacks on the season, not the typical Saban performance. This Bama defense doesn’t have the same athletes playing on the field that Saban had at LSU so they can be burned if Stafford and his WRs can stay on the same page with checkdowns, reads, etc. Saban will of course be doing his best to switch things up and keep our O on its heels. We’ve done a decent job of keeping Stafford upright this year, in large part due to short, controlled passes on a seemingly never-ending array of screens, etc., but we have yet to face a defensive mind on the order of Saban and this will be our young OLs first road start (ugh). I don’t think we can run on Bama to the tune Arkansas did, but I fully expect to see us make them stop our run, as Velasco versus Washington is probably one of our better matchups along the line of scrimmage.

Key matchup to watch when we have the ball: I’m tired of saying watch the OL. This week, I think the key will be if we can attack freshman MLB Rolando McClain. He started well this season but struggled some last week. Our offense struggled against SC in large part due to Jasper Brinkley stuffing our running game. If we can keep McClain at bay, their DL isn’t all-world and we could have some success running the ball. Given the likelihood that they’ll come after Stafford, establishing the run would be stupendous.

The Bama Game Overall

Road games in the SEC are never fun, but if you’re going into an opponent’s stadium, there’s no better coach to have at the helm than Mark Richt. He’s 22-3 in 7 years in those situations, with the 3 losses coming @LSU in 2003 (they went on to win a share of the MNC), @AU in 2004 (they went on to finish the season undefeated) and @UK last year (I can’t explain that one). That’s enough of a sample size to make the statement that the guy knows how to get his teams in the right mindset for going into hostile territory. A good example of this was the last time we came to Tuscaloosa.

Let’s think back to that game. It was 2002. Bama was coming off a win over Arkansas with a new coach that they were sure was going to take them to the top. Pat Dye was telling the media that UGA wasn’t “man enough” (thanks Pat) to win against a physical, veteran Bama team. Gameday was on campus and there was a good bit of talk about how Bama was once again ascending to the top of the SEC. Fast forward 5 years and, well, not much has changed. We’re two coaches removed from that coach, they are once again talking SEC titles in T-town and Gameday is on campus. All we need is Pat Dye to come up with something moderately ignorant (shouldn’t be too hard) and we’re there.

Mentally, you have to like the angle we’re coming in from. Bama is coming off an emotional, hard-fought win over a physical team that wore them down. They’re being told all week how they are back in their rightful spot atop the SEC-West. Meanwhile, in Athens, our boys have had a week to get over the tough loss to SC where everything seemed to go the wrong way. They aren’t being given much of a chance and I’m sure the coaches are reminding them of that.

Look for a close, lower scoring game. Sure Richt has an amazing record on the road, but it seems like the majority of those were hard-fought, close struggles that came down to the wire. That’s not actually the case, as many of those wins were blowouts, but it just seems like when we get together with an SEC team on the road, the games are nerve-wrecking, see-saw affairs that go down to the wire. Actually, in SEC West games on the road under Richt, we’ve averaged winning by 4 points, and that’s including the 22-point win over AU last season (as well as the 18 point loss there in 2004). I expect no different this week.

Positional Notes

Kelin Johnson is expected to play, but I don’t know how healthy he’ll be after missing last week and the 2nd half of the SC game to a rib injury. In his place, Reshad Jones has played well. I was more than a little surprised to see that he was currently 2nd on the team in tackles.

Look for Clint Boling to get more time on the OL this week at OG. Chris Davis continues to struggle and Haverkamp isn’t exactly lighting it up either. Listening to Cheese Adams, it doesn’t sound like he’ll move inside unless we have a few injuries. Boling has played really well in limited action this year, so look for more this week.

Dent got the nod at SLB over Brandon Miller last week and is listed as the starter there again this week. He played well and Miller handled his demotion like a man, playing great on special teams. You have to wonder if it was a motivational tactic or not.

Marcus Washington continued to play well backing up Ellerbe and has apparently earned the starting spot at MLB with Ellerbe moving over to WLB. The way we line up, those two are pretty much both MLBs and frankly, they’ve probably been our two best LBs this season, so getting them on the field at the same time makes sense.

Bailey & Massaquoi continue to solidify themselves as our top two receiving threats. Henderson is shifty and dangerous, but his size limits him to catching the ball more situationally on screens, fly routes, etc (in other words, don’t look for him over the middle of the field). Massaquoi has looked good so far this season and I really think he’s due for a breakout game. Bailey has just been solid.

Moreno is looking more and more like the player we hoped he’d be. Just wow.

It was nice to see Demiko Goodman make a TD grab Saturday. Thomas Brown gets a lot of pub for coming back so quickly from his ACL ear, but Goodman is doing the same thing. He was really playing well last year before going down with that injury. If he can get back playing well, it would be nice to add that vertical threat he brings.

OK, given Moreno’s surge towards more playing time, I think it’s important to note that Thomas Brown is climbing the UGA career rushing chart. He sits at 12th on the list currently with 2,006 yards. If he manages to gain more than 575 yards over the remainder of this season, he’ll climb to 5th on the list behind Walker, Hearst, Tate and Hampton (in order). More than 662 yards would move him ahead of Hampton for 4th. Impressive, although it’s important to remember he’s been the beneficiary of bowl games, SECCGs, 12th games, etc to get more attempts.

Honestly, I’m shocked that we only have one takeaway through 3 games. You’d think at some point through sheer dumb luck that the ball would bounce our way at some point. Heck, Blake Mitchell fumbled twice two weeks ago but they ended up falling on both of them. Bama’s turned the ball over 4 times this year, while forcing 6 turnovers, let’s hope we can get back on the good side of the turnover ratio this week (we’re currently at -1 after Stafford’s sack and fumble last week).