Munson’s opening comments: This is the week of
Florida. The way they’ve scored, it will be like the The Big Red One, the American First Division in World War II. The Dawgs are still alive by inches. The conference has five teams with two losses and four with three. Vandy opened up the east by beating
South Carolina. Who is the biggest surprise in America? Kansas. Watching Florida run those spreads and jump passes looks like the old box formation that Notre Dame ran way back.
Munson wondered if lots of teams gone to the spread? Richt said a good many are running it to some extent but not many are making their living at it. Florida & WV are the most well known teams doing it.
Florida runs a play that looks like a power play usually run by a TB or FB, but here comes Tebow running it. Very difficult to defend – most conventional offenses the QB hands the ball off. When the QB is the runner they have one more blocker. You’ve got to defeat some blocks to make a play.
Munson compared what Tebow does to Bronko Nagurski – the jump pass. CMR noted he also threw two deep balls where he was his own play action. CMR remembered Woodrow Dantzler doing that at
Clemson, faking the QB draw then pulling up and throwing.
Jonathon in Ky. wanted to know if Munson would be going to Fla. Munson said probably not. He asked CMR about DeMarcus Dobbs. CMR said Dobbs is really learning his trade, has played a good bit and made some plays, and is taking care of business in the classroom.
CMR got a good laugh and agreed with my suggestion we just forget thinking about Jax. Given our road record, we should just treat this as another road game. I also expressed hope that we got as much use out of our open date as
Tennessee did before us, and take to Florida right from the first play.
Munson and CMR discussed open dates. CMR thinks the ideal would be if those were just about evenly spaced during the season. His ideal would have two open dates. With one, it needs to come about mid-season.
Andrew in Athens wonders if we’ll come out in a 4-3, and what is Brandon Miller’s status. CMR won’t give away the plan. We won’t change scheme but will do some things. B. Miller practiced today. CMR said he thinks Miller would be fine.
Munson thinks the LBs will get a workout, CMR agrees and also thinks the DL will get a workout. They need to at least penetrate enough to make a RB hesitate and go east/west, and maybe push the pocket. That’s the case in general but especially this game.
Blake in Valdosta notes other teams’ young offensive lines seem to be improving faster than ours. CMR disagrees and noted our rushing yardage vs. Vandy. Moreno had some good creases. Stafford had some opportunities where he could stand back and read the field. The only game they really looked bad was that Tennessee game.
Mitchell in Jacksonville noticed play action passes seemed to be effective against Vandy and wants to see Southerland be more involved in this game. CMR has always been a fan of play action passes. When that works it means your running game is working. CMR would love to see Southerland have a big game too. That usually means we’re in that goal line area a lot and he’s getting those TDs. Lots of the pass plays to Tripp Chandler, Southerland is part of those progressions.
T. Brown – he looks good and feels good. If it wasn’t for the x-ray he almost wouldn’t know he was hurt. We have to do what’s best for him, especially with today’s medical technology available.
Munson – the SEC of all people already has four teams that have lost three games.
Todd in
Auburn was watching an old Georgia-Florida game on ESPN Classic today, and noted the old silver britches from the early 80s. We try to, though most people think those are gray. The material that Nike uses, that’s the closest they can come. There are people who think we can get closer. Munson remembers when all football pants used to be almost khaki. CMR had a comment about some teams trying to look stylish. They also discussed thigh pad compartments and general design. Also, hip and tailbone pads used to be snapped in.
Fred in Waycross told CMR we’re now done with the preliminaries. The fans in south Georgia live for this game, and Fred casts his vote to keep the game in Jacksonville.
Munson jokes we could run the single wing but CMR thinks it would be tough to do in one week.
Lance in Uvalda also watched the 1981 Florida game on ESPN Classic today. What does UGA have to do to get back to playing mean like that. This is a big-time game. What does CMR tell the players to let them know we’re not doing so great in this rivalry. (Lance also thinks this is the big rivalry.) CMR wants to refrain from what he says because it needs to stay private. The guys have a better grasp on this than people think. What we haven’t done lately is win enough of them.
William in Chattanooga notices our DBs getting caught out of position on 3rd and long plays. The other team winds up making a big play. What does CWM do to correct that? CMR said 3rd and long conversions have to do with a lot of things. Are we getting enough pressure on the QB? There aren’t many DBs who can cover a guy for that long? All it takes sometimes is one safety to spin in the wrong direction and all of a sudden they have two guys open in the middle of the field. Every so often they block well enough and run a play that stresses a certain defense.
Preston in SC wonders if we’ll see Lumpkin this weekend. CMR said Lump had surgery last week and will be out at least the rest of the regular season. He might make it back for the bowl game. No shot at seeing Lumpkin or T. Brown this game.
John in Wrens remembers something CMR said about trick plays, and wonders about wrinkles for this game. CMR said his brother in law was Mr. Trick Play. We do need some wrinkes and may have a trick play. But you can’t put your offense on trick plays. If you put too many in, your players look at you and wonder.
Munson notices we’re seeing all kinds of stuff in the last year or two. CMR added you see all kinds of trick plays in high school when watching tapes of recruits.
Joe in Tampa agrees with CMR for stopping that celebration at midfield after the Vandy game. Joe also read something online today about Lump coming to Atlanta today to give a talk on alcohol awareness. That’s really impressive only a week off surgery and in a senior year that hasn’t gone as hoped. CMR agreed. He could be in the tank right now but instead he’s a giver, not a taker. Even if he’s not a draft pick, he’ll have a good chance of making an NFL club.
Scott in Grayson wonders about the backup RBs. Will we see Southerland and Chapas? What about NaDerris Ward? Can he be a deep threat? Scott understands CMR’s viewpoint about moving this game around. CMR – backup RB will be Jason Johnson. Moreno will get as much work as he wants and can handle. But we don’t want to get him worn out. JJ and Chapas would be available. Ward (“Duke” Ward as we call him) is just learning to compete at the level we need him to. His pass game – route running, etc. – is ahead of his blocking and run game. This is his first year competing in college; he missed last year with a shoulder injury and played with that his senior year of high school. He’s just learning to block at an SEC level but he’s coming along well.
Wes in Athens (first time caller) thinks we’ve been playing a lot of meat at LB and maybe don’t have the speed we need. That’s a big part of their game. They’ll run the speed sweep with Harvin. We need to penetrate enough to make their guys bubble out. B. Miller will be a key – we want to see him in a whole practice but feel good.
Five of our defensive guys from last year made NFL teams and Tra Battle made a practice squad.
Richard from Augusta wants CMR to tell the players the season starts Saturday. Also, look out for the end around from Bubba Caldwell.
Munson said he hoped one day to be able to go to Florida for the whole week, fish, and be able to do the game. But he doesn’t think that will happen …
Austin in Blackshear said again how important this game is for the fans in south Georgia and wonders why we’ve struggled. Tell the team how much it means and play hard. CMR: We had the first game where Fla. beat us by 14. Then the next five games after that (listing off final margins) .. why five games that close and we only find a way to win one. We’ve won a bunch of close games. But for some reason in this game we haevn’t found a way to win the close one.
William in Folkston wonders about rushing the punter. CMR said sometimes you have to decide whether to rush or return. We have been good at both at times. We have been trying to set up more returns this year. We will rush hard at the punter to make them protect. But there are other times we’ve tried to block.
Comments