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Bottom Line: GT’s offense is keyed off their ground game, with Choice being the heart of that unit. He’s missed all or parts of 4 games this season and in those games they went 1-3. His hamstring injury is one of those things that could easily flare back up at any time, but given this is his last shot at UGA, I imagine we’ll see a strong effort from him. You may recall he went for 146 yards on us last year. Basically I think we come up, try our best to stop the run and make Bennett beat us. He’s struggled to step up and take the offense over in the absence of Choice, and our defense seems to be playing better each week.

Key Matchup to watch when they have the ball: Just watch Rennie Curran. That kid seems to be everywhere. He’s really starting to show that nose for the football we’d heard about so much. Given the likelihood that GT will be riding Choice as often as possible, Curran will have more than enough opportunities to make some plays.

GT Defense

The GT defense is a pretty stout bunch statistically. They boast impressive numbers pretty much across the board: 9th nationally in rush defense, 37th in pass defense, 7th in total defense, 16th in scoring defense…pretty strong…that is until you look at who they’ve played. Of their 11 games to date, 10 have been against D1 teams. Of those 10, they’ve played 2 teams (BC at 25 and Clemson at 45) in the top 95 in total offense. That’s right, 8 of their 10 D1 opponents have been ranked from 96-119, including 6 of the bottom 20. They’ve played over half their schedule against the worst 20 offensive teams in the country. I would hope they’d have good stats. Scoring offense of those same opponents isn’t much better, as they only faced 3 opponents in the top 75 in scoring O, with 4 being in the bottom 20 and only 1 in the top 45. Don’t get me wrong, they do have an aggressive scheme that can cause some serious problems for any offense, especially if they get on a roll, but it’s important to keep some perspective on these things. For any Jackets that might stumble onto this and are still reading, for comparison’s sake, UGA has faced 4 of the top 32 teams by total offense and 5 of the top 31 scoring offenses to date (and are allowing 3 ppg more than GT).

The GT DL is nasty. Sr. Darrell Robertson is 3rd in the ACC in TFLs (you’ll hear that a lot with this D) with an impressive 16 and has 6.5 sacks on the season. Opposite him in running situations and early downs will be fellow senior Adamm Oliver, who is thought of as more of the run stopper but has mounted a nice all-around season with 8 TFLs and 4.5 sacks. The real threat though is freakish pass rush specialist Michael Johnson. The Jr. with the ridiculously long neck always seems to be in the backfield. In limited snaps he has 6 TFLs, 4 sacks and leads the team with 4 QB hurries. He had a big game against us last year in Athens. It doesn’t get much easier inside, where a pair of juniors have been having big years. Vance Walker is a smaller DT at 6-2, 275, but he’s quick enough to snag 13 TFLs and 8.5 sacks. Darryl Richard has had a productive season inside as well but also lacks the bulk you’d expect inside at 6-4, 285.

The GT LB corps is headed up by Sr. All-ACC candidate Phillip Wheeler, who ends up all over the field. He leads the team in tackles, has 6 sacks, 5 pass break-ups and is tied for the team lead in fumble recoveries. He’s flanked by Sr. Gary Guyton and So. Shane Bowen. Guyton is 2 tackles behind Wheeler on the year and is having a great season with 4 sacks to boot. Those 3 LBs have started every game together this season, something that is completely foreign for UGA. As often as GT blitzes, these sack totals from the LBs are pretty well expected.

The GT secondary has gone through some changes in the last 2 weeks, namely the move of stud freshman safety Morgan Burnett to CB. He’s a ballhawk and future star that leads the team in INTs (3) and is 6th in tackles despite not starting prior to last week. The staff felt he would be more of a benefit at CB, where GT has struggled some this season. Opposite him at the other CB is the bane of Larry Munson in Jahi Word-Daniels. The GT guy in the office assures me that if JWD is in position to make a play on the ball, don’t worry, it will in fact be completed as he struggles to make plays on the ball. He has managed two INTs on the year though. Those two players account for the totality of the GT season INTs. At Safety, Jamal Lewis and Djay Jones provide experience. Lewis is a solid player and is 2nd on the team in tackles. Jones has started every game but was spelled heavily by Burnett prior to his switch.