The secondary isn’t devoid of all-conference guys itself, with CB Myron Newberry making the list. At 5-9, 174, he isn’t the biggest guy on the team by a long shot but he’s managed some impressive stats. 51 tackles, 4 INTs and a team leading 8 pass breakups. His opposite number is Gerard Lewis, another diminutive DB (5-9, 175) that appears capable, with 48 tackles and 2 INTs. Both are seniors. Senior Jacob Petak is the leader in the back from his safety position but he’s battled injuries this year.

Bottom Line: This group gets after the ball. They are 9th in the country in sacks and 5th in tackles for loss. They do a good job of playing aggressive, physical defense but they are susceptible to the big play. The offense they’ll be facing in this game will be the most physically mature, balanced unit they’ve faced all year. Boise State is probably the best offense they’ve faced to date. This defense hasn’t seen the type of balance that UGA should be bringing. In the last half of the season, with the emergence of Moreno, UGA’s offense has become a dangerous one. Gear up to stop the pass and UGA is perfectly content running the ball. Load the box to stop the run and Stafford has shown an improved ability to get the ball to Massaquoi and Bailey downfield. Despite our young OL, we’ve done an excellent job of keeping Stafford upright (he deserves a good bit of credit for that in recognizing defenses too) and that’s one of the keys for Hawaii [4]. I fully expect us to try and establish our ground game as that’s Bobo’s MO and I don’t see him changing too much unless he feels we can really exploit them downfield. I think he’d prefer to soften them up with Moreno and Brown, pass as needed and then seal the deal with more on the ground. It’s not sexy but it’s certainly served us well. For an old QB, Bobo loves and respects what an established ground game can do for an offense. Hawaii has decent team speed on D but I don’t think I’d put it in the class of Auburn [5] or Georgia Tech [6], so that toss sweep we’ve fallen in love with might really be useful.

Key matchup to watch when we have the ball: I think it will be Southerland again. He’s been a mack truck all year opening holes and typically, if he’s heading a direction, the ball’s likely going there. Given how active Hawaii’s LBs are, I fully expect Southerland and Elimimian to meet up on more than one occasion and given the size advantage and the way he’s played all year, I like our chances.

The Sugar Bowl Overall

It’s hard to get a feel for this game. Hawaii’s weak schedule and its inability to dominate some of those inferior opponents certainly make the case for a less than stout team. They played one of the weakest schedules in DI. They went to overtime against teams like San Jose State and Louisiana Tech. The team that June Jones admitted was the most talented team they played (Washington) would likely be the 13th best team in the SEC. They simply haven’t played anyone where you can clearly say, OK, that’s a good team they beat. You could make a strong case that both the teams that defeated us were better than any team Hawaii has played to date, certainly UT.

On the flip side, they did beat every one of those teams, and that certainly counts for something. They did manage to go out each week and score an impressive number of points and do whatever it took to win. Yes, some of those games were closer than they should be if Hawaii is a BCS bowl level team, but sometimes things happen. Any given day, any team could win any game. If we’ve learned nothing else from this season, that should be hammered home by now. App State over Michigan, Stanford over USC, Pitt over WVU…none of those were supposed to happen. Just look at the Fiesta Bowl last season and the Boise State win over Oklahoma. Lucky for us that happened last year as Richt shouldn’t have the task of trying to convince anyone that if you don’t show up you lose.

Initially I thought this was a bit of a lose-lose situation for us, as I figured that if we won, the media would discount the win as one over an obviously overrated Hawaii and if we lost we’d be painted with the same brush they broke out on us after we lost to WVU in the Sugar a few years back, saying we were clearly overrated. I don’t know that this is a lose-lose deal anymore. I can’t recall a UGA bowl getting as much pub in recent memory as this one. Every media member I’ve heard talk about the “must watch” bowls has mentioned the Sugar right near the top. The fact that many folks are calling for this as the trendy upset pick is even more reason to come out focused. Right or wrong, the media has decided that Hawaii has an even shot in this game. Maybe that has swayed folks enough that should we be fortunate enough to win we won’t have to hear the “but it was just Hawaii” talk.

One last thing to remember about these guys is that they play great from behind. For one thing, they have an offense perfectly suited for a comeback, especially in college, where their quick passing game lends to lots of clock stoppages (this game could be a LONG one) late. The main thing I wanted to get at was that this team has trailed several times this year and figured out ways to win, often coming from well back. Against Washington they were down 28-7 early in the 2nd quarter and gutted it out. If we get up by a couple of scores, don’t think that the game is in any way over. It’s not.

Positional Notes

Lumpkin will get a shot in his final game. His career ended up being marred by injuries but he was a great guy to have around and when healthy he was a damn fine running back. He handled so many things so well (multiple injuries, splitting carries, etc.) he deserves to go out on top.

Sean Bailey had his knee scoped but appears good to go

There were no academic casualties this year which was excellent. This also directly refutes the roughly 12,000 Knowshon rumors that have been circling.