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Another great football weekend .. Bama flattened Fla & Tenn handled Ole Miss despite their tough schedule. USC got into trouble with Ariz. State but came on with a great running game. Va. Tech appears to be a handful with strong special teams.

Dawgs trying to get ready to go to Tenn. They’ve been through the ringer with that schedule. Keep in mind what they did in Baton Rouge. Munson then listed other key games this week, including Texas-Oklahoma.

Munson had to ask CMR about how Bama jumped on Florida. CMR noted we saw LSU jump on Tenn the same way but it didn’t turn out. Bama played great in all aspects.

USC – great team. CMR says they’re blessed with great personnel and have weapons they haven’t used yet. They’re the best in the country until someone knocks them off.

Are we healthy? CMR thinks so. Anderson and Charles Johnson will start practicing tomorrow. Today was our most physical practice of this week and everyone else is fine.

Tenn. tries to keep it balanced. They haven’t run the way they want but try to anyway. It also sets up their play-action pass.

Does Tenn. have big WRs? As tough and smart as we’ve played, we’re small back there. CMR agrees we don’t have guys with lots of size, but they play with lots of heart and time their jumps well.

We’re relying on some guys who haven’t been in a game of this magnitude before so it will be interesting to see how they handle it.

Pat in Huntsville (first caller) is worried we’re going up there tentative and that Tenn. is the superior team. He’ll be surprised if the game is close in the 3rd qtr. CMR thanked the caller for his support.

David in Augusta asked about Tyson Browning and thinks we could pull a surprise with him in this game. CMR had looked over the tape of the game 2 years ago. We’ve got to find a way to get his ability out there.

Jim in Cumming figures CMR is man enough to handle calls like the first one and asked about keeping up conditioning during the season. CMR says we concentrate on mat drills once per week to maintain conditioning plus mental & physical toughness. Last week we got in pads and worked on the red zone on Tuesday. On Wednesday we worked on OT stuff and Thursday we worked on 3rd downs and one-minute drills. Came back full pads today. CMR is pleased with the attitude; we’re preparing well at this point.

Chris in Rome wonders how to block their DTs – zone or man. CMR says they’re great football players and so is DE Parys Haralson. We’ll zone block some and sometimes you run draw plays since they’re not a read & react defensive group. We just have to mix run and pass.

Charlie in Pearson asked about Brandon Miller and Greg Blue. Miller has done great. We’re really proud of him. He really has a stranglehold on the SLB position and is gaining confidence. Blue has done a super job with a couple of INTs, big hits and leadership. He’s 3 hours short of graduation.

CMR talked about Shockley. CMR was disappointed after the MSU game because we missed some TDs in the red zone, but was very impressed with DJ after watching the TV tape, especially some of the throws he made.

Johnny in Canton asked about Charles Johnson. CMR says he’s doing great, getting himself into great condition this offseason. He may not be in perfect shape, but he’s in position to play hard. He sprained his ankle near the end of the one-minute drills last week but is coming along and should play, barring another setback.

Kevin in Watkinsville thinks redshirting Velasco is a smart move given the OL depth. Was redshirting one of the top 3 backs an option? CMR reminds the caller that all 3 are sophs. With the way injuries go it's hard to stay healthy so it's wiser to let all of them play. We did redshirt Velasco and considered redshirting Shackelford. But Shack practiced so well in camp but has since fallen off a bit. But he’s playing a lot and should start next year.

Gary in Lawrenceville notes we struggled vs. SC while other teams have handled them easily. Was it just a bad game? CMR thinks when you play anyone in the beginning of the year they’re healthy and excited. They begin to lose heart once they lose a game or two. CMR thought we played pretty good in that game though certainly not our best. It's good to play in a tough game and see how the guys react to adversity.

Eddie in Sevierville, TN wants to know how we’ll take care of the Vols and Rick Clausen. CMR says they proved a lot by coming back against LSU. We’ll have to play a physical game, hold on to the ball and make some big catches.

Justin in Atlanta hopes someone brought up the end of last year’s game that planted the T flag right in the middle of the G after the game. That should get our guys fired up. CMR said he would be more than happy to show it to ‘em if someone had a copy that could be passed along.

Munson noticed Notre Dame and Nebraska threw the ball all over the place last weekend. CMR talked about growing up in Neb., when the only time the ball was in the air was on pitchouts. ND is super-impressive, especially Brady Quinn who’s really coming on.

TJ notices we don’t try to block kicks like we used to. CMR noted the rules have changed. When Boss would jump, he’d run and jump and who knows where he’d land. A kid on the west coast did that and got hurt real bad. For safety reasons, the rules have changed to the NFL rules. You can jump but can’t land on your own teammate. The NFL has lots of tall, freaky jumpers. We can’t take the risk of getting a penalty once we held to a FG.

Munson notes Tenn always has at least one big RB and a big OL. CMR mentioned we just got the Ole Miss tape and the Tenn guys look so much bigger than the Ole Miss guys. They look like they went from pro to college instead of the other way.

CMR thinks the early long pass gave Bama lots of confidence against Florida. Sometimes that’s all it takes. If Florida wasn’t ready for a 60-minute war it would be much harder after that. CMR also talked about how, in scrimmages, whichever side of the ball makes a big play early will generally control the whole day.

Vandy losing to MTSU? Mental? CMR thinks MTSU does a good job and that game was evenly matched. CMR saw the last Vandy drive where they started on their 1 but drove all the way out and had a chance to win but the FG was blocked.

Munson has been following Southern Cal but has also noticed Cal and UCLA are pretty good. CMR thinks that has been a passing league for awhile. USC is so successful because they emphasize the running game and strong physical defense. They put it all together in a physical way. CMR also notes California has the best JUCO system in the country. Guys who don’t get what they want can go JUCO for two years and develop.

Todd in Delaware emphasizes this game is for revenge and brought up again the Tennessee player planting their flag on the G. CMR thinks the scoreboard being the wrong way is as bad as it can hurt.

Shannon in Suwanee wonders why we’re getting the ball to Massaquoi more often. CMR says MM is our 3rd leading WR, a true frosh, still learning what to do who was out half of preseason practice. The first time he got close to healthy was the week of the first game and he’s making plays when he gets in.

Pat in Cumming thinks we throw too many intermediate passes and thinks we should throw the deep pass like Bama did. CMR would love us to hit more deep balls. We’ve tried some but need to hit more. Tenn will always have at least one safety deep.

James in Braswell wants to know what is different about this team than our others. CMR thinks we’re more unified. We might have more leaders on this team than on any others. And we don’t have one superstar. There are lots of guys playing for one common purpose. They don’t flinch from hard work in practice. Now it will come down to a game this week to find out how far we’ve come.

Denny in SC notes we’re not blitzing much. CMR notes we’re 2nd or 3rd in the SEC in sacks but there have been times where QBs have had too much time.