News

First show of the 2006 season was tonite - call-in number for this season is 1-888-773-2947 (888-77-DAWGS).

Munson mentioned Tenn. & UAB as teams that were impressive this past weekend. Tennessee for its rout of top 10-ranked Cal, and UAB for battling Oklahoma to the wire. Munson thinks UGA may have played it close to the vest.

Munson asked CMR about playing a lot of guys, and CMR said he thinks this was the fastest class he’s ever recruited. Playing lots of guys is good morale and to help the coaches determine who should be playing more and starting.

Going through the Dawg Walk is great for our guys. Going on the road will be a new experience.

The team doesn’t think much of the QB situation. They know Joe T is the starter.

Injuries – not sure how Mikey Henderson’s hamstring will come along. Gant came out of the game in good shape. We don’t have issues on guys being healthy.

Barron in Athens opened the season wondering about Stafford will help this season. CMR says if Joe T plays well like we know he can, its good for everyone. We know he’s only going to be here one more year. We have to determine if Stafford can help us more coming off the bench, maybe if something happens to Joe T, and does playing now help him be more ready to compete next year. After the pecking order was determined, CMR said he & Bobo were in favor of redshirting Stafford. But he continued to practice well and they changed their minds last week.

I had barely thanked Richt for rewarding the fans who stick around all the way in blowout games when he mentioned all the excitement from the crowd in the 4th quarter when Stafford went in. Richt thinks the team being excited with Stafford in the game had much to do with the fans being excited. Bottom line is he’s still a young guy and has lots to learn. His first two series nothing much happened. The second series we got called for holding in the end zone. If we had put Blake in after that there wouldn’t have been much excitement.

Dave in Grayson was impressed with the special teams, in particular coming in with Asher Allen to return punts when Mikey got hurt. Dave also pointed out the punt returns were nominated for the ESPN award this week. Will we alternate on punt returns? CMR hasn’t really considered that. Mikey was so electric on that first one, making three guys miss then picking up some blocking. Then on the next one their gunners were blocked so well, and we had just about all of their guys blocked. Great coaching by Fabris.

Fred in Atlanta asked about preparing for SC, which has multiple shifts in their defense? Last season, they had John Thompson was their DC. They got away from all the shifting late last season and didn’t do it vs. Miss. St. When you get teams doing that a lot, we try to get into cadence, then get the defense to show their hand before we snap the ball. QBs are trained by Bobo to make the decision at the line. This is where experience kicks in for Joe T.

Why is the OL the major problem most years? Back in 2001 we played pretty good and 2002 was very good. It started in 2003 when we had to play a bunch of youngsters who weren’t ready yet. We struggled to get a consistent effort but got into the SEC title game. We’re a little thin now, and CMR is worried about a year from now. That happens because of issues with injuries, one transfer, a couple who didn’t qualify. If we stay healthy we’ll be in pretty good shape this year. We will have a pretty good rotation once we get the guys back from suspension.

Munson joked about a no. 2 line, which CMR assumed meant a couple of guys rolling around to different places. What it really consisted of was Seth Watts playing G, Velasco working at C and Chester Adams shifting from G to T.

LBs looked very good and DBs as well. Kelin Johnson played outstanding and it was even better after grading film. WKU didn’t even try to go at Oliver much since he was stuffing them at the line. Bryan Evans played well on special teams and that gave Coach Martinez more confidence to play him in the field.

Munson commented that we again have an outstanding kicking game. CMR started by commenting on Coutu then covered the other special teams. We probably lead the nation in punt return yardage. Even the kickoff return team started to show signs of life. If we stay healthy our special teams can stay strong. Those get depleted when guys get pulled up to replace injured regulars.

John in Alabama (MSU fan) called to compliment CMR and wish us luck vs. SC on Saturday night. Munson noted that the SC-MSU game started slowly, and thought MSU would put a lot of defense on SC. CMR knows our league is so much different in that lots of teams in our league play good defense. Offenses look for mismatches and defenses are able to match up speed and strength. It then becomes tough to scratch for FGs and not make mistakes. Munson also noted that Cal started off looking good then Tennessee just rolled over them. CMR thinks being in an SEC venue then getting jumped on just was too much for Cal to take. Also, UAB. CMR remembers them from 2003 when we won only 16-13. UAB recruits well and their coaches do a good job. They’ll be ready when they come to play us and will now be more confident because of how they handled Oklahoma.

Bo in Macon thinks SC will be all over us. Can we expect more pressure in that game? SC played it straight up vs. MSU then started pressuring and found MSU couldn’t handle it. There is no doubt they’ll come after us.

Ray in Cornelia doesn’t think the WRs played up to their ability. CMR thinks the receivers get the blame all the time. There were a couple of drops by receivers, one who didn’t come back to the ball and ended up dropping it. Stafford’s first pass wasn’t great but right in Goodman’s hands and would’ve hit him in the nose if not in the hands. We’ll mix it up a little bit.

Ford in Montgomery wonders what else in the SEC stuck out. CMR would have liked to see Arkansas have a better showing. That wasn’t quite as fast & furious as last year but still tough for Ark. Auburn and Tenn. both played really well. Even Miss. St-SC was just a typical SEC slugfest. We’ll see how we and other teams do in league play.

Bryan in Snellville wonders if SC will spread us out to try and neutralize Q. Moses. CMR thinks if you spread it out you better throw it quick. With backs you can chip to help out, or with a TE you can slide protection. Knowing Spurrier, he’ll try everything. He does a great job with diversification.

Dave in Stone Mtn wonders about the SC punter and that running over to the side (rugby punt). What about loading up the line? Once he runs, can’t you go after him? We’re not sure of the exact rule. If he’s smart, he’ll punt it if he sees a rush coming at him. There isn’t time to really scheme for that. It has to be film study and is a real pain. We just hope to control it. You can scare them going after it but have to be sound for all the fakes that could come.

Munson now asked about these new clock rules. CMR said we had much fewer plays than before, but the game lasted as long in real time. It seemed like the commercial breaks were longer. Now, the game clock starts on change of possession once the ball is marked for play. Before, only the play clock started but the game clock did not start until the first play. You could lose up to 8 minutes of game time. Taking plays out of the game is so obvious to Munson. CMR remarked that he thinks a bunch of defensive coaches got control of the rules committee, decided they could blame TV and made rules to shorten games. They’re happy because they can set a bunch of school records. CMR hopes some offensive guys get back in charge and get rid of the rule.

Russ in Atlanta asked about Mikey Henderson. CMR said he was about to give him a piece of his mind. By the time CMR got to him, Mikey was already on a knee and dejected. CMR could only say at that point just learn from your mistake. Mikey begged even though his hamstring was bothering him. Returning the next one for the TD was great for him and for us. His hamstring was stiff so we pulled him out at that point.

Reilly in NYC asked about SC. Their fans are always crazy and noisy when we go over there. CMR thinks the young guys are just going to have to live through it. You’d love to make a big play and calm that crowd down. If you play too aggressive, there is high risk and high reward. We threw a long pass two years ago that got intercepted and returned for a TD. When it got to 16-0 it was still early so we had time to recover and work our way back.

Steve in Sandy Springs noticed Thomas Brown was on kickoff coverage, and may have looked a step slow. Brown is also a safety on the kickoff team. We want good players on special teams and want to avoid giving up a big play.

CMR hopes we can get-r-done over there Saturday night.