College Football Wrap-Up: Week 6

Another nail-biter and the Dawgs escape Knoxville with a 34-31 OT victory!  It was a game that left you with mixed emotions.  Obviously, SEC road wins are hard to come by and it’s always nice to beat Tennessee so you certainly appreciate the victory but on the other hand the Dawgs lost some huge playmakers to season ending injuries.

Overall it was a very gutsy performance, particularly for the offense.  I said before the season that this was a trap game because it’s tough to maintain playing at such a high level after the gauntlet we faced with our September schedule.  It was on the road in a tough environment and you knew that Butch Jones was eager to get his big signature win.  You enter the game without your two best playmakers (RB Todd Gurley & WR Malcolm Mitchell) then you lose your starting RB (who had his best game last year vs. Tennessee) in the 1^st quarter followed by losing 2 of 3 remaining top receivers in the 3^rd quarter.

With less than 2 minutes to go in regulation, down by 7, with the home crowd going nuts,  Aaron Murray takes the Dawgs down the field and scores a TD with just 5 seconds left on the clock.  First and foremost, that was an unbelievable drive by Aaron Murray knowing that he was missing so many playmakers.  Then consider this: 62 yards out of that 75 yard drive were picked up by true freshman playing in their first ever SEC road game.

While you have to give the offense a lot of credit the defense is becoming increasingly frustrating.  After playing a very decent first half it seems like they regressed in the 2^nd half.  The DL and LB play have improved for the most part but the secondary is still struggling.  I understand that the defense is young but there is plenty of talent and Grantham is one of the highest paid coordinators in the business.  With all the injuries the offense has sustained you cannot continue to rely so heavily on the offense to carry the team for the remainder of the year.

Grantham’s defense has been built around disrupting the QB and creating TOs.  So far this year we’ve only picked off one pass and our 3^rd down defense is dead last in the league.  Georgia has some legitimate playmakers on defense with Ray Drew, Leonard Floyd, Jordan Jenkins, Sterling Bailey, JHC, Tray Matthews, etc. but we haven’t seen anything resembling a very solid game yet.  This coming Saturday would be a good time for the defense to step up and play big.

Another game, another costly special teams mistake.  Marshall Morgan has proven to be a threat with his leg.  The rest of the special teams units leave a lot to be desired.

Congratulations to Aaron Murray on becoming the All-Time Passing Yards leader in SEC history.  3 of the top 5 in conference history are now Dawgs – 1) Murray 2) Greene and 5) Zeier

The Dawgs have now won 4 in a row versus Tennessee and 5 out of the last 6 in the series.  Since Tennessee won 8 straight versus the Dawgs in the 90’s Georgia has gone 10-4 since then.

The one-handed catch that Chris Conley made in the first half for a TD is as good as you will see in college football.  As a matter of fact, it was the best catch I’ve seen since AJ Green made that spectacular one-handed catch against Colorado for a TD in 2010.

Georgia Tech dropped their 2^nd straight game and now Paul Johnson’s record at Tech versus Virginia Tech, Miami, Clemson and Georgia is 6-16.  As a matter of fact, he’s only beaten Georgia, Miami, and Virginia Tech one time each.  The athletic director that hired Paul Johnson is now the AD at Clemson.  You have to wonder if the new AD will make a coaching change after the season if Tech doesn’t either upset Clemson or Georgia.

Auburn beat Ole Miss on Saturday and unless they totally fall apart should make a bowl this season.  That’s a big step forward from last season when Auburn went 0-8 in the SEC.  Ole Miss has lost two in a row and next they have to face Texas A&M.

It’s beginning to look like a soap opera in Columbia with Clowney and Spurrier.  First, Clowney appears out of shape to begin the season and now the OBC is questioning the severity of his injuries while he sits out ballgames.  He’s obviously a very gifted football player but he doesn’t really help his team’s chemistry.  It will be interesting to see how he finishes the season.

FSU exposed Maryland while Northwestern broke my heart by not beating Ohio State.  More and more I’m beginning to believe that the SEC’s run as claiming the National Champion may come to an end in 2013.  Honestly, in the final year of the BCS I really won’t be surprised to see 4 unbeaten teams at the end of the year.  I know these things typically work themselves out but who is going to beat Ohio State or Louisville.  Oregon and Stanford play each other so one of those teams will knock the other out and the same holds true for FSU and Clemson.  Alabama is still #1 and undefeated but I could certainly see them losing before the end of the year.  There are still several weeks left to play so we’ll l see what happens.

The Dawgs face a serious test this weekend.  Missouri rolls into town with a 5-0 record and ranked #25 in the polls.  Their schedule has been weak but their offense appears to hitting on all cylinders.  Georgia has to find a way to plug in new players at RB and WR and continue scoring points.  Gurley is 50/50 to play and if he can’t go the Dawgs will rely on two true freshmen.  Both players have been impressive but consider this: when they signed JJ Green in February they had intended on him playing WR or DB.  Brendan Douglas only received a scholarship offer from UGA with less than 2 weeks to go before signing day.  They played very well on Saturday combing to rush for 154 yards on 27 carries so let’s hope they can continue to carry the load until Gurley returns.