College Football Wrap-Up: Week 7

That was a frustrating loss yesterday afternoon in Athens.  On one hand you have to give credit to Missouri.  They were well prepared, played with confidence, and quite frankly made more plays than Georgia.  On the other hand, the Dawgs had a great opportunity to win the game, in spite of: a) missing all those injured players and b) finishing the game with a turnover margin of minus-4. Prior to yesterday, the Dawgs had the longest home winning streak in the SEC and the 2nd longest in the nation.

On Friday I tweeted that defense and special teams had to make some plays in order for us to beat Missouri so I wasn't necessarily surprised by the upset.  

For the 3rd time this season it's #DawgsvsTigers 4th time we're facing an undefeated & ranked team. Defense & ST must make some plays!
— David Cleveland (@DRockUGA01) October 12, 2013

Our defense and special teams have played poorly as a whole all year. We've lived off our explosive offense scoring enough points to win ballgames.  When you're missing your top 2 RBs and your top 3 WRs, you cannot continue to expect your offense to score 35+ points week in and week out.  

With that being said, the two turnovers at the end of the first half made a huge impact on the game.  Instead of going into halftime down 28-10 it very well could have been 21-17.  An 18 point halftime deficit is hard overcome in the SEC. If you go into the half down by four, and knowing you get the ball back at the beginning of the 2nd half, that leaves you a lot more room for error.  As it was, the Dawgs couldn't afford the mistakes they made in the 4th quarter and expect to win.

As it relates to our defense, this article probably captured my thoughts better than anything else I've read this weekend.The defense played well in stretches (1st 2 series of the game and the 3rd quarter) but you cannot allow 3 consecutive TD drives in the first half.  Then Mizzou's starting QB is injured in the 2nd half and you finally have them on the ropes, only to watch the defense give up a touchdown with the 2nd string QB leading the charge.

I think Coach Grantham is an intelligent football coach and a great recruiter, but I'm growing concerned that he is not the right man to be our Defensive Coordinator.  Our defensive line has improved from last year in my opinion. Unfortunately, our LBs are a liability in coverage, and our secondary is a mess.

If you take away the North Texas game, and just consider the other 5 opponents we've faced (Clemson, S. Carolina, LSU, Tennessee, and Missouri) the defense is yielding 33.4 points per game.  Keep in mind, this only accounts for points given up by the defense (not for points surrendered by the offense or special teams). You simply cannot be a championship caliber team giving up that many points per game.

Through the first 6 games of the season, the Dawgs have started 6 different true freshmen on defense.  Given our youth and inexperience, I expected growing pains, but if this is our defense in "midseason" form then we're in trouble.

There were some bright spots on defense:  a) Georgia generated 4 sacks (2 from Ray Drew) b) Shaq Wiggins and Josh Harvey-Clemons both made some plays throughout the game and c) the defense continues to look better defending the run than they did last season.

The offensive line did well with their run blocking assignments for the most part, but our tackles were consistently beaten when Murray dropped back to pass.  That's discouraging, although I do believe Missouri's defensive line is legit.

I doubt that there is a college football analyst in the country that would have predicted this at the midpoint of the season.  Even though Missouri holds the tiebreaker over Georgia, I don't believe that they are in the driver's seat.  Missouri still has to play Florida, South Carolina, and Texas A&M (now without their starting quarterback).  Not to mention they have to face a Tennessee team hungry for an upset and Ole Miss on the road.  While they've improved dramatically from last season, I will be surprised if they win the East.

If Missouri loses twice, and Georgia wins out, then we'll head to the Dome as SEC East champions for a 3rd consecutive season. With our injuries and games looming versus Florida and Auburn (on the road) that will be a tall task.  If Georgia loses again then I like South Carolina to win the East.  South Carolina looked dominant on the road versus Arkansas and Connor Shaw is having a very impressive senior season.They play at Tennessee this coming week and they're at home versus Florida next month.

Bret Bielema's first season at Arkansas is not exactly going how he had planned.  After starting the year 3-0 versus cupcakes they have lost 4 straight games.  Their next opponent?  Alabama in Tuscaloosa.

As a Dawg fan you have to hate Spurrier, but you must appreciate his wit:

Spurrier: "I do feel badly for Arkansas. That’s no fun getting your butt beat at home, homecoming and all that."
— Josh Kendall (@JoshatTheState) October 12, 2013

Hugh Freeze had an opportunity to win a big game on Saturday night and it slipped through his fingers.  Ole Miss scored with just over 6 minutes remaining in the game to go up by a touchdown. Johnny Football worked his magic and tied it up with a 6 yard TD run about 3 minutes later and then, after holding Ole Miss on the next possession, he had enough time to put A&M in FG range. Texas A&M hit a 33 yard field goal, as time expired, to drop the Rebels for their 3rd straight loss.  Ole Miss won't have time to lick their wounds though because LSU is coming to town on Saturday.

LSU slugged it out with Florida and won 17-6.  Two thoughts I had regarding this game: a) Florida's defense is outstanding and b) Florida's offense is very mediocre.  I will be shocked if Florida's offensive coordinator, Brent Pease, is with the Gators in 2014.

The only consolation after the Dawgs lost yesterday was that Florida and Georgia Tech lost as well.  Tech was handled for the 2nd consecutive season by BYU and now has lost 3 straight games.

Last week I admitted that the SEC's run as claiming the national championship will likely come to an end in 2013.  However, I still firmly believe that the SEC is the best conference in the nation from top to bottom.  This week the SEC set a record for most schools in the Associated Press college football poll with eight ranked teams, 3 of which are in the Top 10.

Speaking of college football polls, I would prefer if polls weren't even released before October because so much of the rankings are based solely on what teams did the previous season.  This week's poll is much more realistic than any preseason or early season polls, because it's based on how teams have performed this year. If you take a look at the AP Top 25 that was released today, you will see that Georgia has already faced 4 out of the top 14 teams this season and still has games remaining against 2 other top 25 teams. Does anyone in the nation face a tougher schedule than Georgia?

Everyone is calling yesterday "Upset Saturday" as 7 ranked teams were defeated.  Stanford was knocked off by unranked Utah, Texas may have saved Mack Brown's job (for now) by knocking off the Sooners, and Penn State beat Michigan in 4 OTs.  Now that Michigan has dropped from the polls, Ohio State doesn't have any games remaining versus a ranked opponent. I certainly hope it keeps a 13-0 OSU team from playing for the national championship.

The formal announcement will be made this week, but the news broke last week that Tennessee and Virginia Tech have agreed to play one another in 2016...at Bristol Motor Speedway.  It sounds like a intriguing idea at first considering Bristol is located right at the Tennessee/Virginia border and practically halfway between the two schools.  Not to mention they will be able to seat 150,000-160,000 fans at this venue.  However, can you imagine how horrible the view will be for many of those seats?


Next week the Dawgs will try to recover versus Vanderbilt.  The Commodores had this weekend off so I feel certain they should be fairly healthy entering the game on Saturday.  I have no doubt that the Dores spent much of last week gameplanning for Georgia. Considering the incident between Franklin and Grantham after the 11' game, and the fact that Georgia blanked the Commodores last year, I have no doubt that they will be fired up and ready to play on Saturday.  With or without Gurley, the Dawgs better be well prepared and ready to go.  As I said last week, now would be a good time for the defense put it together for an entire game.

Meanwhile, the biggest game in college football will be between Clemson and Florida State.  College Gameday returns to Tiger Town and there will be plenty of hype for a Top 5 showdown. The winner still has a shot at the national championship game.  The loser will have to win out to remain in contention for an at-large BCS bowl bid.  FSU has Miami and Florida remaining on the schedule, while Clemson plays at South Carolina to finish the season.  If the loser of this game drops another one down the road, the best that team can hope for is the Chick-Fil-A Bowl.  This rivalry predates FSU joining the ACC.  The most memorable game in this series for me is the 1988 classic at Clemson, so I will leave you with this highlight clip.  Deion Sanders returns a punt for a TD but the play of the game was Leroy Butler's puntrooskie.