Welcome back to the world of the living, dawgs!
First and foremost I would like to apologize to everyone listening to my show Wednesday for dissing on the dawgs offense. I tend to forget that Stafford is still a freshman and that the receiving corps has taken major injuries and still managed to come out strong every game.
Now that that's out of the way, let me be the first to say that I have seen the future, and it looks bright for Athens.
No, i don't possess psychic abilities or a very prophetic magic 8-ball. My assumption is based solely on what I saw saturday afternoon during the UGA-Auburn game. Alright, don't give me the crazy look just yet. hear me out.
I'll be the first to admit, Georgia's offense has struggled out of the gates this season, and Matthew Stafford hasn't yet reached his full potential. But remember that he didn't get the sole starting job until the 8th week of the season. That meant that the first few weeks he was sharing first-team reps with two other QBs, and then with one before the Tennessee game. this means that he didn't really get to develop timing with his receivers until two weeks before the Florida game. And as irrelevant as that sounds, it is hard to get the passing game going when you can't seem to find where your receiver is going to be. In his first start without any substitutions, he threw for 267 yards, 2 TDS, and 3 INTS. The interceptions were freshman mistakes, I'll give you that, but he still had more pass yards than any other game in the season, when he was splitting reps with Joe T and Joe C.
True, his mistakes have cost us some games (namely Kentucky), but people are quick to forget that this guy is 18, and has only been in college football for one season. Aside from a few notable exceptions this season (Mustain in Arkansas and Tebow in Fla), there haven't been many amazing freshmen QB s. That's because there's a learning curve. Trust me when I say that He will get better after Auburn, and his number of turnovers will decrease dramatically next season. He's already learning. He passed for 219 yards, a score, and 0 INTs against a very tough Auburn D on the road. True, he lost two fumbles, but he also made major plays that led to most of Georgia's TDs, including one of his own on the ground
But enough about the QB. Remember the three headed beast people kept talking about at the beginning of the season? well, after losing one of it's head to injuries, and one of them playing averagely decent, Kregg Lumpkin has picked up the slack and leads the team in rushing with 708 yards,and Danny Ware has contrributed 261 yards of his own in about half of the carries Lumpkin's had. The best thing? Brown, Lumpkin, and Ware are all juniors, and it's likely they'll be coming back for one more season if only to get the bad taste of this season out of their mouths. Even if one of them were to leave for the greener (and more money-ful (and yes I know this word doesn't exist)) pastures of the NFL, Ga still has a freshman RB by the name of Knowshon Moreno, who last year was considered the #9 RB recruit in the country.
The only points of serious concern should be the O-line, which shouldn't be to hard to patch up, and the secondary with defensive leader Tra Battle leaving.
Other than that, there is very little I can say i find wrong with next year's odds of Ga returning to old standards
So for now, I hope I didn't bore you to death. That is the ramble of the day
First and foremost I would like to apologize to everyone listening to my show Wednesday for dissing on the dawgs offense. I tend to forget that Stafford is still a freshman and that the receiving corps has taken major injuries and still managed to come out strong every game.
Now that that's out of the way, let me be the first to say that I have seen the future, and it looks bright for Athens.
No, i don't possess psychic abilities or a very prophetic magic 8-ball. My assumption is based solely on what I saw saturday afternoon during the UGA-Auburn game. Alright, don't give me the crazy look just yet. hear me out.
I'll be the first to admit, Georgia's offense has struggled out of the gates this season, and Matthew Stafford hasn't yet reached his full potential. But remember that he didn't get the sole starting job until the 8th week of the season. That meant that the first few weeks he was sharing first-team reps with two other QBs, and then with one before the Tennessee game. this means that he didn't really get to develop timing with his receivers until two weeks before the Florida game. And as irrelevant as that sounds, it is hard to get the passing game going when you can't seem to find where your receiver is going to be. In his first start without any substitutions, he threw for 267 yards, 2 TDS, and 3 INTS. The interceptions were freshman mistakes, I'll give you that, but he still had more pass yards than any other game in the season, when he was splitting reps with Joe T and Joe C.
True, his mistakes have cost us some games (namely Kentucky), but people are quick to forget that this guy is 18, and has only been in college football for one season. Aside from a few notable exceptions this season (Mustain in Arkansas and Tebow in Fla), there haven't been many amazing freshmen QB s. That's because there's a learning curve. Trust me when I say that He will get better after Auburn, and his number of turnovers will decrease dramatically next season. He's already learning. He passed for 219 yards, a score, and 0 INTs against a very tough Auburn D on the road. True, he lost two fumbles, but he also made major plays that led to most of Georgia's TDs, including one of his own on the ground
But enough about the QB. Remember the three headed beast people kept talking about at the beginning of the season? well, after losing one of it's head to injuries, and one of them playing averagely decent, Kregg Lumpkin has picked up the slack and leads the team in rushing with 708 yards,and Danny Ware has contrributed 261 yards of his own in about half of the carries Lumpkin's had. The best thing? Brown, Lumpkin, and Ware are all juniors, and it's likely they'll be coming back for one more season if only to get the bad taste of this season out of their mouths. Even if one of them were to leave for the greener (and more money-ful (and yes I know this word doesn't exist)) pastures of the NFL, Ga still has a freshman RB by the name of Knowshon Moreno, who last year was considered the #9 RB recruit in the country.
The only points of serious concern should be the O-line, which shouldn't be to hard to patch up, and the secondary with defensive leader Tra Battle leaving.
Other than that, there is very little I can say i find wrong with next year's odds of Ga returning to old standards
So for now, I hope I didn't bore you to death. That is the ramble of the day