Photo: Greg Poole/Bulldawg Illustrated
Huck’s Corner – My notes, thoughts and musings from a once in a lifetime day in Athens.
G-Day got off to a fantastic start with the commitment of William Poole III. Poole is right there with Deangelo Gibbs as the best corner in the state of Georgia. He has the size, length and ball skills you look for in a cornerback. Adding him to the puzzle in the secondary alongside Richard Lecounte III has the Bulldogs secondary recruiting off to a blazing start.
The fans that assembled in Sanford Stadium was truly fantastic. It shouldn’t have been #93KDay it should have been #100KDay. It was a standing room only crowd and it was a little bit of a different crowd. I can’t tell you how many people there had never before been to UGA game but I would bet that number was very high. It was a must attend event and turned out to be quite the spectacle.
If UGA tries to do the #93KDay again they need to do a much better job with the planning/logistics of parking and traffic control. It was an absolute nightmare. They need to issue parking passes very similar to the way they do for a UGA football game. It was the only bad part of the entire weekend.
Watching the offensive line and defensive line get after it in one-on-one drills was a lot of fun. You could see why Julian Rochester was so highly thought of. He gets a very nice push on the bull rush and as he gets bigger and stronger he will be hell to deal with. Jonathan Ledbetter was also very impressive in that same drill with his combination of speed and power.
The tight ends looked fantastic. It was great to see Jordan Harris get some action and his speed was something to behold. However, even more impressive was the play of true freshmen Isaac Nauta. He is clearly strong as an ox, a fantastic athlete with a lot of confidence and swagger. He seems to have a little “Gronk” in him.
The receivers put on a performance much better than I expected. Jayson Stanley, Reggie Davis, Riley Ridley, Shakenneth Williams and Michael Chigbu who will be relied upon heavily all caught the ball extremely well. It was a very pleasant surprise.
Greyson Lambert is who he is. He looks hesitates too often with his reads and gets happy feet in the pocket. I was hoping to see more decisiveness in his second year in Athens but he seems to be the same guy he was. Brice Ramsey put in a very nice performance in my opinion. He made a couple ill-advised throws but overall he did a very nice job, especially when throwing the deep ball. What can you say about Jacob Eason? I didn’t think it was possible but he surpassed all expectations. He is clearly head and shoulders above the other QB’s in pure talent.
I was a bit disappointed by the offensive line. Going back and re-watching the game on TV I thought they struggled some. Not a surprise given the fact that only Brandon Kublanow is playing the same position he did last year. There is definitely some talent and some big bodies up front but they need to get better at operating as a unit.
The lack of depth at running back is very concerning. We all hope Chubb will be 100% at the start of the season and with the progress he has already made, along with his work ethic it wouldn’t be a surprise. However, if he needs more time the Bulldogs are incredibly thin. There is a huge opportunity for Elijah Holyfield to come in and make an impact.
UGA was very vanilla on offense and defense but you saw a couple of the basic changes that UGA will implement. First, UGA will keep three defensive linemen in the game for nearly all snaps. Second, UGA is going to use a lot more combination routes and rubs/picks in the passing game then last year.
I have already discussed the QB race but I will end this with my thoughts on the QB job. In my opinion the race should be between Brice Ramsey and Jacob Eason. Lambert may give UGA the best chance not to lose the game from the QB position, but he is certainly not the best option for UGA to win the game. When Georgia needs a game winning drive in the 4th Quarter I would rather have Ramsey and/or Eason in the game.
Hobnailboot aka RobG Thanks – I appreciate it!
Bulldawg Bob2 PTCDawg Lambert is a DGD but I have my own perspective on the upcoming season which is something I will write about soon.
rugbydawg79 Haha…my fault! We do have the deepest group of TE’s in the nation. No question about it!
Your last paragraph nails it, that is exactly how I feel. Great write up Huck.
Greg Poole Agreed. They weren’t going to run the ball given the lack of depth.
You know, when the game came on TV and it became obvious that the crowd was immense, I flashed back to the spring game of, I think, 1971. Now admittedly I had been imbibing just a little bit but I think we came within about 85,000 of Saturday’s crowd. It seemed like the stadium was fairly empty. There were 4 of us in our section. We’ve come a long way! My brother in law played in that game. On a fourth down there were only 10 men on the punt team, and my BIL was supposed to the the 11th. I could hear the coach screaming for him to get out there. I’m sure some of you older guys (and I include myself) were at that G-Day game back then. Was there any kind of crowd at all?
PTCDawg Aye. I agree PTC. If Greyson Lambert does start versus UNC or comes out to play during any game this season, I do not want to hear Georgia fans booing or heckling him. Lambert is a DGD book.
All I am saying is I would rather be 10 ahead with 2 minutes left in the 4th rather than hoping for a last minute drive. Still think Lambert will take the first snap but, to everyones point, the gap is rather small and the patience is likely to be very thin.
Will just say again, I hope that whoever it is Dawgnation will support them.
IYH_BI great read as usual.
It was an awesome G-Day experience wasn’t it. In my 35 years, I cannot remember one that had as much energy and excitement. And kudos definitely goes out to Dawg Nation for heeding Coach Smart’s call. They delivered.
Definitely a lot of good things to take away from the spring game, and yes. There are areas that definitely need to be worked on before the game versus the Tar Heels on September 3rd. I think it was hard to gauge the running game simply because they passed the ball so much, and I think the coaching staff were being careful with the healthy RBs Georgia has.
But I agree. Elijah Holyfield definitely can come in over the summer and compete this fall for playing time. PWO Ian McIntyre is going to be given a chance to compete as well when he gets to Athens over the summer.
Great Write up ! on the tight ends – Jordan Davis and Jackson Harris – it is so cool that we are deep enough that you morphed them into 1 plus Jeb and Issac we are loaded
One point on the OL comments: The fact that there was not going to be much of a run game put a ton pf pressure on the OLs, but I agree there is much work to be done in that room.
I was surprised by the safety blitzes. Roundtree was in the backfield several times – he needs tackling work.
Another good post Huck! I said the exact same thing a couple of weeks ago over on the blog… If we are playing Tenn at home and it’s under 2 minutes and we are out of time outs, who do you want as our QB for that potential game winning drive… The answer for me is NOT Lambert, not against him and he has busted his butt for UGA and is a DGD, but I want Eason out there and therefore he is my predicted starter game 1… GATA and #ATD!
BD_illustrated Great article! I agree about the qb race being between Ramsey & Eason.