DDT: Bye Week Comes At Perfect Time For Georgia

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DDT: Bye Week Comes At Perfect Time For Georgia

Ben Cleveland paves the way for a Zamir White carry vs. Kentucky in 2019

There has been much debate about whether or not the SEC’s accommodation of Florida’s COVD outbreak and subsequent rescheduling was good or bad for Georgia. I’m of the opinion that having the bye week after the Auburn, Tennessee, and Alabama games was and is much needed. Despite their combined records, there is no question that those 3 teams are the most physical in their style of play that UGA with one exception, Kentucky. Kentucky is a very physical team and one that is built roster wise in a similar construct to that of Georgia. The Wildcats pride themselves on a hard hitting defense, a ultra-physical offensive line, and running backs (and even a QB) that run in a downhill, slashing fashion.

Monty Rice, Jermaine Johnson, James Cook, and several other key players have been banged up at varying times throughout Georgia’s first 4 contests. The Dawgs have been able to use this week, according to Kirby Smart, to focus on correcting areas that lack execution, build depth, and maybe most importantly, rest players whose bodies needed time to recuperate. Going to Kentucky is never an easy trip for Georgia it seems and under Mark Stoops you’re guaranteed to face a group of players that compete for 60 minutes and are well coached.

Georgia’s offensive line more than held it’s own against Alabama averaging 5.7 yards per carry, not including the 2 sacks taken by Stetson Bennett IV. The O-Line and tight ends will need to produce that same success rate with even more attempts, especially on early downs, to win this football in the fashion which Georgia should. The Wildcats are physical with their front 7 on defense and Kentucky heads into their game this week versus Missouri only allowing an average of 106.3 rushing yards per game. That mark is good for 4th in the SEC behind Georgia (65.5), Texas A&M (75.5), and, shockingly, Mississippi State (103.3).

 

 

 

 

The fact that Kentucky has to play a game this week on the road at Missouri is a definite plus for the Bulldogs. I have no fear of Georgia overlooking Kentucky next week. Kirby Smart and his staff have plenty of mental errors and subtle technical glitches to hone in on and to use as teaching tools to re-center and refocus the Dawgs for the 2nd half of the season. This week Georgia’s Head Coach alluded to the team working “on themselves” in press availabilities this week. Georgia will focus in on Kentucky beginning Sunday and will be looking to implement a physical “Georgia brand” game plan to help them defeat the Wildcats and head into Florida with momentum.

 

 

 

 

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Daily Dawg Thread Sports UGA Football 260 Comments

260 responses on “DDT: Bye Week Comes At Perfect Time For Georgia”

    2. Bahits

      I thought those bozos started last weekend. Half our season is over and they are just starting. smh

  5. Greg Poole

    Navigation advice: Clicking the little comment icon in the lower right of your screen will automatically move you back to the top of the comments section and if you are at the top of the page it will scroll down to comments >>> but Blayne will be mad if you don’t read his article ##

    1. DawgByte

      I’m not gonna lie… I’m not digging the new look. Too much going on visually. I realize it’s new and will take some time to get use to, but I’m not sure it’s worth it. Just my $.02

      1. bpuga09

        Same. I’m generally all for updates and upgrades, but the new system is much harder for me to read and follow the threads than before.

          1. bpuga09

            Just my opinion. Like @190 , I think there’s just a lot more going on visually that distracts a bit from the flow of the chat. Like I said, just my $0.02. It’s your website, and if everyone else likes it, I’m sure I’ll get used to it.

            edit: I should add that this is for mobile since that’s how I view this page 99% of the time. It likes to do this weird zoom in thing all the time, that makes it harder to see the overall chat threads. Forcing it to zoom back out helps.

            2. 1mandawgpack

              I’m indifferent on what you ultimately choose but I personally find that this new site looks and functions fairly similar to Disqus. I think some are frustrated over the avatar issues but that really shouldn’t be the determining factor as that’s an easy fix (i.e., go establish a new profile by registering with the current service provider). Anyway, just a bit different take. I also realize that you’re still working through features and functionality and that there will likely be continued improvements with this site going forward.

            3. Greg Poole

              Yeah, it has been tough making changes while live. One problem with the platform is the inability to configure stuff before going live.

              Right now, from my perspective it is about the same – expect this platform performs better because it is on my server and for many daily repetitive admin/posting actions it cuts the number of my actions in half.

              I still haven’t decided though – tomorrow’s performance will be a big factor.

    1. 1mandawgpack

      I always seem to get confused regarding the way these things are worded. Surely this means that the bettor received a total payout of $1.6M (his original $1M bet plus $0.6M of earnings), correct?

    1. 007dawg

      Man, Griffith just won’t let this go. I’m torn on it, but I would probably lean toward making it home and home eventually. If we are going to be a major program going forward, going into Ttown every other year shouldn’t be a big deal and would give us the extra home game every other year. I know many influential people want to keep the game there, so it doesn’t matter what I think tho.

      1. Greg Poole

        I can’t see that happening as long as Jax is willing to pony-up to keep the game more profitable than playing at home

        1. 1mandawgpack

          Yep – it’s all about the $ and I saw something that indicated that playing in Jax and getting paid every year is worth 2 to 3 times more than UGA would earn playing a home game every other year. As long as that’s the case, I don’t see it changing. Also, while part of the fanbase prefers a home and home series, another part likes the annual trek to Jacksonville as they view it as a sort of fall break.

          Personally, if ATL was willing to match approximately what Jax pays on an annual basis, I’d love to see it played in JAX and ATL every other year. UF fans (and potentially the team) definitely benefit from not having to incur significant travel costs (mostly hotel – even roach motels in fairly close proximity charge $300/night) under the current arrangement.

  12. 1mandawgpack

    I don’t know what ‘futurecasts’ are and how they differ from crystal ball forecasts, but it seems that we’ve gotten a ton of futurecasts for TID and Green in the past few days.

      1. 1mandawgpack

        Thanks for the insight – it appears that at least the good folks at Rivals think we’re ‘trending’ (your favorite word, I know) with the two prospects I mentioned.

        1. Greg Poole

          I think that is accurate – Blayne has 6 commit posts done and waiting, it is going to be a fun recruiting season

          1. 1mandawgpack

            I edited my original post as one of the two recruits who received a bunch of futurecasts was TID, not Monden. However, the rumor is that we’re ‘trending’ for Monden and Sorey as well.

    2. GDawg

      So what’s the latest thinking on Foreman and Maason? They still trending with LSU? What is realistically UGA chances?

  14. 1mandawgpack

    So I went and created a gravitar account and since I couldn’t find the photo I used for my old Disqus account with BI, I uploaded a new photo. Funny enough, what’s showing up as my avatar in this thread is now my old photo from Disqus and not the new photo from gravitar. Gremlins!!!!

      1. 1mandawgpack

        I didn’t do anything. I tried to log in to gravitar using my email address that I’ve had for about 25 years and it told me there was no account associated with that email address, so I created a new account. After I created the gravitar account and loaded the new photo I referred to in my original post above, I returned the the BI DDT site last night and logged in using the ‘connect with Disqus’ feature at the top of the thread and my old avatar started showing. When I click on the ‘Howdy, 1manddawgpack’ at the top righthand corner of the page and select ‘edit profile,’ it tells me that the way to edit my profile photo is to log into gravitar, which I’ve already done and it has a completely different photo. Anyway, I’m not real sure why my old avatar now shows up, but since it’s honestly not that important to me, I’m not going to spend any more time on it.

      2. DawgLeg

        Jay – I’m not 1man, but FWIW, I had to create a Gravatar acct and upload my picture to that new account.

      1. 1mandawgpack

        I leaned a long time ago that the gremlins that live inside computers and servers never lose, so I’ve stopped trying to fight them and just accept whatever fate they decide for me.

  15. Asheville_Dawg

    Wonder how LSU is going to look with a new QB? I am starting to like South Carolina in this game.

          1. Asheville_Dawg

            Good Stuff. I bet its nice to have a week where its not quite as busy and be able to relax a tiny bit.

    3. 1mandawgpack

      He’s not ranked as highly as some other DBs but I trust the coaches evaluations. Rankings in HS are influenced by many factors (competing in the camp circuit; whether you’re the star for your team or play on a team full of talent and therefore, don’t shine quite as much as others; etc.) other than just the quality of a player. We’ve gotten some lower rated guys who have turned into stud DBs so I like our changes developing this young man.

        1. 1mandawgpack

          Thanks DD – I tend to go with the 247 composite index ranking as it helps average out major differences in rankings among the various recruiting services. Obviously, all of them are highly subjective so there really is no right or wrong answer, which is why coaches’ evaluations of whether a player is right for our system are so critical.

  18. Joe Kennedy

    Waiting on my trainer. He was in a bad mood when I saw him Tuesday. Lol. He wants Pruitt gone. Lol

  30. Greg Poole

    Stetson Bennett is doing very well considering the circumstances. He’s the former fourth-stringer, running an offense that no one got spring practice on that was designed for not one but two other quarterbacks (Jamie Newman and D’Wan Mathis) with completely different skill sets.
    “Considering the circumstances” doesn’t mean “in an absolute sense”. Against Alabama, he looked like a former fourth-stringer running an offense that’s being adjusted on the fly by a new coordinator. His passing success rate for the first half was 30.8%. It finished at 28.6%. To my eye, it didn’t look like he reads the whole field based on some wide open targets apparently didn’t see. He’s not good enough to make UGA a national title contender this year.
    The run attack kept the Bulldogs in the game for as long as they were, though it hasn’t been superlative in every contest. Alabama’s linebacker play is shockingly bad by its own standards for the second year going. In Georgia’s 27-6 smothering of Auburn, the Bulldogs’ run game was more than adequate but not outstanding. Tennessee held lead back Zamir White to 2.3 yards per rush on 22 carries, though the other tailbacks had fine games in much more limited duty.
    Bennett can still hit those 15-19 yard in routes to tight ends over the middle that Georgia has been picking up first downs with since 2002, and the defense is as good as advertised against everyone but Bama’s NFL receivers. They’re still the frontrunner in the division for a reason, but they’re also in that frustrating zone of being near but not up to Alabama’s quality.

    https://www.gatorcountry.com/feature/where-floridas-place-in-the-sec-east-is-right-now-in-2020/

    2. Jay212033

      If that’s the case why didn’t Mathis get the benefit of getting more than a quarter and a half to try to figure it out? Also imo the OL stabilized once McClendon took over at RT. Notice in the Arkansas game the majority or the pressure came from the right side and Mathis was continuously running for his life. I think Kirby & crew pulled the plug too soon.

  32. Greg Poole

    William James Dixon was an American blues musician, vocalist, songwriter, arranger and record producer. He was proficient in playing both the upright bass and the guitar, and sang with a distinctive voice, but he is perhaps best known as one of the most prolific songwriters of his time. Next to Muddy Waters, Dixon is recognized as the most influential person in shaping the post–World War II sound of the Chicago blues.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bhW4EOK78Gg

  40. Greg Poole

    Tennessee is implementing a salary reduction plan due to COVID-19. Local radio host Hyams reports that the plan will impact all coaches except FB HC Pruitt, who agreed to delay a $400K raise until next year when he signed his extension. Contract employees must sign an amendment to agree to the plan. It is not known how many employees are impacted. (link); COVID-19 has cost the Tennessee System $147M, including $116.7M on the Knoxville campus. Changes to the FB season account for a $40M loss, and UT Chancellor Plowman reports the athletic department is facing a $15.6M deficit. Plowman: “We have been working, both my team…and the Athletic Department, and we have plans in place for alleviating $25.6M of that through a number of things

    https://www.knoxnews.com/story/news/education/2020/10/22/university-tennessee-system-pandemic-costs-ut-vols-football-big-part/6003412002/

    1. WalkedthedawgWhisky

      Bet they don’t get a signed amendment from Brumbaugh.. LOL.. Fired the guy mid-season.. Could have saved $65K….LOL

      1. ScoreCheck

        Not only did they fire him mid-season it has been widely reported he was fired mid-game. Amazing if true.

  41. Greg Poole

    Michigan State will discontinue swimming and diving at the end of the 2020-21 season. MSU will honor the scholarships of student-athletes who choose to finish their undergraduate degrees. Prez Stanley and AD Beekman: “MSU Athletics is facing a financial crisis unlike any we’ve ever seen in college athletics. Our best-case scenario this year projects a revenue shortfall in excess of $30M. Our worst-case scenario would more than double that number. … To be clear, this is not a move made to save money during the pandemic as there will be little financial benefit this year, as all scholarship and contracts will be honored. It’s a decision that will better position Spartan Athletics for long-term financial stability.

    https://msuspartans.com/news/2020/10/22/general-michigan-state-announces-plans-to-discontinue-swimming-diving-after-2021.aspx