I think Desmond Howard owes all of us an apology.
Okay, not really, but he was the one member of the Game Day crew last week to pick SC to beat Georgia. To his credit, only Kirk Herbstreit said that the Dawgs would win and win big. Which we did.
I went into last week’s game believing that South Carolina might well be the second-best team in the SEC East, and I left last week’s game thinking that South Carolina is probably the second-best team in the SEC East. And I left last week’s game really, really hoping that South Carolina is the second-best team in the SEC East.
A lot of other teams left something to be desired with their Week 2 performances, especially Florida. Who thought that the Dan Mullen era would start like this, with him ending the nation’s longest winning streak against a single team?
You can’t take away too much credit from Kentucky. They came to play, and they played a very good game, but I still have a hard time believing that the Wildcats went into the Swamp and beat a decent Florida team. The only way to solve that equation is to assume that it was not, in fact, a decent Florida team and that Mullen’s first season will be rough. Is it possible that Mullen will finish with a better reputation at Mississippi State than at Florida? I’m not fully convinced that he’s going to be their great savior in Gainesville, and it might just be indicative of deeper problems than anyone previously thought if Muschamp, McIlwain, and Mullen all flame out.
Lego Mustache Man would be a less ridiculous coach in Gainesville than Ben McAdoo, but how I would love to see that man coaching the Gators! (Photo by Alan Hardman on Unsplash)
Wait. Muschamp. McIlwain. Mullen. Meyer. Most teams go for a certain coaching tree, but it seems like Florida is aiming for something else in their head coaches. What are the odds that Ben McAdoo becomes Florida’s next coach?
In last week’s game against South Carolina, we learned almost nothing specific about Georgia. Seriously. We know the team is good. We know the team has players. We know the defense can get at the ball. But we don’t know much about the individuals.
Honestly, contrary to what I said last week, that might be a good thing. It’s possible that this team has so much depth and talent that the team plays more like a unit rather than a collection of dudes. In the past, we’ve seen Georgia succeed with superstars. We’ve had the Staffords and the Morenos and the Gurleys. And sure, none of the guys on this team might measure up to those impressive standards, but the talent across the board is such a high level.
More importantly, the team is playing at that level. That was apparent when we ran straight at and over the Gamecock defensive line in the second half. That was apparent when we took SC’s opening drive back to the house for a touchdown. That was apparent when the game ended and we’d beaten South Carolina by 24 points in Columbia.
That sandstorm turned out to be more of a light dusting.
The one individual who really has impressed above all others is Mecole Hardman. We knew he was fast and, as coaches love to say, you can’t coach speed. Hopefully you can coach Swift, though. (Har har) Beyond just his speed, though, Hardman seems to be elevating himself as a leader on the team with his positive attitude and his enthusiasm alone. And Hardman has other football skills that some speedsters just lack. He has vision to see the field, he has solid hands to pull the ball in on long passes and tight squeezes. As we saw in the national championship game, he even has the ability to run it as an option quarterback. The dude is a player.
Back to my initial statement, though. We learned very little about the individuals in that game against South Carolina. That’s probably going to be true again against Middle Tennessee State just because, let’s face it, this game is a lock. The Dawgs are going to outman the opponent even more than usual and are going to look really good doing it.
That’s what you want to see against a team like MTSU, though. That’s no shame on their part. The Blue Raiders are a really strong team at their level of competition and they literally have a coach’s son at quarterback. The cliche stands true for a reason.
Brent Stockstill is the starting quarterback for Middle Tennessee State. Rick Stockstill, some relation, is the head coach for Middle Tennessee State.
In the last week, everyone has been talking about how the starting quarterback at MTSU is the son of the head coach. That’s probably not news for those of you who follow UGA football closely. Or, if you found your way to this page by accident, those of you who follow MTSU football closely. Welcome, guests!
Looking at Stockstill (the younger’s) stats, he’s an awfully impressive quarterback. He’s sitting on 9,525 yards passing in his career with 83 touchdowns to just 26 interceptions. I know that sounds like a lot of picks, but you run that risk with gunslinger quarterbacks. The ratio of scores to picks, though, is outstanding. For every pick Stockstill (the playa) has thrown, he’s thrown 3.2 touchdowns. Not sure what .2 of a touchdown is or what that gets you in points, but it’s probably something.
There’s a good chance that Stockstill will end up with more yards passing than Fromm on Saturday and still lose horribly just based on how the two teams play. Georgia is a run-heavy team, which should come as a surprise to nobody, and MTSU is going to throw it around. A lot. I’m curious looking at their season stats if their low rushing total is because of inability or because of preference. The Raiders are averaging 292.5 passing yards per game after two games this season, but just 96.5 yards rushing.
Interestingly, they ran for 136 yards on 36 carries against Vandy, a season-opening 35-7 loss. Taking away Stockstill’s 14 carries for 10 yards, the rest of the team averaged 5.73 yards per carry against the ‘Dores. That’s not shabby.
Of course, Georgia’s defense is going to be much beefier than Vandy’s, and the Dawgs are probably going to stifle the Raider run without much effort. That leaves the defense to focus on Stockstill’s (either one?) air attack.
In their own cupcake game, a 61-37 win over the UT-Martin Skyhawks (is there any other kind?), the Raiders ran for just 77 yards on 31 attempts. So that tells me they probably aren’t as good running the ball as that Vandy game showed. Or the Skyhawks (stupid name) are just better…defending the run…than the ‘Dores? Let’s hope not.
That discrepancy is probably due to the situation. I imagine MTSU didn’t feel as comfortable playing against Vandy, so they tried to be more balanced. Against a team they were better matched against, the Blue Raiders probably felt like they could just play their game and do well enough to win.
Stockstill (obviously) had five touchdowns and was 25-34 with 407 yards against UT-Martin, the team whose nickname I refuse to say again. This offense is about as one-dimensional as they come. I expect the Dawgs to tee off on Stockstill after a few drives of getting settled in coverage, and I expect Georgia to come away with a healthy number of sacks, picks, hurries, knockdowns, and whatever other bad-passing stat you want to throw out there.
Yeah, yeah, we’ll get to you, too. (Photo by Matthew Kane on Unsplash)
The good news is that Georgia is fresh off of facing a team with a pass-first mentality, and then the Dawgs will jump right back into that again next week in CoMo. Two straight weeks of practice for the corners ought to go a long way towards having our young secondary ready for what will likely be a much better passing game next week against the first set of Tigers we’ll see this season.
Three Picks and a Score
I don’t like picking these lesser games because they’re just hard. Does Georgia lay off in the second half? Can we really trust the stats we see on these cupcake teams? Will the game be shortened five minutes because it’s just too dang hot? Will half the stadium arrive late because they still thought kickoff was at 7:15pm?
MTSU fails to reach even 200 yards of offense, despite averaging 389.0 yards per game so far this season.
Swift finishes with a rushing and receiving touchdown.
Josh Fields leads more drives than Fromm does, since the game will be well in hand early.
As for the score, it’s never in doubt when the Dawgs win it 59-3.
Reviewing Last Week’s Pick
It is so hard to predict such a high score still for this team. I know the Dawgs are good, but are we that much better than SC in their own house? Apparently, but I wasn’t ready to pull the trigger on that one quite yet, so my picks weren’t very reflective of how the game turned out. How did you do? If you’re on Reddit, then you ought to join us in doing “Three Picks and a Score” every week.
Fromm finished the game going 15/18 for 194 yards passing with one score and one pick. Bentley went 30/47 with 269 yards, one touchdown and two picks. I predicted that Fromm would have a higher completion percentage than Bentley with half as many attempts, and I nailed it. Go me!
I said Deebo Samuel (who?) would have three times as many receiving yards as the nearest receiver on his team. He ended up having less than a third as many yards as the leading receiver. So…the opposite of a win?
I said that the Dawgs would win the turnover battle 3:1 and that Bentley would throw a 4th quarter INT. Well I’m taking half a point for that fourth quarter pick, dangit, even though the Dawgs only won the turnover battle 2:1. So…half a win?
All in all, I’ll take a 1.5-point week.
What are your picks for the MTSU game? Leave them in the comments below and play along!