A little something to say to the "pro-SEC" crowd

Since we found out UF was going to play Ohio St., I've heard alot of Georgia fans saying they're glad that Florida made it over Michigan, and that they hope UF wins because "it's SEC dude, gotta pull for our conference, the Big 10 sucks".

Cmon now, this is freakin Florida...the same Florida that beats our ass every year, that talks trash and gator chomps all year, that recruits the same players that we are trying to get...can you really pull for them to win a game?

I couldn't care less about what the SEC looks like...when USC won the natl. title did any SEC fans say "you know what, the Pac-10 must really be legit", or when Texas won did anybody look at the Big 12 differently? Hell no, because SEC fans are the only ones who are so obsessed with "conference" and proving how strong we are and how weak any other conference is. It's like a Napoleon complex where SEC fans have to keep telling everyone how great they are. It's pathetic. Normal fans care about two things: their team winning, and their rivals losing. It's not about loyalty to a freakin conference. It's about the team you love winning, and the teams you hate losing. I hate Florida, Tennessee, Auburn, and Georgia Tech. I hope the 3 from the SEC get spanked in their bowls, and Tech's bus loses it's wheels on the way home from their spanking they're gonna get from West Virginia.

I couldn't care less what a writer from New Jersey thinks about the SEC, or if fans of other conferences have respect for our conference. All that matters in college football is your record, Miami was in the title hunt every year when they were in the Big East...the Big East - conference strength does not matter, the reason Florida is in the game isn't because they played in the almighty SEC, it's because Michigan already played OSU and those that voted were voting against a rematch, not FOR Florida (and the fact that Michigan didn't win their conference to a degree).

Next year at this time no one is going to remember that Georgia played Florida close, or that the SEC had a team in the national title game when it comes down to voting in the polls. They're gonna look at who has the fewest losses, just like they do every year. So quit talking about what's good for the conference, and start thinking about what's good for Georgia, and that's Florida getting embarassed on national television. They're the Gators, they're trash, and they hate UGA, so how in the hell can you even consider pulling for them? Thinking about a Georgia fan cheering for Urban Meyer and Tim Tebow makes me sick, and it should make you sick too. Your allegiance is to UGA, not the SEC, remember that.

A perfect day for Dawg fans

After getting back from Athens and soaking up the victory today, it's just as sweet now as it was when that clock struck 00:00. I love beating Tennessee, love beating Auburn, I think I love beating Florida (to be honest I can't remember what it feels like much these days), but I absolutely LOVE beating Tech. There is simply no better feeling in the world of sports than taking all of the hopes, dreams, and delusional expectations of that pathetic fanbase, and flat out crushing them all. Say what you want about UT, UF, AU, etc., but Tech is, and will always be, our biggest rival. I can't stand all of the aforementioned teams, but I absolutely HATE Tech...despise them, loathe them, with every inch of my body there is no school that I detest and derive more satisfaction in beating than those sad little folks on North Ave. They talk as much as any Gator, Vol, or Tiger/Plainsmen/War Eagle, except unlike those fans, they have no ground to speak a word. Even if I hate those teams on the field, as well as their fans, I still have a level of respect for their accomplishments and their program level. I have no respect for Tech in any way shape or form. They are the poster child for delusional fans, believing year in and year out that they are a top 25 program, believing year in and year out that they are on our level. They talk about how their academics make it harder for them than any other program, that their athletes are true "student-athletes" and are smarter than any student at UGA, athlete or not. Each year they come up with some excuse as to why they lost, how they were robbed by a bad call (they already have started whining about the Taylor fumble recovery, even though it was reviewed, as well as claiming there were at least 5 pass interference calls that were not flagged, which would have resulted in them winning by at least 10 points), or how we got lucky to pull out a win. It really is one of the saddest situations I have ever seen as far as an entire fanbase so out of touch with reality. This is just one of the many reasons it is so sweet to put another L on their schedule. But this year was different.

Talking to Tech acquaintences, they had confidence, they knew that they were going to win. This was their year, their best shot. We had lost to Vanderbilt and Kentucky. Almost lost to Colorado. They were division champs in the ACC. They had the best WR in the nation. One of the best defensive coordinators in the nation. They had Reggie Ball. Wait...they had Reggie Ball.

We've had some great players wearing the red and black over the past 4 years against Tech. David Pollack, David Greene, DJ Shockley, Odell Thurman, Thomas Davis. They were stars, elite players, but I'm not convinced that they were the best players on our team against Tech each year. I think Reggie Ball might have been our best player in each of those games. I propose Ball gets his own shrine in Butts-Mehre. Hang his picture in the hallway outside of the weight room, put him in our program. He is simply one of the best Georgia Bulldogs ever to wear a different uniform. There are not many guarantees in life, even fewer in the world of sports, but you can always count on Reggie Ball being Reggie Ball. He's an absolute headcase and trainwreck when he takes the field against us, so fired up and busy talking so much trash that any slight amount of ability that he might have tossing the pigskin around is completely nullified. Each year it seems he plays more poorly than the year before. Each year Techies claim that this year is different and Reggie is going to tear our secondary apart. Yet each year it's the same story, a weak little 5'11 QB with no poise or accuracy making poor decisions and making our job that much easier. I truly am sad that he has no more eligibility left and that next season he will be behind the counter at Arby's rather than behind center on Saturday afternoon. It takes an amazing level of ineptitude to completely waste the top wide receiver to come through the college ranks in decades. Reggie is on that level, and I love him for it.

Not to say that Reggie Ball is the only reason we won the game. Our team played a great game. As I predicted, Paul Oliver shut Calvin down to the tune of 2 catches for 13 yards. We did a good bit of double teaming CJ, but when they did go 1 on 1 Oliver more than held his own. His pass breakup in the end zone was a thing of beauty, a textbook example of how to defend a pass. I maintain that P.O. is one of the more underrated cornerbacks in college football. Hopefully he comes back next year, because if he does he has a good chance of possibly going first or second round in the draft. Another player who had yet another big game was Tony Taylor. It's a shame that he is a senior because he has had an amazing year, making big play after big play. His fumble return for a TD was one of the stranger plays I have seen, but was a smart play on his part, digging through the pile when everyone else was standing around, and enjoying his last game in Sanford Stadium with a sweet dive into the endzone that was worth every yard of the penalty that he received for it. Darkness was solid as usual. Danny Ware ran hard and was very effective in limited work. The O-line (sans Inman, who thank the Lord also played his last game in Sanford) played exceptional. MoMass stepped up for the second game in a row, making catch after catch and smoking 2 defenders in one of the nastiest routes we've seen in Sanford on the hitch-and-go TD. For all of the grief that he has caught for drops this year, he is still our best WR and many people forget that he is still only a true sophomore. What can you say about Staff-Daddy? Talk about improvement, every aspect of his game has progressed very quickly since Columbia. His second straight game with zero interceptions, he showed the calm and poise that we have come to expect, and as a true freshman! He has shown the ability to make every throw, be it a touch pass, 25 yard rope, little sidearm flick, or 50 yard bomb. The sky is the limit with this kid, I have said it since the day he committed, he is going to go down as the most talented QB ever to play at UGA. I still find it laughable that there are Dawg fans who are so blind and ignorant that they thought that Joe T should have been starting over #7. The talent gap is of canyon proportions, and there is not a single aspect of his game in which Joe T has an advantage over Stafford. I just thank God that Richt didn't show the loyalty that so many UGA fans claim he lives by, and decided to make the call to put Staff behind center. Season-saver pure and simple, and the pay off next year and beyond is going to be huge. I can't imagine the sheer terror that opponents feel looking at this kid and realizing that he is only a freshman and that they are going to have to face him for years to come. That is another reason why this game meant so much for the Gnats.

A couple of my Tech acquaintences who have a better grasp of reality told me that this was their only shot to beat us for the foreseeable future. It has been one of their best years in recent history, and one of our worst. We had a freshman quarterback, a suspect defense, and no playmakers on either side of the ball. They had a senior quarterback, a strong defense, and an unstoppable force in Calvin. They understood that next year and beyond UGA was going to return to the level that we have been at the past 4 years. They understood that Calvin was leaving, Tenuta is more than likely going to find greener pastures within 2 years, and that they were going to drop back down next year.

Their fans had so much invested in this game. They didn't see any way they could lose the game, and finally they could enjoy a year as the better team. No longer would they have to deal with Dawg fans rubbing it in their face and talking trash. No longer would they have to deal with the embarassment of putting on urine-yellow knowing that they could not beat us in football, basketball, or baseball. They were about to have grounds to justify their notion of superiority that they put so much stock in, that keeps them coming back game after game, regardless of how ugly they lose. That is what makes this victory even sweeter than in past years. This year they were ranked, we were not. They were thinking top 10 finish, a win over UGA, a dream season. Instead, all of their dreams came crashing down on their heads as their elevated expectations only made the fall that much more painful. I couldn't be happier.

In summary, Georgia is still Georgia, Tech is still Tech, and it's a great day to be a Georgia Bulldog. Life is good.

Expectations...

Now that Stafford has the reins of the offense, I'm feeling pretty confident. If the offense can get into rhythm during the MSU game, then I think something special can happen in JAX and for the rest of the season. No matter what happens though, it's going to be exciting watching Stafford if he gets some help from his receivers.

About the defense, it seemed to me that WM finally sent some blitzes at the Vandy offense - not a ton but he didn't completely sit back either. Perhaps he realized he needed to mix it up a little. If this trend continues I expect we'll give fits to some offenses. I was also glad to see CJ Byrd get some playing time. I just wish it had been in place of Battle instead of KJ.

Maybe I'm perpetually optimistic but I wouldn't be suprised to see a 180 degree turn in our team both offensively and defensively. Finch out...

So here we are

First off, I never thought I would see the day that an intercollegiate tackle football team from the University of Georgia ever scored less points in a game than an intercollegiate tackle football team from Vanderbilt. To be honest, I'm still not completely convinced that it actually happened. I will, however, proceed with the assumption that we did in fact lose to the might Commodores Saturday.

This is a foreign situation to be in for UGA fans, players, and coaches alike. The team, from walk-on all the way up to head coach, is in a confused and uncertain state right now, something that we haven't seen in Mark Richt's tenure until this point. Even in Richt's first year, some of the losses were understandable considering the transition period and his freshman status as a head coach. There are many problems with the team right now, both on and off of the field. I'll start with the most important position on the team, quarterback.

From the day that D.J. Shockley graduated I have said that Joe T is one heck of a loyal Bulldog and a great special teams player, but one thing that he is not is an SEC quarterback. I don't care how much you love the man, this has become crystal clear this season. The argument for Joe T over one of the more talented young guns has gone something along these lines from the mouths of what I call the 3rd Generation Crowd:

"Joe T knows the playbook backwards and forwards. He can make ____ (insert a number between 5 and 35 here) checks at the line of scrimmage, and can recite the different defensive schemes backwards in Spanish. He is a 'game manager', he might not make the big play, but he won' t make the big mistake. He will not lose a game for us. He has paid his dues to the program, he deserves his shot."

That's great, but let's reconsider these statements. First off, there is only ONE thing that anyone deserves on this team, and that is the chance to compete. There is not a single player that deserves playing time based on their seniority, loyalty to the program, or how many relatives played for UGA. Joe T is no different...if he does not earn his playing time based on outperforming the other players at his position in practice and in games, he does not deserve to be on the field. He has played poorly this year, and his physical limitations have held back our offense greatly. He is not talented enough to lead an offense against SEC defenses, yet Richt, in an effort to be fair and give him his shot, basically giftwrapped the starting spot for Joe T. Even when Stafford showed that he was getting comfortable and was looking sharp by the end of the Ole Miss game and Joe T hadn't practiced in 3 weeks, Richt came out on the Sunday following the game and said that if Joe T was healthy then he would be the starter against Tennessee. Did he wait to watch him in practice all week to see if he was playing better than Stafford? No, he had his mind made up in advance that Joe was our starter no matter what. This was a critical mistake that more than likely cost us the Tennessee game. We will never know how Stafford would have performed in the early stages of that game, but what we do know is that Joe T committed 3 turnovers that led to 21 points and effectively sealed our fate.

Joe T lost the game. Plain and simple. Did our defense still give up the points after Joe turned the ball over? Yes, but they were placed in a nearly impossible situation as Joe gave the Vols the ball deep in our own territory every time. During the Colorado game when Stafford was struggling to move the offense, Richt replaced him with Cox and he led us to the victory. Yet when Joe was struggling against Tennessee Richt did not do the same thing, choosing to leave Joe in the game rather than giving Stafford a chance to see if he could spark the offense and give us a chance to compete. Why? Allegiance, pure and simple. This is one of the first times that Richt's stubbornness and loyalty has led to a loss, the other being Tennessee in 2004 when Greene was struggling, DJ came in and led us down the field to score, and on the next position Richt went back to Greene, who continued to struggle.

Following the Tennessee game it still made some sense to let Joe T start against Vandy I guess. Sure he lost the game the week before, but Stafford wasn't given an opportunity to show that he was a better option at starter, so why not start Joe and give Stafford playing time, which he did. Yet even as Joe struggled to move the ball against Vandy, throwing errant passes consistently, Richt still only gave Stafford one series in the first half, in which he threw the ball very accurately and made great reads. Heading in to the second half Richt once again stuck with Joe, who continued to play poorly. Only when we were behind late did Richt finally decide to put Stafford in to lead us from behind. Stafford moved the ball great, completing 9 of 13 passes, with 3 more passes that were perfectly on target that were dropped, including an easy catch by Milner in the end zone that he dropped (which is becoming a theme for Milner's career here at UGA). Stafford was clearly rolling and showing a strong grasp of the offense and perfect execution. We had opportunities deep in the red zone to punch the ball in, but Richt played it like he always does, playing for the field goal rather than being aggressive and trying to put sixes on the board (see: HB draw on 3rd and long).

On our last opportunity to score, his decision to try the field goal backfired, as Andy Bailey choked yet again, missing an easy 30 yard field goal (on a topic for another day, why is Bailey our first string kicker still? A missed extra point last week, 2 missed field goals from easy range, let Ben Wilson give it a go, he can't be any worse). That decision sealed our fate, as Vandy needed only a field goal to win the game and quickly marched down field on our suddenly Little League defense to score.

End of game. End of the Joe T experiment.

Joe T is a great story for old Bulldogs to sit and talk about in their tailgating spots, for Holly Rowe to talk about on the sidelines, and for Mark Richt to talk about at a local church. What Joe T is not, is the quarterback for the University of Georgia. There is absolutely no excuse for Joe T to start another game at UGA, and if he does, it will be a serious question of Mark Richt's judgment. What do we have to gain by starting Joe? Nothing. Stafford is far more talented than Part 3, and is the future of the program for the next 3 years. He is playing better than Joe T right now anyways, and will only get better with more experience. Naming Stafford the definite starter from here on out will do wonders for both Stafford, and the team as a whole. Stafford will develop a newfound confidence and swagger, and will become a much more vocal leader for the team. He will know that this is his team and he is the man, and as important, the TEAM will know that he is the man.

Richt said himself following the game Saturday that the team's problem is that it is inconsistent. Whose fault is that? How do you expect consistency when you are rotating in 2-3 QB's, 3 RB's, and 6-8 WR's? He refuses to name a starter at any of these positions, instead sticking too steadfastly to the notion of open competition and depth, when what these positions need the most is consistency. Stick with ONE QB, ONE RB, and concrete starters at WR - let the players get comfortable playing with one another and let their confidence grow. Create some chemistry between these 3 positions and we will see an increase in productivity as well as a consistency from the positions. It's not that difficult. It's not a foreign concept. Rotations rarely work at such crucial positions on the offense, look around the country at both the college level as well as the NFL. Depth charts do not change from week to week, teams pick their starters and stick with them. I can only hope that Richt finally settles on a few players and decides to ride them from here on out. If he does not, there is no reason to expect far better results than what we have seen so far this year.

I will go ahead and give him a starting point. Matthew Stafford is our QB, Kregg Lumpkin is our RB and needs 20-25 carries a game, and MoMass and AJ Bryant are our starting WR's, with Mikey Henderson and Demiko Goodman getting the nod in 3 and 4 WR sets or when the starters need a breather.

Hey, it's worked for my team in NCAA 07 on the 360.

Tennessee game

Oh man. Big game this week folks. I don't need to tell you how important it'll be for us who are attending the game to be play a part of the game. We'll need to be loud - very loud. You'd be surprised how much a little crowd noise helps our boys. Anyway, here are some things to watch for this Saturday night.

It looks like UT has found three very capable running backs to handle the ground game for them. Foster, UT's former starter, has been hampered by a sprained ankle but will return for the game this weekend. UT's newly appointed starter, Lamarcus Coker, has more than proven himself in place of the injured Foster. He's provided a welcome spark to the UT ground game and brings a scary element of speed to the table. It'll be important to stop these guys to keep UT in a one-dimensional offense. UT is probably more of a passing team at this point but will try to develop the run game if it jumps out early.

As with any game, controlling the line of scrimmage is key. Tennessee's interior offensive line is relatively young (a redshirt freshman center and a sophomore guard) and inexperienced. Look for our defensive tackles (Kade Weston and Jeff Owens) to get a good push and force the UT running backs to cut before the line of scrimmage.

Tackle. Tackle. Tackle. We've missed too many tackles over the course of a couple games. I expect Martinez has addressed the situation and this area will improve. If Ainge is able to get the ball to his wideouts, we'll need to get to them in a hurry and wrap up quickly. They've done a good job this year of getting yards after the catch and we'll need to bring that to an end.

Offensively, find some sort of rhythm. I don't care what QB we use to get that rhythm, but we have to find some. If our O can score quickly it'll help three-fold: confidence for our offensive players, encouragement for defense, and the fans something to cheer about. If the fans are in it, the players are in it. This is probably the most important aspect of this game. If we fail to score in the first half (maybe even the first quarter), we're in serious trouble. Hopefully Richt has some tricks up his sleeve to get us on the board early (I would love to see an AJ Bryant reverse where he can either throw a TD or run for big yardage. We saw a reverse from him sometime last year I believe).

Obviously, we need to pound Lumpkin over and over again. He's the most solid option we have on offense right now. When we do need to throw the ball, watch for JT3 to make the sure throw. He won't try to force a ball into tight coverage cause he knows he doesn't have the arm strength for that. We also can't afford any costly turnovers so he'll take a sack before he throws one up. He'll also be at liberty to check off quite a bit as our offensive scheme calls for. Look for the no huddle this Saturday. Defenses always have trouble with a no huddle offense and JT3 is probably the only QB with the knowledge at this point of running it. I expect JT3 to get a majority of the snaps at QB but I'm sure Staff will get some as well unless we have a really tight game. I'd say Staff sees about 25% of the snaps but if we're down big, I wouldn't be suprised if Richt gives Stafford the keys to offense.

Well, it's a big game and I'm going to be biting my lip a lot I fear. But I'm also going to help our defense as much as possible by getting as rediculously loud as possible. Join me please, we can help make this a game.

Thoughts on our O

Okay so a lot of people have been talking about our struggles on offense and, in particular, how Richt refused to stick with the running game over the past two games. Frankly, I'm tired of hearing about it and I have some theories about why. In my opinion, Richt has kind of utilized the past two games, against the slightly tougher equivalent of UGA's scout team, to ease the learning curve of his freshman QBs. When you've got the defense we've got and the running game we've got, why not let the young guns throw the ball around a little bit to learn the offense in a real game situation? It's what I'd do as a coach. You want Stafford, or any freshman qb, to learn the offense in practice, if possible. Stafford didn't have that luxury and needed to learn on the spot against USC. And he's clearly learned a lot since then. Honestly, I feel like Stafford's on the verge of his breakout game. This is not to say Staff will lead us on an amazing 80 yard game-winning TD drive. That's unrealistic. But over the course of the past two games, I've seen remarkable improvement in Stafford. Look at some of the throws he made against Ole Miss. He hit MoMass, Meko, and AJ right on the money on several occasions. You can even hear Richt's sense of Stafford fulfilling his potential:

"This week I am very confident that Joe (Tereshinski) should be our starter and that Stafford should be our No. 2," Georgia coach Mark Richt said. "Who knows what can happen by the end of the game?"

While this isn't Coach explicitly saying Stafford will legitamitly win the starting position, I still read the implication that Stafford is close. This, all because Richt has provided Stafford with the opportunity to learn and grow, is going to benefit our offense immensely.

5-0, but a disappointing showing

So the team is 5-0, 2-0 in the SEC. That is the good news. The bad news is that for the second straight game our team failed to crack 100 yards in the first half or score a single point. After being heralded as one of the best defenses in the nation, our D has hardly looked the part, being run all over by two less than mediocre teams. Is it time to panic? Of course not, but there are some concerns that need to be addressed. Thankfully, there are answers to those concerns.

Our offense has clearly struggled to move the ball in the past 2 games. It suffers from a serious lack of rhythm which can only be attributed to the mass swapping of players that has kept anyone from building any real chemistry together. I understand starting Joe Cox. At the same time, giving the QB's two series and then sitting them for 2 series is NOT the way to establish consistency on offense. Cox played a great quarter against Colorado and sure that merits giving him a start I guess. It was clear tonight that while he did play well in the relief role, that he is not ready to be a starter in the SEC. His throws were off target and he looked jittery in the pocket. Stafford, on the other hand, looked confident and was on target with most of his throws. He made one mistake early in the game nearly throwing a pick, but was solid from that point on. Richt made a great decision giving Stafford every snap in the second half. A QB rotation rarely proves to be a success, and tonight was no different. A player needs consistent snaps to get into a rhythm, and a rotation keeps a player from getting into that rhythm, which leads to my next point.

KREGG LUMPKIN. He was named starter, and looked strong on his first carry. Wake Forest attempted 3 passes last week and ran every other play, leading to a decisive 28-3 victory and providing an easy blueprint to attack this Ole Miss team. You would expect to see a heavy running game tonight, but instead Lumpkin inexplicably had only 2 carries in the first half. For the life of me I cannot understand how this happened, but it is NO coincidence that in the second half we stuck with Lump and gave him the majority of the carries and he responds with 81 yards in the half leading us on both of our scoring drives. Quite simply put, he is a beast and we need to jump on his back and let him carry the team. He finished with 101 yards on only 13 carries, for a whopping 7.8 YPC. Danny Ware and Thomas Brown finished with 2.8 and 2.5 YPC respectively, proving (as stated in my earlier blog from this week) that Lumpkin is the best RB on the roster. He should be given 20-25 carries a game, and if he doesn't get at least 15-18 carries against Tennessee, I don't think we win the game. It is great that we have such RB depth, it's a great story, and everyone loves to say the phrase "3-headed monster", but the fact remains that we have one GREAT RB, and 2 pretty good RB's. Lumpkin has clearly separated himself from the other 2 runners, and needs the be THE man from here on out. Here's hoping that Richt realizes this between now and 7:45 on October 7.

The other area of concern is the WR position. MoMass has put on one of the greatest disappearing acts of this century, dropping 2 passes that were right on target from Staff in the first half. I don't know what it is, maybe he is homesick, maybe he forgot to refill his contact prescription, or maybe he truly is involved in a complex conspiracy theory to drop Staff's passes in an attempt to win his best buddy Joe Cox the #1 spot. Whatever it is, he does not need to see the field until he gets his game back on track. Fortunately, Demiko Goodman stepped up his game tonight and showed that maybe his committment to football over track is paying off, catching most of the balls thrown his way, and making a great catch in which he attacked the ball in a way that I have not seen our WR's attack in a while. He has track star speed and if he can consistently catch the ball, he can fill the void left by MoMass as a go to guy in the WR corps. AJ Bryant only had one catch tonight but was not targeted but a few times. I believe he is the other guy who deserves to be on the field, as he has shown that he can catch the ball and is also our most explosive player on offense. If Mikey Henderson can get it going now that he has recovered from his hamstring, we will have 3 solid WR's that we can count on, and more importantly, that Stafford can count on, leading me to my next point.

It was clear tonight why Stafford passed Cox on the depth chart after the WKU game. Stafford simply has superior physical tools, but also possesses a poise and confidence that Cox lacks. He can make every throw, and is only going to get better each game that he plays. After showing poor decision making and a lack of touch on his passes, as well as a lack of timing with his WR's, he showed marked improvement in all of those areas tonight. He put the majority of his passes on the money, threw the ball perfectly on his deep routes, and did not make any poor decisions or throw any interceptions. Sure he is a true freshman and is going to have growing pains, but he is our best choice at QB to WIN a game. Joe T is a great "game manager", but you don't win big games in the SEC with a game manager...you win games with a game breaker at QB. Stafford might be more prone to lose a game for the team, but at the same time he is the only QB on the roster that can actually WIN a big game with big plays. If you want 8-10 yard outs and hitches, Joe T is your man. If you want a QB who can stretch the field and make the big play, Stafford is the QB for the job.

I've thought about this a good bit, and initially I thought that Joe T would start against UT, but I've since come to the conclusion that Stafford will be the man next Saturday. Think about it - Joe T hasn't practiced since before the South Carolina game, where at the time he was still going to split time with Stafford as he hadn't separated himself too much from the young QB. Now he is coming off of an injury and is still a bit gimpy, and has not played in 3 weeks. Stafford now has as much starting experience as Joe T, and has had more time with this offense in game situations than T. Throwing Joe into the starting spot is risky considering how long he has been out, as well as his questionable talent to begin with. I think that Richt realizes this and will stick with Stafford next week unless he simply looks awful early in the game, at which point Joe T might be called on.

I think there is a simple formula to better offensive production for the team, and it is this. Pick your horses and ride them for as long as they can carry you. Run Lumpkin until he cannot run any more, put Brown or Ware in to give him a rest, and then ride him some more. Stick with a QB and ride him from here on out, good and bad. Changing up the depth chart from week to week will not yield positive results, you have to pick a guy and let him lead you. I think that Stafford is that guy from here on out, looking to next year as well as this year.

Once again, pick your horses and ride them, and we will see a much more productive and consistent offense.

A look at the beast that is Ed Orgeron

Here is Ole Miss's head coach Ed Orgeron, reputed screamer and not a sane man by any means, trying to sell you a HUMMER.



"I have my HUMMER, you need a HUMMER." Classic lines from a crazed man. The following is the transcript of Coach O speaking with an Ole Miss recruit:

Coach O: I just love Ole Miss.
Recruit: Ok.
Coach O: Are you big, tough, aggressive?
Recruit: Ummm....yessir
Coach O: I'm at Ole Miss, you need to be at Ole Miss.

I can't wait to watch this lunatic next Saturday night as we thrash them in Oxford.