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Saturday December 26th, 2009
10:52amAg Football Preview: Independence Bowl vs. Georgia
I have only been to the lovely city of Shreveport once before. My senior year my high school baseball team played in a tournament at Evangel Academy. I figured that since I was going to be on a bus for 14 hours that I'd be able to read my English assignment, Pride & Prejudice. Haha. The bus had a TV with a VCR and there were 20-something other teenagers....and we had Ace Ventura and Dumb & Dumber. I got through page 4 and picked up the Cliff Notes when we got back to Houston.Beyond that my memories of Shreveport are pretty slim....I remember some of the shenanigans we played at the hotel, eating at a Cracker Barrel, and it being so dad-gum cold. It was so cold that my dad took the curtain from his hotel window to use as a blanket at one of the games. I also remember hitting a fly ball to right field that hit off the tippy-top of the fence - but where it hit was a white sign and I thought the ball got out of the field - I yelled "OH MY GOD!" as I hit first base because it would have been the first HR I hit in my life (of the non-inside-the-park variety)....instead I got a stand-up double and 3 RBIs. I believe this was the first documented event that was stamped with "Epic Fail".
Let's hope that we don't have that same disappointed feeling in the pit of our stomachs when we leave Shreveport this time.
Mark RichtThe 2009 Indepenence Bowl is a tale of two programs. The 2009 season has been one of ups and downs but mostly promise and a look towards the future for the Aggies but for Georgia it is an extreme disappointment for a squad that was a Top 15 team both pre-season and as late as week 4. The Independence Bowl is a long way from the 3 BCS games the Bulldogs have played in over the last 7 years....and it's a long way from Athens (675 miles = 11 hour drive).
The Dawgs had to try to overcome losing two first round draft picks at enormous positions, QB Matthew Stafford and RB Knowshon Moreno, which would be difficult for any team. They had to do that against one of the nation's most difficult schedule and the team's defense really slid which made a run at the SEC title even that much more difficult. Their 7-5 record is the most losses that they have had since 1996, which was the last year they did not make a bowl. Their schedule was brutal with OoC games against Oklahoma State, Arizona State & Georgia Tech to go with the regular rough SEC schedule (SC, Ark, LSU, Tenn, Vandy, Fla, Aub, Kty). You have to respect Mark Richt for scheduling a legitimately difficult non-conference schedule. Their final game was a against #7 Georgia Tech in Atlanta and they pulled off the rivalry upset, which is pretty impressive.
UGA O TAMU D ========== =========== 157.1 (54) RUSH 168.6 (87) 204.8 (78) PASS 262.8 (111) 361.8 (73) TOT 431.3 (107) 27.7 (59) SCOR 32.7 (104)The Bulldog's offense is led by first year starting QB Joe Cox (#14, Sr) who is filling the big shoes of #1 overall NFL draft pick, Matthew Stafford. Cox has thrown for 2,426 yards at a 56.1% clip (averaging out at 202.2 ypg) to go with 22 TDs and 14 INTs.
Like us, the Dawgs have played around with their offensive line for the majority of this season and finally settled on a group of five with Cling Boling (#60) at LT, Cordy Glenn (#71) at LG, Ben Jones (#61) at C, Chris Davis (#63) at RG, and Josh Davis (#78) at RT. That five-some have made up the starting lineup for the last 5 games and they have averaged 226 yards rushing compared to only 108 yards rushing in the first 7 games.
Att Yds Avg TD Av/G ============================ Ealey.. 112 639 5.7 3 79.9 King... 98 534 5.4 5 59.3 Samuel. 88 395 4.5 2 35.9 Smith.. 17 208 12.2 2 17.3Coach Richt has split the carries of the guys running behind this line between Washaun Ealey (#24, Fr-H), Caleb King (#4, RSo), Richard Samuel (#22, So), with Ealey & King almost splitting all the carries equally over their last 4 or 5 games. Freshman 5* DB Branden Smith (#1) also picks up a carry or two per game, with big results (his lone start of the season was at RB against Florida). QB Joe Cox is not a running threat.
A.J. GreenA.J. Green (#8, So), at 6'4" 207 lbs, is one of the top wideouts in the country and he leads the Dawgs with 47 receptions (twice as many as Michael Moore, the second highest pass catcher), 6 TDs and an average of 83.4 ypg. No one else on the roster, including Moore, averaged more than 2 receptions per game. Moore was second on the squad with 5 TDs. Green is coming off of a separated shoulder injury that limited his snaps in the last 4 games but is expected to be fully healthy by the time the Dawgs roll into Louisiana.
Out of the backfield, King was the most prolific receiver with 9 receptions with Samuel having 6 and Ealey only 2.
TAMU O UGA D ========== ========== 190.4 (25) RUSH 127.6 (40) 274.9 (22) PASS 200.8 (33) 465.3 (5) TOT 328.4 (30) 33.9 (15) SCOR 26.4 (70)This is one of the weaker Georgia defenses we've seen and as a result, Coach Richt let go three defensive coaches following their regular season finale - including defensive coordinator Willie Martinez, DE coach Jon Fabris, and LB coach John Jancek. For this game Coach Richt (who has an offensive background), their DL coach and two grad assistants are going to pick up the slack and run the defense.
National Ranking - Scoring & Total Defense - Since 2000 --------------------------------------------------------- 00TD 00SD 01TD 01SD 02TD 02SD 03TD 03SD 04TD 04SD 19 12 49 17 15 4 4 3 8 9 05TD 05SD 06TD 06SD 07TD 07SD 08TD 08SC 09TD 09TD 18 8 8 20 14 18 22 59 30 70It looks like the slide actually started last season but you can see that, clearly, the defense is not at typical Georgia standards....and that is good for us.
Rennie CurranThe defense is led by junior linebacker, Rennie Curran (#35) who was named 1st team All-SEC and has 122 tackles almost doubled the team's second leading tackler.
Their defensive line is stout with DT Geno Atkins (#56) who was named 2nd Team All-SEC and had 9.5 TFL and 27 QBHs. DE Juston Houston (#42) was also 2nd Team All-SEC and had 15 TFL and led the team with 7.5 sacks while DT Kade Weston (#91) was second on the team with 24 QBH. The strongest point for them is that they are so deep at DL and can rotate guys in and out which will match-up in their favor against our fast-paced offense (we are second in the nation in offensive plays run).
They will be playing without freshman DE Montez Robinson who was suspended from the team following his second arrest in a three day span at the beginning of the month. How on earth does that happen?
Drew ButlerThe Georgia special teams is pretty solid. Prince Miller (#23) averages 11.9 yards per punt return and Brandon Boykin (#2) has already returned two KOs for TDs. Blair Walsh (#57) is 19-of-21 kicking field goals including 6-of-6 from 40-49 yards and 4-of-5 yards from beyond 50 - wow. That's not even the tops....Drew Butler (#13) was awarded the Ray Guy Award as the nation's top punter after he averaged 48.8 ypp on 50 attempts.
Something that you don't typically run into against bowl opponents are common opponents, but in the case of A&M and Georgia we have two common opponents, Arkansas and Oklahoma State. The Ags lost both contests - getting beat handily by Arkansas and losing a close one against oSu while Georgia was 1-1 just squeaking by Arkansas in a barn burner and losing to oSu.
COMMON OPPONENTS v. oSu v. ARK SEC RANKINGS aTm UGA aTm UGA ARK UGA ======== ======== ========== RushO 109 95 113 155 RushO 10 9 PassO 273 162 345 375 PassO 1 7 TotO 392 257 458 530 TotO 2 8 ScorO 31 10 19 52 ScorO 1 7 3DC 44% 33% 39% 38% RushD 169 172 163 77 RushD 9 3 PassD 279 135 271 408 PassD 12 10 TotD 448 307 434 485 TotD 12 7 ScorD 36 24 47 41 ScorD 9 10 3DC 43% 40% 42% 21% T/O +1 -3 +1 -2 NOTES: -Both UGA games on the road; A&M played oSu at home and Ark at neutral site -Dez Bryant had 2 TDs and 77 yards receiving on 3 catches v. UGA, he did not play against A&MJust looking at the Arkansas/UGA rankings you can see that defensively they're about equal and offensively Arkansas is much better. How often do we win a turnover battle and lose, and then you see that UGA lost the TO battle in both games. They actually lost a lot of those battles, finishing 119th in the nation in TO margin (they recovered a total of two fumbles on the year).
Something else that I wanted to look at was the weather. I thought about our two worst games of the year and remembered that they were both pretty chilly evenings so I went back through and pulled Jerrod's numbers in "cold" games throughout his career (below 60 degrees).
JJ in cold weather games Temp W/L Cmp/Att Yds TD/INT =========================== '08 BU 56 L 19/30 244 1/4 '09 KSU 49 L 21/45 314 2/3 '09 OU 54 L 12/33 115 1/1 '09 BU 59 W 19/25 153 2/1 '09 tu 56 L 26/33 342 4/1We've played 5 games where the temperature is below 60 degrees and we are 1-4 in those games and JJ has thrown TEN of his SIXTEEN career INTs in those 5 games. Right now the weather is looking pretty cold (high of 48) and partly cloudy. That doesn't bode well so we'll have to keep an eye on that. Tuesday there is a 40% chance of rain so lets hope that doesn't push through quicker than expected and arrive on Monday....and we're hoping that because I hate being cold and wet, not because of the effect it would have on the game.
This is the last year that the Independence Bowl has Big 12/SEC tie-ins. They are moving to an ACC/MWC matchup in 2010 and the Big 12 has picked up a replacement in the newly formed unnamed bowl to be played in the new Yankee Stadium in New York against a Big East opponent. Brrr.
I really hope that Coach Sherman is taking a different approach to the bowl game than Fran, who seemed to treat it as though it was a vacation - and the results clearly showed it (the Cotton Bowl v. Tennessee and the Holiday Bowl against Cal were the two worst bowl losses we had ever suffered). This program needs this win to continue to move forward and get itself back on track. Win this game and take the next step.
BEAT THE HELL OUTTA GEORGIA! WHOOP!
Wednesday December 23rd, 2009
10:39pmAg Football Preview: Georgia Football History
I was really excited to be playing Georgia in this Independence Bowl. One of the things I do like about bowls is that it allows us to play teams that we normally wouldn't see on our schedule and I LOVE it when we play other traditional powers. I probably enjoy this more-so because I'm a sucker for sports history and I get to put together posts like this on other great programs. It might not make for a great bowl track record but I do enjoy playing big name schools in bowls.
That said, I would love for this match-up to ignite some sort of meeting of the minds to get a home-and-home scheduled between the two schools because seeing a game "Between the Hedges" is on my Sports Bucket list.
Georgia is one of the ten remaining charter members of the SEC, which was originally created as a 13 team league (and now, with the addition of Arkansas & South Carolina in 1991 and the deletion of some teams way back in the day, it is a 12 team league). The Bulldogs are a two time National Champion (1942 & 1980) and are the 11th most winning program in college football history and have a long and traditioned history that has spanned several head coaches. The one name that everyone will recognize is that of Pop Warner who started his coaching career at UGA way back in 1885. Another head coach had pretty strong ties to Texas A&M - Joel Hunt. Some of you might recognize the name as the man who held our school's single season rushing TD record (with 19) prior to Jorvorskie Lane breaking it in 2006. He was the head coach at Georgia in 1938 and led the team to a 5-4-1 that season.
Another coach that both schools are familiar with is Ol' Joe Kines. Kines was the defensive coordinator at Georgia from 1995 to 1998 and was the assistant head coach in 1999. This season marks his first trip back to the Independence Bowl since he was interim head coach at Alabama when he gave us this classic half-time interview.
HerschelTo be totally honest, the first thing that pops into my mind when I think of UGA is Herschel Walker. He is the face of the program for anyone under the age of 40. He is a fella that just might make the Dos XX's Most Interesting Man in the World raise his eyebrow. Walker....
Someone needs to make a movie about this guy.
- was his HS valedictorian....
- was known to only sleep four hours per night....
- started a crazy workout regimen at a very young age but didn't do any weight lifting....
- was a 3-time All-American....
- finished 3rd, 2nd, and 1st in Heisman balloting, respectively, in each of his three years at Georgia....
- finished with 5,259 career rushing yards (in only 3 years) - which was only 823 yards shy of the then NCAA record....
- left school after his junior year (which at the time was unheard of) for the New Jersey Generals (owned by Donald Trump) of the USFL for $5.2M....
- signed with the Dallas Cowboys when the USFL folded....
- was traded in 1989 to the Minnesota Vikings in one of the most bizarre trades in sports history....
- just barely missed making the US Olympic team as a sprinter ....
- so he turned around and competed in the 1992 Olympics in the 2-man bobsled (finishing 7th)....
- is a 6th degree black-belt in tae kwon do....
- at the age of 47, just signed on with MMA (mixed martial arts) and his first scheduled event in January 30th....
- was on Celebrity Apprentice (with Donald Trump) which is where Jennifer grew to like him....
- has multiple personality disorder....
- is known to be one of the world's few genuinely nice guys....
Frank SinkwichWalker, however, isn't the only great to have come through Athens. The Dawgs had two other legendary backs before Walker was even born....possibly before Walker's father was born. Frank Sinkwich was awarded the school's first Heisman trophy in 1942 after he led the Bulldogs to their first national championship and accumulated a NCAA single season record with 2,197 yards of total offense. The two time All-American finished his career with 2,271 rushing and 2,331 passing yards and 60 TDs (30 rushing and 30 passing). Charley Trippi followed up Sinkwich four years later with his Maxwell Award season as he led UGA to an undefeated season with a victory in the Sugar Bowl. After playing 1941 on the freshman squad Trippi actually played with Sinkwich in their national championship season of 1942 before he enlisted in the military and missed the '43-'44 seasons. In his three varsity seasons ('42 & '45-'46) the Bulldogs were 31-3. Interestingly, both Sinkwich and Trippi were from Pennsylvania.
More recently, David Pollack amazed college football fans with his play at defensive end in the first part of this decade. He finished his career with a school record 36 quarterback sacks and matched Herschel's feat as a three-time All-American (from '02-'04). He won the 2004 Bednarik Award, 2003 & 2004 Hendricks Award, 2004 Lombardi Award, and 2004 Lott Trophy. Beast.
Even more famous than any single player, is the school's aptly named English bulldog mascot, Uga (the U is from University and the GA is the abbreviation for Georgia). Unfortunately for Aggie fans, Uga VII passed away unexpectedly mid-season and the University has yet to find an Uga VIII. This leaves the incredibly creepy, Hairy Dog, costume mascot to roam the streets of Athens all alone.
Georgia is one of the schools that uses helmet stickers to mark achievements on their head gear. It started under Vince Dooley back in the '80s and has continued to this day. There are a couple of different stickers the players have. A white dog bone indicates an athletic achievement, like a sack or a TD. A black dog bone indicates an academic achievement - and I don't know how this is measured. This season there is an additional black sticker on each player's helmet that serves as a tribute to Uga VII. They have also added a baseball sticker with the initials CV on them as a show of support for Georgia baseball player Chance Veazey who was paralyzed in a traffic accident.
The Ags and Dawgs have matched up four times previously: 1950, 1953, 1954, and 1980....and we are 3-1 losing our last match-up against Herschel and the National Champion squad. In 1950 we matched up in the Presidential Cup, which was a bowl played in College Park, Maryland, and won 40-20. In 1953 we played them in Dallas when they were ranked #18 in the nation and pulled out the improbable 14-12 victory. In 1954 we won 6-0 in Athens in what was to be the Junction Boys only victory of Bear Bryant's first season....UGA didn't complete a pass until the 4th Q....we MISSED three field goals....Gene Stallings had the games lone TD.
Hopefully we can make it 4-1 on Monday! BTHO UGA!