re: Georgia coming to T town mad and with a chip on their shoulders

The thing I don’t get with Smart’s outfit is they’ve never really developed the reputation Saban’s outfit at Alabama did with WRs. At a similar point in Saban’s tenure, Alabama was already pretty consistently producing 1st round receivers. Brock Bowers being an all-timer recruiting hit at TE masked the WR corp being just solid during their 2021-2023 run.


The TEs aren’t quite as dynamic this year. No shame in that in abstract, Bowers has been an immediate impact player for the Raiders. However in specifics, the entire scheme of their offense was geared around the TE being a mismatch position most defenses will struggle to contain. They don’t seem to have that and need a WR to become a reliable go-to for big plays.

We’re probably going to need more guys in the box to contain the run in this defensive scheme. How our young corners hold up against their WRs is the story of this game on defense.

I think there are two possible outcomes:

Bama wins comfortably if we don't shoot ourselves in the foot with penalties and more importantly turnovers. Separation will be hard to come by against their defense. We are going to have to scheme guys open if the plan is to take vertical shots, otherwise Jalen is going to have to get the ball out on time and trust the underneath stuff. No standing in the pocket for 5 seconds and inviting pressure and no forcing it to your primary read when he's covered. Georgia still hasn't given up a touchdown this season. Their path to victory is frustrating Jalen early and forcing him to either be patient and let the game come to him, or press and try to make a play. The only problem with the homerun is it can be addictive. I expect Georgia to play a similar concept as USF with much better athletes. 2 high safeties to cut off the deep throw, press man on the outside to disrupt everything, and bring pressure. We will need some pressure beaters scripted early to back them off that train of thought.

The outcome if Jalen plays an average game is a tossup, because I don't think they can consistently sustain drives against our defense either. Ironically the homerun ball from their offense has me more worried than anything. They don't have elite receivers by any means, but they've got guys that can get behind our defense and Beck isn't going to miss every open throw.

My concern is that Saban's Ds were made to stop teams like UGA while Wommack's D is more to stop spread teams. I'm concerned about them being able to rush the ball. Their leading rusher, Etienne, is averaging 6.5 yards per carry, but no TDs. His backup has 1 TD. I worry they'll break out against Bama.

Beck needs a good game. He's got 2 passing TDs this year against FBS teams and has a QB rating of 142 whereas Milroe has 8 passing TDs and a rating of 213.

Offensively I think Bama is better at every skill position. I could see Bama winning by double digits. I could also see Milroe struggling.

I don't have a great feeling either way. I do know that UGA isn't as good as they were the previous 3 years, but that doesn't mean they can't put it together for one night.

quote:

---

The thing I don’t get with Smart’s outfit is they’ve never really developed the reputation Saban’s outfit at Alabama did with WRs

---

I don't think this is specifically a Kirby thing as much as it is a UGA thing. It's kind of baffling tbh. We have never really had elite receivers other than here and there, and we only have one 1K yard receiver in school history. Other than George Pickens and AJ Green, we haven't had any elite receivers in the last 20 years.

Uga has made up for it with some badass RB’s.

Currently I'd put UT as a bigger problem than UGA. I don't like that UT has a bye week before Bama

You may not consider Bowers a receiver, but was as good as they get.

I hope I am wrong, but I think Trevor Etienne will have over 100 yards against us. We are a bend don't break defense this year.

Troll