Why the Bulldogs Should have a Top 15 Offense

The Bulldog have all the makings of what could be a great offensive year in terms of production. Pending that no injuries happen during spring practice the Bulldogs will be returning 10 offensive starters. The main reason though why nobody is really talking about the Bulldogs and how great they can be next year is because the one new starter will be the QB. Joe Cox graduated and left the Bulldogs with three QB's that have not played more then 10 snaps combined in NCAA football. Here is a list of why the Bulldogs should be ranked top 15 nationally by the end of the 2010 season.

1. All 5 OL Return: The Bulldogs entire offensive line has been together for at least two seasons. With Clint Boling at LT and Ben Jones at C the Bulldogs have two outstanding OL to lead this team. If this unit is able to continue the dominance they ended the season with we will have probably of the best offensive lines in the nation next year. The Bulldogs should have no problem going back to the old Dawg Day's of run first pass second.

2. Ealey/King: Washaun Ealey and Caleb King could be the best RB duo in the NCAA next year. There is nothing better than having two great backs to push each other and make the other better. Last season both backs averaged over 5 yards a carry and combined for over 1,100 yards and 8 TD's. Everyone should remember that Richard Samuel was the starter for almost half the season. So we can only imagine what they will do with a whole season.

3. WR/TE Corp: You cannot talk about the Georgia receivers without first talking about AJ Green, he is  arguable the best WR in college football right now. I think he will be extremely important to the Bulldogs but it will be the rest of the bunch that makes the biggest difference. The Bulldogs need Tavarres King or Marlon Borwn to really step up and become a legitimate threat next year to take some of the pressure off Green. If this does not happen you can count seeing two defenders lining up over Green all season. Also having Orson Charles and Aaron White lining up at TE should really help to open the middle up as defenses will have to make sure they account for both. With Charles most teams will have to assign a DB to mark him as he can beat most LB's in man coverage.

4. QB Battle: The QB battle should be interesting. Depending on who wins this battle will determine what type plays we are able to run. If Zach Mettenberger wins out we should see a more pro style offense like we saw when Stafford was at QB. If Aaron Murray or Logan Gray wins out we can see more options, bootlegs and draws as both are more mobile than Mettenberger and offer that aspect of the offense.

QB Duel Almost Underway

The Bulldogs offense one would think should be one of the better offense's in the SEC next year with 10 starters returning. The only problem with this is that the one starter that graduated was QB Joe Cox. Most Bulldog fans were not sorry to see Cox go. He was anything but consistent last year. With that said their is a pretty good QB duel setting up for this spring between Zach Mettenberger and Aaron Murray. If you ask the coaching staff it is a three way race with Logan Gray also in the mix. I for one would be shocked if Logan Gray is named the starter. If you ask most Georgia fans they are under the impression that Murray is the front runner right now. Murray had this to say about the starting position:

"I view it is it's anyone's job to win right now. I'm looking forward to the spring and it's my goal to get that position. I'm going to try and work as hard as I can, work as hard as the other guys because I know they're going out there trying to do the same, We're all friends, we're not enemies, we hang out, we go out together to eat. There's no hatred, but we're all going out there to win the position."

 Murray in the fans minds will be the starting the QB come the opening game in September. However, most UGA fans should not count out Mettenberger just yet. Mettenberger has the stronger arm of the two but it is his accuracy and footwork that coaches are concerned about. He has been working on his footwork and accuracy since he enrolled in Georgia early last spring and according to the Mettenberger he has improved:

"I've never felt I was an inaccurate passer. People have also said I'm a gunslinger, but that' also inaccurate, I definitely feel I can throw as good and as accurate as anybody. It all goes back to my footwork, but I feel my footwork has gotten just as good as the other guys, if not better."

Whoever wins the battle should feel pretty good about his surrounding cast. The Bulldogs have an offensive line that has been together for two years now and the top receiver in the SEC. Orson Charles some believe good become the best TE in the SEC this year now that Aaron Hernandez of Florida is heading to the NFL. Plus with Washaun Ealey and Caleb King in the backfield, who would not want to be the starting QB.

Preview of LSU at UGA

The Bulldogs have a huge came this weekend with the #4 LSU Tigers rolling into Athens. Some interesting facts that I have learned are that the Bulldogs have not beaten a top 5 team in Athens in 25 years with our last win coming against #2 Clemson in 1984 with a game winning field goal by Kevin Butler. Now that we have Butler's son on the team hopefully we can change this trend of losing against top 5 teams at home. Over the past ten years LSU is 9-13 against top 20 teams on the road, however the are 2-0 against UGA in Athens during that time span.

Comparing the team stats of the two teams the look pretty even:

P/G Pass Yards TD Rushing Yards TD

LSU Off:         28.8       179             8                   130                    3

UGA Def:        29.8             243            10                 112                     4

UGA Off:        30.8             245             9                   112                     4

LSU Def:        15.3               198            3                    134                    3

My first glance at this is that we are going to have to be able to move the ball through the air. LSU is notorious for having one of the best DL's in the country every year, however they have not shown it this year as they are tied with Georgia with just 5 sacks and have played no body that is even close to breaking into the top 25.  LSU has picked off 7 passes this year and Cox has had some problems keeping the ball out of opposing players hands. This could be one of the deciding factors in the game. Chad Jones is the best secondary player that LSU has and is tied for the lead in interceptions this year. Trindon Holliday the speedy return man for LSU could pose a big threat for the bulldogs as there kickoff and punt coverage has been mediocre at best this year. Georgia is going to have to shut down the running game of Brandon Scott and force LSU to beat us through the air. I know that we have been giving up huge junks of yards through the air, but I am confident that this is the best approach to the game.

Georgia vs Arkansas

Final: Georgia 52, Arkansas 41

Offense: Can not say too many bad things about the offense. Georgia racked up 530 total yards of offense. Joe Cox threw for 375 yards and five touchdowns. He connected with Green seven times for 137 yards and two touchdowns. Richard Samuel and Caleb King added a nice ground attack rushing for a combined 163 yards and one touchdown. The penalties on offense are getting ridiculous. We had holding and false start penalties all night long. They were killing us all night long. The offense also has got to do a better job of protecting the ball with the Bulldogs turning the ball over twice inside their own 30 yard line which led to 14 points. 

Defense: Hmmmm, where should I start with our defense? Defense has always been the strongest part of all Georgia teams until Willie Martinez took over as defensive coordinator. I am convinced now that our defense from the Oklahoma State game was just fluke. The only good thing about our defensive performance tonight is that we did not give up 100 yards on the ground. However, this does not do too much when you let Ryan Mallet throw for 408 yards and five TDs. I am pretty sure that I can count the amount of times we blitzed on one hand. We can not consistently get a pass rush with just our four lineman. So why Mr. Martinez may I ask, would you just let Mallet sit in the pocket and pick apart our defense without even trying to provide any type of pressure. You have got to stop running zone coverages all game and just letting the defense sit back and wait for plays to happen. Try to take a proactive approach and have a proactive defense instead of a reactive one. If we give up 35+ points all our games we will lose games I can promise you this. Martinez you have to do something different, we have the players to have a great defense.  

Georgia Recruiting

Currently the Bulldogs are ranked #7 in both polls for 2010 recruiting. This is not a bad spot right now, with many recruits still undecided at this point. Georgia will be losing 20 seniors this year, with these being the top people leaving

QB Joe Cox, S Bryan Evans, WR Micheal Moore, CB Prince Miller, LB Marcus Washington, DT Geno Atkins, DT Kade Weston, and DT Jeff Owens

The QB situation is already taken care of with Georgia having three underclassmen waiting for there shots

Losing Micheal Moore will not be that big a problem, since we have Tavarres King and Marlon Brown still coming around.

As for the DL, this will be a bigger issue. Losing Roderick Battle might not have been a terribly bad thing, now we can get some experience for other guys that might not have got a shot until next year. We are losing our top 3 DT which will be a huge blow. We have people to fill the gaps but will be running low on bigger guys. If we get hit by an injury we might have to move an end to the tackle spot.

The linebacker unit should stay in tact unless someone leaves early, Rennie Curran will be the only person the might forgo his senior year for the draft.

The secondary will be another issue with us losing our best CB and S. We might lose both S if Reshad Jones decides to leave early. 

Verbal Commitments: The Bulldogs are off to good start right now. They have two verbal commitments from 5 Star recruits, Garrison Smith is the #1 rated DT and Alec Ogletree is the #2 rated S. The Bulldogs have 11 verbal commitments from 4 star recruits with 7 of these coming on the defensive side of the ball. 

Georgia is still in the running right now for the #1 RB Marcus Lattimore, #10 RB Eduardo Clements, #4 WR Christian Green, #5 WR Chris Dunkley, #10 T Chaz Green, #1 C Bradon Linder, #11 DT Micheal Thornton, #1 DE Jackson Jeffcoat, #2 DE Ronald Powell, #4 DE Corey Lemonier, #10 DE Wayne Dorsey, #2 OLB Jordan Hicks, #1 MLB Jeff Luc, #2 CB Lamarcus Joyner and #5 CB Johnavon Fulton. 

If the Bulldogs can sign even 3 of three guys that will help us out in recruiting. Total we have 18 verbal commitments right now.