Thankfully, the Dawgs were able to take care of business in the first half yesterday without any healthy running backs that had never previously been a walk-on. Also, I can't confirm this is a record, but it's gotta be the first time two different defensive backs have scored while playing on offense in the same half.
Georgia scored 49 points in the first half, so we can close the book on that game and move on to the coming week. Now, I know Kyle some people would prefer to call this week "Hate Week" instead of the week before the Florida game, and to them, I say Godspeed and good luck. I like driving in my truck, and I certainly don't care very much for Auburn... but I just find them to be annoying, obnoxious cheaters. I simply don't hate them with every fiber of my being like I do the orange and blue menace from down south. I don't wish to let my lack of hate prevent them from expressing their disdain, however... so knock yourself out, Auburn-haters. Auburna delenda est!
I'm letting the following people know that, for Auburna delenda est Week, you're on notice, dawg!
Sorry, the on-notice image generator was broken this week. Hopefully this isn't a bad omen. (This picture has been lawya'd)
1) Michael Adams - Why Michael Adams? Because he's a jerk, has stolen money from and is a disaster for University, and everybody that has ever worked with him hates him. Plus, I have it from a very authoritative source inside the UGA administration that he threatened to fire Todd Grantham on the spot yesterday if he didn't let the NMSU Aggies score at least two touchdowns in honor of the other set of Aggies coming into the SEC.
2) Tackling - I hesitate to put anyone or anything on our defense on notice, because collectively they are the sole reason that we are currently standing alone in first place in the SEC East. Over the past two weeks, however, I have seen more and more "hit them hard and hope they fall down" tackling and much less solid, fundamental "wrap them up and put them down" tackling.
Hitting the guy hard is great and all, but the goal isn't to hit the crap out of him (though it's always nice). The goal is to put the ball carrier on the ground. We need to focus on better fundamental tackling, or the bump-and-fall crap will cost us one of our next 3 games... you can bank on that.
3) Georgia's QWOP-fense - For those of you who don't know what QWOP is... you're missing exactly nothing. Well, other than being a great analogy for our own offensive woes.
I mean, seriously, y'all. Doesn't this look a little bit like Carlton Thomas running up the middle on an SEC defensive line? (This picture has been lawya'd)
Isaiah Crowell will be back from suspension this week, and we'd better hope he has the constitution to hold up for an entire game against an SEC defense, because Carlton Thomas and Ken Malcome just won't be able to make the same splash that Richard the Intravenous did in the Florida game.
4) Special Teams - Do I really need to explain this one? I mean, if we don't miss 3 chip-shot field goals and give up a kickoff return and punt return for a touchdown, we might actually have a chance to beat Auburn this Saturday.
Mark Richt quietly started changing up the kicking duties yesterday, having Brandon Bogotay kick about half of the PAT's and half of the kickoffs, and letting Walsh take the other half. We don't know what he would have done about field goals, because we didn't attempt any. I do know what my eyes told me during pregame practice on Saturday, however. Blair Walsh missed 3 of 6 field goal tries from 45 yards, and missed 2 of 3 from 50 yards. All had the distance, but he just couldn't hold them straight. Unfortunately, however, Bogotay didn't fare much better from distance during practice.
All we can do is hope like heck that we don't need 3 points this weekend.
(This picture has been lawya'd)
5) The guy who sets up the referee's microphone at Sanford Stadium - Consider this for a moment: You have a job whose responsibility is, six times a year, to make sure one wireless microphone works. If you fail at your job, nobody in the stadium or on TV will know what's happening when the officials attempt to explain why they made the latest clueless, bad call. And, I must stress... you have an entire year to prepare for this job, and you only have to perform for about 4 hours at a time on six days in the entire year.
And yet, at least twice this year, the referee's microphone during a home game has been so messed up as to render him virtually incoherent to the masses. Some people want to fire Mark Richt, but the guy whose job it is to get the damn microphone working is the one that should be fired.
We s'posed to be SEC, guys. Get the friggin' mikes working. (This picture has been lawya'd)
6) Fans who assume Georgia will automatically beat Auburn - During the preseason, most of us thought our biggest tests this year would be South Carolina, Florida, and possibly Tennessee or Mississippi State. The way the season has actually shaken out, however, I can confidently say that Auburn will be the best SEC team that we have faced this year or will face before a potential SEC Championship Game. Yes, their defense is pretty poor... but so is our offense.
Auburn is a 6-3 team whose only losses are to LSU, Arkansas, and a Clemson team who only has one loss thus far. At the very worst, they're as good as South Carolina (with Marcus Lattimore), and we all know how that game worked out for us.
The Jacksonville game was the biggest battle of the season from a mental standpoint, but this Saturday's game will be the biggest SEC battle of the season from a talent and ability standpoint. Beating Auburn is not only not a given, it is very much in doubt.
7) Students w/ Tickets - I know the students who frequent this blog get kind of chapped that I keep putting them on notice... but I don't keep doing it because I want to. Even against New Mexico State, Sanford Stadium was still about 90% full at kickoff, and the student section was still only about 50% full. The lower level seats were about 80%, but the upper level student seats were more like 20% full.
And I will admit that the upper deck filled in to about 50% by halftime... just long enough for the Homecoming King & Queen to be announced, after which time the stands promptly emptied once again. I'll give them a pass on ducking out, since about 50% of the rest of the fans left at halftime, as well... but if you're going to continue to receive tickets, you have to show up for the game.
At this point, I have to admit that I'm leaning strongly towards advocating that Greg McGarity take away a majority of the upper-deck student seating and sell it to season ticket holders who will pay 4x what the students do and who actually want to be inside the stadium.
Simply. Not. Acceptable.
8) The Auburn Tiglesmen - Auburna delenda est. That is all.
Oh, wait, no it's not:
Even the bird knows that Auburn must be destroyed. (This picture has been lawya'd)
(Please note: The appropriately-named part of "Sir-Not-Appearing-In-This-Article" is being played by the Missouri Tigers, and the conference realignment thing as a whole. I'm sure somebody else will put up a post about it, and I know they're killing the coverage at Team Speed Kills. Personally, I'm just glad they pooped all over Kyle's hate week instead of mine.)
One week more... we hold our destiny in our hands, so let's do all we can to cheer the Dawgs on this Saturday against Auburn!