Thoughts on UGA-Auburn

Well, I went and froze my wallies off at Clemson without a lake, so I didn't get the pleasure of watching the high quality Raycom production.  But, here's what I noticed from my seats from the upper deck at Pat "I never saw a recruiting regulation I couldn't break" Dye field:

--An hour prior to kickoff, the Jordan-Hare speakers were blaring rap with their students and players dancing to it.  With lyrics.  Not the PG-13 ones.  Pretty hypocritical given some of the comments this week about Crankin' Dat at the Blackout in '07.

--You thought our mike man was bad?  Auburn's pregame cheerleader firing up the crowd was so ridiculous that it looked like something South Park would make fun of.

--Good game by Geno, we finally got some penetration.

--God bless ya Rennie.  

--We are going to LOVE Ben Jones by the end of his career here.  Yeah, he's a freshman and can get COMPLETELY blown up on some plays.  But he has a nasty streak that you can't teach and I think if he can become a team leader, his attitude can permeate throughout the team like Knowshon's did last year.

--The redshirting of Knowshon was the biggest personnel mistake of Richt's tenure.  I'd give anything for him to stay, but I can't fault him for leaving when RB's have such a limited shelf life.  No way we go 9-4 in 2006 if Knowshon is starting by the Vandy game.  To only get 2 years out of such a talent is very bittersweet.

--Stafford has grown by leaps and bounds between this time last year and now.  Leadership, talent, smarts--the kid has it all.  Matt--do you really want to risk playing for the Lions?  Come back, have a better year, then you'll have a little bit of Eli Manning-type leverage if the Oakland Raiders have the first pick next year.

--WTF is up with going deep with the play action on first down?  Have we hit one all year?  And it's not so much the call I have a problem with as much as the route we're running.  A pure vertical takeoff down the sideline?  That has to be a low percentage pass in any circumstance.  If Bobo is going to insist on going deep on 1st down, can we mix in a post, or  a crossing route, or something that Stafford has demonstrated that he can complete with consistency?

--By my recollection, we're now 2 for 10 on endzone fade patterns this year.  Here's an idea on 3rd and 3 from the 4:  a good ole fashioned double iso with Southerland and Chapas leading Knowshon.  Just an idea.  

--Penalties.  Freaking A.  How many drives have we extended this year?  Where the hell did this team's discipline go?

--Sorry Richt.  Maybe you haven't lost confidence in Blair Walsh.  That makes one of us.

--TACKLE!!!  For the love of Christ, where did our fundamentals go?  If our defensive schemes are going to be as vanilla as they appear, then the first guy to the ball HAS to make the tackle.  By far, this is the worst tackling UGA team I can remember since the Donnan years.

--Finally, did our team ever really develop an identity it was going to use to win games this year?  What I mean is, Florida's identity is to play balls to the wall aggressive and run past you on offense, defense, and special teams.  Alabama's identity is to physically beat you up all over the field.  USC's is to let its defense wear you out and play on a short field.  What is ours?  Were we going to try to just outscore everyone, a la the LSU, ASU, and KY games?  Or try to control the clock and tempo of the game, a la UT, Vandy, Carolina?  I just don't think this team ever figured out what it did best and stuck with it.  One of the many things I think Richt needs to address during the off season is figuring out what style he wants to use to win games, then work on his game management so that games don't get away from the team as quickly as they did this year.