Inside Enemy Territory: Georgia Edition

This week’s chapter of opposing fan message board fodder comes to us from DawgNation.com, a happenin’ place online for fans of the Georgia Bulldogs. This particular forum is a bit chaotic and not particularly well organized, but with a little digging, there was plenty to find on the upcoming SEC East showdown against the Gamecocks. The Coastal fans from last week had their share of optimism, but to say the fine folks from Athens are feeling confident would be an incredible understatement.

Let’s get this party started and come out swinging:

Statement game almost 600 yards of offense. 337 passing 240 rushing

You heard it here first.

I sit here and I keep trying to figure out how this is going to work for carolina. Forget the fact that its strength on strength with their receivers versus our secondary. I just dont see how an up-tempo offense is going to work out for them. I think even Muschamp knows he cannot compete with georgia on depth. If last Saturday was and indication of the weather then its going to be super hot on Saturday. Going up tempo is going to put USC’S defense on the field A LOT. That will be true regardless if you’re having success or not on offense for USC. That is just going to make it so much easier for our offense to wear their team down. I don’t see how they can stay with UGA for 4 quarters with that strategy.

USC better hope they get up big early, because I just dont see that being a recipe for success for them. They’re only chance is trying to keep this game in the low 20s, but I guess well find out soon enough.

It’s definitely going to be interesting to see how tempo factors into South Carolina’s game plan. This might be one of those “situational” games where the hurry-up only makes an occasional appearance to keep the defense off balance. Limiting the amount of time Jake Fromm, D’Andre Swift, & Co. are on the field is probably a better way to go than potentially allowing Georgia to have a ton of possessions. Of course, I’m not a coach, so we’ll see how that all unfolds.

I don’t think we’ll lose but we will if we don’t improve particularly on the defensive side. I suspect we’re in great position to tune things up a bit, but do we have the horses for the D-Line and LBs? It’s hard to know after the first game, but was anybody all that impressed?

The Bulldogs have a lot of new faces on defense, so if they’ve got anything to worry about, makes sense it’d be on that side of the ball.

We only won 24-10 last season at home with a veteran team and South Carolina was missing Deebo Samuel. We have a younger team with tons of new players starting their first ever SEC game on the road in a hostile environment. It’s going to be a tough game in Williams Brice Stadium as always, and historically the BEST Georgia teams have had a hard time against mediocre South Carolina teams down there. I’m thinking we’re going to escape by 6 points or less.

Hey, a reasonable take! Maybe combing through this board won’t be so bad.

I agree with the final score [35-6], but there is just no way they hold us to less than 17 points in the first half. And that is worst-case scenario. I’m guessing something like 21-3 at halftime. More of the same in the second half with backups playing in the 4th.

Nevermind.

Seriously what has USCjr done to warrant the upset pick? Debo is a pretty good player but he would be 4th probably in our receiving corp. Bentley could battle Fields for 2nd team reps. I get that they’re probably the 2nd best team in the East but that doesn’t mean they’re anywhere close to our level. I’m a little more worried about Mizzou than USCjr.

Look, I get that it’s hard for fans to give opposing teams any credit, but it always amazes me when folks talk about players of Deebo Samuel’s caliber like they’re scrubs. It won’t hurt you to acknowledge one nice thing about us, I promise.

Speaking of Deebo...

Samuel’s hype comes from special teams, not his play at WR. He had 83 receiving yards and 2 TD against NC St, 45 yards and 0 TDs against Mizzou, and was having a decent game (122 yds and a TD) against KY till the injury.

If a “decent” game is 122 yards and a touchdown through not even three full quarters, I’ll go ahead and take that.

One big point: the Weather Channel is predicting low to mid 90s at kickoff! Depth is going to be a huge factor. Even if the Chicken Coop is rowdy and Bentley gets hot against our youngsters, by the second half the starters are going to be gassed. I look for James Cook to have a big second half. If they don’t jump on us early and get a couple of TDs up, it will likely be a very tough afternoon for them. I look for the Gamecocks to be ahead by 10 at halftime (passing, a trick play, and some running that is enabled by a strong pass game), and then the Dawgs come back for the win with a strong second half.

Interesting scenario presented here. The weather could definitely factor in, though of course it affects both teams.

I am looking for this game to show if we are truly an elite program that simply reloaded or if we take a small step back this year because of all of the starters we lost. Anyone overlooking SCjr at home is taking a risk. I know our coach and players won’t be. I will gladly take any win no matter the score on the road against a good team with this many newbies playing key roles.

Here’s more proof there actually are some Georgia fans who don’t consider this game a sequel to last week against Austin Peay.

Maybe since they got rid of the chicken on the helmet they’ll also get rid of that insanely annoying screeching rooster that they broadcast over and over during the game.

Never. I hope the rooster crow is spammed aplenty on Saturday.

Georgia 23 South Carolina 17

GOAL LINE STAND on 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th down and we escape Columbia in a thriller.

Oh god, anything but this. I don’t know if I’d leave the stadium alive.

If we can’t handle SC comfortably then the season is lost. They are about the 3rd or 4th best team on the schedule.

UGA 45

SC - 10

Could be much worse but the second string will be in before the 4th quarter starts.

Aaaand we’re back to your regularly scheduled programming.

35-17 UGA and that’s being generous to the Gamecocks, honestly.

In conclusion, South Carolina shouldn’t even bother showing up on Saturday. Is it too late to back out of the game?