Bishop Media Sports Network
2016 SEC Rankings
By: Kipp Branch
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
Now that college football season is over and we must wait another 9 months for the joy of fall to arrive back in God’s Country also known as the SEC. Here are my final 2016 SEC power rankings.
14. Missouri: The Tigers finished the season with the worst overall record in the SEC, but closed with a big win over the Arkansas Razorbacks. Mizzou will always be decent on defense, but must find a way to score points in 2017.
13. Ole Miss: Yes, the soon to be NCAA poster child for sanctions finished at 5-7 with all of that talent. The Bears/Rebels will bounce back hopefully in next 5 years after sanctions beat them to a pulp.
12. South Carolina: The Gamecocks will get better under Muschamp. The Ole Ball Coach left a mess behind for will to clean up. A loss to a directional Florida school during the bowl season lands South Carolina here.
11. Mississippi State: Tough year in Stark Vegas, but a bowl win and winning the Egg Bowl helped the Bulldogs stay out of the number 13 spot in these rankings.
10. Vanderbilt: Wins over UGA and Tennessee and a trip to Shreveport made the season one to remember in Nashville. I like Derek Mason and think he will continue to do a fine job in the Music City.
9. Arkansas: How do you blow a 24-point lead at the half in a bowl game? Well the Piggies did, and this team is hard to figure so they land here.
8. Kentucky: The season was a success for the Wildcats. The Cats made a bowl. Now just go do your job its basketball season.
7. Texas A&M: Start fast and finish slow is the Aggie blueprint. Top 5 in October and unranked in the final polls. Kevin Sumlin’s seat is red hot going into 2017.
6. Auburn: You finish the season with a loss to UGA, Alabama, and Oklahoma in the Sugar Bowl a place you had no business being at. Florida should have received the Sugar Bowl bid.
5. Georgia: A nice win over TCU in the Liberty Bowl. But 8-5 with home losses to UT, Vandy, and GT just will not cut it moving forward Kirby. Help is on the way with this monster recruiting class. This is a team on the rise.
4. Tennessee: Who did less with more than the Vols in 2016? The jury is out on Butch Jones. 2017 will be a make or break year for Butch.
3. LSU: Coach O turned it around down the stretch and the Tigers looked great in their bowl game in Orlando. A team to watch in 2017. I like the Coach O hire.
2. Florida: Back to back East titles and a nice win in Tampa during Bowl season. I think the Gators drop back a little next year.
1. Alabama: The gold standard of the SEC. The Tide just keeps on winning. The title game loss to Clemson which I predicted in the preseason by the way does not tarnish a great season. Alabama is not going anywhere soon. The rest of the Sec must catch up.
The SEC was down in football in 2016. It was Alabama and the 11 Dwarfs. The rest of the SEC must pick up its game in 2017.
The ACC from top to bottom was the best football conference in America in 2016. Ouch!!!!
New Lead Wildcat
By: Drayton Hogarth
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
The Georgia high school football coaches carousel has been spinning all over with coaches coming and going since the close of the football season.
When Camden County’s previous coach, Welton Coffey, decided to make the move to the office of the athletic director, it opened a vacancy at one of the premiere coaching jobs in the southeast.
Well, that job has now been filled, and what a job the search committee did by bringing in Coach Bob Sphire, previously the head coach at North Gwinnett High School in Suwanee, Georgia.
There are many times when a coach will not want to enter a situation where the former coach is the new coach’s boss. Coach Sphire brings such a resume to the Camden program that there is not concern for being intimidated by that position.
Plus, Coach Sphire has a huge advocate in his corner in Coach Coffey. I reached out to the future Athletic Director Coffey to get his thoughts on the hire. “We are excited to be entering a new era of Wildcat football that is coming to Camden County. The committee did a great job in identifying the best candidate for the job. It was not an easy decision because of all of the tremendous candidates that had applied for this job. Coach Sphire brings a great pedigree, not only in the state of Georgia, but also while coaching in Kentucky as well. Coach Sphire and his family are very excited about the opportunity at Camden.”
I asked what factor pushed Coach Sphire to the top of the list? “It wasn’t just about his on the field record or accolades, but it was his ability to work and mold young men,” Coffey replied.
Of course, the question had to be asked as to what the Wildcats would look like on offense next year, given that the wing-t has been a staple for Camden, while Sphire was a big proponent of the spread offense. “The great thing about Coach Sphire is his ability to adapt. He will be able to meld his offense to the talent that we have coming back. The players will also be able to fit to his style of play. I will say there will be some philosophy changes both on the field and off, but most importantly any coach needs to be structured for his players.”
Coach Bob Sphire brings a high school career coaching record of 250-79 spanning over 26 years. Sphire has been the coach at North Gwinnett since 2006, leading the Bulldogs to the state title game in 2007 and 2013.
North Gwinnett would win five region championships in 7-AAAAA, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2013, 2014. Sphire’s record at North Gwinnett was 110-28. Coach Sphire has had notable players such as CJ Uzomah, Ja’wuan James, and Scott Hosch go on to play in both college football and in the NFL.
Camden County has made a big-time hire to help get the Wildcats back to the upper echelon of high school football. The Eastern Kentucky graduate is coming to Kingsland at a great time. The Wildcats have taken their share of lumps the last couple of years given a rare dip in football talent at the massive high school.
However, the rising junior and sophomore classes are chock full of big time athletes that should thrive in the spread and defensive system implemented by the tough-minded coach.
This is a time for Camden County to be excited! Coach Sphire should bring the Wildcats back to prominence once again and compete in the ultra competitive region 1-AAAAAAA. As everyone knows, if you can win in that region you can beat anyone in the state.
What’s Next For Bama and Clemson?
By: Jason Bishop
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
What a game, right? Clemson came from behind twice in the fourth quarter to take down the Giant Alabama, 35-31.
Whether you like Alabama or not, the truth of the matter is the last two touchdowns passes for Clemson were illegal rub routs that were not flagged. That is not to say Clemson still would not have scored if they had been called by the officials, but we will never know. Nor, is that taking away from the amazing game the Tigers played.
The difference was, of course, Deshaun Watson. Watson threw for over 400 yards and 3 touchdowns. For those of us that have followed Watson his entire career we should have seen that final drive coming.
When Watson was a senior at Gainesville he eclipsed record after record in the state of Georgia for the Red Elephants. Watson and Gainesville found themselves in the GHSA State Finals in the Georgia Dome against the Ware County Gators and what was then, the best defense in the state.
Most said Ware would shut down Watson and that he had never seen a defense as fast or as physical as what the Gators put on the field that season. Ware was led by two amazing linebackers that season, Xavier Tobler and Dedrick Mills. Tobler is now at Georgia Southern and Mills at Georgia Tech.
None of that would matter as Watson carved up that vaunted Ware defense en route to a 49-13 woodshedding of the Gators and State Title.
So, what is next for both programs? Obviously, Watson will head on to the NFL and will likely not only be the first QB taken but probably the first pick overall.
If Clemson is going to stay at the elite level and build a juggernaught as Bama has they will have to reload at QB.
On the other side, Alabama will lose a good bit on defense but they have shown us the program is littered with 5-star talent up and down the roster and will not skip a beat.
That coupled with Jalen Hurts only being a freshman the Crimson Tide program will continue to dominate the SEC west and likely the SEC.
Bama may start getting a challenge out of Athens in the next few years as Georgia looks to be in good shape to make huge strides in where the program is.
Tom Coughlin To Jaguars?
By: Kipp Branch
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
Ok Jaguar fans Tom Coughlin interviewed for the vacant head coaching position in the River City on Wednesday. Why not go back to man who made you into contenders in the 1990’s?
Coughlin, 70, previously coached the Jaguars from 1995-2002, leading the team to a 68-60 overall record and two AFC Championship games. Recently inducted to the Giants’ Ring of Honor, Coughlin is best known for two Super Bowl victories, in 2007 and 2011, while amassing the second-most wins in team history.
This would be a homerun hire for Jacksonville. You have a man who is loved by the masses in North Florida and South Georgia and has two Super Bowl rings. One thing you can say about Coughlin is that he runs a tight ship.
If you have watched the Jaguars play this year you will not notice a lack of talent, but some sloppy play on both sides of the ball which communicates a lack of discipline that Coughlin will clean up quick, fast, and in a hurry.
Coughlin, I believe still has a home in Jacksonville and does a lot of charity work in North Florida. I think he could come in and make the playoffs in year one of his return to Jacksonville. The biggest mistake Wayne Weaver made as owner of the Jaguars was firing Coughlin back in 2002.
Fast forward to his time with the New York Giants where two victories over Tom Brady and the Patriots earned Coughlin rock star status in the Big Apple.
Super Bowl XLII took place in Glendale, Arizona on February 3, 2008. The game pitted Coughlin’s New York Giants (13–6) against the undefeated New England Patriots (18–0) coached by Bill Belichick. The Patriots were favored by 12 points. The underdog Giants beat the Patriots 17–14 in one of the biggest upsets in NFL history. Many were calling the 2007 Patriots the greatest team of all time.
Coughlin developed a young Eli Manning into a Super Bowl winning QB. Blake Bortles took a huge step back in 2016, and maybe a veteran championship coach like Coughlin can get him on track and playing up to his vast potential.
The pieces are in place in Jacksonville for a coach of Coughlin’s caliber to come in and win immediately. The AFC South is not a tough division and with the right man running things the division could be there for the taking. Coughlin would attract a proven offensive coordinator, and certainly with the talent on defense someone would follow him and have that unit peaking in 2017.
Previously under Coughlin, the expansion Jaguars made the playoffs in year two of its existence and made it all the way to the AFC title game, and made the playoffs 4 straight years from 96-99, and the AFC title game twice. Led Jacksonville to 14 wins in 1999.
The current state of this franchise is one that has lost 11 or more games for 6 consecutive seasons. This team is about as low as it can go. It is time to bring back the only man to have led Jacksonville to a division title twice. No other head coach for this franchise has accomplished that.
Coughlin had a 4-4 playoff record in Jacksonville. This team has not made the playoffs since 2007. Coughlin always packed the stadium in Jacksonville, and with his return you could probably say goodbye to the tarps in the upper decks that cover empty seats.
It is time to bring back the man who put the Jacksonville Jaguars on the football map.
Grayson Allen Overblown?
By: JJ Lanier
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
In all your years of following sports, however long that may be, can you recall a time where a coach announced during the postgame press conference that he or she was voluntarily suspending a player based upon their actions during the game?
I’ve been watching for 30+ years and I can’t remember a single time that has happened. And neither can anyone else I’ve talked to.
Yet here we are, in our age of social media and need for instant gratification, bashing Mike Krzyzewski for not immediately disciplining Grayson Allen mere minutes after their game against Elon concluded.
Where has this national outrage been towards Steve Kerr and his lack of discipline towards Draymond Green’s complete disregard for a man’s groin? I don’t remember there being articles on Skip Prosser’s decision to wait and suspend Chris Paul for one game the day after he used Julius Hodge’s nether region as a punching bag, although it was not Paul’s first altercation.
Instead, we criticize Coach K for not handing out discipline on a timeline we deem worthy, when we find later on that his choice to listen without prejudice was the right decision.
Look, even though I’m a Duke fan I am not a Duke apologist. Not only do I believe Allen deserved to be suspended for this most recent transgression, but he should’ve sat a game last year, after the second tripping incident.
So, if you want to condemn Coach K and how he has handled Allen’s past discrepancies up to this point, you won’t get much of an argument from me. Let’s be honest though, if you’re not satisfied with how he’s handling things now, you’re not going to be satisfied no matter how he handles it.
As for all the vitriol that has been directed towards Allen, let’s just put things into perspective a little bit. If you don’t like him because you think he’s a dirty player, that’s fine. If you can’t root for him because he plays for Duke and you despise everyone and everything associated with that shade of blue, that’s cool. However, some of the things I’ve read, from the media in particular, has been astonishing.
Since all this happened I’ve seen respected members of the media say everything from Allen should be kicked off the team, all the way to Grayson should be arrested because if you trip someone in public they can charge you with assault.
If that’s the case then the entire NFL would be behind bars since last I checked I can’t legally tackle a lady in supermarket because she grabbed the last box of Cinnamon Toast Crunch.
I understand the yearning to see some sort of punishment handed down, but make sure it fits the crime. Allen wasn’t caught driving with a blood alcohol content of .247, and there isn’t video of him knocking out a girl unconscious in bar- all things that have happened around the same time, yet haven’t received nearly the same amount of publicity.
The most disturbing part of the whole thing was Allen’s reaction to the event on the bench afterwards. It is obvious that there are some issues he needs to work out and I trust Krzyzewski to not only be a father figure in helping him out, but to keep him off the court until those troubles are addressed- no matter how many games Allen misses.
Whatever that number of games actually becomes Allen has to realize that’s it….he isn’t going to get one more try.
College Football Playoff Predictions
By: Kipp Branch
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
It is time again for the college football playoff and this year’s games I think will be pretty good.
Let’s start with the teams.
1. Alabama: The Crimson Tide are in my opinion are a professional team playing at the college level. I really think the Tide could give The Cleveland Browns all they could handle. Jalen Hurts is an amazing dual threat QB. I can’t believe it took Nick Saban most of fall camp to name him the starter for 2016. Saban is the best coach in football and Alabama is the favorite to win the playoff.
2. Ohio State: The Buckeyes led by Urban Meyer have been a dynasty for years now. They won a classic against Michigan to get into the playoff. The loss to Penn State cost Ohio State a shot at the Big 10 Championship, but the committee put them in despite that. It is all about money folks. OSU produces mega bucks and TV Ratings.
3. Clemson: The Tigers are back for the second year in a row with a QB that should have won the Heisman. This offense can put up yards and points like a pinball machine. Can Clemson muster up enough defense to win it all this year?
4. Washington: The Huskies lead by QB Jake Browning have been very impressive this year. I like this team and think they deserve to be here. We on the east coast will be shocked when we see how good these Huskies are.
Predictions:
Alabama vs Washington in The Peach Bowl in Atlanta.
Washington will fly across country to meet the Tide in Atlanta; a place Alabama has spent a lot of time in over the past decade. Alabama has a monster defense with first round picks everywhere, and Washington has a really good offense that can put up points. The difference in this game will be Jalen Hurts and the Tide offense. The Huskies will test Alabama but in the end Alabama rolls 35-24. Bama has too many weapons.
Ohio State vs Clemson in the Fiesta Bowl in Tempe, Arizona. Both fan bases have travel a good distance to get here. I am actually looking forward to watching this game.
Ohio State averages 480 yards (21st-best in FBS) and 42.7 points (ninth-best in FBS) per game. Clemson averages 506 yards (13th-best in FBS) and 40.2 points (15th-best in FBS) per game. The Tigers’ specialty is the passing game (332.6 yards per game) while the Buckeyes are better at running the ball (258.3 yards per game).
On defense, Ohio State is fifth in the country, allowing opponents just 282 yards per game to go with just 14.2 points per game (third in FBS). Clemson finished ninth in the FBS in yards allowed (314 per game) and 12th in points allowed per game (18.4)
When it is all said and done I would take Deshaun Watson over any player in the country and think Clemson is a team of destiny. I did pick this team to win it all in the preseason and I think the Tigers get past Ohio State 38-28.
This will set up a huge rematch with Alabama.
I hope everyone has a Merry Christmas.
Reconstructed Hawks
By: Drayton Hogarth
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
After making a big splash in the NBA free agency market this past offseason with the signing of Dwight Howard, the Atlanta Hawks entered the season with championship aspirations, and to that affect the Hawks started the season very well, including wins over the defending world champion Cleveland Cavaliers.
Unfortunately, the team could not sustain that level of play and have fallen off of that pace of play. The good news is this team should continue to get better as the season goes along.
There are three reasons for that, team chemistry will improve the more this roster plays together, the players’ willingness to adjust is already in place, as well as the roster is setup more for the playoffs than the regular season.
With the major shakeup of the roster during the offseason, it was very likely that the team would have its’ share of struggles in becoming more and more acclimated with each other’s playing style.
The Hawks had grown stagnant with Jeff Teague and Al Horford as the leaders of the franchise. Both are solid NBA players, but neither could get the team to that next level in the NBA playoffs. Both players tended to disappear the bigger the playoff matchup; as witnessed by Horford being non-existent rebounding the basketball against the Cavs and Teague constantly looking to pass when the game was on the line.
Thus, the Hawks decided to shakeup their roster and go with the younger, but more athletic point guard in, Dennis Schröder. Additionally, the aforementioned Dwight Howard was brought in to provide a significant upgrade in rebounding and shot blocking for the Hawks.
Instead of the Hawks’ defense looking like a doughnut (get it? nothing in the middle). Now, with an enforcer in the paint the Hawks now can overplay on the wings, play passing lanes and get out into the open floor for easy buckets.
This Hawks team is turning into just that, a team. When Atlanta hit a losing streak, Coach Budenholzer went to a couple of his veterans in Kyle Korver and Thabo Sefolosha and informed them that he was making an adjustment to the playing rotation.
Instead of starting the sharp shooting Korver, Sefolosha would now be the starter and allow Korver to bring his three-point prowess off the bench. Instead of causing a team disruption, Korver and Sefolosha worked it out for the betterment of the team and Atlanta has a winning record since the move was made.
Wins over the Toronto Raptors and Oklahoma City Thunder are included, and even the losses have all been extremely competitive, so it appears that the lineup change will continue.
The Hawks have been much improved under Coach Budenholzer, now entering his fourth season as the head coach in Atlanta. Still, coming up short in the NBA playoffs has been the frustrating result of each season.
However, the moves made this offseason were made with an eye toward being more athletic and tougher for the postseason. Dwight Howard will provide the bulk of that, and of course Schröder will bring more speed and on ball defense, but the draft should make a big difference for this Hawks team come the playoffs.
Taurean Prince and DeAndre Bembry were both first round selections, and bring a great combination of size and athleticism to the forward position. It is no secret that Cleveland and Lebron have been the final obstacle in the Hawks path the last two seasons, as well as most of the NBA, but these two kids can bring some youthful exuberance, speed and size to keep up with the best athlete in the NBA; as well as twelve more fouls to take out on Lebron.
Sometimes a team has to take a step back before they can take two steps forward, and that is exactly what the Hawks need to happen. Now this team just needs to gel together and will have a legitimate shot to make a big move come this playoff season.
Rambling Wreck Re-Build
By: Kenneth Harrison Jr.
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
This is my favorite time of year as a sports fan because so many things are going on.
Football, basketball and hockey are all being played now. In college there are some programs that are synonymous with certain sports.
If I said Arizona, Kansas, Kentucky, Indiana, Duke or UConn you think basketball school. Programs like Alabama, USC, Nebraska, Miami, Penn State or FSU are known as football schools.
There are only a handful of schools that are known as being perennial contenders in men’s basketball and football. By that I mean ranked on a regular basis in both sports and known to make bowl games and the NCAA tournament in the same year. Some examples of this would be Florida, North Carolina, UCLA, Ohio State and Michigan. At one point Syracuse was in this category until they fell off the map in football in the early 2000s.
Georgia Tech was also one of the rare programs with this distinction but they have had some down years in basketball recently. They haven’t played in the NCAA tournament since 2010. Head coach Josh Pastner is in his first year in Atlanta and he’s trying to bring the program back to its glory days. Pastner was 167-73 with four NCAA tournament bids in seven seasons as the head coach of Memphis.
Tech has had some big name coaches in the past including John Heisman who coached football, baseball and basketball for the Yellow Jackets. Bobby Cremins is the most successful coach in the programs history. He led them to a Final Four in 1990 and he’s Tech’s all-time winningest coach. The floor at Alexander Memorial Coliseum is named “Cremins Court” in his honor.
Paul Hewitt led the Jackets to their second Final Four and first national championship in 2004. The question is can they ever return to this level? They’re currently 6-3 and the next game is Tuesday at home against archrival Georgia. They lead the series 105-87.
“You know, I’ve never coached a game that wasn’t important,” Pastner said. “So, never in my eight years as coaching as a head coach have I felt one game is more important than the other. The way I look at it, you want to win every game you coach. To me, every game is important, and who we are as a team, we are in a situation based on margin of error, which is zero. We are a possession-by-possession team, and we can’t overlook anybody. We have to be near perfect in our effort and execution if we are to have a chance to win the game, no matter who we play.”
They’ve been very inconsistent thus far losing games to Ohio, Penn State and Tennessee. The best win so far was on the road at VCU. This is a very important stretch to hopefully get wins against inferior non-conference opponents. The following games are home against Wofford 12/22 and North Carolina A&T 12/28. They begin conference play against No. 8 North Carolina, No. 5 Duke and No. 10 Louisville.
Tech has a good chance of starting ACC play 0-3. They were only 27-61 in ACC play the past five years under former coach Brian Gregory. That’s why getting several wins before conference play is so important. If they can get nine wins before it starts they will help set themselves up for March. I believe with 20 or more wins they can participate in March Madness. That will make recruiting easier. We will see what coach Pastner has in store but I think he’s the right guy to get Tech back to their winning ways.
Jaguars Fire Gus Bradley
By: JJ Lanier
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
Christmas came a week early for some Jacksonville fans this year. Unfortunately, for Gus Bradley, that means his stocking is full of coal and a pink slip.
The NFL is not exactly synonymous with the word “patience” so it’s not very surprising that Bradley’s tenure in Jacksonville has ended. The timing of it may have caught a few people off guard, but I’ll give the Jaguars management some credit when it comes to this. If they had already decided Bradley was going to be gone at the end of the season they were right to just go ahead and end it now. No need to prolong the inevitable.
There are a variety of reasons Bradley lost his job. A terrible record this season (14-48, overall) is the first thing that tends to jump out at you. Being a defensive minded coach whose team can’t play defense is kind of like an Italian restaurant that has difficulty cooking lasagna.
No matter what list of reasons you want to give, there should be two words at the top: Blake Bortles.
Gus Bradley lost his job because the one guy he and the organization expected to take that next step, completely blew it. If Bortles took one step forward last year, he didn’t just take two steps back this year. Instead, he took two steps back, tripped over his own feet, rolled down a hill, and got blindsided by a train at the bottom.
Ok, so maybe that’s a little bit of an exaggeration, but it’s not far off when you consider the hype Bortles had coming into the season. It’s a lot more difficult to break up the head coach/quarterback combo that every team looks for when, you know, the quarterback is actually playing well.
I guess the big question now is where does Jacksonville look next? Personally, I think they’d be out of their minds if they didn’t go with someone on the offensive side of the ball. At the very least they need to hire a head coach who can bring an offensive coordinator with him who has experience grooming quarterbacks.
There is actually a decent amount of talent on that side ball, certainly more than you’d expect in a team that has had its fair shares of issues scoring this season. If the real Bortles is more like his second season as opposed to this current one, and the Jaguars can find a running back (I am not a fan of TJ Yeldon) then they’ll be in good shape.
This kind of goes without saying, but I’ll say it anyway, you’d better make sure whoever you bring in has complete faith in Bortles, too. You don’t want a Jay Gruden/Robert Griffin III type situation. It’s easier to get rid of the incumbent starter when Kirk Cousins is your alternative. No offense to Chad Henne, but I don’t think anyone is chomping at the bit to see him take the field.
Look, I know I’m not saying anything new, but sometimes the right answer is the one staring you right in the face. Any head coaching hire is important, but this time around for Jacksonville, it’s imperative they make the right choice.
If not, then three years from now they may be looking for a new head coach as well as a new quarterback. Basically, all that means if they’ll be right where they have been for the better part of this millennium. If you’re a Jacksonville fan, we’ll, you’ve seen that lump of coal in your stocking a few too many years.
Can Georgia De-Horn Frogs?
By: Kipp Branch
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
A 7-5 UGA team coming off a disturbing loss to Georgia Tech accepted a bid to go play in the Liberty Bowl in Memphis for the first since 1987 where Georgia on a late John Kasey FG beat Arkansas 20-17.
This season has been a huge disappointment and that is putting it mildly. Home losses to Tennessee, Vandy, and GT. The annual what now seems to be a loss in Jacksonville to Florida, and a blowout loss to a 5-7 Ole Miss team that did not make a bowl.
Kirby Smart is putting together a monster recruiting class and needs these bowl practices to get some of these young Dawgs some experience going into 2017. Word is now circulating that Nick Chubb, Sony Michel, and Lorenzo Carter will be returning for 2017 which could be huge for UGA in 2017.
Liberty Bowl keys for UGA:
Slow down the TCU offense. The TCU offense certainly has firepower, ranking 27th in the FBS in total offense with 5,700 yards. However, quarterback Kenny Hill’s 15 interceptions and the Horned Frogs’ 18 total giveaways have stunted drives far too often this season.
Hill, the Texas A&M transfer, has passed for over 3000 yards this year. TCU has weapons and UGA’s must be ready to play in this contest. This will be one of the better offenses UGA has faced this year. UGA must tackle well in space.
Run the football. In games where Nick Chubb has not rushed for 100 yards UGA has lost that contest. Pretty simple if you ask me. Commit to running the football Jim Cheney, and don’t put so much pressure on Jacob Eason.
TCU has struggled against the run all year. UGA must pound the rock control the clock and wear down this TCU defense. Gary Patterson has a month to get ready for UGA which worries me greatly.
Limit the drops in the passing game. In some big games like Florida and GT the UGA receiving corps have had some huge drive killing drops. UGA must catch the football in the Liberty Bowl to force TCU not to load up the box to stop Chubb and company.
Gary Patterson is a defensive mastermind and I will take him in a head to head match up with Jim Chaney anytime, anywhere, and anyplace. Patterson is a great coach that has had an excellent run at TCU.
While the 6-6 record, this year is disappointing to the Horned Frog nation it can’t be a deceiving factor to UGA. This team can play. While they have struggled a lot, TCU will come into Memphis ready to play. You can bank on that. UGA must act like they want to be in Memphis as well.
Georgia is a slight favorite in the game. If TCU hopes to pull off the upset, it will need to rely on its defense. Gary Patterson has coached the Horned Frogs to eight bowl wins in their last 10 postseason appearances, and opposing offenses have been held under 20 points seven times over that 10-game stretch.
While Beale Street and BBQ will be a nice bowl destination for the fan base this is a key stepping stone for UGA going into 2017. I think UGA needs this win more than TCU does.
Recruits making their decisions late will be watching this outcome that are considering UGA. UGA needs some dynamic playmakers on offense to choose UGA.
Prediction: I think UGA is the overall better team talent wise. I think UGA wins 34-27.
Good luck Dawgs you will need it against Gary Patterson. This will be the fourth meeting all time between the schools with UGA winning the previous three meetings. Let’s hope that trend continues.
