Previewing UGA vs. ULL

Our new Athletic Director stated publicly today that he's a fan of the "Florida model" of scheduling whereby the Gators play 1 tough non-conference game per year in state plus 3 tomato cans (my phrase not his).  With that boring and unambitious glimpse into our season ticket buying future out of the way, I'm sure he'll cherish this Saturday's match-up against Louisiana Lafayette.

The Ragin Cajuns weren't particularly good at anything last year.  They ranked near the bottom of nearly every statistical category including:

Rushing Offense - 71st
Passing Offense - 49th (not bad actually)
Total Offense - 76th
Scoring Offense - 93rd
Sacks Allowed - 14th

Rushing Defense - 99th
Passing Defense - 70th
Total Defense - 92nd
Scoring Defense - 97th

Not shockingly their strongest unit was their punting team.

As Dean Legge pointed out earlier in the week, these guys are going to spread us out running 4 and 5 wide receivers.  Which means we're not going to see much of our base 3-4 in favor of nickle packages like the 4-2-5.  With our personnel, I'd personally prefer to see a 3-3-5 look with both the OLBs staying in the game.  But that's neither here nor there.

On paper, you would think that we'd see a bunch of sacks, but the ULL QB will be coached to get rid of the ball extremely quickly.  For us to get sacks, our CBs are going to have to press at the line of scrimmage and throw off the initial timing of the play.  We haven't played quality press coverage in a very, very long time.  This could create a true test of technique more than a test of actual talent.

Overall, I'm hopefully that we show up to the game awake and motivated for a change.  This will be my 21st year as a season ticket holder in Athens, and I can say with great authority that I probably haven't seen 10 great GATA efforts from our players for games starting at 1:00 pm or earlier.  The 1991 Auburn game stands out in my mind as a solid effort at an early hour, but I'm currently struggling to name another quality effort for an early start.

I will be positively THRILLED if we open this game with the violence and tempo of Richt's earlier years.  We have the physical strength, size and speed to maul the ULL squad, and anything less than 35-7 would be a great disappointment to me.

What are you expecting to see on Saturday?

PWD

(Top Questions I'd like to see Answered on Saturday will be in the next post)