Boise State Thoughts

Georgia needed the following things to be successful this year:



1. The New Impact Players Must Make an Impact

Crowell, Jenkins, Jarvis, Ogletree (in his new position) and Mitchell need to be prime time players right out of the box. I would say we hit on 40% of the big five from game 1. Jenkins appeared to be a total non-factor and the OL didn't block well enough for Crowell to ever get going. Jarvis and Mitchell are studs. Who knows on Ogletree as he was hurt so quickly.



2. The Strength Program Needs to Pay Huge Dividends

If there was a difference to be seen, I sure as hell didn't see it. The team looked gassed late in the game, and the OL couldn't move a Boise line that gave up 40 lbs a man. (Note: South Carolina's DL is not undersized)



3. Will Friend needs to coach up the OL

I'll be kind and say Game 1 was a failure on the part of Friend and his troops. I'm going to wait until later in the season to see how Friend and the OL progresses before saying much else.



4. We need to play to our team's strengths and talent.

I'll post on this later, but basically...fail. In 2007 for the Ok State game, Bobo knew the FR OL was dangerously inexperienced. To keep the OSU defense away from our QB, we ran about 15 different screen packages. Where were those plays? I remember seeing a bubble screen or two, but where was the other stuff? Where was the Toss Sweep lead by a road grading 270 lb Fullback? Why not run a fullback screen to Figgins? We used to run that play to guys with 1/2 of Bruce's athletic ability. Just mind boggling. And that's just scratching the surface. Why not blitz more? If you aren't going to cover the middle of the field anyway...why not blitz. If the play to Boykin worked once, why not run it again (even if with a different player). Why not run ANY plays to Branden Smith...arguably our fastest and most explosive player on campus. Baffling.



5. We needed to stay healthy because recruiting blunders have left us with no depth.

We lost Gates and Ogletree out of the box, and we must've had several players suspended. How the hell we ended up with walkons when the starters dropped is beyond me. Blutarsky on this issue.





Going Forward

If Ogletree and Gates get healthy, we should see some improvement in key spots. Otherwise, I'm baffled as to what has changed or will change. I'm blown away by how tentative, disorganized and lacking in physicality we looked.



That said...I do believe that Boise will be the best team we play this season. I also believe they are a legit Top 10 team. If they aren't the best team, then the Gamecocks are very, very good...or we really are in deep crap.



I'm just really disappointed with the plan and the execution, and I honestly feel a bit lied to. I just don't get what's so different from last year? Looked like the same nonsense as before.



PWD