#dawgsontop

August 1, 2014August 1, 2014 Katie M 1509 Views 0 Comments Aaron Murray, Athens, Athens Georgia, Auburn, Classic City, Clemson, dawgsontop, Florida, football, Georgia Tech, Hutson Mason, Jeremy Pruitt, Mark Richt, SEC, South Carolina, Todd Grantham, UGA

*updated 8/1 at 3:05p to include Justin Scott-Wesley

Hot, humid, sticky, the dog days of summer. All of those adjectives could describe this time of year. But to me, there’s something a little extra special about the first day of August.It means summer is almost over and we’re getting closer to the start of the best time of the year, football season. Whether your team is nationally known or just a small college team deep in the heart of SEC country, August 1 signifies a fresh start, a chance to come out of nowhere and surprise everyone, or my favorite, win it all.

From being born and raised in Macon to now living in Texas, I’ve been hard pressed to find people who don’t love football. Although, I will say, Georgians love football, college football in particular, a lot more than Texans. But enough about Texas, it’s all about Georgia football today.

To say it’s been a trying off season is the understatement of the century. From arrests to players getting kicked off the team to finding out today that Malcolm Mitchell had knee surgery and there’s no timetable for his return to Seth Emerson reporting that Justin Scott-Wesley is recovering slower than expected from his knee injury last year . But with all the bad comes the good. A new defensive coordinator, Jeremy Pruitt, has taken the reigns over from Todd Grantham, who left for the University of Louisville. As much as I loved Grantham’s intensity, I wasn’t in love with the fact that every single offseason, it always seemed that the defensive line were the players getting in trouble and kicked off the team and that just has never sat well with me. Because at the end of the day, offense scores you the points but defense wins championships. Which is why I’m thrilled that Pruitt is the new DC. Y’all, in the past 5 seasons, he has won three, THREE national titles. 2 with that team from Tuscaloosa and 1 with FSU. According to ESPN, the stats of the FSU defense last year were insanely good, 1st in the nation in interceptions (26) and scoring defense (10.6 ppg), 2nd in the nation in passing defense, and 3rd in the nation in total defense (248.2 ypg). Both coaches run a 3-4 defense and I’m extremely interested to see how Pruitt will tweak his version of the 3-4 to fit the UGA personnel.

And with the good, comes the hopeful optimism. I won’t lie, out of my 26 years of being a UGA fan (and only being able to remember about 22 of those years), I’ll go on record and say that Aaron Murray is my favorite UGA quarterback, maybe even my favorite player. So while I’m sad that his career ended the way it did last season (tore his ACL in the Kentucky game last year), I’m also eager to see how Hutson Mason does as QB. Last season, he attempted 110 passes and completed 67 (60.9% completion rate), which isn’t bad, but I can’t seem to shake the 2OT game against Georgia Tech out of my head. Hopefully, that game was just a case of first game as a starter jitters and not a sign that Tech is on it’s way back to being a formidable opponent for the Dawgs.

But as much, as I’m worried about the number of players that were let go or graduated, the new defensive coordinator, and essentially a new quarterback. The thing that has me worried the most about this season of Georgia football is the schedule. The first two weeks pack a 1-2 punch, in Clemson and South Carolina, respectively. And even though Clemson is in the ACC, both games could have a significant impact on the SEC East standings and who’ll end up playing the winner of the SEC West, in Atlanta, come December. I wouldn’t call the meat of Georgia’s schedule easy because of who they play, but I really don’t see Tennessee, Vandy, and Arkansas causing any major problems for the Dawgs. Missouri, might be a little bit of a problem. Then of course you have the big 3 games at the end of the season, Florida, Auburn, and Georgia Tech. Georgia’s won the last 3 games against Florida, but that game always has SEC East implications and this season won’t be any different, both teams are young but I have a gut feeling that this will be a game for the ages.

But Auburn, oh Auburn, Georgia may be 6-4 against Auburn over the last 10 seasons, but oh how my heart still breaks just thinking about the game last year. This year’s game will definitely be interesting. For one, it’s the next edition in the Deep South’s Oldest Rivalry. Both teams are going to be strong both offensively and defensively, the SEC East will more than likely be up for grabs and it will be Tray Matthews’ return to Athens and between the hedges. If Mettenberger’s welcome back party was any indication of what to expect when Auburn shows up on November 15, I feel for Matthews.

And as Corey Smith once said, “September’s coming fast and I can hardly wait”