I'm not worried abou the optimism on this board, or any other fan forum, so long as is does not affect the players/staff who may stop in from time to time. We all saw what happened to an overly confident UT squad last year and no one wants to see them lose focus now. If you read Swain's statements in the Nashville City Paper today he says the Vols have to execute and not beat themselves, which goes right along with what SCSmokey said about playing a flawless game. It seems to be the new fashion to say that UGA's defense is overrated due to who they have played. If it makes you feel good to believe it then go for it but I seem to recall hearing the same thing about the Gator's defense before they beat UT. There is no way UT will get anywhere close to 100 yards on the ground without outstanding play by the backfield. I'm a little concerned about Foster coming back and playing cold against a great defense. There can be no fumbles in the red zone if UT is going to win between the hedges. I'm also very concerned about the possibility of Sears not being on the line against UGA. Also, Wilhoit HAS to kick it out of the back of the endzone on every kickoff and the punt coverage has to play better. Otherwise, UT is going to be on the wrong side of the field position battle most of the day. It may not have mattered against the Tigers but you definitely do not want to be starting inside your own five yard line against UGA.
On the other side of the ball, it looks like Joe T. will be back for UGA, at least to start the game. He knows the system and I would expect the Dawgs to look better on offense than they have the past couple of weeks.
This will be UT's toughest road game of the season and it really is a must win if there is going to be any chance of sneaking into Atlanta.
I feel the same way about Foster. And about UGA's special teams...ko coverage for us has to be better, but after seeing UGA's special teams so far this season, they are making more mistakes this year than i have ever seen....two blocks against 'em playing Ole Miss? that's unheard of under Richt....Not to mention all the penalties...
on paper i can see why everyone would say we should win. but we all know the game has to played.
All i can say is i don't expect UGA to play as bad as they have this coming weekend. they've played two cupcakes that they probably have had a hard time getting up for, and that may be part of their apathetic play...that won't be an issue this week getting ready for us.
But on the flip side, i do agree with OWB...we have already had two huge games, and we kind of know what we are capable of, and more importantly, what we aren't capable of. We are the only team that UGA has played thus far that has true home run capability, and and we may very well not dominate up front, in fact i doubt we will, but i do think we have an apportunity to make a few big plays offensively that could be the difference in the game.
Defensively, i look at what UGA does on offense and i see WR dropping balls, qb's that aren't making good throws, RBs and O linemen that aren't getting any push. they have no real identity. kind of reminds me of last year...guys start catching the ball though, and all the sudden UGA can get better in a hurry. We need to be able to stop the run and put pressure on the qb and put them in bad situations. 2nd and long and get them in to a lot of 3rd downs....they don't have to be in 3rd and long all the time, but they cannot be allowed to convert on 2nd down a lot.
Lastly, i would have to think we are the more confident team coming in to this game...confidence is good. Overconfidence is bad. a thing i'm sure Cut will make sure won't happen after the tape from the Memphis game is viewed...there were enough mistakes made, even in a 41-7 game, that tells you we should be glad we were playing Memphis and not UGA last weekend.
this game still makes me nervous. Overconfidence can't sneak in to the locker room this week or any other week from here on out.
