Nevada Dawg

I wrote a post to the MC thread and it disappeared when I tried to post it. Part of what I said congrats to all my Duck friends for the team's statement game against a very good BYU team. I knew the team would bounce back and hope that some of the Lanning doubters out there are feeling a heck of a lot better about his hiring. Treat him right and he'll make you proud in the years ahead. As for the Dawgs, I knew that the offense was going to be potent but I am a bit surprised about how well the defense has played, especially the young secondary. Can they run the table? I think that injuries (or the lack thereof and perhaps Alabama) will have a lot to say about that. Also the SEC East division has improved greatly in the past year so who knows. But I do love what I've seen thus far.

Ga Southern beats Nebraska 45-42.

My take: I think it is a solid team but may be a tad inconsistent at times. Next week should say a lot about competitive balance. BYU is good and locked in a donnybrook 20-20 with #9 Baylor. I expect the Ducks to win at Autzen however. As for Georgia, the focus on offense was fuzzy today and, as a result, they settled for four field goals that should have been touchdowns had they had the same focus they had against the Ducks last week. Bennet was just a bit off throwing the ball all day. He seems at his best when he is challenged and Samford did not provide much of that. By the way, Georgia played a ton of people in the second half. Thirteen or fourteen people caught passes from three different OBs. Coach Hatcher of Sanford gave Kirby his first coaching opportunity I believe, and Smart had no interest in running up he score on him or his kids.

My understanding from closely following Georgia recruiting is that this year is subpar for top offensive line recruits and pretty darn good for defensive line prospects. I am no expert, but this is what i am hearing, and not just from the Georgia people.

The last paragraph above is very insightful in my opinion. Also: answer to the question has Noah regressed--No. I think that Georgia OC Todd Monken was probably scheming away from Noah all game. It wouldn't be very smart on his part to go directly at the other team's best defender. Noah will become that beast again, I can almost guarantee it.

Yeah, except they were Big-12 refs.

My second attempt: the first vanished into cyberspace. I stopped by this evening expecting a thread of this type and expecting some discouragement. In my humble opinion, the last sentence of Mic's post is what is needed at this point. CDL is young and all young, inexperienced HCs make mistakes, Saban, Smart, Dabo Swinney, all of them. In his first year, Kirby Smart blew a homecoming game, to Vanderbilt no less, by poor in-game decisions in the 4th Quarter. I had cautioned, all this talking season against setting unrealistic expectations for this coaching staff. I certainly have no right to tell you what to think. But, I am very high on CDL I am also of the opinion that you'll likely much feel better about "what your coach is made of" after he has learned from early mistakes, and recruited a couple more excellent classes building the kind of roster that can consistently compete with the elite programs of college football. Sorry if I sound too preachy, but that's my opinion and I'm sticking with it. Go Ducks!

Yeah, kinda true, but I think that Kirby is correct if Lanning and Lupoi do a lot better job of defending heavy use of tight ends than MC did last year against Utah and Stanford. USC is a paper tiger this year in my opinion but will be tough in the years to come.

I've said all along that I expected this game to be a spirited contest and that I might even place a (small) bet for the Ducks to cover the spread. And I look forward to watching Duck games and pulling hard for them, particularly against the Bruins and Trojans. I do this because I grew up out West and was a big PCC, PAC 8, 10, and 12 fan and hate that the conference has been weakened for the love of money.

SoGaDawg's comment here exactly match my own sentiments about the Dawgs, Ducks, and the reception that I have received on this Board. I will be hanging around throughout the season as well and actually had a soft spot for the Ducks before ever posting here. I remember rooting so hard in Quarter 4 at the horseshoe last year. I also felt a bit ill over the Utah games as well. I wish the Ducks nothing but success after this year's opening game and would love to have a rematch of that game for the natty.

Hey guys lighten up. Talking season is the time for delusions. I also believe that posts above by fellow Dawg fans SoGA Dawg and amcDawg accurately reflect what most knowledgeable Georgia fans think about the upcoming game. As for perceptions of the PAC-12, many SEC fans who are not students of the college game downplay a league with a champion that ended up with four loses last year. Unfair but that's the perception. Oh, and Go Utes on September 3!!

After living most of my adult life in Georgia, I became comfortable with all kinds of southern accents (even Cajun). I get a kick out of some of my Nevada associates who have trouble with TV shows such as Swamp People or Moonshiners because they can't understand portions of the Southern mountain and/or Cajun dialects. One guy won't watch without subtitles. I was raised on the West Coast and spoke pretty much radio announcer English when I went South. But over the years, I did pick up traces of a Southern accent without really trying. It is especially apparent while partying and/or drinking beer. That I was married to a Texan helped the process along as well.

I, too, hope that Utah beats Florida and actually expect them to if the Utah squad can deal with the oppressive early September heat and humidity at Florida Field, aka the Swamp.Ofcourse, Florida is the Dawgs biggest rival whom we always like to see getting stomped.

Great article D&C and I love the optimism of the Duck fan base. As I've said many times here, I expect this game to be a true contest and, quite frankly, expect the Dawgs to wear the Ducks down in the second half. I like the analysis of the Duck defense. There are definitely some talented players there. As the Dawgs substitute liberally on D throughout the game, the real question in my mind is can the Ducks do the same. If not, fatigue may rule who wins the battle of the defenses on June 3. As for Andrew Paul, who was generating more buzz in Fall camp than our other very highly rated freshman back, there is little chance he would have seen the field in game 1. The hope was that he might become a meaningful contributor by mid-season.

Earlier in Talkin Season I implored Duck fans not to heap so many lofty expectations on Lanning right away because first-year head coached make bonehead mistakes at times. MC did it, Lanning admitted to it today, and Kirby Smart lost a game for Georgia in his first year due to clock mismanagement. It happens folks! Judge DL on the results of year 2or 3 rather than expecting him to bring home all the bacon in year 1.

Forgot my score. I say Dawgs 38 Ducks24.

I pretty much agree with your logic here but would not be surprised if the game a bit closer than 44-20.

I think it is fair to say that OC Todd Monken will emphasize whatever the Oregon defense is giving him. If the Ducks overload the box to stop the run, the TEs may have a very big day. Several will be on the field to combat a stacked box and quick completions to loosen things up should be quite effective. Two of those TEs (Bowers and Arik Gilbert) can also function effectively as wide receivers and have excellent ball skills downfield as well. Lanning knows all this, as well as the fact that Monken is a master at scheming so as to take advantage of what the opponent is showing on defense. Those big, talented TEs are just one more weapon that will give Defensive Coordinators fits.

Your point is acknowledged and I may re-think my prediction after the two Pac-12-SEC games on June 3. An impressive win on the road at Florida in the heat will bolster Utah's standing nationally to be sure. But...The Ducks now have a coaching staff that will be pretty good at making in-game(and with respect to last year's Utah debacles) between-game adjustments--certainly better than the few adjustments I could ever detect in the MC administration. Plus, don't the Ducks get Utah in Autzen this year? I'd treat the Utah game as a grand opportunity rather than than a dreaded encounter.

Fair to say I think that the target article here is highly worthy of being ignored. The Ducks are a quality team and will win their share of games this Fall. In fact, I am picking them as PAC-12 champs this year. I think their only serious roadblock is Utah ( assuming no colossal screw-ups such as the Stanford nightmare last Fall).

Interestingly, Kirby Smart said pretty much the same thing today after Georgia's first scrimmage today. Kirby is a defensive-minded HC and says , every year, that the offensive is ahead of the defense after scrimmage 1, even last year with that incredibly dominant defense the Dawgs had. Lanning is a defensive-minded coach. Who was his mentor for the past three years? Ergo, Lanning's assessment of relative balance after scrimmage 1 was very predictable. Also, I am not saying that a decision on the QB starter for game1 has been made, but there are numerous advantages to public comments suggesting that nothing is set in stone at this point. If you pull out paper and pencil and start listing them, I'd bet that you can probably think of 3-4 such advantages with few, if any, problems. Now how many of you still use pencils and paper these days, lol?

As someone who has been called out a couple of times in the past (once when I didn't agree at all with the point Charles was making) I do appreciate that he takes the time to keep this blog civil. There is nothing worse in my opinion to have a very interesting thread become intolerable by a couple of weak-ego commentators who get into it like a couple of 8-year-olds on the schoolyard. There are times when I have had wanted to post on this site when my opinion was so at variance with one or more other participants that I saw almost no way to state my views without starting a fight. Sometimes it is because I haven't the time to carefully compose a post so as to minimize the likelihood of conflict. Suffice to say that may be on me, but I do respect the rules by which I have agreed to abide. And political posts: Hurrah for the ban on that type of poison! We are fans, not partisans.

If the Ducks defensive line transfers are as good as folks have claimed, then they should be noticeably better than they looked in those Utah disasters last year. And they better be. Otherwise Georgia will pound the rock all night. I suspect that Lanning will load the box early and often in the game to try to force Georgia to throw the ball. Of course, that becomes easier to do if Bennett gets the ball out early to any of the three monster tight ends, all of whom have great ball skills and are, quite frankly, match-up problems for defenders. I think we see a lot of cat-and-mouse explorations (by both sides) in the first quarter of the game in the Benz.

As someone who lost his wife six and a half years ago to the horrors of uterine cancer, I shed a tear for Olivia's family and wish them all the best.

I think that Kirby will not be thinking too much about the Ducks during the first two weeks of fall camp because he has to devote a lot of attention to filling holes created by the departures of 15 dudes to the NFL. He is always lazar focused on his own during Fall Camp. Yet I can't totally disagree with the theme of your post as there are surely several GAs and a couple of paid analysts that are already focused on Oregon as we speak. One thing I can assure you is that Kirby and staff will be taking this game and the Ducks every bit as seriously as they did with Clemson last September and will be trying to give their best shot on September 3.