Boise State(7) vs Georgia(22)
8:00 PM at the Georgia Dome, Atlanta, Georgia
(Boise State -3.5, 50.5)
This is going to be a monster game in the Georgia Dome and IMO, it may just determine just how long Mark Richt has left coaching ball in Athens. It could very well be the biggest game of his coaching career honestly, and make no mistakes about it, he is on the hot seat. Lets jump right in with both feet and see what's going on in this matchup and figure out why Boise State is only favored by slightly more than a FG and not by two TD's, as I've read several articles predicting a blowout. True, the Broncos did win twice as many games as did the Dawgs last year. True, Georgia's Bowl appearance wasn't much of a game at all ending with an embarrasing loss to UFC. True, last year Boise State had an almost perfect season only losing to Nevada and they were good ATS sporting a 9-0 record there. Georgia's ATS record was a mere 5-8 and their actual record was a sub .500, 6-7 including that Bowl loss. But I will say, all that was last year and now a new season begins.
On offense for the Dawgs, Murray has lost a primary target and playmaker in A.J. Green. Now, as long as their O line has improved so from last year as I have read and seen, then I feel like Marlon Brown or Tavarres King will step up and become his go-to guy at the WR position. In the RB spot, UGA has picked up a beast that I have seen play personally as he is from just right down the road from me and our local High School has played against him a couple of times. His name is Isaiah Crowell. Granted, he is a true freshman, but he's not going to have a whole lot of choice in the matter but to step up...and in a hurry as GA has lost a couple backs for one reason or another. With a year behind Murray, I think the Dawgs will be ok. But if it's not immediately and they take a loss in this game, the next week is not going to be an easy task by any means as they face the Gamecocks of South Carolina. If not very careful, they could find themselves in an 0-2 hole to start the season. Defensively, they have yet another brand new linebacker, that like Crowell on the offensive side of the ball, will have to make an huge impact from the get go. But, he does have the talent to do just this. His name is Ray Drew. Another monster will be anchoring the center of the defensive line. He's a transfer named John Jenkins and he's every bit of 340 pounds and is strong as an Ox. There are another couple of stand-outs that looked really good in spring practice on that line. In the secondary, Brandon Boykin is returning along with a couple of others so the experience is there. As long as they don't give up the big plays as they showed they were vulnerable to last year, the defense as a whole should be better than average. In the second season of this 3-4 defensive scheme, things have started to click more-so than last year as they are a whole lot more acustomed to the way it's supposed to operate. Last year Murray threw for 24 TD's against 8 interceptions with 3,049 total passing yards. Not too shabby.
For the Broncos, well you know what you have in QB Kellen Moore. And if you don't, here you go...he's thrown for over 10,000 yards already in his career and has accounted for 99 TD's against only 19 interceptions. That's three years worth of stats and one of the best ratios in that category in the history of the game. Moore knows that in order to be able to finally have that chance at competing in the BCS Title game, they have to have a perfect season which has to start with a win over the Dawgs. This team and this QB knows how to win and he's only tasted defeat twice losing both games by a combined total of just 4 points. They also have a returning tailback in Doug Martin that is pretty explosive. On the defensive side of the ball, they are just as tough returning an awful lot of players from last year. Atleast 7 of the former defensive players are starting again this year, and this is from a team that ranked in the top 10 in most defensive categories last year. Granted, some of the defensive ranking numbers are a little inflated as a bi-product of having a favorable schedule, but they are still tough I can assure you. The whole linebacking unit is returning and that says a lot. Although a lot of critics have said that Boise State is always tough because of their conference and they're never put into tough situations, but they have, and they know how to win when they are in them too. In opening games, a couple of years ago they beat Oregon who were ranked 8 nationally, last year it was VT and turned right around and laid the hammer down on Oregon State that were ranked in the Top 25. A downside to this offensive unit is that they have lost a couple of talented receivers from last year and they will be operating under a new Offensive Coordinator.