Dawgs will thump the Cocks.

Everyone is saying this game is going to be tight. Everyone is saying the vegas line of Cocks by 2-3 points is dead-on. Everyone is saying the Dawgs only rolled last week because the competition was so far inferior. Well, I'm here to buck that trend. I'm not going to say the Dawgs will run away with this game by seven touchdowns, but I fully expect a 14 to 21 point victory. Now, why in the world would I say something like that? What would possibly get into my brain and make me believe that suddenly UGA should be a two to three touchdown favorite over South Carolina?

Well, in order to log such a win, UGA needs two things to happen. We gotta shut them down, and we gotta light them up.

Can we shut them down? Yes. Grantham's new defense is far and away better than what Martinez fielded last season. The pressure he will send at Garcia will be something he hasn't seen in some time. This defense is more complex, with more movement, and more blitzing from multiple sources. Grantham will gameplan better than Martinez did. If you watched the game last week, you should remember that for the majority of the game, we always had players in the area where the ball was going. That's not coincidence, people. That's game study.

Do you know when the Gamecocks last faced a defensive coordinator who had just come from the NFL? That would be in their 13-31 loss to Tennessee a season ago. Monte Kiffin was not confused by Spurrier, and Grantham won't be either. Now, this SC team is definitely better than last year's. But, they aren't going to be significantly better than last week's. Last week, Garcia was hitting wide open receivers. He was hitting receivers who greatly overmatched the coverage guys. Also, he had the benefit of rarely being under pressure. In fact, Garcia was not sacked. He was rarely hit. The Golden Eagles seemed to only blitz hard when Connor Shaw was in the game. That resulted in three sacks. Something tells me Grantham is going to blitz a good bit more than that.

Don't get me wrong at all. Garcia is a seasoned quarterback. He's not going to crumble immediately under pressure. He's been playing in the league for years, and has seen his share of punishment. But, he does have a hot head. Once we start hitting him, he will become more aggressive. He will become more risky. This will result in turnovers.

In last week's game, South Carolina had over 200 yards rushing. 53 of that came on end-around by Ace Sanders. Now, I'm not saying it's impossible to pop that run against us, but our speed on defense is somewhere in the neighborhood of 8,000 times faster than that of Southern Miss.

Will USC score? I believe they will. But I also believe they will score less than 14 points. Their kicker is too good to imagine he won't hit if they can get the ball inside the thirty...and I think they will play well enough to do that.

NOW

What about OUR offense against their solid defense? I think we're remembering defenses past. Yes, Stephon Gilmore is a man. He's a very very good corner. He'll be locking down whoever is our #1 for most of the night. However, USC doesn't have 4 of him on the field. He can't cover all of our receivers alone. The LBs are going to have to lock down our tightends and runningbacks, and I don't like their chances on that one. Norwood and the Brinkleys are long gone. They do not have the talent at that position like they have in years past. This was evident last week when slants, quick outs and screen plays were hitting for good yardage and first downs. Also, the pressure on Southern Miss's QB wasn't nearly what I expected it to be. True, they were playing a bit more Vanilla than they will this week, but still.

I do not expect USC to bring 8 in the box all game as ULL attempted in order to slow our running game. I believe this for two reasons. First, I believe they will think they don't need 8 guys in the box to slow our running game. They will believe that they can shut us down with four down linemen, and the reading skills of their linebackers. Secondly, Spurrier will respect Aaron Murray. He knows how good this kid is going to be. He knows how good this kid already is. He isn't going to risk this kid having a "coming out party" against his defense by trying to simply blitz his tail off. He knows that if he does that, Murray will make the reads, make the throws, and slice his defense up.

So, what does this mean? This means the running lanes that were so "hard to come by" (even though our backs averaged almost 5 yards per carry) will be a little more plentiful.

Murray is getting a few weapons back this week as well. Our offense is in good shape. Do we have AJ Green? No. Last year, he had 6 catches for 87 yards and a touchdown. Hardly a gamebreaker. Plus, our receivers have come out much better than they did last season.

Here's the skinny on it kids....UGA won this game 41-37 last season, and it took a last-second pass deflection by the smallest linebacker on the planet to secure that victory. In the year since that game, our offense has improved, our defense has improved. Their defense is not better than it was last year. Their offense looks to be a bit better, but I'm not falling all over it. They have a very solid runningback in Lattimore, but I don't think he changes the game for them. Garcia looks better than he did last season, but I don't think he lights us up without a Willie Martinez soft-zone look in front of him. Do you remember last season? He was throwing to a wide open Wesley Saunders all night.

It was too easy for Garcia. Tomorrow, it won't be easy.

Dawgs roll in Columbia. Go Dawgs!