Final Feelings: UGA Opens the 2018 Season
ATHENS - The Dawg Post crew tell you what to look for this Friday night and Saturday, and their final takes, views and predictions for this weekend.
Dylan’s Final Feelings:
It was opening week for the CFB season, so the tingly feeling in your belly was definitely there at Georgia. But it’s Austin Peay. All the players and Kirby Smart are saying that they’re only focused Austin Peay, but no one in the media is. After how last season ended we want a damn New York Strip. We gotta get our salad though first.
You can tell practice was a little different this week from what they’ve been doing the past few weeks. Kirby has said this before, but UGA was obviously doing drills geared towards Austin Peay, even as warm-ups. Working against read options and triple options mostly, holding the edge, crashing down towards the middle, stuff they’ll be doing frequently this weekend. Honestly, I think the most interesting thing I saw this week though was Walter Grant working at STAR. I’m curious to see how exactly that goes and what kind of situations they decide to use him in. It seems clear that they plan to use him just from what I’ve seen, how much? That’s what I’m excited to figure out.
On Friday I’m heading up to Rhode Island to see 2019 offensive tackle commit Xavier Truss play for Bishop Hendricken (I feel like it should be Hendrickson, but I don’t decide those kind of things). Truss is a near-6’8” guy who is listed at 350-pounds. If I don’t see him whoop some ass on some Rhode Island high school football players, I’m going to be disappointed. I’ve never heard anything about Rhode Island football, but I can’t imagine it’s superb. Especially in the likes of someone like Truss. My guess is it will be similar to how Isaiah Wilson was up in Brooklyn - just unstoppable. Anything less than that, in my opinion, would make me think that Truss isn’t a guy who could play at UGA. Maybe I’m wrong on Rhode Island football, that’s just my initial feeling.
Saturday I’m expecting the same results as I’m expecting from Truss - domination. Everyone is expecting that though. I think this game will be a great time to experiment a little bit. You have some question marks at a few spots, and I think Austin Peay will be a great time to try and see what works best at those positions before playing South Carolina next weekend. I think they’ll rotate a bunch of guys at middle linebacker, STAR and nose tackle. See what gets good results, who meshes the best with the defense, what works in certain situations. Hopefully get some answers before playing a tough game early on. I think we’ll see some certain Justin Fields packages (even though Kirby has refuted). It just seems like there’s too much talent there not to try him out on some QB powers or read option kinds of things. Also, I think we’ll see the offense try and work the ball to playmakers like James Cook and Demetris Robertson. Too much speed and talent in those two guys not to try and find ways to find them the ball, especially in a warm up game like this.
My week was pretty boring, sorry to disappoint. School has been kicking my ass, and it’s only week three. I signed up for a introductory religious class and an online horticulture class (I like to try and challenge myself), and they’ve actually been way harder than I expected. Harder than my journalism classes. For the religion one, I had to read like 30 pages of some ancient Hebrew text and then write a paper on it. I didn’t even know what I was talking about, that stuff was confusing to a new level. It’s too late now though. I’m in too deep. I’m committing my soul this semester to UGA football, religious readings that go way over my head and gardening, but on an online platform.
Matt’s Final Feelings:
College football is finally here. After a long offseason, the Georgia Bulldogs will play their glorified scrimmage against Austin Peay Between the Hedges in just one more day. The team is full of talent and expected to compete for another national championship. As for the game itself, it should be over rather quickly. The Bulldogs are obviously bigger, faster, stronger and better in every aspect of the game. Jake Fromm will lead the team to a victory, the defense will give up a couple field goals, the backs will have mile-wide holes to run through, and Justin Field will both throw and rush for a touchdown before the game is over.
That's the good news. The bad news is that some bozo thought it would be a good idea to schedule some high school football on the opening weekend of college football. Must have been an Auburn grad. Anyway, four-star linebacker commit Rian Davis will be traveling up to Milton to take on North Gwinnett on Saturday night and Dawg Post will be there to cover the game. Davis is a big physical guy who can really run, so it will be interesting to see if he can dominate against the reigning Georgia state champions. The game is scheduled to be played at 9, but since there's 3 games being played before that one, it might not kick off until 11. As a recruiting guy, these late night high school games have been brutal. High school games that are televised feel like they'll never end, so it will be a late night for me on Saturday night. Davis better be legit.
So obviously Rian Davis will not be in Athens for the Georgia game. It's not looking like a gigantic list visitor list anyway, but it's still a solid group. Commitments Travon Walker, Ryland Goede, Warren McClendon, JD Bertrand (possibly), Jalen Perry, Nazir Stackhouse and Jamil Burroughs all confirmed to me that they will be visiting Georgia this weekend. Most of the remaining 2019 targets said they have no plans to visit anywhere this first week of the season.
As for the rest of the games, Auburn is going to narrowly beat Washington in Atlanta. Both teams will come out flat, but Auburn's defensive line will be the difference in the game. I'm not sold on either team right now, but it should be a low scoring game.
Everyone says Michigan is "back". The Wolverines aren't back, and they will lose to Notre Dame in the opener. Yeah, Shea Patterson can sling it, and yes, they've got a great defense, but they're still a year or five away from competing for a national championship.
West Virginia is going to destroy Pruitt and the Vols. That one might get ugly. Remember when the Mountaineers put up 70 on Clemson a few years back? Will Grier and company will light up the scoreboard on Saturday.
Those are my Friday Thoughts. Next week I'll get into some Jersey Shore and Braves baseball, but today is all about Georgia football. It's back, and it should be another special season if things go the right way.
Dean’s Final Feelings:
I’m so glad all of the stupid season is over. Summer is so long, and for the most part meaningless, in the world of college football. Dawg Post, thankfully, is in a new place with a better platform and much less silliness. Heading into 2018, I am most thankful for my/our independence from the networks - it is way overdue. I should have done this years ago.
We owe a big thanks to our audience for following us over to the new Dawg Post. Launching a new venture in the middle of the summer isn’t ideal. But that’s what we have done, and done so successfully (thankfully).
In the coming days will will announce a new partnership that will allow the site to continue to travel to far away places (New Orleans, Dodge City Kansas, Pittsburg, Florida, Rhode Island and all over Georgia) that will bring our audience stories you won’t be able to find elsewhere.
Because we have a loyal audience, we were able to make our transition successful. Again, we are very, very thankful for you. In a .com world that seems more and more interested in clicks than anything else, we are going to focus on giving you, our readers/listeners/viewers, the truth as we see it at that moment.
We are committed to giving you authentic coverage of the Dawgs.
Now then…
This is a good/great UGA team. Losing Zamir hurts. It does. I wanted to see him play. I know Kirby and company wanted to see the same thing. I do know that he’s got a great support system at home, but two ACLs in a matter of a year is brutal. It has to make you wonder about yourself and the future.
So losing him hurts for sure. But this team can win the national title this fall, and next fall. Another reason why it was so important, quite frankly, for Dawg Post to get off to a good start is that I knew that we would have to travel a ton in the future. I was not going to be in the position I was at the old location where I was wondering how I was going to cover the cost of travel for our staff. Thankfully that is no longer a problem.
Georgia is going to win. And it is going to win a lot, and that’s going to mean travel.
We’ve gotten used to it, but it might take fans a little time to get used to the fact that they need to check out airfare for places like Los Angeles, Miami, New Orleans and San Fransisco. It is different to be sure. But we are prepared for a future that will very much include Georgia playing in massive TV games and games that really matter in November and December.
FOOD UPDATE: Not a good eating week. Just didn’t have much time to get things done on that front at Casablanca. I told a UGA official earlier this week that I feel like I run up to the start of the season every year, and I never get everything done. I'm finishing this up after midnight Friday night... you should see the mess of camera(s) gear on the floor.
My back yard is more than a jungle. I am assuming the snakes and insects back there are enjoying themselves. That makes me think of how busy this summer has been for me. I’ve seen one movie in the last three months - Crazy Rich Asians. And that, natrually, made me think of my Asian (China) roommate in college. Me ending up with a roommate from Shanghai is another long story for another day. My buddy was always asian, and always crazy, but only lately has he become wealthy. That's about where the similarities between him and that movie end. He used to wear this shirt when we go out that had a guy fishing, and it said: “Fish tremble at the mention of my name.”
He would get “67% drunk” on Budweiser (had to be the real deal, no Bud Light) and then tell me: “Georgia sucks.” I would respond: "China sucks", and he would say: "Well part of it does."
We will need to get him on a podcast soon. When I saw him in 2016, he told me that he still watches college football every Saturday like we did in the late 1990s, and that “everyone outside of the SEC sucks.”
He’s evolved.
And so has this UGA program. I expected a beating on Saturday - a bad one. Yes, I am curious to see the likes of Jake Fromm, Justin Fields, etc on the field. But by about the ten-minute mark in the second quarter I will be checking scores.
Also, I got:
West Virginia does Tennessee dirty
Michigan over Notre Dame
Auburn over UW
Alabama big over the Cards
Mark Richt over LSU
Tucker over Forest Park (Why would you put a park in a forest? That's some Clayton County stuff if I've ever heard it. Take that Chad Simmons)
On Friday night I will be in New Orleans watching 5-star RB John Emery. My expectation is that he will be very good. More on that later…