When LSU has the ball: While Pollack is a stud, I give a slight advantage to LSU's overall O-Line matched up against UGA's D-Line. When you take into account guys like Peterman, Whitworth, Wilkerson, Reed, Livings, and Niswanger going up against Pollack & co., Ijust feel that with the one exception of Pollack, we have favorable matchups elsewhere on the line. At the skill positions, I once again feel that LSU has an advantage. Georgia has a ton of speed and athleticism, but so does LSU, and we have #14, who will be 100%. Also, the fact that Addai struggled last week makes me feel confident that he will come out with something to prove, and run hard against Georgia. When Georgia has the ball: Once again, I feel LSU has the advantage in the trenches with Hill, Spears, Lavalais, and Wyatt. With the exception of Max Jean-Gilles, Georgia lacks big time game experience against this quality of an opponent. I do give Georgia an advantage with the skill players even though Gibson is probably out. They have two good QB's, have found a good one at RB in Cooper, and have a lot of talent at WR. While I do love the added speed on the Tiger defense, with Mayes and Alexander moving to LB, and the addition of T. Daniels to FS, I do feel Georgia has as good skill position talent as we will face this season. Special Teams: The Field goal kicking game is a decided advantage for the Dawgs. Their guy is as solid as a rock, and our young guys have struggled in games with far less pressure thn will be felt Saturday. I do, however like LSU's punting game, return teams, and coverage teams a little more than Georgia's, but, unfortunately, if this one comes down to a field goal, I don't like our chances. Therefore, overall Special teams goes to UGA. Coaching: THis may be as close to a push as any other topic. Both teams are well coached, both coaches have won the SEC in recent history, so they know how to prepare their respective teams for big games. On Saturday, I don't see one staff being outclassed by the other. The players, and perhaps 92,000 plus, will win this one. Intangibles: LSU has a leader in Matt Mauck that just plays within himself and has come out on top in all but one career start. The crowd will undoubtedly play a factor in this game with Georgia's inexperience at OL (false starts due to noise perhaps). For the Dawgs, coach Richt brings an expectation to win every time out, and that reflects in his players. This game will be a war. Final prediction: LSU 28 UGA 27
I agree with all those points. I just hope it doesnt come down to ANOTHER 1 point game. I want to see a whuppin! My chances arent good for that, though. I havent seen many people talk about the personnel changes and the impact it has on this defense. I have mentioned it in other threads, and Ill say it again here: I REALLY like the moves. With all these freshmen DBs actually stepping up, our depth at DB is far greater than we ever could have hoped before the start of the season. Moving Mayes to LB gets our most talented athletes on the field. IMHO, sitting Travis Daniels on the bench is just a waste. Travesty, I say! He NEEDS to be on the field. So again, I really like the changes. They make our defense a very different animal. I too, think that we will have the advantage in the trenches on both sides of the ball. Pollack will be a handfull, but I think we can handle anyone else. I dont think UGA has faced a DL yet, and I am betting that whatever film they have been watching wont help come saturday. We will see things on both sides of the ball that havent yet been inveiled, and I have always been impressed with Sabans defensive packages and blitzing schemes. They never look like what they really are, and that can confuse a QB- even if that just means making Greene have to think for one extra second. That may be enough. Jimbo Fisher...I dont even need to say anything about him except I hope he never accepts a HC job somewhere else. I do agree though, coaching in this game may be a wash; Richt has proven his worth to me (he made some dumb calls in year one, but we didnt see any of that last year). I predict a larger win, but no clue on the score.
