5 Questions with Georgia’s Beat Writer
We asked the football beat writer for The Red and Black five quick questions about the Sun Devils’ next opponent.
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Leveraging the power of our new Facebook page, we asked The Red and Black football beat writer Jason Butt five questions to acquaint us with this week’s opponent.
Q: Give us two guys we should know about for their football prowess.
A: The obvious answer is quarterback Matthew Stafford and running back Knowshon Moreno but I don’t like giving obvious answers. So I’m going to go with freshman receiver A.J. Green, someone coach Mark Richt wants to get the ball to more, and defensive tackle Geno Atkins, who is the key to Georgia’s success on defense up front.
Q: Give us one guy we should know about for something off the field.
A: I’ve got two for you. The first is kicker Blair Walsh, who practices yoga after his high school coach got him involved in it. And linebacker Rennie Curran, who is a musician. In Curran’s spare time, he produces music with some of his friends and has even played the cello since he was 9.
Q: What’s the best case scenario for your squad this weekend?
A: Georgia blows out Arizona State without having to run up the score and the voters take notice, even though Oklahoma has a bye this week.
Q: And the worst case?
A: Georgia goes west of the Mississippi River for the first time since 1960 and loses to a team that was upset by UNLV a week before, putting a huge damper on its national championship hopes.
Q: OK, the Dawgs are seven-point favorites. Who you got straight up? Who you got in Vegas?
A: I’m going to have to agree with Vegas and say that Georgia will not only win but they will cover the spread. While Georgia didn’t cover last week, South Carolina is a better team than Arizona State, and I’d put Vanderbilt over the Sun Devils as well. I expect Georgia to not only win, but to win big. If I had to pick a score it would be 38-10.
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OUCH! But I guess I can’t blame him after last week’s disaster.
I reserve the right to amend my pick, because I’m really fillin’ an ASU upset. But I’m also a homer. That said, I don’t think there’ll be a whole lot of “defense” in this game.
Georgia 31, ASU 27 (.500 here we come!)
This could either be a disaster or one for the ages. I don’t think Vandy and SC are better than ASU, but if I knew what I was talking about I could’ve leveraged my season on the bachelor into a college football analysis gig. Alas, I’m no Jesse Palmer, but I’m taking the Devils in an upset: ASU 37, Georgia 35.
Caleb King and AJ Green would have been my two prowess players (aside from Stafford and Moreno). AJ Green has hands made of velcro and Caleb King is only a little bit less slippery than Knowshon.
GO DAWGS!
Yeah, I thought the line was going to open at 14… so I wonder if it will move up. It seems I didn’t take into account that home field is probably worth more in college football than any other sport.
Anyway, I’ll go Georgia 31-17…. we lose, probably, but we don’t embarrass ourselves.
This game is really difficult to predict. Neither team has played up to their potential, and both of them may not be as good as everyone thought. 37-27 Georgia.
…ouch! Looks like I got called out for weak sauce. My prediction is:
UGA:35
ASU:20
Knowshon scores 3 TDs, Rudy throws 2 picks…minimum.
Feel free to come and kick me in the nuts after I’ve talked trash and it goes into overtime…damn.
Also I must say, that comment about putting my “money/reputation” where my mouth is, pure gold. I’ll have you know I have neither a reputation nor money, that’s why this blogging thing works out so well for me.
I think a lot of people are underselling ASU on this one. To me, the only reason they lost to UNLV is because they were looking ahead to this week. Hell, they’ve been doing that for about two or three weeks now, haven’t they? Is there really a soul out there that hasn’t seen the Chick-fil-A sponsored “Bring on Georgia!” signs?
With that said, this has turned into one of those dreaded “statement” games for both teams with ASU having a lot more to lose than UGA, which is scary. We’ll get their best effort, that’s for sure and don’t forget that while this is a squad that isn’t outstanding defensively and have a new offensive line, they were still a 10-2 team last year.
It’s closer than people will think, but UGA won’t put up the points people will think they’ll put up either.
If I had to guess (and don’t be surprised if this number is different in the preview I’m writing for tonight), I’d say:
UGA: 27
ASU: 17
Wow, on Wednesday we have our first two Sons of Tom Tunnicliffe. Now we have our first two Georgia Bulldogs. Welcome to Arizona, Southerners. We hope you spend plenty of money as we plan to do next fall.
Check out our guide to visiting Tempe:
http://www.echofromthebuttes.com/2008/09/15/lunch-links-welcome-to-the-desert-dawgs/
[...] 55 sacks and last year they gave up 34. I guess you could say that’s an improvement. There’s a reason why I predicted a big Georgia win last year: They can’t block. And they won’t be able to this year [...]