The young and the hopeful

I was wrong. I may have slightly over hyped Joe Cox. Ok more than slightly. There was probably never any realistic chance that Georgia would ever get near an SEC championship with Cox under center. Unfortunately it took Mark Richt and Mike Bobo 12 weeks to figure out what might. Washaun Ealey and Caleb King broke out big time Saturday night in Atlanta. Just to clarify Georgia Tech is supposed to be the best rushing offence in the country, not Saturday. All year the Dawgs had disappeared in any kind of big games, national TV camera’s apparently give UGA players rashes these days. Having been picked apart by both Tennessee and Florida, then proceeding to crap all over the memory of Uga VII last week against Kentucky, would anyone have believed anything other than embarrassment would happen at Bobby Dodd. Well try these; surprise, elation, vindication, redemption. Joe Cox never became the player I was predicting but Ealey and King suddenly did. Of Georgia’s 44 carries Ealey and King combined for 38 of them. Those 38 attempts equalled 349 yards, that’s an average of 9.2 yards per carry. The amazing early success of the big play passing game, that was almost exclusively an A.J Green highlight reel, perhaps delayed the progress of this running game. The confusion over who was the guy to replace Knowshon Moreno also contributed., you only have to watch Alabama and the success of Trent Richardson working alongside Mark Ingram to see how it can work in the SEC. Despite coming 8 weeks to late to save the season the Bulldogs as a team, and I mean a complete team of offence, defence and special teams, rebounded from the troubles this year to pull out a win at the number 7 ranked team in the country. A lot of credit has to go also to the much maligned Willy Martinez and his defence. To hold the funky triple option to just 205 yards rushing and force the Yellow Jackets into passing 13 times shows how well the D played. Paul Johnson was sufficiently freaked that he threw out his playbook. If you’ve ever Josh Nesbitt on a football field you will know he is not a passing quarterback. So why make him throw? Was Tech so intimidated by the Bulldog that they felt incapable of using an offence that has been so successful for them both this and last year. It was a complete role reversal of the game in Athens last year, remember those desperation heaves by Matthew Stafford? Swap Stafford for Nesbitt this year. Remember Jonathan Dwyer tearing apart the Georgia run defence? Swap Dwyer for either King or Ealey.

There’s going to be plenty of chance to look ahead to both bowls and next year but I want to get an early jump. Cox had, unfortunately, proven inadequate. I said to a friend a couple of weeks ago “Cox is Big 12 or Pac 10 good, not SEC good” now I’m not even sure he’s that good. From now on, with the one exception in January, Joe Cox will no longer be the University of Georgia starting quarterback. It will either prove to be Aaron Murray or Zach Mettenberger. Most seem to think it will be Murray but, from what I’ve seen, do not count out Mettenberger. Next year both will have had a year as part of the team, they will have matured and they will have an incredible Sophmore and Redshirt Junior running back. There is suddenly potential, excitement and, dare I say it, expectation in Athens again. Whether it’s right or wrong I’m suddenly more excited about this Springs G-Day game than whichever bowl the Dawgs are in. It took 1 hour and over 300 yards hard labor but all of a sudden Georgia football has a pulse again.