Georgia Sports Blog and a Tiger Smack down

What do you get when you ask a huge Georgia fan and a huge LSU fan the same set of questions before their teams play each other for the conference championship? You get one of the most entertaining S.E.C. Championship previews around.

My Opinion is that the S.E.C. Championship game will be the most entertaining of the conference championship games, so I thought I should come up with the most entertaining game preview that I could. The Georgia Sports Blog and Tiger Smack Blog were gracious enough to indulge me on this project.

1. What gives you the most confidence about your team going into the championship game?

Georgia Sports Blog: Les Miles vs. Mark Richt is a great source of confidence. Not playing in Baton Rouge where opposing kickers went 5-14 and helped LSU win two games that they otherwise would have lost gives me great comfort as well.

Tiger Smack: After watching the Arkansas game, not a whole hell of a lot. But if I have to pick something, I'd say our defense can completely shut down any team in the country when they're fired up.

2. What concerns you the most about your team?

Georgia Sports Blog: Georgia can handle LSU's pass rush. GT sent the house every play this weekend with a top flight blitz scheme, and it didn't cause our passing game problems. Auburn has an outstanding front 7 and we handled them pretty well up front. UT has an excellent front 7, and we handled that crew.

Although in fairness UT's scheme is nothing like LSU's blitz happy attack.. To beat LSU, you have to make them pay for blitzing. You have to catch it.

If we catch we win. If we don't we lose. And our WRs are the weakest
link on the team -- by far.

The only caveat is the health of Dan Inman (Starting OT). If he can't
go, we may struggle with the pass rush a bit.

Tiger Smack: Lack of consistency on offense. That applies to both play calling by the coaches and execution by the players. Sometimes it appears that the Les Miles/Jimbo Fisher strategy is either "Let's figure out what's working and stop doing it", or "Let's establish that something is definitely not going to work against this opponent, and keep doing it anyway". And our receivers, which were lauded by some publications as the most talented group in the nation pre-season, still drop entirely too many balls.

3. If you could take any player from the other team who would it be and why?

Georgia Sports Blog: Kyle Williams is a beast. I'm a huge fan of his game.

Tiger Smack: That's easy: DJ Shockley. Why? Because he's, like, DJ Shockley. JaMarcus Russell is growing into a very solid QB, but he's not as dynamic or multi-dimensional as Shockley. He'll occasionally run with the ball, but it's very rare, and he's slow and clumsy. Shockley, on the other hand, is fast as hell and a real threat to run on every play. That keeps defenses off balance.

4. Who is a player on your team that gets over-looked?

Georgia Sports Blog: Jarvis Jackson (MLB/WLB) - He's the best LB on the team and never gets any media attention. He has played two LB positions for this year because of injuries.

Tiger Smack: Sophomore fullback Jacob Hester.

5. Why is your team going to win the conference championship?

Georgia Sports Blog: I sort of answered this earlier. If we throw and catch well, we win. LSU isn't better than Auburn, and we were one 4th and 10 play away from beating the other Tigers. I like our chances. This isn't a world beater LSU team like the 2003 bunch, and it isn't coached by a super star like Saban.

Tiger Smack: Hmm. Because they are extremely motivated to play West Virginia in a bowl game? No, wait, that can't be it. Because they don't want to play in the Cotton Bowl if they lose, even if it promises a more interesting matchup than the Sugar Bowl, because any football game that starts at 10 in the morning just plain sucks.