Tennessee Georgia Film Study
By Team Tonybasilio.com


'Tennessee travels to Athens for a noon kickoff against eastern division favorites Georgia. The weather is to be a high for the day of 80 degrees with a limited chance of rain and very little wind forecasted below a partly cloudy sky. The noon kick off should make the environment less hostile, but truth be told, Sanford Stadium is one of the most hospitable venues for away teams in the SEC.


Both teams enter the contest with records of 2-1. Georgia has been tested by more, talented teams ( Clemson and USC jr) and the Vols have faced the most talented team ( Oklahoma) on either slate. This game is almost a mirror image of the 'hob nail boot' game in which David Greene completed a touchdown pass in the final moments, giving Mark Richt his first signature win. Though Butch Jones and crew defeated USC jr last year, a win this Saturday would certainly catch the attention of the nation's college football fans, pundits, and recruits.



Georgia on offense

* Georgia has not changed in years. They are most effective with their quarterback primarily in the shot gun, two wide receivers, a tight end, and a tail back and full back combo. They also show a lot of a traditional three wide look, where they drop a back instead of a tight end. They do not press tempo, which allows for ample substitution and formation recognition.

* Without doubt, the best player on the team, perhaps in the nation, is Todd Gurley. He is best running down hill following his full back Taylor Maxie. Gurley is mainly a one cut running back, but does have the ability to cut back across the grain and out run defenders with his plus speed. Through three games they have shown the toss sweep, isolation, and what amounts to the shot gun, one back version of a counter. Keith Marshall has not fully recovered from his knee injury and does not appear to have the explosion he displayed his freshman year.


Former 5 star recruit Sony Michel is the heir apparent when Gurley goes to the league. He is equally adept at wide receiver and is used in their screen package as is former high school teammate Isaiah McKenzie ( think Pig Howard, but quicker). Nick Chubb is a load.


* When they run, they tend to favor the left side of the line, running behind John Theus and Brandon Kublanow. The offensive line is good, but Gurley makes them look better. There is a significant drop off when anyone else is carrying the ball. UGA for some reason likes to rotate their backs, possibly coming good on recruiting promises. Why Gurley doesn't get used like Tre Mason of Auburn is beyond us. On film, Gurley does not look like a natural pass catcher, Michel is better suited for that role. It is imperative that our corners are able to defeat the wide receiver blocks on sweeps, that the full back is blown up, and that safeties are there to finish. If not, get used to watching the back of Gurley's jersey.


* The Dawgs do not appear to have the future NFL tight end that we have become accustomed. Jay Rome and freshman Blazevich are serviceable and they use Quayvon Hicks like former Vol killer Veron Hayes. The tight end has not featured so far in the first 3 games.


* Injuries have left the wide receiver corps... average. There are some good players, but no game breakers. They do not appear to be the run blockers we saw at Oklahoma. In fact, blocking by the wide receivers or the running backs is not strength. Our safeties should have the freedom to help in the run game as they do not appear to have anyone that can take the top off of the coverage.


* Admire Hutson Mason for sitting behind Murray for the past several years ala DJ Shockley, but Mason does not have Shockley's game. He fits into the 'game manager' category. He is very effective in the screen package and shows a liking to attack the medium, middle third of the field. He demonstrates an average arm and is not a consistent threat to beat teams deep. He is somewhat athletic but cannot hurt you with his feet either running or scrambling like Murray ( think the aforementioned David Greene). He is very good at finding open receivers in the zone and is accurate. Corner backs do not seem to get penalized for going for the pick as this group of receivers did not get much separation against either Clemson or USC jr.

* Mike Bobo does what Mike Bobo does. He is going to feature the running backs both in the running and passing games and try to nick a big gain with his tight end, hope for a missed tackle on one of his receivers running crossing routes, or take advantage of busted coverages.



Georgia on defense

* The much celebrated arrival of Jeremy Pruitt from FSU via Alabama has already produced improved results but they are far from a finished product. Pruitt employs a 3-4 defense with heralded sophomore line backer Leonard Floyd joining on the line of scrimmage completing the quartet. Pruitt likes to send a corner, mainly Damian Swann, or a safety on first down to get the offense off schedule. He also likes to use a variety of zone blitzes on obvious passing downs. As a result of an average secondary and linebackers that are not the fastest, he usually ends up just bringing four and occasionally five defenders.


* The defensive line has the look of a quality group, but is not as disruptive as one would think. Both Clemson and USC jr had success keeping their quarterbacks clean without much more help from tight ends or running backs. The middle blitz with Amario Herrera has been effective. This line and the 'backers are more effective running laterally than they are stoning and shedding blocks.


* The three true line backers Herrera, Jenkins, and Wilson are good tacklers but not so great in coverage. We will not see another Eric Striker, or Geneo Grissom for that matter, this Saturday. Teams were repeatedly efficient completing passes over their heads and in the flats.

* The secondary is the weak point on the team. As a result, the defense borrows from the line backers for help and often brings in a nickel back. Both Clemson and the Game cocks exploited this deficiency for big gains despite having average quarterbacks themselves. They are solid tacklers, but lose more than their fair share of jump balls and rarely turn to look for the ball which leads to pass interference penalties.

* Of particular note, is that when the game was nut cutting time against USC, the defense did not seem to rise to the occasion and appeared tired and defeated. They could have had the ball back for a final attempt at victory, but left it in the hands of a replay official to determine their collective fate.



Georgia on special teams

* Georgia has two fine specialists in punter Collin Barber and place kicker Marshall Morgan. Barber is effective dropping punts inside the twenty and Morgan recently had a record string of consecutive field goals snapped as he missed two 'easy' kicks against USC.

* If the right player is back for the Vols, there will be opportunities to gain field position from Morgan kicking off as he hovers around the goal line, but has the ability to get consecutive touchbacks.

* If you kick the ball to Todd Gurley, you should be fired. Period. End of story. He is that good.'

KICK A DOG WEEK (No Animals were injured during the production of this blog)
ONE MORE DOG-GONE WEEK AND I'LL BE BACK ON THE RADIO

SINCE WE LAST SPOKE: 9-25-14

WHAT WE LEARNED IN WEEK 4

NATION:

BIG-10 BLIP: I think I saw the corpse move. The Big-10 deservingly left for dead in the CFB Playoff picture after a disastrous first Saturday of September did not resuscitate it’s National Championship hopes but did throw a flurry of non-league counter punches prior to bidding the first month of the season adieu. The proud old league was 12-1 in Week 4 including 4-1 vs Power-5 Conference foes....

WHAT WE MUST SEE FROM VOLS IN GAME 4:

MAKE IT ABOUT MASON: Georgia trails only Arkansas in rushing offense at 304 yards on the ground per game while passing for only the 12th best clip at 167.3. Todd Gurley is probably the best college football player in the land and leads the SEC in rushing at 134 ypg....

WHAT VOL FANS SHOULD KNOW ABOUT GEORGIA?

OFFENSE

Georgia has six returning starters on offense that helped set a school record by averaging 484 yards per game in 2013.

Sr QB Hutson Mason has been solid in his first full season as a starter (42-59; 71.2%; 419Yds 4 TDs; 0 INTs)...[more]

'Butch Jones gets an opportunity to strike gold in Athens tomorrow. A win for the Vols would change the current perception of the program.


1. The proper result was reached in the Tony Stewart case. It was tragedy, not a criminal act.

2. Jameis Winston just doesn't get it. If he would simply be quiet, his life would become much simpler.

3. Florida State bears a good bit of the responsibility for Winston's nonsense. It is obvious nobody at FSU has his attention.

4. Jerry Jones is morphing into a plastic surgery altered version of Al Davis. He can't refrain from creating chaos.

5. Donnie Tyndall is doing a fantastic job of making himself a real part of the community. His race to benefit Veterans tomorrow is a fantastic idea.

6. Nick Saban seems to be more than a little annoyed with the media praise Lane Kiffin is receiving. I'm not sure what he thought was going to happen when hired one of the most polarizing personalities in college athletics.

7. The NFL is sending the Raiders and Dolphins to London for a game Sunday. Not sure what the Brits did to deserve that.

8. Johnny Cueto may well be having the best season by a Reds pitcher in the modern era. Too bad it is essentially in vain.

9. ESPN's self aggrandizement hits a new level Saturday. Choosing Kenny Chesney to be the guest prognosticator at South Carolina because he did a documentary on Steve Spurrier is typical nonsense from the self proclaimed Worldwide Leader.


We'll have big news on the show today about some fun stuff we have planned for the run up to the Florida game. Tune in from 1-3 for details.

The guest list for today's Show Cause is Ron Higgins, Chris Dortch, Anthony Dasher of UGAsports.com, Bruce Weber, and Marty Brennaman. Should be a fun couple of hours.

Go Vols

Keith'

'Tennessee Offensive Line vs. Georgia Front Seven –

The base defense is a 3-4 alignment. The strength of the front seven is Georgia’s linebacker corps. This group of linebackers are athletic, rangy in size and tackle excellently at the point of the attack in the run game (#59 Jordan Jenkins, 84 Leonard Floyd, 51 Ramik Wilson). They have the ability to disrupt the running game and you will see #84 Leonard Floyd and #59 Jordan Jenkins lineup at defensive end when UGA subs to their nickel (4-2 alignment) package. In nickel, #84 Leonard Floyd and #59 Jordan Jenkins consistently show the ability to put pressure on the passer from defensive end. You will see a classic speed rush from these two which has presented protection issues to offensive tackles in the Clemson and South Carolina contests. This particular matchup in both pass protection and the one-back style running game of Butch Jones and Tennessee’s offensive coordinator will be problematic similar to Oklahoma unless Tennessee by virtue of using certain personnel groups can keep Georgia in their 3-4 alignment and out of nickel.


Georgia Offensive Line vs. Tennessee Defensive Front Seven –

Keep your eyes on this aspect of the game. This is because Georgia plays a multitude of personnel groupings and styles which will benefit Tennessee. I say Tennessee’s biggest opportunities to present problems for UGA will be against the run of Georgia. Throwing the football isn’t a strength of Georgia so Tennessee’s lack of pass rushers will not be as much of an issue this contest. Tennessee defensive linemen #9 Derek Barnett, #54 Jordan Williams, #95 Danny O’Brien as well as its linebackers will have ample opportunity to play the game between the tackles. For traditionalists, this will be fun to watch. Georgia will run primarily out of a two back set with #3 Todd Gurley, #4 Keith Marshall and #22 Brendan Douglas. Like the Oklahoma game, Defensive Coordinator, John Jancek will need to draw up his best blitzes for Tennessee to be able to put pressure on the quarterback in the passing game for those instances when UT is in their nickel (4-2 alignment) package.


Tennessee Passing Game vs. the Georgia Secondary -

I love the opportunities for Tennessee in the area of the pass game, IF IT WILL MAKE A TRUE COMMITMENT TO THE RUN GAME. Why? Tennessee has to use the threat of the run along with play action to make UGA’s Nickel Unit cognizant of the run. 44 passing attempts, as seen in the Oklahoma game, against a prominent Nickel Unit like Georgia’s will be tough for Worley to stay up right which will affect UT’s passing game. So the running game will have to be used as a means to keep #84 Leonard Floyd and #59 Jordan Jenkins from pinning their ears back and speed rushing all day. Screens and changing the snap count also are a means of negating a potent pass rush. Personnel wise Tennessee will have a tremendous talent advantage (both size and athleticism) over UGA vs. their corners and safeties unlike the Oklahoma secondary. The question in this area however is what does Butch Jones do differently against Georgia to keep the heat off Worley which will have an impact on the ability to get the ball to Tennessee’s receivers.


Tennessee Secondary vs. Georgia Passing Game -

This maybe the least entertaining part of this game. Georgia is still finding its way with new quarterback #14 Mason Hutson and an underwhelming corps of receivers led by #82 Michael Bennett. Bennett is the best of the bunch. He is an excellent possession type of wide receiver with great hands and the ability to run excellent routes. This corps of WRs does lack an explosive player however. Georgia’s passing game as I see it is directly tied to its success running the football. Their successes have come at times when Gurley and Douglas get going and it forces teams to load the box with a safety while creating one on one situations for Bennett.



JC’s Outlook

What did Butch Jones’ and his offensive coordinator learn from the Oklahoma contest re: pass protection? If Jones and Coordinator Bajakian are as hard headed as we have observed, then it may be frustrating to watch. If Jones and Bajakian use personnel groupings appropriately and devise a plan to protect Worley, Tennessee has a chance to make it a ball game into the fourth quarter and maybe even beyond. Also, UT’s defense needs to get turnovers or perhaps even score and the special teams has to play a clean game.


I agree with the guys from the film study. Tennessee CAN win this game but they must handle this well from both a scheme and execution standpoint.


Go Vols

Jerry'

'For Friday Fun I will give a group of things that have me both happy and heated. Alliteration is awesome and always the answer.


The Derek Jeter Retirement Tour has been going on all year, and, thankfully, it’s finally at its merciful ending. Look I know that he is an icon. He was practically guaranteed that by being a lifelong Yankee in a period when baseball’s most historic franchise dominated the game. For the people that claim he’s the best short stop ever, stop. For the last decade he hasn’t even been the best shortstop on his team. We all hate Alex Rodriguez, but the truth isn’t always supposed to be fun. Jeter’s been heralded as the ultimate captain and team player that just wants to win, yet he always has to have things his way. Seriously, he had no business batting in the two-hole all season. Harsh words aside, Jeets was the epitome of what a superstar athlete should be off the field, never in trouble, never mired in scandal, and just living the dream.


ESPN suspended Bill Simmons for three weeks for his recorded rant emotionally discussing Roger Goodell’s press conference. The profane rant’s main theme was that Goodell is insulting all of us by continuing to lie about the Ray Rice tape. Simmons then went on to basically dare ESPN to try to get mad at him for speaking his mind on the subject on his podcast designed for him to speak his mind while discussing weekly NFL gambling. I applaud Simmons, ESPN’s biggest talent, for sticking to his role as the common “sports guy” and not biting his tongue on the situation. Just as ESPN began to regain some credibility for their reporting on the Ravens incident, they punish their biggest star for discussing THEIR findings. Unreal. My main take away from the story is: “selling out” and joining a major corporation like The Mothership obviously has its monetary benefits, but it may not be worth the censorship and restriction placed on your opinion. Long Live the Tony Basilio Network and the freedom it presents for everyone’s opinions.


Understatement of the week: lots of people aren’t doing their job in the NFL’s PR department. The NFL has been getting rightfully hammered for all of the off the field issues, but we need to talk more about Bengals Defensive Tackle Devon Still. Cincinnati has morphed into a model franchise with their handling of Still. To catch you up to speed, Still’s found out his daughter pediatric cancer while in training camp before the season. The Bengals kept him on their practice squad roster to help him with insurance. Still has since been upgraded to their active roster and has been playing. Cincinnati began selling Devon Still’s jersey with 100% of the proceeds going to fund cancer research. The franchise formerly known as the “Bungals” lead the way in my “Karmic Super Bowl Rankings.” I didn’t even care that they throttled my Titans.


Last Sunday’s Broncos-Seahawks contest had one of the weirdest second halves. Everyone’s favorite quarterback Peyton Manning performed surgery in the final 50 seconds of the game bringing the Broncos even to force overtime. Outside of the final minute, Peyton Manning played average at best against that defense. It’s the league’s best defense at home it the league’s best environment, but it was still an average performance from Peyton. The last drive was great, but it doesn’t fully erase the rest of the game in my opinion. Overtime ended with the Seahawks marching down the field for the winning touchdown, and Manning was handcuffed to the bench without ever getting a chance to match. A lot of people were upset with that and began ridiculing the overtime rules of the NFL. Is NFL overtime perfect? NO, but it is better than the gimmicky college overtime. If your defense can’t stop the team from scoring a touchdown, I’m not sure the offense deserves a chance. Besides, I’m not sure what rule changes you could make that would alleviate the problem short of just playing a 5th quarter***, which the NFL is not going to do Bottom line: it wasn’t the coin toss that determined the game, it was Seattle’s offense.



SPEAKING OF A 5TH QUARTER, TUNE INTO THE TONY BASILIO NETWORK ONLINE OR ON YOUR PHONE APPS IMMEDIATELY FOLLOWING THE GEORGIA-TENNESSEE GAME FOR INSTANT ANALYSIS AND FEEDBACK FROM THE FANS.
I’ve had enough of Butch Jones reminding us of how young Tennessee is. I understand that you want to try to focus the team and motivate them to not think that just because last year’s game in Knoxville was close that Saturday’s bout between the hedges will be as well, but I don’t need a stat update that roughly 80% of the team is making its first trip to Athens. It’s a short bus trip, not a cross country flight. If Tennessee is not in position to possibly prevail victorious in the fourth quarter, then something has gone wrong in the previous week of preparation. This 2014 season does not just come down to beating an average Florida team, and, without being competitive and stealing one of these games against top opponents, disappointment could be destiny.


Follow @jon__reed on twitter and listen to the Young Guns Fridays from 3-5EST on the Tony Basilio Network following Keith Hatfield’s Show Cause. Check TonyBasilio.com daily.


Peace

Reed'

'The Vols will bus to Athens today at noon, 24 hours ahead of tomorrow's noon kick off. While I've noticed much of the attention around Knoxville is already centered around the Florida game next Saturday, there seems to be a quiet confidence around the program that Tennessee can compete with Georgia this weekend. Many people I've talked to legitimately believe Tennessee can and will win the game. That obviously doesn't mean Tennessee will win, but that confidence hasn't been there over the past few years in some of these type games. Players and coaches are always going to say the right things in a media setting, but behind the scenes there have been plenty of games where they knew going in they were severely outmanned. That doesn't seem to be the case this week.

Todd Gurley has the respect of everyone around the program and some have acknowledged that he could come close to single handedly beating the Vols if he gets going, but I think Tennessee likes the match ups in this game everywhere else. Even without Von Pearson and Josh Smith, Tennessee's group of receivers match up well with a Georgia secondary that has struggled this season. It's a matchup Tennessee should be able to exploit if Justin Worley gets time to throw. But will he? Outside of Gurley, that's the biggest concern for the Vols. Georgia's front seven, their linebacking corps in particular, could wreak havoc against the Vols up front. The right side of Tennessee's line, which consists of true freshmen Coleman Thomas and Jashon Robertson, will be especially vulnerable. You will likely see Ethan Wolf and Jalen Hurd helping Thomas whenever possible tomorrow.

Wolf's return is another reason the Vols feel confident. Not only is he an upgrade over Helm at this point as a blocker, but Tennessee feels much more confident using him as a security blanket for Worley in the passing game. Remember, he led Tennessee in receptions against Arkansas State before going down with the knee injury.




Wolf isn't the only Vol returning tomorrow, running back Derrell Scott and defensive tackle Trevarris Saulsberry are expected to make their season debuts tomorrow between the hedges. Scott should be a nice change of pace. Scott is much shiftier than Hurd or Marlin Lane and should be able to do some things out of the backfield to help the Vols in the passing game as well. Keep in mind though that he will likely be eased in to action slowly as he returns from injury. Saulsberry will likely get a handful of snaps tomorrow as well. As the biggest defensive lineman on the roster, his reps could be valuable as the Vols coaches look for any way to slow down Gurley.

The closer the game gets, the better I'm feeling about UT's chances. I think Tennessee plays with Georgia well in to the second half and I definitely wouldn't be shocked to see Tennessee win. The bottom line is that if Tennessee's offensive line holds up better than it did two weeks ago in Norman, I think Tennessee can come back from Athens with a win.

Get better me
Go Braves, Vols & Chiefs,

Christian

The King’s Speech - September 25, 2014

Last week was much needed for the Vols to shore up the offensive line and tweak the offense. The O-line will do a much better job this week and the run game will be much improved. This will also be a product of improved scheme and play-calling. Hurd and Lane will have several big gains and will finish runs and punish the Dawgs. Worley will continue to show poise and make the tough throws, even under duress. Look for Malone to have a big day along with North and Howard. I am also looking for Croom to reach his potential in this game. On top of all of that, we have Wolf back to keep the defense honest.

Defensively, we match up well with Georgia and will be able to put enough players in the box to force them to try to beat us throwing the ball. They will not be able to do that. We have the speed to get to the ball and are now a much more physical team than any time in the last 4 -5 years. We were more physical than Oklahoma with more teeth-rattling tackles than they had. This new and improved physicality will be the difference in the game as we will complete tackles and keep Gurley from breaking too many tackles. Because he is such a good back, he will break a few arm tackles but he will end up on the bad side of some big hits. At least two interceptions for the good guys!

Darr needs to improve and kick it high and far, and someone other than Young needs to be a difference-maker in the return game. I also would like to see someone like Wharton or Malone step up and give Sutton a break on punt returns. He is too valuable on defense to lose in the return game.

Vols win this one easily as Dawgs get down early, self-destruct and lick their wounds like UGA licks on a regular basis.

Something to think about, and that all professional players should realize. If every league started over with all new rosters, no one would remember or care about the current players after a month or two. They could also cut the salaries by about 75% on average and make the games affordable for the common fan. Same goes for all of the overpaid coaches in the pros and in college. The game would still be the game because every player and coach are replaceable. This also applies to every walk of life in that we are all replaceable and need to remember that when we get up each day and decide how we are going to treat our coworkers and customers.

The KING

'I live in Vidalia, GA now. Moved back here in 2013. I lived here from ’97 to 2005 as well. So I’ve been here for some great days. Like when Georgia native Jamal Lewis put 232 on Georgia in 1997 in a rout. Or in 1998 when Mister SEC Coach Of The Year Jim Donnan (as announced by their PA system) and Georgia were supposed to upset Tennessee sans Lewis-and lost 22-3 in front of an ESPN Gameday appearance. I still remember Chris, Kirk, and Lee hanging their heads before going on the air that night. The Tennessee fans had showed up to give them an earful and all they could do was sit and take it.

I was here in 1999 when Tee Martin led UT to a 9th straight win over the Dawgs (no other team has ever done that, by the way). I’ve also been down here for the goalposts coming down in 2000, the hobnailed boot in 2001, and Tennessee’s big upset in 2004. I was somewhere else in 2006 when Tennessee crushed Georgia-leading the AJC to print a headline that Governor Perdue whined about. (Music, sweet music). Same story in 2007 when Tennessee led 35-0 before Georgia got interested. Those two years, my boss was a bigtime Georgia fan. Good times. . .

I’ve seen these Georgia fans go from quiet when I moved here, too loud and proud when they were winning, and now . . .

Crickets.

It’s really weird. My gut tells me that deep down, these Georgia fans are worried about this team losing to Tennessee. Georgia is a solid team with a ton of talent, a potential first round NFL running back, and some great runners behind him, a home field advantage and 17 point favorites. Yet nobody is crowing about how Georgia is going to put it on Tennessee. I think they know that losing this game is a real possibility and that the 17 point favorite label is a bulls eye on their back. Some of them may even remember 2004. Or maybe 2007.

Two times in the last decade, Mark Richt had a team powerful enough to win the SEC (and play for the BCS Championship). Both times, they sat on the couch and watched from home because they lost to Tennessee. If there were no Clemson University, then they would call it Georgia-ing instead of Clemsoning. I say it’s time to crush some dreams, end a losing streak, kill off a dynasty, and give Richt’s career a swift push towards the cliff. I think these our team can do it. Not next year. This year.

Eric S'