Are you ready?

In just two days, fans will get their one brief fix of live football between the bowl game and the 2006 season. Like the addicts we are, we’ll head to Sanford Stadium to watch a controlled scrimmage. And like addicts, we’ll take the closest thing we can get and obsess over it hoping it gets us through to our next fix.

That said, there are a few areas I’m interested in. Most are on defense. Linebackers seem like a hodge-podge and have since Tony Taylor injured himself two years ago. Depth and stability used to be the cornerstone of that position. Linebackers weren’t especially a strength nor a liability last year, but when you’re used to some outstanding production from the position under VanGorder, that’s a drop off. We’re also switching out three of four starting defensive backs, and the fourth is in a fight for his starting job. There’s no shortage of talented candidates back there, but I’ll be interested in how they shake out.

As for the offense, we know it will be more or less plain vanilla. Defensive pressure won’t be anywhere near up to season levels. There will be some nice runs. But of course most everyone will be looking at the four three healthy QB candidates and ready to proclaim the season starter based on Saturday’s performance. Woe to he who doesn’t impress; the “bust” label is waiting for you.

But the best part of G-Day is the Johnny Brown Award. This is given by fans who see a reserve have a great G-Day and want to know during the season why coaches don’t play him or have him much higher up on the depth chart. Ronnie Powell was a two-time recipient of the award. This year, I bet it will be one of the many young defensive backs. For their sake, I wouldn’t be upset if it’s a wide receiver (Kris Durham enters the game as the favorite) – we need some good press in that area.