Link and more details later, but the Tech game will be a regional ABC broadcast at 3:30 p.m. on November 24th.

Georgia’s senior center was named the SEC Offensive Lineman of the Week following Saturday’s 45-20 win over Auburn.

Verne and Gary enjoyed themselves at the game on Saturday.

They do a good job of showing you how just about everyone over the age of 25 looked when Soulja Boy came on before the 4th quarter:

I wonder if the fawning over Will Muschamp will die down just a little bit now.

The Dawgs have now scored over 30 points in three consecutive meetings with Auburn for the first time since the mid-1940s (I exclude the 1996 overtime game). Going back to Muschamp’s days at LSU, the Dawgs are averaging 42+ points in their last three contests against the teams for which Muschamp is coaching.

Related:  UGA’s Martinez stays close to action – Carter Strickland, AJC

You know, some people think that because he doesn’t bleed from the head Willie Martinez isn’t much of an intense defensive coordinator. The assumption is that the style of defense must reflect the personality of the coordinator. Strickland addresses that head-on in this piece. He also provides a nice discussion of coaching from the box vs. the sideline and contrasts the preferences of successful coordinators like Martinez, Muschamp, Tenuta, and also an offensive coordinator in Bobo.

I understand (and sometimes even agree with) criticisms of scheme and personnel on defense, but one of the more ridiculous arguments we see occasionally is that Martinez lacks fire – as if people actually scrutinize his demeanor during the games. Hopefully articles like Strickland’s can help put that myth to bed.

Though support based on one game can be as hasty as condemnation based on one game, if Georgia – Auburn was “a referendum among certain Bulldog fans on Willie Martinez’s coordinatorship,” it was one of the least controversial ballot issues in the state this month.

Coach Richt talked yesterday about the value of bulletin board material (h/t Ching):

Oh we try, yeah. Oh yeah. We’re always looking for something good that can get guys excited or mad or whatever.

Auburn linebacker Quentin Groves did his part this week, discussing Auburn’s tradition of ripping off pieces of Georgia’s hedges after a win in Athens.

"Oh yeah, we want to tear down those hedges."

That news earned a "Golly!" from Richt when he learned of it at his Thursday press conference.

A touchdown on Georgia’s opening drive at Auburn last year was, to be honest, surprising. The Dawgs had lost three of four and were up against a strong defense that had had its way with teams like Florida. The Dawgs came out sharp, converted third downs, completed long passes for once, and jumped on the home team. They kept it up, bolstered by some big plays from the defense, and the Georgia offense stayed on the field almost all day.

It’s no shock that Georgia’s two losses this season have come in games in which Georgia has stumbled out of the gate on offense. Georgia remained dull and ineffective on offense for the rest of those games. They’ve won twice when the opponent has scored first, but those opponents were more forgiving Ole Miss and Troy. Georgia’s most impressive wins of the year – Oklahoma State, Alabama, and Florida – have all had touchdowns on Georgia’s opening drive. It wasn’t that the early scores gave the Dawgs the lead for good; in fact, all three of those teams came back to tie Georgia. Instead those early touchdowns demonstrated, much like the Auburn game last season, a focus and ability to execute on offense that remained with them during the rest of those games.

There’s another reason why an early score against Auburn could have a bigger impact than just a lead on the scoreboard. It would cut at the heart of a season-long trend. Auburn has been a first half team and has led at halftime in every game this season. They score less and give up more points in the second half:

Georgia is the opposite, scoring more points in the second half and giving up fewer even after 24 second half points by Troy.

There will surely be a lot of emotion at the beginning of this game. The stats say that falling behind early doesn’t necessarily mean the end for Georgia, but if an offense led by a sophomore and a redshirt freshman can somehow direct all of that pregame energy and make things happen early against a stingy first half defense, you’ve got to like Georgia’s chances.

$18 for the “official” black-out t-shirt? I’m not even going to link to it. You’d think that some sponsors or even the Athletic Department itself would cover the campus with cheap or even free black shirts for the students this week, but what do we expect from a bookstore?

The Georgia basketball teams get underway tonight with a mens and womens doubleheader beginning at 6:30.

I’ll have more detailed previews up soon for the individual teams, but there are some similar themes. Both teams are led by a senior standout looking for a different level of success in their final campaigns. Sundiata Gaines is trying to lead his team to the NCAA Tournament, and Tasha Humphrey has one more chance to get her team beyond the Sweet 16. Both teams have perimeter play as a key question entering the season as each lost its top three-point specialist from a year ago.

If you’re in town for the Auburn game, head over to Stegeman and watch these teams start the season off right.

Some of the players are just getting the memo.

By Tuesday afternoon, the idea of the fan “blackout” was filtering down to the rest of the team. Redshirt freshman running back Knowshon Moreno was out of the loop on the blackout and first heard about it when a mob of reporters asked him about it after Richt’s announcement.

Though the players interviewed considered it a good idea, it hardly seemed top-of-mind for most of them. Just as well, as Auburn is having a very intense week of practice, and the Dawgs need to have their focus on job #1. Let the fans be the ones to lose their heads over this “boring” (as Ching put it) blackout story.

Uga’s all set.

I’ve made no secret of my feelings about (insert color)-outs here. I am convinced that some of Kansas’ thrashing of Nebraska last weekend was residual from Nebraska’s disastrous "red-out" for a basketball game against the Jayhawks last season.

Still, when the coaches and players request that Georgia fans wear black this weekend, it’s a bit different than some grass-roots Facebook group. I think the request is important for two reasons:

• By making a public request, the team is sending a message to the fans that the 12th man is really needed in a game like this. Whatever your choice of attire, the team is looking to feed off the crowd in this game.
• Imagine the letdown among the players if this request is ignored. Nothing like heading into a pivotal game knowing that the fans are too uptight or too attached to their lucky red shirt to let loose for one game.

If the Florida celebration and the whole Soulja Boy thing has done anything this year, it’s to remind us and the team that this is all supposed to be fun. So South Carolina got the crap kicked out of them at their black-out. So it’s gimmicky. Who the hell cares? The win in Jacksonville in my eyes gave the team the right to ask something like this.

I’ve decided to go with the team on this one. Just one request of my own to the players:

Do your part. Don’t make us look like South Carolina fans.

UPDATE: "stevenmichael22" on the DawgVent did a great job conceptualizing what a black jersey might look like with the rest of the uniform. Not bad, not bad.

If you haven’t noticed by now, I tend to emphasize matching an opponent’s strength. Florida can score points in bunches, so I thought that the pressure would be on Georgia’s offense to produce. They did, and we’re all happy.

Auburn’s strength is a top 10 defense. They have been stingy against the run, and they can do some ugly things when the pass rush gets going. Teams aren’t scoring many points on them. With that in mind, my key is for the Georgia defense to match that production and give the Bulldogs a chance to compete in a lower-scoring game.

Before I get to the Georgia defense, we shouldn’t abandon all hope of scoring against Auburn. The Dawgs have put up 30+ against the Tigers in the past two meetings. Stafford played one of his better (and smarter) games of the 2006 season at Auburn. Though much of the scoring was set up by defense, the Dawgs were equally adept at running (227 yards) and passing (219 yards) when they had the ball.

The performance of Georgia’s defense at Auburn last year was astonishing after limping home from Kentucky and a wretched midseason. It started on Auburn’s first snap when Ray Gant sacked and injured Brandon Cox, turning the Auburn quarterback into even more of a potted plant than usual. Tra Battle went to work in the second quarter, and by the end of the day Cox had completed as many passes to Georgia defenders (4) as he had to his own team (4-of-12).

Pressure on Cox, containment of the Auburn running game, and the turnovers were all important. But the biggest defensive stat of all in last year’s win was limiting Auburn to a scant 37 plays of offense. Georgia, by contrast, ran 66 plays and had the ball for over 38 minutes. As another point of reference, Troy ran 84 plays against Georgia last weekend. While plays and time of possession don’t mean much if you’re a quick-strike offense, Auburn is not, and few offenses are going to do much with 37 plays in a game. While holding Auburn to fewer than 40 plays again is too much to ask, they’ve run 70 or fewer plays in their three losses this season.

The offense also has plenty to do with limiting the opponent’s possession, and we saw the offense own the ball starting with the first drive last year much the same way they did against Alabama and Florida this season. While Georgia is 2-2 this year after the opponent scored first, those two wins were over Troy and Ole Miss. With the crowd likely to be as good as it gets at Sanford Stadium, a good start can keep them in the game.

Distractions

There will be no shortage of motivation or emotion for this game. The crowd will be stoked as usual, there will be the national TV presence, and even a visit from Cowherd on Friday will add to the circus. The challenge in the Florida game was finding the confidence to shed history and stand up to the Gators. Against Auburn the challenge will be to look past the distractions, hype, black shirts, and everything else to focus and maintain a high level of concentration and intensity against a talented and driven opponent. It would be very easy for such a young team to get caught up in the buildup to the game. Can they learn to channel the energy of the big game crowd into their performance? While I recognize the value of a visit from ESPN’s Gameday, I’m kind of glad that they’re headed elsewhere this weekend.

Turnovers

Turnovers are important. Duh. But they’ve played an unusually large role in the past two meetings. In 2005, two second half Georgia turnovers in their own end led immediately to Auburn touchdowns. One of those turnovers came right after Kenny Irons fumbled on the Georgia 11. Of course last season’s second quarter just about determined the outcome of the game thanks to a few interceptions.

If the game does play out to be relatively low-scoring, the importance of a turnover is magnified. Auburn’s struggles earlier this season can, in part, be attributed to carelessness with the ball. The Tigers gave it away nine times in their first three games. They haven’t had more than one turnover since and are 6-1 in those games with a last-second loss at LSU the sole blemish. Georgia has done well in the giveaway department all season, but they increased their season total by 50% with three turnovers against Troy.

Georgia will make its first and only appearance this year on the 12:30 Lincoln Financial broadcast when they host Kentucky in Athens.

CBS seems to be going with LSU-Ole Miss on that weekend.

With wins over Florida and Troy, Georgia has scored 40+ points in consecutive games for the first time since 2002. The Dawgs accomplished that feat twice in 2002. Otherwise, you have to go back to 1993 for the last time that Georgia scored at least 40 in consecutive games.

With that yang comes the yin – the Dawgs have also surrendered 30+ points in consecutive games. Unless someone beats me to it, I’ll also find out the last time that happened.

It’s to the point now that you’re slightly disappointed when Knowshon Moreno doesn’t make something happen on a particular play. Moreno, after his 196-yard performance against Troy, has once again been named the SEC Freshman of the Week. It’s the third time this year that Moreno has earned that honor.

His 80-yard touchdown run in the first quarter was the longest by a Bulldog since Robert Edwards took one the same distance against Kentucky ten years ago in 1997.

Even more impressive is Moreno eclipsing the 1,000-yard mark with three games remaining in the regular season. For a program that is sometimes called "Tailback U", 1,000 yards in a season has been a rare feat for Bulldog tailbacks. Moreno joins Musa Smith as the only Georgia tailbacks since 1992 to break through that mark. 1,000 yards isn’t just an accomplishment based on ability; it’s also a testament to a tailback’s endurance. Several good tailbacks, including Edwards, Brown, and Lumpkin, came up short of 1,000-yard seasons during their careers due to an assortment of injuries. Moreno is just the 12th back in Georgia history to rush for 1,000 yards in a season, and he now has the second-best total for a Georgia freshman behind only you-know-who.

The question of endurance comes up as Thomas Brown returns to practice after missing three games. Brown’s role against Auburn, if he plays at all, will naturally be governed by his injury, but the question of the distribution of carries remains. Richt in his postgame press conference was hesitant to run Moreno 25-35 times per game due to the beating that tailbacks take in this league. While we should expect Moreno to start and get the clear majority of the carries, fans should expect to see Brown (if he’s able) get more than a couple of carries. Even McFadden sits now and then.

Homecoming 2007 was about as brilliant a day as you could want for college football. The highlight of Homecoming every year for me is the opportunity to venture back down Between the Hedges. The radio broadcast team noted a strong attendance at the Dawg Walk, and I have to add that the pregame crowd was as loud as I’ve ever heard from the field for a Homecoming. I believe that the crowd noise really helped the Georgia defense hold off Troy’s early scoring chances.

I disagree that the Dawgs came out flat in this game. If someone can pinpoint that two early fumbles were the result of a casual attitude, they’re far more astute than I am. It’s fortunate that the defense wasn’t flat to open the game; they limited Troy to just three points from those Georgia turnovers. Troy generally played well, and there was a reason why they received votes in last week’s poll. If there was an area of the game that was sluggish, I’d say it was Stafford’s accuracy in the first half. He picked it up at the end of the half with very accurate passes to Chandler and Bailey. As Ching notes, Stafford is 28-for-47 for 434 yards, five touchdowns, and two interceptions in the past two games.

Stafford’s third quarter interception was pivotal. A better throw from Stafford on the preceding play would have sent a wide-open Mikey Henderson into the end zone, but the long pass play still set the Dawgs up with a good chance to score. Another touchdown and a score of 31-13 early in the third quarter probably would have made the rest of the game much less dramatic. As it was, Troy quickly turned the interception into a touchdown of their own, and we were set for a back-and-forth finish.

Defense

You know, I’m not going to get on the defense that bad for giving up 34 points to Troy. It was a big play day for the defense, and I mean that in both a good and bad way.

The good was the takeaways highlighted by Marcus Howard’s sack and fumble recovery. The Dawgs just missed on a couple of other interceptions – one was taken away after review, and another bounced off of Rashad Jones. Remembering Georgia’s ability to feast on Auburn turnovers last year, the Bulldog defense picked a good time to start creating some takeaways.

The bad was the big plays that burned the defense. pwd correctly points out that Troy frequently used pesky screens to get the ball on the perimeter, but as annoying as those plays were to Georgia fans, they were relatively benign. The real damage came on big plays right down the middle. Troy’s first touchdown was a 32-yard pass down the middle of the field (not long after a 29 yard pass). Troy’s second touchdown was a 44-yard pass into double coverage. For the second straight game, Rashad Jones missed on an opportunity to break up a long touchdown pass. Troy’s third touchdown was set up by a 38-yard run again down the middle of the field.

Though it seemed as if Troy was converting 75% of their third downs, reality is that they were just 6-of-16. Two of those conversions came on their final throwaway drive at the end. They were able to convert a 3rd-and-13 and a 3rd-and-10, and memories of some big third down conversions by Florida probably distorted how effective Troy was. The Trojans converted 50% (2 of 4) third downs with 10+ yards to go and just 33% (4 of 12) with 9 yards or less to go. Strange, huh?

For all of the inconsistency on defense, the difference between a less-than-comfortable win and an upset loss were some big defensive stands. The two at the beginning of the game were impressive enough, but I think one defensive stand that really helped the outcome of the game was the goalline stand on Troy’s first drive of the third quarter. Troy had a first down on the Georgia 5 yard line, but the Dawgs held and forced a field goal. Since Troy was able to get a touchdown on their next drive, holding them to a field goal meant that Georgia maintained a four-point advantage. A tie game in the second half could have really changed the approach by both teams.

Asides

• Can someone please put the mike man/woman back in the box when grownup football returns to Sanford Stadium this weekend? God forbid a CBS camera captures that.
• Geno Atkins continues to be more and more disruptive from the defensive tackle position. If he can continue to get into the backfield, he could be a big factor against a less-mobile Brandon Cox.
• There was some question whether Sean Bailey would play, but it’s a good thing he did – he was Georgia’s leading receiver. He continues to be a very steady performer as a senior.
• Georgia didn’t give up a sack on Saturday and has only allowed two in the past three games. There’s definitely something good going on up front, and the best news is that the progress has been steady and consistent.