An early look at Georgia's depth chart

Obviously - the focus is on the two big stars from last year - Knowshon Moreno and Matt Stafford. There have been a lot of mock drafts early in the year that have Stafford pegged as a top-3 quarterback, which I find somewhat amusing. Stafford is perfect in the system in which he performs, but in my mind, he's got a lot of work to do to be Top-3 NFL draft potential. Stafford's cannon arm is the primary reason teams are so high on him - but his accuracy will always remain a concern. Georgia's typical offensive scheme in 2007 was pound the ball and throw it deep on occasion. There was nothing particularly fancy about it, but it worked. A typical Stafford game was something was saw from the Auburn game - 11 of 19 for 237 yards, 2 touchdowns and 1 interception. Stafford is a 55% passer. That's not really going to change next year.

The big knock on Stafford? While he has those Auburn type games on a regular basis, he also has a pretty regular 2007 Kentucky line at least once a year - 12 of 22 for 99 yards with 2 interceptions. Oh, you forgot about that game, did you?

The reason you forgot about the game, of course - is Knowshon Moreno (Moreno ran for 136 yards on 22 carries in that Kentucky game, in case you were wondering). There was no doubt that following the Tennessee game, Moreno became the guy on Georgia's offense - and that would look to continue this year. Believe it or not - for those of you who don't follow Georgia football - Moreno's going to have a backup who potentially could be even better than Moreno himself. Yes, if there's one thing Georgia does really well, it's recruit 5-star running backs. This other guy - for those of you under a rock or suffering from dementia - is Caleb King. King will likely look to fill the Thomas Brown role of last year - namely, to spell Moreno and give him breathers during games so that he can remain fresh in the 4th quarter. No one really knows how both King and Moreno will be utilized on the field - the prospect of them lining up in the same backfield is so tantalizingly amazing that it's almost as though Mark Richt paid off some legion of running-back creating gods.

Offensive line was a huge concern coming in to last year, but Stacy Searls proved his weight in gold by developing the kids into one of the most solid run-blocking units in the SEC. The entire line basically returns, and Trinton Sturdivant is the one guys that everyone's looking at for really big things. What these guys did last year was pretty much just shy of a miracle. It looks to only get better this year.

You might think with all my optimism - I'd be predicting Georgia to go 37-0 this year or something. That's not likely to happen. First, Georgia lost some sort of bet with the scheduling gods, since instead of drawing - oh, let's say Ole Miss and Arkansas from the Western Division, they have the severe misfortune of drawing LSU and Alabama. This means our three SEC Western Division opponents this year are Auburn, LSU, and Alabama. Oh, gee. Thanks.

There's also a somewhat scary early season roadie at suddenly competent Arizona State, not to mention the usual games against Florida, Tennessee, and the rest of the Eastern Division, who - as it turns out - aren't as bad as they used to be - apparently. Stafford's probably due for at least one Kentucky-esque game, and you have to wonder if Moreno and King can carry the load in that game.

Let's just hope that 2008's version of Kentucky 2007 is also against Kentucky. My going assumption is that Georgia does indeed lose - somewhere (at LSU is probably the best bet), but that one loss season may still be enough to put them in the title game.

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