Sugar Bowl Preview: Hawaii vs. Georgia

Marty  Z by Correspondent Written on December 14, 2007
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The reason is because “IF” UH played in the SEC, they would have an SEC type budget, with SEC type facilities, and be able to recruit top flight, blue chip, NFL quality players.

As it stands, I think coach Jones and his staff has made the best out of what they can do by taking risks on players with question marks, or second and third tier JUCO and high scool players. However, even with these built in disadvantages, the answer is yes, they can keep up with them. They did it against Alabama in 2006, and against other big schools. They didn't win those games last year, but they can definitely hold their own. It may take a quarter or two to get fully adjusted, but they can keep up with them. They’ve done it against the likes of USC, AL, MSU, Oregon State, and Arizona State. I don’t see this as being an issue like many pundits are making it out to be.

Who wins the time of possession battle?

Georiga will dominate the time of possession, no questions asked.  Does it matter?  No, because Hawaii has a belief that it doesn't matter as long as you score points.  Hawaii has won the time of possession battle just 4 times in their 12 wins this year.  I believe that speaks to itself regarding the battle of the clock.

Can Georgia stop the Hawaii offense?

They say Georgia plays a lot of “great” quarterbacks like Tim Tebow, Andre Woodson, and Erik Ainge...And this is true. Georgia's two biggest wins this year have been against Auburn and Florida.

However, these are both offenses that primarily run the football. The Georgia defense is fast to the line of scrimmage and can get stops behind the line. They will probably end the game with four to six sacks against UH. Georgia faced three pass dominated teams who use a lot of 3 and 4 WR sets in South Carolina, Tennessee, and Troy (from the SunBelt conference). Kentucky is not in this discussion because they primarily run a two wide, one TE, base offense. Here were the results:

S. Carolina—Loss, 16-12
Tennessee—Loss, 35-14
Troy—Win, 44-34

South Carolina and Tennessee were played earlier in the season, when Stafford was just getting comfortable in the offense and RB Moreno was just becoming a household name. However, the Troy game is interesting to take a look at because they pass the ball A LOT. They were in this game for about three quarters until a couple of late mistakes. They are nowhere near Hawaii in passing the ball, but they do it quite a bit and were able to score points on UGA. This was also during Georgia's dominating win streak, and they were giving up points to TROY from the Sunbelt Conference ( albeit they almost won their conference championship). It is still much weaker than the top tier of the WAC.

The Georgia safeties Johnson, Byrd, and Jones are fast and very athletic, but they are much more suitble and built to stop the run or play zone, not to line up and cover slot backs. Georgia is a very physical team—they go about six deep in the secondary—but they will not be able to keep Hawaii from scoring points in bunches. There will be plenty of big plays for Hawaii's slot receivers in this game. I expect to see about 10 catches apiece for the two dread-heads inside.

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written on December 14, 2007 Sports

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