Breaking Down The 2009 Georgia Football Schedule: The Final Six Games

As promised, this is the second installment of my Georgia Football schedule breakdown.

10/17/09 at Vanderbilt

This used to be the easy game for the Bulldogs.

However, in recent years, Vanderbilt has become quite the competitor; they no longer seem to buy into the idea that they are the whipping post for the big boys. It makes for a very interesting matchup too, as Dawg fans can no longer take this team for granted.

A lot of what Vanderbilt was able to accomplish last season was due in great part to its very good secondary.

All-American cornerback D.J. Moore wreaked havoc on opposing wide receivers last season and opted to take his speed and versatility to the NFL this year. That means that Vandy will be replacing not only him, but also safety Reshard Langford. They figure to have some quality replacements, but will still be less of a force than last season.

With Chris Nickson also leaving, the Commodores are now in the unenviable position of trying to decide who will be their starting quarterback.

Last year, they lacked a respectable passing attack and relied on the legs and improvisation of Nickson. This season, the gauntlet will pass to either Mackenzi Adams or Larry Smith.

Adams is the senior leader and will likely have the edge, but Johnson has been known to use a two-quarterback system and could do so again.

Clearly, though, this Vanderbilt team will be less dangerous than in season's past.

10/31/09 vs Florida

Everyone has said that Florida is the team to beat this year. I am inclined to agree.

However, that does not mean that I believe they are unbeatable.

For one, they lost Louis Murphy and Percy Harvin, key cogs in the offensive wheel last season.  The duo contributed to a little less than half of Tebow's passing numbers.

They will definitely be missed.

The Gators will have a new quarterback's coach in Scott Loeffler.

Dan Mullen has moved on and will be under new orders on the offensive side as Urban Meyer has relenquished many of his play calling duties to Steve Adazzio. Tebow won't likely have any issues with adjusting to the changes as the teams seasoned signal-caller, but one can never be too sure.

Further, the offensive line took a bit of a hit with the losses of both starting tackles. It was felt that the sting of that loss could be partially alleviated with the emergence of talented offensive tackle Carl Johnson.

However, Johnson's recent arrest leaves that somewhat in doubt. 

That Gators are loaded with talent at both the running back and wide receiver positions.

It will be important to see who develops the best chemistry with Tebow in the spring, as he will need to look to a new guy to share the load with now that Harvin has moved on to the NFL.

Either way, this game is always a good one and there is a level of competition that the teams seem to rise to in order to secure bragging rights. I expect this year to be just as heated.

11/7/09 vs Tennessee Tech

The Tennessee Tech Golden Eagles, members of the Ohio Valley Conference, were 3-9 last season in the Division I Football Championship Subdivision (formerly I-AA).

The Golden Eagles will likely offer less in the form of competition than in prior weeks of this coming season.

They average just under 300 yards and 20.0 points per game, so, to say that this game is meant to be more of a respite from the Dawgs' grueling SEC schedule is probably a bit of an understatement.

That said, you can never discount the fight of the little known school. After all, Montana State beat Colorado and Appalachain State did manage to topple Michigan in the Big House.

Anything is possible.

There are no big names on the roster and the Eagles defense seems to be better in the first and fourth quarters of the game than in the middle. Last season they gave up 256 points in the second and third quarters of games as opposed to 126 in the first and fourth quarters.

Seeing as how this is the warm-up to the Auburn game, the Dawgs would do well to rest their starters early if they secure a substantial lead.

11/14/09 vs Auburn

The Tigers have a new head coach in Gene Chizik and a new offensive coordinator in Gus Malzahn.

Malzahn was the brains behind the offensive attack at Tulsa that put up over 500+ yards of offense per game last season.

It would stand to reason that the Tigers would have abandoned the spread altogether after the debacle that was last year, but Malzahn has coached in the SEC before and knows that he will need to tweak things a bit in order keep the spread and be as successful as, say, Urban Meyer over at Florida.

Key to getting the spread to work is installing the right players into the system.

Auburn will hang with quarterback Kodi Burns for the time being and will look to find other weapons around him at both running back and wide receiver to balance things out.

Auburn's defense should be pretty good, they were not the reason that the Tigers were so dismal last year. New head coach Chizik was defensive coordinator at Auburn from 2002 until 2004, and I suspect he will be making adjustments where needed.

I don't expect that Chizik will have much wiggle-room in the wins and losses department; look for Auburn to play aggressively in their division this season and quick changes to be made if players don't do their jobs.

This could be a dangerous game for the Dawgs.

11/21/09 vs Kentucky

The Wildcats are set at quarterback as head coach Rich Brooks has pegged Mike Hartline as his starter.Randall Cobb played well at the position last year, but is more valuable as a runner than a thrower.

After that, though, there is little depth at the receiver position, as Kyrus Lanxter and Gene McCaskill are still developing. Both played well in the Liberty Bowl, but they need to show that they can maintain that consistency come spring.

The running back position is somewhat set, with the presence of senior Alphonso Smith, but Kentucky has no viable options behind Smith at the present time.

Defensively, the Wildcats were decent in the beginning of the year but faded as the season wore on.

The good news for Coach Brooks is that three of his top defensive stars decided to return in defensive end Jeremy Jarmon, corner Trevard Lindley, and linebacker Micah Johnson.

The three stalwarts will need to be the spark on defense as the Wildcats try to recapture some of the shine that was lost when Andre Johnson and Steve Johnson left.

11/28/09 at Georgia Tech

The Yellow Jackets put up 409 rushing yards on the Dawgs last year.

The triple option that no one thought could work in a BCS conference, turned out to be quite the monster for Georgia Tech.

Of course, it doesn't hurt when you have the personnel to implement the style of play.

Running back Jonathan Dwyer was definitely a force to be reckoned with and returns this season, along with the equally impressive Roddy Jones. 

In his second season, head coach Paul Johnson looks to improve upon his offense at quarterback with returning starter Josh Nesbitt hoping to add some sort of passing game to his team's repertoire.

One thing that was noticeably apparent in the bowl game was that if you could stop the run, you could stop the offense; Tech had no passing game.

The Jackets did lose a pair of starting tackles from an offensive line that wasn't necessarily A++ to begin with, but when you have their stable of running backs, it doesn't seem to matter much.

That said, I expect teams to be better prepared for the Tech attack this year as they will be able to better adjust to the one-dimensionality of their style of play. Paul Johnson's team won't sneak up on anybody this year.

Georgia will be looking to take back the bragging rights and if nothing else I expect them to be prepared to play this game.