Georgia Faces Their First Test Against SEC East Foe South Carolina in Columbia

There has been a lot of build-up accumulating for the Georgia- South Carolina game this weekend for the past few months. With Florida losing much of their talent to the NFL, the SEC East battle is wide open, and the fight between the Eastern Division contenders begins this weekend.

Georgia has more talent scattered across their roster than the American Idol top ten, a defensive scheme that is both brand new and deadly to opposing quarterbacks, and is coming off of a huge win from last weekend.

But this isn't Louisiana-Lafayette.

South Carolina is filled with talented players as well, they boast a mobile quarterback who has done well in the past against the Dawgs, and are coached by Georgia's most hated nemesis, Steve Spurrier. They are also coming off of a huge win in their opener.

But this isn't Southern Mississippi. 

Tomorrow's game will be important not only because it is a conference game, and not only because it is the game that sets the tone for the remainder of the season, but because if you lose this one, you can pretty much kiss the SEC Eastern Division Championship good-bye.

In order for Georgia to win this game, they are going to have to play smash-mouth no-nonsense football. They are going to be in a hot, hostile environment with the noise level on "Dangerously loud". With an inexperienced quarterback at the reigns and without their top wide receiver in A.J. Green, Georgia is going to have their hands full.

But Georgia doesn't need A.J. Green.

Yes, he would help tremendously and would give Aaron Murray a definite go-to guy in the tough passing situations that he will face, but he isn't the only contributor to this team.

With the returns of both Washaun Ealey and Tavarres King, Georgia will get back two huge components of their offense as well as gaining an advantage against South Carolina.

With both Ealey and Caleb King toting the rock for the Dawgs, the one-two punch that embarrassed Georgia Tech and Texas A&M last season will be back to form, looking to have similar if not better results against the Gamecocks.

South Carolina is no pushover themselves on offense, with a good quarterback and some talented wide receivers. To go along with this, they feature a freshman running back who can both run and catch out of the backfield in Marcus Lattimore. 

 For Georgia to effectively stop South Carolina, they are going to need to play with the same drive and intensity that they played with last weekend. Grantham will be busy all afternoon dialing up blitzes and figuring out ways to stop the 'Cocks dead in their tracks. With a good defensive game plan and some timely blitzing by Georgia, they should have no problem limiting South Carolina on their offensive possessions. 

With so much on the line for this game, you can be sure that both teams will come out playing with everything they've got, but by the end of it all, only one team will be smiling.

Here's hoping that Georgia hunkers down and makes Steve Spurrier throw his visor a time or two.

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