Georgia vs. LSU: Can Aaron Murray Use Game as Jumping Point for 2012?

The SEC is great at a lot of things, but it is oddly short on quality quarterbacks, especially since Tennessee’s Tyler Bray missed five games due to a thumb injury and failed miserably in his two games following his return.

The best signal-caller is Georgia’s Aaron Murray and he will do his best to guide the Bulldogs to an upset victory over LSU this weekend.

However, even if they don’t win this game, would a strong performance propel this team to a strong 2012 season?

If Murray can handle LSU’s secondary, the outlook for next year will be through the roof.

Georgia has won 10 in a row, but that has been primarily due to the improvement the defense has made since the first two weeks of the season. After giving up 80 points to Boise State and South Carolina at home, the Bulldogs have only given up 20 or more points in two road games.

When you look ahead to 2012, there are only two seniors who will graduate and Jarvis Jones may or may not declare for the draft. The team has really embraced the new 3-4 defense and should continue to improve during the offseason. That’s terrifying for opposing offenses because they already rank fifth in the country in yards allowed per game.

Meanwhile, the offense has been pretty lackluster for most of the year when you consider their strength of schedule. They score just 29 points per game against SEC opponents. The best team from the West Division they played was Auburn. They also hadn’t faced a team with more than seven wins until playing Georgia Tech last week, who has eight since Week 2 of the season.

LSU’s secondary is one of the best in the country and is chock full of NFL talent like Morris Claiborne and Tyrann Mathieu. Murray and company has never faced that much talent and, to make matters worse, the offensive line is giving up over two sacks per game.

With Isaiah Crowell returning next season at running back, the only thing missing would be a superb passing attack. If Murray shows he can handle all of that pressure, look out for the Bulldogs in 2012.