Keys to beating South Carolina

In revisiting my 3 keys to beating Boise St, I see that we failed miserably on two of them, and third (size advantage) never really came about because of the putrid offense (3 and outs).

See, if the Dawgs would've just read my blog, they would've known how to win.

Moving on to South Carolina, there are some key things that Georgia must do.

1) Get into 2nd and short/medium, and 3rd and short situations. This should be Bobo and Richt's primary offensive concern. I'm not saying never go downfield or look for a big play on 1st down, but by and large, they need to be looking for their best chances to get 4 or 5 yds on first down, even if the possibility for more than that is minimal. When you're looking at 2nd and a long 5, the world is your oyster, so to speak. You can pretty much call any play you want.

2) Don't let Lattimore build momentum. He's one of those backs that tends to get better as the game moves along (as many bigger backs do). One "easy" way to do that would be to get up big by halftime, but obviously that's nothing more than wishful thinking. So, the key is to gang-tackle early and often. Don't worry about making a highlight reel with a big hit on him. Wrap him up and wait for your buddies to arrive.

3) Win Time of Possession. This is a very hit-or-miss statistic. Last year, in Georgia's 7 losses, the Dawgs won ToP 3 times and lost 4 (and one of those was by a mere 30 seconds or so). However, last year's contest against the Cocks saw a 10 minute ToP advantage for South Carolina. Georgia's defense is not going to have the depth to contain the Gamecocks if the offense doesn't help them out.

As was the case before, I'm not bothering in touching on things like turnovers and penalties, as those are fairly obvious.

Georgia is going to have to get some early small victories in this game. It is a team whose confidence is hanging by a string right now, no matter what they might say. But, it can be quickly restored if some folks can step up and play their best football.