Quote:You will notice I did not say “...to Beat Tennessee”. After Georgia State just finished making a very average Richard Cue (South Carolina State) look like an NFL prospect, “beat” isnt in the realm of reality considering Tennessee has a better than just average Tyler Bray at QB. So what does GSU have to do avoid this becoming a 55 to 70 point bashing at the hands of a powerful SEC program?

Punting

Punter Matt Hubbard has just come off a record setting/non-record setting performance vs. SC State. He averaged a whopping 62.5 yards per punt on 5 kicks last Thursday night. Of course that was indoors in a climate controlled Georgia Dome. Saturday afternoon he will be in front of 100,000 hostile Tennessee fans on a humid and/or rainy day(Forecast is for High of 77, 87% Humidity and 50% Chance of Rain). We need him to average at least 45 yards per punt on Saturday. When we inevitably punt we cannot afford to give Tyler Bray a short field every time.

Quarterbacks

Whoever our QB(s) are need to complete 60% of their passes. We should not throw over 20 passes in this one and if we do this will get ugly fast. We need to use the pass as a complement and not in desperation when we panic after falling behind. Play action people, play action. Ben McClane was hammered the entire game when he worked under center. Our offensive line simply did not give him or Kelton Hill time in the pocket, when there was even a pocket at all. The number of passes needs to be limited on Saturday to the 20 attempts range and we need to play action off the run.

Running Backs

Donald Russell was limited to 12 carries Thursday and as an offense we only had 29 total rushing attempts. The result was our defense playing 78 plays while our offense played 58 plays. GSU’s offense needs to run the ball 45 to 50 times. More importantly Donald Russell needs to get half of whatever number of carries we attempt. Our offensive line has not yet gelled to the point where they can stop a MEAC pass rush. So we must run and run often, even in the face of a 3 or 4 TD deficit.

Defensive Line

The ironic thing about the 33-6 loss to SC State is that the Defensive Line finally looked like it has turned the corner. The self described “Dog Pound” defensive line must play the best game of their young college careers on Saturday. If Tyler Bray is continually given time in the pocket with no challenge, he will be throwing darts all day. Our CBs are not as good as NC State’s and NC State’s lack of pressure from their defensive front resulted in Bray spending all night in a comfortable pocket from which he was able to go 27/41 for 332 and 2 TDs with zero interceptions. The Dog Pound needs to be hungry early and often Saturday.

Cornerbacks

Our CBs were torched on Thursday night on 12 to 15 yard out patterns. This simply must be corrected. As has already been mentioned, Tyler Bray is a much better QB than Richard Cue. By now the Tennessee coaching staff must have film of SC State picking our CBs apart. Someone recently said that a CBs greatest resource is a short memory. Our CBs need to forget last Thursday ever happened and look at this Saturday as the next job assignment.

Coaching

This is the hard part. Are the coaches good enough and patient enough to put a plan in place and here is the key, stick to it? Can they commit to the run to the tune of 50 carries? Can they mix in an occasional play action pass to stretch the field? We’ll all find out Saturday at 4 p.m.