Happy Thanksgiving, Bulldog Nation! We hope you are able to enjoy the day with those you care about and doing the things you want. Or at least are able to recognize and celebrate a day of thanks sometime
near (a special thanks to those that work on the holiday, and a second thanks to those critical workers who make this sacrifice). We are thankful you’re here with us, and are deeply grateful for your faithful readership and rapier commentary. We hope to deliver what you’re looking for.
But you’re here to Munson, and my grey hair can do that with the best of ‘em. First, here’s why I’m NOT worried about bees, jalopies, or whatever prescription grade acne medicine is sponsoring the undergraduates of the Fulton County Shop Class:
1. Georgia Tech looked like they had the winning recipe figured out earlier in the season, but there were signs. They have the worst yardage allowed for any team in the top 25. Haynes King put up a school record offensive output against NC State, and they lost. Like they weren’t even in the game. NCSU ran all over Tech with their backup RB and their best TE out of the game. This happened at Carter Finley, a stadium bereft of character and whose only redeeming quality is that I saw The Rolling Stones there in 2017. It is a cookie cutter that stamps out cookie cutters.
In the first half of the season, the Yellow Jackets were allowing 359 yards a game from their opponents. Not great, but not horrible. And they were undefeated. The last 5 games, they’re allowing over 470 yards a game, and they’ve lost 2 of their last 3. That lone win? Boston College. We might be able to move the ball on these guys.
2. . So they’re giving up yards. Georgia does too on occasion. But what about points? Points only matter if you have more of them. And even though the Engineers from Cheetah III are loading up their side of the scoreboard, they’re burning up bulbs on the opponents side too.
While GT is averaging over 35 points a game (UGA is 33.7), GT opponents are now up to 25.8. Five of their first six contests saw Tech giving up at least 20, even though they won them. Three of those were one score contests. The Jackets seemed to lock down in their next 2 games, giving up only 18 to Duke and 16 to Syracuse. But the last three games have seen the other team rack up 48, 34, and 42 points. UGA is over 35 points in the last 3 games, 4 of the last 5, and 5 of the last 7. Only 4 teams kept UGA under 30 points – Bama, Auburn, Florida, and…. Austin Peay?!?!?
3. The loss to Pitt sucked a lot of oxygen out of this game. So did the NC State game. There was a lot of chatter about an undefeated Tech team hosting a 1 loss but highly ranked UGA squad. Those halcyon days are long gone. But I’m not worried about Georgia Institute of Technology not showing up Friday afternoon. Quite the opposite.
Head Yellow Jacket Brent Key has made it clear, both internally and externally, that beating Georgia is his sole purpose in life. The Pitt game will be long forgotten if he can steal a W from under Kirby Smart’s nose. The day of the game doesn’t matter, the locale is insignificant, how it is achieved or what the box score says irrelevant. No juice need be manufactured – little brother is ready. The game might be the closest to good-on-good that we’ve seen since George O’Leary.
Now forgive me, as I was weaned at the nipple of Larry Munson’s scratch so here’s what does worry me about playing the gnats from NATS:
1. “He knows all the nuggets.” This was an excerpt from Kirby Smart speaking about Buster Faulkner, Offensive Coordinator for the Yellow Jackets. The time Buster spent in Athens behind Todd Monken and Mike Bobo, and practiced against Dan Lanning, Will Muschamp, Glenn Schumann, and Kirby Smart probably paid off. After his first 2 seasons on North Avenue produced the #34 and #35 ranked offenses, he has the Wramblin’ Wreck at #5 in 2025.
Faulkner dials up a lot of TE and RB releases from motion. The UGA defense will have to use great eye discipline and gap discipline. All the window dressing he presents is to get you distracted or committed, in which case they have an answer and can focus on what you leave open and uncovered. They can run, run RPO, have a good screen game, and go vertical. This is going to be a frustrating game to watch when their offense is on the field.
2 . At some point you have to worry about the #2 player in the nation in total offense. Haynes King is averaging a hair under 340 total yards per game, and 7.36 yards per play. The Tech QB has thrown for over 2,500 yards, and run for barely shy of 900 in 10 contests this year (sitting out the Gardner-Webb game). Now what’s funny is King is producing much better on the road (+83 yards) than at Mark Richt Field. And this game is not at Mark Richt Field. He’s also racking up about 90 yards more a game in November than last month. A glimmer of hope is that King is well over 100 yards worse in non-conference contests (Colorado, Temple), neither of which were runaway wins with foot off gas.
You can get pressure on King. He just gets skinny and finds gaps to get yardage or escape to hit his release valve. He seems to get stronger with each hit he takes. We need to strike, and then get off blockers or our front 7 will be watching King from behind.
3 . It might seem like the offense is all Haynes King, and it’s true that Tech runs through the former Texas A&M signal caller, but they have some players to keep an eye out for.
Jamal Haynes is a senior running back who gets about 5-10 touches a game, and makes the most of them. He’s good for 4.5 yards a carry, and about 8 yards a catch out of the backfield (though lined up outside some).
Columbus native and freshman Malachi Hosley subs Haynes in the backfield, but seems to have an extra gear. He’s not used as much in the passing game, but when you average over 7.4 yards per carry, you don’t really need to. He also has 7 scores on the season.
Senior wideouts Eric Rivers and Malik Rutherford might be more frequent targets for Haynes King, 6’4” sophomore Isiah Canion is the big play guy. And he’s blossomed from part-time duty his freshman campaign. He’s right at 15 yards per catch and hauled in 4 receiving touchdowns so far.
Call me crazy, just don’t call me late for Thanksgiving dinner. Let us know in the comments what you’re feeling about who might actually Run This State. And as always…
GO ‘DAWGS!!!
