{"id":17144,"date":"2011-08-16T06:00:23","date_gmt":"2011-08-16T11:00:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/?p=17144"},"modified":"2011-08-17T09:16:59","modified_gmt":"2011-08-17T14:16:59","slug":"2011-georgia-bulldogs-college-football-preview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/2011-georgia-bulldogs-college-football-preview-17144\/","title":{"rendered":"2011 Georgia Bulldogs College Football Preview"},"content":{"rendered":"

Georgia Bulldogs<\/strong>
\n2010 record:\u00a0 6-7 overall, 3-5 conference<\/strong>
\n2010 Bowl Game:\u00a0 10-6 loss to UCF in Liberty Bowl<\/strong>
\n2010 ATS:\u00a0 5-8<\/strong>
\n2010 O\/U:\u00a0 9-4<\/strong>
\nReturning starters:\u00a0 11 total (4 on offense, 7 on defense)<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
The Georgia Bulldogs attempt to bounce back after a disappointing 6-7 season a year ago<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Over the month of August, our team of writers will be previewing the top teams heading into an exciting 2011 campaign.\u00a0 The college football handicappers at Maddux Sports are also preparing and have season-long packages readily available for clients.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s head south to Athens, Georgia and see how head coach Mark Richt plans on bouncing back from a dreadful 2010 campaign.<\/p>\n

Offense<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Aaron Murray learned a lot as a freshman starting quarterback in the SEC and finished with 3,049 passing yards and 24 touchdowns.\u00a0 The yardage was second in conference history by a freshman.<\/p>\n

He earned Freshman All-America honors and showed effectiveness in running the football by scoring four rushing touchdowns.\u00a0 His former teammate wide receiver A.J. Green stated that he\u2019s got Heisman Trophy potential in just his second year.<\/p>\n

The Bulldogs were expected to return four of their top five rushers from a year ago, but the dismissals of\u00a0\u00a0Washaun Ealey and Caleb King have changed things. \u00a0Richt has moved Richard Samuel back to the position and the campus is all abuzz in welcoming freshman Isaiah Crowell. \u00a0He was the top rated running back in the Class of 2011 in terms of recruiting.<\/p>\n

Georgia suffered a big loss in the receiving corps with Green bolting to the NFL to become the fourth pick in the draft, but All-SEC candidate Tavarres King is the leading returner, catching 27 passes for 504 yards and three touchdowns a year ago.<\/p>\n

Plenty of other downfield options are found out of the tight end spot, including All-SEC second-team selection Orson Charles, who came away with 26 catches for 422 yards.<\/p>\n

Two starters return on the offensive line that led the team to finish 10th in the SEC in rushing last year.<\/p>\n

Defense<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

The defensive line has a major player in the middle of its 3-4 scheme, as sophomore Kwame Geathers is coming off a year of earning Freshman All-SEC recognition and a spring in which he was named the MVP on defense.<\/p>\n

Lack of experience may plague the linebacking group, but the unit does possess plenty of talent.\u00a0 Christian Robinson has 11 career starts under his belt and is the second-leading returning tackler.<\/p>\n

Many around campus are waiting to see if outside linebacker Jarvis Jones is ready to burst on the scene, as he transferred from Southern California and was a menace during 2010 practices.<\/p>\n

Three returning starters in the secondary figures to be the strength of the unit, as the group was 17th nationally in pass defense a year ago, allowing 181.3 yards per game.<\/p>\n

Safety Bacarri Rambo is Georgia\u2019s leading returning tackler with 82 and also came away with three interceptions.<\/p>\n

Special Teams<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

No team in the nation may have a better kicking game this year, as Blair Walsh and Drew Butler are Lou Groza and Ray Guy Award candidates respectively.<\/p>\n

Walsh scored 106 points last year on 20 field goals, while Butler averaged 44.5 yards per punt.<\/p>\n

The kick return unit is electric with Brandon Boykin setting the school\u2019s career mark for return yardage and is the only player in SEC history with three 100-yard plays of any kind.<\/p>\n

Against the Spread<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

The team has been a failure against the number the last three years, posting a combined 13-23 ATS mark.<\/p>\n

Bet On<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Don\u2019t miss out on the season finale against in-state rival Georgia Tech in Atlanta, as the Bulldogs are a perfect 6-0 ATS on the road in the series.<\/p>\n

Fade Away<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Facing off against South Carolina during Week 2 is likely to not end well for Georgia, coming into the season on a 0-4 ATS run in the series.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Georgia Bulldogs 2010 record:\u00a0 6-7 overall, 3-5 conference 2010 Bowl Game:\u00a0 10-6 loss to UCF in Liberty Bowl 2010 ATS:\u00a0 5-8 2010 O\/U:\u00a0 9-4 Returning starters:\u00a0 11 total (4 on offense, 7 on defense) Over the month of August, our team of writers will be previewing the top teams heading into an exciting 2011 campaign.\u00a0 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":181,"featured_media":3921,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[200,1444],"tags":[1409,3646,461,5314,5305,2254,739],"class_list":["post-17144","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-college-football","category-headlines","tag-aaron-murray","tag-caleb-king","tag-georgia-bulldogs","tag-isaiah-crowell","tag-kwame-geathers","tag-mark-richt","tag-sec"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17144","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/181"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17144"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17144\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17146,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17144\/revisions\/17146"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3921"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17144"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17144"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17144"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}