Unlike most years, the Dawgs get a bye week before traveling to Jacksonville to face Florida this year. With that in mind, Mark Richt needs to decide what his main focus should be over the bye week. I thought of this because of a poll on the UGA section of AJC.com.
I think that working on the defense should be the #1 focus. Arkansas used some defensive scheme that allowed only 23 points to the Gators (Georgia scored 52 points on the same defense). Containing Tebow will be the hardest part of this, as he can take off and run whenever he wants to, usually gaining ig yardage. Richt needs to get our defense in shape to contain Tebow and stop Florida's offense.
I voted for "work on containing Tebow" in the AJC poll, but most of the voters did not agree. 48% voted for working on the running game. I agree that our running game has either been terrible or nonexistent this year, but this should not be the primary focus. It should be the secondary focus. You already have a running back who can run pretty good (Washaun Ealey), so your second focus should be to get him ready. However, since he can already run pretty good, the defense comes first.
What was interesting is that 21% of the voters thought that rest should be the primary focus over the two weeks. How could rest prepare us for facing Florida? Rest will never prepare you for facing a team like the Gators. You need to work hard if you want to slow down Florida's offense and move the ball on Florida's defense.
At the top of this post, I mentioned that Florida has historically had a bye week right before the Georgia game, but this is changing. The Dawgs had the off-week before the 2007 game (which we won 42-30). Florida had the off week before the 2008 game (which they won 49-10). Going on, we have the bye week in 2009 (this year), they have it in 2010, and we could have it in 2011 (if we schedule our nonconference games right). This bye week will probably help us a lot in the future.
