General thoughts: offense

Unfortunately, we're back for round 7 with Mike Bobo as offensive coordinator.   Bobo's offenses have put up numbers in the past, but he also still has a crayon.  So there are clearly reasons to feel good, and feel bad about the 2012 Georgia offensive unit.

QB- Aaron Murray enters his third year as starting QB, and his fourth in the program.  Generally that bodes extremely well for an offense where the player should have a complete understanding of everything going on.  Muray gets the offense, and has the skills to excel in it.  But it wasn't like he didn't understand the offense last year when turnovers and mental errors constantly plagued him.  He's been healthy, although you never know if Christian Lemay or Hutson Mason will be needed.  Neither gets that much hype for their skills.  Neither is some Mettenberger like big armed behemoth, nor a speedy escape artist that brings a running as well as throwing threat, so the offense would stay the same with either of them.  But back to Murray, if healthy, he's taking the snaps.  So our questions for the season are: Can he learn to get rid of the ball instead of take sacks?  Can he start to work the short and mid range passing games?  Can he get rid of poorly timed turnovers?  This is the year QBs tend to eliminate those mistakes, but Murray has been making the same ones over and over again the last two years, so confidence isn't high.

RB- The wild card position, but then again, if the other positions become strength (mainly OL), then this one will be too.  Malcome has skills, but can he stay healthy?  Marshall does too, but is he ready both in game and in ability to take the hits?  Gurley has the same questions, as physical tools are there as much as you'd want, but is he mentally ready to do all he needs to do, and physically ready to take an SEC pounding as a teenager?  We all know what Samuel is by now, a great athlete who just isn't a natural football player, but will give you everything he's got in the tank every play.  He, Ogletree, Hicks, and Merritt Hall can handle FB.  If our OL can make the holes, we've got talent at TB to make plays.  But the questions are, can the OL give them the room, and can they stay healthy enough to make something happen?  Health was the big problem last year, and if we're back to relying on Karempelis and Harton to handle the load, we're in trouble.

OL- And we'll just head right in to that OL since that is the key to the two above and below categories.  Last year, we couldn't run block, and struggled protecting the edges in pass protection.  Hopefully, we've got a leaner, quicker OL for run blocking.  And also for pass pro as we get natural OTs instead of "best we got" guards out of position.  We lack some experience, but aren't newbies.  Gates started off and on the last two years.  Burnette and Lee started the games they were healthy at G.  And Andrews has more experience under his belt than Ben Jones did when he took over the snapping duties.  If Theus is all he was hyped to be, that's a huge bonus thanks to the fat pimps at the home office screwing over a hard working kid.  We lack depth, but hopefully the JUCO Beard can provide it along with Dantlzer.  Besides, depth along the OL is overrated.  If you've got a strong 6 or 7, you've got all you're likely to need, and sometimes just a good 5 will do.  We need Andrews to hold his own in the middle, while Gates and Theus clean up the edges.  Do that, and this offense will put up huge numbers.  Don't, and it'll be the same inconsistent mess that's made us all scream "Damn you, Bobo!" since 2006.

WR-I'm not as confident about this group as others, and I'll explain why.  As much as I loved watching Tampa Mitchell make big plays, pulling double duty makes me think we lose him early to a hamstring, and we will not have the same threat we had last year at any time this year.  Tavares King's hands are still extremely suspect.  Marlon Brown has yet to step up.  Chris Conley showed all the skills, but has never been the main man and may not have anything close to the type of game breaking ability Mitchell had.  Michael Bennett, I'm nervous he'll have a sophomore slump for some reason, as much as I love his game.  And beyond them, like everywhere else on the roster, we lack depth.  Badly.  There's some ability in this unit.  But the promise of 3 freshman WRs doing things no other trio that young had ever done before has worn off, and the thin depth chart and lack of a reliable threat has me thinking this unit, more than RB or OL, will be our problem unit.

TE-I'll go here next, because it'll be short and sweet. We've got Rome and Lynch. I'm not counting on anything from the undersized freshman. I don't like it. Rome has been called out by Richt, but the physical tools are there to be a great one. Lynch has the same size and hands to be another in our long line of great TEs from Clarence Kay to Troy Sadowski to Larry Brown to Leonard Pope and so many others. But we've just got the two we can depend on, and maybe not even that. Using 6'5 pass catchers who can work the seams and have athleticism is something a lot of teams do, because it works. If someone goes down, we're struggling. If one gets suspended, problem. Forget the balanced, pick your poison of 2 TE sets, we just don't have the depth. We've got some good pass catchers, especially if we can use them as more than just a smaller, 6th OL. But for a state with the resources Georgia has, how we can't attack defenses with a balanced line and a pair of 6'4+, 240+, soft handed beasts running 4.6 or less quickly in and out of their cuts is beyond me. Maybe next year we'll have the depth to force opponents to pick how we beat them, with a power running game behind a 2 TE front, or down the field with 4 vertical threats across the board.