Georgia’s switch to the 3-4 has already produced one benefit: Its opening opponent apparently has no idea what to prepare for – even though its coach knows Todd Grantham very well.
Louisiana-Lafayette coach Ricky Bustle indicated that his offense will basically have to adjust on the fly when it faces Georgia on Saturday.
“It’s tough when you don’t have any film on a team that you’re getting ready to play and they’ve made a chance in their defense,” Bustle said. “It kind of makes you keep things pretty simple. Because we do open up conference play the next week. You’re kind of guessing sometimes what Todd’s gonna do defensively … We just have to feel good about making adjustments.”
Georgia’s new defensive scheme is coached by Todd Grantham, whom Bustle coached when he was an assistant at Virginia Tech. Grantham also served as a graduate assistant at Virginia Tech, and Bustle said the two have stayed in touch.
“Todd and I have always been good, good friends and stayed with each other,” Bustle said. “He’s a fine football coach, and I’m sure he’s gonna be ready to get after us.”
The Ragin’ Cajuns, a member of the Sun Belt, are also very experienced playing against major-conference teams. They opened a couple years ago at South Carolina, and played at Nebraska last year. (Getting smoked, 55-0).
So when Bustle was asked about a “David vs. Goliath” kind of feel, he blanched a bit.
“I don’t approach it that way,” he said. “We want our kids to feel like they can go in on any given Saturday and win a game like that. And that’s what we’re gearing up to do. It’s a great tradition at Georgia, I played there myself (as an opposing player). … We’ve played enough of those that we’re not awed by the crowd, or awed by the atmosphere. We’re there to play.”
Monday, August 30, 2010
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
2 comments:
Seth ... from your conversations with CTG, do you think he's going to ease the defense into the game against ULL (and not give anything away to USC for next week) or, depending on how good the D is playing, try to throw the kitchen sink at them to see how our D plays?
I hope that while not showing the game plan he will use against USC that he does not play it overly vanilla. I think confidence gained by throwing some of his wrinkles at ULL will be huge. Also it will get the fan base fired up and even more behind him than they already are. Also it will give him a chance to maybe run some things he doesn't plan on using much the rest of the season but as UGA's first game it will be all Carolina has to use as a gameplan against us the next week. Run some calls that he doesn't plan to use against them just to make them prepare for the wrong stuff. Also, while I don't want starters in the game anywhere near the 4th quarter I'd love to see the 2nd team stay in a bit longer on D than normal to gain experience and if there is a shut out going make sure to get it to establish the mentailty Grantham wants going forward.
Post a Comment