When No. 10 Georgia plays its SEC finale at Auburn on Saturday, the Bulldogs will be facing a weapon they have seen in their last two conference games: a mobile quarterback. Auburn’s Kodi Burns leads his team in rushing touchdowns (five), is second in rushing yards (377) and is one of four Tiger rushers with over 150 yards this season. “It’s Auburn so they’re going to have great athletes,” said Bulldog defensive end Andrew Gully. “We know their quarterback’s a runner. […] We’re just trying to prepare as hard as we can to be ready for it.”
Gully, a senior walk-on who got a surprise start at Kentucky last week, is just one of the many defensive ends that a reeling Bulldog defense has played this season. An elbow injury has had him out of the mix this week as far as practice time is concerned, but defensive ends coach Jon Fabris has other options. “The bottom line is they’re all pretty much playing about the same amount of time,” Fabris said. “There are no two guys that are ‘the’ two guys that are going to play most of the game. I play five or six guys every game.”
Last week, Georgia surrendered 226 rushing yards to a Kentucky offense keyed by quarterback Randall Cobb. Despite the Wildcats’ success, Fabris liked what he saw from some of his ends, including Roderick Battle, who is rounding into shape after missing three games earlier in the season with a neck injury. “He’s playing, but he’s not [completely] healthy,” Fabris said about Battle. “He did play well last week, as did Jarius Wynn, as did Demarcus Dobbs. All three of them played pretty well last week.”
Those ends as well as the rest of the Georgia defense will get another chance to stop a quarterback that will look to run. Burns’s running ability has become increasingly valuable for an Auburn offense caught in between the spread attack it installed coming into the year and a power attack it wants to return to. For the season, Burns has thrown one touchdown and seven interceptions, meaning that stopping him from running is likely the first thing a team must do when facing Auburn. “If we don’t know what we’ve got to do, we’re not very bright,” Fabris said. “Does that mean they can’t throw it? No, they can throw it and they’ve got a lot of really good running backs.”
Still, stopping a quarterback from gaining yards on the ground has proven to be easier said than done, as Cobb and Florida’s Tim Tebow were able to run against the Bulldogs in obvious running situations. “There’s no doubt that when you have a running quarterback it’s though the offense has an extra man,” Fabris said. “Because instead of a quarterback handing the ball off and [getting] out of the equation, he’s now running with the ball and now that guy he used to hand off to is blocking for him. So there’s an [extra] blocker every time the quarterback runs.”
The Bulldogs have surrendered 143 points in their last three games, causing many to notice a drop-off from previous stout defensive units. Gully believes that he and his fellow defenders can turn things around in the team’s final few games. “I think we can be just as good as those defenses in years past,” Gully said. “We’ve just got to keep working hard. We’ve had a good a week of practice and hopefully against Auburn we can come out and start doing well again.”
The Georgia offense was highly efficient a week ago, totaling 520 yards and scoring touchdowns on all five of its red-zone trips. “We did work a little bit more in the red zone area in last week’s practice, as we did again [Wednesday],” said Bulldog head coach Mark Richt. “We just made the plays.”
This week bring more changes along the offensive line however, as right tackle Justin Anderson suffered an injured foot against Kentucky and Josh Davis and Kiante Tripp competed at his spot in practice. “I would think that both Josh and Kiante will play right tackle. I don’t know who’s going to start right now,” Richt said. “I’ll be surprised if they both didn’t play some.”
The Bulldog line will be tested once again, as the Auburn defense is No. 13 in the country in scoring and is No. 3 in third-down defense. They also have not given up a touchdown in the first quarter this season. “They are quick, but they’re big. Their front four, especially the inside players, are very big and strong,” Richt said. “They don’t try to trick you. They just line up and whip you. That’s kind of how they play. They’re going to create a lot of problems.”
Despite the challenges up front, Georgia will hope to have big days once again from star tailback Knowshon Moreno and star quarterback Matthew Stafford. “Without veteran skill guys, I think our line issues would be greater than they are right now,” Richt said. “There have definitely been times when Matthew made some throws on rhythm with guys bearing down on him. There have been times when there was not much running room at all for Knowshon, but he’s been able to make his way just through his ability to make people miss.
“It’ll be nice to see Knowshon play behind a real mature line. It’ll be nice to see Matthew play behind a real mature line. It’ll really be interesting to see,” Richt said.
That will not be the case on Saturday, but those two—along with a receiving corps that is peaking—will probably be enough to give the Bulldogs a victory.
Butler can be reached at jbutler@scoreatl.com.
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