How will Matthew Stafford, Knowshon Moreno and Asher Allen leaving early for the NFL affect Georgia? Let us look at the trio’s respective positions before they inherited them and now that they are vacating them. Can the Bulldogs produce some smooth transitions once more?
AT QUARTERBACK
D.J. Shockley started at quarterback for Georgia the season before Stafford arrived, leading the team to a 7-0 start and an eventual 10-3 finish and SEC Championship. Stafford came in the spring of 2006 and was expected by most to win the starting job, yet senior Joe Tereshinski III was named starter instead. Stafford came in off the bench and led the Bulldogs to a victory in Week 2 at South Carolina. Redshirt freshman Joe Cox came off the bench to help Georgia get a win over Colorado two weeks later. After a surprising loss to Vanderbilt, Georgia head coach Mark Richt made the decision to hand over the team to Stafford. The Bulldogs lost two of their next three games with Stafford at the helm, but rebounded to close the season with three consecutive wins.
Cox is still around and is now the leading candidate to replace Stafford. As a fifth-year senior, he should be expected to play more like Shockley did in 2005, as opposed to how Stafford performed as a true freshman. However, if he should not live up to expectations or go down to injury, the Bulldogs’ quarterback situation would be even more inexperienced than it was in 2006. Redshirt sophomore Logan Gray and true freshmen Aaron Murray and Zach Mettenberger are the other contenders.
AT RUNNING BACK
It was hard for Moreno to stand out on Saturdays in his first season at Georgia. That is because he did not see the field; he was redshirted. The Bulldogs were deep at tailback in 2006 with Thomas Brown, Kregg Lumpkin and Danny Ware all proven commodities, so at the time the coaches thought it was the prudent move to make, though in hindsight it cost Georgia a year of playing Moreno. Lumpkin led the team with 798 rushing yards and Brown missed the final six games due to injury.
A year later, with Ware having declared for the NFL Draft, Moreno started the season in the rotation with Brown and Lumpkin. Injuries to Brown and Lumpkin saw Moreno get more carries than a typical No. 3 back would usually get. He carried the ball 20 times for 70 yards in his first college game and broke 100 yards for the first time a week later against South Carolina. With Brown and Lumpkin missing time simultaneously after game No. 6, Moreno was the team’s most experienced tailback and ripped off five straight 100-yard games, staking his claim as Georgia’s top ball-carrier.
The Bulldogs once again have a stable of tailbacks and they will be looking to replace Moreno. Redshirt sophomore Caleb King is the most ballyhooed of the backs and was a dominant high school running back in Georgia. True sophomore Richard Samuel is an athletic specimen that runs physically and loves to compete. Redshirt freshman Dontavius Jackson was also a dominant high school running back in Georgia, while fellow redshirt freshman Carlton Thomas is a diminutive but impressive back out of Florida. What separates this group from the group Moreno took the reigns from is that no one in this group has proven himself yet.
AT CORNERBACK
At short corner, Allen made 24 starts for the Bulldogs over the last two seasons. He was thrust into the starting job after the spring of 2007, when incumbent Paul Oliver entered the NFL’s supplemental Draft because of academic concerns. Oliver, who was selected by and currently plays for San Diego, started every game in 2006 after only two starts in 2005. The Bulldogs have had a revolving door of talented corners in recent years, and have a pretty talented group coming back in Prince Miller, Bryan Evans, Vance Cuff and Brandon Boykin. That group is expected to get even more talented come next fall with the arrival of freshman Branden Smith of Washington High School, who has committed to Georgia. Also, the Bulldogs have a commitment from Jordan Love of Virginia and are in the running for Greg Reid of Lowndes High School.
Even with the elder statesmen Cox at quarterback, Georgia should not expect to be clicking on all cylinders early on. By the end of next season, as history indicates, it would not be surprising if the replacements for all three players have already made their marks. Of course, that is not exactly the best news for the Bulldogs, who open the 2009 season with a tough matchup at Oklahoma State.
Butler can be reached at jbutler@scoreatl.com.
Loading ...
