Georgia football: Observations of opponents after week three
Georgia football had no issues with Samford, but other teams on the 2017 schedule did not fare as well.
As a Georgia football fan, week three was a joy to watch. Two of our biggest rivals looked like complete garbage. Another rival lost in surprising fashion, while another didn’t look all that good either. The Missouri game looks like a real cake walk.
Lets take a closer look at how each of Georgia’s opponents on the 2017 schedule performed this past week. As always, upcoming opponents are in another story so look for Mississippi State elsewhere. And Georgia Tech isn’t on here either since they did not play this past week.
Tennessee just isn’t any good
In a way, I feel bad for Tennessee fans, especially ones my age. They grew up with great teams who contended for titles year after year. But now, Tennessee is a shell of their former selves. Maybe it’s what they deserve for running Phillip Fulmer out-of-town.
Butch Jones is the latest in a line of mediocre coaches to come to Tennessee and he’s surprisingly lasted a long while. Yeah, his teams appeared to be heading in the right direction starting in his first season but there was never anything spectacular.
He didn’t have second seasons like Mark Richt, Nick Saban or Urban Meyer had at Georgia, Alabama and Florida. Perhaps that should have been a warning that Jones was not the guy to lead Tennessee to consistent success.
They entered last season with SEC East Title aspirations and ended up disappointing again. Not only that, they dealt with distractions in the off-season that bled over into 2017 and Jones is unable to right the ship. Not only that, he threw his quarterback under the bus in comments to the media earlier this week.
Then on the field, they’re just a mess. The defense is bad, which isn’t surprising. But their offense wasn’t that competent against Florida. Despite John Kelly imposing his will on the Gators defense, Tennessee only gave him 19 carries. He rushed for 141 yards leaving many wondering why he isn’t getting the ball more. Plus, the passing game isn’t that good either.