Georgia Football: Secondary will be tested by Middle Tennessee

The Georgia Football team takes on the Middle Tennessee Blue Raiders today in a game that will challenge the UGA Secondary.

When the Georgia Football team takes the field today, they will take on a Middle Tennessee program that’s more successful at throwing the ball than many think. The Blue Raiders like to air it out and have thrown the ball quite a bit in the past two weeks. Against Vanderbilt, their QB Brent Stockstill threw 36 times and completed 24 of those attempts. Last week, he was even more effective, completing 25 of 34 passes for over 400 yards and 5 TD’s.

Now, going against the UGA secondary, nobody is going to expect Stockstill to throw for 400 yards again. The Dawgs are probably a little better than UT Martin. However, his success emphasizes that this is a very different team to Austin Peay who the Dawgs faced in game one this year. The Governors were a run-heavy team and run defense happens to be a strength for the UGA defense.

We’re not entirely sure how good Georgia is in pass coverage. They did a solid job last week against South Carolina, but the Gamecocks still threw for nearly 270 yards. Bryan Edwards had one of his best days in college, accounting for 111 yards and two touchdowns. Georgia dominated the game, but they couldn’t shut down the SC passing game. That is a reason for concern as we continue for the rest of this season.

Next week, Georgia takes on Missouri who last season boasted one of the most explosive passing teams in the country. The Dawgs will be away from home and facing a QB in Drew Lock that many believe could be a 1st round NFL pick. The Blue Raiders give them a chance to test themselves against a good passing team before that game. It should hopefully give their players a chance to continue to improve in their coverage.

Georgia’s secondary is relatively young. Deandre Baker and JR Reed are the ‘old heads’ but the rest of the players back there are all getting their first real playing time. Tyson Campbell in particular needs to continue to improve because he was the guy Edwards beat so often last week. He’s young and that’s going to happen, but the Dawgs need him to grow as a player as the weeks go on.

Despite the difference in pedigree, today will be a challenge for UGA in many position groups. If they can dominate a decent MT team then that bodes well for next week. This game is much more about how Georgia plays rather than whether they win and no unit has more to prove right now than the secondary.