Georgia Football: Advantages/Disadvantages vs Tennessee

Tennessee Running game vs UGA’s defense:

This is the one area that some seem to think Tennessee might have an edge in. The Vols have put up some decent sunning stats over the past four games. Georgia also struggled to stop the run last week and so that could suggest that this is Vols path to victory.

Not so fast there. As I wrote yesterday, I just do not think that Tennessee is going to see the success on the ground as some think. The Vols running game might actually not be as good as people seem to think. They put together one incredible day in the third game of the season and rushed for 345 yards. They were, however, playing against UTEP, so it wasn’t exactly an SEC defense they were going up against.

They rushed for 156 yards last week against Florida. However, they also ran the ball 56 times and so averaged less than 3 yards per carry. The same was true in week one when the rather bad West Virginia defense held them to an average of 3.4 yards per carry. In fact, the only game that Tennessee has run the ball effectively was that week three matchup. In short, I’m just not convinced that the Vols are actually good at running the football.

Ty Candler is a name that I’ve heard a few times this week. He’s a talented sophomore who sure, ran for 158 yards against UTEP. But he struggled against Florida and I think it’s very unlikely that he runs all over Georgia’s defense. I don’t know exactly how good UGA’s defense is at stopping the run against a team that really commits to it quite yet. But I do think it’s very unlikely the Chandler or any Vol running back gets to 100 yards.

Advantage: Push (I’m being kind to the Vols here)