A late Merry Christmas to all our faithful BHN readers out there. We hope you’ve been enjoying the holidays and that a few of you are making the trip to Memphis for the Liberty Bowl. Yours truly will be working through New Years and stuck in Atlanta, the fifth game this season that I’ve been unable to attend either because of work or a wedding. Maybe in retrospect I’ll consider it a blessing in light of the season’s outcome, but I’m still bitter at the moment.
While we all hoped back in August for a bowl destination in a warmer location with a later date, there was a point in September when bowling seemed unlikely to happen at all. So let’s embrace reality, and the Liberty Bowl, and get a peek at what to expect on New Year’s Eve in Memphis.
The Dawgs will face a relatively unknown UCF team in the Liberty Bowl. The C-USA champs rolled up 10 wins, but their most impressive win of the year was over East Carolina. Their three losses came to NC State, Kansas State, and Southern Miss, but they weren’t blown out by any of the three. The team is led by George O’Leary, who went 3-4 against the Dawgs when he was the Nerds’ fearless leader (losing to Richt in 2000 and 2001). The Knights will be looking for their first bowl win in school history while the Dawgs will look to avoid their first losing season in 13 years. Needless to say, the two teams are coming off very different seasons. In many senses the game clock at the Liberty Bowl won’t just be counting down 60 minutes of game time, it will count down the seconds until this miserable season is behind us. The 2011 season has plenty of uncertainty, but I don’t think anyone other than the team’s seniors will be sorry to see 2010 behind us.
Here, on schedule, are your storylines and players to watch in the Liberty Bowl and our final prediction for 2010:
Storylines:
Freshman Phenoms- There isn’t a Dawg fan alive who doesn’t realize Aaron
Godfrey- since we're sure you had no idea what he looks like.
Murray was the only thing that kept this year from being a complete and utter disaster. His numbers were great, not just for a freshman, but for any college QB. But as it turns out, the Liberty Bowl will feature two freshman signal callers (the only bowl game to do so, FYI). UCF’s freshman is Jeff Godfrey. He didn’t get his first start until the third game of the season, but still tallied 2042 passing yards, 13 TDs and only 6 INTs. Quite the athlete, he also ran for 546 yards and accounted for another 9 TDs on the ground. Good quarterbacks normally make for good games, so these two guys playing older than their age should be fun to watch.
Defensive Improvement- The improvement in the first year of the Grantham era was certainly less than what the coaches and fans hoped for when he was hired after the bowl game last season. The team especially struggled against the run, where UCF really excels. One of the excuses/reasons we heard all year was guys still struggling to pick up the new system and play freely. One would hope that with 15 practices there could be some serious improvement and a gameplan in place to stop UCF’s mobile QB. If the Knights can match their season average of nearly 200 rushing yards/game it could be a frustrating day for Dawgs fans.
Richt’s Hot Seat- There are lots of reasons the coaches and players should
A new haircut would help too.
want to win this game- finishing with a winning record, sending the seniors out with a win, not losing to a C-USA team, etc. But one that shouldn’t be overlooked is the effect it will have on the temperature of Richt’s seat from January 1st until the Dawgs kickoff in the Dome Labor Day weekend. A loss to UCF, and a 6-7 season, will provide enough fuel to keep the critics’ fires going strong for those eight full months. A win doesn’t take all the heat off, but at least it doesn’t turn it up. With a win and a solid finish to recruiting the fanbase could enter the offseason hopeful.
Players:
Aaron Murray- While UCF gains nearly 200 yards/game on the ground, they surrender only 11o yards/game rushing. With Caleb King out of the game and the line still an uncertainty every game hopefully the coaches have accepted that just like the Auburn and Tech games, any chance of winning lies squarely on Aaron Murray’s beautiful right arm. He’s got weapons a’plenty. You know AJ wants to go out with a bang. So does Durham. And I can’t imagine the UCF corners and safeties are looking forward to this game. If Murray can do what he’s done all year the Dawgs should outscore UCF and win.
Akeem Dent- Name the last dual-threat QB the Dawgs didn’t struggle to 
defend. Since Pat White gashed the 2005 team in the Sugar Bowl mobile quarterbacks have been a series of recurring nightmares. Ultimately, it’s the linebackers who have to neutralize QBs like Godfrey, chasing him down on the run and dropping back into coverage when he wants to throw. And no UGA linebacker has improved more at both of those things this year than Dent. This is no less than the third time we’ve called on him as defensive player to watch, but he continues to be the one solid contributor on that side of the ball.
Blair Walsh- On special teams you have to hope the Dawgs won’t be punting or even kicking field goals all to often. Wearing out Blair Walsh’s leg with kickoffs would be much better! But hold your breath every time he does kickoff because UCF’s return man, Quincy McDuffie, is second in the nation with 32 yards/return. Watch for Walsh to boot them out the back of the endzone when he can and toward the corners at other times to keep McDuffie neutralized.
Prediction:
There really isn’t a lot to like about the Dawgs position going into this game- just trying to end a miserable season, with multiple players suspended, against a team looking to close their best season in school history with a win over an SEC team. Then again, it’s hard to imagine UCF stopping the air assault Murray and Co. will put on. The Dawgs offense may well become totally one-dimensional in this game and the game could easily turn into another shootout with a team that runs at will on our defense while the Dawgs pick up passing yardage in huge chunks. In the end I think the Dawgs’ size on defense, which UCF hasn’t seen many times this year, get one more stop (but probably only one more) to get the win and push the bowl winning streak to five- 38-31 Dawgs on top.
