‘D’ key for Texas A&M, Georgia in bowl
December 27, 2009
SHREVEPORT, La. (AP)—Texas A&M defensive back Jordan Pugh is sick of hearingabout it.
On TV, in the paper, at his favorite restaurant, all anyone wants to talkabout is all the points that will be scored when the Aggies play Georgia inMonday’s Independence Bowl.
“That’s all you hear,” Pugh said Sunday. “They talk about the offenseevery day. As a defense, we’re going to be out on the field, too.”
Of course, there’s a good reason for all that talk of a high-scoring affair.
Georgia quarterback Joe Cox, r… AP – Dec 27, 3:11 pm EST Georgia players Jeff Owens, le… AP – Dec 27, 3:09 pm EST
Texas A&M players Jerrod Johns… AP – Dec 27, 2:52 pm EST
Georgia defensive tackle Jeff … AP – Dec 27, 2:07 pm EST
Georgia football coach Mark Ri… AP – Dec 27, 2:07 pm EST
Georgia quarterback Joe Cox re… AP – Dec 27, 2:01 pm EST
Texas A&M quarterback Jerrod J… AP – Dec 27, 1:58 pm EST
Texas A&M defensive back Jorda… AP – Dec 27, 1:48 pm EST
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Texas A&M (6-6) has given up 30 or more points eight times this season andmore than 60 points twice. The Aggies’ opponents averaged 32.7 points per game,104th out of 120 Football Bowl Subdivision teams.
Georgia (7-5) was a touchdown better, giving up 26.4 ppg. But that rankedthe Bulldogs an unaccustomed 10th in the Southeastern Conference and led to thefiring of three defensive assistants, including defensive coordinator WillieMartinez.
The Independence Bowl gives each defense a chance to prove it’s no pushover.
“You’ve got to look forward to that,” Pugh said.
Neither Georgia coach Mark Richt nor Texas A&M coach Mike Sherman expects 10touchdowns Monday. Each team has had the chance to prepare for the opponent overseveral weeks and those extra practices mean more experience. And Sherman’s beenpart of plenty of games where big numbers were predicted yet never happened.
“My experience has been when people talk about offensive matchups it’salways been kind of a disappointment because the defense usually rises to theoccasion in those games,” Sherman said. “I don’t know how many times you guyshave written about an offensive matchup and it turns out to be a defensivebattle.”
The Aggies’ defensive troubles can be explained away by youth andinexperience. Sherman played 18 freshmen this season—the second most in thenation—and 14 of the 22 players on the defense’s two-deep depth chart areunderclassmen.
The Bulldogs’ plight is a little harder to get a handle on and just howthey’ll respond to the loss of Martinez and the other assistants remains to beseen.
The trio of fired coaches turned down Richt’s invitation to remain with theteam through the bowl, leaving just one full-time assistant and two graduateassistants to help prepare a gameplan and run practices.
“My main role on the defense was to try to set some parameters with thedefensive staff,” Richt said, “to say, ‘Look, let’s not reinvent the wheel,let’s try not to do some things that our guys aren’t comfortable with. Let’s dowhat we do, let’s get a plan that is sound and hopefully as simple as possible,so we can put our players in position to make the plays.”’
Richt, a former offensive coordinator, sat in on defensive meetings, mostlyto keep an eye on morale and attitude. He even relied on injured seniordefensive end Roderick Battle to step into a coaching role from time to time.
“He worked some with the defensive ends,” Richt said. “But I think a lotof our guys stepped up and made sure everybody was hustling, made sure everybodywas paying attention, made sure we kept our attention on what’s important.”
And what’s important when it comes to defending Texas A&M is stopping JerrodJohnson, who set 11 school records in a breakthrough season he’d love to crownwith Texas A&M’s first bowl win since 2001.
Johnson completed 60 percent of his passes for 3,217 yards with 28touchdowns against just six interceptions. He added another 455 yards rushingand eight scores.
“That’s just fantastic production,” Richt said.
Johnson displayed how dangerous he can be in a 49-39 loss to Texas onThanksgiving. Johnson threw for 342 yards and four touchdowns and ran foranother 97. Add in running back Christine Michael, who rushed for 767 yards and5.1 yards per carry, and receiver Uzoma Nwachukwu, who averaged 18.1 yards percatch, and the Aggies are a handful as the Bulldogs angle for their fourthstraight postseason victory.
“As simple as you might want to make the gameplan defensively, when there’sthat many personnel groups, that many changes of formations and the pace atwhich they go, it creates problems and the biggest problem we have in practiceis trying to simulate it,” Richt said. “It’s impossible to do, so I’m sure inthe game it will be important just to get used to the tempo.”
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