Belated Elated Thoughts

I replaced my laptop Monday afternoon, so I have spent most of the last two days configuring and uploading and downloading and calling tech support, blah blah blah. Anyway...

We kicked Tennessee's ass all the way up 441 and right through Talullah Gorge. It was about time this team showed up ready to play, executed well and received a plethora of breaks at the misfortune of the opponent. As Senator Blutarsky pointed out, we recovered as many fumbles in the first half as we did in all of 2010.

Aaron Murray continues to get better and Bobo finally moved the pocket and sent him on some bootlegs. More please. Common sense says that Murray will make some more rookie mistakes, but I would like to compare his performance against UT with Stafford's breakout performance against Auburn in 2006. In both cases, the teams were coming of a stretch of 4 losses and the teams appeared to be on the verge of coming unglued. In Auburn 2006 and UT 2010, our freshman QB showed their first best grasp of the playbook and recognition of the defenses resulting in sound execution, timely audibles and several gutsy improvisation runs to lead the team an emotionally charged victory over an SEC rival. Starting with Auburn 2006, the team went on a 24-5 run with Stafford at the helm. Much remains of the 2010 season, but if history was to repeat itself, I think Dawg fans would be happy. (In fairness, Murray has played well in every game this year, but he noticeably elevated his game Saturday and part of that was a result of playcalling, part a result of AJ Green being on the field, and part due to Murray getting more experienced and more comfortable running this team.)

Aaron Murray's play reminds me of Chase Daniel from Missouri a couple of years back. Daniel was a three year starter and had two seasons with over 4000 yards passing and 30+ touchdowns. Daniel was also an elusive runner and certainly made plays with his feet. I think they are both about the same size and a lot of Murray's movements are reminiscent of Daniel - to me.

How did you guys feel about Tennessee making all of the mistakes that have haunted the Dawgs in the past couple of seasons? Fumbled kickoff, fumbled punt, interception, two personal fouls on late hits out of bounds... It sure was nice to see a team not in Red and Black shooting their feet off for a change.

Tight ends... the more we use them the more we score. The more we score, the more we win. Ergo... throw to your tight ends early and often! With AJ getting so much attention, our tight ends should find some open space in the middle seam but we haven't exploited that yet. We missed Charles on a seam route earlier this year but that was without AJ in the lineup. I predict that Charles or Aron White will strike for a long one against Vanderbilt right down the middle of the field.

AJ Green is Superman. There is no other explanation.