I was just about to place my bet on New Mexico State +28, and next thing you know, its +27. Someone just must of pounded it. (The weird thing is their starting QB has been questionable all week.) I hadicapped this game all day, and I think this is a great situation for NMST. They have played a common opponent, South Carolina, and Georgia actually put up 11 points LESS than NMST. They can put some points on the board, and they love running the option. That means, time off the clock and possible big plays. Georgia played Northwestern State last week, so they are actually going to have a TOUGHER time against New Mex St. I also love coaches quotes, and here are some by Mark Richt-
On New Mexico State:
"I am concerned about their offense and how well they run the option. They do throw the ball well with it. I think the key to our game this week is to be disciplined. Defensively, if we miss some assignments, we could leave some big creases. It's always true when you play a team that runs a lot of option football. It's got to be assignment football and the guys have got to not go off on their own and decide they're going to take the QB when they ought to take the pitch or whatever it might be. Sometimes, a team that runs a lot of option doesn't throw very well, but they throw it well enough where they could make some big plays. We just have to be disciplined in what we do."
"Offensively, we're facing a defense that is very diverse. They do like to blitz. They run some man coverage behind their blitzes, but they'll do a lot of zone blitzes. They're a lot more zone blitz team than the team we just played and a lot more cover two, just a two-deep zone which is going to force us to run the ball better. Anytime you have two safeties back there deep, you ought to be able to run the ball. We have to make sure we can. If we don't, it'll be a long day. By them lining up in that kind of look, I think their philosophy is they'd like to see if an offensive team is disciplined enough to go down the field on an eight, nine, ten, 12 play drive. Can you drive the ball consistently, will you shoot yourself in the foot halfway down the field or when you get to the redzone area. We haven't really proved that we can be a team that will drive the ball. We did have a couple drives last week that were over eight plays and they were touchdown drives, but overall this year, we haven't proved that we can do that yet. It will be very interesting to see how we handle that."
"Their kicking game is a good, solid kicking game. They've got a punt return man who's outstanding. They've already run a couple of fakes on their punts. I just say we've got to be really alert and really aware against this team. It just goes back to the word discipline. We've got to really be disciplined in all areas to do well against this opponent."
Looks like a play. BTW, it is down to 26 at some places. After reading the money moves on small schools, this looks like a good one.
On New Mexico State:
"I am concerned about their offense and how well they run the option. They do throw the ball well with it. I think the key to our game this week is to be disciplined. Defensively, if we miss some assignments, we could leave some big creases. It's always true when you play a team that runs a lot of option football. It's got to be assignment football and the guys have got to not go off on their own and decide they're going to take the QB when they ought to take the pitch or whatever it might be. Sometimes, a team that runs a lot of option doesn't throw very well, but they throw it well enough where they could make some big plays. We just have to be disciplined in what we do."
"Offensively, we're facing a defense that is very diverse. They do like to blitz. They run some man coverage behind their blitzes, but they'll do a lot of zone blitzes. They're a lot more zone blitz team than the team we just played and a lot more cover two, just a two-deep zone which is going to force us to run the ball better. Anytime you have two safeties back there deep, you ought to be able to run the ball. We have to make sure we can. If we don't, it'll be a long day. By them lining up in that kind of look, I think their philosophy is they'd like to see if an offensive team is disciplined enough to go down the field on an eight, nine, ten, 12 play drive. Can you drive the ball consistently, will you shoot yourself in the foot halfway down the field or when you get to the redzone area. We haven't really proved that we can be a team that will drive the ball. We did have a couple drives last week that were over eight plays and they were touchdown drives, but overall this year, we haven't proved that we can do that yet. It will be very interesting to see how we handle that."
"Their kicking game is a good, solid kicking game. They've got a punt return man who's outstanding. They've already run a couple of fakes on their punts. I just say we've got to be really alert and really aware against this team. It just goes back to the word discipline. We've got to really be disciplined in all areas to do well against this opponent."
Looks like a play. BTW, it is down to 26 at some places. After reading the money moves on small schools, this looks like a good one.
