YD1,
Thanks as always for that great intro to our game day.
First of all, folks, I've got a ton of friends and family back home in the Sunshine State that are on pins and needles. Chances are I'm headed down there to help my friends clean up after this catastrophic situation. There's a lot more important things in people's lives right now than football, let's keep that on our minds as well. Let us not forget the folks too that are hurting something awful in Houston as well.
A little personal note before I comment on the game... In 2004, my family just about lost our entire home in the three hurricanes that came across central Florida. How did we rebuild? By helping one another. We didn't rely on anyone to come save us, subsidize us, or pretend to feel our pain. We took night watch on four wheelers with AR's and flashlights watching people's houses for looters, we had chains & chainsaws and cut each other out of our barricaded homes, we shared electricity with a lot of redneck electrical engineering and orange extension cords, etc. Somewhere there's a picture of me and my buddies up on my parents roof after the storm clearing off tree limbs and it looked like a college game day tailgate. Georgia, Florida, Auburn, Florida State, USF, and Alabama t-shirts & hats all up on the roof with a cooler of bottle water and beer in the blazing heat & humidity with a friggin mess of damage listening to the Georgia/Tennessee game on a DeWalt radio while ripping off damaged roof deck and cutting back tree limbs. Why do I say this? For us to keep in mind that as bad as it's going to be for Florida, they're going to get through it and they're going to get through it together. It's just what we do. If you're able to help, help. If you aren't, at least keep the folks down there in the Sunshine State in your thoughts and prayers this weekend because it's going to be ugly.
Buc - you be safe bud. You're in my prayers.
Now, onto the game -
I don't see a low scoring game here. I truly believe that Chubb & Michel have breakout days. The lines should be able to wear down ND quite efficiently. If they don't, boys we're in big ass trouble when we start playing SEC opponents. Don't think for one second that Fromm isn't chomping at the bit to do Fromm stuff out there. He is. As SF21 said, ND is going to stack the box to try to shut the run game down. That's a given. We need to see Nauta have a big game, if for no other reason, to prove to us that we actually still have tight ends on this team. Fromm needs to relax in the first half and let Chubb pound the ball again and again and again and again and again and again and wear that defense down. Fromm doesn't need to throw the glamour passes early and often to win this game. They might be stacking the box, but they're not going to be able to keep containment of Chubb every down. By the middle of the 3rd, it should be time to really break things open because ND is going to be exhausted.
As Buc said, Kelly is in need of a marquee win. His fan base already has him on the plank and the blindfold on, so there's going to be some desperation plays early on. ND is going to try to set the tempo and control that right out of the gate. Crowd will be loud. So what. This is big boy football and we're no strangers to hostile environments.
Lastly, these are the type of games that under the former regime, we'd be resigned to the fact that more than likely, we were going to underwhelm and MAYBE squeak out of there with a W. No longer. This is what CKS was brought in for, and it's time to see it.
This game should be in Georgia's bag. I like being the underdog.
GO DAWGS!!! GATA and let's bring the Golden Dome to the ground
