AoG Mailbag: Georgia Aftermath

Not too many questions this week, but I feel like there’s only so many times we can rehash the same issues against top five talent. Let’s hope we have a renewed sense of excitement next week eh? Another week without the Import, but I think he’ll be back next week.

Finally, sorry about this being a little late this week, been some busy nights for us.

Is the rugby-style punt all that [Sam] Loy does? Can he conventionally punt if he needs to? I would think that a "5-star" punter could boom a 50-yarder whenever he needs to do it. Is it coaching or is it [Sam]?

VandyTigerPhD: Josh can kick “American Style” punts, and can do so well. In fact, you may remember that one of the reasons why he was so highly ranked was that he was a “dual threat punter”. I’m going to refer us all to this Hustler article from last year which I think is useful. In it, we see that Sam says he prefers to kick it rugby style when on the opponent side of the 50 to ensure the ball dies if it hits the ground. Makes sense. Mason did get a question very much like this though in the coaches show before UGA and commented they’re trying to do it more because it throws off return men. As a former return man himself, I’m going to trust Mason on that feeling.

Tom Stephenson: Yeah, I think there’s definitely some strategy in when he uses the rugby-style punt. That said, why in hell are we punting so much when we’re on the other side of the 50? These are the questions that keep me up at night when pondering our special teams. Especially when we’re playing a team like Georgia that our defense isn’t stopping anyway.

By the power vested in me by absolutely no one, I have set the over/under for the next six games as 3.5 wins....... Who has the over and why? Who has the under and why?

VandyTigerPhD: I hate you for setting it at 3.5. Well not really hate, but that’s just a perfect O/U honestly. Because while all the games on the rest of the schedule are winnable, we’re going to Vanderbilt something up. So while we could go as high as 6, 3-4 isn’t outside of Vanderbilt either. Let’s not forget we somehow lost to Mizzou while beating vastly better talent last year. So I’m stuck trying to decide whether we Vanderbilt up two games or three. If this were a game of Monopoly I’d be flipping the table over at this very moment. I’m grudgingly taking the under but only because I, like the rest of you, have seen far too many Vanderbilt football seasons to not be cynical at the moment.

Tom Stephenson: Hi, do you work for an oddsmaker? Because, uh, you know how to set odds. I’ll take the over here just because we have three games we should win — the three-game home stretch against Western Kentucky, Kentucky, and Missouri in November — and I’ll take my chances that we can win one of the three remaining road games (Ole Miss, South Carolina, and Tennessee.) Hell, I think we’ll beat Ole Miss this week.