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With Cornelius Washington suspended 2 games, is it now Ray Drew’s time?

9:46 am October 3, 2011, by Chip Towers

With Cornelius Washington's suspension, 5-star freshman signee Ray Drew could be in position to step into the spotlight. (UGA photo)

With Cornelius Washington's suspension, 5-star freshman signee Ray Drew could be in position to step into the spotlight. (UGA photo)

Lots of things going on in the wake of Georgia’s 24-10 win over Mississippi State on Saturday. Of course, the big news was starting outside linebacker Cornelius Washington, who had served as defensive captain and starred in the game, getting arrested for DUI about 10 hours after the game was over.

As Tim Tucker reported, Washington is now going to be suspended “at least” for the upcoming road games against Tennessee and Vanderbilt. That’s obviously a major blow as Washington was playing his best ball and was emerging as perhaps the Bulldogs’ best pass rusher.

The question is, what happens now?

Fans have been calling all season to see more of five-star signee Ray Drew. One of the things that was holding back Drew, if you will, has been the stellar play of Washington. We’ll see very whether Washington’s suspension will automatically result in more playing time for Drew. You’d think it would, but defensive coordinator Todd Grantham coulld decide to shift some things around.

Here’s what coach Mark Richt had to say about Drew Sunday night:

“It’ll be an opportunity for him certainly. He’ll be part of the mix, as far as our discussions. Any time a guy goes out of the game, whether it’s by suspension or whatever it is, it always creates opportunities for guys. Will Ray be the sole beneficiary of that playing time or part beneficiary of it? I don’t know. That’s what we’ve got to decide. Some of it might be decided in practice as far as how their performance goes in practice.”

Drew will certainly get a hard look and likely will get more snaps. But chances are good that the starting nod will go to redshirt sophomore Chase Vasser. Vasser already has two starts under his belt and actually started the Ole Miss game ahead of Washington because of his superior ability to drop into pass coverage. Redshirt sophomore Reuben Faloughi will also get a hard look this week.

One thing that’s certain about playing the Vols on Saturday, Georgia will see a lot of passing. Sophomore quarterback Tyler Bray leads the SEC in passing at 332 yards per game and pass efficiency (176.1) with 14 touchdowns and just 2 interceptions. Meanwhile, Tennessee has allowed just 7 sacks in four games, third least in the league.

Said Richt: “There’s no doubt, they are very good at what they do. Tyler is very accurate, as you can see. He’s got a quarterback rating that may be the best in the country. I know he’s the best in our league. So it’s definitely going to be a great challenge for us.”

Here’s a rewind of everything we’ve written since Saturday’s game:

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417 comments Add your comment

The Truth

October 3rd, 2011
1:10 pm

GT Bob – that logic means Tech has been a failure in all but ONE SEASON since the BCS began…

Honky Talkin'

October 3rd, 2011
1:11 pm

Does CMR have any control over his players?

R U Kidding me?

October 3rd, 2011
1:11 pm

Kudos to Still@theBar.

Rooster

October 3rd, 2011
1:13 pm

Everyone calm down. UGA is not even in the top 25. Yawnnnnnn.

confused out west

October 3rd, 2011
1:15 pm

First of all, i want to congratulate the DAWGS on another positive step forward and SEC game won. I wont take anything away from a win and I am excited about how we look on defense. I’m also feeling positive with the direction IC is going even though he does get tired – he is a true freshman after all.

With that said, I am very concerned about Murray’s play and attitude. When evidence as well as every voice on message boards and in the news saying he looks down receivers, throws into coverage often, simply misses receivers, and doesnt use his feet virtually anymore, it throws up serious red flags. I know we have issues on the OL but that doesnt cause an excuse for ALL of the above issues with murray. I CAN NOT understand that when we are winning 21-3 and our QB throws a third interception for a pick-6, why Richt didnt put in Mason – at least to give him some experience. Everyone is worried about him transferring so why dont we EVER give him a chance in a real game when the situation reflects the need. It is very concerning that Richt doesnt understand a back up QB is not there to just come in when the starter is hurt. I certainly understand loyalty and the whole “dont switch horses” arguement but seriously – when do you use a quality backup with untested potential but a game like the MSU one and 3 picks by your starter??

Also, is no one confused by a “leader” like Murray not getting on himself much harder for the number of picks this season? He almost seems apathetic about it….

Again – I am NOT saying Murray should not be our starter, he has been well above par during his career – BUT can anyone here tell me a well-thought-out reason for why Mason didnt play at all at MSU??

Rooster

October 3rd, 2011
1:15 pm

UGA has beaten the worst two teams in the SEC. Yawnnnnnn.

Rooster

October 3rd, 2011
1:19 pm

UGA only scored 3 points in the 2nd half against Missy st. Yawnnnnn.

bucket

October 3rd, 2011
1:19 pm

Rooster – I would think you would have more things to worry about than trolling a UGA blog. You and everyone knows that UGA gift-wrapped the game in Athens for you. There are BIG problems in Columbia and those problems are going to get exposed everytime you play a quality opponent.

Houston Nutt

October 3rd, 2011
1:21 pm

Georgia beat MSU worse than LSU and they’re #1, impressive win by the Dawgs.

UGA Insider

October 3rd, 2011
1:23 pm

Some kids are able to make the jump from High School to SEC Football. However, the vast majority are not ready for the speed of the game. This has been the case for Ray Drew. As a matter of fact I would have liked to see him get redshirted but that will not be the case now. He and TJ are going to have to step up and play big Saturday or it will be another long day in Knoxville.

2 games isn't enough

October 3rd, 2011
1:24 pm

DUI, three passengers, driving about 40 miles an hour over the speed limit…big, big screw up. This isn’t walking around drunk on public sidewalk or at a party. Kid put the lives of others at risk…his friends and others on the street. Two game suspension isn’t enough. Should either suspend him for rest of season or kick him off the team to send a message to the others on team.

WDE

October 3rd, 2011
1:26 pm

@Rooster you a Bug or a Gator in hiding? Anyone know?

bucket

October 3rd, 2011
1:26 pm

As far as the Washington situation is concerned, obviously it will hurt the defense to be without a guy that has 3.5 sacks and game expereince, but Reuben Faloughi is not chopped liver out there! Ray Drew was a guy that every team in the SEC was slobbering over so let’s get him out there this week and see what he can do! Also, the injuries to Ogletree and Robinson helped us build some depth at linebacker and it looks like Herrera and Gilliard are pretty good players. The cupboard is not bare and the team has an entire week to prepare to get after Tennessee on Saturday. UGA played two quality opponents the first two games while all the trolls schools were playing directional schools (anytime the name east or west appears in a teams name they are probably a cupcake!), so laugh and taunt at your own peril. Ask MSU how jumping on the G worked out for them!

BigTimeTechFan

October 3rd, 2011
1:27 pm

Is Cornelius Washington the player who got the 1st sack on Miss St QB??? knocked the Offensive tackle flat on his back before he nailed the QB.

I saw that play and was like wow, that dude is a beast. Was that C Washington? one of the best pass rushes I’ve seen in a long time

Houston Nutt

October 3rd, 2011
1:27 pm

Rooster that old relic of a coach of your’s blew all his timeouts and the clock ran out in FIELD GOAL range. Spurrier ends up like all chickens- Sunday dinner.

90 proof

October 3rd, 2011
1:28 pm

check out this link:

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/sagarin/fbt11.htm

bucket

October 3rd, 2011
1:30 pm

With a name like Rooster I guessed SCU. Maybe not.

bucket

October 3rd, 2011
1:31 pm

@ BigTimeTech – That’s him.

gdawginkalamazoo

October 3rd, 2011
1:31 pm

just a fan, that thing with IC in the flats or screen passes or even getting him to the outside is just fantasy. You have to plug it up the middle or off tackle 80% of the time. IC’s and Thomas’s speed would never work around the corner or in the open field. What were you thinking? I am sure that if it would work Mike Bobo would call it more often, right? He would wouldn’t he? I mean IC had 89 yards half way through the 2nd qtr. Bobo wouldn’t go away from something that works would he?

AltamahaDawg

October 3rd, 2011
1:32 pm

My guess is: that our starter is very much in need of as much work as possible to get better himslef, and as critical as every game is going forward, taht is the over-riding concern. I think you pull your starter when he has had (or is having a string of) good games, not when he struggles. The goal is to improve at that position, not see what somebody else can do. Mason’s best chance to play is when they can iron out some of Murray’s wrinkles. No way they are going to start a “controversy” by pulling somebody who just threw a pick. (plus not wanting the game to go any worse at that point) So I would say it’s been an issue of timing and situation. IF the chances of winning were improved, then OK. That’s not the situation with playing Mason.

Red Stick

October 3rd, 2011
1:32 pm

DawginLex

October 3rd, 2011
10:53 am

DUI at UGA-2 game suspension

Bar brawl including an arrest for assault for kicking a man in the head at LSU-4 game suspension

Why does Richt get bashed and Miles gets a pass?
—————————————————————————————————————————————

Miles has not had nearly the off field problems that Richt has had. Not even close.

That said Tiger fans are not happy about the bar fight and neither is Miles.

BigTimeTechFan

October 3rd, 2011
1:34 pm

@ Bucket

Thanks, oh that’s going to hurt having him sit out. Brey is type of QB that if he has time will eat teams up but get a rush on him and make him make quick throw and he’s not that great.

GTBob

October 3rd, 2011
1:36 pm

GT Bob – that logic means Tech has been a failure in all but ONE SEASON since the BCS began…

Yep. I’m glad you are keeping up. I would say it’s arguable whether the non MNC BCS games have any meaning at all either but I will give them a small amount of relevance since they include conference champions.

ARdawg

October 3rd, 2011
1:38 pm

confused out west

I would tend to agree with you. After the 3rd INT and a pick six it is time to try something different if only for a series or two. Murry wasn’t having a good day at all. This on the heels of a bad day at Ole Miss. The Missy ST game should easily have been a blowout if the offense was clicking like the defense was. Other than one long drive in the 1st half it was all short field. Yes the score was in our favor but, the offense couldn’t make pooh stink

confused out west

October 3rd, 2011
1:41 pm

AltamahaDawg – I respect your opinion as being very well thought out and worded. I would argue though that Murray has had a season and a half of trying to “iron out” these issues. They do not seem to be getting smoother – but instead are getting worse by all accounts. I am not of the opinion that Murray is a “loser” because he hasnt won the big games but he has played VERY inconsistantly and Mason does have a lot of potential. I would also suggest that we were winning by enough in the MSU game to have a safe margin to “test” out Mason a little more and give him that real-game experience HE is lacking as backup.

Beast from the East

October 3rd, 2011
1:41 pm

Red Stick,
If ya’ll don’t want to play Jefferson this saturday, can we borrow him? LOL!

bucket

October 3rd, 2011
1:41 pm

I agree BigTime. The times we go into Tennessee playing a soft zone we get killed with short passes. Grantham and company have to figure out a way to pressure Brey. Washington looked good Saturday, but there are other guys who just need to play. The D is much improved this year and only looked bad in 1 game against a top 5 team. The loss against SCU was not on the defense IMO.

Beast from the East

October 3rd, 2011
1:43 pm

DawginLex,

BeastFromTheEastROLLEDByTheTide. Need I say more?

Spaceman Spiff

October 3rd, 2011
1:43 pm

I see Rooster is back and sharing his intelligence with us once again…yawn… I love it when techies live vicariously through us…

AltamahaDawg

October 3rd, 2011
1:44 pm

WHY? we were leading by 3 scores. Why must something new be “tried”?

Here is the bottom line:

Come time to face UF in Jax in a few weeks. Are you going to want Aaron Murray running that team, or do you want to start Hudson Mason?

Mark

October 3rd, 2011
1:45 pm

@WDE – Rooster the bug!

Blue

October 3rd, 2011
1:45 pm

Red Panties; real intelligent post as to whether CMR prayed about the decision. You are a dolt…

Big Dawg

October 3rd, 2011
1:46 pm

Azdawg,

Fellow Dawg have you actually watched the games, because until this past Saturday Cornelius Washington had been a liability on the defense. He was taking himself out of plays on a consistent basis, he took plays off and had not been much of a positive factor on the defense. Now he goes out and does this, as far as I am concerned this speaks volumes about this young man’s lack of dedication and character. I say give Ray Drew a shot to see what he can do. anyway I will be pulling for the Dawgs.

Go dawgs

bucket

October 3rd, 2011
1:49 pm

I don’t like coaches having a quick hook with the qb and a lot of throws have a razor-thin margin for success or failure so you don’t want your qb staring over his shoulder. However, CMR and CMB have got to get the message across to Murray that he has to protect the football. If a running back fumbled the ball 3 times in a game you can be sure he would be riding the bench for awhile. Murray has got to learn ball security.

Still@theBar

October 3rd, 2011
1:49 pm

Tech v Uga…………1-9
Tech v Miss St……2-0
Tech v Vandy……..3-0
Tech v LSU………..0-1
Tech v Auburn……2-0

Tech v SEC………8-10
Sounds a lot like UGA v the SEC.
The DAWGS are 8-10 in their last 18 SEC games TOO…………….LMAO

AltamahaDawg

October 3rd, 2011
1:49 pm

I’d LOVE to play Mason more. We don’t have that luxury right now. Murray HAS to improve and that’s the bottom line. So he plays through his bad games (which BTW , we were losing last year) He’s the guy we need playing well right now. Mason is NOT going to come in and start in the critical games this year, so all this talk about him is just white noise.

I totally agree that the MSU score differntial was a good opportunity but I think the irony is, that Murray throwing the pick 6 probably short circuited what was probably Mason coming in.

90 proof

October 3rd, 2011
1:49 pm

UGA ( Aaron Murray or Hutson Mason) vs Florida( John Brantley or Jeff Driskell)…??????

Chip Towers

October 3rd, 2011
1:50 pm

BigTimeTechFan: Yes, that was Washington. I, too, was impressed by that play.

ARdawg

October 3rd, 2011
1:51 pm

Altamaha

Why, is because of the 3rd INT not necessarily the pick 6. A 3 score lead IMO is all the more reason for Murray or any QB to be much more selective in his passes. He was too careless. The one thing in common with all of the INTs on Saturday was they all reeked of desperation.

I’ve always thought Murray is the guy and will be a future record setter at UGA but, when he is off as with any QB, there comes a time to let him see someone else in his position. Lessons learned from the bench

confused out west

October 3rd, 2011
1:52 pm

That is my point exactly – we were leading by 3 scores – but our offense had been sputtering all day because of INTs and other issues. I dont believe anyone would say that our offense has been smooth and consistant through more than a half all year. We have played very well in games but the defense seems to be making offensive problems not matter so much.

To your bottom line – IF (and only if) we had given Mason time to play in the ole miss and MST games and he was as fluid as the one (notably patsy game) that he played in, I would not fear putting him in at all. Remember he did have a fairly large screw up in the florida game last year. I dont know if there are any dawg fans out there right now that are not a bit scared at what he may do in a big game again. Obviously now we cant play mason as the starter in a game like FL but I may have been comfortable with it if he had played 3-6 series in all games to date and looked good.

My bottom line – we know that Murray has a hard time finishing big games. We know he is a VERY good QB. We also know he can royally screw up at times (as everyone can). What we do not know is whether Mason could flow better with the 1st team offense in big games. When we are ahead as far as MST – shouldnt we find out?

AltamahaDawg

October 3rd, 2011
1:55 pm

Again I think it wasn’t so much why not put him in as why not to take Murray out.

Forest service

October 3rd, 2011
1:57 pm

Big time Tech fan, I saw that play as well and thought the same thing…….He plowed the guy over like he was nothing and yet I heard Shmuck Belue say today that he is “soft”…..and the dawgs wont miss him………I did’nt see soft………Also, I’d have the ball in IC’s hand as often as possible……As illusive as he is as a RB jus think how much he could accomplish catching a short pass in the open field……Now there’s that breakaway we’ve been looking for…..I keep waiting for that to happen but maybe Bobo does’nt see it my way….

AltamahaDawg

October 3rd, 2011
2:00 pm

ARdawg, I just think you bring in Mason, based on him. You seem to be indicating that it should have had to do with taking Murray OUT. I think that doesn’t serve any immediate purpose or work well for the overall big picture goals of the team.

Still@theBar

October 3rd, 2011
2:00 pm

It is really only FOOTBALL, but it is fun to talk smack.

Antonio Romo

October 3rd, 2011
2:00 pm

AltamahaDawg, I have to say buddy that I agree 110% with your reasoning. Can you please call Jerry Jones for me and explain it to him?

NCBulldawg86

October 3rd, 2011
2:01 pm

@90 Proof… The only team UGA needed to lose a game was USCe. All the other teams, UGA can care less if they lose or not, as long as UGA takes care of business and beats them when the time comes. Your statement about backing into the SEC East is silly and pointless at this point in the season. I would have to say UGA is trending up while USC is trending down. And after Florida getting abused by Alabama, and soon to be LSU, not sure what kind of team they will have to go an face a shizo Auburn team.

No, UGA is fine right now, and will take on UT. Pull out a one point win out of Knoxville and UGA will get that much more confident. Lose, and we shall see. But in spite some inconsistencies on our O, UGA still is capable of scoring points from anywhere on the field and at any time. You just don’t know if there is going to be a costly mistake(penalty, turnover, missed assignments). It makes for eager watching, that is for sure. I am on the side UGA beats UT Saturday night. We shall see.

ARdawg

October 3rd, 2011
2:02 pm

Altamaha

That’s my position anyway, My thought is to make him better. He is in his second year as a starter. I like the guy and think him destined for greatness. Unless he starts with the entitlement which he is beginning to show. I think he’s made more bad throws this year than he did last year. May be it’s my selective memory or the fact I gave him too much credit as a true freshman. Perhaps it’s sophomore slump I dunno, but his passing abilities has taken a nose dive. 3 INT in as many quarters to me, indicates a problem that needs addressing

7576DAWG

October 3rd, 2011
2:03 pm

For those of you that want Ray Drew to play I hope we are not disappointed. Drew will be good but there is a reason why he has only been in on a few plays this year. He isn’t quite ready for the speed of the SEC and his endurance needs to get better. Hopefully he is ready but Vasser has done a good job and may get the majority of the snaps. Ray Drew may not have played enough not to get a red shirt still , so that could also be an issue.
As good as the defense has looked I have no comment as to who should play , Grantham will decide and that’s good enough for me. I still say we should give Grantham an extension now and pay him whatever he wants in order to lock him down before someone else gets into the mix.

AltamahaDawg

October 3rd, 2011
2:06 pm

Enter your comments here

90 proof

October 3rd, 2011
2:06 pm

Is LeMay going to change positions, transfer or sit behind Murry for two more years, Mason for three years?

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