Corso and his Bulldog head aren’t here, but it should still be a good one

October 7, 1960. Yes, that was the last time a University of Georgia football team traveled to the west coast for a regular season game. They played USC that day, and lost 10-3. They haven’t been back since. Forty-eight years. That will change this weekend as the third-ranked Bulldogs travel to Tempe to take on Arizona State at Sun Devil Stadium.

The travel storyline had been one of the most prevalent leading up to this game. It has been replaced by a storyline which places less national focus on this game since ASU lost to UNLV at home last weekend. ESPN scrapped plans to televise its popular Gameday program from Tempe, and instead will transmit live from Auburn, Alabama for the LSU-Auburn contest.

Georgia comes into this contest 3-0 after beating Georgia Southern 45-21, crushing Central Michigan 56-17, and squeaking by South Carolina 14-7.

When Georgia has the ball: Watch out for super sophomore Knowshon Moreno, who has scored 7 touchdowns already this season, and is in most experts’ top five for Heisman consideration at this point. He is Georgia’s best player, but was bottled up rather effectively by South Carolina’s defense a week ago. Moreno was held to 79 yards on 20 carries. He did explode for 168 yards two weeks ago against Central Michigan. Quarterback Matt Stafford has been unspectacular but solid this season for Georgia. He has thrown for 634 yards and 4 touchdowns thus far. His favorite target has been Mohamed Massaquoi, who has 10 catches and 2 scores for the ‘Dawgs. Georgia generated a lot of big plays in their passing game in their opening win over Georgia Southern. The Bulldogs racked up 6 pass plays of 25 or more yards in the opener, but only have 3 since then. The ASU pass rush will have to have someone besides Dexter Davis step up and put pressure on Stafford. Nobody else on the Devils’ defense has registered a sack this season. If ASU can’t generate a pass rush, look for Stafford to try to attack cornerback Omar Boldin, who has showed a propensity for picking up pass interference calls this season. The Bulldogs have done a good job of taking care of the football, committing only 2 turnovers in their first 3 games. Neither of them led to points by the opposition.

When ASU has the ball: Look for the Sun Devils to rely a lot more heavily on their passing game this week. Many blame ASU’s reliance on their running game and conservative play calling as key factors in keeping UNLV in the ball game, and eventually allowing them to pull the upset. Georgia’s pass rush hasn’t been great this year, and the Sun Devil offensive line has shown minor improvement in pass protection this season. When ASU runs the football, they should have the services of tailback Keegan Herring this week, giving them a breakaway threat they didn’t possess last week vs. UNLV. Georgia’s defense is led by linebacker Rennie Curran, the reigning SEC Player of the Week. The Bulldogs showed their clutch nature last week vs. South Carolina, forcing 2 turnovers in the 4th quarter. Leading by a touchdown, Curran forced a fumble that was recovered by Asher Allen in the Georgia end zone. Later in the game, after forcing a turnover on downs, Reshad Jones intercepted a Chris Smelley pass at his own three yard line with under :30 to go to preserve the win.

I know the nation isn’t as focused on this game since ASU lost to UNLV last week, but it still has the makings of a great ballgame. ESPN’s not here, and maybe that’s a good thing for the Sun Devils. A lot of people have written them off as pretenders. But the Sun Devils have an enormous opportunity to prove the UNLV loss was a fluke, and a chance to save some face for the conference coming off of a disastrous weekend.

I think the Sun Devils will play well, but ultimately drop a close decision.

Here’s some other interesting notes about the Bulldogs…

Georgia is 27-0 in regular season non-conference games since head coach Mark Richt took over in 1991. Only 5 of those 27 wins have come on the road. Four of those five wins have come against in-state rival Georgia Tech in Atlanta, which is a whopping 66 miles from Georgia’s Athens campus. The other win came at Clemson in 2003. People are making a big deal that Georgia is traveling so far west to play ASU, maybe they should be more shocked that Georgia’s going anywhere to play a non-conference game.

Georgia has also been one of the best road teams in the country under Richt, going 26-4 away from Athens.

I’ve seen plenty of college football teams with duplicate numbers on their roster. Due to the large number of participants, usually you’ll see one player wear a number on offense, and then a defensive player will wear the number on that side of the ball. Georgia has five sets of triple numbers on their squad. Jersey numbers 43, 44, 47, 68 and 95 are all worn by three players at home games.

This will be Georgia’s first game against a Pac-10 team since 1987 when the Bulldogs crushed Oregon State 41-7 in Athens.

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Tags: Arizona State Football, ASU Football, Dexter Davis, Keegan Herring, New York Mets, Rudy Carpenter