Walsh meets with his guru

I expected to see more about this story this week, but Blair Walsh went to the mountaintop to meet with his kicking guru. Nick Gancitano is a kicker’s equivalent of a swing doctor, and Walsh had worked with Gancitano long before Walsh came to Georgia. With his field goal percentage taking an alarming nosedive, Walsh reached out to his former mentor.

It didn’t take long for Gancitano to spot a minor mechanical flaw that had evaded the notice of Georgia’s star kicker. “I was coming too much in at the ball rather than up-field with it,” Walsh explained. We’ll see if the kicks fly straighter in the games, but Walsh considers the problem identified and fixed.

Grantham walks us through a typical blitz

Be sure to check out this video from ESPN of Todd Grantham explaining a basic middle linebacker/safety blitz from his 3-4 package. But don’t expect to see it much, if at all, on Saturday. It’s not that he’s giving away trade secrets, but Georgia is actually in their base 3-4 a small percentage of the time.

Saving the turnover-battle beards

Shawn Williams’ late interception against Mississippi State was a footnote for many fans already headed for the exits. But it was a big deal to Williams’ teammates. The pick zeroed out the turnover margin for the day, meaning that the team could keep its turnover-battle beards for another week. David Ching explains the deal with must-read commentary by Aron White. If Georgia shows up at the end of the season looking like ZZ Top, you’ll know they’ve been getting turnovers and taking care of the ball.