Georgia travels up to Knoxville to take on the Volunteers Saturday Night. Tennessee wants a signature win for Derek Dooley and Georgia is hoping to give Mark Richt a milestone 100th win. The winner will be in the thick of the SEC East race. The loser will be all but done in division.  Here is more than you will ever need to know about Saturday’s match up:

Seth Emerson compares the two quarterbacks. Murray v. Bray.

The Senator relishes in one of the better moments in Knoxville under Richt. I’ll second his take on strong tackling, that is one area that has improved dramatically for Georgia over year 1 of the Todd Grantham era.  I’d be happy to have nice punt return like that as well.

View from 336 has an abbreviated preview of the clash in Knoxville.   Jody brings up a good point that all of Richt’s wins in Knoxville have been highlighted by special teams or defensive scores. Georgia is due for some of that type of scoring action for sure.

Doug over at SBNation Atlanta gives his bipolar preview of Georgia v. Tennessee.

UT Head Coach Derek Dooley’s mother, Barbara Dooley,  chimes in on local radio and as always is quite entertaining.

Team Speed Kills thinks the Vols might be just unbalanced enough to give the Georgia defense a hard time.

Tyker Dawgden at The Georgia Sports Blog asks three questions about the Georgia  -Tennessee match up.

Bernie lets his feelings be known about the hillbillies in urnge.

As for my thoughts:

This will be a different kind of test for the Georgia defense. So far Todd Grantham’s unit has faced the short methodical passing game of Boise, the tough running of Marcus Lattimore and two teams from Mississippi that run it better than they throw it. Tennessee is the first team Georgia will face that really tries to stretch the field in addition to the short underneath passing game. The Dawgs have been stout against the run but have not been challenged over the top. It will be interesting to see if Grantham schemes to shut down the pass and concedes the run or if he mixes it up and brings guys up near the line of scrimmage to create some pressure. The loss of Cornelius Washington is huge in this game as he was establishing himself as Georgia’s best pass rusher.

The perception is that Tennessee can’t run the ball, but Tauren Poole is a capable back and the Dawgs will  need more of that sure tackling mentioned above to have success in this game. Georiga will need Crowell to keep up his solid play and maybe, just maybe, get that big home run he’s been narrowly missing.

Aaron Murray needs to have a solid game for Georgia to win.  As always he will need to be accurate and avoid turnovers. That Neyland noise will be unbearable if Murray gets charitable. Hey that rhymes!

I’d be fine with conservative game plan that keeps Bray and his back tat off the field as long as the Dawgs are able to put 7s on the board. Field goals and stalled drives won’t work in Knoxville. The last time Georgia played in Neyland Stadium the UGA offense didn’t cross Tennessee’s 35 yard line.

Bottom line is Tennessee is hungry and wants that signature win for Dooley, their schedule gets ridiculously hard for the next month, so if they don’t get this one their season could turn ugly fast. Georgia’s players have been saying the right things to the media all week and seem to be in a good place mentally. You get the notion that Georgia feels they have not given their best effort yet and  they are ready to have it on Saturday night. It’s a tall order to expect it all to gel in Knoxville at night but it can be done.

Let’s go win the Tennessee state championship. Until next time, Go Dawgs!