September 29, 2006

University, MS (CSTV U-WIRE) -- The Rebels will try to end a three-game skid when No. 10 Georgia comes to Oxford on Saturday at 8 p.m.

Georgia (4-0, 1-0) just barely defeated Colorado 14-13 a week ago and will start either highly recruited freshman Matthew Stafford at quarterback or red-shirt freshman Joe Cox. Cox outplayed Stafford a week ago coming in off the bench, going 10 for 13 with two touchdowns and leading the Bulldogs on their game-winning drive.

"That last drive that won the game, they threw three screens that went down the field and hit the tight end vertical," Ole Miss head coach Ed Orgeron said. "It wasn't that much of a difference in the quarterback in my opinion, the other team looked like they were fired up. Maybe they followed one quarterback more than the other."

Georgia has a running attack featuring three backs with an equal amount of playing time. Danny Ware has gained 181 yards, Kregg Lumpkin 178 and Thomas Brown 134.

"They have three guys who can run the football. They're an I-back football team," Orgeron said. "They run the ball right at you. (They) pick up your blitzes."

The Rebels have had trouble stopping the run the entire season and have not been healthy on the defensive line. That won't change this Saturday.

"We have to make improvement on our tackling, we have to make improvement on how we stop the run," Orgeron said.

"The only thing we don't have is a lot of choices for personnel. We don't even have a second-team line, which is not an excuse, that's just the way we are. We have to go with the guys we have, and hopefully, they may get better."

On defense Georgia has two top-notch defensive ends. Quentin Taylor is regarded by many as the top defensive end in the nation and Charles Johnson has 7.5 tackles for loss. On defense, they're very tough. They've given up 6.2 points per game.

"They're very similar to our scheme on defense," Orgeron said. "They just have great athletes and they play hard. We have our work cut out for us, but we'll be positive with our team today and get after it."

(C) 2006 Daily Mississippian via CSTV U-WIRE