Kevin Butler’s Players of the Game

by Kevin Butler

Kevin Butler, former University of Georgia legendary
kicker and a member of the Georgia
radio broadcast team, will each week during
the 2012 football season select his offensive,
defensive and special teams players of the
week for Bulldawg Illustrated. Here are Butler’s
selections and reasons why for the Bulldogs’
38-0 win over Auburn Saturday, a
victory that clinched the SEC East title for a
second consecutive year.

OFFENSE – Offensive coordinator Mike
Bobo and the entire UGA offensive staff,
which directed an attack that scored on
the Bulldogs’ first four drives and totaled
right at 500 yards of offense on
the night.
“Mike Bobo and his staff have done an excellent
job of developing a young offensive line,”
said Butler. “Mike has done an unbelievable
job of creating true balance with our offense
through the air and with the running game.
Mike had to battle to get the right receivers on
the offense and Aaron (Murray) distributes
the ball to all the receivers and the way he
has used our freshman running backs (Todd
Gurley, Keith Marshall) to establish the run
game has created tremendous balance for
the Georgia offense that will give them an opportunity
to win the SEC title.”

DEFENSE – Defensive coordinator Todd
Grantham and the entire Georgia defensive
staff, which directed an effort
that saw the Bulldogs blank Auburn for
the first time since 1976 while holding
the Tigers to just 57 yards rushing and
181 passing.
“Todd and his staff have worked through injuries
and suspensions from Day 1 this year
and have consistently improved the play of
our defense week by week,” said Butler. “The
play of Jarvis Jones, the play of Jordan Jenkins
has shown the ability to get everybody involved
on the defensive front. And the
secondary, once we got everybody back from
suspension, has developed each week into a
tougher pass defense. They are finally playing
at the level that everybody expected them
to play at the beginning of the year and now
is the time of the season you want to have
that happen.”

SPECIAL TEAMS – All the Georgia
coaches who instruct areas of the special
teams, which enjoyed outstanding
kick coverage and had excellent punting
and kicking nights in the complete
win over the Tigers.
“This is the area that has seen the biggest
improvement for the Georgia football team
from the beginning of the year,” said Butler.
“Going into the season with two freshman
kickers (Marshall Morgan, Collin Barber), the
specialty teams were obviously the biggest
question mark but through the work of the
coaches and the development of the special
teams, they are now creating great field position
and adding to the offense and defense
like specialty teams should for a championship
drive.”

- Compiled by Murray Poole