Paul is encouraged by what he heard on Richt’s show last night. Not crazy, just encouraged.
… Don’t get me wrong…he still has to beat UT or we move into DEFCON 1 PANIC. But for one night, I finally heard most of what I wanted him to say about the big picture stuff. Get us tougher, and many other things will fix themselves.
Toughness is good; more toughness would certainly help. But the other thing that needs to happen is that Richt needs to quit coaching like he’s afraid to lose.
So, here’s my suggestion on a good place to start, Coach – that first Tennessee punt from the middle of the field, as you start to send Logan Gray out to field it, stop, call him back and send in A.J. Green instead. You need to start a fire and he’s the most combustible talent you’ve got.
Get The Picture 
Surely our most combustible talent but, with a bad hammy and knack for getting injured. How about Boykin, instead?
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I damn near lost my sh!t when I flipped to the UA/UF game during a UGA/CU timeout and saw Julio returning a punt.
When I see that and then see #6 back once again for the Dawgs it’s firm affirmation that there’s a good bit of wussy ball being played in Athens. I hate admitting that, but the writing’s been on the wall for a while.
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Don’t forget that they also put Trent Richardson on KO coverage. I know we don’t have any RBs with that kind of size, but the idea of having a RB who likes to hit and who is willing to lay the wood on STs is just delightful to me as a fan.
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Also don’t forget Julio is questionable for this week’s game.
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Of course their entire offense doesn’t depend on Julie (or even Ingram) too…
That probably helps.
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Not just that, but tell the other 10 guys on the field to block somebody or go after the punt. Don’t just stand around. Dear God, don’t just stand there.
My head may actually explode if I see us just stand there on a punt from the 50. Though I’ll be happy to actually have forced a punt.
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+100. I don’t have as big a problem with Gray returning punts, so long as he actually returns them and has someone blocking for him like they care to be on the field. The designed fair catches where everyone in the state knows what you’re doing make me ill.
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A put is that thing that happens when a defense gets off the field on fourth down, right? I thought we used to do that, but we’ve have the opposition in 3rd and 5+ so often and THEN given up the 1st down that I’ve kind of forgotten.
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Win the coin toss (out of his control) and onside kick. I’m not kidding. I don’t even care if we recover. I want Richt to coach this game like he’s trying to win by 50. Time to find some nastiness.
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Given our downward slide really began when we gave up over half a hundred to UT at home in 2006 (after opening a big lead on them), I agree.
Before the season went downhill I had this weekend circled as a “please don’t let off the gas just because it’s Vince’s kid coaching them” game.
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For your amusement:
UGA is currently a 12+ point favorite over UT this Sat.
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Just got in from playing outsite with Charles and the new Uga and I can now tell you first hand that this new physical approach is for real.
Yeah I got a few bruises and this morning I am missing some brown fur, but you should see what I did to Charles and the new Uga!
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Yeah, by God, that’s what I am talking about!!!
Smokey is probably faster than you, and he runs out on the other side, but if you appear to be asleep under the goal post, you can jump his ass…..
GATA Russ!!!!!!
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One thing I’d like to see is for the coaches to emphasize effort and desire over mistakes. It is relatively clear that a lot of our guys are screw ups and that the coaches are in a pickle in deciding what to call and how to plan because they KNOW someone’s gonna screw it up. I think the coaches likely are constantly picking at every little mistake and its causing the team to play tight and tentative and the coaches to coach tentative and tight, and of course that leads to even more mistakes.
They need to just play guys that go 100% even if its sometimes in the wrong direction. Once you get guys going full out then you can applaud the effort while correcting errors without taking away the “edge.” With that in mind, I am far less frustrated that Logan fields punts than the fact that Tree hasn’t played any scrimmage downs in the last 4 games. We know that guy will hit somebody and hit them hard. (Hell, he might even run off with a UT helmet, lol.) If our safeties are going to be lost anyway, put someone in who will hit someone and hit them hard.
We are suffering from analysis paralysis and we just need to play football. If you can’t play perfect football or even good football, you can at least play hard and hope the rest takes care of itself.
I think that the fans would be a lot more patient with this team if they saw effort and desire even if the results weren’t great.
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Agree 100% on Tree. I’ve seen enough of the “Whiff-man” for one season. This ain’t JUCO.
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I admire your optimism. I am not sure Tennessee will be punting.
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Logan had a good punt return Saturday until it was Cuffed for a ~50 yd penalty. As long as the coaches let him run, I’m okay with it. I hate the designed fair catch where we all just stand around and wait for LG to fair catch.
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