Aaron Murray, bright spot

Even the most rabidly pessimistic Dawg fan would have to admit that Aaron Murray’s play to date has been a pleasant surprise.  In fact, you could argue, judging from this statistical comparison with four of his predecessors, that he’s not getting enough credit for his start.

Two things in particular which jump out from those numbers are (1) how consistent the redshirt freshman has been…

Another telling statistic is the variation in the passer ratings for each quarterback over that five game span, i.e., the difference in each player’s efficiency between their best game and their worst game over the five game stretch described above.

Greene:  131.1 (215.5 – 84.4)

Shockley:  157.7 (236.6 – 78.9)

Stafford:  94.2 (203.3 – 109.1)

Cox:  156.31 (256.00 – 99.69)

Murray:  18.19 (157.27 – 139.08)

What this tells me is that Murray, despite not having the gaudy statistical game that all of these guys had at one point during their five game stretches, is far more consistent – at least to this point in the season…

and (2) that he’s amassed those stats despite only having A.J. Green as a target in one game (a game in which Durham didn’t play, by the way).

His early play has caught his head coach by surprise.

“Aaron has done well. I think he’s thrown for over 60 percent. I don’t know exactly how many TD’s he’s thrown but his touchdown-interception ratio is very good. He’s making decisions that are very wise so far. He just hasn’t thrown the ball up for grabs. Even the pick last week, it was a situation where he might have held the ball a hair or two too long, but he was getting hit as he released it and didn’t see the guy coming. He’s overall made very good decisions on not throwing the ball up for grabs. I think his ability to run is even better than I thought it would be. His ability to avoid trouble and to actually cross the line of scrimmage and get some first downs, that’s been even better than I thought it would be. I knew he was a good athlete, but I didn’t know he would be able to make that many plays. There are times where he needs to get to his second receiver a little bit quicker, and he needs to be a little more accurate here and there like most guys. To wrap up what he’s done considering he’s a first-year starter and a freshman, he has done very well. I’ve been pretty proud of him.”

*********************************************************************

UPDATE: It looks like Murray won’t have his full ensemble of receivers this week, either.

Advertisement

So much for experience

Gentry Estes caught something at yesterday’s practice – Stacy Searels may be shaking things up on the o-line.

… Looks like a few shake-ups are in store for UGA’s offensive line this week, going by who was working today with the first-string. The big mover appears to be true freshman Kenarious Gates at right guard, knocking right tackle Josh Davis out of the starting five. Gates lined up with: Trinton Sturdivant (LT), Cordy Glenn (LG), Ben Jones (C) and Clint Boling, who was at right tackle. The second-string line was: A.J. Harmon (LT), Dallas Lee (LG), Chris Davis (C), Tanner Strickland (RG) and Davis at right tackle.

Sturdivant played almost two-thirds of the snaps in the Colorado game, which I presume has given Searels the comfort to be flexible about moving Boling to right tackle.  I guess we need to change Sturdivant’s nickname from The Luxury to The Necessity.

And a true freshman possibly moving into the starting five.  Who’da thunk that before the season started?

Dummies

Only Steve Spurrier could mock a coach whose team sports a better record than his like this:

… Spurrier relayed something he read about the Ryder Cup, that the winning captain is on par with John Wooden and Vince Lombardi and the losing captain is like an SEC coach after a loss. He said that losing an SEC game makes you a dummy.

He was just setting himself up for this …

“Sometimes you can win and still be a dummy,” Spurrier said, eyes widening and grin stretching across his face. “We’ve learned that recently.”

Spurrier didn’t say Les Miles. But he might as well have.

Haney goes on to speculate about what Spurrier would have thought watching the last moments of the LSU-Tennessee game.  Probably something along the lines of “I can’t believe this guy made us look that stupid.”

You mess with the Les, you get the Hat, dude.

Finding their inner angry man

(via Losers with Socks)

Well, the coaches sound peeved.

… Defensive coordinator Todd Grantham was asked if it would be a “small victory” if his unit didn’t allow a touchdown to open the game – which it has the past four. He didn’t seem crazy about the stat, or the question.

“I don’t believe in small victories, all right,” Grantham said. “You either win the game or lose the game, all right. You either stop them or you don’t. So I don’t buy into small victories.”

So he doesn’t get hung up on the opening-drive streak?

“Do I get hung up on it? Well I wouldn’t say I get hung up on it,” Grantham said. “I mean obviously we’re gonna look to stop them, but to say I get hung up on it no. We’re gonna come out and play the next series.”

Earlier, offensive line coach Stacey Searels was asked how he would assess his unit this year.

“One-and-four, you tell me,” he answered. “I don’t think anybody’s pleased with the way we’ve played on the team.”

So do some former players.

“For us to lose to Colorado, that’s just a disgrace right there,” [Charles] Johnson said. “A disgrace to Georgia. That’s as low as you can get.”

That from a guy who was on a team that lost to Vanderbilt and Kentucky in the space of three weeks.

But what about the guys suiting up?  Maybe there needs to be a little more heat coming from them.

… Despite Richt’s regrets about the preseason, linebacker Christian Robinson put the blame more on players that aren’t producing.

“We had designated times to tackle and hit and scrimmage and things like that (during preseason),” Robinson said. “I felt like we had a great camp. The defense, I felt like we learned what we were supposed to do. I really don’t disagree with what we did. … I’m not going to point any fingers, but people (on the team) know who needs to step up.”

Forget about the start to this season.  All it should take to get these guys motivated Saturday is a reminder of last year’s seal clubbing.

Boys, you can’t change the fact that you made Jonathan Crompton a Lexicon legend.  But you sure can do something to wash the bad taste out of your mouths.  Time to step it up.

Back to the drawing board. Please.

The depictions of the finalists for the new Mississippi mascot are even lamer than I imagined.  Which is saying a lot.

I hope they haven’t spent too much money on those.  They probably could have picked up the rights to Izzy for a song.

Ouch.

Or, oof!, if you prefer.

… Wins have been harder to come by of late in Boulder and it seems fans are storming the field with much more regularity these days — cheapening the act and making it almost a cliché for which the program is becoming known. Colorado’s victory over a 1-4 Georgia program last weekend is the latest example. Have Buffs fans no standards anymore?

By the way, they did it again.

CU linebacker B.J. Beatty was named Big 12 Defensive Player of the Week for his part in the game-winning play against Georgia. Beatty stripped running back Caleb King of the football after the Bulldogs had driven into field goal position with less than 2 minutes remaining.

That’s three opponents’ conference Player of the Week awards in five games.  I wonder if any other school is close to that pace this season.