This is the kind of post I usually put together in the offseason, but Year2 has saved me the trouble and I thank him. In looking at what kind of difference Grantham made this season, he compiled this chart.
Season UGA PPG All. Avg. SEC PPG All. Difference Coordinator 2003 15.11 24.29 -9.17 VanGorder 2004 16.63 23.15 -6.53 VanGorder 2002 16.33 22.59 -6.26 VanGorder 2007 21.40 26.95 -5.55 Martinez 2005 16.44 21.72 -5.27 Martinez 2001 20.88 25.70 -4.83 VanGorder 2010 25.00 26.65 -1.65 Grantham 2006 21.00 21.10 -0.10 Martinez 2008 26.80 22.77 +4.03 Martinez 2009 31.50 23.20 +8.30 Martinez
Even when you factor better special teams play and a quarterback that didn’t hand the ball over to the opposition on a regular basis into the equation, that’s still a significant improvement. Besides, Grantham had to grapple with installing a new scheme and the accompanying personnel issues that went with that, so the side factors offset to some extent. Those numbers aren’t everything we want them to be, obviously, but that’s a long way from not seeing them as an improvement over the last two years of Martinez, both as an absolute and also relative to the conference.
And if you’re wondering why the criticism of the coordinators seems stacked towards Bobo lately, here’s an explanation for some of that:
… Georgia’s eight SEC opponents in 2009 averaged 22.15 PPG in conference play; Georgia’s eight SEC opponents in 2010 averaged 26.61 PPG in conference play. The only top-half of the conference offenses Georgia missed in either season were Alabama’s and its own.
While a simple points per game measure isn’t enough to judge a defensive coordinator by, you can do similar things with the yardage numbers in conference play. Georgia’s 2009 defense allowed 5.65 yards per play (0.38 above league average) and 379.38 yards per game (33.29 above league average). Georgia’s 2010 defense allowed 5.64 yards per play (0.05 yards below league average) and 355.75 yards per game (20.89 below league average). While it looks like Georgia’s defense only improved by 0.01 yards per play and 23.63 yards per game, relative to the conference average, Georgia’s defense improved by 0.43 yards per play and 54.19 yards per game.
By remaining at around 29 points per game, the Georgia offense did regress by about a field goal against the league average. [Emphasis added.] However, Georgia overall improved by about seven points per game when compared to the conference averages.
All that being said, even with the scoring improvement, Georgia finished with a worse conference record this season than it did in 2009. A lot of that was due to not being able to finish a single close game with a win. How much of that was due to Grantham and Bobo and how much of that was due to other factors is a question that Mark Richt had best find the answer to this offseason.
Get The Picture 
A running backs coach that actually taught the RB’s how not to fumble, how to change hands so the ball was protected and how to actually block somebody would help a lot.
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+!.
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Care to explain some of the math in that article?
“As compared to league average, Georgia gave up 9.95 fewer points per game this season. That’s basically ten points! Some of that had to do with the Bulldogs’ special teams getting a lot better this season too, but a lot of the credit goes to the defense.”
What league average is he talking about?
Also it’s clever to try and act like that clearly shows that bobo is regressing, but I’ll take the OC from the team that finished tied for 1st last season with Joe Cox at the helm and finished 3rd this season with a freshman QB. Behind 2 of the best offenses in the country with Auburn and Arkansas.
If bobo was running some strange spread option hybrid with a rb as the Qb and 3 TEs then everyone would be fawning over his success, but he is just using plain ole vanilla to rack up the points in SEC games.
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+1 on Bobo.
I think Grantham is the answer at defense, but our problems still largely lie on the defensive side of the ball. Fix the defense and we’ll be playing in Atlanta at the end of the season, not just the beginning.
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I’m not happy with going to the Chick-fil-A bowl 😉
Sadly that would be an improvement over the last two years.
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+1, again some Georgia fans are like a guy with two teenage daughter’s who is constantly degrading one of his daughters for a B in chemistry (the offense) while letting his other daughter, a crackhead with 3 kids by 3 different men (the defense) slide. I thought David Greene spoke volumes the other day when he was talking about the pressure that is on Murray to score and how it was never on him, Joe Cox was certainly no David Greene or Aaron Murray but I don’t think he’d have had the turnovers he did if he wasn’t under the pressure to score every possession.
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She should have studied harder.
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I think the point is that there is room for improvement on offense as well. Just because the defense is a sieve doesn’t mean the offensive struggles shouldn’t be addressed as well. If one daughter makes a B in chemistry, but she could be making A’s, is it okay to give that daughter a pass for underachieving because you also have a crackhead dropout? What you get when you do that is two underachieving daughters.
There are plenty of problems on defense. No one is suggesting otherwise. I think the Senator believes, as do I, that the defensive problems are being addressed in a manner that is suitable. All of the coaches were let go, and now the fix is to find the right personnel. If the defense can get its act together, then the team’s record as a whole will improve, undoubtedly. However, Richt knew going in that the defense would struggle. He knew the only way to win was to score more points than the opposition. So, if the opposition was going to score 30 regularly, then the offense would need to score 31 regularly. I don’t think anyone can rightfully say that the offense clicked for an entire game at all this season. If it had, they would have won a few more games. Big lapses in offensive production have ruined many a season under Richt: 2004 comes to mind. 2007 is another.
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There isnt a single offense in the SEC that clicked for the whole game the whole season. Look no further than Auburn. Did they click in the first half of the UGA or Bama games? not really. That is the point that everyone is trying to make…that perfect offenses dont exist in the college game, unless you live on North Ave.
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+1
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2003 defense. If we had even an average O-Line that year and someone other than FGJ calling plays, we could have won a national title based on that D.
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…and we didn’t have a zillion injuries and suspensions.
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I think Bobo is a solid OC and a first rate QB coach; but what I would like to see from him is a little more innovation in his play-calling. Richt came to Athens with a reputation as a bold and innovative play caller, but we haven’t seen much of that in the last few years. We’ve had pretty good offenses, but it’s been primarily due to superior offensive talent than anything else.
An example; the SC game last year when Bobo called that Branden Smith end around that went for a long TD. That’s a great play call for that situation. Ditto for the LSU game when we scored 52 on them; innovative play calling. He can do it; he just needs to do it more.
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How much does Auburn’s offense skew the league averages this season?
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Auburn and Arkansas both scored a ton of points in league play. They top out the rankings with UGA about 6 points behind Arkansas.
http://www.cfbstats.com/2010/leader/911/team/offense/split07/category09/sort01.html
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I guess what I am asking is this….
Did the SEC’s offenses really improve that much this year or is most of the improvement due solely to Auburn (and to a lesser extent Arkansas)?
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Innovative play calling? Bobo managed 30 points a game with a freshman qb and underperforming Oline, WR’s (other than AJ), and RB’s! Sure he’s a smart talented kid but so was Stafford. The coaches did a great job teaching. Probably better than they thought because they could have unleashed him a little more in the beginning. Not every play is going to work. You guys are ridiculous. I suppose it was the offenses fault for all the teams that played and lost against Tebow. You give Erk Russell 14 points and he’ll win you the game.
/I’m not bash Grantham. But if you are giving him time (which you should) you are giving the ENTIRE team time. Let show recruits we are a supportive nation, and let’s get excited about what will be a very good year.
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How freakin good was Van Gorder? Hate to be a downer but we also didn’t play LSU nor Alabama. And the East, particularly Florida, was down and we gave up a ton of points to Florida.
That being said, giving up basically a touchdown LESS per game is nothing to sneeze at. Gives us hope and that’s what we need!
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LSU was eighth in scoring in conference play. Not exactly an offensive juggernaut.
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Richt’s biggest mistake: Appointing CWM DC.
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