Shockingly, Kirk Olivadotti didn’t resign from his position with the Redskins because he was worried about a possible NFL lockout and he doesn’t find it problematic to drop from the pro ranks to college.
“These opportunities don’t come around but every so often,” Olivadotti said in a phone interview. “But I really got excited about it after talking to Todd, who I’ve known for years, and with him having been in Dallas, he has seen the results of my work and the players I’ve coached in the NFL. This was just a great opportunity to join him, and then in talking to coach Mark Richt, and to compete in the SEC, it was just great.”
This is obviously a man who doesn’t read the Internets nearly enough.
Get The Picture 
We’ve pulled out all the stops. You can see how bad cmr wants to win…… hope it pans out. I’m finished waiting for next season!
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See no reason for the defense to not be much improved this year. It appears Grantham made a great hire IMHO. In the past this would have been Richt’s hire.
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There’s not as much money for assistants in college as there is in the NFL, but man, there are some serious perks in the “quality of life” department. In season, college coaches have some very large demands on their time, but even then, they have more of a non-work life and see their families more than NFL coaches. And in the offseason? You get the recruiting rush (where NCAA rules mandate periods where they can’t travel), and then you actually get something of an offseason. I’ve read that some NFL coaches end up spending a few nights in their offices during the offseason. Who wants to do that when they can find a successful college program to join, maybe in a smaller town where you can raise a family and yet still take advantage of some of the culture that a large university brings, why wouldn’t you? Some people are all about money, but heck, it’s cheaper to live in Athens than it is to live in Washington, DC. It’s cheaper in Tuscaloosa, Auburn, and Knoxville, too. I love college football. I can see why a coach would, too.
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He sounds like a good hire but I think some people are getting a little too excited about him and the recruting class and other things in the same way they got way way too down about last season. Keep some perspective, this guy hasn’t done crap at Georgia yet. Grantham hasn’t really done much either other than a modest improvement of the defense. If our defense improves substantially next year (say top 1/3 of the league in total and scoring) I think we’ve got a realistic chance to win 9-10 games if we don’t improve significantly we should fire Grantham and keep looking for another Erk/Van Gorder.
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Grantham’s in the second year of a three-year contract. Barring a defensive collapse of Martinez-sized proportions, the only way he’s gone after 2011 is if he leaves with Richt.
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I’m not trying to be too hard on him. We improved, I looked at the stats from last year and we definately got better 2009 to 2010, we just have a way’s to go until we are a truly good defense, our performance in big games was terrible and we didn’t exactly get better as the year went on. On the flip side since when do the length of contract terms mean anything in coaching?
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When you’re the only assistant coach at Georgia with a multi-year deal (at $750K/year), it means more than you might think.
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It might, but it shouldn’t make a difference. Our football program produces a lot of money. If we get similiar results in Year 2 that we got in Year 1, it’ll be apparent Grantham ain’t our guy and we should get rid of him promptly and without regret, irrespective of a buyout.
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You really only get two years to completely revamp a defense that had gotten so stale — under Mark Richt’s standards, mind you — that it required the jobs of three assistants?
I suppose the answer would be to hire Kirby Smart, right? Otherwise, if he’s not homegrown, what decent defensive assistant is going to look favorably upon the Georgia program in the future?
Despite having only one recruiting class to get in guys to adequately fit his system — who are only going to be first-year players… mostly true freshmen — he better produce significant improvement or he is gone. What a spoiled fan base we are. I’m disgusted in myself, and I don’t even believe in this line of thinking.
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There is also the possibility that CTG might get hired away, probably back to the NFL if that were to happen.
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+ 1. But both have until 21012, but no longer, to completely turn it around.
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Dawgs were top 1/3 in league in total defense and missed top 1/3 in scoring by one spot (less than one point per game no less) LAST SEASON. Agreed that we still have work to do, just thinking we might not be as far off as you think…
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Yeah PD, right after I posted I went and checked. We weren’t very good on defense last year and it was a down year in the conference defensively but I gave him credit in the post a few minutes after my first one that we had improved.
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Was it a down year on defense or an improved offensive year? The point is that if you’re gauging our progress on a relative scale – which you are, which I agree with – we are actually damn close (if not already there) where you want us to be, per comment above. I think we both completely agree we have a ways to go, but I don’t think people (not necessarily you) want to give credit to how much progress we actually made under Grantham and how close we actually are. I hate to hitch my wagon to a JC d-line transfer, but I’ll be VERY interested to see how much a difference Big Bad John makes. I’ll also be interested to see how much of a difference Samuel and Jones make at ILB. IMO, the reason we looked so bad on defense last year is because we usually died a slow painful death. We couldn’t get off the dang field, which led to us being gassed at the end of every game, which led to more problems. How many times were our LBs in position to make a tackle for no gain against USCe last year only to fail to make the play and give up 3.5 yards? I’m hoping that, with more apt personnel, those problems will be greatly diminished.
On a side note, I am VERY interested to watch the development of Rambo. A lot of people have given up on him, but in my opinion, he was just mentally overwhelmed last year. We know the guy can make plays because he’s done it. Let’s see if, with another year under the new system (and maybe some humble pie), he will flourish again.
Very excited about the season.
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CTG loves Rambo, there has to be a reason. I think the change in Scheme made him a little hesitant at times, but with another year under his belt, I think we will see huge upside. CTG and Lakatos see it. Here’s hoping they are correct.
Once he gets to playing without thinking quite as much because of the scheme change he will get better.
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I was fully in the camp of this being CMRs last year barring a stand out season. As time goes by it looks as though he will be here for a long time regardless of what happens this year. I just hope this coming year is a stand out year anyway.
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