April 4, 2011 · 8:11 AM

Adam Smith, ftw

Chris Brown explains how The Wealth of Nations provides a key to an offense’s success.

8 Comments

Filed under Strategery And Mechanics

8 responses to “Adam Smith, ftw”

  1. AthensHomerDawg
    April 4, 2011 at 8:52 AM

    As Holgorsen says, “no one” in his offense will play more than one position; he doesn’t even want someone to play both “inside and outside receiver.”
    Who else thinks this completely ignores the effects of limited scholarships and injuries on a season. Cross training expands your roster. Maybe he never saw Hines Ward play.

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    • JasonC
      April 4, 2011 at 9:57 AM

      I think you have a point about limited scholarships and injuries, but schools like UGA, with a favorable recruiting situation, should have enough talent under scholarship limits, so I think the limited practice time becomes a bigger issue to address. Plus, how many Hines Wards, Harvins and David Palmers are there out there?

      So then you have the question of injuries. I can see the validity of this point, but hopefully, you are recruiting in such a way that you have depth. I know UGA has faced depth and injury issues quite a bit, but it seems to me that some of that was self-inflicted because we either went to long before restocking a position or brought in too many players with known medical issues.

      In Outliers, Gladwell points out that there is a magic number of hours at a certain trade that helps a person become a expert at that particular trade. (Forgive my poor memory, but I think it was around 10,ooo hours.) It seems to me that simplifying and repetition would be the quickest way to get guys to be “experts.”

      After last year’s disappointing performance by the veteran OL, I began to question Searels policy of the best 5 play (and just make them fit into spots) policy. I mean, thank God for Clint Boling, but I wonder how good a LT or RT he would be if he hadn’t had to spend so much time playing every spot except center.

      And while Bean Anderson and Kiante Tripp are a little bit different situation, I wonder how much we stunted their development with position switches. I guess Roberts Edwards is a good rebuttal to that, but Georgia has seen its fair share of nomads that never measured up.

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      • AthensHomerDawg
        April 4, 2011 at 12:09 PM

        Good post with much merit. If we have a position player ….playing at the top of his game …lets say a 10 there yet we have another spot riddled by injuries that the next best player is a 6 do we take the 10 who plays the riddled spot at an 8 and replace him at his spot with another 8 (if we have it and I’m assuming the accolades Searles received at O line battling injuries is indicative of this). At some point players gotta know fundamentals and learn plays. That’s why freshman starters are rare. Yet a Junior is suppose to know the system and have the ability to execute. Coaching??? Still O line players ability to play multiple positions in the pro’s are a hot commodity. Well, why is that? By the time you get to your junior year in college you are suppose to have a handle on it all. Senior laden teams are suppose to be dangerous. Seems like we got some seniors along our O line this year. Let’s put it to a test and see if they have learned their play book and can do some things. We’ll see in Atlanta start of the season……repetition and execution versus whatever it is Georgia Coaches are, have or pretend to be. I’ll take that bet.

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  2. bad m
    April 4, 2011 at 8:57 AM

    I think this is the reason the boises or TCU’s look like they know what’s going on on every play. This is college after all and there are only 20 hrs a week for practice. Break it down and get a few plays perfect. Then add to that. Our guys always look confused near the end of the game and are hoping someone else will step up with shear talent to make a huge play. When things don’t go right…the wheels fall off and we get the typical Fl or Tn debacle. Or Central Fl. Especially now that we’ve lost Durham and Green, these kids need a safe zone of plays they feel comfortable with at all times.

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  3. 69Dawg
    April 4, 2011 at 11:04 AM

    College football was the poster child for KISS “Keep It Simple Stupid.” 20 hours a week will not get it done unless you just work on simple O and simple D and fundamentals. To think you can effectively run a pro-style offense and a complex pro D while only legally practicing 20 hours during the season and for 15 practices in the spring is not just dreaming it is demented. Rich Rod can explain it to you if you doubt it. He had to over practice to teach those scholars at Big Blue his O. If you have a team of over achievers that will study on their own then you have a chance. We don’t have that many guys that care that much and it has been demonstrated over and over again. Follow some of our stars on Tweeter and see how much extra time they put in. Vince Lombardy had a very limited playbook but they executed it to perfection and they won. UGA’s coaches are not getting the extra work out of the team that is required for their scheme.

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  4. Mike
    April 4, 2011 at 12:01 PM

    I’ll see your invisible hand and raise you with quantitative easing

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