I honestly can’t grasp the internal makeup of some people.
https://twitter.com/#!/BryanDFischer/status/89376353035632640
The resources the school makes available, the opportunity to take over the position with Ealey’s departure and given Crowell’s learning curve – how do you let things come to this?
And, no, it ain’t Richt’s fault. He still gets rewarded with the consequences, though.
***********************************************************************
UPDATE: Groo has more thoughts here.
***********************************************************************
UPDATE #2: Emerson summarizes how King finished his career at Georgia on less than a high note.
… King rushed for 430 yards last year, leading all tailbacks with a 5.4 yards-per-rush average. But he missed five games: The Liberty Bowl, when he was academically ineligible; he was suspended two games last year after a traffic-related arrest; he was charged with failure-to-appear in court in Walton County, after incurring a speeding ticket there in June. King also missed two games with an ankle injury.
Get The Picture 
I feel bad for him, but have to agree with you Senator. it’s a shame. Some people just don’t do well within academia, and I hope that’s what this is for his sake. i was hoping he’d have a chance to redeem himself this year and maybe make a go in the NFL. Best of luck Caleb.
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The Caleb and Pulpwood show will be on the tubes this fall.
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Well fu*k me with a big orange hose.
Thought he said those issues were behind him.
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Crap, and it’s been such a quiet summer so far. Come on, Caleb.
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I still say Mark Richt is the Jonah of College Football. The Lord wants him to be a missionary and He has set out to get Mark swallowed in the belly of the beast. That is the only reason I can come up with for Coach Richts last few years of incredibly bad luck.
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Because losing football games while cashing multimillion dollar paychecks equates in your mind to real crisis?
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It is just relative. If you are doing something you love and everything goes to crap somebody is trying to tell you something.
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+1 I just e-mailed my fellow tailgaters the same exact sentiment
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+1 to 69Dawg that is.
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So … 70Dawg?
I’ll show myself out now.
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Thanks. I needed that laugh in the wake of the latest news of a gifted athlete throwing his future away.
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Time to get Richard Samuel to dust off his RB shoes again.
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Big Bad John gets to get his RB on after all.
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Addition by subtraction? If Crowell hasn’t been busting ass already, this has to light a fire.
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Actually, wouldn’t it do the opposite?
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To just be the starter, yes. To actually carry the load that Caleb just dropped, it just got harder.
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I know what you mean, but since Caleb never actually carried a load for us, it would be kinda hard for him to drop it.
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I’m going to hold out hope until one of the beat guys confirms it.
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Never mind.
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I hate to see any bulldog face tough times. A post a few months ago (when the same rumors were floating around) broke down the academic requirements for athletes and it seemed reasonably simple for most anyone that could be admitted to the university in the first place. That, combined with the virtually unlimited academic resources available to athletes, leads me to believe it’s an effort issue more than anything. Good luck Caleb!
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Given the situation that the coaching staff knew they were facing at RB, what in the world were they doing? Caleb shoulders the majority of the responsibility, however, the staff is not without blame. It is the coaches responsibility to know what is happening in the classroom. Especially with a kid at a position that you KNOW is thin to begin with. If this is true, I am amazed at the lack of oversight by our coaches. Now we are left with an untested true freshman to carry the load.
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Seriously, what would you have the coaches do, take the tests for him?
“Lack of oversight” means precisely what here?
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Right. It’s why we have a paid staff of academic counselors and tutors for any subjects athletes are taking. You get punished if you don’t show up or if you sleep in study hall… There’s oversight; there has to be effort and ability to go with it. The athletics staff does what it can, but the athlete has to be able to do it, too.
Personally, I don’t want the coaches to worry about this with everyone. They’re paid to win games. UGA pays good money to a lot of folks to do this part of it.
If the coaches bear any responsibility, it’s for not vetting the academics of recruits well enough.
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“[N]ot vetting the academics of recruits well enough.”
If a recruit can meet minimum academic standards to gain admission and approval by the NCAA clearinghouse, no coach in his right mind will reject a recruit who has the potential of gaining 1,000 yards. No matter his long term academic prospects.
All Georgia can do, as an institution, is to do its best to give athletes the opportunity to succeed academically. I think UGA does pretty well in that regard, in light on its academic progress.
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Senator, didn’t Caleb King have academic questions when he arrived? The switch to GAC from Parkview and summer school in Texas. I mean they knew from the get go the kid wasn’t that quick with the books. Richt and company need to recruit more rbs. They go after the 1 5 star rb every year. Another form of oversight would be asking how Georgia ended up with Carlton Thomas @ 163 lbs be in the line up for rb.
I still can’t get over the Paul Oliver thing. I can’t believe somebody didn’t tell him he should go pro.
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As I mentioned earlier: knowing just how thin this squad is at RB it would be in everyones best interest to ensure Caleb is successful in the classroom. Yes, hold his damn hand on the way to class. Ensure that a GA banging on his door 45 minutes prior to class. This staff was well aware of his progress or lack there of in class. Yes, Caleb carries the majority of the responsibility, but the coaches failed as well.
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You’re throwing this back on the coaches? Seriously?
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I hear you guys on the responsibility issue not being on the coaches, but I’m not so sure.
I can’t remember Saban losing too many crucial players to random eligibility issues.
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That’s because ‘Bama releases as little information about player departures as it can.
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Didn’t we cover this just the other day?
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Rest assured that the athletic department folks keep very close tabs on the student-athletes. I bumped into Kasay on North Campus a while back and asked him what he was doing all the way up there. He told me he was just checking in on a couple of guys who didn’t seem to understand the importance of going to class.
Things have gotten a lot tighter since the Jan Kemp days. Very few of these student-athletes end up being Rhodes Scholars (although we’ve had a few), but they do have to go to class in order to stay eligible.
As for King, I can’t say if it was lack of motivation or lack of ability. Either way, I hope he can be successful at something.
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Oversight….hmmm…such as being suspended from playing in a bowl game for not participating in academic counseling/tutoring??? That kind of oversight? Seriously dude.
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the content of ck’s earlier tweet (which seemingly confirms this news) is . . . worrying (and not for the child-like writing): “don’t let them brake u ” [sic]? i hope he’s not alluding to a pervasive mentality in the program. god, it’s just become so exhausting to contemplate georgia football.
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According to his Twitter, looks like he’s heading to USC Marshall to obtain an MBA…
http://twitter.com/#!/calebking
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Wow. Joe T’s workouts must have really kicked his butt. He looks extremely pale.
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He might be referencing professors or academics and not necessarily football.
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Or the “fans” on Twitter . . .
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If true, I’d have to say Caleb should have attended the Janzen Jackson School for Kids Who Can’t Read Good during spring semester.
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Anyone who is surprised by this should get a 2×4 across the forehead.
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So what your saying is it was a miracle he lasted this long?.
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What did his tweet say?
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RT @C_King4: Somethings u cant control, and what seems bad right now might turn out good. Too all of my homeboyz hold UGA down don’t let them brake u…
Copied and pasted from the link on ajc.com’s twitter feed.
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Sooo I guess his grades just couldn’t be controlled.
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OMG! Can we barrow a cloaking device from the Klingons for Carlton Thomas. Or better yet, can we barrow some Klingons?
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Everybody needs to calm down and look at this:http://assets.sbnation.com/assets/656296/gators_poster_2011_medium.jpg
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A cross-eyed (and possibly stoned) alligator, plus Muschamp with an “oops, I crapped my pants” expression?
Did UF’s board hire a UGA Graphic Design person?
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Maybe we were to hard on Muschamp after he took the job. Maybe he is really a Dawg double agent and this is his first step toward nationally embarrassing the Gators.
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Shhhh! McGarity gave strict instructions that the plan was not to be discussed.
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I am an Art Director working on a huge design/advertising project for UF. They are currently mangling the really nice work I did for them. Maybe I should use this poster for inspiration… Fucking Gators! Grrrrrr.
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So Caleb’s not gonna let anyone “brake” him, huh? Does he drive a Prius?
Seriously, I don’t know who “they” are who are supposedly trying to break Caleb, but I certainly hope that’s not a reference to any part of the institution, compliance staff, or whatever professor failed his ass. With the vast resources at the fingertips of every UGA athlete and the men standing over his shoulder to make sure he gets to study hall or class, there’s simply no excuse to not pass your classes.
It is indeed true that college isn’t for everyone. However, we’re not talking about a guy who couldn’t hack it in school. We’re talking about someone who managed to remain eligible through four years of study at the University. If you can do it for that long, you can pass a freaking summer term class. Nobody’s “braking” Caleb here but himself.
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that was exactly my point above, but you said it better. perhaps guys like ck would feel less put upon if at 18 they joined the infantry instead of accepting scholarships, room/board, the use of a vast professional training system (which they can parlay into a career as a highly paid pro athlete), scandalously generous academic assistance, and the love of adoring fans.
but, yeah, being a college football player is real tough, too. . . .
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Everyone step back from the ledge…..I hate how negative our fan base is sometimes. Remember Ken Malcome, the guy we all thought looked better during spring anyway? With Boo, the 2 little guys (I know, I know…not great options), and Crowell coming in we are just fine at RB. One positive thing out of this is that Branden Smith may see some more carries on offense, if not make the switch full time. I’ll take that over Ealey’s and King’s “me first” attitudes, fumble problems, and off-field issues any day. This kid had prima donna written all over him coming out of high school and, unfortunately, that seems to be the one area where he didn’t disappoint.
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Actually Boo hasn’t looked all that special yet; he checked in at the bottom of the post-spring depth chart.
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Bottom of the depth chart isn’t the same as not looking good…..unless you were the only one not surprised by that. They raved about him last year and I heard nothing but good things this past spring too. If I’m not mistaken, everyone was stunned by his position on that depth chart and chalked it up to rewarding the walk-on/trying to light a fire under Malcome.
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Time for more “WildDawg”!
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When you search for “Herschel Walker” on Youtube, the first link is to a video titled “Is Caleb King the next Herschel Walker?”.
What a joke. See ya Jasper, eerrrr, Caleb.
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I expected King to be the one who helped Crowell make the adjustment from High School to the SEC. I also thought that his blocking & his hard running up the middle would be key factors for the Dawgs in 2011.
Richt & Bobo now have to make some serious adjustments. Since I am a Richt & a Bobo Fan; I am confident that they will do just that. GATA.
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I’m holding out hope, but just barely. (Props to the beat guys like Seth Emerson and Marc Weiszer for getting it right by waiting to get it right.)
I’ll say this: When I first read a retweet of Brian Fischer, all I could think of was, “Well, the other shoe has finally dropped. We made it through the spring without any arrests and only a few casualties (okay, more than a few) from injuries and transfers. Some negative things happened, but generally the Spring and Summer had been positive. Now this.
I’m not on the ledge, but IF it’s true, this is pretty dang frustrating.
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It’s official.
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*Sigh*
I had hoped finally to see the Caleb King we’ve been expecting. Oh well. Expectations – Reality = Disappointment. Color me highly disappointed.
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+1
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Young Mr Murray may have to produce the majority of the offensive yards for UGA this fall.
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He can’t run it, throw it and catch it all himself.
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As mad as I get at fellow Dawg fans who rip our own players at the slightest provocation, it’s hard not to be pretty damn frustrated here. Is it too early to declare that we’ve basically been operating the last two seasons with a pair of empty helmets at running back? One didn’t feel like making the grade on the practice field, now we’ve got one who couldn’t make the grade in the classroom — despite being given every chance to succeed in both cases.
If nothing else, Crowell, Malcome et al. at least have a hell of a cautionary tale to go by for the remainder of their Georgia careers. But that’s cold comfort, at best, until one of them steps up big-time come fall.
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Time to see if Crowell is as “Lattimore” as folks say he is.
I’ve been waiting 4 years for CK to show up, and as it looks above, I think many were disappointed by his inability to live up to his “Next Hershel Walker” billing.
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My money says he won’t be, but that’s based on the fact that the odds of becoming a top SEC back your freshman year are slim.
Lattimores only come around so often.
The biggest question mark, though, is whether or not Crowell can stay healthy. Remember, that he missed significant stretches of high school football with various leg and ankle problems.
I’m setting myself up to be disappointed, which is something the last three seasons have taught me to do.
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Michael Dyer’s freshman season wasn’t too shabby, either.
There’s usually one decent freshman running back in the conference every season.
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Fair enough. I really hope Crowell has a Lattimore kind of season. He certainly has some abilities. But even if he’s good enough to pull it off, I still wonder if he’s durable enough. He wasn’t exactly an iron man at the high school level.
Our margin for error at RB is now as thin or thinner than the margin at o-line.
I wonder what Richt is thinking about those two issues as he heads into his most unsecure season ever as HC.
I’m pretty sure Richt
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Everyone of course remembers Richt’s comments that he “wouldn’t be surprised to see [Crowell] toting that rock” against Boise St. in the Georgia Dome.
I don’t think CMR knew this was coming (Ealey, then King) but it sweet taste that February comment left in mouth just went all sour.
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make that “the sweet taste…”
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Well at least Jasper Sanks can rest in the knowledge that he is not alone in the disappointing RB category.
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Only slight positive to this is there is no way the coaches can keep Crowell off the field for any reason now. Outside of that it blows a big one and seriously CK WTF?
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Albert Hollis ring a bell? Seriously folks, why is Georgia in the situation it is in? Mark Richt allowed a culture to form at Georgia. I ask again and again. Who has Mark Richt beaten that had better talent?
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Serious question for the Senator and anyone else who wants to chime in: Do you see this as an indictment in any way of Bryan McClendon’s qualifications for being the RB coach?
On the one hand, I agree with the general consensus above that the coaching staff can’t be expected to hold a player’s hand through each and every one of his exams. And it’s not McClendon’s fault that he didn’t get to coach Knowshon in ’09, nor that the offensive line underachieved so badly last season.
But when you’ve got two guys as physically gifted and highly touted as King and Ealey, only to see their careers end prematurely with such a scant impact on the program, you have to wonder a little. How is it that all that raw talent ended up amounting to so little?
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Can’t say I blame McClendon for the steady stream of injuries and knuckleheadedness on the part of Ealey and King.
But, yeah, the sheer waste of talent is hard to take if you’re a Dawg fan. And Crowell had better come out looking SEC-ready real, real quickly.
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I’ve always wondered why UGA has a former receiver coaching running backs and a former running back(Tony Ball) coaching receivers.
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True. Mark’s duty assignment for his assistants: [Kirby] “Smart then moved back to the Georgia Bulldogs football program as he served as the team’s running backs coach for the 2005 season.” http://www.ask.com/wiki/Kirby_Smart
has always seemed to me to be more for the benefit of letting assistants’ get well-rounded experience rather than for expertise at the position. Or maybe when there was a discussion of McClendon here awhile back, some with more knowledge than I (actually that’s almost everybody, I guess) – in fact I recollect it was Blutarsky maybe – felt that McClendon’s greater value was his recruiting expertise rather than knowing how to coach a running back.
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Is anyone genuinely surprised by this? It’s a repeat of what happened to King in high school, only this time there is no GAC to transfer to for his senior year.
King had all-time bust written all over his coming out of HS and I got blasted for stating that opinion when he was still an uncommitted recruit. He played behind a D1 line at Parkview, transferred when things got tough, and remained aloof throughout his entire UGA career.
I just hope he gets his academic act in order because at the end of the day, life is more important than football.
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(1) Is it too late for the kid to get into the NFL supplemental draft and (2) Is there any team that would take him? The guy’s an athlete.
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It is incredibly clear that the last 2 seasons we have fielded a team full of some really, really bad apples. My only hope here is that this is the final purging, that we are finally getting in the new blood. As much as I’m excited about Rome, Drew and IC, I’m more excited about the kinds of people they seem to be, along with Murray and Orson.
It’s really hard to win with idiots, and it’s clear now that we had a bunch of idiots. The thing is, you can’t predict that stuff. Who knows how a kid is going to react on a college campus. It’s a shame for Caleb.
It will be interesting to see what happens at the RB position. Obviously, IC and Boo are “the guys” and Carlton is going to have to play. Don’t sneeze at Harton. That kid runs very hard. He looked as SEC ready as any other back we had in the spring. The intriguing dynamic is “Do we do anything else?” What about moving Troupe to tailback? Does this mean more carries for Branden Smith? And…Smith or Crowell have to change numbers (I suppose #4 is now open.) Do we mix in someone else a little. I’ve been saying for 3 years every time he breaks a tackle on a KO return: “I just want to see #2 take a toss sweep one time.” Why not teach Boykin a couple simple pass protections and a few plays. He looks a whole lot like Robert Edwards to me.
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Fans surprised by this are not being truthful. Caleb is following his script(this is what Richt recruited). Coach RICHT is fully at fault for keeping him this long.I have always been a Richt guy, this really makes me wonder.
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I don’t have the time to reply to this. Thankfully I feel confident someone else will…
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Caleb King is a bust, Ealy is overrated, both are gone. The RB coach will be earning his raise- hopefully for more than recruiting Crowell. Kirby Smart was our RB coach once..(how did that not work out?), then Tony Ball and then McClendon a former Dawg wide receiver. OK …. We have had a former DB coaching running backs and now a former wide receiver. Moreno was very good, Brown was ok, Ware was ok, Lumpkin got hurt(sucks cause he was the #2 RB in the nation in high school)….but UGA has not had the string of great RB is a while like they used to have. Caleb a five star recruit came in with leg problems as well and hasn’t nearly lived up to his billing. Wasn’t Jasper a five star? Ealey burst onto the scene hard as a true freshman and then crapped out last year. We desperately need a home run back and Crowell may be it. I’m all for a good look a Malcolme. Can he stay healthy and can he pass block? Can we get Malcolme and Crowell on the field at the same time?
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Ok, pop quiz.
1. Which combination is more likely to result in success?
A. Top notch RB, mediocre O-Line
B. Top notch O-Line, mediocre RB
C. Top notch RB, top notch O-Line
D. Mediocre RB, mediocre O-Line
This one’s obvious: C.
2. Which of the above is the next most likely to produce success?
Here you have the Chicken-and-Egg problem, so it’s not as obvious, but I’ll go out on a limb and say: B, just because as long as they have two legs, just about any RB can gain enough yards to sustain drives if the O-Line opens big enough holes consistently.
The purpose of this exercise is to remind everyone: You MUST recruit top-notch RBs and hope you get some. UGA did that. You must also recruit and land some top-notch OL talent. UGA did that.
Last question: Where’s the real disconnect?
Please show your work.
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The real disconnect is simply the wild, largely random swings that occur in all things real? Extend the very good story you have begun…you recruit top-notch RBs and hope you get some, and you recruit top-notch OL talent and hope you get some…and usually you DO get some of each. But sometimes you get less than you hoped for, even though you did things the same way that brought better results before and will again. Sometimes you end up with an OL that surpasses your wildest dreams and a RB who does the same, all at the same time. And sometimes you end up with under-achievers on both fronts. Wuchyagunnadoo?
Sometimes you end up with Pollack and Thomas Davis. And other times you end up with 4 star D-linemen who can’t get any pressure and safeties who can’t make the other team pay. Which brings us to what I wish I’d said at the very beginning (but why delete such fine 4am philosophizing?): the real disconnect is DEFENSE. Our offense, really, is not our problem. Even this year in an “our worst fears” scenario, we’ll have a serviceable O line and backfield. We’ll score 25 per game if the bottom falls out and we’ll score 30 a game if the O is a pleasant surprise. Can we field a D that gives up only, say, 20 a game? Then it seems to me we wouldn’t really need to get deep about the OL chicken and the tailback egg…
But I suspect you want us to conclude the real disconnect is the coaching, right? Well, I agree….kind of.
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I sure hope Crowell learns how to block this summer or this could be another long and frustrating season.
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I just hope Crowell doesn’t get hurt.
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1st & Bomb just moved back to the top of Bobo’s playsheet.
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You kind of have to assume the coaching staff has been anticipating this situation for a while, given the common observation back in December that King would have a very tough time regaining his eligibility, and the many, many indications in the spring that they’d just as soon show the door to Washaun. So let’s hope they have already adjusted their plans. If they do something panicky now like moving poor Samuel back to RB, it’s a very bad sign that they were somehow blindsided by this highly predictable occurrence.
But here’s the bigger problem: what are the odds we can get through the season without a couple of injuries at OL or at RB? Either could be damaging. Both would be deadly.
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Did I read that right?
In 4+ years, Caleb only completed 20% of the necessary credits to graduate? So if you need 120 credits to graduate, he only completed 24?
That’s 8 classes.
In 4+ years of college, he only managed to successfully complete 8 freakin’ classes?
Really Caleb?????????
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He is the epitome of a really unintelligent minority student-athlete. We’ve had them in spades over the past 10 years.
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Errr….
/PC’d
/and I never do that
/but, seriously, err….
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He is actually the outlier. Most of the minority student athletes do well in their classes at UGA. Sure some of them struggle, but they work their tail off to get it done.
Don’t give a great group of kids a black eye because of one dumb ass. Similarly, I hope folks don’t lump all the readers of this blog in with you.
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No. That means he has more than 20% of his classes left needed to graduate. That means he has more than 1 full year of classes (30 hours or 10 3 hour courses) left in order to graduate.
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Sorry it’s actually 24 hours of classes not 30. Math early morning=bad
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