Judging from the comments and e-mails I get, the greatest amount of preseason angst coming from Georgia fans is about the running backs situation. For some reason, I’m not as worried as most are about that.
On the other hand, I find this positively frightening.
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UPDATE: Right on time, here’s today’s bad news.
Get The Picture 
Thanks for ruining my morning.
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+100 – The Denver Broncos never needed a stud back in their running game when they had the best o-line in the League.
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Are you (mile) high? They had both stud tailbacks AND stud OL.
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Jeez, I guess I didn’t realize until now how bad the OL situation had gotten. And I’m immediately much less optimistic about the season. Great.
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Bobo’s favorite 2nd down play of 2011 = Punt!
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I’m gonna go take a dump.
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as bad as the ol looked at times last year, it’s hard for me to imagine how much worse they could be in spite of the unit’s thinness. i’m still at a loss as to what happened with that unit last year. perhaps the coaching change will make a difference. aron white seems to think so : he had a tweet a few days ago that said something like “coach friend > coach searels.” groping for positives. . . .
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Agree. We’d have to be pretty darn awful and/or banged up to do worse than last year’s line. If this year’s group enters the season in shape and hustling, they’ll be instantly ahead of last year’s OL.
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If any of the starters get hurt, especially Jones or Glenn, we are in big, big trouble. And those two guys will be gone next year.
This coaching staff has done am incredibly poor job of recruiting OL. Even last year’s dream team class didn’t have any true blue chip OL. I picked up an Athlon magazine the other day and, of the top 40 offensive lineman in the country, UGA got zero. Auburn had 4 of the top 40(3 of the top 15), Arkansas got 2 of the top 20, Tennessee got 2 of the top 25, Bama got the #1 guy, LSU got the #2 guy and UK, SC and Ole Miss all had one OL in the top 40. Just sad, especially considering our obvious need at the position. And don’t tell me we couldn’t have expected the attrition considering Sturdivant’s prior knee issues, Benedict’s problems coming back from the high school injury and Harmon’s inability to get playing time to this point or handle his academic responsibilities.
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There’s no doubt we’ve got a depth issue but I don’t think it’s a recruiting issue. The Recruitment O-linemen is notoriously unpredictable. If you want to chalk it up to poor development, fine, but I think it’s probably luck as much as anything. Clint Boling, Cordy Glen and Ben Jones developed ok.
According to rivals, we got the three best O-Linemen in the state last year. Going back 3 or 4 years, we usually do about that well. The only highly rated O-Lineman we’ve lost from Georgia in that time who’s done anything is Juwan James. Sometimes they just don’t work out, it happens. More than anything it seems like Georgia just hasn’t turned out a lot of top quality O-Linemen the last few years.
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You know it is only a matter of time before someone gets dinged up. We have to hope one or two of the freshman step up in a big way.
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How much worse can they be. We couldn’t move the ball on UCF!!!!! It’s coaching and S&C….Searles didn’t do anything for us. Maybe a new coach and an upgrade to the S&C will help.
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Did any other students get the e-mail / text message from the Athletic Department asking you to come out and play offensive line?
Yes, it has gotten THIS bad.
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I posted this at Dawg Sports yesterday and got very little response so I’ll see what you guys think.
With the arrival of Jay Rome we will have easily the most talented and deepest group of TE’s in the league and maybe in the country. Odds are Artie Lynch is going to be odd man out on playing time so why not move him to one of the OT positions? He is 6-5 275 and obviously has quick feet, this might be a chance for him to play and to make a boatload of money in the NFL one day. I would hate to see him get “Tripped” but with our thin OL we should at least explore this IMO.
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What if he doesn’t want to move?
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“Use him up”, anyway.
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We’ve already got guys on the team that are 275 and haven’t spent years learning how to be a tight end. Moving Lynch would just be a roll of the dice that he might be able to play tackle. I think it would be against Lynch’s interests to do it.
Reading the stories on him this offseason, he looks like he has the physical tools needed for an NFL tight end. With our OL and WR issues, we may play two tight ends a fair bit of the time. So he should get some catches this year. I think Lynch has a chance to get signed next year (though maybe not drafted), even if Charles/White/Rome are our main receiving TEs.
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Or perhaps we stick with our 5 linemen and add Lynch & Rome as duel TE’s with Figgins @ FB – an 8 man line that bulldozes straight at the D. Now that’s smashmouth football. I’d like to see BSU try to sack that!
one caviot, use Malcome or Crowell as RB, don’t run Thomas up the middle.
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Well, the sky isn’t falling for me (hello, my name is Homer). I think a lot of the redshirted linemen we have can and will step up. I know practice is not the same as game speed, but, they still have SEC experience at least. And don’t forget about the freshmen, they might not have been 5 star recruits, but hey, neither was Pollack.
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Is there still time to find a JUCO guy to help out this year…?!?!
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We need luck to keep the OL together. (1) No serious injuries to the starters; (2) SEC-caliber contributions from two freshmen.
That’s the luck we need. Can that be done? Yes: I’d put the odds at 50-50.
We can stand a lost guard and a dinged-up tackle. What we can’t handle is losing Ben Jones.
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Aaron Murray rolling out, Crowell throwing a devastating block on the DE, and a perfect pass to Mitchell down the sidelines for a TD will ease all of our fears about the coaches’ ability to deal with the O-line situation.
Of course, Murray getting earholed and injured on the opening drive in the Dome would be sort of a….uh….bummer. (Roll Arky tape from last year….)
Seriously, CMR and CMB are going to have to earn their stripes in play calling this season to overcome deficiencies and exploit strengths. I think they are up to it, but this will define the CMR hot-seat more than whether or not the D develops into the pre-2006 mode. It’s a given the D has to be better, but we don’t look like at 30+ points per game offense on paper right now using last year’s playbook.
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Interesting comments from MCDAWG
http://www.athenstalks.com/ones-you-mac-uga-oline-analysis
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Disagree with Mac (there’s a first!) on Murray and screens. Go back and look at the Florida game for the rebuttal. There were a couple of beautiful calls that he nailed. If Ealey had waited for his blockers on one of those, he would have scored a TD easily.
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Richt used screen variations better than anyone when he was the OC. He hammered the guys in practice to perfect it. Different philosophy with Bobo
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Seems clear that Lynch doesn’t want to move or that move probably would have already happened. From what Boykin said, the guy can really run for his size and he’s obviously going to be our most physical blocking TE at the point of attack.
What the heck do I know, but I think a transfer would probably happen before he moved to the OL. It’s not like he’s a GA kid who will be willing to play wherever they nerd him because it’s just hid lifelong dream to play for the red and black.
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Soooo, we went from the o-line being a preseason strength last year, to them being a question mark by the end of the year. We now have them as a preseason question mark to them….
/fingers crossed
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Can we bubble wrap the few remaining guys?
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In Athens they call it “roster MIS-management.”
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This is a great example of how we are a red c**t hair away from a promising season to a disaster of one. And it will be used many richt defenders to justify another year in athens though I think that line of thinking will ultimately fail. Fine line between success and failure in cfb
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