Based on this post of mine from last week, it seems I need to toss some more love Todd Grantham’s way for getting this right:
“I’ve seen young men change their habitual traits, their habits,” Grantham explained. “I’ve seen them create mental toughness. I’ve seen them learn to play the game the way you’re supposed to play, to play with effort and energy.
“They started believing. Belief is a powerful thing. When guys start believing in what they’re doing and what you’re coaching them to do, you can do a lot of things.”
Ain’t that the truth.
Get The Picture 
I wish grantham had punched out the vandy coach.
Vandy coach got what was coming to him last saturday night when he got screwed out of a shot to win the game.
Did you see the penalty on their O-lineman away from the play? very similar to what prompted the punch from kwame – dirty and totally unecessary
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Totally agree. I’d like to see more of this. Some of our fans seem to be under the impression that Willie was lacking fire or didn’t get mad enough. David Hale once wrote that anyone who complains that Willie didn’t have enough “fire” hasn’t attended many Georgia practices. If all it took was fire and yelling to be a good DC, my alcoholic high school math teacher would be on the sidelines.
Grantham’s players have bought into his system and his gameplans. It’s evident that they love playing for the guy. Makes all the difference. Sure is fun to be excited when the D is on the field.
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“If all it took was fire and yelling to be a good DC, my alcoholic high school math teacher would be on the sidelines.”
Damnit! I thought my ability to get drunk and throw things would land me a primo coaching gig. Good point, though.
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You and about 30,000 others in Sanford on a Saturday.
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“my ability to get drunk and throw things would land me a primo coaching gig.”
That’s what Bill Stewart said about his replacement.
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Worked for Gary Pinckel.
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Just wish the offense had the same mental toughness and desire. I see it in spurts, but not for any sustained amount of time unfortunately. I BLAME BOBO!
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Tell me which Offensive Players other than a couple of RBs do not show mental toughness & desire. Then tell them.
Looking at the Offense for the entire season, I blame Bobo (& Richt).
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Boy, Willie’s troops looked well-prepared in Waco on Saturday night. How many times did their safeties get beat, completely out of position?
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More importantly, how many of Willies troops stood around with their hands on their hips after giving up a big play? Those shots were mighty familiar, kinda like what Rambo mentioned last week.
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Eventually the Offense will get sick and tired of the Defense beating them up in practice and raise their level of play.
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One can hope…..
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One bad game, and everyone forgets. Wow. Did you guys see the game two weekends ago?
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To be fair… maybe “one good game” would be more accurate. Aside from eating the cupcakes and Auburn, the offense has had some struggles. I’d give them some credit for scoring bunches in the South Carolina game, but the offense was also giving USC bunches of points.
At the very least, the offense is clearly not playing at the same level the defense is. If it were, Ole Miss, Mississippi State, Florida, Tennessee, Kentucky, and Vandy would’ve been blowouts and we mayve beaten Boise and USC (without the turnovers, we definitely beat USC).
I think 100% that our offense has hurt us sometimes and the defense is winning games. That’s why I wouldn’t mind if we decided to go ahead an pay Grantham about 3 times what we pay Bobo.
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To be fair, the offense has never produced as much as the defense at UGA.
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This is why the drop off from Van Gorder to Martinez, while evident as early as 2005 Auburn was gradual statistically. Van Gorder inspired the same type of belief (i.e. belief that is earned from your players by your players seeing evidence that what you tell them to do works, that evidence in the long run yields even more effort). In 2005, we were still decent on defense, the players had been coached by Van Gorder for the preceding seasons and thus had that faith and still exuded that effort. Willie got taken behind the woodshed by Al Borges and Rich Rod that year but the front-line players had developed good habits and played well. Also opposing coaches gradually learned that Martinez was either unable or unwilling to adjust to certain things, something they knew Van Gorder could do and early on assumed Martinez could as well. Willie kept getting exposed a few more times a year until finally the vast majority of the BVG coached defensive players were gone and the chickens came home to roost in 2008 and thereafter (our defense was horrible in 08′ we were just capable of outscoring most teams with Stafford and Moreno and outscored several other teams we should have probably lost to in 09 as well). Kudos to Grantham for restoring this crisis of confidence.
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Damn, Alabama’s D is strong.
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Bama’s lead in D was even more pronounced before this weekend. Then they dicked around against Georgia Southern. Hey, we know the feeling.
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Really? Whom besides Arkansas (which in fairness has a good offense which the Bama D held to 14 points) has Bama beaten? One good offensive team. That’s it. I remember last year when every sportscaster in America was all set to give Bama the BCSNC Trophy halfway through the season and they ended up losing 3 games, including a game where Auburn erased a 28 point lead. Same ol’ BS.
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In the 2005 SECCG the announcers were quick to point out that Georgia was the best offensive team LSU had scene other than Auburn. Could be a similar theme this year (but obviously with Arkansas in Auburn’s place).
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In football, like in most sports, it is about coaching. Consistent coaching. Grantham knows the game, knows his players, knows how to prepare for a game, knows how to teach technique, knows how to utilize his players in scheme and to utilize time. If I was a defensive player under Coach Grantham, I’d want to go the full ride and learn everything I could from him and that staff. He is very good! Any young man wanting to play at the top of the game and is a high school senior or junior should watch this staff and team of players. The thing I like is how they close and pursue on a play.
Much is said about some of the offenses in the nation. A lot about the QBs and schemes at OSU, Baylor, Oregon, and Houston. I do not think three of those QBs are going to have the time to take a snap, call in a Pizza, and throw the ball against TG’s defense…and not this set of Dawgs. If I am an opposing QB going into the game , I’d want to make sure my trainers and medical staff were ready during the game.
And think how the media after the UF and Vandy games wanted to wear on this man. Think the sports world knows who the villian is at Vandy.
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Somewhat off topic, but could there be a worse feeling than being an OT staring at Jarvis Jones across the line from you, knowing that you’d better step to the right spot very quickly or he’s going to be eating the QB’s lunch before you get out of your stance?
I noticed that UK seemed very happy to let Jarvis get upfield on a couple of plays and then run stuff underneath him. I thought, ‘if he uses a uqick inside move, he’s going to kill somebody.’ And then he did.
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Our defensive woes were a slow, gradual sickness occasionally highlighted by total breakdowns. It took a coach like Grantham for me to look back and say ‘wow, I didn’t quite realize how BAD things had gotten’.
I’m sure relieved its over for now. Its a blast watching a D that GATA.
I could easily be wrong, but I don’t see how Tech moves the ball against us–especially if we stack Gathers and Jenkins on the line. We stuff the middle, and take away the edges with the speed of our linebackers. The only way I see is by trickeration and big plays against the secondary. But so far, our D has only been letting one or maybe two of those plays happen a game.
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Can we drink the Cool-aid yet???
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Why not? They do it elsewhere
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When Jarvis mentions he will be here for a long time, any chance that will be for his full eligibility of two years?
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I will consider us blessed just to have him next year…but one can always hope. (And I will.)
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Case Keenum might want to give Colt Brennan a call- seems likely that Jarvis can throw Case even farther than Rennie threw Colt if we get Houston invited to a post season match up in the sUGAr bowl.
Marcus Howard wants to come back as Honorary Captain if Houston plans to do a HAKA dance before kick off .
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You know, I for one am getting tired of the BCS using UGA to beat down the mid-major upstarts. In ’07 everybody in the country knew that the Dawgs were the best team at the end of the season. Did the Dawgs get to play in the BCSNCG? NO! The “powers that be” instead used UGA to expose Hawaii. I think Hawaii could have beaten the crap out of Ohio State if THEY, rather than LSU, had played the Buckeyes in the BCSNCG. Instead the Warriors have to play the real national champions that year and get their collective asses handed to them. That matchup was not an accident. This time Houston. A no win situation for the Dawgs. If we beat ’em everybody will say they were inferior. If we lose then everybody will say we weren’t any good. I hate the BCS.
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off topic but i hope every player on the team reads a few pages of the bullshit from stingtalk some GA sites have posted “larry munson committed suicide for the impending loss to GT” and “mark richt found munson sexually assaulting UGA XII in the showers”. i hope we come out for blood on their classless fucking asses! oh and lets see small johnson try to punch grantham in the nose afterwards, see how that shit goes down
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UGA VII*
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