Per the Birmingham News, Willie Martinez emerges as “the prohibitive favorite” to become Auburn’s next secondary coach. All I can say is that he’d better hope his buddy VanGorder develops a killer pass rush on the d-line. Soon would be good.
Hopefully, Mike Bobo sees this as an opportunity. And at least the media will have something to talk about in the week leading up to the Georgia-Auburn game.
Get The Picture 
Smurf corners who never look for the ball! A new era of All In starts on the Plains!
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5′ 6″ high school corners in Alabama are rejoicing.
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A certain 5’nothing coach is probably enjoying himself as well.
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Plus we’ll get to hear at least a hundred times about a Van Gorder versus Grantham match-up from Uncle Verne.
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After all, they played on the same team in high school… No wait
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A good hire for sure, but odds are good that Van Gorder will be back in the pro’s by June. Hell, maybe even March.
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BVG and Willie reunited on the plains is very good news for Auburn , don’t let anyone say otherwise. Willie was a hell of a secondary coach under Van Gorder and if Van Gorder can recruit and develop a potent pass rush at Georgia he can do the same at the Barn. That being said I hope we beat the snot out of them. If your team doesn’t want to play the best and beat the best teams and especially defenses in the nation the SEC is not the place for you. I would suggest the ACC, that conference is dyyyyiiinnng for a relevant football team amid their collection of has beens and never weres.
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BVG did have a good pass rush during his four years at UGA. Of course, he also had 3-time All American David Pollack during those years. But he should be able to scare up another 3-time All American, right?
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Wasn’t Pollock a three star fullback when BVG showed up?
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BVG has a habit of getting a lot of production out of his players, whether they’re all-americans or not. For all the second guessing about the Falcons, most people point to the offense as their big problem, not the D – which has/had very limited talent.
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Pollack wasn’t just some shmoe. He was a beast who made the coaches look pretty good. BVG needed some stud pass rushers at end. Well, Pollack was the best pass rusher in college football.
I think BVG is a quality coach and I sure missed his half-time adjustments after he left. But, failing to recognize the contributions of kids like Pollack to BVG’s success is like arguing that Chizik made Cam Newton, not the other way around.
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What’s the point? BVG recognized a talented kid and utilized him to the ultimate effect. Isn’t that the best statement one can attribute to a coach? Pollack came to UGA as a relatively unknown commodity as a FB, then a DT, before being moved to DE – and then becomming a dominating player in BVG’s D. You infer Pollack coached himself and knew his ultimate ability before everyone else, and BVG or other coaches had little influence. Has anything close to this scenario happened since BVG left?
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Pollack was all state as a defensive lineman in high school. He wasn’t a walk-on.
And yes, BVG coached him, although not directly. My question is, if BVG is responsible for Pollack’s success, then why is Pollack the outlier? He was the first 3-time All American since Hershel. But I guess Dooley was responsible for Hershel, right?
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Well actually….a coach can F/U even a great player. Dooley only inserted Herschel into that UT game because the Dawgs were getting their asses kicked. If the Dawgs were winning without Herschel likely Dooley never would have put him in for that game. If the Dawgs continued to win games that year with Herschel on the bench when the season got to be half over Dooley would probably have decided to redshirt Herschel for that season. Without Herschel in the line-up UGA probably loses at least 1 or 2 games and there is no MNC in 1980 for the Dawgs. So Dooley deserves cudos for at least not screwing up Herschel Walker by sitting him on the bench–or is it UT that really deserves the credit?
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I’ll grant you that. And I’ll agree that BVG deserves credit for not screwing up Pollack’s development. But that’s a totally different argument than saying that BVG deserves all the credit for taking a nobody and turning him into a 3-time All American. If it was that easy for him with a nobody, he should have been able to turn some of our 4-star and 5-star guys into 3-time or 4-time All Americans.
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Frick and Frat. Twin DCs…sorry, how does Coach G handle those two guys and will he be threaten by these two aspiring HCs. Have to agree every 5′ high school secondary player in Alabama are now sending their game film to Auburn.
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What worries me the most is that BVG makes adjustments at halftime, and his D is going to be much tougher in the 2nd half of the game. We all know rattling AM leads to defensive points. CMB and AM are going to have a very tough game on their hands.
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Tough game? Auburn doesn’t have the players now. In a couple of years maybe but not now.
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