Aaron Murray responds to Clowney’s claim that he knew the Georgia silent snap count:
Murray was asked about the comment by South Carolina end Jadeveon Clowney that Georgia was giving away the snap count in their game. Clowney said Murray was tapping his center before every snap.
“Every team has their own way of indications for the snap of a ball for away games,” Murray said. “You watch any game on TV, and you know – based on whether the center looks back, or the guard does. I mean you have to have something, because you can’t hear me do the cadence. That’s one of the challenges of playing away, is you have to do that, and guys can figure it out.
“We mixed it up during the game, he might’ve guessed it right here or there.”
Fair enough.
In Aaron’s defense, he was probably a lot more worried about why Georgia wouldn’t commit a tight end to help Gates with his blocking than whether Clowney was guessing right about the center tap.
Get The Picture 
I can’t understand why this is any different than the QB raising his right foot while in the shotgun to indicate he’s ready for the ball. In loud stadiums the center gets a cue then snaps when he’s ready. Everyone then goes on the snap of the ball.
So whether its a “tap” or something else, the defense still moves on the ball. Why us this an issue, false bragging by clowney notwithstanding?
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Right. It really only matters if you’re blitzing and get a running start at the line.
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Agree. Every game I watch where the QB does a silent count, it’s obvious when the snap is coming. Maybe it’s harder to see “in the arena”? I don’t know, but on TV, it’s right there in living color.
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The biggest difference is that the QB is already 5-7 yds back from the line of scrimmage. When the QB is under center, however, he has to hand the ball off or give a 3-5 step drop to pass. The point of attack is farther back. Furthermore, run blocking requires forward movement by the o-line (driving defenders off). Pass blocking is the exact opposite. O-linemen step back w/ their outside leg to form a pocket and keep their feet parallel to the line of scrimmage.
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I don’t know that it mattered whether or not he guessed right about the “tap” or not. He basically owned Gates for the entire game. All it allowed him to do was get a better jump (and whereas I realize that is a big thing when going against a tough tackle, Gates offered very little resistance at times). Did we ever have Merritt Hall put a cap on him? Maybe roll out a jumbo set and pound up the gut a few times? I know that is running into the teeth of the defense, but against an over-aggressive defense you stand a better chance of breaking one for a big gain. Am I off base here? Does it even matter anymore?
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I’d really just rather take the game tape and memory of that debacle out back, shoot it, burn its ashes and scatter them to the wind. Every single person I watched the game with agreed that it looked like UGA just showed up to a blind date.
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I have it recorded and I am going to watch it again and again–in slow motion.
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Are you some sort of sadist?
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Masochist. A sadist would make others watch it. But yeah, rewatching that game is the Georgia fan equivalent of cutting.
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I really advise against this, bub, but you a big boy…I have watched it twice and it is really worse the third time.
Freshman backs, inexperienced line of scrimmage on offense…it is ugly, but not all the time.
By the end of this season this ought to be a pretty good offense.
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If I may, Mayor, might I suggest watching a couple of Kentucky games?
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M of D I pray we take your anger and everyone elses out on fla–I hate it-but beat fla and I am happy –lose to fla and I will be very unhappy
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I read a blog somewhere where SC had figured out whether the DAWGS were running or passing, by watching the stance that our OT’S were taking.
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I’m thoroughly convicted that SC had a bead on Georgia’s play calling. Both offense and defense. I watched the full game replay and even more convinced. Not sure how… But they were in perfect formation to each play
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+1000 I completely agree. I was going crazy when the game was on telling people that SC had to at least know pass Vs run. They were always in perfect position. SC knew a lot about our play calls… no question.
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Jarvis Jones made similar comments about learning the snap count during the Missouri game. Maybe we’re not giving Clowney the scholarly credit he deserves and this rhetoric was given as a spoonful of irony to dawg fans. Nah…
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Several differences:
-JJ was in a stadium friendly to the offense, so the snap count didn’t rely on visual cues.
-JJ spent about a quarter gathering information about formations, personnel groupings, plays run out of different formations, and audible snap counts.
-He then digested that information in about a quarter’s time and was able to determine what the snap count was on a given play.
-Clowney wasn’t learning the snap count; he was looking at the visual cues that were necessary because of how loud the stadium was.
That doesn’t mean that Clowney wasn’t impressive; it just wasn’t as cerebral as JJ’s read of Mizzou.
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Knowing the snap count really doesn’t help that much. The entire SC defense knowing we were going to pass vs run is the real issue.
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