Well, they’re cracking jokes on Twitter this morning about Grantham’s agent putting his name in play for the papal opening, so I guess we’re not done with that meme quite yet, but assuming that he’s roaming the sidelines in 2013 and most of his starters from last season aren’t, I figure Georgia’s defense will likely be “the” offseason topic here (if for no other reason than that most of us have shifted from being in a blame Bobo mode to an expect Bobo one). I don’t think it’s much of a stretch to say that Georgia’s chances for a third straight return to the SECCG hinge on having a defense that’s more consistently stout in crunch time than what we saw in 2012.
Which begs the question: how good (or bad) were those guys last season? I was going to start doing some data mining on that, but fortunately for me, Tyler Dawgden did the heavy lifting for me with a couple of posts he knocked out this past weekend. (I love the Internet, by the way.) Take the time to wade through both. I don’t think you’ll find anything particularly shocking – it’s pretty obvious which games were poorly played (South Carolina, Tennessee and Kentucky were the worst) and which weren’t (Vanderbilt, Florida, Tech and Ole Miss).
The overall picture is a defense that gave up too many big plays, but managed to hold things together in the red zone. When you only lose twice, there are obviously more successes than failures. But, still… I will be curious to hear if Grantham identifies any particular areas that need shoring up in his opinion, like he did after the 2010 season with regard to third down conversions. Speaking of which, given the slide from 2011 to 2012, maybe that’s an area he needs to point at again.
Thoughts?
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UPDATE: More fun stuff to come from the Internet.
Get The Picture 
Go back to that 4th quarter 3rd and 5 that Yeldon converts. Next play: Cooper over the top.
Williams was there to make a stop 4 yards short. Jones was right there but couldn’t get off the block. Was that great execution by Alabama? A breakdown in execution by the players? Poor position coaching? You really can’t argue that the players were not in position to make a play there.
And how you see that play probably reflects how you saw the season’s defense in general.
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The biggest backbreaker of all on that play may have been that Georgia called a timeout immediately prior to it to set up the defense. Not only did they not get the stop, but that was a timeout I imagine they would like to have had for the final Bama possession–would have given them at least thirty more seconds for the last drive. (Interestingly enough the same thing happened in the first half when Georgia called time before a Bama third down play and then promptly gave up the conversion on a running play, although IIRC that one was about 3rd and 2.)
With all that said, Yeldon broke a lot of tackles last season and gained a ton of yards after initial contact, so my lean would be toward calling it a good play by Bama more than breakdown by Georgia.
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Great perspective — it was the pivotal sequence of the game and penultimately the backbreaker.
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You’re welcome….I nearly emailed you so you could do the FO stuff, since you have a much deeper grasp on their methodology, but I eventually got it sussed out.
BTW, I looked at the 3rd down conversion stats and the only thing that jumped out at me was that our conversion allowed % was higher against Non-AQ opponents than against AQ opponents. That was one of the reasons I put the Buffalo and FAU games in the below average games category.
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Tyler, the problem with comparing all games equally using averages is that mathematics/stats don’t delve into strengths of the teams played. Buffalo ain’t Bama. Playing down to five teams who didn’t have the keen conference competition that others had is not my idea of a good D much less a great one. An average D shouldn’t get the accolades that we heaped on Grantham. Individual players deserve it, but that’s not the way everyone gelled as a team.
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You need to look at the data from his second post more carefully.
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Rereading your “more fun stuff” reference convinces me that they are on a trail of using information fairly for comparison of team strengths vs each other in the arena. What a delightful time we will have with it when critiqueing the picks of the AP and USA Today/ Coach’s polls leading toward the BCS member’s selections!
Thanks for the nudge to reread Tyler. You bet; that’s some good reasoning juice for evaluating the D and regret for having only skimmed it inadequately for the work that he put into it. . His work/synopsis is a part of the “more fun stuff” comment above. All of these references are like a little treasure trove reference in future discussions of the team. Yall got something!
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I think Grantham has already stated that he hopes to rotate the defensive front more often this year, and a lack of doing so last year was one of the big problems.
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Senator, your blog reflects what I’ve already mentioned about our D, but will repeat that the run stop never quite happened beginning with Buffalo. Thought it would be cleaned up during the season, but Todd never seemed to put the smothering lid on opponent’s runners. Maybe we expect too much amid the spread Ds, but we made our excuses using the cut blockers. What was our excuse against the pocket passers and the pro set, “tired play”? Hope we see both thrown at the D in the Spring Game.
With many spread Os apparent this year, my gaze will follow those Ds effective in the SEC against the spread and compare to see what we are doing wrong, if that is the case. Criticism will then rest on knowledge compared from the same circumstances of play. Considering that he is one of us (his family as well) there should not be any judgements of his job except from Richt and McGarity and I believe that they are looking closely this year as well. Our D wellness check will be in the LSU game. If they are able to mount an effective D against us after loss of so many D players, then we should be able to respond in kind with our rebuilt D.
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Seriously, Georgia fans? I swear to God, if Erk Russell was coaching today, we’d burn him on the internet too for leaving to take the Georgia Southern job. Assistant coaches are looking to move up. We’ve got a hot commodity running our defense and we’ve got him for at least one more year. This is a good thing. We knew when he came to town that he had NFL and head coaching aspirations.
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Yep, and the smartest fans would be roasting him for giving up 31 points at home to Virginia the year before.
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Stats are for….
I’d rather hear what both Grantham and opposing OC’s genuinely thought about our D. Tyler infers that teams chose to run more than pass against us (but purely on stats, which does not take into account issues like the Tech and FA run-oriented attacks and all of the situations which perhaps added to run vs. pass calls).
I suspect watching film told OC’s more about the D than stats. Especially after the Missouri game, teams made sure to scheme away from Jarvis. And without depth, it’s true that our front 3 could be worn-down with a solid rushing attack.
And other than a 1st Q meltdown vs. USCe (and the punt return goes against the special teams unit) and 5 more yards of offense or 5 less on defense in the Bama game, we posted only two losses. What more, really, can you expect?
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To win the division, the SECCG and the BCSNCG like Bama, Auburn, FU, LSU and UT have done. After all, those are our supposed rivals and look what all of them have done-but not us. Not wanting to be snarky about it but…….
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Grantham refuses to comment on whether he is a candidate for the papacy.
Recruits should be questioning whether Georgia’s coaches are going to be there.
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Cardinal conclave observers think that if Todd did not get an offer from the Saints last week, he is not yet in the right hood. However, if he has a better defense next season, that will be a miracle so he can either reapply or many pilgirms will be knock, knock, knocking on his door
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Well, if he’s not yet ready to be a Saint, he certainly is not ready to be a pope.
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I am about to become unemployed. I understand there is going to be a vacancy at DC for the University of Georgia football team in the future. How do I apply?
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I was reading about Rodney Gardner getting the recruiter of the year award yesterday. Got to thinking how come he never got it recruiting for us? Well, my thoughts are he never had a class like the one he got for Auburn because the elite players don’t come to UGA. Why? Well that’s the question. I think it’s because they see our program as second rate all the time. But, they see Auburn Florida Alabama LSU as having off years but always coming back to the top. What do you think?
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It all gets back to losing the big games. Does anyone out there in blogland really think that if we scored that last TD and won the SECCG, then went on to wipe the floor with ND in the BCSNCG, thereby winning the BCS National Championship, that Laremy Tunsil, et al would have shit all over us like they did on signing day? No, they would have been crawling over broken glass to play in Athens. How much respect do you get for losing the big game? Just ask the Buffalo Bills and the Minnesota Vikings. Face it, that’s what we are–the team good enough to play in the big game but not good enough to win it. That isn’t just the fault of CMR and the coaching staff. It gets back to a lack of total commitment by the Athletic Board, the Administration, the faculty, the student body, the alums and, yes, the fans who care more about winning the party than about winning the game. Bama is totally committed–UGA’s not. That’s the difference…and it shows.
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I think you have a short memory, Fred.
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I hate that you said that because it rings true. I am a committed dawg as everyone on this sight is but your statement rings true.
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