Short game needs work.

While I concur with Seth Emerson that “Aaron Murray… could throw a dozen interceptions on G-Day and kick his head coach in the hip, but Murray will still be the starting quarterback on Aug. 31 at Clemson”, that doesn’t mean there aren’t things in Georgia’s passing game that couldn’t stand improvement.

Take a look at Bill Connelly’s latest post about the quarterback charting data his bunch compiled from last season, for instance.  Here’s part of the pass distribution data for a group:

Notice that about 57% of Murray’s passes are thrown less than 10 yards from the line of scrimmage and are fairly evenly distributed in the three sub-groups.

Now here’s the completion rates for those passes.

Throws behind the line of scrimmage are completed at a fairly meh rate compared to his peers, but check out the completion rate for Murray’s throws within four yards downfield. That’s pretty bad, relatively speaking.

Now look at his completion rate on throws 15-19 yards past the line.  He killed those.  The thing is, those throws made up less than ten percent of his completions.  He threw twice as many passes of 0-4 yards.

Now, obviously the lower completion rate on those isn’t all on Murray.  You have to factor in drops, for example.  But I wonder if some of it’s due to pass protection and throws being batted down (height and pocket awareness matter too, of course), and if some of it’s due to predictable play calls in certain circumstances.  (With regard to the latter, that’s hard to tell from the situational stats.  Check out Murray’s completion ratio on third down and short.)

In any event, it’s something worth looking at.  And maybe it’s worth chunking a few more intermediate-length passes this season.

Spring practice is here! Spring practice is here!

Gee, and I remember the Cap One Bowl like it was yesterday.  Anyway, to get your appetites whetted, here are a couple of looks at what’s in store over the next few weeks leading up to the G-Day game, from David Ching and Seth Emerson.

A couple of quick observations:  one, it sure looks like it’s a good thing that thirteen members of this year’s class enrolled early, as there’s a numbers problem on the o-line, at receiver and even at tailback due to injuries.  Two, I agree with Emerson that LeMay is on very shaky ground going into the spring.  I’d hate to think Bobo can’t work his magic there, but the clock is certainly running.

Your thoughts?

Is the squeaky wheel about to get greased?

In a USA Today piece about the NCAA considering a modification of some of the new recruiting rules, Greg McGarity is the only AD cited by name raising concerns:

Others in the Southeastern Conference, notably Georgia athletic director Greg McGarity, have been outspoken in their concerns about the measures, which they fear will escalate the “arms race” in recruiting even more.

Five years from now, if it’s apparent that McGarity’s only lasting legacy is saving the athletic department money, I suspect that in the circles that matter he’ll be considered a raging success.

Two men enter, one man leave!

In the SEC, being part of a two-quarterback recruiting class is a lot like Thunderdome.