To what should be nobody’s surprise, Georgia’s defensive coordinator was asked last night at the UGA Days event in Buckhead what he thought about Will Muschamp’s promise to make Georgia’s winning streak over Florida short-lived. Grantham’s response was, I thought, fairly muted and expected, but about one area he felt strongly enough to offer a rebuttal.
Muschamp cited the Gators’ turnover issues in last year’s 17-9 Georgia victory and characterized them as self-inflicted.
“Obviously, when you turn the ball over six times, you’re not going to win many games,” Muschamp said. “We fought through a lot of adversity we created for ourselves in the game. It just didn’t work out.”
Grantham took exception to that. He clearly feels the Bulldogs should be given some credit for coming up with the football.
“We actually created six turnovers and we were plus-3 for the game,” Grantham said. “In this league, when you turn the ball over you’re going to have a hard time winning. The last two years we’ve had 62 (takeaways), which is second only to LSU. If we’re plus-1 since I’ve been here we’re right around 92 percent win. It’s a critical point, we emphasize it and we work it every day. It’s a part of the game. You have to protect the football.”
A little professional pride’s showing there. And Grantham does have a point. While some part of turnover margin can be chalked up to random luck, such as fumble recoveries – hi, Mayor! – it’s been clear from the get-go that Grantham’s emphasis on putting pressure on opposing quarterbacks hasn’t been mere lip-service. And that Georgia defense Florida saw played hard, physical football. That +3 was earned, Boom.
(As an aside, if you need proof of what tends to make AJ-C coverage so obnoxious these days, this piece is a good example. There’s nothing wrong at all with what Towers wrote, but check out the header and the photo used with his article. Clearly somebody wanted to give the impression that there was something angry and controversial in what Grantham had to say. And just as clearly, there wasn’t. So let me just say to you, nameless editor, you’re an ass.)
Get The Picture 
You left the word “hole” off of your last sentence.
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Merely an oversight on his part, I’m sure.
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The only reason I read anything sports related in the AJC anymore is because I’ve linked to it from this site to familiarize myself with the point of reference this blog is commenting on.
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Ditto.
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It is sad what a once great sports department has come to — Lewis’ ashes are roiling on the 50 at Sanford. But that’s pretty much what the AJC’s editorship has devolved into: try and spark a reaction/piss off fans of the flagship University in order to get people talking and therefore drive traffic to the story on which they’ve probably already been scooped in the first place.
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At the expense of sounding like a complete homer, I’d argue a lot of Georgia’s turnovers were mental mistakes by the offense and a lot of Florida’s turnovers were takeaways. Murray wasn’t really pressured on his picks, especially the last one where he just lofted a pass right to Elam. Yes Driskel made some boneheaded plays too, but I don’t see how you can argue both turnovers involving Swann weren’t forced by the defense. On the opening drive, Swann comes completely unblocked to force a fumble. The other play, Cornelius Washington pushes the tackle directly into Driskel forcing a bad throw. That’s just an angry aggressive defense making plays.
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Also, Driskell thought he had an open receiver in the end zone at the end of the first half but Rambo made an awesome play coming over the middle to snag the interception.
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Have you heard Mark May go off on that UF line coach that referenced Saban as ‘the devil’. Funny stuff.
The header and photo technique is reminiscent of Drudge, who is a master of implying a concept by using photos and titles that may or may not align with the content of the article. Its just the way to grab attention in the age of the internet I gue–oh look Chrissy Teigen pics!
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If you want to find out if you’re talking to a rational fan or just a pom-pom waving Kool-Aid drinker, discuss turnovers. Turnovers are the perfect stat for identifying bias. If my team turns the ball over a lot, then dang it we could have won the game if we just didn’t beat ourselves. If your team turns the ball over a lot it’s because I’ve got an incredible defense and my team is simply better than yours. Sometimes the truth lies in between. I’m glad that Grantham pointed out the most important truth from that game, which was that while Georgia had six takeaways in the game we were only +3 in turnover margin. Georgia made a lot of mistakes in that game, too. Certainly, Florida’s defense deserves the credit for hamstringing a talented Georgia offense. But the bottom line is that Georgia’s defense was much better than Florida’s offense and that told the story. Georgia beat Florida’s ass in that ballgame, despite what the Gators’ impressive last gasp drive would have the naysayers believe. A late touchdown and two-point conversion could only have tied Georgia. Without that one drive which ended on ANOTHER brilliant play from the UGA defense, then it goes down as a knock-down drag out fight that the Bulldogs dominated. And you know what? That’s still what it was. See you in JAX, Coach Boom.
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Putting turnovers aside, UGA offense on the season averaged 7.09 ypp. Against UF, we averaged 4.3. Against UF, our QB, who averaged over 10 yard per attempt, averaged just over 6 yards per attempt. UF on the other hand, averaged 3.9 ypp against us, which was less than their anemic 5.2 ypp season average. Before the obvious retort that UF’s defense deserves credit, we averaged 6.25 ypp against a Bama defense that was better than UF’s in almost every way.
I present this to suggest how significantly worse our offense was than normal that day. if we think about the raw difference from normal, our offense was a 1.5 yards WORSE than normal than their offense was (which was 1.3 yards worse than normal) and WE STILL OUTGAINED THEM! If Aaron plays to form, we would have run them out of the stadium. Heck we endured one of aaron’s 3 worst performances in red and black and STILL one by 8 points.
if we could ever simply play to form, Coach Boom is going to have to answer to more than just 3 in a row. It’s going to be 3 in a row having been whipped.
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or “won by 8 points…”
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I wonder what the 1st half vs 2nd half stat line looks like? Murray was much improved after halftime of game.
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Murray didn’t throw any more picks in the second half, but don’t forget he missed nine in a row before hitting that huge completion to Conley.
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Wasn’t the 9 incompletions in a row and huge completion to Conley in 2011? The big pass last year was to Mitchell for the TD.
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Jeez, you’re right. I’ve just met my weekly brain fart quota.
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Funny thing is you remembered a random stat from a past game and played it right into the conversation seamlessly and impressively. Just happened to be from the WRONG past game haha.
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All those Florida wins are starting to blur together in my memory.
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That’s what I like. 😉
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Happy to see you have joined us in the frain bart railcar. Smoke’em if you got’em!
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You act as if this is a recent development on my part. Thanks! 😉
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Haven’t always agreed with CTG’s handling of himself but he seemed very balanced in his comments to me. He acknowledged Boom’s right/obligation to speak in a positive way to the Gator fans, spoke of his respect for the FU coach, defended the efforts of last year’s defensive group, and stated why he felt we were in a position to win again. More importantly, he didn’t throw gas on the “non fire”. I don’t see how anyone can make that into a controversy or saber rattling story.
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Without much effort, you can find three or four other media outlets covering the same story. None on them spun it the way the AJ-C editor did.
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Something just hit me. Ol Boom is 0-5 against the Dawgs since his team last beat them in Dec of 03, with two of those losses being solely responsible for keeping his team out of the SECCG.
I still remember that 2006 AU game like it was yesterday. The Dawgs took a true frosh qb to visit the #5 team in the country, who had both SECC & national title hopes still alive, and ran them out of their own stadium.
Good times
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You ain’t kidding about good times, JN. That was such a beautiful game. It was my Senior year at UGA and I’ll be honest that I didn’t expect to have a lot of fun over on the plains (we had just lost to Kentucky and Vandy). Yadda yadda yadda, it was probably the most fun weekend of my life. I hope Tra Battle never has to buy a beer in this state again.
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This reminds me of how the week prior to the Georgia game, Florida players and coaches were taking credit for a number of flukey turnovers they benefited from in the game against the Gamecocks. When they win the turnover battle, it’s because they have a ball-hawking defense. When they lose, it’s because of bad luck and self-inflicted wounds.
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Yep. What’s your point? 😉
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Really, this time it was just that the douchery runs deep in the Gators program. That’s one thing we can agree on, right? 😉
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I remember that too, all that “Violator” nonsense.
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This Violator nonsense?
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Lazy analysis on turnovers was in high supply during draft coverage a few weeks back. I remember hearing some NFL draft “experts” describe Rambo as the better of the two Georgia safeties b/c he was a “ball hawk” and had so many INT’s.
Don’t get me wrong, Rambo’s a DGD. But Williams projects far better to the NFL than Rambo. Anybody that watched Georgia football last couple years would know this.
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Totally agree. A lot of the draft “experts” make me laugh when they evaluate our players.
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Hi yourself, Senator. It’s amazing how your position on fumble recoveries being all luck has morphed. As CTG said: “We actually created six turnovers…” CTG is right. Turnovers are created by hard hitting and hustle–not by “luck.”
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Morphed, hunh… show me where I’ve said otherwise, Mayor.
Fumbles may be caused by hard hitting and hustle, but recoveries are random.
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That was actually a fortunate safety. If I remember correctly, after Nebraska kickoff from their twenty, the Dawgs scored rather quickly…So they didn’t miss out on 5 points in the big scheme, they gained two.
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That play is the sole reason I have serious doubts about Justin Scott Wesley. That was just an non-athletic play.
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Maybe it’s awkward for a WR to be trying to scoop and score? Don’t know but that kid looks real good in pads. For that matter, another guy in the frame on that play was TJ Stripling. He looks like a starter for the Tennessee Titans but that hasn’t translated on the field quite yet.
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WKCBCUS73Z8. Honey Badger disagrees with you. Of course, he is the exception rather than the rule.
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somebody pass the Funyuns ®
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Had to do some medical visits yesterday, so this is pretty lame-late, but this song in any version is hilarious. My wife sings on Sing Snap and found a rendition sung well by an 84 yr woman. Hilarious!
The voices sound like the original singers of the song that never fails to evoke a smile or laugh.
Kudos, DIF.
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Recoveries are NOT random. If one team hustles and the other team doesn’t which team is going to get the recovery more often than the other? Does that mean every time? No. There is an element of randomness, but overall, the team that hustles more after loose balls will get more recoveries than their opponents. Also, falling on the ball rather than scooping and trying to run with it effects recoveries, too. Remember 2009?
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They’re not random… but there is an element of randomness.
I think my work is done here. 😉
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OK, OK, I’ll quantify it: .095% randomness factor. The rest is hitting and hustle. 🙂
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Wasn’t Bama somewhere near last in the country in fumble recovery % one of these Saban seasons? Guess Saban wasn’t teaching hustle that year.
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Last season, Georgia was first nationally in forced fumbles, second in recovered fumbles and 83rd in recovery percentage.
I will let you draw your own conclusions as to when the defense stopped hustling on those plays.
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Damn! Somebody in red helmets was really hitting the other teams’ ball carriers hard! Too bad they were coached to try to scoop up the ball and run with it instead of just falling on the ball, thereby falling to 83rd in recovery percentage from 1st in forced fumbles. I don’t see any luck in those stats.
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You are certainly consistent, Mayor. We argued about this before and an article of research was introduced that proved to my scientific mind that fumble recovery is indeed random. Before seeing the study I agreed with you because that’s what was taught long ago.
It sounds like you are already ameliorating yourself to the Senator’s contention. And all his niceness has to be goading to you. Just remember, Bluto comments when he feels that he is standing on a solid ground of memory knowledge while we flounder in the swamp (can see him laughing at you now). It’s when he gets sweetly nice and condescending turning the knife in you that bothers me. Hate to see that happen to another Dawg. It just ain’t right. 🙂
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“…while turning the knife…”. Crap. Ruined the pot stirring.
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“…proved to my scientific mind…” You mean proved to your sick mind. 🙂
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I’m impressed with Gurley’s care of the ball. As hard as he runs and as often as he’s hit (and defenses learned fast that you have to tackle him all the way to the ground) he really holds on to the ball. Hope it continues because he will have a great chunk of the carries this year. I can’t wait to see the Dogs line it up with the Gators again…with Georgia’s passing and running game, a senior QB and an improved (depth, experience and strength) offensive line, and Gurshall. (plus the other goodies CMR has that we don’t even know of yet)…If the defense can play at a journeyman’s level then it’s going to be fun!
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Georgia forcing Florida turnovers were the result of:
– Georgia blowing up UF’s offensive line; and
– Driskell being not good.
Those two things are *features*, not *bugs*, my dear Gators.
(Also, do I even have to go through the Big Book O’Missed FGs we’ve had in Jacksonville? Bennett/Coutu don’t stank up the joint and we’ve got wins in ’02, ’03, and ’05.)
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Not playing the woulda/coulda/shoulda game but that is exactly why I don’t understand so many Dawg fans bowing at the feet of the Gators. We were clearly outcoached and out manned in the nineties but the vast majority of games were competitive and were “one play” games. Yet our fans became fatalistic, I just never understood that. Even today there are people who shudder at the thought of Jacksonville, why? I know the record, but all long running series rivals go through ups and downs. It would be different is we were a Vandy, Kentucky, GT type program that wasn’t circled every year on the opponent’s calendar. For all their brashness, there have been few years since Spurrier ran over Goff regularly that FU fans haven’t sweated being taken down. We get their best effort and we need to always give ours, but we lead this rivalry by a nice margin and I fully expect to add to it this year. Possibly we won’t but I back up to no Florida fan.
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Mac, average score in the 90’s: Florida 37.8, Georgia 16.6.
Georgia was 1-9 in those games and only one of those losses was by less than a TD. Not exactly my idea of a competitive series.
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I conceded the nineties, it was a mismatch on the sidelines and within the boundaries. And that 21 point differential is driven by 3-4 games. Surely you don’t feel this series was a “laydown” throughout that 20 year period. Mt point has always been this wasn’t a Vandy/UGA rivalry but our fans let themselves believe that because of the FU fans obnoxious, “never been there before” attitude and the media swallowing Spurrier’s package for about 12 years. I feel if you take those one call/play/turnover ganes and put them in UGA’s column it is a very different feel for the period discussed. And that undermines the perception that UGA was a gimmee for the Gators as much as the fans would have you believe that. Just glad things over the past several years have evened up but as long as we let someone get away with judging CFB by the period starting with 1990 the series is misjudged. Why do that? UGA leads the overall series, we are ahead (or even) for the period of time current players have been enrolled, and Richt can bring his record to 5-8 this fall.
I am not thrilled about 4-8 against them during his regime but admit they have enough talent to play with us most years so they are capable of beating us. I don’t ridicule them, and I don’t let them ridicule me, it is silly they think they hold the high ground. We lead all-time, and we lead short term, any other way to look at that is “spin”.
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2000-10? Spurrier won the first two by 11 and 14 points. Richt lost 2 out of 3 to the Zooker, so the final margin is irrelevant, as far as I’m concerned. Corch went 5-1 against Richt; two of the wins were by less than a TD, but two of the wins were as lopsided as any in the series.
Put it this way: since 1990, Georgia has won one game by at least 14 points. Florida has done that 10 times over the same period.
There is some reality behind the perception, unfortunately. Which is another reason why a third win in a row this year would be huge.
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We can agree on your last sentence for sure, be glad when UGA fans, collectively, can stop hanging their heads and acting like we are their bitch. As I said earlier, take the series as a whole, or take recent history, but don’t gut a slice that defines the rivalry so that it favors you.
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…and with the offensive weaponry assembled for these Dawgs, this year could be THE year to lay down the smack on UF. Say 35-10!
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“I back up to no Florida fan.”
Bring ’em on!
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Good Lord.
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These are the times that try Gator girls’ souls front and back. The summer super-hot coed and the sunshine patriot frat boys will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their football team; but she that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman including but not limited to Corrine Brown and Timmy. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered. This is their next Waterloo, Gallipoli and Dunkirk:
“Well, it’s not going to be a long winning streak, I can assure you,” Muschamp shot back.
And somewhere, someone who used to be a young, pretty Gator girl* now locked into a mixed marriage (which I think was just recently outlawed again by the Florida Legislature), jaded from a promise broken**, knows it hasn’t been this bad since college football was invented 23 years ago in Hogtown
* “A young, pretty girl sitting near the front of the room had a question for the Florida coach.
“Coach, I’m getting married soon and he’s a Georgia fan and …”
“That’s not my fault,” Will Muschamp said, playing to the crowd.
My wedding is on the same day as the Florida-Georgia game,” she continued. “I was wondering: Can you guarantee Florida will win?”
Muschamp, the native of Rome, a long-time Georgia resident and former Bulldogs safety, smiled.
** “I certainly can,” he said (and then he turned in my direction and alerted the crowd that this pronouncement almost certainly would be used in the local newspaper).” (shultzie ajc amirite)
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This might seem like a plug, but it’s not…I covered the turnovers in the Florida game in depth in here the week after the Florida game. The turnovers in that game were created, not just a series of oopses and derps by their offense. Florida fans might not admit it, but the facts don’t lie.
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