Kibbles and bits from around college football:
- Kimberly Nash finds some interesting parallels between Todd Grantham’s two stints as a defensive coordinator.
- My, how times have changed: “For the third straight year, Tennessee comes into the Vandy game needing a win to keep bowl hopes alive.”
- Coach O is trying to make things tough on Pat Haden. Probably won’t work.
- It shouldn’t be a surprise, but offense was the story for the Auburn-Georgia game.
- You don’t hear NFL players say things like this very often.
- Somebody’s got Todd Grantham’s back.
- Is it worth noting that the top two offenses in the SEC belong to the Big 12 refugees?
- The Jerry Kill/Minnesota story this season is kind of amazing.
Get The Picture 
Drawings a parallel between his two stints as a DC is interesting, but one of the points was that the defense never improved. But here the defense *did* improve (until this year, obviously). Every season Grantham was here our scoring defense improved. That even includes the transition year (from 2009 with Martinez to 2010 with Grantham).
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True Adam, but it improved ‘from what’ and ‘to what’. Look at the huge number of 30 point games we’ve yielded.
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Well, that ignores offensive trends. Uga’s scoring defense has gone from 5th (2010) to 6th, 6th, to 11th (2013) in the conference. Amazingly last year was the only year it was signficantly below the league average (3.7 pointe below league average) and that was largely a result of Kentucky, Tennessee, and Arkansas all giving up 30+ points a game, moving the average almost 2.5 points higher than 2011.
2013 2012 2011 2010
avg 24.8 23.3 20.9 23.8
uga 30.2 19.6 20.6 22.1
rank 11th 6th 6th 5th
diff 5.4 -3.7 -0.3 -1.7
One could rationally argue that our defenses have actually gotten worse since Willie left. And I shudder to type that, because the implications on the world of physics are terrifying… black holes in our bathrooms, monsters in seven dimensions, etc.
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Maybe scoring was down in conference in 2011 because Georgia, Florida, LSU, and Alabama were all elite defenses.
Even then… from 2011 to 2012, as scoring rose on average in conference, our defensive PPG continued to go down. One could rationally argue that that makes the improvement from 2011 to 2012 even more impressive.
And doesn’t the “number of 30+ points games allowed” argument totally ignore national offensive trends? Hell, even Bama allowed 42 in a game this year.
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Do you even realize what Johnny Football would do to Georgia’s defense? I seriously believe they would put 60 on Georgia.
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The only resistance Johnny Football would face would be the end zone.
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We were not elite. We got torched by the only 4 good teams we played: Boise State, SC, LSU and Michigan State. And Bama has allowed 30 points 2 times total since the start of 2010. So i guess that about the same as the 20 times Grantham has given up 30,,,except for the one digit.
We have given up 30 the same amount of times as Kentucky since the start of 2010.
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I can’t believe you used the impressive do describe our defense. Man you’ve got to be related to Grantham or are getting paid to troll.
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We did not face very many good QBs in 2011, and the few we did go up against still got far too many yards (I think we were Brantley’s 2nd best passing game — and Bray didn’t play the entire game.)
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Kimberly Nash makes the most important point in all of the Grantham Furor.
The Furor is becoming a distraction.
Kick Kentucky’s blue ass, send Tech back to the stone age and win the bowl game….finish the damn Drill, Dawgs….finish the damn Drill.
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^^This^^. Thanks for getting our minds right, Scorp.
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Players defense of Grantham is by he book and eerily similar to what we heard about Martinez.
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I just cannot see Mark Richt letting his success depend on Todd Grantham another year. I don’t know Richt any better than the next guy, but this year he acts and even looks like a man who’s had enough. It could be that Richt says the hell with it. Wouldn’t blame him.
I hear the stingy McGarity argument. If I’m Mark Richt though, I’m gonna argue that if I don’t get the support, I’ll start looking at other schools.
The biggest point against Grantham is the breathtaking scoring defense this year.
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Agree, and it’s not just the point totals. Add no turnovers, rarely getting 3-and-outs, wasted timeouts, players out of position and/or confused, etc., etc. Take into account this is CTG’s 4th f-ing year with UGA! It’s not getting better or even status-quo, the D is getting progressively worse.
Upon the first D screw-up next year (and there will be many with CTG), and EVERYBODY will be saying CMR was nuts to bring Grantham back.
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I hate to be that guy but (serious question) are there any realistic candidates to replace Grantham if he were to be relieved or step down? I personally don’t think promoting Wilson is the answer. I’ll hang up and listen…
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I think Kirby Smart has burned his bridges with UGA, or he would be my pick (like he was last time).
Otherwise, I’m not really sure. I’m thinking if Grantham left for an NFL gig or something, I would be very concerned about who we would hire as his replacement.
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Out of the entire world of football, you don’t think we can find a merely competent guy to be a DC at The University of Georgia?
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Not saying that, just asking who is out there. A few years ago Kirby was everyone’s go to guy but there doesn’t seem anyone like that currently… as demonstrated by your lack of naming anyone.
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The funny thing is that we really don’t have to name anyone as practically half of the Dc’s in college football are doing the same or better with less talent. Just because there isn’t a marquee name out there doesn’t mean there aren’t still better options…
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18th in scoring defense last year, 23rd in scoring defense in 2011 (#5 in total defense).
That’s simply not true. We have the youngest defense in the entire SEC. How can you be so sure that our coaches are the problem when they’ve barely had time to coach them up (compared to other teams)? Remember that most of these guys were only with the coaches for like 3 weeks before they went to play Clemson. We basically went to Clemson with an ok HS All-Star team and a few college stars.
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I’ve addressed the 2011 mirage multiple times about how we padded our stats against, literally, the eight worst offenses in the sec. In 2012 we finished fourth in the conference for scoring defense against conference opponents and we had the most talent on D that we will probably ever have, so there you go. We also didn’t even play the best scoring offense last year (A&M). Our ceiling, the best we will ever be, is fourth in the conference on defense under Grantham.
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Kudos to you, Hogbody! I was thinking of posting something similar earlier in the week. I wish CMR would walk into McGarity’s office and say, “Look, I’m tired of trying to and being expected to coach a team that wins the National Championship with my hands tied behind my back. You can either get on the bandwagon and help me “finish the drill” or you can take your chances with your next coach. Peace out!” Would love to be a fly on the wall if that ever took place.
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Ed Oregeron….Ole Miss….UT…he may be doing a good job at USC replacing Kiffikins, but Ed Oregeron? Really?
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If McGarity won’t make the move to can Grantham because of $$$, there may be a riot. Richt still has tons of capital with the alumni, more so than with other Dawg fans in general. McGarity would be on his own hot seat to refuse him the change when he is sitting on a big surplus reserve. Just my opinion from talking to other alums, I am not connected at all to the Athletic Dept., and am not a big donor (didn’t give at all during Adams tenure). But when “improvement” = 566 yards something is rotten.
The article on Grantham’s attitude and how he is always right and everyone else is too stupid to see it reminds me of Fish Fry. My only concern is that we couldn’t hire who we wanted last time…..it seems to be a great opportunity, but maybe that is just wearing my red and black glasses. Still dreaming of Bud Foster…….
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The 10 million dollar question, Which is the greatest certainty?
fire TG & hire a replacement (provide name of a likely candidate, please no BVG. Bud Foster or Will Muschamp are not coming to Athens) or
improvement in 2014 with Grantham.
Most likely scenario is a first year coordinator is going to be a throw away year.
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Bud would come. The days in blacksburg are numbered for that staff, and even if they’re not, the salad days are long gone there.
There are a number of guys that could help us improve immediately. I do not believe in the throw away year talk. Good coaching can make an immediate difference (see: Chris Wilson, Gus Malzhan, Hugh Freeze, etc.) Spurrier languished for years with bad DCs before finally hiring Stoops and improved immediately. Simply, we can be better and there’s a bunch of guys that could make us better.
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Foster has already said no once and actually recommended Grantham.
A new scheme would most definitely set us back one year. Again which situation is more certain for the best outcome. I would not keep a coach just to prevent turnover, but next year is not the year to throw away.
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ESPN reported that USC is willing to pay up to $6M for their next coach.
I hear that Ed Orgeron counteroffered to stay on for only $600k, a new Hummer, and an expense account at Bojangles.
Or as he put it…”Sis hunner thouzen, a new Hummuh, and to make it Bo’ time ina time I wanna”
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Awesome.
And totally legit. Bojangles is deeelicious!
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This made me choke on my lunch. Hilarious…
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Grantham…your out …finished…history at GEORGIA. You insecure pompous, prideful fool! Now get on outta here … Please use whatever integrity you have, (which is probably none), be gone and stay gone.
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Seems to me Randy Shannon is rested and ready. Recruiting would be great too.
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Is Grantham, Kevin Ramsey kind of bad?
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No.
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How can you tell?
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Regarding the Carolina Panthers’ Steve Smith tweet … Something he said to the sideline reporter after the game was even better … http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap2000000284510/article/panthers-steve-smith-to-pats-aqib-talib-ice-up-son
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