I watched the replay last night. It was apparent almost from the get go ABC definitely didn’t bring its A-game to the broadcast – either that, or Reggie Carter played the most invisible game an ESPN impact player has ever turned in – but I found myself able to ignore most of Rod Gilmore’s chatter as the game went on.
- Horrible, horrible ruling on the Bennett “fumble”. Really nothing to chalk that up to other than a little conference home cooking.
- The defensive holding call on Floyd was weak sauce, too.
- On the other hand, the chop block call on Theus that negated a touchdown looked correct.
- You know who had a really good game? Kenarious Gates. In fact, it may have been his best of the season. If you watch the replay, check out his blocking on Gurley’s blast in the second overtime period. He literally created the hole that Gurley ran through by getting two blocks down, one to each side.
- It may have been kind of quiet, but Damian Swann turned in a very solid second half. Grantham made a key move on Tech’s last drive in regulation by flipping Swann for Dawson in coverage on a third-and-seven. Swann rewarded his coach by covering the receiver and forcing a punt. He also came up big on the last two plays in the second overtime period, stepping up to allow Floyd to swallow Godhigh on third down and batting down the deflected pass (and having the presence of mind to hit the receiver who was fair game after the tip as well) to end the game.
- I didn’t give Herrera enough credit. He had a monster game.
- The best play of the game was that 30-yard completion to Lynch on Georgia’s first drive of the second half. The offensive line picked up a six-man blitz, Mason threw a great ball and Lynch made a terrific catch to make up for his drop on the previous play.
- It looked like Ted Roof came in wanting to stop two things: Todd Gurley’s running and Georgia’s screen game. The results were mixed, to say the least.
- I will no doubt get my ass jumped for saying this, but Grantham didn’t do that bad a job. His game plan was sound. It would have worked better with Matthews and Wiggins in there, but you play with what you’ve got. With one big exception, the defense didn’t get gashed badly on perimeter runs. The defense did a good job defending the option. There were some recurring issues with gap alignment that allowed Sims to go for 100 yards rushing. And as sorry as pass coverage was for much of the game, it did tighten noticeably late in the game. You could argue that made the difference in the end.
- I joked about not seeing anyone playing right offensive tackle, but unless I’m mistaken, on Attaochu’s last sack, Georgia really did use a formation without a right tackle. Lynch was lined up next to the guard and went out for a pass, leaving Gurley to handle Attaochu all by his lonesome. They might want to rethink that alignment in the future.
Get The Picture 
Agree with your 1st bullet point. I do not know how a replay official could not overrule that call. Bennett took 3 steps with the ball in hand. On that front, and looking back over the season, I believe the replay officials were encouraged to support their on field brethren calls. During the entire 2013 season, I think Georgia received less than a dozen holding penalties, while our opponents received less than 6 (that’s ALL SEASON). I would like to hear the reason in the shift in officiating philosophy.
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Your first point is one that has been troubling me for some time, I do believe the replay booth officials have changed their “philosophy” in the last two years….especially this one. When replay was first introduced to CFB I thought it immediately justified itself as officials looked at plays from different angles and with slow mo and stop action. Calls were almost always gotten correct, and that was the entire point. Now it seems that these officials have been criticized by their brethren and they are sympathizing with them and afraid to overturn the missed calls. Call it fraternal pressure, or loss of integrity but there is just no other explanation for what we have witnessed….the Bennett reception being a perfect example. I get that every play does not have the camera angles to justify the overturn so I am not criticizing those missed plays because the guy on the field has to make a bang-bang call, and often is not in the best position to do so.
I am concerned that these officials are members of the same organization and have the same boss and often know each other, and have worked with each other. The solution has to be: 1) have an independent group in the booth that works outside the SEC office or, 2) have a different supervisor for booth officials and hold each group responsible and accountable for bad calls. The SEC is a billion dollar business that many of us are invested in, both financially and emotionally. Calls like the Drew targeting and Bennett reception are examples of where someone needs to be disciplined. Of course there are hundreds of other examples throughout the country but those show a totally incompetent, or corrupt, official at the switch. This isn’t conspiracy talk, their were two different conferences involved, but those two could not have been missed by an objective official with average eyesight. It needs to be addressed.
I dislike the NFL game but I admire the job those officials do. I am in the Top 1% of the Top 1% in my love of CFB but the Vandy and Auburn games have seriously shaken my enjoyment of the sport purely because of the incompetence of the SEC officials. This isn’t to argue every nitpicky call on holding or pass interference, those two games were blown by two separate crews on calls that could not be missed and I think all of those involved are still employed. UGA isn’t the only one impacted by this falloff in officiating, they just happen to be the one team that I see every play on throughout the season.
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I agree with your points on the replay officials, which must be the second easiest job in college sports, right behind “bowl representative”.
It is much easier to go with the flow and collect your check, especially when making calls against a school who will do nothing to hold you accountable.
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Got no interest in jumping yo ass about Grantham…I agree. I thought the defense, against a team that this not easy to work against, played a better game than I feared. Ultimately we won the game, which is the only stat that actually matters.
I am now, officially, de-comitting from the Fire Grantham bandwagon. If he leaves for “an opportunity to further his career” so be it, but I think Mark Richt is right about continuity, which would indicate, I think, that Richt is not anxious to start all over and he sees a light at the end of the tunnel. I just hope the light is not something unpleasant.
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Herrera went off. Watching him streak to the pitch man and seeing them pitch it anyway was a thing of beauty. Truly.
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Rod Gilmore is a fonzanoon. He was continually amazed that Tech was able to throw the ball, which proves that he did zero research on UGA’s defense pregame.
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Shook my head when he quoted people around the program that say Mason has a stronger NFL arm than Murray
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Right?!? Ron, you ignorant slut. Wait, maybe I’m insulting sluts…his commentary was useless.
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Scorpio is right, hopefully the light at the end Grantham’s tunnel is not a train. I expect the defense to be much improved in 2014, which is no bold statement given what we have returning.
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Hell, if we can just start holding teams below 30 points it would be a major improvement, and I would like our chances next year.
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I don’t know if there was a change to the rule this year, or just a change in interpretation of the rule, but there have been so many plays I’ve seen all year this year where the WR catches it, takes 2 or 3 steps before hitting the ground, but because they didn’t hold onto it even after making contact with the ground, it was ruled incomplete. Those were routinely ruled as catches in the past as long as it was caught cleanly and at least 2 steps were taken. There was one in the Clemson-SC game too where Shaq Roland caught it cleanly, took three steps falling backwards, but tried to turn and reach for the goal line at the last second and lost the ball as he hit the ground. In years past, it seems like that would have been a catch.
The difference with Bennett’s though, if I remember right, is he lost the ball due to contact with a player. All the others I’ve seen ruled incomplete were ones where the WR took 3 steps or less but his momentum from the catch took him to the ground on his own, so I kinda understand requiring the WR to maintain possession throughout the catch in that scenario, where you are going down with no contact or anything. But Bennett had fielded it, turned up field, and had full possession. I guarantee you if Tech had recovered it, the Tech fans would have been SCREAMING that it should have been ruled a catch.
Also, Swann did a really nice job of staying home on that first trick play in the first overtime, when they tried to throw it back to Lee. If the throw had been better, Swann damn well may have ended the game with a pick 6. They still ultimately got a TD on that drive, but I was impressed with Swann maintaining his responsibilities on the play. Ever since the fumbled punt against Vandy, Swann has stepped up his game. He hasn’t been perfect, but he’s been very solid since that point.
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About Swann: his better play recently really makes one wonder if in fact (as has been mentioned before) he was too concerned with keeping an on his less experience DB brethren to play his best. Maybe he has just decided to take care of his own business now, but whatever the reason, he has definitely been looking much more like the player we saw last season.
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Agreed, and yeah I do think there is some credibility to that theory. I live in SC, and I heard an interview with one of USC’s DB’s the other day (can’t remember which one it was) and he was talking about how their secondary had improved through the year. He said early on, the older guys were so focused on covering for the younger guys’ mistakes, that it lead to them blowing their own responsibilities (one of the plays he specifically referenced was JSW’s TD against them where there was nobody within 10 yards of him when he caught it). He said once they started focusing on their own responsibilities, and just trusting their teammates, it made everybody better.
Long story short, that interview definitely made me think of Swann, and maybe he was just trying to be aware of too many things at once on the field earlier in the year. It makes sense.
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Totally agree. I think Swann looked a lot better when he had Rambo and Shawn Williams behind him. I think he’s trying to do too much because he’s worried about Mauger and Moore.
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From section 227 I noticed the Umpire turn around late and see the ball on the ground and he timidly ruled it incomplete. The back judge and side judge were already marking the ball complete but were talked out of it by the umpire. The umpire made an assumption and sold it to the two officials right on top of the play and the replay guy endorsed it. Maybe the replay guy is close friends with the umpire’s wife. Who the hell knows. Was that the Vandy crew doing Bama-Auburn?
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I gotta enter a but here…no Senator, not urs. While I don’t have the memory I once had…thank God…I don’t remember Erk Russell having to have a play chart and a guy with a protective towel.
If the coach can’t remember this stuff, how can anybody else?
And while we won the game, the Johnson across the field did not have a chart and a guy with a towel, or the raw talent on the field, but he kept it pretty damn close.
I don’t have the obvious expertise at analyzing game plans some of us do, so I gonna let Mark Richt be the expert…after all it is our hearts on the line, but it is Mark Richt’s butt.
FWIW…as I have said before, Mark Richt generally don’t fire folks (Willie, et al the exception), but folks do have a habit of moving on to better opportunities.
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Erk is the greatest DC in Georgia history, but, honestly, comparing his era to Grantham’s is a stretch. It’s a different world these days.
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So you are saying that if Erk was on the sidelines Saturday afternoon against The Johnson, he’d a had a play chart two feet wide and a guy with a protective towel?
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I don’t know about the towel, because there are plenty of different ways to disguise signals, but a play chart? You betcha.
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Yeah, now that I think about it, Erk woulda had an Ipad, proly.
I have no idea what this means, if anything, but I have noticed that other DC’s who manage defenses statistically better than ours don’t seem to have two-feet wide or protectors…defenses, I might add, in the SEC, and Chavis don’t count, he sits upstairs.
Maybe the other folks have somebody upstairs with the chart, I don’t know.
Alls I am saying is that if the defense is so complicated the coach can’t remember it….well…you know…
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If they don’t have a chart, I’ll bet they’re wearing headsets.
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Yep…I do see that.
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I don’t know if Grantham uses the towel to block signals or not, but a lot of people use them because it’s easier to see the signs against a white backdrop. Than against the crowd.
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formatting typos…
should say “it’s easier to see the signs against a white backdrop than against the crowd.”
But I know that is one common use of the towel.
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I have no inside info, but I’m guessing there’s a lot more than just plays on that sheet. I would think it has a ton of situational data. Such as, depending on down and distance, what % of the time does that offense historically run certain types of plays, things like that. Things that would help decide not so much what plays to call, but WHEN to call them, which is really the key.
I know me personally, in my job, if I don’t have stuff written down to refer back to, I’m lost. Obviously there are issues with Grantham, but I don’t think his play sheet itself is very high up on that list. 🙂
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Is it an indicator, Rev? Nothing wrong with writing stuff down, I do it, too, but how often do you have to look at your notes? If I am constantly looking at my notes, my boss wonders if I am paying attention.
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Tech’s defensive coordinator had two towel guys behind him. It’s pretty common now, and I think Bama does it as well. I’d love for that criticism to die out.
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Dude, everyone has play sheets. Johnson doesn’t and perennially wins 6 or 7 because it’s a high school offense. It’s a complicated game these days. I’m no grantham cheerleader, but he’s 4-0 vs Johnson, so there’s that.
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So that’s what Bud Foster carries in the lunch box….who knew? 🙂
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Even the announcers mentioned that Coach the Johnson doesn’t carry a play chart. So what? His offense is just variations of the same three plays and he has been running it for how many years? Besides, he a genius – he don’t need no steenking play chart.
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I’ll add that I think Mayes should have recovered that fumble in the 1st half.
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I thought he had. Not that I was surprised when it was awarded to Tech.
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I think it ended up kind of under his navel and was in a place that was hard for him to secure and someone snatched it out from under him.
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Pssht. That’s nothing. I can recover fumbles with my butt.
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Senator,
I’m confused on the chop block on Theus. The GT player was clearly not engaged with anybody else, so why was it illegal to block him below the waist on that play?
Gilmore said something about outside the tackle box, but that can’t be the only criteria….otherwise GT committed a penalty on Damian Swann about 5 times during the game.
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It was a combination of it occurring outside the tackle box and Theus coming back to engage the defender from behind. Given that it had absolutely nothing to do with the development of the play, it was Theus’ dumbest move of the night.
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Thought Theus cut him down from the front. Either way, I can guarantee that it was something Tech did 1000 times that night without a flag.
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I was tickled to see Mason stick his hat in there and knock a Tech player down right behind the center. Tech guy seemed shocked. Oh and Fish Fry was in no mood to shake CMR hand post game. That was a pretty brief congrats to the winning coach by the genius.
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Our Dawgs didn’t quit. Atta boys! Great catch by Artie Lynch, too. And the replay ref must be blind to uphold that call on the field, so I don’t want to hear the Nerds bitchin’ about the refs. On the bright side to this season, we beat the Cocks and the Old Ball Sack, LSU, Tenn., UF, and Tech. And the Old Ball Sack got screwed again. Finally, we didn’t melt down like the Gators did. There, I feel better.
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I too am in agreement that Grantham deserves another year, even though at times this year i was quick to blame him on some poor play (or at least some of the position coaches)
I think continuity has it’s place and any changes should be very well thought through. Having said that, i am concerned about the lack of takeaways. Is this a result of our guys having to “think” too much as opposed to reacting instinctively? An open question to you guys who actually played the game.
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My take on the final play-
Swan was going to get called for pass interference but was bailed out by the tip. Swan was in the process of wrapping up when the tip occurred.
I credit the dawg (unknown to me) for making the tip for the game ending play.
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I think it was JHC you are thinking of that could have been called for pass interference. If not for Wilson’s tip, you’re right, there’s a decent chance he would have been flagged. He was definitely making a lot of contact with the receiver even before the ball was tipped. However, not just saying this because it worked out to our advantage, but when a ball is tipped and had no chance of being caught, it was the right thing for the refs not to flag it.
http://sports.yahoo.com/video/georgia-vs-georgia-tech-2013-012058143.html
(skip to the 2:10 mark after the commercial)
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I think it was JHC, not Swann, who rocked the WR right when the ball was tipped. I think the Senator may be confused.
But I haven’t had the chance to watch the game a second time.
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Different WR. Swann went through the guy he was covering to knock down the batted ball.
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Ah. I need to rewatch, clearly.
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Couple points: 1) absolutely agree with you on the fumble call. Is everyone in football as pissed of at the refs as Georgia fans, or are we just unreasonable? I get it is a tough job, but not in the replay booth, 2) it seems the safeties are playing a little faster. Some good hits from Mauger and JHC, 3) also agree Grantham’s plan to sell out on the run was correct. Almost killed us early on, but it worked for most of the game.
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I don’t have enough knowledge to know if TG should be fired or not, but since I am pro-Richt I will trust his judgement. I have read many comments about the Michigan St defense and their D coordinator, but the youngest starters on that defense are a pair of redshirt sophomores. I am not sure the learning curve for shut-down defense is as short as a lot of fans think. The late Paul Oliver was a 5 star recruit but I don’t remember him coming into his own until his junior year.
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Hear, Hear! on your first sentence.
Grantham had a great talent bunch last year and still allowed a lot of points. Excuses given didn’t always match the problem. He was aware for some time that many would leave for the NFL, just as with LSU and FU. Why was there not more anticipation and training last year ? Using inexperience as your year-long excuse falls on my deaf analytical ears. Granted that offenses are more prolific and that affects all D coaches, but that doesn’t assuage my nervousness concerning TG’s communications to the field. By now it should be lock step. How many errors are brain farts by players and how many reside in the communications realm? When I get a better answer to that question it’s hard to draw hard and fast conclusions concerning game play.
Grantham stays because of Richt’s benevolence and transition problems inherent with new coaches and new signals. Here’s to “Wait and see” for the third year.
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Are guys feeling different about Grantham because of the Kentucky and GT games? Say what you will, neither team is good. Think about the offensive skilled players that have been through Georgia in the last 6 or so years. I would venture to say that it is the best talent in a 6-8 year span in school history. Hell, look at the NFL talent off the defense in the last 6-8 years. Gurley is the best back since Herschel, and he will leave Athens next year just like the previous talent……….with no championship.
But hey, “the arrow is pointing up”
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I’m not. I’m just saying he had a good game plan for Georgia Tech.
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Bluto, if Grantham’s game plan for Georgia Tech was so good, why did we almost lose to Tech when we have superior athletes to Tech at every position? Tech has inferior recruiting classes to UGA every year. Grantham does less with more than any DC in the country. Period.
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Don’t ask me. Ask Sheldon Dawson.
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Not a bit different. I agree the Grantham’s plan was outstanding. Almost all of them are, IMO. What’s lacking now, and has been lacking, is a fundamentally sound defense that can execute a plan.
Wilson has improved the DL fundamentally (also in other ways). The contrast from last year to this year jumps out at you, just watching them play. Not that they’ve arrived. But every single DL got better, technically and fundamentally, this year. So that’s encouraging.
But overall, you still have a defense that is not well coached. Just like last year, and years before that. It’s understandable that many Georgia people have forgotten what a solid Georgia defense looks like. It’s been a long time.
IMO, the youth and inexperience, while factors early on, are now excuses, and have been for some time. Nothing more. It wasn’t just the new guys, anyway.
It’s as if we’re asked to believe that, after losing all the players from last year, it is reasonable for it to take at least one year before the new guys can play they way they’re supposed to. What hogwash. First, the guys last year weren’t worth a crap, either. Second, how do other DC’s do it? Ellis Johnson came in with a new system, and Auburn’s D began looking solid in early September. You could tell then they were fundamentally well-coached and would get better as the schedule progressed, which is what happened.
What happened? Was the Auburn D really good last year? Good coaching is what happened. Ellis Johnson knows how to coach college players. Remember, we’re talking coaching here, not players. Nothing’s wrong with our players, they’ll fight, as they showed once again Saturday.
But they can’t coach themselves.
So there’s almost a month until we play again. A lot of improvement can be made in bowl practices. But come the game, I’ll be surprised to see anything other than the usual slop.
~~~
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Anyone who has not already been on here bitching about Bobo calling runs up the middle with no lead blocker in the overtimes has officially lost any credibility they ever had. Grantham did have a better game, but that’s just a commentary on the sad state of affairs when anyone is content with 34 points and 495 yards allowed. The guy needs to go, without Bobo carrying his water we might would have beaten Kentucky and App State this year, everybody else forget about it.
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Anyone who has ever lobbed that grenade in a Bobo bashing argument that is.
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You think wiggins would’ve been the best option facing a offense that lives on physical perimeter blocking??
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You think he would have handled Tech’s passing attack better than Dawson did?
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So Grantham should gameplan around Techs passing attack? Hokay. Dawson is the most physical DB of the two (or three counting Langley). Picking poison I think I’d defend against Techs running attack first
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Are you sure? Because Shaq has been pretty physical. He’s just small. Size ain’t everything.
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It is when you are getting run over. I know, the whole “he plays big” thing. Can you imagine him getting off a blocks from physical WRs?. I haven’t seen any of the dbs do it this year.
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I’ve seen Shaq do it to blow up screens and stuff.
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Dawson was getting burned left and right for about 3 quarters before we started making some adjustments. The poor guy just looked absolutely clueless in pass coverage. I think just about every one of GT’s big passing plays in the first half targeted him specifically.
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It helped that our safeties were way out of position multiple times in the first half.
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Moore is a non factor. Hard to believe Conner Norman is any worse. Mauger is lost as well. He was Grantham’s pick, and some would say the play to get Langley. Who isn’t playing.
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Senator (or anybody else),
Is it just me or does is seem like our DLs line up a little further off the ball against tech than in other games? Could that be to help them use their hands & get off the cut blocks better? If so, that might explain why the dive typically always good for 2-3 yards against us, but helps us defend the perimeter better. Just seemed like a larger neutral zone than normal.
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That was very apparent in Grantham’s first game against Tech.
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The fumble call was bad, but the worst call in the game was the play where the Tech player was standing over Lynch pointing at him when the ball was snapped and there was no offsides call. They just inexplicably let the play stand (where Mason took a knee).
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Omg I was so confused when that happened. The Tech player was just chillin in the neutral zone. Even the announcers were completely lost. Man, they really screwed that up.
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Agree with all of your points, Bluto, but I’m pretty sure that was JHC who leveled the receiver on the last play.
Also, on that sack you referred to, Lynch essentially was the right tackle. It was an unbalanced line with a TE and an H back to the right side. Lynch was lined up at RT and the FB was lined up basically behind him (from what I remember). Then they both went out on pass routes. The issue is that Tech was blitzing from that side so 2 defenders went by untouched. Mason had about half a second to make a pass. It really was a “outsmarted ourselves” kind of call, IMO. A cool play, and tech obviously didn’t expect it (it would have been a walk-in TD if Mason could have gotten the ball over to Lynch somehow), but the total lack of protection doomed the play. Maybe if Lynch and Hall had chipped their guys or sold their blocks a little bit better.
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Didn’t mean to say the JHC thing twice – busy day here at work.
But the rest stands.
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Two different receivers. I agree with you about JH-C, but again, Swann goes through his man (Godhigh, I think) to bat the deflection down.
Agree with you about AL being wide open on the sack, but Mason really never had a chance.
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Yeah. Tech had the perfect defense called for that play – a blitz where we had not nearly enough blockers to protect the QB. I really thing that was one where we called a clever play (maybe too clever) but it blew up in our faces.
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“…get my ass jumped for saying this, but Grantham didn’t do a bad job.”
Wholly sh#t! WTF have you been drinking now brother Bluto? Love you and the blog, but that D sucks! We were down 20-0 and couldn’t get a 3-and-out to save our lives. And don’t hand me excuses like we don’t get the players. Thank the O for the win (as usual).
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Last I checked, there’s a second half, too. The O doesn’t pull the game out if Tech scores more than seven in the second half.
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We don’t go down 20-0 if the 0 doesn’t come up empty on their first 4 possessions either. It takes a whole team to get down big like that.
Just like it took both sides to come back. Just like against Auburn.
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The pass defense is undeniably terrible. it’s difficult to say how much of that is due to coaching, youth, and/or injuries, but they were bad from day 1 and didn’t improve over the course of the season. That is definitely disconcerting.
The defensive line and linebackers have been pretty solid, though (particularly the line). They did an outstanding job containing the perimeter on option plays. The only place we were getting gashed were on dive plays (which would’ve been fine if we didn’t give up 200+ yards through the air).
The pass defense needs to improve dramatically if we want to accomplish anything significant next season.
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What about the defensive holding call (that ABC never showed a replay of) that negated one of our INTs? That call, the Bennett non-catch, the clipping call on Gurley’s TD, the Mason kneel down with GT offsides… these are just off the top of my head. I thought the officiating was abysmal… again. We were lucky that we were able to overcome it, but good lord, is it getting tiring watching this shit every week. At least we didn’t get hit with any “targeting” penalties.
The fact that some of the Tech goobers actually think they were the ones getting screwed by the officiating blows my mind. Those idiots do not live in reality.
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That call against Floyd was just absurd. We have had some truly terrible refs this year.
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It is as I feared. The D makes Vlad Lee look like a good QB, but then gets 4 stops (including OT) and CTG is good for another year?! CTG isn’t horrible. But we can do better. We must do better. Unless we are ok with fielding average defenses despite 7 draft picks in one year for example. Are you ok with our DBs and LBs being confused pre-snap for the fist half of 2014? And Swann getting beat deep every game? If you believe we will be better on D next year because of experience, that is reasonable but how can we EXPECT it to be any different from 2012?
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Things are never that simplistic. If they were, Martinez would have kept his job after the ’09 win.
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In making tough decisions, I find that it is sometimes very useful to boil things down to make them simple. Imagine we are better next year but not quite good enough for Atlanta…we will have gone through the AM & TGII eras without an SEC championship (primarily due to the defense). Does the department really want to wait to fix this until after Gurley is gone?
Uprading from CTG isn’t going to be simple, but it can be done.
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If you’re asking will Richt can Grantham after this season, that horse has already left the barn. If you haven’t noticed, that’s why so many folks here are hoping the NFL will come calling in the offseason.
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I’m not asking, but I am advocating. I realize it probably won’t happen after CMR’s comments.
But I do believe that if we as fans were united in calling for change the likelihood of it happening go up at least a little.
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But I do believe that if we as
fansthe big money folks were united in calling for change the likelihood of it happening go up at least a little.FIFY.
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True. Thanks for the correction. And BTW, thanks for another great blog. I agree the Defense is doing better. Although I’d pull the trigger if in charge, maybe betting on improvement from this group of players in the scheme is the way to go. They certainly have showed the heart this year. Very proud to be a fan of this team.
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And due to Alabama, of course.
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There’s the bet Mark Richt is being asked to make…one more year of Gurley and a 5th year senior at QB, so does CTG improve this defense more than a new DC can do in his first year? I think it makes sense to ride-out one more year, then you can rebuild both sides of the ball equally if the bet does not pay off. The offense should be in pretty good shape for 1 – 2 years after that anyway.
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I don’t know that Richt is thinking exactly that, but I suspect it is close to it.
Bring in a new DC after spending all the time, effort and money on Grantham seems shortsighted to me, but I do wish Grantham would get somebody in the booth he trusts to handle the play sheet. 🙂
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What I ask myself is, “how could it be worse” Statistically worse defense Georgia has fielded. Last year with all the talent, Georgia played 2 tough offenses and lost to both. Without Jarvis Jones, Florida wins.
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I’ve only watched the replay once but the official called the chop block on either LEE or Andrews not Theus
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