I wonder which fan base haz a bigger sad right now – Georgia’s, knowing that Richt has retained Todd Grantham and his 48th ranked total defense, or Michigan’s, which just got the news that Al Borges and his 83rd ranked total offense are back, baby!
If the rumors hold true, it should make for some epic grumbling before, during and after the Gator Bowl.
Get The Picture 
Not what I had envisioned in August, but a pleasant prospect anyway. Fun game.
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What makes me want to nut up is that if MSU loses the championship game they go to the Rose Bowl. Hasn’t the precedent been established that the loser of a conference championship drop past the conference flagship bowl and go to Tampa? Tongue only half in cheek.
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It’s only an SEC “rule”, apparently.
The truth is the Big Ten doesn’t have any other deserving teams. Michigan State is legit and will go to the Rose Bowl as conference champs. The SEC winner will go to the BCS championship and take on Florida State.
Ohio State lands in one of the other BCS bowls. Even Borges ran up 41 points on their defense. He only got six points against Michigan State.
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You got the part right about the Big Ten not having any other deserving teams, but I’m not sure how you can say with certainty that “Michigan State is legit”. The best teams they played in the regular season were Notre Dame(8-4), Nebraska(8-4) and Michigan(7-5)….and they lost to Notre Dame. They didn’t play OSU or Wisconsin in the regular season and their non-conference schedule other than ND consisted of South Florida, Youngstown State and Western Michigan.
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Yeah…if everyone can just sort of go ahead and get their donations in, that would be great. Ok? Thanks a bunch!
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I did Bitch
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Hey, I thought Missouri was supposed to have a great defense. I thought they were one of the best defenses in the SEC but, according to this listing they were 53rd, and Auburn was the 70’s. I guess you can make of stats what you will, but personally, I think if we cut out most of our special teams mistakes, we’d have a better defense and ultimately a better record. Just sayin’.
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Their scoring defense is pretty solid — good for second in the conference. We’re ranked 11th and it’s not all due to special teams (e’d have to give up 57 points less to even tie for 9th in the conference in scoring defense).
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We’d*
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Can’t believe CMR is bring CTG back?
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If we do get a Gator bowl vs. Michigan, I’m not looking forward to Gardner to Gallon vs. our secondary at all.
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Devin Funchess is also really good. 6’5, 230 and can run. (He can’t block for shit, which is why he is now a WR instead of a TE.) The issue for Michigan has been giving Devin Gardner time to throw. The interior of the offensive line has been an utter disaster because of both youth and incoherent coaching. UM finally started picking up interior blitzes properly against Ohio State, but up-the-middle pressure has killed them all year. You can be certain that Grantham will run all varieties of twists up the middle to exploit that weakness.
Michigan’s other rumored bowl destination is the BW3 Bowl against Texas, which would mean pitting current bete noire Borges against former Bete Noire GERG Robinson.
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But the biggest question is, will Brady Hoke start wearing his headset throughout the games?
(for those who don’t know, that seriously is one of the things that Michigan fans complain about Hoke, he coaches the majority of the game without wearing headsets)
In all seriousness though, I thought there was a decent chance Grantham would get fired. But I was CERTAIN Borges was gone from UM. Especially after things like this:
http://mgoblog.com/content/picture-pages-dumbest-play-history-football
Also, not that most of us care much about football, but if you enjoy reading well done blogs, mgoblog.com is worth viewing at least once a week or so. It’s the only Big 10 blog that has ever really caught my eye. Not as good as the work done by our fine Senator here, but worth your time.
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wow, totally screwed up first sentence of the last paragraph. Meant to say “Also, not that most of us care much about MICHIGAN football…..”. Clearly we all care about football. 🙂
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I’m a huge Brian Cook fan. There’s lots of good stuff at that site.
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“Picture Pages: The Dumbest Play In The History Of Football”
Mr. Cook would really enjoy the not one but two dumbest plays in the history of tSEC over the past three weeks
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I’m quick to call for cutting Grantham loose but I can understand the reason for keeping him. If Richt can get him to make the needed changes (whatever they are) then it will ultimately be the right call.
One thing that really bugs me though is that I now view the defense through “defeatist” glasses. I expect them to give up the score and have become hypercritical focusing only on their faults. The offense is the opposite for me. I expect them to pull it out eventually or at least make a good run at it. I want to get back to the days where I looked forward to seeing our defense on the field.
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Georgia vs Michigan – A matchup made in … well… August
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Don’t get your panties in a wad fellow Dawgs over retaining Grantham. Do you realize there was only one Senior in the starting line-up on that side of the ball? While there were four Juniors that started most of the year, they were all first year starters. The rest were Sophomores and true Freshmen. This was a very young D. You must admit that they played hard every down and fought to the finish. Yes, there were blown coverages, missed tackles, etc. Give these guys another offseason of conditioning and training, learning the play-book, and they will only be better next year. Grantham will be in his final year of his contract and will be playing with guys he recruited for his system. If they do not finish in the top 3 or 4 in the SEC and top 15 or so in the nation in total D, then hand TG the pink slip and move on.
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Well said.
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I’m sick of hearing this “we were young” crap. We didn’t improve at all during the season (unless you consider playing against worse offenses “improvement”).
How good did we do in 2012 with all of that talent and experience?
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Thanks. Somebody just handed me the roster at the beginning of the year and I had nothing to do with building it. I wish more of our fans understood that.
I also appreciate you ignoring last year’s defense.
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Agreed coach. I mean it’s not like your team has horrible fundamentals either — and even if they did, that wouldn’t be your fault, surely that would be the fault of their youth and high school coaches for not imparting those habits from the start. I sure am glad we can look forward to another year of the exciting style you bring to Sanford — and towel boy too, of course!
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What if some of the juniors decide they don’t want to stick around for another year with coach dumpster fire? Why would Drew, Herrera, Wilson and Swann want to return? – all legit pro prospects. Wasn’t 2013 supposed to be our shot at the mnc?
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Not wanting to open old wounds but 2012 was our shot…and CMR/Bobo blew it by not spiking the ball. But we’re all supposed to forget about that, aren’t we? The 2013 sales pitch was all BS because we didn’t have the D.
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Well, I know I’m disappointed. Richt is almost certainly sealing his fate by keeping Grantham.
We’ll go 8-4 or 9-3 with losses due to inept poorly coached defense.
Grantham will leave in the end out of necessity just like Martinez did.
Richt will find himself squarely on the hot seat once again and deservedly so.
He’ll find it once again nigh on impossible to hire a competent DC because of his hot seat status.
We’ll blunder through a few more disappointing and average years, during which we will likely waste the careers of some special talents just like we did with Stafford, Moreno, Green, Murray, and almost certainly Gurley.
Then, in the end, Mark Richt will have to leave because he will have become Jim Donnan, Part II, except instead of losses to Tech, his will be to teams like Vandy.
The decision to keep Grantham is proof that Richt simply is incapable of making the decisions that will lead to championship football at UGA.
It is a mortal lock that he will never win another championship of any kind while the head coach for Georgia.
In fact, I bet he never again had a season where he loses less than 3 games.
He may as well be Tommy Bowden.
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I completely understand your frustration. You are experiencing what I went through a few years ago. I finally grew tired of banging the drum time and time again, only to be told how incredibly wrong I was. And for a brief moment in time (the end of the 2012 season), I really believed that I was wrong. I finally come to the conclusion that Richt will only leave when he is ready. The retention of Grantham may possibly speed that process up, but I hold out little hope of that actually happening given our current AD. There are simply too many issues that have been broken and remain unfixed in this program (the O-line is routinely a mess, special teams are the butt of many jokes, and the defense…). It is what it is. For whatever the reason, Mark Richt is simply not able, or willing, to field a complete team. This is the reality of a Georgia Fan.
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He’s not a man of details and precision. The modern college coach leaves no stones unturned.
The most damning thing that Richt did in the past is repeatedly sign less than a full compliment of scholarship players. That itself is so preposterous that it’s hard to believe a college coach would do it.
But that is Coach Richt. There’s any number if things that he had just allowed to be mediocre without making the necessary changes to improve and he never will.
He is a marginally better Jim Donnan. GT is weakened but we’ve replaced those losses with nightmares against the likes of Vandy.
If you’re laying bets on UGA’s record next year, go with 8-4. That’s the kind of coach Mark Richt is now.
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Smart and Saban had more issues with Auburn in second half than Grantham..Caught with too many players leaving early for NFL and a roster full of inexperienced, young players. Concern, FS Trey Matthews. Could be injury prone. Dawgs have to recruit another. He missed too many games where there was no depth.
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Posted awhile back the punter Barber should have his scholarship dropped after 2013. He has not punted since Auburn game. D1 is all about players, coaches, and roster management. Roster management is a constant issue for CMR. 17 possible commitments is not enough. Had better get busy and shut out others teams from the state.
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Amazing how 2 HC have done so much with so little. Duke’s Cutcliffe and Vandy’s Franklin . Both schools have a “band box” for a stadium. But look at us…92,000 Sanford. We play 5-6 games there a year. Auburn they get 9 home games. We have an AD and Board who are midgets at managing a program.
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Finally, you are starting to get it, WT. Richt ain’t the problem. Richt is a SYMPTOM of the problem.
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Georgia’s AD’$ and Board’$ definition of winning and ours are completely different.
Different goal$.
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I have come to the conclusion and realization that UGA will “NEVER” win a MNC with CMR, he can recruit well, but his coaching, game management, and hiring the right coaches is lacking. But CMR will always win 8,9, and sometimes 10 games a year for you. CMR will never be 12-0 at UGA!
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^^Behold, the beginning of wisdom! CMR=John Cooper.
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