Well, now, here’s a surprise: nobody really liked coaching Georgia’s special teams last season.
In previous seasons, the field goal team would have basically just been Friend’s unit and the field goal block team would have been Rocker’s. Other assistants were supposed to help, but it often didn’t work out that way, Lilly admitted.
“I think there was a tendency at times — and I’m just saying this being brutally honest, because I know I fell into it sometimes on the punt team — to where you ended up coaching the whole team,” Lilly said. “You had help, you had guys, but you didn’t use them as well. You know how that is. Guys are all of a sudden (like), ‘Well, he doesn’t need my help.’
“It helps you zero in on more specific things when you know that hey, this guy’s got these specific three guys, this guy’s got those specific three guys. So it’s always been set up that way. But I think everybody trusts their help a lot more now.”
Gee, we couldn’t tell.
It’s nice they’re trying to address the problem, but where the hell was the accountability last year when special teams play was such a hot mess?
Get The Picture 
Accountability handled behind closed doors. How many Defensive coaches from last year are still here? Res Ipsa Loquitor…
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Lilly doesn’t say who didn’t step up, so we don’t know how valid your point is. And even so, would it have hurt to have one of those closed door meetings while the special teams meltdown was ongoing?
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From this side of the reality street, you have to believe the meetings were held, the flux and the flame were applied and Richt got overtired of applying grease to the squeaky wheels so they got replaced. And high time , way overdue IMO. Spurrier is a Ready Fire Aim guy , Saban is a ready fire Blame guy, and Richt is a consistent reasonable dependable guy. That’s who we brought to the dance and until McGarity decides there will be a new dance, Richt and his type B- personality is ours to love & hate .
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You must dance with the one who brung you. Don’t like that bad grammar, but it speaks volumes.
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Richt was bringing Grantham back for another year. What are you talking about?
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I dunno. Wouldn’t be surprised that Richt told Grantham something like “I’ll make all the right sounds, but you’d best be looking to get out while the getting is good.”
After all, Georgia went from zero (Grantham) to one hundred (Pruitt) in record time.
We’ll never know.
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Sorry but that is absolutely ridiculous. You’re speculating that Richt planned to fire Grantham later in the offseason if Grantham didn’t find another job, all after publicly stating that Grantham would be back.
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exactly. The point’s moot now but for all the folks who are saying good riddance to Grantham, Richt should’ve fired the guy after the Georgia Tech game a la Willie if not after the bowl game. The fact that he didn’t speaks volumes about accountability.
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We’ll never really know, now will we?
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So was Richt going to wait until signing day got even closer before he went back on his word and fired his DC?
That makes absolutely no sense.
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It makes all the sense in the world–if you’re Mark Richt. Give the guy a chance to get out, that’s his style. He probably told Grantham that he’s out after next year, so find something ASAP.
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Richt can’t even control his own special teams.
You really think he orchestrated the complete turnover of his defensive staff?
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Richt did not tell Grantham “you’re definitely out after next year”. At most he told him something to the effect of “I’m going to have to see significant improvement next year or I’m going to make a change”. And those are NOT the same things.
Richt had no idea whether Grantham would find and take another job this offseason. He was bringing Grantham back for another year. He was sacrificing yet another season to give Grantham another chance. Another chance to either do a better job or find another job.
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Doesn’t matter if CTG was coming back or not, Richt should have stepped in during the season. UGA is regularly a few plays a way from a great season, and the head coach needs to step up in areas like this so that the team can make those few plays more often.
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I couldn’t agree more Otto.
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I agree with that statement too, Otto. That’s part of the frustration of having CMR as our HC, though.
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Senator, the first rule of “new Georgia” is you don’t talk about “old Georgia”
http://www.mlive.com/auto/index.ssf/2014/04/video_snl_spoofs_gm_ceos_congr.html
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genius…sheer genius.
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Just seems like this should have been taken care of a couple of years ago. How long has ST been the bane of UGA’s existence?? Coaching ST by “committee” just doesn’t even sound like it could ever work.
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Well, it could, because they are such distinct units. But as with any committee, somebody’s always a lazy so and so, and the others don’t take up for them you get a mess.
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It worked for the first 5+ years of the Richt era. Our special teams were darn good across the board especially punt/block/return. Those units are the ones that have had so many breakdowns since the West Virginia fake punt.
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The way the crowd popped when we blocked that punt against Arkansas in the Dome was as loud as I’ve ever heard. I definitely miss the days when our special teams made big plays, instead of giving up big plays. Hopefully those days return.
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We only make big plays on special teams in SECCGs, it’s the Georgia way to do the opposite during the regular season. Get with the program.
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🙂
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The first 5 years of the Richt era ended over 8 years ago. I’m glad something worked over 8 years ago but 8 years is an incredibly long time.
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I didn’t say there was no reason to change. My point is that STs used to be a weapon especially the punt game. I hope we’re getting back to that.
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True. And it’s interesting to me that the ST’s of that era, and the defense of that era, and the culture of that era, so contrast the next 8 years. That is to say, broadly speaking, when the defensive staffs went bad .. so did everything else.
~~~
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Well stated as usual, Ivey
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Is anybody out there ready for Clemson?
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Deshaun Watson has a fracture in his collarbone. Is Clemson ready for anybody?
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I live in Greenville SC, and listening to the sports talk up here, I don’t think any of them were expecting Watson to start even before his injury. All the talk has been whether it should be Kelly or Stoudt getting the start in Athens.
Stoudt is their version of Mason…..5th year sr, knows the system inside and out, not real flashy but considered very dependable. Kelly is a younger kid, I believe he’ll be a redshirt soph. Little more of a gunslinger…..more athletic than Stoudt but kind of a boom or bust kind of guy. My guess is we see both of them in the game, but probably don’t see Watson, at least until later in the year.
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Thanks, Rev. I was just more pointing out that everybody has their issues, and any team claiming to be settled during Spring Practice is full of it.
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Agreed on that!
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I was on another blog this morning and a pretty reliable source said that the Special Teams Coach who half assed it was actually Jordan Jenkins. But, he did say that he knows what he needs to do for this year.
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I know that Coach Fab was flaky but with the exception of directional kicking we had good to great ST’s until he left and Lilly took over. I have always thought that Lilly was an FSU legacy that CMR hired because Jimbo was going to fire him. He might be a good recruiter but he is a waste as a position coach. There are only 3 TE’s on scholarship.
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Not exactly a minor detail.
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Other than that, how was the play, Mrs. Lincoln?
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And that circle jerk kickoff out of the huddle thing?
That was cutting edge, man.
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Harvey-Clemons plans to play for Grantham again at Louisville. ABH
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Where you been?
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Yes, and getting Grantham to take the job at Louisville was CMR’s secret way of finding a home for JHC. 🙂
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“…nobody liked coaching special teams last year…”
And evidently nobody liked playing ST either.
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Don’t know about the rest of you, but this angers me to a great extent. Is Lilly taking responsibility for last year’s STs and throwing other coaches who didn’t help him under the bus? I thought several coaches had been given that responsibility. Do you mean to tell me now that it was elective as to whether the other coaches participated? Sounds like Lilly is saying they sluffed it off as their direct responsibility and found more important things to do for themselves. If so, my dander is up because we were misinformed for at least two years as to coaches input into STs. If Lilly has overall responsibility then I’d like to see the accountability given to him. If not, Then whatever the other coaches do or don’t do should reflect directly off Richt for full accountability.
No wonder the kids had a hard time on STs! I feel as if I’ve been led down a primrose path and must wait to hear the last of this ST accountability chapter. This shit has to stop now. This year.
Last year it was because we didn’t put our best players on ST and some “stars” began to appear, but after their injuries began to accumulate I guess we kinda weaned back to a piece of ST do-do.
This Lilly quote is upsetting to me and makes me feel naive as a fan and supporter. What is this “…other assistants were supposed to help…” ? They should do it or get their asses away from the team.
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What annoys Hell outta me, Cojones, is we fans can see this stuff so clearly and somehow the coaches don’t and aren’t held accountable. That’s why I (and plenty of others) said here and elsewhere that there definitely should be a named “Special Teams Coordinator” as other schools (and the NFL) do. That doesn’t mean he’s the ONLY Special Teams coach or that it’s all he does, but it does put public accountability on a particular person who knows he’s responsible for assuring everyone is performing their ST coaching role, and is presumably empowered to do so. When you know that everybody–including your colleagues–sees your name in the Media Guide and website as “Special Teams Coordinator,” even if coupled with, say, “TE Coach,” it’s gotta make a difference.
The idea of “we got a whole buncha guys doing it and no one person is responsible for making sure it happens” is what I call “performance by committee” which means “no performance” because no one’s responsible.
In my book, ST is the single biggest, obvious, and most inexcusable FU by Mark Richt in the last few years, much as I generally support him otherwise as head coach.
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I have been calling for CMR to be the ST Co-ordinater himself (like Urban Meyer does; like Frank Beamer does) for years. STs have been a rudderless ship more or less for at least 8 seasons.
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Agree with 69Dawg. I’m amazed Lilly is speaking out like this, as he’s the coach we’d all deem most responsible for lousy ST’s (except maybe CMR as head coach, who assigned Lilly the ST tasks). Lilly is another Van Hallanger or Eason – CMR buddies & hangers-on who gladly accept paychecks and don’t contribute much. We had great TEs and recruiting long before Lilly arrived, so I’m skeptical about anyone who points to those as Lilly’s achievements or contributions. He’s the closest thing we’ve got to dead weight on the coaching staff.
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Yet another reason why “The Georgia Way” is the biggest joke in the SEC.
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