Jeremy Pruitt, unleash the hounds!
On the coaching front, Rankin reinforced the offseason theme: Simpler is better, thanks to new defensive coordinator Jeremy Pruitt.
“Pruitt just simplified everything. It’s just so simple. It’s night and day,” Rankin said. “We knew the play, but then it was so much going on. The plays this year are so much simpler.”
C’mon, admit the idea of watching the defense line up for a play without any frantic gesturing gets you a little excited. It’s okay.
Although Grantham’s towel will be missed.
Get The Picture 
And no calling time out because they are out of position? Am I asking for too much? And tackling? Hubba Hubba…
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That was the last straw for me with Grantham. I have never seen a defense confused that often, or one so consistently late trying to get plays called.
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Good to see Herrera and Ramik step up. They need to lead. And there are plenty who need to be led.
Not sure about that at all. I guess so. Sure hope so.
Moore has always had a big mouth, and he’s never really been able to back it up. And he’s never been worth a crap on the field, which could be because he never could learn the defense. Maybe now he can understand it, and maybe he’s matured enough to help his team both on and off the field.
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Yeah, but how do you really feel about …..
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Personally, I’m fond of Ryne Rankin’s remarks (supplemented here by Mark Weiszer’s piece in the ABH): “You’ve got to be able to act right when you’re in college, man. Especially when you get scholarships paid for and everything is free. …it’s sad to see people leave the program. … I mean, grow up, be a man. You act wrong outside there and you’re gonna end up in jail. It’s simple.” Indeed ’tis–nutshell of what some of us have been fumbling to say ever since we saw the last of Mr. Matthews.
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I thought Lakatos was a great guy just not a good fit here . Herrera and Ramik are solid players. We have the best group of linebackers in college ball. Moore finally has a coach that can coach and bring out that skill set.
“11:27 remained in the game. Mark Richt and Company decided to go for it on the Georgia 39-yard line. The snap from David Andrews was a thing of beauty – Gurley just didn’t get the yard needed to gain the first down in the three-on-two situation that developed on the perimeter.
But the message was set. Richt to his team: We are going to win this now one way or the other. I have confidence in my defense. It will stop the Gators. I have the luxury of going for it right here… we will win.
Seven plays later it was 3rd and 12 – Richt was all or nothing again. Out of the Jacksonville night sprung Corey Moore from about 15 yards out and through the middle of the right side of the Florida offensive line. It was a full-on blitz – seven players in silver britches sprinted towards Tyler Murphy. Georgia was either going to win it there or Florida was going to find a player and probably score a touchdown.
But Murphy stood no shot. If Moore didn’t get there so fast Ray Drew or Ramik Wilson would have cleaned him up soon thereafter. It was Georgia’s fourth sack, and it was the last one of the night.
Richt did a good job too!
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There’s nothing about Grantham that I’m going to miss, except maybe being less than a foot away from whipping Franklin’s ass.
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Absolutely. He has cured Mark Richt from hiring NFL coaches.
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Once again, thank you Bobby Petrino for bailing out our coach.
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That pretty much sums it up. It’s incredible that Richt was going to keep Grantham around. I guess he really liked the towel.
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Count me as one who never truly believed Richt meant what he said about continuity and keeping Grantham around. I will go to my grave believing there was some semblance of professional courtesy at play there, and providing Grantham enough air cover to find his next spot and land on his feet. It ultimately allowed Richt to save some face, too.
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Let’s entertain the idea that you’re right. So if Petrino didn’t come by at the last minute and scoop up Grantham, that left Richt bringing Grantham back this year.
That’s an awesome strategy.
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I think CTG would’ve “taken his skills elsewhere” regardless.
I know someone that works in sports journalism and he said that CTG’s bosses (fill in whatever details you want) were pissed last year when he put his name out there for an NFL gig in the midst of recruiting.
From that point on he was on borrowed time.
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I suspect you and RC could both be right, Mike. I feel certain Grantham knew he was in trouble, whether or not that had been made official to him. If the situation was uncomfortable enough, and it almost had to be, it didn’t have to be official to be real.
I suspect Grantham probably called Petrino. And it could be Richt was going to fire him after signing day. Whatever happened, the Pruitt part of the equation wasn’t a part of what happened to Grantham. So I’d give credit to someone in the situation, alright, because it flat-out turned our program around and saved us from going down the toilet.
But it wouldn’t be Petrino. 🙂
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If you think Richt was going to fire Grantham after signing day and essentially lie to all the defensive oriented kids who just signed on with him, I have some beachfront property in Oklahoma City that I’d be willing to give you a great deal on. Good grief, that is out there.
Petrino saved Richt from himself. Grantham had no other options at that point other than going back to being a positional coach in the NFL, which he wasn’t going to do with a year still left to try and turn things around as a DC.
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I don’t think anything. All I’ve done is guess and speculate, like everybody else. I doubt we’ll ever know what really happened.
But it could be that Richt was content enough with Grantham, and everything he’d wrought, not to make a change. But that would require Richt to be very dull upstairs, and I don’t think he is.
IDK. Maybe it was nothing more than Petrino giving Grantham a call. But I just doubt that. Even if his hiring by Petrino was the key thing that made it all possible, I still wouldn’t credit Petrino.
If if was all just happenstance, then I’ve no doubt is was Divine intervention. To be completely forthright, that’s what it looks like to me. And always has. The Pruitt part, in particular.
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That’s some nice zig-zagging. I’ll continue to thank Petrino for deciding (in mid-January, an entire month and a half after the season ended and after Richt told the world Grantham was returning…and a mere 3 weeks before signing day) to hire Grantham as his DC, which bailed out our head coach and prevented him from going into another year with Grantham as his DC. Or maybe I should thank a god for pulling some invisible puppet strings and making Petrino do it. Or thank a Yoda on the other side of the galaxy for getting involved. In any case, Petrino was the conduit for making it happen, so the thanks are getting directed in his direction.
As for who initiated the contact between Petrino and Grantham, who gives a rip? All we care about is that Petrino decided to hire him.
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Agree. I don’t really care how it all happened. All I know is, one day in January we were headed down the toilet into a slippery grave. Three days later, we were resurrected and given new life.
That I can’t know precisely how it all occurred doesn’t bother me at all.
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But we DO know how it occurred. Bobby Petrino hired Todd Grantham, which saved Mark Richt from having Grantham as his DC for another year. Simple as that.
And if Petrino had not hired Grantham, maybe some other major college head coach would have come along at some point later in the offseason and hired Grantham as his DC. And maybe not. The point is that Petrino is the one who did it. And he’s the one we should thank, albeit sarcastically.
Also, I don’t give a rats behind if Richt was telling Grantham behind closed doors to get out while the getting was good. That has nothing to do the issue. The issue is that if Grantham didn’t get another high profile college DC job, Richt was stuck with him for another year b/c he wouldn’t fire him.
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Sorry, I never thought we were talking about that. I thought that was a given. We don’t know what went on behind the scenes, and that’s what I was speculating about.
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Ivey, it seems more important for cube to take Grantham’s leaving, which is viewed as 100% positive, and throw water on it by taking a cheap shot at Richt. Of course no one knows exactly how it happened, and it is true that the primary objective was to get an upgrade at DC ASAP. Most would simply celebrate getting Grantham out anyway possible but for some that doesn’t fulfill their other need. It doesn’t matter to them that Grantham’s high dollar contract was the major stumbling block to making a change for a program known for penny-pinching.
I applaud the achievement of the goal, and am ecstatic with who we landed. None of us are privy to conversations behind the scenes but I never felt CMR was comfortable with Grantham since the first season, nor do I think he was given the authority to fire Grantham at the end of the season.
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It’s not a cheap shot at all. MANY people feel the exact same way and with good reason. Richt has his own lengthy history of not wanting to replace or fire people (the 2 biggest examples being Martinez and Van Halanger). If you don’t want the guy to be your DC anymore, then just make a damn change and be done with it. Don’t play Russian roulette and hope and pray that he finds another high profile college DC job during the offseason, so that you can hire somebody else. That’s a totally passive approach to leadership for someone in such a high profile position. It’s weak and pathetic.
And as for your conspiracy theory that McGarity secretly wouldn’t let Richt fire Grantham even though McGarity has never gotten involved in Richt’s hiring/firing decisions before and has stated that he never will….well, just like all great conspiracy theories…I can’t disprove it. But that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s true. I’d rather rely on Richt’s lengthy track record of passively preferring to hang on to his assistants and hope things work out.
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