Reading between the lines of this Q & A with Jeremy Pruitt, I’d say the defensive staff didn’t do as good a job of washing out all thoughts of the Clemson game as they hoped. Some of it sounds like the fault of Pruitt himself.
Q: It seemed you generally substituted less in this game. Is that true?
A: “That’s a mistake on our part. Going into the game we expected to play the exact same way. We got away from it a little bit. We’re going to get back to it because we feel like we’ve got guys who deserve to play.”
Then there’s this about Leonard Floyd, who had a quiet game Saturday:
Q: To what do you owe the lack of pressure and/or production from your edge rushers?
A: “Well, you’ve got to give South Carolina credit because they’ve got two pretty good tackles. Second of all, they played with some tight ends and kept them in on the edge some. They mixed up their protections and chipped a little bit with running backs. So those guys have got to learn from it. You know, when you have success like Leonard had the first week of the year and last year a little bit, that’s what people do to guys that can rush the quarterback. They have a plan for them. And the guy that was calling the plays for them (Spurrier), he’s one of the best in the business. He had a plan for them.
So, now we have to hope the South Carolina game was a valuable learning experience. More than Troy will be, I trust. Tennessee will make for an interesting test, though. The Vols don’t have much of an offensive line, and that’s hurt their running game, but they’ve got some receivers who will challenge Georgia’s secondary.
Get The Picture 
It appears as if 2 of UT’s top 4 receivers will be missing this game due to high ankle sprains. Those tend to be lingering injuries and they’ve already declared them out until UF at the earliest. The noon kickoff does scare me a bit, I hope the crowd and the players are awake by that time.
I think a good barometer for our defense will be the Missouri game. On the road against an offense that can put up some points. Show me something that game, please.
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Yeah, that game will be a good overall test. Mauk is the best QB we’ll see this year. It’ll test the offense everywhere too, especially the OL.
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Leonard Floyd – – Did he play last Saturday?
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We’ll handle Tenn at home this year, but next year they will be tough. Playing as many freshmen as they are now will pay off in the future for them.
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Sometimes we overreact and I think that was the case after the Clemson win. Our defense played good the second half of that game mostly because of the pressure we put on the passer. We was not able to do that against South Carolina. Let’s face it, this is only Pruitt’s second year as a Defensive Coordinator and he had mostly future NFL talent to coach unlike what he inherited at Georgia. He just went up against the best Offensive mind in Steve Spurrier that College Football has seen in a long time. How many other of our Defensive Coordinators have done any better against Spurrier? We knew we were lacking talent and know how back there and it was only a matter of time before somebody exposed those weakness. Well like it or not, Mr. Spurrier did just that and he would have done it if Nick Saban had been our Defensive Coordinator. Our Defense will get better with experience and the addition of more talent that he is recruiting. I like the fact that he admitted that he was out Coached instead of blaming his players like other Coordinators have done in the past. He will be ready for Mr Cocky next year, but like it or nor Steve Spurrier is good at kicking our butts.
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” he would have done it if Nick Saban had been our Defensive Coordinator.”
He did.
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Coach Pruitt…I don’t learn a damn thing from a loss…please get buttah.
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I want to see us step on Troy’s neck and not let them up. In particular, I want to see some pass rush without blitzing.
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Ugh. Games like this weekendare like watching G-day to me. We need to pick an annual cupcake game to boycott so they knock off this ridiculous practice.
As I have also mentioned probably ad nauseam, if we would even replace the Troys and Buffalos with UCF’s and Wake Forests and NC States, by the time our guys were seniors they would have sharpened themelves against decent competition week in and week out. and we could brand the program with an identity of fearlessness and a junkyard mentality that would attract recruits and move some jerseys, too.
I an sure there is a flaw in that plan somewhere.
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To start with UCF would likely beat us–has already, remember 2010? Wake and NC State aren’t really a whole lot better than Troy which, while down right now, wins its conference occasionally (Sunbelt) and Buffalo which was 8-5 last season overall and 6-2 in the MAC. Playing a much higher rated team as the opener leads to the possibility of losing. Play a cupcake first game, get the kinks worked out and then start playing real games. If you want to boycott something–boycott the Tech game.
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Looked like the blitzes against SC were badly times and tipped in advance too often versus the Clemson games where we were coming from all angles sporadically. Give credit to the SC OL which exceeded even their expectations. Coming in this season we all knew the front 7 would have to carry the secondary for a while, that didn’t happen last Saturday and is why we lost, imo.
As the Senator said, the UT line isn’t very good so that gives me some confidence but any decent QB with time will give us fits for a while. Just hope the light goes on for those guys before Mizzou. Really want to see some of the guys who haven’t had their shot yet get a chance to play this Saturday. We can survive Troy, TN, and Vandy as we are but we had better be progressing before we go to the other Columbia.
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I think it’s easier to substitute when your game plan is working.
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I think Coach Pruitt could be the best thing to have happened to UGA football in a while. I like the changes I have perceived since his hire. I loved his owning and lack of excuses concerning the poor defensive play in Columbia this past Saturday. However, he admitted to doing something (putting his players in bad situations) that is inconsistent with the ‘Kool-Aide / Talking Season’ banter surrounding his hire. I am struggling with how the same person can say the following:
(1) “If we can’t execute it, I won’t call it in the game. So sometimes I think some coaches think the scheme is going to win the game. We’re going to out-scheme everybody. But it’s really the fundamentals that count. You may call the best defense for that situation but if your defense can’t execute it properly, we’ve got issues. I’m just telling you right now, I’m a pretty simple ball coach and we can do as many things schematically as anybody else in the nation but as we’re installing things and getting the guys used to what we’re doing, if we go into game one and I think there’s something in the game plan that I don’t think we can execute, we just won’t call it. We’ll make sure they know what they’re doing when they’re out there.” – Per 5/2/14 article
(2) “There were 10 or 15 plays throughout the game that I put them in a situation where they didn’t have a chance to be successful, and that’s my fault,” Pruitt said. Per 9/17/14 article
On one hand, he did something that he said he would not do (we all do, on occasion). On the other, he admitted his mistake and looks to learn from it. I guess that leaves me further bothered about their last game and encouraged going forward; at the same time.
Coach Richt had this to say. “I think when a coordinator is in charge of the backfield and understands what it means to play that position, play those positions, I don’t think he’s going to call anything that those guys can’t execute,” Richt said. “The worst thing that can happen is give up a big play because somebody blew it, poor communication, whatever it is. Jeremy is going to make sure that whatever gets called in that game that secondary is going to be able to execute. You could have a great scheme and poor tactics, and you’re going to have no success. I’d rather have less of a scheme and more tactics and more fundamentals because I think we’ll have a better chance of winning.” Per 3/15/14 article
I wonder of Coach Richt had the same thoughts / conflict as I did when he heard Coach Pruitt’s post-game thoughts…
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I had the same thought. FWIW, my guess is Pruitt miscalculated. He thought we could handle those calls, or he wouldn’t have put them in. But when the time came, we couldn’t.
Whatever happened, he owned it. And we know we still have a long way to go. We may not get there. He said we only made one mental mistake, on the 2nd play of the game, and the film backs that up. The rest is we just couldn’t execute it.
We just don’t have the talent, I’m afraid. We can get better, I suppose, with our technique, and that’ll help. But unless more talent shows up from the bench, I suspect we’re going to be limited as to what we can do.
That doesn’t mean that the secondary is a lost cause this year. Good teaching and coaching can still go a long way. We’re just gonna have to get much better on the other 2 levels of the defense.
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Or he could have just called the wrong plays for the situation. That would still be giving your players something they could handle, while simultaneously putting them in bad position. Tea Leaves!
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I don’t think the D backs were in sync. Some were playing zone and some man at times. Why were LBs picking up the short route on second or third and long? Just because Hutson has a problem with the deep ball doesn’t mean that all QBs have a problem. I like the way Pruitt took responsibility for the loss. Bear always did that and I respected him because he did. Too many coaches today want to point a finger at something or someone. Of course Bear would give his boys hell at practice the next week, but He never blamed them for a loss.
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Just asking, but who said Mason has a problem with the deep ball?
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