Patrick Garbin has a few choice bones to pick with Todd Grantham’s recent reflections on his time at Georgia.
Now that I think about it, I can’t help but be amused that the guy who almost got into it on the field with James Franklin and flashed the choke sign at Florida’s Chas Henry…
… can stake claim to this:
Last week, Grantham also said, “We changed the culture. We developed a mental and physical toughness there.”
Vaya con Dios, Coach.
Get The Picture 
Screen and all..,
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Another in the long line of “all sizzle, no steak” stories ….
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Yeah, he changed the culture…when he left and took the cultural changes with him.
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In fairness, the D was pretty damn physically tough the second half of the 2012 season. Leaving the D-line in without substituting until the players were all gassed in the 2012 SECCG was pretty stupid and undermined that toughness, though.
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That 2012 stretch of UF, Ole Miss, Auburn, and tech was impressive. Not one team passed for over 200 and holding the first three to 75 yards rushing or less. Not to mention only giving up 9, 10, 0, and 10 points to each of them respectively. That was the best defensive stretch I can remember in awhile.
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Excellent points – it’s too bad all of those guys that got suspended spent the first half of the season getting back into playing condition or that defense would have been absolutely tough.
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In the words of none other than our own Mark Richt re: Grantham, post Vandy screaming match: He’s a dumbass.
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If only we’d listened to the fans who wanted to fire Bobo and bench Murray, we’d probably have a whole new coaching staff to be bitching about right now.
And looking back, it’s evident what a bind Richt was in when he hired Grantham. It wasn’t so much that Grantham saved his job; it’s that his offense was prolific enough to keep them afloat. I feel like we’ve come out on the other side, but the Senator’s pessimism about the S&C hire makes me wonder if I’m too optimistic…
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I think the S&C coach hire is actually a good hire–it’s just that we had a chance for a GREAT hire and McCheapskate blew it. That’s what galls me.
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Willie Martinez’s “culture” was pretty soft, so I’m willing to give Grantham a pass on that quote. He’d taken us as far as he could (and I think we would have seen regression this year if he stayed) so I’m glad he’s gone, though.
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And that really makes me wonder what Richt was thinking when he said, “We’re not planning on any changes this year.” Was he being coy? Did he know that Grantham was looking around and hoping things would take care of themselves? Was there an edict from on high that he couldn’t fire the guy but he also didn’t have to tell him to stay? Contrary to what some people believe, Richt isn’t an idiot, so I wonder if he was just trolling us all while knowing that things were taking care of themselves behind the scenes.
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The diff wasn’t DCs, it was S&Cs.
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Grantham padded his resume against unranked opponents. When he went up against ranked opponents especially those with spread option attacks, his defenses were typically outclassed. The numbers don’t include a couple of games from the end of 2013 (tech and Nebraska), but here’s what I found:
Record against opponents ranked when we played them — 5-12
In losses:
PPG (removing non-offensive TDs) — 32.8
Rushing yards per game — 205.1
Total yards per game — 414.6
Sacks — 1.8
Turnovers — 0.9
All games vs. ranked opponents
PPG (removing non-offensive TDs) — 29.6
Rushing yards — 184.1
Total yards — 398.9
Sacks — 2.5
Turnovers — 1.5
All games
PPG — 20.3
Rushing yards — 143.9
Total yards — 334.3
Sacks — 2.3
Turnovers — 1.9
When you are constantly putting pressure on your offense to score points against typically the best defenses, it’s not a recipe for success. In this case, the stats don’t lie: Offense sells tickets, defense wins championships.
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This was my main criticism of Grantham, he simply got run out of the building against good offenses. Then 2013 even meh offenses got in on the action. The only ranked team Grantham shut down was Florida in 2012 and their offense was putrid.
The last straw was the guy’s bravado. Dude wanted to pound his chest and talk smack when it was pretty clear Bobo and Murray had carried the team (2013 lsu and south Carolina come to mind)
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Folks, Grantham is gone….I wish him well.
Not sure why folks keep digging up stats to prove or disprove this or that. It was obvious to me he didn’t fit in at UGA. Glad he found another gig and we didn’t have to pay him to leave.
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+1
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Point taken, but he’s the one that keeps bringing up all of the great things he did at UGA. The stats and the eye test don’t support what he’s saying.
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He doesn’t keep bringing it up. This is an old quote the Senator is re-posting. For the Bowl media rounds of course he was going to be asked about Georgia. He answered the questions thrown at him, and he stated he’s proud of what he did here. And I disagree, the defense was much better under Grantham than Martinez.
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For the most part, so was the talent. I’m really not defending Martinez; he deserved to get canned, probably after the 2008 season. But a collection of recruiting busts and attrition were as much of his problem as anything. He and BVG’s system requires a 4 man DL that straight up whipped ass on the LOS. WM simply never had that like BVG did.
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BVG also had a defensive line coach who was interested in coaching rather than just drawing a paycheck like WM and TG did. Martinez had the defensive line talent in 2005 and 2007.
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I thought Garner was the DL coach for both BVD and Martinez.
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Yep, he was. By the time Martinez had the DC job, Garner appeared to be untouchable as a position coach due to the impact on recruiting.
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I agree the defense was better under Grantham than Martinez, but he did a LOT of talking when he got here about how teams would be glad after they played us that they wouldn’t have to see us again. He never delivered on that promise for whatever the reason.
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It’s bad enough to publicly give yourself credit for a lot of things. It’s even worse to publicly give yourself credit for things that didn’t even happen. Mama taught me to not say anything if I had nothing good to say so I’ll stop here. Smdh
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Grantham may be one of those blowhards who doesn’t understand there’s difference between being tough and being mouthy. All the real tough guys I’ve ever known had one thing in common: they never wasted a breath telling you how bad they were going to kick your ass. They just did it.
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RIP Joe….
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CSU hires Bobo. Crap.
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