Jordan Jenkins says the defense is playing with more of an edge this season because it reflects the demeanor of the defensive coaching staff (“They’re all nasty”). In particular,
“Nobody’s going to mess with Coach Rocker. At the end of the day when Coach Rocker’s out there, even now, nobody’s going to mess with Rocker…”
(Photo by John Kelley/UGA Sports Communications)
Gee, I can’t imagine where he got that impression from.
Get The Picture 
The Pruitt effect will take us over the top……………..hopefully
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you know that aggression has to bleed over to the offense. as if Kublanow, Pyke, Theus, et al. were not already meat eaters.
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Let’s hope for some pristine landscaping around the practice field…not a leaf to be found.
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red meat for the hungry football fan
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He got the idea from watching Nick Fairley spear Aaron Murray in the back 10 minutes after the play. I hope to never see our guys stoop so low. I am still waiting for Rocker to comment on it. Frankly, I don’t know how he even got hired after such an ugly display.
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He did comment on it in his job interview, as I recall. As I recall the article he told Coach Richt that was just the way he coached. Evil Richt is obviously in charge of the defense now.
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That interview with Richt turned out to be Fairly good for Rocker
https://blutarsky.wordpress.com/2015/02/24/i-told-him-with-all-due-respect-coach-thats-just-how-i-do-it/
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Thanks for the link. Still. That is the game that soured me on Auburn…forever. Rocker is part of that. I am conflicted.
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+1
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“I am conflicted.”
Who isn’t? Especially when you consider that our staff may have a little too much Alabama and Auburn in it 🙂
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There’s a fine line here. You want defensive players to play through the whistle. You want people to hit the qb hard. I doubt that Rocker said: “I told him to cheap shot Murray.” I think its more likely that he left the impression that given the choice between hesitation and a flag, he’ll risk the flag.
I remember Sean Jones getting a late hit flag once and Van Gorder going nuts and slapping Jones on the ass and yelling at him. Some (maybe most) thought he was mad at Jones. He wasn’t. He was telling Jones to keep doing it just like that and screw the refs. He was right to do so. It was a bad call.
The important point to note is that this issue is on Fairley, not Rock. I haven’t seen another Rocker player act like that here or there. Some guys are dirty. I’m not going to blame Suh’s coach or Albert Haynesworth’s coach. I’ll blame the player.
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Sooooo… we can expect more personal fouls this year??? #Pawwwllll
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Our players seem to comment every year on how much stronger, faster, leaner, or meaner they are verses last year. Also, the current coaches are always more intense, or are more comfortable scheme-wise than before. Blah, blah, blah. I’ll pass on this round of Kool-Aid. I won’t drink until I hear that Trent Thompson bodyslammed Theus in practice Ultimate Warrior style while going Oklahoma or something similar.
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But… but… but… that gives us ample reason to worry about the offense, right?
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Oklahoma! They’d drill that…
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I’m reserving judgement until after the Carolina game, a good SEC team. I’ve been raving about the recruiting for the last few years on the D side of the ball and hope we become a force this year. But anyone who honestly looks at last season can see that from the second half of the Arkansas game, we couldn’t stop anyone except Auburn. Florida gouged us, Tech did the same. What bothered me was that there didn’t seem to be an adjustment made to the power running games we faced. I really, really hope the defense plays up to the talent that we have on that side of the ball, but I’m not believing it until I see it this year.
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