Malcolm Mitchell, ladies and gentlemen. He’ll be here all week.
Asked to describe a Georgia offense that has gotten its points solely off the foot of its kicker the last two games, wide receiver Malcolm Mitchell kept it light:
“Scoreless,” he said with a laugh. “That’s all I’ve got.”
Rim shot!
And it’s an admission like this that makes me feel like I know where Malcolm’s coming from.
A caller on Richt’s radio show mentioned a lack of screen passes this season.
“It’s funny you mention that,” Richt said Monday night. “A big thing we did talk about today, not that I want to give away the whole gameplan, but we do need throw more screens. There’s no doubt about it. People that come as hard as these guys come you’ve got to do more of that whether it’s wide receiver tunnel screens or just your old-school running back showing like he’s blocking and slipping out with a guard and center out front. …We’ve got it in the system, we just haven’t called them that much.”
Funny strange, or funny ha, ha?
Remember when we were solemnly told that, coming in, Schottenheimer wasn’t going to make big changes to the offense, because what was working didn’t need fixing? Good times, then.
Get The Picture 
Senator, I wait on your every word. When I heard about Schottenheimer, I was like, “huh?”. Now, I know why. He was a question mark in the NFL. The question mark remains here. Just a big fat question mark……
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I’m afraid the question has been answered.
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Indeed
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The St. Louis Rams fans on their boards have had a field day with the Schotty for Gurley trade. Maybe not a true trade but they got the much better product.
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I live in STL and have had the pleasure of watching Gurley making this transition to the NFL. He made one of his classic runs on Sunday; one cut, through the hole, and outrunning the 2nd and 3rd level for 71 yards to the TD. He is simply a stud. Even missing the first 3.5 games of the season, he is still the #5 RB in the league in rushing.
But, I think our current situation is more than just the loss of the Gurley (and Chubb) threat. We just don’t seem to have any creative ways to get our backs, or receivers for that matter, in situations where they can succeed. And, yes, I know there are other issues such as blocking, QB play, and actually catching the ball when it’s thrown…. But, the Schotty experiment is nothing more than an abject failure in my opinion.
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Everything Dawg related seems to be a “laugh not to cry” situation these days.
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Leonard Floyd is a Butkus award finalist.
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Awesome 🙂
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Why. he got caught inside the tackle all day Saturday allowing Harris to roll right with no pressure. Was that Pruitt:s fault or a player mistake..
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He’s been doing it for two years. Even if he’s coached to do it properly, at some point it’s the coach’s fault for expecting him to set an edge.
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Or we could just be happy for him that he’s a finalist.
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Amen Billy
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Tee Hee
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We’ve run tunnel screens and halfback screens and FB screens. We’ve run screens to wr’s in the flat but they weren’t blocked very well. I think I remember complaints about calling the screen in the red zone to MM because Godwin got blown up and the guy Godwin was blocking stopped it for a loss. I think that was Missouri.
Vs. Alabama? Well, good luck with those. They (wr screens) shouldn’t be in the playbook that week anyway.
We’ve definitely tried to get more vertical as people have put more and more in the box. Hitting downfield passes will help a lot more than screens IMHO. The short stuff worked when we were playing USC and Southern. The better defenses have choked those off and forced us to be more vertical. They were thinking we couldn’t hit those. Turns out they’ve been right.
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Also I would note the irony that Donnan was fired after jumping on a student for criticizing calling screens in the red zone vs. tech on the call in show.
How fans evolve:
2000 “why all the screens?”
2015 “why no screens?”
The answer to both? “Man, that’s just coachin’ right there!”
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Hey, don’t talk to me. Talk to Mark Richt. He’s the one who says they need to throw more screens.
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If they were talking about wr screens I think he’s just being nice i.e., not being Donnan. Either that or he’s hoping UK presses and that they can hit some passes downfield.
More FB, TB and TE screens wouldn’t be a bad idea. They’ve been there but it wouldn’t hurt to call a few more. We’ve missed some when they’ve been directed to the TE’s and FB’s but those to the TB’s have been pretty effective. The wr screens in the flat? Not sure that’s going very far with this group.
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What difference does it make if we don’t catch the football? Am I just rehashing a nightmare or didnt we really drop a few gimme’s in Jax? Rome couldn’t catch a cold….balls bouncing off of receivers?
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They talked all camp about drops. It never healed itself.
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HAHA
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They need to throw Schotty out this week, and start a serious search for a good replacement.
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Remember when one of biggest complaints about Georgia’s offense was that there was too much focus on “balance”? Oh, for those days.
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Sadly there is balance now. Can’t run it or pass it well.
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Ouch 😀
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Touché
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Zing!
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Yahtzee!
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Balance has not lost its importance. Hence, its why we’re terrible. Can’t be balanced without a qb that can make plays and protect the ball.
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In hindsight, some of Mitchell’s worries about not getting the ball early this year look like warning signs about the offense/OC/playcalling. Hope he has a great and injury-free career in the NFL though, DGD.
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He basically called out the OC after the Vanderbilt game…warning signs were there
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What isn’t funny is that Richt seems to be having to go over time and time again what’s worked for his teams the last few years with his OC. I sense there’s a very real disconnect between the HC and OC when gameday rolls around. He’s saddled with poor Qb play and an OC that can put together a gameplan that makes sense. He doesn’t have the financial support of the stones to do it, but Schottenheimer should be shown the door today. Let Richt and Lilly handle this through the end of the season and look hard at giving Lilly a shot at the job if he earns it the rest of the way. It’s time Richt got his hands dirty.
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Couldn’t. Agree. More.
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Already feels like the longest offseason ever.
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Wait for the recruiting period!
Do you think Eason is a better fit for UF or UGA.
Listening to CMR sounds as if there are no plays available to the Dawgs now. No screens, no runs …after all that was what Bauta was to do against UF, but CMR said they took that away…like on game day…apparently the OC did not scout UF very good.
Are we stupid to listen to this anymore. These guys are desparate now.
Plan for a long depressed Saturday afternoon going home from the UK games.
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Eason better fit for Dawgs where he enrolling January 6. Doubt if you are going to game, but will be long day for you after Dawgs get back on track Saturday.
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Lol… ignorance is bliss I guess.
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Its not a long off-season until you lose to tech. I would say that the off-season after the 2000 season after losing three straight to the bugs was my most miserable. How do you lose to tech three straight??
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Throw screens all day long, that won’t help when PRUITT GOES BACK HOME TO BAMA to replace Kirby. Mama is calling….Just heard it on WHBQ Memphis…
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Report? Rumor? A callers pipe dream?
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You heard it where? Well then it must be true. 🙄
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It’s infuriating to read stuff like this from Richt. When the average fan is making suggestions to the game plan you know you are off the rails. Running Marshall more, throwing screens more, running Bauta more in the zone read, not letting Douglas run up the gut from the I formation twice when needing less than a yard to pick up, throwing to the tight end more… The list goes on and on.
This stuff is common sense yet it takes the coaching staff half a season to figure it out.
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Hey Fro., I could not agree with you more. All of the type plays you
mentioned should be what constitutes the Offensive Game Plan.
Run Marshall more, run the FB., screen plays, passes to the TEs,
Maybe even the “Wild Dawg”. Anything to help the QB & the Offense.
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Man. I want Mark Richt to do well. It’s true he’s the Charlie Brown of the SEC, but I’ve always loved Charlie Brown! Good Ol’ Wishy Washy Charlie Brown.
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This a circus man. A living nightmare. Does anyone have a clue where CMR is now. His comments are stunning!
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He is Athens Butts_Mehre getting ready for game Saturday.
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Our offense is only designed for D2 programs
I get your drift CMR.
$4 mil ought to cover it.
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Think every recruit and coach that can bail will do it now.
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You are just hoping and wishing.
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My theory on NFL people moving down to the college level is that they are not as good at coaching the fundamentals as coaches coming the other direction. I seem to recall comments in the offseason about how much faster Schottenheimer went compared to Bobo, how he wanted to get more and more plays in but didn’t spend as much time on them individually. It’s all anecdotal, I’m not at any practices. Just something to wonder about. Maybe Bobo wasn’t really any better at calling plays, just better at making sure the team was ready to run the plays he called. This was part of our optimism about the transition from Grantham to Pruitt. We should have seen our current situation coming.
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Why CMR’s infatuation with pro style schemes and assistants? Last I checked, we are a college team, and college teams generally run different schemes from pro teams. His high tech, low fundamentals approach has fizzled out with Bobo’s exit and the changing football landscape.
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It’s a selling point for great QBs. Like the 3 we got
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I may be coming around to this way of thinking. With a 20 hour work week, can you really expect to be all that complex? I’ve been a big proponent of pro-style as a means of attracting guys that see college as a way to prep for the next level, but the more I see the more I wonder whether or not some KISS may be called for. However, I do hate the finesse spread. To me it’s like the run and shoot. I don’t know what you call that but it ain’t football.
One of the plays I was thinking about with Bauta that we had a lot of success with under donnan was the split backfield option play. Two tbs split and when the numbers were right, they’d audible to a option using the play side back as a blocker. You can run the whole offense out of that look but it seemed that the option was even more effective out of that look than the i formation.
Obviously watching us struggle last year and this has had its effect on my thoughts. I’m hoping that soon I’ll be back firmly in the pro-style camp, at least until we go dry at qb again.
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I think CMR misheard the caller. The caller actually said “the playcalling makes me want to throw up and scream”, not “throw screens”.
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lol, I liked the post on Bernie’s Blog: I just can’t wrap my head around going to the lengths of promoting your third string quarterback, seemingly to utilize his unique skill set, just to run the same plays that didn’t score against Missouri.
A screen call at the right time is a great play, as is the TB up the center. Both are ineffective if called regularly.
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Excellent…
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Evil Richt has turned into Clueless Richt
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I think it is clear, Richt handed the wheel for the offense over to Bobo years ago, and has been clueless
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Spurrier gonna teach us that Wheel Route.
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Are we left with the idea that Schotty hasn’t reviewed film to see how players like Douglas and others have been used in this offense last year? Has he started from scratch?
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…or is he calling plays from the playbook that Bobo didn’t use.
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Schotty’s philosophy: “If it ain’t broke, break it.”
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Throwing more screens wouldn’t have beaten Bama. They would have stuffed those plays too. Throwing more screens against Tennessee might have helped us get a slightly bigger lead which we likely would have blown anyway. Throwing more screens and using Bauta on options may have gotten us closer to Florida, but it wouldn’t have changed the outcome. Georgia is mistake prone and mentally soft. Our special teams provide us with no advantage, and in fact cost us field position and points, and thus games. There’s a lot to fix, and throwing more screen passes will fix very little.
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I would suggest we are running by the same plays as last year. The problem is we have an offensive line that is doing their best matador impressions and quarterback play that is terrible. Coaching decisions are head scratching at best combined with terrible 3rd down efficiency. We miss Bobo big time in the press box and David Andrews in the middle of the line.
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