According to this website, Kirby Smart walks in the door at Georgia to find more talent waiting for him than any other new head coach in the country, including Southern Cal’s Clay Helton.
Smart was the coordinator of a lot of great defenses at Alabama, and he will take over a unit with several productive players next season. The Bulldogs ranked No. 14 in our overall defense grades this season, and while star outside linebackers Leonard Floyd and Jordan Jenkins will depart, there is a lot of returning talent.
The entire secondary will be back, led by cornerbacks Malkom Parrish and Aaron Davis, and there are several young linebackers who earned positive grades on limited snaps this season, including Roquan Smith, Natrez Patrick and Davin Bellamy (who recorded an impressive 16 total pressures, including four sacks). Nose tackle Trenton Thompson looks like a potential 2016 breakout player after grading very well as a true freshman.
The offense will require more work, but the Bulldogs’ three top-graded linemen return along with playmaking wide receiver Terry Godwin, and the running back tandem of Nick Chubb (No. 5 in PFF grades last year, who missed most of this season due to injury) and Sony Michel (No. 40 in PFF grades this year) should be one of the best in college football.
Richt is third on the list, by the way, so he’s traded down. Boom isn’t in the top five, which shouldn’t come as any surprise.
(h/t)
Get The Picture 
…but, but CMR left the program in such a mess…how can this be?
Seriously, It looks good for Kirby to pull together a talented team and compete right away. Can’t wait to see the staff he puts together and how he closes on this recruiting class. I’m read to get started on some practices with the new regime to see what new processes and plays may come.
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Exactly who said CMR left the program in a mess? No you’re just making stuff up.
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Have you been paying attention? Go back through just the last few days. Richt never recruited an OL that was worth a damn. No quarterbacks. Ran off our defensive backs when Pruitt got here. Thin DL. And so on.
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Exactly why I, and others, called out some posters’ “rebuilding year” horseshit as horseshit yesterday. This is not a rebuilding year. Smart should win 9-10 games again next year.
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It’s not so much that he shouldn’t win 9 or 10 games next year as the fact that people are acting like the whole thing is clearly a failure if he doesn’t. First time head coaches usually make mistakes, and a few bad ones can be the difference between 9-3 and 7-5. I do think Smart going 7-5 would be cause for concern entering year 2. It won’t prove that they should have kept Richt, though, which is the tenor of the comments about him having to win 10 games next year.
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“Richtophiles” were accused of accepting mediocrity and moral victories. Explanations and rationalization were just excuses. “Any” new HC would do better…we had to change!
So we changed. And now mediocrity is to be excused with rational explanations. Moral victories will be progress.
It was a valid opinion to believe Richt had topped out…I doubt most anyone would have been willing to go 2 – 3 more seasons without an SEC East title at a minimum, and based on 2015 there was a lot of well founded doubt he would do that. And the opinions that Kirby may struggle early are well-founded too.
But let’s cut the disingenuous argument that setting a high bar for Kirby is only coming from a “we should have kept Richt” point of view. Folks are just pointing-out then inconsistency of the arguments from some around here. If your assessment of Kirby is right, then why was our assessment of Richt wrong? Because YOU (in the plural) say so? That’s the point.
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Great work, Aus, please keep it up. Thanks
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Setting a high bar is fine. Setting a high bar his first season is sour grapes. If he doesn’t win anything in his second year, then you can complain all you like.
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Firing Richt doesn’t make any sense unless there’s a high bar. Donnan was 8-4 his last two seasons. Richt matched that in year one, then had the almost incomparable 13-1 a year later. We’re 10-3 the last two years (assuming we win the bowl). Kirby ought to match that, followed by at least 13 wins in 2017. I’m not saying fire him if he doesn’t by any means, but he needs to know from day one the expectations are very high. At the very least he ought to win 9 games in 2016. Richt was fired for winning 9 this year after all. We had recruiting classes ranked 8th and 6th the last two years, and the 2016 class was ranked 3rd on the day Smart took the job. His roster was rated by one group as the 7th best in the country. Our loss to Tennessee occurred on the road after our best player went out injured on the first play of the game. Our other two losses came to teams that may very well finish in the top 10 this year. Kirby may cry all he wants to about “lack of depth” but I bet there are very few rosters he’d trade for the one he’s got. I’m a ‘dog first and a ‘dog forever and I’m behind him 100%, but the powers that be have decreed that we’re going to move to a higher level, so by golly, with Smart or without him, and with the powers that be or without them, that’s what we’re gonna do.
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The point is not that the bar shouldn’t be raised. The point is that his first year won’t determine whether or not he can get the program to the next level. If by some miracle he goes 11-1 next year and wins the East, it also won’t establish that he can consistently win either. I’d certainly be more optimistic if he does that, though.
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I agree Smart should be judged over the long term. FWIW, if he went 5-7 next year I wouldn’t be in favor of firing him. I’d sure feel entitled to complain though. Basically I think he has to win 30 games his first three years, make the SECCG at least once, and win two bowls to just keep pace with what we’ve done since 1997. Anything beyond that is an upgrade, which is what we’re shooting for.
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Boom went 11-1 in his first year in the swamp. We all now how that turned out.
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Nope, Boom went 7-6, 11-2, 4-8, and 6-5.
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There ya go
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It’s not worth it to engage with these types. They are/were for some odd reason more Richt fans than UGA fans. Some of the same posters were saying that Richt needed two more years to make up for his incompetence at roster management(of course they wouldn’t admit that that is what the issue was) to compete at a high level again. Now that the change has been made it’s immediate results or “I told you so!” Never mind that these same people made the argument that Richt should have been given more and more years because of Bobby Bowden or the few outliers that finally won a natty after a long tenure.
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Let me add to Aussie’s excellent post by also pointing out that the “raison d’etre” for canning CMR was UGA had hit a ceiling under his leadership and the program needed a top-flight coach to replace him in order to consistently compete for and win championships. That would necessitate, one would think, hiring a coach of the caliber of a Saban or a Meyer (not those exact guys but someone on that level). Instead of making a home-run hire ADGM hired a career assistant who had never been a HC before–basically Mark Richt redux. This was done because certain influential alumni and boosters saw Kirby Smart as “one of our own” and they “didn’t want him to get away” to another school, South Carolina in particular. That is the very type of narrow thinking that typifies the “Georgia Way.” Instead of using this opportunity to hire the best coach we could get B-M hires somebody who makes them “feel good” and because of his connection with the program as a player and former assistant. I hope I am wrong but this hire doesn’t look like an improvement. I see 9-10 win seasons at best under Kirby Smart if we are lucky. I also see a serious threat, if Kirby is as successful as everybody hopes in Athens, of CKS returning to Tuscaloosa when Saban retires. Again, I hope that I am wrong, but I fear there will come a day in the not too distant future when those on this blog will rue the day this hire was made. ” Be careful what you wish for ’cause you just might get it.”
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To clarify, my premise has been that the problems with the University of Georgia football program are systemic in the athletics department and administration. I have seen absolutely nothing in the last month that shows me that those systemic problems are even being acknowledged, much less addressed. The way this hire came down actually proves to me that those problems still are present and are the dominate mindset at B-M. Until the underlying problems are dealt with, expect more of the same that we have seen in the past.
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That’s a fair opinion. I’m not sure I 100% agree, but can’t 100% disagree either. I’m hopeful that at least some of the underlying problems are/have been dealt with.
The one positive I will say with Kirby, is that probably nobody outside of the UGA program knew the depth of those problems more than Kirby did. So the one thing I’m hopeful for (I don’t have evidence for it yet, but I’m hopeful) is that Kirby was able to address things in negotiations that maybe some coaches, even more established coaches, wouldn’t have even known needed to be addressed, or at least the extent to which they needed to be addressed.
But…..the proof will be in the pudding.
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Mayor, the reason Kirby is coaching at Bama right now is so that he doesn’t tick them off so he can return to Tuscaloosa. If he bombs here, we’ll need a new coach. If he does great here, he’ll go back to Bama and we need a new coach.
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^^This.
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Good grief. Don’t get out the pitch forks if Kirby falls short of 10 wins OK? Kirby cannot just come in and pick up where Richt left off, because if he does then he will top out at 9-10 win seasons from here on out as well. Kirby will tear down Richt’s program and build his OWN, hopefully an elite one, from scratch. He is going to have to break some eggs to do it. If he doesn’t get it done, then he will be shown to door too. But Dolly’s statement that he should win 9-10 games the first year after coming in and starting a new program is total horseshit and you guys know it. 8 wins with the weak SEC East and 2 cupcakes sounds pretty reasonable to me for a NEW (not 15 year old) program and anything over that is gravy. Year two I will expect more.
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Come on. We didn’t hire Malzahn to come in and change everything. We’re going from a pro-style offense and a 3-4 defense, to a pro-style offense and a 3-4 defense. Sure, there will be some small adjustments. But pretending like Smart will need several seasons to get this team up to speed is just preemptive excuse-making.
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VERY cogent post Boner (I really dig your name). Same O. Same D. Same players. If CKS doesn’t win as much as his predecessor whose fault will it be? The Smart apologists are already out in full force in advance.
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Who said several seasons? Read my post. Still, I like how you guys were asking for a few more years for Richt to get his program back up to speed with his new staff and now Kirby is just supposed to come in and fart some big wins out of the gate. Give the guy a chance. Damn. I really underestimated how crazy you guys were about Richt. I am glad he didn’t decide to hold some big crazy event in Athens and pass out Kool-
Aid because you GAskillDawg, Rick, Mayor, lakedawg, and Napoleon would have drank it and made the evening news with helicopter footage.
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The standard wasn’t mine. According the “anybody but Richt” crowd that you are a part of, since UGA plays the easiest schedule in the country, and we have hedges, we are absolutely guaranteed 9 wins a year. So, I’m simply taking you at your word. If Smart comes in and wins less than the guaranteed minimum, won’t that be an indictment of him? And even if he ONLY wins 9 games, won’t that also be an indictment? So, it’s 10+ wins or bust for Smart & co.
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Richt won 8 games his first season, and made rookie coach mistakes. I expect Smart will make rookie coach mistakes. I’m also expecting that he’ll match Richt’s debut win total. I don’t know why so many posters expect Smart to come in here and coach like a veteran in his first rodeo. He’s going to make mistakes, just like their recently departed hero did. Just like Dooley did, Hell, pretty much like every rookie coach did.
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+++
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Even if old staff (except Schot) had returned believe next 2-3 years would have been 11-13 win years, so we have upgraded coaches and should not lower expectations. Next year schedule really weak getting rivals at home and only Fla. and an NFL gutted Miss on road.
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Who’s fault is it that we will likely be starting a freshman QB next year behind an overrated at best line? If the cupboard is bare then it’s on MR for his roster mismanagement. I don’t care if MR, KS, or Vince Lombardi is coaching this team next year. It’s probably a rebuilding year.
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What difference does it make “whose fault” it was for something in the past. The issue is the expectations for the new guy.
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There’s a difference between “rebuilding” — which typically involves restocking talent — and installing completely new offensive and defensive philosophies. Even a highly talented team can struggle early with new concepts, schemes, routes, formations, etc.
Do I expect us to be competitive early? Sure. But will I be calling for Smart’s head on a platter if 2016 turns out to be a little disappointing? No.
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How is going from a pro-style offense and a 3-4 defense, to a pro-style offense and a 3-4 defense, completely changing philosophies? Sure, there will be some differences that will have to be taught, but we’re not installing the Air Raid offense and TCU’s 4-2-5 defense.
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Not changing philosophies? Right. Georgia under Richt rolled over and died in the face of adversity, time and time again, over the last several years. So Kirby just rolls in and changes years of complacency in a football program overnight? Pass me some of whatever you are smoking.
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Richt rolled over and died in the face of adversity in 2011 when we had to win 7 conference games in a row to win the East (as we did?) Richt rolled over and died in the face of adversity in 2012 after the SC game when we had to win out to win the East (as we did?) In 2013 we lost our top 2 Running backs and top 4 WRs at a point. Those were in the last several years. Good lord, man, I understand that you believe Rich would not win a championship soon enough to suit you, and that opinion is fine, but don’t make shit up.
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By philosophy, I thought we were discussing tactics like tempo, run vs. pass, defensive aggressiveness, etc. I didn’t realize you were talking about qualitative, “eye-test” crap.
So, how long do you think it takes to teach pussies who only win 10 games a year to man up and play grown-man football?
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Let it go…the deed is done.
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Boom could barely make chicken salad when he had chicken. How’s he gonna do with Gamecock guano?
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Douglas broke his wrist surgery today .
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Hate that for the guy. He’s a DGD.
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So, RB depth for the bowl game is: Sony, Marshall, and then who? Quayvon? Turman?
On the bright side, Keith Marshall looked fantastic against Tech. Thought he should have gotten more carries in the 4Q. I imagine Lilly will have an idea of what to do with him in the bowl game.
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Give KM the ball a lot!!! Let him go out toting the pigskin. I think he’ll have a great game and we’ll all be hoping he will change his mind and stay one more year.
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We got plenty of folks if the coaches will just use them. I personally like to watch Quayvon running with the ball. Not too much in the way of style points, but he knows which way the goal line is. Or the first down marker. Point is he doesn’t do much sideline to sideline running looking for a gap. He makes his gaps.
I still say this could be a fun game: Michel and Goodwin in the wild dawg on occasion, big game by Mitchell in his swan song; defense on the prowl with Floyd and Jenkins looking to up their draft stock. We have a little gas in the tank yet. Is IM healthy? If so, there’s another TD waiting to happen.
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Get well soon, Brendan.
This game opens an opportunity for Keith to show what he can bring to the next level. , if Keith shows out in practice this week, I am confident Lilly will use him in ways Schottenheimer did not.
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Seriously, though, what can you tell from such a list? It’s only the places where a job was actually open. There are/were, what, 15 FBS job openings? Good to know that we outrank Iowa State, Hawaii, Maryland, Illinois, Minnesota, UCF, and the rest of most of what makes up the list, USC, the U. and VT notwithstanding.
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Always had talent and will continue to have talent. The talent was not used to its full potential over the last several years.
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Then your expectations should be, that by now using the talent to its full potential our results should exceed the past few years. If the premise of your second sentence is accurate then you should expect Smart’s staff to win more games.
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Nine games, minimum, in year one. If we don’t reach that threshold, then I will consider year one a step back from this year. You’d have to, no?
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Not going to set a minimum number of wins/losses but will judge on how we lost especially after the losses of the last 2 years. Fair enough?
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moral victories for the win.
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By most standards (those being the ones we’ve seen set at other institutions lately), if we’re not playing for a title by Year 2, then we may as well have kept the old guy. UF won in Year 2 with Meyer, and OSU won in Year 2 with Meyer. Saban played for a title in Year 2 and won one in Year 3. Hell, even Chizik won a title in Year 2 at the Barn. Stoops also won a title in Year 2 out at OU. Even Richt won a title in Year 2 and maybe would have played for a MNC were it not for a few mistakes in Jacksonville.
That may be a small sample size, but there’s a precedent. Only Richt and Stoops didn’t have HC experience before taking over, so that’s something to keep in mind, too. Also, I don’t know what shape those programs were in when their winning coaches got there, but UGA is in pretty good shape talent-wise, and building up good depth shouldn’t take long with the current talent and the incoming class.
So, expecting him to have success early (in the first two years) isn’t unreasonable. If we backslide in the first two years, then we need to worry a lot because something went horribly wrong.
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Well said and well reasoned Ben. I’m cutting no slack. We aren’t changing offensive or defensive schemes (Kirby might prefer different body-types, but the current D players shouldn’t face any learning curve, scheme-wise). Maybe the best recruiting class in RIcht’s career at UGA will all be battle-tested Sophomores. The talent is here.
The people who called for RIcht’s firing can’t walk back expectations now. It’s championship-time bitchez!
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How about if he wins eight games and one of those is an asskicking of UF? And if we don’t inexplicably come out flat against inferior opponents a couple of times a year? Y’all make out like you have forgotten all the times MR coached teams got waxed in Jacksonville and crapped the bed in other big games.
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If we win 8 games, including a win against UF, that means we lost a gimme win along the way. I don’t think beating UF, but losing to Tech, or SCAR, or Vandy will count as improvement. Maybe that’s just me.
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My expectations are to COMPETE on a yearly basis for the SEC championship not be out of it in October, play to win and not to lose, control our own destiny in the SEC East, and to elevate this program from 2nd tier which it has been mired in for much to long. Not to much to ask.
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As a bonus, if we can avoid the annual game where we simply do not show up, and are ready to play our best in every game, that would be a good sign.
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Dear mbozo: Since 1997, per stassen.com, the only teams that have won more games than UGA are Boise State, Oklahoma, and Ohio State. We’ve played one of the tougher schedules of anyone during that time. We’ve won 13 bowl games during that time. That is not second tier. No matter what each of us thinks about HC and other decisions that have been made, we should all unite in our respect for what our school has done. We take a back seat to no one.
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We have been 2nd tier since the loss in Memphis to UCF. That is a 3rd tier bowl game to a 4th tier team. Don’t give a shit what some site.com sez. Overall since 2009 the former coaching staff has done nothing to elevate us to anything higher.
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You misunderstand. Those are NCAA recognized wins. Wins are how you figure up how well you’re doing. (I only mentioned Stassen because it’s a handy site that compiles those win-loss records for you so that you can check what I’m saying to see if it’s true). Since 1997, we have more wins than Texas, LSU, Florida, Florida State, Nebraska, TCU, USC, Auburn, Michigan, Miami, Tennessee, Clemson, Penn State, Alabama, Michigan State, or Notre Dame. That’s startling when you think about it. Yes the loss to UCF was miserable, but almost all the programs have them. (Florida-Georgia Southern and Alabama-Louisiana Monroe come to mind.) And since 2009 we’re 12th among Power 5 schools in wins. If we look on the negative side of things others will look at us that way too. We should stop beating up ourselves and celebrate the good things our school has accomplished. Here’s hoping Kirby and the new batch of ‘Dogs can bring us even higher!
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Since the loss in Memphis we have won the East 40% of the seasons and won 49 games, with a chance for 50. In another season the East came down to a game the day after Thanksgiving. That means in 60% of the seasons since losing in Memphis we were in contention for the East until the final conference game of the season. How many teams have won more. How many tiers do you recognize and what is the dividing line between 1st tier and 2nd, 3nd and 3rd, and so on?
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The article is ranking talent that new coaches inherit, so it by definition only considers colleges that had head coaching openings. If it discussed Alabama’s returning talent that discussion would be off topic.
I think the point of the article is that Smart has less rebuilding to do than any other incoming coach (in the author’s opinion.)
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Which should not be news to anyone around here.
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just from appearances, I would say the top three or four that are listed are a make up of primary/possible contenders for any type of championships or high profile bowl games. just my opinion….that and $4.50 will get you a latte.
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Illinois doesn’t have a new coach.
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Keep in mind, having the most talent of teams who were so bad they had to fire their coach doesn’t necessarily mean you are loaded with talent. You know, tallest midget and all.
(And I know Pinkel and Beamer weren’t fired, but based on their seasons, are really coming off of years where they’ve been bad enough to fire a coach).
I’ll be disappointed if Kirby doesn’t win at least 8 games next year. And 9 or even 10 wins isn’t unrealistic if he and his staff are as good as we hope they’re gonna be. But I don’t have any illusions of us competing for the conference or anything until 2017. And I felt that way before Richt was let go. Just don’t think we’re less than 2 years away from truly competing, given the current roster.
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Serious question, Rev, not snarky or rhetorical. What 4 games do you expect us to lose in 2016? The common wisdom on this board is that Vandy, Kentucky, Missouri, South Carolina, Auburn and Tech sucked and beating each was not an accomplishment. We will play 3 cupcakes. We get UT in Athens.
I know playing at UM is a challenge, but if we win 8 games next year then we could very well lose to one of the teams listed above that folks said sucked. Which of those do you see as an acceptable loss if we win 8 games? If you are not disappointed with 8 wins that include the bowl game then what 2 of the maligned teams listed above can you accept without the season being a disappointment?
I will be hugely disappointed with an 8-5 season (and no, I am not hoping for it.)
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Challenges…
NC, OleM, UT, UF
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Those are the 4 – UGA should win all their others.
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I don’t have any specific games that I point to. What I’m building a margin for is 1st-time head coaching mistakes. They’re gonna happen, and may even cost us a game that we didn’t expect to lose.
I’m not saying I’d be “happy” with 8 wins next year. But I also don’t think that if we land on 8 wins, that means we hired the wrong guy. Like I said, I’m expecting some rookie head coaching mistakes.
To not dodge the question too much though, of the ones you listed above, all of them except Vandy and SC would be…..I don’t want to use the term “acceptable”, but they wouldn’t be losses that shock me. I think Auburn’s offense is gonna be much more dangerous next year with that JUCO QB they just landed – he’s the type of guy that makes that offense go. Tech had an unreal amount of injuries this year, at one point something like there top 6 RB’s were out with injury. They’re gonna be much improved next year. And I do think eventually KY’s improved recruiting has to pay off, I think they’re gonna be a tougher out next year than they have been.
I think Tennessee will legitimately be better than us next year. Ole Miss will have to be considered the favorite with a veteran QB and playing at home (I’ll be shocked if we can outscore them them at home). UF will be a toss-up. UNC will be a toss-up, especially being game 1. Wouldn’t shock me at all to lose 2 of those 4 (maybe even 3), then have a slip up or two along the way from the other opponents outlined above.
So 8 wins won’t make me think we’ve hired the wrong guy. However, I expect us to be hell on wheels in 2017. If we don’t make some noise in year 2 of Kirby, that’s when I’ll be worried. By then the QB situation should be resolved, we should have some depth at RB, hopefully have some proven WR’s by then, etc.
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Just to clarify my 8 win baseline though, that’s strictly based on regular season. I would be more disappointed in an 8-5 season that included a bowl win (meaning we only won 7 regular season games), than an 8-5 season that had a bowl loss. I just don’t put much stock in bowl results. Anything less than 8 regular season wins would be a big disappointment for me next year. And like I said, 8 wins won’t make me “happy”, but won’t worry me too much either. Anything 9+ and I think Kirby and the staff did an excellent job and avoided some of the rookie head coaching mistakes that I’m expecting.
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If Eason comes in focused on football and studying film to the point that he can be ahead of the freshman curve when it comes to reading defenses, it will be a really good season. If he comes in more concerned with chasing tail, it will be a frustrating one.
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Yeah, I mean I look at Stafford though. Despite enrolling early and all that, it really wasn’t until the last 3-4 games of the year that Stafford was really able to make an impact. And he came up playing against Texas high school competition, which is far superior to what Eason faced.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying Eason is overrated or anything, I just think to expect much out of him the first half of the season is probably a little unfair to him.
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Not trying to be unfair. If he can show some semblance of competence, it will be a huge improvement from this year. How many passes went into double coverage when there was an open receiver? OC is an upgrade and if qb is as well, I’m optimistic that we’ll have a good year and be set up for big things in 2017.
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It really is hard to judge the quality of the schedule this far out. Remember, just 3 1/2 short months ago, Auburn was picked to win the SEC and Tech was picked to win the ACC Coastal as a minimum. I realize that some think Mark Richt was at fault for their shortcomings as well…but bottom line is that you never know.
Having said that, Kirby Smart is supposed to be an upgrade and a guy who will ensure that we play to our full potential. If that is true, and barring anything like the injuries of 2013, how can anyone reasonably accept anything less than 9 wins in 2016? I am not trying to set the bar higher in the first year…I am trying to ensure we aren’t now lowering expectations after hearing years of moaning and groaning about not playing up to that potential.
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I agree with you. Less than 9 wins will be disappointing. More than 9 will be a pleasant surprise. Nobody is lowering their expectations for the program, but first year head coaches are not usually wildly successful. People seem to be merely allowing for that fact, except for those who thought firing Richt was a monumental mistake.
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I think firing Richt was a huge mistake, but I’m behind Smart now. And I think anything over 7 wins will be nice. New coaches take a while to figure things out. I don’t care who he’s coached under. But the talent is here and he should definitely trend up after year one.
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Heard interesting discussion on the radio recently about how unprecedented the Richt firing was. They could not come up with any examples of other coaches who were fired with a similar win loss record. This is an unusual situation for a new coach to come into.
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There are two roughly similar firings in the last 15 years: Phil Fulmer and John Cooper. There were slightly different circumstances in the years leading to the firing, but they’re essentially the same.
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Fulmer had two losing seasons in his last five
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Like I said, different circumstances in the years leading up to it. Richt’s peak wasn’t as good as Fulmer’s, and his troughs weren’t as bad.
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Firing Richt saddened me but I’m not convinced it was a “mistake”. Time will tell. Even Richt would probably say that he understands it was time for a change. On the other hand, I think Georgia is program that could go after proven HC’s. The Vandy’s, Tech’s, Colorado’s and Purdue’s of the world take chances on second-level coaches. Even a HC from a lower-tier conference with years of success running the program and managing other coaches would be a more understandable choice….or even a coordinator that had built his own system (not plugged in the head coaches). Kirby is ‘more’ of a gamble since he has not had to deal with the responsibilities of running a full program….that being said.
I’m behind Smart now and want him to succeed in the largest way. If he hires the right DC to “plug in” that same D that’s been a success at Bama and his OC builds a quality O…then we’re good-to-go.
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Smart wouldn’t have been my first choice either.
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Well, the Ol’ Ball Sack himself probably said it the best when he said 10 years was probably enough time at one place because after that, people want something new. I think that’s the case with Richt, and I can see why people would want a change. Hopefully it does both Georgia and Richt good to have a new start.
GATA, and let’s win the bowl game!
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I agree that I expect at minimum 7 wins next year, and being behind Coach Smart 100% now, I will be very happy if, in all of our losses, we showed up for 4 qtrs, and never get blown out. I still appreciate and care for Richt, for what he did for UGA, however, I can admit that I’ll be glad to see those type losses fade into history. Go Dawgs
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Win totals is not an issue. UGA will have the talent to win 8 to 10. It is winning the big one when you need to or not getting waxed by an equal. Go special teams! Dooleyball was not so bad after all.
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I’m fascinated by what appears to be a 180 by the people who wanted Richt fired because winning 9 or 10 games a year wasn’t satisfactory. So, after hearing the clamor for Kirby Smart, because He Is The Man Who WIll Take Us to the Next Level, he’s the greatest recruiter ever, he’s learned all of Saban’s tricks, he won’t underdevelop the vast talent we have on hand, now that he’s in place, it’s turned into “well, I expect him to win at least 8 games next year.”
Tell you what: for all the excellence demanders, tell me how many games you would have demanded Coach Richt win next year to keep his job, and how many you expected him to win. If it’s more than 8, please explain to me why Kirby would get a pass from you if he only scratches 8.
I’m a UGA guy, so I’m pulling for Kirby to win 12, and I’m not demanding his head if he only wins 7, but it will be hard for me to see the switch as an upgrade if he doesn’t win 10 games.
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You’re not making an entirely fair argument. My standard for Richt next year to keep his job would have been higher than my expectations for Kirby. But there’s a very valid reason for that – the state of the roster is Richt’s fault, so I would be less forgiving of mediocre results from him than I would be from Kirby having mediocre results but having to pay for the sins of his predecessor.
The bad thing is that Richt really HAD finally seen the light in recruiting and roster management. It was just too late. But no matter the coach, all along I’ve thought that next year was probably gonna be mediocre, and 2017 was gonna be the chance for us to be elite again. What finally pushed me over the edge was the Tennessee game, as we melted down, yet again. It just made me come to the realization that there was just too much intertia under Richt to get over that hump. That you could give him the perfect roster, and we’d find a way to lay an egg in the one game of the year that mattered (in other words, lost to the wrong team that kept us out of the SECCG or what have you – kinda like how if UF had lost any other game besides to us in Muschamp’s 2nd year, they would have been in the SECCG instead of us). It was just this inertia under Richt that I finally had had enough of. So yes, another year of mediocrity next year, in my opinion, was gonna get him fired regardless. I really felt that if we didn’t replace him this year, we were just delaying the inevitable to next year.
But again, I’ve been expecting next year to be a struggle regardless – but holding the guy who had nothing to do with our current situation to the same standard as the guy who created the situation just isn’t a fair argument.
Come 2017 though, Kirby will have had time to put his stamp on the program, and all those young guys we’ve got now will be juniors and seniors. If 2017 isn’t a big year, I’ll be worried we hired the wrong guy.
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Also, I don’t think it’s fair to not expect Kirby to make some rookie mistakes – since, you know, he IS a rookie head coach. 🙂
But I would not grant the same grace to a 15 year veteran like Richt.
Again, saying Kirby should be held to the same or higher standards in Year 1 as Richt would have been in Year 16 just doesn’t hold water.
Now, if your argument is that we should have at least tried to hire a more proven head coach, I won’t argue against that point.
But if your argument is in an absolute sense that we should expect as much – or actually more from Kirby in year 1 than we would have expected from Richt in year 16, I just don’t see how you don’t see the fallacy in your own argument.
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So, Rev, what you are saying is that Kirby may, probably will, make some rookie coach mistakes that may cost a game or more, but they probably won’t be the same mistakes, program-wise, that Richt may have made before the proverbial light went on a couple years ago? And, having at least begun to cure the programmatic mistakes, the upside for Kirby is higher…just because he has the mistakes Richt may or may not have made or was forced to make?
If I misinterpret what you meant, oh well, but it sounds logical to me.
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Yes, the “rookie” mistakes I expect from him are the in-game types of decisions. I’m hoping we don’t have to live through many “big picture” mistakes that affect the program as a whole.
And I’ll be honest, I’m only hoping Kirby’s upside is higher. I haven’t been very high on Kirby in the past. I’ve been quoted on this site as recently as 6 weeks ago or so saying that I didn’t think Kirby would end up with any of the top jobs this offseason. Count me in the group that is fully behind Kirby now that he’s our head coach, and I’m willing to adjust my expectations to his circumstances, but I do wish we had swung for the fences first. As Bluto pointed out many times before the change though, swinging for the fences isn’t the Georgia Way.
That being said, I was ready for a change, even if it meant ending up with Kirby. And obviously I hope Kirby proves me wrong!
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Very, very well said RW.
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I don’t know whether he’s an upgrade or not, but I’m sure his first season won’t tell us one way or the other.
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Agreed. 2017 will be the barometer for me. If we aren’t a top 5’ish team in 2017, we will have made a big mistake.
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I too, felt bad about firing MR…The sentimental part of me hated it..but competitive part of me knew it was necessary.
The mean-spirtedness some showed him (on this blog) was unfortunate.
My biggest problem with him was his propencity to play it safe…even when behind Alabama very badly, he settled for a field goal. I realized how badly he was being outcoached when Butch outcoached him to come back from down 20 in Knoxville. Time and again, Butch wouldn’t settle for a punt or even a field goal on fouth down because he knew he was behind big-time and needed touchdowns. CMR must not have noticed. He was just too cautious most of the time. I do recognize his occasional onside kick and gamble on fourth downs.
I’m behind KS now and hope he has great success. I believe he is a good hire and is very football focused..there is NO other way Saban would have had him on his staff for years if he weren’t.
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And yet…and yet…if the Tennessee receiver doesn’t slip and fall on that shitty Neyland stadium turf, he isn’t in a position to catch that woefully underthrown ball that Dobbs made on the first 4th down conversion in the 2Q. And that would have been your ballgame, imho.
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A bad day all around, Magnus. If Chubb hadn’t been a victim of that some sorry turf on the first play…the world is a different place today. Georgia plays for the SEC championship and gets a BCS bowl.
But the ballgame should have been over when Georgia had a twenty point lead.
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Couldn’t agreed more 81 but I will add a proviso and that is….. if UGA only wins 7 or 8 games we may need to give Smart a little longer but the AD MUST GO. If you’re going to fire a Coach who had a better winning percentage than Vince frikkin Lombardi the new Coach better make it to that next level because the regression to the mean that is now totally acceptable to the anti-Richt crowd is totally unacceptable to me. If we lose to a depleted Ole Miss or North Carolina team than McGarity is Niedermayer to me.(that translates as dead man)….no conventional weapons just nuke him. And by the way Rev it is a totally fair point/argument your relevancy objection is overruled.If you ain’t gettin better why change?
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“please explain to me why Kirby would get a pass from you if he only scratches 8.”
Because he will be in his first year at Georgia with a NEW PROGRAM. Think about it. Kirby may have to completely tear down many aspects of Richt’s program in order to rebuild the one that he wants. The foundation laid by Richt was good for 9-10 wins, but not good enough to be elite. In other words, it was FLAWED and it showed when we played competition with equal or better player talent. Kirby will lay and build upon a new foundation, hopefully with less flaws. There will be a change in how fundamentals are coached. Players will likely learn new practice habits, conditioning, or maybe even new positions entirely. There will be a new offense, defense, and hopefully big changes on special teams. 8 or 9 wins should be totally acceptable for the new Georgia program as long as it shows promise of something better down the road soon. Just my two cents.
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What does Smart have to “tear down?” Smart only needs to do what every school expects its coach yo do; that is, coach the guys up.
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2014 8th in recruiting
2015 6th in recruiting
2016 3rd in recruiting the day Richt was fired.
10-3 in 2014.
10-3 this year if we win the bowl.
That would make 50 wins over the last five years.
The cupboard is not bare.
The team has depth.
There is nothing to tear down.
There is much to build upon.
The powers that be have decreed by their actions that we will move to a higher level. Hold them to that.
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We have a rookie head coach, so I’m going to give him a year to figure out the majority of those mistakes he’s going to make. And he’ll have to re-do portions of our program that he wants to change. Finally, we’ll have a freshman QB (hopefully). All those things lead me to giving Smart more latitude than I’d give Richt.
Year 2, I’d hope to see real improvement, and it should show up in wins, not moral victories.
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This ia going to get interesting. Kirby is not even full time yet and most are saying we should win at least 9 games. Lets look at the 2016 schedule or at least part of it. NC will be favored and will probably win. We should beat Mizzou and USCe because they have less talent and new coaches. We should beat Vandy because they are Vandy. Ole Miss will be favored and playing there will be hard. UT beat us this year with our talent less Chubb.
UF has beat us without a QB for 2 straight years and Kirby as a player only beat them once? UK will be a tougher out or their coach will be on the hot seat. Now we get to Georgia Tech and the triple option. Ole Kirby did not see it much and when they played GA Southern his D got torched for rushing yardage. Ala won but it showed that his D was not really good against the 3 OP. Auburn well at least he knows how to play them. I will go with 8-4 until I she if Kirby is going to bring back Ole Lady Luck who has been missing for quit a few years. She has let us have some really bad luck at running back injures. More than 8 i’m a happy old fart.
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Yeah, I don’t get those that say how easy our schedule is. From my seat it looks pretty tough. NC will be tough out of the gate with a new coach/system. Tech shouldn’t have the injuries they had. Tennessee is tough. Auburn could be better, we don’t know. Florida will be tough. Ole Miss at their place will be tough. We could win any of those games, yes, but we could also lose those games and it wouldn’t be a shock.
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I understand, Russ, your point that the schedule is not as easy as some represented. The interesting inconsistency is not yours but instead those who dawgraded each of our 9 wins because we only beat teams that sucked, then we do not demand Smart beat those same suck-assed teams in 2016.
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As I mentioned after we parted ways with CMR, I thought there were lots of parallels between the end of the Donnan tenure and the Richt tenure. This is no different. Donnan had recruited pretty well but there were some key spots that talent levels were not on par to the rest of the roster.
I think that is definitely the case here. We have deficiencies at QB and WR (which may go hand in hand.) Our experienced OL was a disappointment at times. We could use more impactful depth at DL.
I expect that transitionyear results under CKS will be like first year results under CMR (Donnan went 8-4 his final season, Richt went 8-4 his first year). We should be in the 9-4, 10-3 range for 2016.
The QB issue still will loom over the team. I am hoping we can count on the young talented receivers to make strides and be a lot better next year, which might make the QB’s better. We are losing 3 (?) guys on the OL. We lost 5 or 6 guys on the starting front 7.
There is some work to do.
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Agree with you that 9 or 10 wins is reasonable. The OL does have problems, but Kublanow, Pyke, Wynn, and Dyshon Simms (who started some games last season) will be back. Some of the young guys like Pat Allen will have to step forward. Same with the front seven.
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UGA should surely get Ws in all there games, except for these 4, which will determine the season: UNC, Miss, UT, UF.
UNC – UGA likely has the talent edge, but these first games of the season always appear to be toss ups. Still, assuming the D is what it should be, I see a W here.
Miss – at Miss, so this is tough. Toss up at best, but I see an L.
UT – They may lose Sutton and their OLB to the draft early, but other than that, they got almost everyone coming back. But at Athens. I think UT will have a better offense and equal Ds. I think this is an L as well.
UF – I’m sorry, but they had no business winning as many as they did this year. D carried them, and they’re going to lose a ton on D. Their O may be a bit better IF they can find a QB, but their D will take a step back. So we may have a 9-6 game. I still like UGA in this one. UF will come back to earth hard next year.
I’m thinking they go 2-2 here, with a chance to go 3-1. I don’t think they pull Ws out of both Miss and UT.
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“Their” games
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As someone who went to UNC before “coming home” to Athens (and still follows the Tar Heels closely), that team has far more talent than you would think. The big loss for them is at QB and at DC. Losing Chizik will hurt them a lot.
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Don’t discount Auburn. If Gus gets his QB, they could be better. Tech won’t have as many injuries next year, either.
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“If Gus gets his QB, …”
Are there any top shelf talents up for free agency this year? I haven’t paid attention to the arrest records of SEC QB’s.
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I think next year is the same as this year 1-QB 2-Play Calling 3-Special Teams.If we can improve those 3 things we have a chance to be contenders.
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It all starts with the O’ line. We need some help there.
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Got that right. We get a few good linemen back and we have seemingly good talent waiting for playing time. If Pittman is all we hope he is, we could have a serviceable OL next year.
Pyke, Kublanow, Wynn, Sims, Allen, Baker, Bynum
…and maybe a new recruit steps up…
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This team should win the East next year. It’s a three game sec schedule in reality next year: at Mississippi, home vs. tenn. and the wlocp. Go 2-1 and you’re in and 1-2 might even get it done if it’s the right 2. The other 5 sec games just don’t look very daunting right now. Nick Chubb, Sony Michel and Eason will be a tough trio to deal with next year.
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Hey Derek, I’m not sure I would count on Eason and Chubb right away. I’m sure Eason is good but there will be a learning curve. And Chubb, a back is not always himself the first year back after injury. It could take several games for Eason/Chubb to contribute at the level we need. Most likely we are looking at similar results as we had this year.
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I’m not counting on Eason to be all-world as a freshman. We didn’t need an all-American at qb to win the east this year. Anything north of a total disaster would have sufficed. Mediocre would have done the trick. I think Eason will at least be serviceable and that should be enough.
If you saw what I saw this year defenses had zero respect for lambert. They said: we don’t think your qb can beat us. They flat loaded the box and focused on the run. Will defenses throw confusion Eason’s way? No doubt. Will they not cover people because they know he can’t hurt them? I seriously doubt that.
As far as Chubb, given his work ethic if his time table is similar to Todd’s we should be ok. Besides its not like Sony can’t hold it down until nick gets back up to speed and young holifield will be around too.
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Yes we need more and bigger lineman,but we were moving the ball until Chubbs went down and then started running the ball up the middle on a 1back set,not using the best tight ends in the SEC,not throwing over the middle or mis direction plays.Could go on and on.Looking for better days and better QB’s.
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Richt apologists are so pissed that he was held accountable to reasonable standards that they’re going to hold Smart accountable to unreasonable standards.
Never mind the facts that it’s his 1st season as a head coach in the SEC (whereas Richt had 15); never mind the fact that he’ll have to adjust to a completely new roster (whereas Richt had continuity); never mind the fact that we’ll be installing new schemes on both sides of the ball; never mind the fact that the offense will likely be led by a true freshman QB; etc., etc., etc.
If Georgia doesn’t win it all next season, the comment sections on this blog will just be a bunch of bitter morons saying “I told ya so!” in a thousand different ways.
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No, I think people will measure Kirby against Richt at the beginning. If Kirby doesn’t measure up to Richt’s first 5-year standard, I think some have a legitimate argument.
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No it is not a legitimate argument. Kirby will only be considered successful if he bests Richt’s first 5 years?
Richt’s last 5 years don’t measure up to his Richt’s first 5. So you is that evidence he should have been kept or let go?
2001-2005 was a long time ago – been a lot of changes to the landscape since that time.
Measure CKS’s success against what Richt did in the near term.
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Ok – 5 years, 2 appearances in Atlanta.
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Exactly. And an average of 10 wins per season or better.
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If this is your standard, why didn’t you hold Richt 2006-2015 to the standards of Richt 2001-2005?
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I’m holding Kirby’s first five years to the standards set in Richt’s last five. Likewise I held Richt in his first five to the standards set by Donnan in his five years, which Richt greatly exceeded. That performance bought him some slack during the dismal middle years. But during his last 5 years he averaged about 10 wins a season, was ninth among P5 programs in wins, and reached the SECCG twice. That’s the standard that has now been set for our program. You don’t think we should get at least 50 wins and get to the SECCG twice in our next five years? Have some faith! Kirby’s gonna get it done!
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So how long do you give Smart to exceed the past results? I do not argue that 2016 is a transition year and to demand a NC in 2016 is unreasonable, but it reasonable for you to let us know how many years you plan on giving Smart before you advocate turning the program over to someone “who can get us a championship?”
I am not going to argue with whatever number of years you say. It will be your opinion and you are entitled to it, even if you reply “15.”
How many years would you allow Smart to coach without producing a championship? and what kind of championship? Division? Conference? National?
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I don’t get either the continuity or the new schemes on both side of the ball arguments at all. Pruitt ran Saban’s 3-4. All of the technical stuff will be the same. Chaney is running a pro-style offense with spread wrinkles just like we have in the past. The coaching change is as minimal to the players as one can imagine. While I agree that we shouldn’t allow our CMR food fights to continue, I’ve been consistent that the main thing we needed was a qb. He’s coming. I think our expectations should be high. This is a 9-3 team that essentially played with 10 on offense and w/o it’s best player for half the season. Why shouldn’t we expect big things in the first year?
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Until the bowl game is played, CMR food fights are the best thing we got going around here!
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Well, that doesn’t make them any less pointless. Whether we agreed with the decision or not, it’s done. We’ll flatline, prosper or collapse. The recriminations and “I told you so’s” can wait. Whether anybody ever agrees with me ir not, this was a program headed in the right direction by every measure. What we’ve sorely lacked since 11 left was a competent qb. That won’t be an issue in 2016. I think CKS has a very good chance to start off very strong. If that momentum starts drawing recruits, I’m happy for everyone to give CKS all the credit.
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You’re putting a lot of faith in a true freshman QB my friend. Just don’t be disappointed when Eason is not Murray; the latter had a full year of redshirting to learn a system and still struggled a bit his first year.
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Even without Eason, Smart is inheriting a better QB situation than Richt had this year. Lambert is still Lambert – I’ll stipulate to that, but he had a lot of SEC starts and SEC playing time this past year. He should be at least fractionally better. Ramsey, Robinson and Vaughn have had another year in the system, maybe a light bulb will go off for one of them. And if Eason does come on fast, WOW.
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Murray didn’t have nick and Sony. They needed Aaron to produce when he was young. Get it to 8. Not near as much pressure on Eason. Just keep them honest.
All we need Eason to do is keep those safeties out of the box. That I think he can do.
I saw fucking safeties climbing out of the bottom of piles after a one yard gain. That’s what we need to stop. When everybody knows we can’t throw and all 11 defender’s ears are pinned back you can’t play football. That we got 9 wins was a miracle. Lambert simply could not earn any respect. I think Eason will draw some attention. That’s really all we needed to be competitive vs. Bama and uf. If you can play against 6 and 7 guys in the box and not 9 and 10 all of a sudden the world is your oyster.
The good thing we have going for us is that we aren’t going to find the best guy to run a complex pro system and live and die with the results. Chaney will identify a guy and play to his strengths rather than slam ill-fitting pegs into round holes. In short, Brice or Eason running a simplified offense will be enough to get where we need to be if the running game is there and it should be.
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“If Georgia doesn’t win it all next season, the comment sections on this blog will just be a bunch of bitter morons saying “I told ya so!” in a thousand different ways.”
So in other words, the same it’s been for the last 5 years.
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The bitter morons will have different handles though.
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We fired Richt and hired Smart to improve on Richt’s results. Ergo, the proper standard to judge Smart is whether he improved the results. That is what he was friggin hired to do and it is not unreasonable to expect him to do what he was hired to do.
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Hey Richt fans,I can see how this will play out before you guys make the first post next season. According to you guys if Kirby wins 9 or more then Richt will get ALL of the credit. If he wins less than 9 then Kirby will get ALL of the blame. You don’t need a crystal ball to see that coming.
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Wrong. If Smart wins 9 Smart gets credit. He is the coach, after all. If he wins less than 9 I will not blame him. If Smart does not win 11 + in 2017 then I will not blame Smart. All of my blame will be focused upon The J. Reid Parker Director of Athletics, who failed to attempt to sign a proven head coach and instead gambled that a DC would be Bob Stoops and not Will Muschamp.
I will not blame Smart for pursuing his dream. I will blame the guy who failed to hire a better coach.
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Well said.
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We do have some talent returning. Beyond the giant issue at QB, the big question is on the defensive line – where we lose 4 from the regular rotation. On the offensive line we lose 2 starters. Then the question is whether Floyd and Pyke turn pro, although I just don’t see Pyke as being THAT good. And we’re thin when it comes to WR experience and depth.
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One game at a time, then we’ll see.
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You CMR lovers don’t know shit about football.
Kirby said it correct the SEC is a line league, which CMR did not
have a clue. All you CMR lovers just throw your UGA apparel away
and pull for the U. Stop all this whining because the AD did the right thing
and fired a coach that was not getting the job done..
GO SNIFF SOME MAN ASS YOU BUNCH OF BITCHES.
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What does “GO SNIFF SOME MAN ASS” mean?
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Go Away! Bad Dog!
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Did middle school get out for Christmas this afternoon?
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It means just what it says…..CMR lovers put your nose between a mans
butt cheeks and take a BIG SNIFF of that MAN ASS …you girly BITCHES.
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Dial it back, friend.
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