Tide players just luuuve their new defensive coordinator. Sounds like a problem – for Georgia.
“I mean, he brings a different kind of energy,” outside linebacker Ryan Anderson said. “He’s definitely more of a players’ coach. A lot of the guys are more willing to sell out for the guy because he’s willing to do it for us. It’s a different style.”
PAWWWLLL! Kirby’s not enough of a players’ coach!! They’re not gonna sell out for him like they did for Pruitt!!!
Get The Picture 
It’s great that the players love him. What matters more is what Saban thinks.
LikeLike
The players seem to love him. It is the other adults that he cant seem to get along with. I think his level of maturity is more in line with the players than the coaches.
LikeLike
I sure hope that “the team really came together in winter workouts” and that the “seniors have really stepped up and are holding the young guys accountable”.
LikeLike
Every team with a new staff or several new coaches are all going with the happy talk, not just Bama and Dawgs.
LikeLike
Here, let me help. 38 points vs. Tennessee, 38 points vs. Alabama, 27 points vs. a woeful Florida squad.
LikeLike
And, oh yeah, sponsoring a faculty/staff club boxing team at Butts-Mehre.
LikeLike
In his defense, Pruitt’s work down the stretch in ’15 kept the season from going completely off the rails. I don’t want to live in a world where we lose to Georgia Southern.
Also, that 38 for Bama should be 24. Pruitt didn’t make Ramsey throw a pick-6 or cause a punt to be blocked for a TD. The 27 for Florida should be 20. Pruitt didn’t make us friggin back up to fumble a punt into the endzone. I’ll give you the trash performance in Knoxville. Though the D did have a fumble return for a TD.
Just going over this reminds me of just how broken our special teams were last season. Lovely memories.
LikeLike
After giving up 400+ yds rushing to a UF team with no passing threat at QB in ’14, the ’15 defense still gave up 240 yds rushing to a UF team with no passing threat at QB.
The Gators averaged over 300/yds/game rushing vs his defenses. I will not miss that one iota.
LikeLike
It’ll be the only thing I give him credit for, but Grantham seemed at times to be the only one on the staff committed to actually, y’know, beating Florida.
LikeLike
Don’t forget giving up 400 yds rushing to a tech team who only runs 3 different plays or giving up 88 points in 8 quarters. I liked him but we’ll be fine without him.
LikeLike
Here let me help. UA defense vs. Clemson this past year and Ohio State, Auburn and A&M the year before: 40, 42, 44 and 42.
Way to play some big game defense, amirite? If only he had some talent to work with.
LikeLike
God! We’ll suck forever!
LikeLike
LikeLike
Check Mel Tucker and the Chicago Bears. Kind of scary.
LikeLike
Way to cherry pick to support the conclusion you’ve already reached, amirite?
LikeLike
No, just contributing to the comparison of DCs and remembering how bad the Bears defenses were with Tucker. Hopefully, Clemson in the championship game wasn’t a prelude for this season. Also, didn’t Tennessee move the ball well on Alabama last year?
LikeLike
If you are seriously laying all of the blame for those score on Pruitt, you are truly clueless about football.
LikeLike
So what?
A soldier may be willing to go to war for his country but he fights for the Sergeant, not the President.
We are already going down the Alabama trail so what the hell….Nick Saban isn’t a “players coach” but has sustained success at a level only second to another non “players coach”, Bear Bryant. Having a head coach be a players coach isn’t near as important as the coordinators and position coaches being beloved by their players.
I’d rather have a head coach separate himself and make decisions solely based on results and let the assistants get in the players heads and get those results.
Erk Russels don’t come along very often where a great player’s coach equates to sustained head coach success. But even then, his coordinator track record kind of reinforces my point.
LikeLike
Who is Bama’s new DC? LOL!
LikeLike
Truth is, bama picked up one helluva good DC and recruiter. One of the best in cfb.
LikeLike
I agree. I wish we could have held on to him.
LikeLike
Without question. Apparently every coach that’s no longer at UGA suddenly becomes garbage.
LikeLike
Probably the best X’s and O’s coordinator we’ve had since McDuffie and the best coordinator overall (once you add in recruiting prowess) we’ve had a Georgia. It would be interesting to see what Erk could do these days in recruiting, but my sense is that he wouldn’t like the recruiting aspect very much. He didn’t seem like the “coddling prima donna” type.
LikeLike
Kevin Ramsey just threw down his visor in disgust at this statement.
LikeLike
You did identify the WORST coordinator we’ve ever had. Damn that game vs. Auburn after beating UF in 1997 SUCKED! Ben Leard is probably STILL crowing about that performance. My brother is a friend of Ben’s brother and I’ve been told that Ben (a Hart Co. boy, btw) has been known to say: “Athens? I OWN that town!”
SMH.
LikeLike
Joe Kines was the DC that year.
Cool Breeze was only here for 1999.
LikeLike
I knew I should slow down my game day drinking. (I won’t, but I should.)
I thought we had a chance to win the east when Auburn and Leard came to town and Ramsay was the DC. Is that part at least right? Maybe it was just another Auburn game. Important yes, but no title on the line.
In my head our only shot to win the east (after the uf game) under Donnan was 1997 and Leard and Ramsay were part of that, but maybe I erased that all from my memory purposefully.
LikeLike
I don’t think Ramsey was at UGA in 1997. Ben Leard may have been there, but Dameyun was the QB.
That was a miserable piece of crap let down game if there ever was one. Brutal.
99 was brutal too. That was my last home game before I moved to L.A. Ugh. Players stunk it up and the fans showed our asses. I remember some drunk yahoo yelling at Joe Kines, and Kines looking directly at him with a shrug. I said, “Dad, Joe Kines just shrugged at you because he’s no longer the DC. No more for you.”
LikeLike
I guess I’ve conflated two horrible experiences. The sad thing is that the last season I have a nearly perfect memory of every game was 1995. The “real world” started for me in 1996. A shocking correlation I’m sure. I can tell you more about the 1995 season than the 2014 season.
LikeLike
LOL, we were at UGA at roughly the same time, then.
LikeLike
Actually, I suffered the Goff years as an undergrad. Post-graduate school followed and not at UGA unfortunately. Let’s just say that I was tad over served so they weren’t having me.
LikeLike
I guess i should have said the early Goff years: 1989-92.
LikeLike
I can’t remember the 97 game either, though I remember the co-ed I took, go figure.
’99 was the game where Ramsey had 4’11” Tim Jennings playing press coverage against seven footer Ronnie Daniels with predictable consequences.
LikeLike
Tim Wansley is who you’re thinking of. Richt recruited Jennings.
LikeLike
As I recall it was a backwards baseball cap, not a visor; and it’s hard to throw down anything when you’re in a fetal position under the table in the pressbox because Tennessee just scored again.
LikeLike
Speaking of Bama…
http://www.ajc.com/news/sports/college/nick-saban-ranks-among-worlds-greatest-leaders/nqrcs/
LikeLike
Speaking of great or greatest, Nick is having his photo taken with so many different people at promo events that he’s going to get tired of striking a pose with people at promo events, believe me
“Rebekah Mason, Senior Political Advisor to Gov. Robert Bentley, with Alabama football coach Nick Saban at a promotional event. (Contributed photo/Facebook)”
http://www.al.com/news/index.ssf/2016/03/rebekah_caldwell_mason_gov_rob.html
LikeLike
Dog, you would have never posted that picture of Ms Mason if she were a man. Your sexism is transparent! Shame on you and your War on Women!
You might enjoy this: http://www.al.com/opinion/index.ssf/2016/03/alabama_needed_a_governor_toda.html
In other news: http://www.bigstory.ap.org/article/355f408bbb004108b74106cf53d5859d/judge-delays-dennis-hasterts-sentencing-again-now-april-27
and this: http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2016/03/gop-must-answer-for-what-it-did-to-kansas.html
and last but not least:
http://warontherocks.com/2016/03/open-letter-on-donald-trump-from-gop-national-security-leaders/
Enjoy Dog!
LikeLike
That was the most nonsensical and hate filled post ever on this blog. Get a life Derek, you’re the saddest loser in the world.
LikeLike
LOL
LikeLike
Sad? Hate filled? I’d say you’re a random word generator without a point. It was for dog. I purposefully said nothing of substance. Everything was written by somebody else. None of it hateful. Is it sad what any rand ideology has done to Kansas and Louisiana? Sure. One of the links is a letter by neocons opposing trump. Wtf? If you have a SUBSTANTIVE comment make it.
Otherwise GFY you little whiny baby. Lol.
LikeLike
I liked the links. Besides that, did you know that Ted Cruz has five [deleted b/c it would make Jarvis sad] 🙂
LikeLike
That was the single worst post in the history of the internet. You should be ashamed.
LikeLike
BusTED!
LikeLike
General Patton was always referred to as “Old Blood and Guts” but his soldiers always said that “It was their blood and his guts.” Yet I never met a soldier in the 3rd Army that wasn’t proud of the 3rd Army’s record. Leaders come in many shapes and sizes but the ones that are remembered the longest are the winners. If Kirby wins championships at UGA he can piss on Abraham Baldwins statue at noon and be loved by the fans.
LikeLike
Hell that’s what I thought about Pruitt. I don’t know what he did, but I’m willing to bet I could hear every last detail, even some made up stuff, and I’d sign him to an extension. I defend the players and the recruits from unnecessarily cruel treatment from adults who should know better, but as far how they treat each other and administrators, I couldn’t care less.
LikeLike
You’d lose that bet, I’m afraid.
LikeLike
Dude, you’re killing me. Can you at least just give us a damn HINT?
LikeLike
I’ll put it in my memoirs. 😉
LikeLike
Can you at least say whether physical violence was involved and whether said physical violence was the whole of the transgression?
LikeLike
With regard to the latter, no.
LikeLike
OK. Were there student athletes involved, or was it all among the grownups?
LikeLike
Not gonna play 20 Questions with you… 😉
LikeLike
Okay, the hints and his reputation of chasing after oollege girls are consistent with the conclusion that he was hitting on women student-athletes in addition to the trouble with other coaches.
LikeLike
Dolly, you sound like Inspector Reynaud asking Rick Blaine why he ran off from America.
LikeLike
That bad huh? I guess I’ll take your word for it. Can you compare it the the Seinfeld episode where George screws the maid at the office?
“Was that wrong? Because if anybody had told me.” That’s a personal fave.
But seriously, I know you can’t say he did X, but can you think of analogous situations so that we’d go, “ok I can see that.” Use your imagination. It could start with so I have this friend who gets a job managing the Hilton in Bali and its a real good job, great pay and then he decides that it would be a good idea to look at the picture of his boss’ wife on his desk and say “hey who’s the c—?” (That’s a George Carlin bit, so don’t blame me for it.) We need a fake story of some relative moral equivalence is what I’m saying. I know you can do it. Please!
LikeLike
Doubt George’s defense would have worked.
LikeLike
It wouldn’t work defending ______________________?
LikeLike
Ok…you’re protecting sources/information/integrity so I’m not expecting specifics, but you did open the door with that response so can I/we ask for a bit of clarity? Rumor seems to be it was adults fighting adults. If I understand your reply here, it insinuates there may have been issues with Pruitt’s treatment of players (harsh either physically and/or mentally). Can you at least clear that point up…was there some issues with treatment of players too? Again, not expecting details, but that would be news and help end the speculation on why Pruitt wasn’t going to be sticking around no matter what.
LikeLike
Not about physical altercations.
LikeLike
Ok I think we’re narrowing it down. It was about a player or players because I wouldn’t have looked past and it wasn’t physical.
He put weed in Lambert’s brownies so they’d have to suspend him for the Florida game?
LikeLike
Thank you Senator. Seems like things weren’t being done the Georgia Way and that would explain a lot. Honestly, I felt Richt was making a mistake in getting Bama folks on staff. Two different cultures that may not have mixed. No question Richt got himself fired, but I think very few have grasped the real reasons why. He may do well at Miami if he trusts himself, but his true football self and not the CEO, preacher, father, or other roles he’s assumed over the years. I think we referred to that football self as Evil Richt. Just a hypothesis.
LikeLike
I wish him no ill will.
LikeLike
Re: Pruitt- “A lot of the guys are more willing to sell out for the guy because he’s willing to do it for us”.
I guess that would be “sell out” new cars and such.
I have played for some great coaches and not one of them I loved or even really liked until I was older and realized that he was working to help me be better and the team be much better. This BS from players is just that.. BS
LikeLike
I was excited about getting him but didn’t mind losing him when he left. Some may love his guts but I would say somewhere between a C and a B. He accomplished some things while in Athens but he also did some damage. And we were no where near being s dominant defense either year, and I don’t think we would be in 2016. Won’t argue with those who idolize him, or think he is the Top DCs, it’s all just opinions.
LikeLike
Off topic, but it looks like OL Fogarty is transferring to UGA.
Says: he’s ready to play. Today.
LikeLike
Two thoughts. First, how is he eligible this season since he is not a graduate? I know he will be a walk-on and therefore not on scholarship but I thought the one year sit out applied to walk-one, too.
Second, since players transferring always regret it, why are we accepting a kid who will be unhappy, with all the baggage that comes with having an unhappy player?
LikeLike
File this under who gives a shit. All I care about is what Kirby Smart and his staff does with OUR program.
LikeLike
There is a school of thought that one doesn’t really admire the people who motivate them the most until later. Machiavelli had a chapter on better to be respected than liked. [I saw that on Facebook once so it must be true]. That may have been one of Richt’s weaknesses, wanting to be liked.
LikeLike
Needing to be liked is a fault of mine that I really try to work on everyday. Ya think I’m making any progress?
LikeLike