Asking for a friend…
“A lot of people want the most prolific return man, but I want the most dependable return man, first,” Richt said Monday. “If he happens to be the most prolific as a runner and can stick it in the end zone, great, but if he’s great at that and doesn’t field the ball well or secure the ball well, he won’t be the guy. I want the most dependable guy…”
Enjoy that, Miami fans. We sure did.
Get The Picture 
you can’t teach an old dawg, etc.
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I wonder what the turning point for Richt was? Damian Gary and Thomas Flowers were awesome. Then somewhere around 2005/2006, his attitude towards punt returns changed.
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Mikey Henderson, too!
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I think there was a time post WLOCP end zone stomp where the SEC refs had it in for CMR and flagged just about every Georgia punt return for BIB–meaning that the Dawgs got shoved BACK 10 yards almost every time a punt was run back. That lasted about 4 years–’08, ’09, ’10 and ’11.Under those circumstances it is completely rational to send out a sure-handed player to just signal fair catch.
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It wouldn’t have bothered me a bit to have Logan with heels on the 10 vs. Florida last fall.
http://m.onlineathens.com/sports/college-sports/2015-11-01/uga-wr-reggie-davis-made-bad-decision-muffed-punt-led-floridas#article=822579C94ACA049F46F451352F2667A46501
Returns are great, but after the defense forces a punt the most important thing is to have the ball.
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I see your Reggie Davis vs. Florida and raise you McKenzie vs. Auburn. 🙂
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Nobody that matters has ever suggested that Isaiah had ball security issues. Here’s an article where #16 wonders why he wasn’t the punt returner every game last year since he knows he never had any reliability issues: https://www.dawgnation.com/football/isaiah-mckenzie-knows-the-two-things-that-have-held-him-back
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Butter fingers
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Peter! Peter! Peter!
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Nobody is saying ball security is entirely irrelevant. But Richt over-weighted ball security by a huge amount compared with the yards and points that come from someone skilled attempting to return the ball.
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Give us an example, “over-weighted” ball security versus yards and points that we would have got.
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and you know that because???? Unless we see the reps in practice and we see how the candidates handle different situations I don’t know how we can make definitive judgments about personnel decisions. We should at least acknowledge that we’re operating on very little information.
I want Eason to be named the starter. I wanted Brice to get it last year. Am I right? No clue. I really can’t say because I’m not there.
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Don’t forget the opening kick off versus Kentucky last year!
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Exactly….and the 10 is where they teach it. Too many have been on PlayStation on here…..but, it makes it interesting – and funny.
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I’d rather have a guy go 11-13 for 137 yds 0 Tds 1 int than have a guy go 17-27 for 285 3 tds 2 ints – coach Richt
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A few problems w/ Richt and observations…
-Gary and Flowers were both highly dependable fielders of the ball. They also happened to be explosive.
-For the life of me, I’ll never figure out how we ever thought Reggie Davis was a dependable option. I’ve lost count as to how many he’s fumbled beginning with his freshman year.
-I will never figure out why against Florida in 2010 we stuck Logan Gray back on our 10 with 1:00 to go and the score tied. He didn’t touch it, and I’m sure he was instructed not to, but why even risk it. Put 11 in the box, make sure they punt it and get to OT. It’s those kinds of decisions that drove me batty, and I loved the man.
Here’s hoping wisdom prevails on punt returns in the future.
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I would suspect the fear was that a perfect punt allowed to roll to the goal line means you have to gain positive yards on a couple of plays in order not to lose the game.
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#committotheg
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This is a microcosm of what CMR’s basic philosophy on game day had become. With strong defenses, his conservatism usually worked..and you could identify Georgia fans by their nubby fingernails. As we saw defeciencies in situations such as “third and Grantham”, and (more recently) the offense’s inability to make third and one..or fourth and one…his conservative philosophy became a maddening flaw. Having the fear of a fumble keep you from taking advantage of greatly skilled players’ ability to get return yardage is “returnfumblaphobia”. Phobia’s are never healthy. Yes, sometimes you dishearten the defense by giving it right back after a stop, but you also rob them of the satisfaction of seeing a great return that they did their part to make happen.
The Iron Bowl, 2013..Had CMR been coaching Auburn (you’ve got to put your imagination in high gear here) would that miracle touchdown have happened? He would have lined it up at the 20 and thrown a screen.
CMR was a great and sucessful coach at UGA and I loved, supported and appreciated him, but he had developed a fear of using the throttle.
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And now we’re talking about 8-4 or 9-3 being a great season.
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9-3 will be a great regular season considering the roster issues Pastor Poochkick left behind. Without a second team UVA grad transfer at qb, we would be facing a second season with Ramsey, the human interception machine, as our likely starter. As it is; we are looking at relying on Lambert, who we all know what we get with him, or a true freshman who hasn’t exactly been lighting it up in practice. We barely have a defensive line, a suspect defensive backfield, a close to nonexistent receiver corps and no place kicker. If Kirby manages 10 regular seasons wins, he should be coach of the year in the SEC. If he wins the East, he should be national coach of the year. If he wins the SEC championship, we should rename the stadium for him.
Richt lowered the expectations so much at Georgia the fan base began to act like 10 wins was an undefeated season. As long as we managed to win 10, the season was a huge success, regardless of how crappy the wins were or how embarrassing the losses were. Georgia holds the proud distinction of being the only P5 program to ever win 10 games in a season and be unranked, another Mark Richt point of pride.
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Surely if “Poochkick” can squeeze out 10 wins, a better staff can get more.
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Give it a year, they won’t be hugged and told everything is OK so some may quit on someone that pushes them.
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Nothing wrong with hugging a player and telling him you love him….. & nothing wrong with chewing ass. Richt has done both……if you feel it is all one way, you hav been watching too many movies.
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Never said a hug was wrong but I did infer there should be more toughness in the team.
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I thought the team was pretty damn tough. You do not win 10 games and not be tough. I certainly did not see them give up, those kids busted their ass for Richt….as I hope & feel the will for Smart. We were probably just a little short on some talent at key spots…WR and maybe QB. A healthy Chubb, it would have been at least 11 wins IMO. He certainly gives the team and OL a different look. Smart walked into a great situation…I just hope he
can get better results…why else make a change?
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Kriby gets a year pass with me. Next year, the honeymoon is over no matter what happens this season. Years 3 and 4 are the put up or shut up years, no championship by the end of year 4 and we need to start looking.
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I wouldn’t go so far as no championship but there certainly should be seasons without a Clemsoning/Richting game. .500 against UF excluding year 1 and 60 minutes of play in every game. If UGA is going to be a top tier program it needs to go on runs like UF and UT of dominating the 2nd tier East schools. I also want a out of conference record on par with Bama which Richt had for the 1st half of his tenure.
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Georgia should never lose to Vandy or UK–yet under CMR the Dawgs did all too frequently. One stretch saw UK 2-2 against the Dawgs over 4 years. Same with OOC games. There was a stretch where the Dawgs lost at least one-sometime more- OOC game every year.
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LAWD!!!….nothing wrong with being critical, but try to do your homework before you do:
Georgia’s all- time record against Vandy & Kentucky:
Vandy – 55-19-2 or 0.736 %
Kentucky – 55-12-2 or 0.811%
Mark Richt’s record:
Vandy: 13 – 2 or 0.867%
Kentucky: 13 – 2 or 0.867%
Everybody hates a loss, but shit happens. How is this “too frequently”??
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Really?.
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Poochkick could also squeeze out 6 wins sometimes. Let’s not pretend that he was assured to get 10 wins in 2016. He was not only lucky to get 10 last year, he was pretty damn lucky to pass 7 wins given how we played against a slate of awful teams.
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But he did “squeeze” them out….and with last year’s team. The talent is better this year imo….with a change, I just expect more.
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Hey, JCDawg83, remember on another UGA message board when you said it was a mistake to give blacks the right to vote and drive? You will deny this I’m sure…but you know exactly what I’m talking about.
THhs is the type of dummy we’re dealing with here, folks.
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Jesus Christ, if that’s true then the dude should be banned, not to mention he’s a total buzzkill.
“We barely have a defensive line, a suspect defensive backfield, a close to nonexistent receiver corps…”
None of this is true.
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Already didn’t like the guy enough as it is, and it’s not because of his opinion, but the way he presents it. I don’t mind the guy who thinks everyone who passes him in the street is “going to hell”, it’s the one with the megaphone screaming it at people as they pass by that bothers me. The method, not the message.
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An easier schedule, and a better roster and you want less wins, figures.
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A screen pass? That’ll never work: https://youtu.be/Mm9AAIjqx28
At 3:50.
Much better to throw it to Trey Matthews and hope it gets tipped to Ricardo Lewis ’cause play calling! Gus you genius!
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Oy vey. I was at that game. I was 100% convinced in Richt’s early years that he was going to win a NC for UGA. Something changed along the way. But I remember how proud I was of the team that day. That was an unbelievably physical game and they fought the whole way.
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I was there too. The false start on Bennett’s make, Greene missing the back on the circle route for 6 and the inexplicable decision to kick it to Devery Henderson (yeah, sometimes a squid IS the answer) doomed us. That was when we showed up on the road ready to play anyone.
As far as what happened to CMR: SOS at USC, Meyer at UF and Saban is what happened to CMR. Our guy was good. Those guys are top 5 all time guys.
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I think that your second paragraph best captures my feelings too.
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That is it in a nutshell, I hope the Kirby & staff are better than those 3.
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It helps that one has retired, one is up north and one is on his way out (I hope.) McElwain is a good ball coach but I’m not getting the sense that he’s gonna be able to out recruit Jimbo, CMR and Kirby. The chances of any of our rivals getting another top 5 all time coach is about nil. If there are any there one’s at Houston looking to replace Charlie at UT. The other one may be at VT. Neither of those guys are not proven quantities though. Hopefully, the next one is in Athens.
Tennessee can’t win big unless we’re down. Les is having his issues and Will has a train wreck. The Gus bus is about broken down.
Things are looking up.
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All good points….I just get tired of people riding Richt’s ass. I for one am very greatful for all he did…I am also ready to move on to the next chapter. 7 top 10 finishes in a 15 year period ain’t easy to do….especially when your school only did it 21 times in it’s history. Winning 74% of your games ain’t easy either…..only 4 others (active) have done that…Meyer, Saban, Patterson and Stoops. I believe that is with a 100 or more games.
I thought Richt was a pretty damn good coach. Too much hate and sour grapes on here. McGarity took a calculated risk (I think). I hope he is right….it looks all positive so far.
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all the games he won, he was lucky to win. The new staff wont be that lucky.
All the games he lost are because he a god loving gober that sucks hind tit.
UGA should be a championship program, but lets not set the expectations too high for the new guy.
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LOL!!!…all that hate is clouding your judgement. But go right on with your bad self, kinda fun to read. BTW, “I’d rather be lucky than good”
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I think that’s been the story of Richt’s life (as far as football is concerned). He’s always been a good player/coach who’s had the bad fortune to be at the same place that the great players/coaches have been. Played at Miami behind Jim Kelly. Tried out for Denver the same year they signed John Elway. Coached in the SEC against those names you mentioned above. And now he’s in the ACC along with a bunch of other head coaches. It will be interesting to see if he rises above the others or if the others all turn out to be the next iteration of all-time great coaches.
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Wasn’t it Thomas Brown that said something to effect that Richt lost some fight after giving up play calling. Point is, it was a combination of multiple things and some were internal. In my opinion Richt and UGA both needed a change.
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I certainly did not read it…..can you show us??
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I love Mark Richt, but reading this makes me want to re-hire him so we can fire him again.
YOUR MR. DEPENDABLE PUNT RETURNER THREW THE BALL INTO THE END ZONE FOR A FLORIDA TOUCHDOWN WHILE ISAIAH McKENZIE WATCHED FROM THE SIDELINE.
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And you know that CMR should have known that 16 wouldn’t have done that despite the fact that 16 lost the job because he muffed a punt. Got it.
Had CMR put 16 back there and the same thing happened, do you think anybody would have said “wtf richt!?!?. He muffed it last time! Idiot!”
Of course not.
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Oh my…you’ve made sense twice in one morning defending CMR. Add Les at LSU as a pretty good competitor to show up in the SEC in the last 10 years, and make note that no one will ever fumble in a key situation again under Kirby. That was just a Richt thing.
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Not much of a Les fan. And my defense of CMR here is indirect. I just think that ball security in the kicking game is THE #1 priority. It may not be fun to watch, but a fair catch means we’ve got the ball. You may think that CMR had reliable guys he could trust and just through Logan out there because he’s dumb. I just don’t think that’s very plausible. My guess is, based on what he saw in practice and in the games, that he just didn’t trust the other guys to secure the ball and make good decisions. Of course, all of us who saw the practice reps can come to different conclusions. My guess is that if Logan had been around, we’d have gotten a touch back in the UF game and not given up 6.
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This 1000x
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As it should be…..kinda like a QB with a great arm, but throws too many int…..or a running back fumbles. You got to take care of the ball, or your chances of winning go down significantly.
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Ha – excellent little post.
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