For those of you who keep arguing about Georgia’s talent level and how much of a factor that is in fueling our current angst, I think you need to realize that even though the Dawgs are still running a pro-style offense, it’s not the same one that Richt directed last season.
Georgia has succeeded in the run game in the past without dominant offensive line play. The Bulldogs averaged 227 yards rushing over the last two seasons with an offensive line generally considered moderate in overall talent. But Mark Richt’s teams utilized a zone-blocking scheme that required less one-on-one matchups.
Head coach Kirby Smart’s employs more of a road-grading philosophy. He was asked if UGA’s offensive line deficiencies were something that can be schemed around.
“I think it’s hard to scheme around fundamentals of football,” Smart said. “I think blocking and tackling are the number one things that you have to be able to do in football. … We’ve got to be able to block really well. That’s important. That’s a key cog in order to be able to run the ball.” [Emphasis added.]
They tried “scheming around”, with those three-tight end formations buttressing the offensive line. The real issue is that the linemen they have to work with were recruited with a different blocking philosophy in mind. Smart’s right — there’s only so much you can do until Pittman can sort things out. Which, judging from what we’ve seen so far, may take some time.
Get The Picture 
So, Kirby only has a hammer, and every problem looks like a nail to him. Got it.
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offense can’t block… defense can’t tackle… coaches can’t (fill in blank)
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+1 A great coach works with what he has until he gets who he wants. The new kids can learn the old system until we get the bodies for Kirby’s system.
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I typically agree with you on a lot of things…but I have no clue why a new coach would want kids to spend anytime on the old system. You can’t serve two masters.
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Agree, we had wimpy for the last 10 years. We beat Hawaii in the Sugar Bowl with it.
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Yeah, we won 12 games and almost beat Bama in the 2012 SECCG with it, too.
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We didn’t almost beat bama. We got manhandled. Bama nearly beat themselves
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That’s some high quality dawggrading right there. Revisionist, too. Well done!
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Wins??
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Even Hitler failed because he insisted on a strategy despite previous failures. Sometimes adjustment is needed just to show you know how to win. I thought he exhibited some in his first 3 games.
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Why switch to a man blocking scheme until you have the men?
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sexism?
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For the challenge.
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+1
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Jon, what would your consulting fee be to take a look at a couple of kickers?
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The whole identity thing
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The process
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Russ & Derek beat me to it … if zone blocking is what will work best, use it.
I’ll say it again … this ain’t rocket science, brain surgery, or quantum physics …
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Go with the opposite.
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Remember the off-season happy talk about Cheney’s biggest strength being able to adapt his attack to the personnel he has?
Those were good times….damn good times.
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This.
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I agree with these comments. I’ve always heard that good coaches adapt their systems to the players they have, not vice-versa. But then, I’ve never been in the coaching arena.
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Same here — I agree with the principal.
What’s hard to tell how much scheme actually matters here. We might be talking about chicken salad out of chicken shit here.
This line is VERY LOW on talent. Losing both Theus and Houston is a big deal. We have a starting left tackle who transferred from Rhode Island. I repeat…our starting left tackle transferred from Rhode Island just a few months ago. Let that sink in. And they’re young too. One OL starter is a converted defensive lineman. Pyke is our only senior OL who didn’t play at Rhode Island.
Sorry, but championship football teams are not built like that. Really good football teams are not built like that.
No matter the scheme and no matter the coach, this offensive line was not destined to be very good.
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*principle
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“Losing both Theus and Houston is a big deal.”
I’ll take “Sentences UGA Fans Thought Would Never Be Uttered” for a thousand, Alex.
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Isn’t that the truth!
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Answer… Daily Double.
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Haha. Good one, Will.
Speaks to how empty our OL pipeline has gotten.
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I was going to post this link in the comments of one of your last posts, Senator, but I figured you’d be on the mother anyway…
Yes, why indeed has UGA changed O line blocking scheme? Does it relate back to your post on Kirby wanting to have teams submit to his will with punishing play? Chip goes on to say, “Head coach Kirby Smart’s employs more of a road-grading philosophy.” I assume he is talking about the O line there which would suggest he is sticking with the paradigm of beating teams into submission.
I love this thinking but UGA doesn’t have the firepower this year to do it. When does a 1st year head coach decide he just can’t make UGA into a BAMA this year?
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Exactly. We’re at least 3 recruiting classes away from being close to ‘Bama in regards to players and depth.
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3 recruiting classes? Most kids with talent only hang around 3 years. if it takes him more than next season then we have major problems with our coaching decision. Not to mention he better decide giving a Kicker and punter every 4 seasons a scholarship is a great idea and get this preferred walk on idea out of his head.
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Linemen still often get a Redshirt
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Not to mention we waste Chubb and Michel THIS season.
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If he keeps up with that philosophy, he and his buddy over in Columbia can go start a private road-grading business with their buy-out money.
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Post of the day!
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Good one Ben….may just be in the cards….
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What was the point of firing Richt? Because it sure wasn’t to try to win 9 games in 2016. We all want to rant about OTJ training for coaches but then expect our oline to be able to block one way this season and then switch to a different method next year when Pittman has the recruits? Doesn’t make any sense.
I think the answer is that he HAS decided that he can’t do that this year…and that it will take multiple years.
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No doubt that changes needed to be made and I’m willing to take it on the chin this year if it means better results in the not too distant future, but that’s not a given. I think Kirby or any new, unproven HC for that matter has a 3 year window to show significant progress in terms of making it to and/or winning a conference championship, winning 10+ games or making it to the CFP. Otherwise, the fan base and athletic department are very likely to demand a change because the expectation level is so high now-a-days. That leash becomes even shorter if a HC essentially decides to take a program used to winning 10 games a season and throw in the towel to settle for a 5-6 win rebuilding season. This team has talent issues, but not to the point where they can’t win 8 games unless the team completely quits on the coaching staff.
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They’re currently 3-1 with the one loss being to (probably) the best team on the schedule. 8 wins is entirely possible, if not probable at this point.
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Hey, I think 8 is reasonable while Kirby gets his system, players and Process installed. I do think the talent on this team could win 9 in the regular season.
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They still might. North Carolina was probably the fourth best team on the schedule, and they already beat them. I just assume they’ll drop one to someone embarrassing along the way. It would be nice if they made up for it with a surprising win. Or maybe it’ll click, and they’ll actually look good the second half of the season. Who knows?
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That’s why they play the game and keep score 😉
If we win 8 in the regular season and beat 2 of the traditional Big 3, I can live with that in a year of transition. I just don’t want an egg laid in Jacksonville. If we play our tails off there and lose, fine. If not, I don’t think anyone will be happy.
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I want patience and I want it NOW! Dammit!
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I want to know why. Why does a coach decide to use zone or man? Is one better than the other? Is man what the NFL uses? Do the Ohio st. And Alabama lines use man to man?
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Are there really 4* and 5* lineman that the staff declined to recruit because ‘oh no, that guy is more fit for a road-grading scheme, and we do zone blocking!’.
Of course not. We have what we have, and while they could obviously be better and deeper, they are as a whole a talented group. Schottenheimer certainly had no problem getting 8.1 yards/carry out of Nick Chubb, and keeping the run game ticking along even when teams were daring Lambert to throw. Is Chaney really so far out of his depth being compared to Schotty?
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Is Rob Sale better than Same Pittman?? That is the implication in your post, no? Man if that is true we are truly fricked beyond comprehension.
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Seems unlikely, right? I suspect it’s simply Chaney being as awful as he looked when hired. There was little reason to suspect anything else, but Ga fans hung their hat on Peterman having a half-decent year (even though the Pitt offense as a whole was still bad!). Well guess what? We were judging Peterman on 40 pass attempts to conclude that he was bad in the first place, he wasn’t that good at Pitt, and sans Chaney he hasn’t gotten any worse.
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Yep he is soooo Bad that we are NOW getting 4 and 5 Star OL Recruits who are committed that have openly said they Never would have committed under the previous regime. Teaching these kids Not just for today but the Long Haul And Building for a Very Bright Dawg Future.
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Well, our recruiting had just reached the best it had been in the Richt era, perhaps in school history, when we canned Richt and Pruitt. Smart has kept it at the same level of quality and maybe even improved from there (which is fantastic!), but those players aren’t going to do much good with this dumpster fire of a coaching staff.
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And they weren’t going to do much with former staff either as the mastermind behind that recruiting uptick (Pruitt), as well as Scotty, wouldn’t have been there anyway.
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Zone or road grader the problem is the people doing it and coaching it. Big uglies are big uglies regardless of the blocking scheme and we don’t have any big uglies nor an OLine coach who can make chicken salad out of chicken sheet. Who does?
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The problem is everybody sucks. Disaster. Impending doom. Death and destruction. Apocalypse now. CKS is so bad, word is his family is disowning him. The front door has been locked and he refuses to go to the backdoor. He’s been sleeping on the porch all week.
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And his house was egged!
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Great. He needed to clean house anyway. Dayum!!
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I had a good chuckle at this. My dad, a Bama fan was always bitching about Joe Pendry and other coaches there using a zone blocking scheme. I guess Kirby felt the same way.
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4 games in, folks jumping off bridges…funny.
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This is what I expected. Not what I wanted or hoped for, but what I expected. He must have more than 4 games or even 1 year to fix this. I’m looking forward to winning again and hope CKS can make it happen. What I didn’t anticipate was how many people are ready to hang him already.
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I don’t want to hang him. I want him to succeed big time.
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This
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I’m for equal say for that. This gets used 10 times as much as that for saying the same thing.
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Bingo.
Besides, what does everyone expect us fans to do? We see the team for ~4hrs a week during a game. We then only get snippets from the 7 minutes that are allowed to be seen by the press and we know that’s only a dog & pony show of what Kirby wants anyone to see. We get to draw our conclusions on limited information. Luckily none of our opinions count!
Its that passion that drives this entire blog. I am all for Kirby. I’d love nothing more than to see UGA bend teams into submission at will. I just think UGA is a ways off from that currently. I think most would agree.
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They folks that do want that should quit f’in griping.
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Well I AM at the point where I want to hang him. My worst fear has come true–we hired a no talent bum who is dogmatic. He is our SOD. This goon can’t coach. He will drag the UGA football program down to a Vanderbilt/Kentucky level, insisting the whole time that only HE has the answer, all the way to the bottom. What a moron!
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Wow. Overreact much?
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You could see it coming in the arguments last season. Every game will be a referendum on Smart until he proves he can win more than Richt. If he can.
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This clown will never win 10 games in a season. It may take 3 seasons for this dope to win 10 games.
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Kirby bang your girlfriend while you were in school or something?
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That’s sounds more like it’s happening in front of him right now.
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Smart comment … No pun intended
Let’s go 6-6 or 5-7 because building an identity is more important than winning football games.
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What if building an identity is the only way to win championships? Does that make it more important than winning an additional 2-3 games?
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Other organizations don’t just say “we’re changing how we do things and we’re going to be intentionally bad at it” because we may get good at it 3 years from now.
Work with what you’ve got to win now. Find players that fit where you want to go. Transform to your vision over time.
Eventually, the capital and goodwill runs out as the losses mount.
You don’t need to be a Nobel laureate to do this successfully.
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That’s right…when you have new leadership, they typically tell the folks they manage to keep doing it the way that got the last guy fired.
Maybe they should just divide up the seniors and juniors they are going to recruit over and coach them in zone blocking and then they can teach the underclassmen the new scheme that they plan on using next year?
Honestly, this is lunacy.
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Put your best 22 players in the best position to be successful. If that’s using more zone blocking schemes vs. man blocking schemes during games, do it. If it means blitzing a little more than you feel comfortable with, do it. What’s so damn complex about that? Many of you may be ok with the team’s record being subpar this year (yes, 6-6 would be an disaster regardless of the result in a bowl game) … I’m not and, if I were Kirby, I would be figuring out how to win games at the same time as I turn the battleship.
We may have lost on Saturday due to talent (I picked this as a loss before the season started), but we didn’t lose by 31 on talent alone …
You build the program you want in the offseason (January-July). You focus on winning games during the season.
If wins and losses don’t matter in 2016, let’s just run the McDonald’s “Where’s UGA?” advertisements on the scoreboard the rest of the season and black out those 2 numbers at the top of the scoreboard that say “Georgia” and “Opponent.”
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One example…and I’m sure there are many…but if Urbs doesn’t play Chris Leak through the painful 2006 season, do you think he’s really ready to QB them to a national championship in 2007 just by working in the offseason? Do you have any clue how much practice time they actually get between January and July with coaches? That’s not rhetorical. I’m literally asking whether you understand the concept of how much practice time with coaches players have in-season vs. off-season?
The other thing that’s missing here is this ‘either/or’ attitude. Do you think Kirby isn’t trying to win games? That’s crazy. We didn’t lose by 31 on talent alone…that’s true. But there’s a lot to be said that there is no way that teams loses by 31 if the players actually execute. Kirby didn’t miss that kick. He didn’t drop those passes. He didn’t miss those tackles.
Now…the kicker is whether Kirby and this staff can teach them to execute..that’s an open question…but if I’m a coach, I’m thinking ‘we need to find out which guys can play my way’ and they need repetition..which again is why it would be lunacy to have them running any other scheme than the one you want them to learn.
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Leak was already the starter in 2005. Tebow showed up in 2006. Urban inherited Leak as the starter from Zook if I remember correctly. Yes, I understand how much practice time they get with the coaches in season vs out.
You apparently didn’t read my comment because I’m suggesting a coaches’ responsibility is to put players in the position to be successful. Sure, the players have a responsibility to execute what’s called. If they can’t, the coach needs to adjust his strategy & tactics to the strengths of his team, sit the players who don’t perform, or do nothing to see what happens.
I don’t think Kirby isn’t trying to win games (I actually think he’s trying like crazy). The team (coaches and players) lost by 31. I infer from your comment that was purely the players’ fault (talent & execution). It doesn’t seem you have anything negative to say about the preparation or the in-game coaching. I would suggest the team wasn’t ready to play in addition to the talent deficiencies & the execution failures.
Sure, have them run the system you want, get an idea of who has bought in, and give the team the best chance to be successful. I certainly don’t think we’ve done that in 2 or 3 of the first 4 games of the season.
If you want repetition in the scheme as a first year head coach, take the upperclassmen out, don’t go recruit a left tackle from URI with 1 year of eligibility remaining, play the kids, and take your lumps. Otherwise, find ways to win with the players you have within the system you want.
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Using your rationale, “the coach needs to adjust his strategy & tactics to the strengths of his team” he should have played to Leak’s strengths that year and scrapped his offense until Tebow arrived in the following year. My point is that is dumb. By forcing the players to learn his system through repetition, they were prepared to execute better in Year 2 when they won the Natty, which I think is pretty successful.
It’s a difference between micro and macro. You don’t get the big goals by being wishy-washy on the details.
As far as the Tackle comments go, I still think he’s playing Catalina and Pyke because he doesn’t want to scare off recruits with underclassmen on the depth chart. So my question in that scenario is this: Is starting Kendall Baker or burning Cleveland’s redshirt and potentially going to the Outback bowl instead of the Independence Bowl worth losing out on a 5-star OT who may be the cornerstone of an SEC champion?
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No, that’s not what I said. I did not say to scrap your system. Call plays and schemes within the system that maximize the talents of your players. That’s not dumb. That’s coaching (by the way, Corch did exactly that during the 2 weeks he had to prepare for the WLOCP in 2005). You work on fundamentals during the week, and design a game plan to win the game on Saturday. Otherwise, the games on Saturday are just glorified scrimmages with opposition. I don’t pay over $2,000 per year plus the opportunity cost associated with 6-7 Saturdays in the fall to watch glorified scrimmages. YMMV.
As far as your tackle question goes, that calls for speculation. Kirby gets paid $3,750,000 per year to make those personnel (and scheme) decisions. I trust that he will make those based on what’s best now and what’s best for the future of the program. If he gets that wrong, he won’t be around to take advantage of the talents of that 5-star left tackle that is the missing piece to a championship puzzle.
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Think Irwin gets the big picture here. Others should follow suit.
This feels like the past 10 years of Mark Richt’s coaching career. Georgia fans jumping off bridges after the first loss of the season because they were expecting a national championship, even in years we had no business sniffing one.
I’m not sure if Kirby will make a great coach or not. But I damn sure hope he will and I certainly wasn’t expecting much this year. I hope his goal is the same as mine, consistent success as an elite program in the future.
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What if picking up a star WR and a couple of key D players was all that was needed to win 2 – 3 games that win the championship?
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Building an identity is not the only way to win championships.
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so tell me exactly what Richt won the past ten years
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That has nothing to do with the previous coach’s record
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I’d say a good portion of those folks are the pro-Richt portion of the fan base getting “revenge” on the fire Richt folks, and of course our society’s penchant for instant gratification.
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Yesterday you were complaining about recruiting being the issue. Seems that someone’s long-standing suggestion that we might value process over results may have been onto something.
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It has been the issue, did you not see our team trying to win the SEC at worse than probation levels re scholarships? I have no idea if Smart is the answer, but I am perfectly willing to find out.
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Still a lot of butthurts on here PTC.
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No butthurt here I just think it is hilarious that you bunch of ass clowns that wanted Richt fired because we kept shitting the bed in every big game are perfectly fine with Kirby shitting the bed in a big game. Double standard much? The talent meme is bullshit. Do we have SEC winning talent, no but neither do any of the other teams in the East. If UGA were in the SEC West then I would be much more open to a “this is a year to take our lumps and get better” approach but we aren’t, we are in a very weak SEC East that we have the talent to win. That should be our goal every year.
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This is funny…just damn funny. Yeah, we. Oils have continued limping to Belt Bowls….I hope for more. Who knows if we get it? Have we lost to an east yet? Has UF drilled us again yet?
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Autocorrect is even funnier, good luck deciphering that.
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Let me get this right. We we’re supposed to give the guy who had been here 15 years more time to win something of significance, but Kirby can’t even get through half of the season before some on here are borderline calling for his head. Talk about a double standard …..
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Never called for Kirby’s head. I like the guy and I hope that he succeeds and brings several championships to the Classic City during his tenure.
What I don’t like is watching a completely unprepared team get drilled on national TV. I didn’t like it under Richt and I don’t like it under Kirby. If we were coming off of a 4-8 season and had been recruiting at the level of Vandy or Kentucky then you expect things like that to happen. We are not at that level and the main reason that we are having such a hard time this year is the fact that our inexperienced first time HC is hard-headed as fuck and insists on doing it “his way” when we don’t have the horses to do that yet.
A good HC adapts to the players that he has while recruiting the players that he wants. We are throwing away the last season of the second best RB in UGA history because our coaches insist on running him repeatedly into a brick wall time after time after time. What is the definition of insanity?
As shitty as Schotty was as an OC, Chubb was leading the SEC before he went down and Sony ended up over 1100 yards rushing. We could at least RUN the ball. Hell we can’t even do that this year.
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So you’re at all the practices and in coaching meetings and have all the info? I guess we either should have given MR a lifetime contract or force KS to be in church every Sunday and make a big deal about it to make fans like you happy huh?
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Let me start with this: I think there is a bit of blame to go around for all parties here. The kids aren’t executing when they get the opportunity. For Eason, this is expected… he’s going to make freshman mistakes. What hurts, however, is that his freshman mistakes are then getting compounded by OL/WR mistakes on plays where he does the right thing, he makes the right throw, etc. Couple that with some pretty downright pitiful offensive playcalling and you’ve got a recipe for what we saw. Defensively, we’ve got a massive hole left by 2 very talented LBs and some upperclassman on the DL. Smart nailed it earlier during the offseason, which is that our highly rated DB corps was “protected” a bit last year, both by talent around them and by a lack of significant passing threats on the schedule. With that said, it feels like we should either a) scheme accordingly, if LBs aren’t getting pressure on the QB anyways, drop into coverage more, drop safeties back and jam the WRs at the LOS hard. “Get Physical”.
At the end of the day though, Kirby didn’t inherit as much talent as most of us would like to believe.
The below was posted elsewhere (edited for length) but felt was relevant in response to this nugget:
“had been recruiting at the level of Vandy or Kentucky then you expect things like that to happen. We are not at that level and the main reason that we are having such a hard time this year is the fact that our inexperienced first time HC is hard-headed as fuck and insists on doing it “his way” when we don’t have the horses to do that yet.”
Recruiting is (an) issue with this team period.
Senior leadership and game experience is a necessity to win at any team sport at any level. As such, our 2013 recruiting class would constitute our senior leaders and would have 4 years of coaching under their belt.
…out of the 34 recruits in 2013 only 17 are still with the team. 14 were dismissed or transferred, Floyd graduated early, Rumph and Taylor were JUCO’s.
From our 2013 recruiting class, the 5 highest rank recruits that are still on the team are in order – Brice Ramsey, Brandon Kublanow, Reggie Wilkerson, Johnny O’neal, Reggie Carter. Let that sink in and it makes Georgia seem like an overachiever this year.
Taking out all the players kicked off the team, or who transferred and we would actually fall somewhere around 28th in the recruiting ranking. On level with Virginia, West Virginia, North Carolina and Vanderbilt.
Now the picture become more clear – the last 3 or 4 years and vanderbilt has given us fits, North Carolina was an even match up, etc – we do not MAINTAIN SEC caliber talent. No doubt Richt was able to bring it in, but he wasn’t able to keep it.
The situation did not improve in 2014. So our Junior Leadership, next years leaders are in short supply. Out of 20 recruits only 13 remain. Our class would still have been around 20 in the rankings because Lorenzo, Nick and Sony were all 5 star recruits. This puts our 2014 class on par with Kentucky, South Carolina and UCLA.
But this doesn’t address one of the biggest flaws of the Richt era – the Offensive Line. Who cares if you have 5 star receivers and QB’s if the line doesn’t buy the time needed to allow passing plays to develop? Who cares if we have a stable of 5 star running backs if the line can’t open up lanes or continually allows the back to get hit in the backfield?
Our senior linemen are Kublanow, Aulden Bynum and Glenn Welch. Welch is now at FB. Our Offensive line haul averaged out at .8547 recruiting ranking. For reference, Alabama took 5 offensive linemen in 2013 with an average rating of .9162. Heck, even Vanderbilt had a better recruiting offensive line class with a haul of 2 averaging .8643.
2014 looked better on paper. We recruited 4 offensive linemen with an average rating of .9050, but Jake Edwards has since departed. So our junior and senior leadership on the OL is made up of Kublanow, Aulden Bynum, Dyshon Simms, Kendall Baker & Isaiah Wynn.
Maybe Alabama had a good year in 2013 and decided OL was no longer a need? Not the case they signed 5 and a 6th didn’t qualify on grades. The average rating of the 5 signed was .94494. In fact the top recruit for Alabama in 2014 was at OT. Vanderbilt also took 4 OL’s in 2014, with an average rating of .8287.
Looking over the two year stretch:
Alabama: Signed 10 OL with .95555 average rating | UGA Signed 7 OL with .8834 average rating (Only 5 on Roster) | Vandy Signed 6 OL with .8405 average rating.
This should adequately answer any lingering questions as to why we are not doing well. Football in the SEC is a game won and lost in the trenches. Our offensive line is closer in talent to that of Vanderbilt and Kentucky and miles away from the talent on Alabama and Ole Miss.
We will get better, but it will take time – I do believe Smart is the guy to get us there, as he understands the importance of the linemen in the SEC, something Richt seemingly overlooked, year after year.
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Pointing out that he has shit the bed in one-half of his games is not “calling for his head.” It is pointing out that he is not accomplishing what he is supposed to do.
Smart said, “Lorenzo Carter, go make a tackle.” Was he “calling for his head” or was he pointing out that Carter had not accomplished what he is supposed to do?
There is a difference between critiquing and calling for a firing.
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I’m sorry, did Kirby not preface ALL of that by saying it’s on him? I believe he said: “It starts with me.”
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The lack of trust to me is astounding between fans and coaches with years of expertise and experience. I want to win, badly. But I want to win big, and for a long time. If Kirby believes adapting those schemes hurts us long term in developing a system and attitude around how we play, he has to trust his gut, knowledge and experience. You try and win the games (because we can most certainly win this division), but you have to be laying a foundation for Wynn, Simms, Galliard and Kinley (and in the future guys like Cleveland).
Eason’s head is swimming, and schematically, we are prepping him to be a 3-4 year starter running the same system, so that by 2017 and 18, he looks like a pro understanding what looks to get us in and out of.
That doesn’t mean we can’t be creative (and we are trying). What it does mean is that this early in his tenure, Kirby HAS to stick to what he believes will be in the best long term interest of the program. For too long, we have been in 1-yr stop-gap mode with our program because Richt (whom I adored) could not afford a slip or he’d be fired. The problem is that you often don’t fix what needs to be fixed when you are in this mode because fixing it will most certainly mean a season of transition.
We’re in transition, and actually looking quite good doing it. Look at first year regimes, and ours is running much more smoothly than normal. Richt’s first offense was often constipated, but we got rolling in the last half of that 2001 season a little (though we still had tremendous red zone problems). By year 2, Greenie was much more polished and we went on an historic run.
Guys, we’re 4 games in. Gracious, can we let the man coach a few years, recruit a few years and see where we land and what we look like. Just because we have won 10 the last 2 years does not mean that we just needed a change to get us to 11 or 12 this year. What we needed was a change to get us to 11 or 12 consistently, and that’s a little more complicated.
We ran into an angry, talented team on Saturday. A team with an average ranking of 8th in recruiting ranking the last 4 years. We have an average of 11.25 the last 4 years. Yes, Ole Miss has recruited better than us the last 4 years.
Beat Tennessee!
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I believe we averaged sixth in recruiting the last four years
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Not according to 247 rankings. If you take composite rankings, we’re slightly better, with those numbers actually reversed (8.25 for UGA and 11.25 for Ole Miss), but we cannot discount the cavern of the ’13 class (Richt’s lowest in years at #12), which would be seniors. We’ve got guys we kicked off starting on other teams. All in all, it’s at best a wash and even, but our ’13 class kills us, and they have a senior QB and we don’t.
The good news is we’re trending up. We’re ranked #3 now and that would tie Richt’s best class (2006 with Stafford and Moreno) which laid the ground work for 2007. The problem is we just couldn’t stack top 5 classes on top of one another 2, 3 or 4 years in a row. That’s how you build.
We had a #5 class in 2009. Those were the seniors and RS juniors on the 2012 team. Murray, Marlon Brown, Geathers, Abry Jones and Shawn Williams.
Let’s keep stacking them up and see what we can do.
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Looking at recruiting rankings overall without looking at the details is dumb.
So look at 2013-2016…Top 150 regardless of stars…UGA recruited 5 D-Line recruits in that span. Ledbetter is suspended. Galliard flipped to O-Line. So that’s a total of 3 left which is why true freshmen like Carter and Rochester are playing. They recruited 3 CBs in the top 150..Wiggins is gone and McGraw is fighting injury.
Compare that to Ole Miss….5 Oline recruits in the top 150. 6 WR prospects in the top 150. (Treadwell is obviously gone) It was like strength vs. weakness.
BTW…they haven’t recruited at CB very well…but hey, we’ve only got one WR recruit in 4 classes that was in the top 150…plus we’ve only recruited 2 O-Line recruits in the top 150…Wynn and Cleveland who is likely redshirting…so it isn’t like we had the horses or the time to exploit that.
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Shorter answer is who cares if we signed Ramsey, Jacob Park, and Jacob Eason if there is no one to block or catch.
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Sorry…in my own mind I’m rolling…the current 2017 class includes 3 O-Line recruits in the top 150 and 1 WR recruit in the top 150…
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You got it. Those are the problems. Looks like we’re trying to address them.
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You’re right though…we have a 4 year span where we recruited and retained an average of 1.5 defensive linemen and 3 offensive linemen. I don’t care what scheme you run, that’s not going to get it done. 2016 brought in 3 defensive linemen all of which have played. When it comes to the trenches, you aren’t gonna find 18 year olds who can compete physically with 20-21 year olds who have been in a college S&C program for a few years. Patience….
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My concern is that if the team continues to look as awful as it had thus far this season, that current #3 isn’t going to hold up come signing day.
5-star prospects typically don’t flock to 6-6 teams, or even 8-4 teams that win only in ugly, grinding, hard-to-watch fashion.
If Kirby’s first couple of teams look like crap, his vaunted recruiting skill will be put to the ultimate test: can he recruit in a vacuum, or was all that success due to his recruiting for the most successful football machine in modern times?
In the meantime, can he coach? Or is he just an accomplished sideline gesticulate who rode his micromanaging mentor’s coattails? The jury’s still out, for now.
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First off, it’s extremely doubtful we end up 6-6. And recruits DO flock to 8-4 teams with new coaches that can sell the program and more importantly- sell playing time. It’s abundantly clear to recruits that PT can be had in Athens. Kirby is clearly not afraid of playing true freshmen.
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According to Rivals, UGA has an average rank of 9 from 2013-2016 and Ole Miss has an average rank of 13.75. Of course, that doesn’t factor in that the 2013 class couldn’t stick around after signing.
And I’m also not convinced that the talent is that different. Four points difference in rank should not account for a failure to be competitive. Obviously, Bluto’s pointed out that the scheme change contributes much to our lack of production.
I just hoped for more out of Smart. If he believes he’s right on the cusp of competing in the conference and needed a few games to teach man blocking and man coverage, then fine. But if he’s always planned to sacrifice this season so that his impossibly complex systems can be taught for the benefit of next year, I’ve lost much confidence in him. If it’s so complex, what makes us think that the 5 star players who will be freshmen next year can pick it up in preseason? Does that mean 2017 must be sacrificed too?
Elite coaches tend to have success right away. National championships are usually won in the first few years of a coach’s tenure. If Smart has a 5-year plan for UGA’s transition, odds are it will fail.
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Short rebuttal…what means more…the class rank at the time of signing or who is actually on the field? I’m not sure Jacob Park and Brice Ramsey are really relevant.
Which is why it is totally reasonable to jump to a conclusion either way after 4 games. #eyeroll
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Exactly. Recruiting rankings are a big deal on signing day — and a big deal in general, provided you retain and develop talent.
But talent retention and development have been a huge problem for us at Georgia. If recruiting rankings were adjusted to reflect departures and dismissals, our position would drop significantly. As noted above, the 2013 class has been a disaster. Now, in 2016, is a year when we should depend very heavily on the 2013 class.
Among Georgia fans, and even among sportswriters, there’s a big gap between how well we think Georgia has been recruiting and how well Georgia really has recruited.
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This.
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Ever thought about how many other schools also dismissed or lost frothier signing classes?
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Yep. And that’s exactly why I think it’s such a big deal.
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That’s a very fair comment … excellent work, AT.
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My rebuttal to all this is Nicholls. Debate Ole Miss vs UGA talent all day. There’s not a single guy on the Nicholls roster who would get a scholarship from us, and they played us to a draw in our place.
I want Kirby to succeed and I won’t make any conclusions about him for at least a couple of seasons, but these last few games are data points. A better coach would have the talent on hand better deployed for Nicholls and Ole Miss. Hopefully Kirby can become that coach, while he’s building the team in the vision he has, but you’re whistling past the grave yard if you think there’s no issues with a 2 point win over Nicholls at home.
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I don’t think you can ignore what happened against Nicholls. But let’s really dive in here, ok? I think there’s a theme.
Offensive Drives
-First Drive- TD …no complaints
-Second Drive off the INT…first down starts with a loss of 5 yards, Eason throws two incompletions on 2nd and 3rd-15.
-Third Drive- 2nd and 9 from the Nicholls 23..Offensive Holding. Now it’s 2nd and 19. Drive ends in missed FG.
-Fourth Drive- 3rd and 2 at the 5 and run for no gain. Made FG.
So through 4 drives, you’ve got a score of 10-0. The holding penalty and missed FG… Not converting on 3rd and 2? Was it playcalling? What about the loss of 5 on first down where the entire O-Line got blown up? The holding call? 26-24 becomes much more complex when you actually look at the game.
-Fifth Drive- Starts with a complete pass for loss of 5 Yards.
-Sixth Drive- 12 yard gain and Chubb fumble.
-Seventh Drive- 17 yard gain to start. Next play…Holding on Sims. 1st and 20. Womp womp. End of half.
2nd Half
-Eighth Drive from the Nicholls 14…settle for a FG. 13-7
-Ninth Drive- TD 20-14
Now heading into the 10th drive…it’s 26-14 after a TD by the Defense and a missed XP
-Tenth Drive- 70 yard drive down the field….
Now let’s pause right there. At this point in the game, you’ve got an ugly game against a cupcake. You’ve got some problems with play-calling but you’ve also got a missed FG, missed XP, two killer offensive holding penalties, and a Nick Chubb fumble. Despite all of that, you are about to score and make it a three possession game..you have first and goal from the 7. Then a 3 yard loss by Chubb and an INT by Eason that leads to a 91 yard return.
-Eleventh Drive- 1st down pass for a loss of 7 yards by Lambert. If you’re tracking here, that’s two first down pass plays that have lost significant yardage. Now…I’m not a coach, but this can’t be how it was drawn up. Execution or play-calling? Punt.
So D gets another stop…it’s 26-17. McKenzie muffs the punt. They score from the 7. 26-24.
-12th Drive- Run out the clock.
So here’s the breakdown…13 possessions. 2 ended with the clock. Of the remaining 11, 3 ended with turnovers that gave the ball to Nicholls at the 30, the 9, and the 7, respectively, 3 started with a loss of 5+ yards on 1st down, 1 was derailed by a penalty, and the other 4 were two TD, a FG and a missed FG.
Nicholls AVERAGED 25 yards per scoring drive. Think about that…they scored 3 TDs and a FG with about 100 yards of offense. That’s insanity.
So here’s my question…what kind of data point is that? Because when I read that breakdown, it sounds to me like a bunch of players who did everything in their power to give a game away. Now…it’s totally Kirby’s job to correct that, but in my mind, that’s a data point of where this club is not an indictment of where Kirby can take them. Where that is remains to be seen.
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Too long. Didn’t read. But can I assume you ignored the fact that the unrecruited players for Nichols were pushing our 4 star kids around?
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No excuse for not performing better and maximizing what we have right now. That’s the current staff’s job.
But you’re missing some crucial points if that’s all you’re seeing.
Where Georgia is in 2016 has been years in the making.
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Sure. The 2013 class hurts big time. Pyke is a pro prospect at guard. He’s serviceable at tackle. I just wish a saw a plan from the staff to address the issues rather than simply recruit better and wait a few years.
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That fair. I’d also note that the 2014 class hasn’t panned out very well either.
Sadly for us Georgia fans, OL is probably the slowest position to group to rebuild.
First, having uperclassmen OL is key — much more than with RB or WR. You’d rather have a couple of years in college S&C before throwing OLs into the SEC trenches. Second, there’s more unit cohesion on OL than RB or WR. Not only do you need to know what you’re doing, but you have to know what the other OL are doing on any given play. So it takes time for an OL to gel.
Our most glaring weakness is also the slowest fix.
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Don’t bother. It includes detail, nuance, and questions rather than repeated dogma. Not really your thing.
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I think you’re over analyzing it. We were 55 point favorites and won by 2. It’s hardly a perfect metric but we basically lost by 53 points. That’s bad, and it simply can’t be chalked up to a lack of talent, or explained away drive by drive.
I still think Kirby can turn it around, but to some extent that depends on his willingness to admit he needs to turn it around. If his plan is to just recruit an NFL All Pro team and out talent everyone we play he’s going to be gone in 3 years.
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Irwin R. freaking Fletcher for the win!
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Fletch lives!
You wearing a Laker jersey, brother?
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Finally a voice of reason!
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Sugardaddy……post of the day!
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Yep. SD makes some great points about our recruiting.
Where Kirby’s team is in 2018 and 2019 will tell us what we have in our head coach.
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At the end of the day, who cares what the scheme was if you get the “W”?
I just want us to win, and when we don’t. at least be competitive. Call the blocking scheme whatever anyone wants to.
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Agree here. We were not competitive against Ole Miss, and no excuses for that. I think this is the main reason everyone is in angst. We would like to see a well played game, akin to UNC, not the other 3 games. And improvement is expected.
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This in spades – win and if not, be competitive. The worst loss in the history of the series with Ole Miss is alarming … That’s whether 4 games in or 40 games in.
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Oh…good piece…now I understand…changing coaches is a lot more complex deal than it seems, at least from the superficial look most fans get.
Gosh, golly, it might take a couple years to get this stuff all figured out…in the meantime there’s always…uh…golf?
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I’m hoping we all have a moment like Knoxville in 2001. That season was far from perfect, and I was furious after the Auburn game, but that moment showed us we were going to be something different and it was going to be good.
Might that be against the Vols again? It has been so long since we had a great moment in Sanford. Hutson to Malcom was wiped out by the mess that followed. We sorely need it.
The difference this go round is that we CAN win this division, which we could not do in ’01. Get through Saturday with a win and we’re headed to Duval Co. 6-1.
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I hope so too, but I’ve been sounding the alarm since last November that CKS was going to do things that depended upon recruiting at a very high level.
If your offensive philosophy depends on you consistently whipping SEC defensive fronts, which often include multiple immovable objects, you are taking on quite a bit.
Similarly, if your defensive philosophy requires corners to play man when many teams will deploy several fast, tall receivers who create mismatches you better recruit a bunch of 6 foot plus corners.
Likewise, if you want to play a defensive front with two-gap responsibility, you’d better get you 8 – 10 beastly DL.
We know what happens if you pull this off: you win championships. However, if your personnel struggles to meet your scheme, then you crash and burn.
Nobody wants this to work more than I do, but we have to be realistic in the short term and recognize that teams with big, fast d fronts and tall, fast receivers and qb’s who can extend plays with their feet are going to give us fits.
Hopefully our scheme will limit Hurd and keep Dobbs in the pocket. We’d better hope he struggles throwing. Who knows what our o-line can do though? If it looks like the past 3 weeks, we can’t win IMHO. I just don’t think we can chuck and duck our way to a win vs. this team.
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I don’t think it’s true that Smart is depending upon that mindset, because we are doing what Saban never really did at Bama: go hard after elite QBs. I think Smart (seeing the offenses in the conference up close) knows the future includes scoring points. Saban still can’t really recruit the QB position, but we’re lighting it up.
In our his and the QBs 3rd game, we let The Kid throw it 55 times to win the game. That tied for 3rd all-time in UGA history. That really happened. Ole Miss capitalized on every single mistake with TDs, and we got in a really big hole really quick. The same think happened to a darn good FSU team the week earlier. Louisville isn’t THAT many points better than them, and Jimbo didn’t forget how to coach.
Chaney has already used more formations and personnel groupings than I can ever remember, including when Mike was running things. We had Atkins and Rochester in on offense in short yardage. I like what I’m seeing. It’ll get better.
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A lot of the qb thing has kinda fallen into his lap. Eason was already committed and if Fromm was from Mobile and Lawrence (not committed yet btw) were from Huntsville, they’d be going to Alabama. Saban has recruited a bunch of highly thought of qb’s btw. A bunch just haven’t panned out for him for whatever reason.
Throwing it 55 times with Sony and Chubb on the roster is no badge of honor.
As far as unique formations, Chubb at FB is stupid, unless he’s blocking or decoying. You hand it to him on a dive in short yardage and you’re asking to fail.
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I went to practice 3 years ago in August and they were working on a set w/ chubb at FB and Gurley at TB. I guess that was stupid. It was two plays, and it’s all about personnel.
If we have 3 WR and 1 back, the determines a kind of personnel on D. If we can line up in the I occasionally off of that, it gives them something to think about.
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At that time defenses just may have been keying on Gurley. Just a guess.
I’d suggest that there is a difference there but since you didn’t already notice it, what’s the point? I’d also suggest that if you were set on running a FB dive there that handing it to our regular FB while Nick ran the opposite way might have been a better idea. Having watched all 11 defenders follow him wherever he goes, I’m thinking that might have worked. Lining 27 up at FB and handing it off to him. Not so much.
Your personnel groupings will always dictate defensive personnel. Unless you’re Ray Goff and you haven’t heard of nickel defense. In that case you put an OLB on a slot and, oh boy, the fun that is to watch!
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“In that case you put an OLB on a slot and, oh boy, the fun that is to watch!”
I think a Florida WR just ran a seam route toward the St. Johns River end zone again.
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Kirby needs a moment like Knoxville 2001. It was what made people believe things were going to be different. 31-point losses don’t feel different.
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So, golf? Oh, wait, I could start gambling…no, Georgia already did that. Golf?
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Well, we’re not currently dealing with 3IARB! from N. Ave.
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Thank goodness that’s true. 😉
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Call it what you will, but in reality, it’s poor coaching. Don’t blame MR. Our team looks unprepared, undisciplined, and confused!
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You’re right. I’ve never seen a UGA team that looked so unprepared, undisciplined, and/or confused since last year some time.
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Jacksonville, right?
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Wasn’t Smart hired to correct that? And if he has not, why should he praise him as successful to this point?
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Yeah. Because starting Bauta at the Florida game and failing to recruit decent O-lineman for years has nothing to do with Richt. Wear that Miami jersey with pride when Miami gets slaughtered by the good teams in ACC.
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I still would use a three tight end set. I have as much issue with the RBs as I do the O linemen. Can not expect wide gaps to run in. Plus the weakness of the WRs re blocking and catching. They have more rotation in the backs and tight ends. TEs do not have to block every play for a run. The offense is to predictable. Not on board with the play of RBs and TE, but the formation would be good now and down the road. Why some of us wished Smart had kept John Lilly and Thomas Brown.
Smart could be traveling the same road as Les Miles re offensive schemes and formations. Good coaches can scheme with their personnel if they have the will and the right coordinators and position coaches.
One thing I would do is get Ledbetter off suspension today. But the AD and Company run the football program at UGA in the past and this year. The AD had better start figuring out how he is going to pay some of these bills he has coming up.
Nobody wants to go to another bowl in Jacksonville. In fact some are already tired of the annual road game to play the Gators in their backyard.
The damn campus is in Athens!
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Before the season started most of the posts on here seemed to be accepting of growing pains. While some insisted that the only successful season was winning big, the more reasoned commenters seemed to be accepting that there would be pain in the transition process, and most seemed to believe that a three or four loss season was likely and even acceptable if it meant the direction of the program was changing to one that would have long term strength. What happened to that reasoned approach? I know it was painful to look at that Ole Miss game, I watched every minute of it. However, I told everyone I knew that we would lose that game, that we weren’t at the point to beat a very good team on their home turf. I expect to lose to Tennessee and to either Auburn or Florida too, hopefully not both. I expected that before the season began. So I can’t be too frustrated at the record. I am more frustrated at what we were discussing earlier this week which is whether the players truly have bought in to KS’s belief systems. I have some faith that his system will work if he gets all the players on the same page. That will include getting the right players in position for the system he wants to run. I for one plan to be patient with the process. At least until they lose to Tech, then all bets are off!
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Nice to know some of you guys are so blase about just checking out on NC27’s comeback and last season. Thanks for working your ass off, Nick. Hope you understand this is good in the long run for us.
CKS was brought in to make a very good program a great one. He doesn’t get a freebie year because he doesn’t have the players for his system
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It’s not blase. It is reality. I want Chubb to have a great season too, he deserves it as an all time DGD. However, there is a future to consider, one in which our o and d lines don’t get manhandled by the opposition, one where face plants are no longer expected, one where the team is in the national picture after week 12, not just preseason. If that takes some pain, so be it. If it proves that Kirby is not the man for the job, then that will be painful too, but we have to let him try it his way, not judging his potential based on four games.
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Jeff, what do you think our record would have been without Smart, which would have almost certainly mean without Mo Smith and Brian Herrien (who wasn’t on Richt’s radar)? We’re 3-1. Let’s play the games. Nick will get plenty of shots to go off this season.
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+1
Toss the damn ball Kirby.
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I think we beat Sakerlina, Vanderbilt, Kentucky, and Louisiana-Lafayette. We lose to Tennessee, Florida, Auburn, and Tech. We just ain’t that good and it ain’t getting better this year.
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Okay, a 4 loss season is acceptable if it meant the direction of the program was changing.
Losses do not cause long term improvement. I think you meant that you were fine with losses if, in those losses, we showed signs of long term improvement.
In half of our games we showed up not ready to play, had coaching snafus such as 12 defensive players on the field, had players quoted that different players were in different coverages at the same time and in one game allowed another SEC team to get a 45-0 head start on us.
Those are issues that you said we had to address with a coaching change. So far, those issues have not changed. At this point there is no evidence of improvement.
The common wisdom is that we will recruit the problem away, but we could have the Denver Broncos players out there and we still get a five yard penalty for having 12 on the field at the same time, and still get torched if 5 are in one coverage and 6 are in another.
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When was the last time the Dawgs had an All American on the interior Oline?
When Walker was at UGA he had the best Olines the Dawgs every had.
Why can they not recruit these positions, especially at center.
Dawgs Olines have always had issues with the Vandy defense, and that is who is coordinating the Vols this season.
So somebody on that staff had better do some scheming in light of the fact this Oline had not put a decent block on anybody this year in consistent drives. Also take Godwin out of the pass plays. He has not been able to catch since he got there. He like the other receivers will not fight for the ball.
As for the defense with not one but two DCs, they had better watch that second half from last year, because the D was road graded in the second half.
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He wasn’t an All-American, but David Andrews is the starting center for the New England Patriots. He was pretty good.
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Yep and the guy before him (Ben Jones) was pretty darn good, too.
Boss Andrews was a damn good football player.
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We can add Ben Jones to the list as well. He’s starting for the Titans this year.
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Jones had been a starter in Houston for a number of years before (if I remember correctly).
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Cordy Glenn is on IR for the Bills but he got a huge contract as a LT last year or the year before. Clint Boling is a G for the Bengals.
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Yep, I think the whole thread was based on Trane’s insistence that we hadn’t had a good center recently. There have been some damn good offensive linemen at Georgia. We’ve also had our share of misses in the line. It’s the hardest position to recruit because most prospects maul people in high school based on size and athleticism. As a result, development is more important with offensive linemen than any other position except maybe QB. I hope that’s what we get from Pittman is that he can take guys like Cleveland, Kindley, et al and turn them into a great line that works together.
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Velasco is also still in the league
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Starter in Carolina?
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correction…he was cut earlier this year but had a nice little career
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Stinchcomb? Good God has it been that long?!
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Jean-Giles was an All American according to Wikipedia.
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All American is slightly overrated when you win people who may not deserve it get there when you lose people who might deserve it miss out also politics is involved. Georgia has had many OL go on to start in the NFL several starting there now. As for DL/DE I think we have more of them in the NFL than any other team in the country including several all pros and pro-bowlers ……. So the Ol / Dl has not been as talent poor as some of you wish to say it has been…….. Watch there will be another drafted this year Pyke will play NFL might be at guard but he has a future probably a long future
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Yeah. There’s a ton of players that were meh at UGA and are starters in the NFL. But I guess none of that is due to poor coaching by previous regimes.
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Hey, check out our last 2 centers starting in the NFL?
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Don’t let the facts get in the way, lake, when you deal with Coach Propst’s biggest fan.
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and exactly what did Richt win with all that O line talent?????
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^^^^ troll alert
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Yeah. And how did they do against Florida while at UGA? Coaching perhaps? I’m sorry that KS hasn’t made it to your Sunday school class yet.
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Greg Pyke last year. He was Sports Illustrated second team All-American.
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Chip’s premise is flawed in the first place. No coach employs exclusively man or zone schemes. Not Sam Pittman, not Neil Callaway, not Will Friend….
That said, Kirby’s a fool if he doesn’t adjust to his personnel. Clearly, we can’t line up against anyone and run right at them out of a run formation with run personnel (ie Stanley and Chigbu vs Imac and Godwin). Even when we have a numbers advantage and the box isn’t stacked (OM did NOT stack the box against UGA and we frequently had some numbers advantages at times), we’re not able to open big holes; so we’ve gotta get more creative in how we scheme our run game. That means getting out to the edge more often and taking advantage of our OL’s athleticism and the great talent we have at TE versus trying to run between the tackles…. and doing so out of pass formations with pass personnel.
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Sorry, but where do you get “exclusive” out of “Head coach Kirby Smart’s employs more of a road-grading philosophy.”? (Yeah, I know he needs an editor. But I digress.)
Like it or not, the blocking schemes have changed this season.
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Oh boy! A new meme to be parroted.
This article is very disingenuous. There has been no “change” in blocking scheme. Richt, Bobo, Schotty, and Chaney all ran man, zone, and gap blocking schemes (well, I don’t really remember Richt calling gap scheme power plays). Each OC used them in differing proportions. The blocking scheme is dependent on the individual play. As OC, Richt mostly called plays with Man and Zone schemes. His favored plays were: sprint draw, lead draw, ISO, dive, and speed sweep. Bobo started out with a similar preference as his mentor, but the last few years used a lot of gap scheme power plays. His running game was really diverse. Also, Will Friend was a proponent of drive blocking which is specific form of man scheme blocking. Chaney, like Bobo, has shown a very diverse running game so far using a varied mix of man, zone and gap. Schotty is the one who had the big preference for running inside zone.
Please read the following link before jumping to conclusions about the article. Chip is not an Xs and Os guy. Do not fall for the meme.
https://xandolabs.com/conceptblockingsystem/member/olineblock.html
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Great post!
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So an AJC idiot trolled UGA fans…. shocking I tell you shocking
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Of course you are right, man…but trust me, nobody will stop complaining, its what we do. Chip is not an xs and os guy….wah ha ha ha…no shit.
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Lots of us felt that Kirby could go two ways. He could coach around the personnel deficiencies while he recruited his guys or he could go “Damn the torpedoes Full Speed Ahead”. He has gone with the latter. We will therefore beat the teams that we out man and lose to the teams we don’t. Given that we are in the SEC East we should out man Missouri (barely), South Carolina (maybe), Vanderbilt, Kentucky and if Gus doesn’t find his horseshoe Auburn (although it looks like a 7 – 6 game). ULL (based on Nicholls I wouldn’t look at the point spread.) and Georgia Tech. Now Tech is going to be a close game because everybody out mans Tech but they beat a lot of those teams. Kirby at Bama couldn’t master the defense of the triple-option as run by Georgia Southern so Tech is going to be a toss up.
Please stop blaming the OC and the Oline coach. They are doing what the head coach wants. The Boss says we run right at them, we run right at them.
Apparently Kirby feels Zone blocking is for pussies, even if you can win with it. It’s going to be a long long season.
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Vol coach Butch Jones is smiling. Making all those writers and commentators eat crow re his team play in first three games. Plus he knows now that he has the top tier team in SEC East.
Dawgs are not a concern for him and the Vols this week. Pretty much a walk over game for them as they tune up for Bama and Texas A&M. Those games now that he beat the hell out of the Gators are the games he wants. And if he takes those, UT will be an issue not only this year but for awhile.
That is why I say it is just stupid for Ledbetter to continue to sit out. Not only is he punished but the whole football program this year and the next.
Next to the O line the Dawgs have an AD problem!
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You bring in a guy to change things, and when he changes things, you want him to do what has always been done. UGA hasn’t had elite OL play the past decade, and they were completely manhandled by superior DLs (Clowney’s SC squad, Florida for several years, Alabama last year). Kirby wants to change the philosophy on OL from the one he destroyed last year to one that can hold up better against elite competition. But fans want to win, and so they want to use the scheme the OL are used to so you might win an extra game this season. At some point, they will have to learn the new system or you’ll never be better than you were. Why not now? Teach it now. Learn it now. Is winning 8 games, but installing a system the way it will be taught and played for years to come not more useful than doing whatever it takes to maybe win 9 and get back to the Gator Bowl for the eleventy billionth time?
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Going by what you say we should get every Sr off the field and Jr like Sony and Chubb that might go pro just sit them on the bench and play for the future.
Even if you go half way with what you are saying get the Sr off the ol let the younger guys play and learn
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Excellent comment … very well put. Sort of like the Braves the last couple of years. Let’s play the young guys and take our lumps. You just have to understand the risk associated with that strategy.
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Kirby = Les Miles, both are bull headed. Hope Kirby can walk the walk he has set out on but if I’m a senior or a junior with a pulse I’m not sure I would buy into this. So if we are really going for the future then turn the freshmen and sophomores lose. Let them learn by doing like Eason apparently is being asked to do. Nick looked like he might just be considering his NFL future now that the season could be in the crapper. Not going to take too many more games of being hit in the back field before he figures it out.
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Speaking of CMR, he’s about to enter a stretch of 9 straight conference games to end his regular season schedule. Anyone want to project how Miami does over their remaining 9 games?
@ GA Tech
Florida State
North Carolina
@ VA Tech
@ Notre Dame
Pitt
@ Virginia
@ NC State
Duke
I’m wagering 7-2, which would put him 10-2 overall with a probable chance at the ACCCG versus Clemson or Louisville. Interesting…..
What if he were to enter that game 11-1…. Would your head explode?
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The Hokies will kill em!
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Do not care.
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I figured 6-3. 7-2 seems generous. I mean, if they beat FSU, then Sally Bar the Door. But FSU, VT, and NC/Pitt could go either way.
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No.
If he were still in Athens, the OL would still stink, the 2013 class would’ve still evaporated, and he’d be starting from scratch again with coordinator hires. (Or, heaven forbid, actually entertained the notion of keeping Schottenheimer.)
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When they lose three or four of those games, will you guys drop it?
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Indeed Rickus
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@ GT, FSU, UNC, @ VT (Thurs), @ ND is a brutal October. If the over/under on October wins was 2.5, I’d take the under. Don’t sleep on Nov home games with Pitt and Duke, either.
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Heads WILL explode when CMR gets around to telling them the parable of the 2 fucking farmers.
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Lulz, lulz, and more lulz
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Good see the Dawgs are once again behind Tennessee and Florida in the SEC Power poll. Exactly where I thought they would be. No surprise. But the once dominating, exciting, and top ranked SEC East is like its sisters in the ACC lower tier.
SEC East dominates the bottom of the pile.
LSU. Probably no team in the SEC has more talent than they do. But they can hardly scratch the scoreboard. Thus Miles and his OC were told goodbye just a third into the season. Better to just go ahead and party on Tiger land than sit in the seats and see that “0” on the scoreboard for Tigers.
Great receivers, but they only play 2 at a time. Everybody’s defense just collapses into the tiny little tight box to stop the I formation backs. Yes talent at all positions at QB. And they get those NFL receivers and O lineman every year. Now Les Miles can watch what other teams do and learn.
Spread the defense vertically and horizontally across the field.
Hello, Kirby Smart.
Even Saban is transitioning this year. Why? Lane Kiffin. And he is not that stubborn, especially with that QB.
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I find it strange that, in all the discussion of the offensive line, it is almost never mentioned that John Theus and Kolton Houston were senior, multi year starters last year.
I know there was some rotating but we essentially replaced those two players with a graduate transfer from Rhode Island (Catalina) and a red shirt sophomore former defensive lineman (Gaillard). A drop in performance might just have been inevitable regardless of the scheme.
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Stop it, John. That’s crazy talk.
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We decided to go with a coach with (0) experience running anything. I know he spent a few years with Saban listed as DC thats about the same as coaching for Spurrier and being listed as OC. I know you cool-aid drinkers loved the hire. I know he is an ex-Georgia player. He may become a great coach but it will be in the long haul are we going to need to wait 3-8 years for him to maybe come around? Georgia has the money and the prestige could have went after Herman or even 85% of the college coaches out there today. Even a more experienced coordinator who run there own system might would have been a better answer.
Hope i am wrong and time will tell however i recall another ex-coordinator Georgia alum Awesome recruiter that Georgia hired as a head coach and he had Two good seasons before being fired might of even been a better coach when he was fired than the day he was hired.
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Are you suggesting Herman is a miracle drug that would have made Catalina into a first rounder? Or rather that he would provide such a schematic advantage that all of UGA’s woes so far would have been cured? Is three years really stretching the bounds of patience these days?
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check his offense vs, what we are running and the conclusion would be that on offense, yes, he would have provided a schematic advantage
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We lost both tackles from last year and had no one to replace them. Zone blocking, man blocking, doesn’t matter if they can’t block.
Bama ran zone blocking last year with multiple draft picks (2 first rounders) on the line. Gave up more TFLs than 117 FBS schools. And that was in an offense that ran an absurd number of bubble screens behind a WR corps where everyone was 6’1″ or taller.
Zone blocking has its advantages and disadvantages. If someone wants to explain how THIS year’s crop of offensive linemen get an extra win using exclusively zone techniques, I’m all ears.
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How many days in a row is this thread going to happen? Same argument every day. Feels like Ground Hog Day
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Hits for the Senator….he loves it. I’m thinking many here want to lose to UT…
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Next topic…Trump and Hillary…who won the debate?
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That was a debate? Couldn’t a been, Trump got suckered with a bad mike. Oh the shame of it all.
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http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/donald-trump-alicia-machado-weight_us_57ea553fe4b082aad9b6cb72?section=&
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Google Alicia Machado and anal. Or Alicia Machado and drug lord. Or Alicia Machado and get-away driver. This is gonna blow up in their faces.
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What, exactly, does any of that have to do with Trump calling her fat?
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The media
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You mean Medea?
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Nope – never want to see us lose to the Vols or anyone else for that matter
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It’s a weird reversal for some from the arguments last season. I get it. Everyone likes to be proven right. Well, most everyone.
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Beat Tennessee.
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Damn straight…GATA
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Well, hell, the O line can not block anybody lately. Don’t block them all.
Pull Eason out, insert Ramsey. Go to a veer or diamond formation in the backfield with three backs and split receivers on the line. That way the Oline does not have to block the defensive end on one side. OU and OSU have used it in some games to get on the board and disrupt the defense. Ask Mississippi State and Texas if they have seen it run against them.
Dawgs have some personnel to run it a couple of plays. Vols defense ends are beginning to play well. Take them out of the picture by not blocking them with a veer or diamond formation. Have two days to run it in.
Thought the Rocky Top Hound Mascot video about feeding bread to the ducks was a little salt in the wound to the Gators. The duck pulling the truck.
But when you watch that video did you notice at the end what he had on the bench to feed to ducks other than bread…milkbone dog biscuits.
Yeah to Vols are feeling it now!
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Can I just say – all y’all complaining and wringing your hands are bad fans. You’re like those Eagle fans that pelt players with batteries except you use words.
I do corporate turn-arounds for a living and let me tell you something – the Year 1 is about culture change, which involves leadership (people) changes, org changes and some process changes. Year 2 is where change starts to actually emerge (process) and Year 3 is where the work reaches it’s zenith (results & transparency).
Changing a football team is – the people/process/technology – takes just as a long. And I want to remind y’all assholes that y’all are bitching about a 3-1 team that’s starting a true Freshman QB in the SEC. A team that will likely go 8-4 or 9-3 in Kirby’s first year. A team that lost dang near 60% of the recruiting class talent from 2012/2013 to flame outs and transfers. Those are your seniors and juniors – the depth this team lacks.
So sit down with a nice glass of bourbon and chill out. Y’all have no clue what you’re doing and that’s why you pay to watch games and don’t get paid to coach the teams in them.
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Bourbon recommendation?
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All of it, lol
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I have a bourbon recommendation: lots of it, neat.
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Tito’s
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I have many Bourbon recommendations. Personal favorites:
– Eagle Rare (great 10 yr)
– Pappy Van Winkle 12 (quite possibly the most delicious bourbon I’ve ever had).
– W.L. Weller (if you can’t afford Pappy, Weller is the reject bourbon. it’s the same recipe as Pappy but doesn’t meet the Pappy quality standards and ages for less time. It’s a great bourbon for the price and it has the Pappy notes.)
If you like the Rye forward Bourbons, I’m not your man. My mixing bourbon is Buffalo Trace. Makes an excellent Manhattan.
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Usually the companies that need a turnaround specialist are mired in losses and trouble … Not exactly a parallel to this situation. I think those who are pelting players with words are actually the people that say we’re going in the right direction.
I’m willing to let the Process play out.
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Dammit! Stop with the reasoned thoughts. This is just nuts.
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That was meant for Sashko. For EE, they were headed that way.
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This reminds me of when Rankin Smith fired Falcons HC Leaman Bennett after a season where the team had lost in the first round of the playoffs. Bennett had taken a team that was a doormat and turned it into a team that had excellent personnel, contended for division titles and made the playoffs every other year that Bennett coached. But the Falcons didn’t win the NFC Championship or the Super Bowl under Bennett. So Smith fired Bennett and hired Dan Henning, a career assistant with the then-champion Washington Redskins with the understanding that Henning would basically keep the team intact but tweak it so the team could go all the way. Henning instead made wholesale changes to the team including adopting an entirely different O (the so-called H-Back offense) when he didn’t really have the players to run that scheme. Henning was HC for 4 seasons and won .344 of his games before being summarily fired. Rankin Smith reportedly later stated that firing Bennett and hiring Henning was ” the biggest damn fool mistake I ever made.” Friends, we are witnessing the destruction of the University of Georgia football team by a complete idiot. The Georgia “brain trust” (an oxymoron in this case) blew the hire. Instead of hiring a proven HC they bought a pig in a poke. Kirby Stupid has no clue. He has seen how Saban did it and that is the only way he knows. But Georgia is not Bama. We have academic standards and other priorities to contend with that Bama doesn’t even acknowledge exist. Fire Kirby Stupid as soon as possible. We need to eat crow, pay the buyout and get rid of him before he completely ruins the program–then hire a real football coach with a winning track record as HC of a top program. The sooner we do it the better off we will be.
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Damn Mayor, that’s bleak. I sure hope you are wrong…but hope is the greatest of all human delusions, so there we are.
Ray Goff was an assistant coach, too. He’s done very well in binness.
What I HOPE is that most of the dunderfucking around we have seen in the first four games is that complex process that happens when you bring in a whole new staff and a new head coach to replace a head coach who was much-loved by his players.
We may, or may not, get some indications Saturday, but by the middle of the second quarter we may be some happier.
We shall see.
Kharma is a bitch.
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Fuck them Bitchez. We will be fine in 2-3 years.
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Run over your dog? Is that it?
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Rankin Smith had the reverse Midas touch. Everything he touched turned to shit.
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Lol. Richt was a career assistant who went 8-4 in his first season at Georgia. The roster he inherited produced 8 draft picks in 2002 (rounds 1,3,4,4,5,5,7,7), 7 in 2003 (rounds 1,1,2,3,6,7), and 4 in 2004 (rounds 1,2,4,4).
Show me on this roster the following over the next 3 drafts: 4 first round picks, 2 second round, 2 third round, 4 fourth round, and 6 rounds 5-7. That’s 18. Alabama had 22 drafted over the past 3 drafts.
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Sorry – 19. Add a 2nd rounder in 2003.
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Wow. Either stop donations to Georgia or buy your MR Miami jersey. It’s funny that your handle is Mayor bc you’re a moron that would never be elected to dog catcher in a town of 1000.
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Towns elect Morons all the time…LOL
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Nations do too.
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Just wait and see what happens the rest of the season. You cannot counter an argument with one of your own so you just stoop to petty name calling. You have been that way since you started littering this blog with your mindless drivel. Who is the real moron? Now go upstairs–I hear your mother calling you.
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Ahhh yes. You certainly don’t indulge in name calling yourself. I hope that you enjoy pulling against KS and UGA for the rest of the season. 🙂
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So Kirby’s not looking good ’cause he doesn’t have the horses. Don’t believe it. In addition to zone blocking, he could play more zone on D, and make up for his WR deficiencies by targeting TEs and RBs more often. A great coach schemes around his available personnel while he recruits the guys who can run his preferred system. A bad 2016 will affect recruiting. Don’t throw away this season.
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^This.
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So, one of the longest threads of comments that isn’t related to a game day post?
Damn, I’d say we all have an opinion on this one and probably none of us are right. Wonder what the Senator’s site clicks look like today after this one??
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I hope it looks a damn sight better than it did this morning. This is a great place to waste productive time with people who feel as passionately about and know as little about Georgia football as myself. Or football in general for that matter.
Check out the other blogs listed on the dawgbone, and the other school’s blogs as well. Nothing close to this one.
It’s even developing characters, like Scorp’s Karma Bitchez, and a Lexicon! Who on this blog doesn’t know what _IARB! Means?
Keep it up Blutarsky, this is fun.
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