For a program with a detail-oriented coach, the punting game sounds a wee bit puzzling.
Long and Ramsey each had 32.0 punting averages, with Long handling five and Ramsey three.
Florida got the ball at the Georgia 44 after a 20-yard punt from Long, a freshman from North Carolina.
Ramsey came in and had punts of 36 and 25.
“He didn’t hit really great either,” Smart said.
Re-enter Long who got off a 30-yarder. Ramsey followed with a 35. Long completed a miserable day with a 34-yard punt.
Ramsey used a rugby style.
“It was kind of unorthodox for me,” he said. “We had been working on it quite a bit. It was something that came natural.”
Smart said he had confidence in Long after punting well in practice but it didn’t carry over.
“He’s struggling a little bit, he’s in a slump,” Smart said. “We’re going to get him out of that slump because we love him. The thing is he can punt. He’s a good punter. He’s struggling rhythm, he’s struggling with timing, he’s not getting the hang time we need and it’s dangerous (on returns).”
So last year’s punter, who averaged about three yards more per punt last season than this year’s punter, changed his punting style for some unknown reason and saw his average drop off by about ten yards per kick, while the plan for this year’s starter, who’s clearly struggling, is to fix him with a lot of love.
It’s really a good thing I don’t care what happens for the rest of the season.
Get The Picture 
What Me Worry? It’s all just part of the Process’ trust Kirby, have faith in Kirby, we need the Hope and Change. Damn that sounds familiar.
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Well….we won’t know what kinda head coach he’ll be …until after we hire him.
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You can’t know, but you sure as hell can make an educated guess. Hiring assistant coaches to head coaching positions in the SEC has been a disaster for 20 years. One major success (Richt), two minor successes (Mullen and Franklin) and a sea of failure.
At least we knew Richt was responsible for the offensive success at FSU. Kirby was a mystery. No AD would have made that trade save the most laughable dumbass of an AD in these United States, Greg McGarity.
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McGarity didn’t make the decision. That was done by a small group of guys who prefer to stay anonymous.
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McGarity executed the decision no matter it’s source. Could a group of donors have forced Greg McGarity to have that interview with the AJC and the press conference to terminate Richt a year later? How? Even if they could, then McGarity’s sin is simply being a spineless puppet, he deserves the axe all the same, and it makes me happy that those old south dumbf*ck donors have to watch the program burn alongside me.
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“It’s really a good thing I don’t care what happens for the rest of the season.”
This was me the day of the Chaney hire. Here’s what I have been pulling for: Kirby to continue lights out recruiting, Eason to improve, Georgia to win if they’re good (which means we’re improving) and to lose if they’re bad (which, if there is a God, moves McGarity’s goofy head ever closer to the chopping block).
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I will wager Brice was asked to do it last week to finally give our returners some practice in fielding them after Vanderbilt burned us so badly.
Better late than never, I guess…
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Bingo
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Nailed it.
All part of the process. And it’s Richt’s fault.
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at least South Carolina lost to Tennessee….oh, wait.
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Can we come in last ?
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We no longer control our own destiny, but Missouri still has four more conference games to play.
So yes.
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and then we can get 1st draft choice
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LMFAO
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“We’re going to get him out of that slump because we love him….”
Now that is richt…errr rich. MY bad.
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If it can be controlled it ain’t destiny.
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1
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Maybe the punting will come around. Or, maybe not.
But, there’s a better chance of improvement there than with the OL.
https://www.seccountry.com/sec/the-heaviest-and-tallest-sec-offensive-lines-in-2016
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Just brutal to see those charts…we are the shortest, skinniest o line in the conference. Wow. At least Donnan left Richt some meat on the line.
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I knew things were dire on the line, but I didn’t realize just how physically outmanned it really is. I asked on yesterday’s post-game thread if it really mattered what the coaches called if the line was physically incapable of executing. I guess my question wasn’t rhetorical.
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2015 we were second to smallest. 2014 we were the smallest. Yet somehow we managed to run the ball just fine. The only person that could stop Nick Chubb’s streak of 100 yard games is Chaney.
This is a coaching problem. Good coaches know how to work with what they have, not what they wish they had.
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Further, we were among the smallest in 2013 as well. In 2011 we had the largest line in all of football, including NFL. Yet Boise ran us crazy. In every one of those years, we still ran the ball better than this year.
Size by itself doesn’t mean everything. Good coaches work with either. Someone else here said that apparently Pittman is a wizard when he has giant linemen to work with. Color me unimpressed.
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2014 we had Boss at center and theus and hoston at tackle. Last year we had theus and houston still. We’ve downgraded (rather significantly) at those positions.
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The fringe constantly bitched about the private school linemen we recruited. Guess what? Boss and Theus were both private school football players. Maybe Will Friend was a pretty darn good offensive line coach after all.
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The biggest lie Kirby ever told….he can punt. You’re kidding right?
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I always kind of chuckle when someone suggests having an open punting tryout because someone on campus could do better. Maybe there is something to that idea.
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The best way to fix the punting is to not have to do it so much. 😉
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We probably will be playing Tech for a bowl bid.
Other than that I too have no interest in the rest of the season.
Also I can not see It getting much better In the future.
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I hope it’s a night so I can got out on a state boat in Destin for that extended snapper weekend!
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game
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“I don’t care what happens for the rest of the season.” I don’t believe you Senator, not one bit.
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Nor do I. I sure as shit care if we beat Tech.
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Would much prefer we beat Auburn and Kentucky, and I am worroed about both after the past two games.
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I will be there supporting the team when we play in Athens. Quitting on them is not an option.
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Kirby should find a good punter. Seems that’s going to be easier than making first downs.
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That’s what I thought when he said, “We’re going to get him out of this slump because we love him.”
That’s code for, “we can’t move the damn ball, so he’s going to get out of it one way or another.”
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Thank God all you need is good defense to win, as UF has proven.
Their special teams unit ended up what #100 last year? Offense #70?
But their defense ended up #11.
There’s hope Georgia fans.
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Exactly right, there is hope to be as good as Florida, a team that isn’t very good. It was the same deal for them under Muschamp. That ceiling gives you a contender in a weak east, but that’s it. Who cares? The last guy gave us a better team than that, a team decent on one side of the ball and excellent on the other, every other year.
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Love that 2013 Mich St team:
Off #52
S Tms #55
Def #3
13-1. Works for me.
You got a better plan, please share how we get to a top 10 finish next year based on real ESPN FPI numbers?
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Come on now, what would you like him to say?
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Everyone made fun of the previous guy when he said something similar about Marshall Morgan last year.
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Yep. And the misinterpreted “rings gather dust”
CMR had a ring to gather dust in year two. Will CKS, I wonder?
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How many has had since his last one?
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Well, not sure if you’re paying attention, but the good news is if you want him back, he’ll be available in a year or two.
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I have cared through good and bad seasons since 1971. I can’t walk away now.
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I imagined Beamerball being different than this.
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Utter failure. He needs to be gone the morning after the Tech game.
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If they want rugby style punting, check the video of Blankenship doing it in high school.
Of course, just because we can’t figure how to field them doesn’t mean our opponents have the same problem.
And yeah, Ramsey did a great job punting last year so let’s change him.
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Simply further evidence that, as has become painfully clear, this coaching staff is totally out of their league and does not have a clue. We had a seven game stretch (Tennessee possibly excepted) where we have done the same ugly shit over and over again. At this point, the only reasonable explanation to me must be that Step One of “The Process” handbook says keep running dives out of power formations against 9 man fronts until you are able to impose your will on your opponent…
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To paraphrase BB King, After 30 years, the thrill is gone, baby, gone away from me. You know you done me wrong, but I wish you well.
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I have been, AM, & always will be an Avid Dawg Fan. That does Not
mean that I can’t be “not impressed” with this team & the Coaches..
I hope to beat Tech & make a Bowl Game. We need the extra practice.
Meanwhile I find It boring to watch this team play & I have lost interest.
My Answer: Revamp (change} the Offense & the Offensive Game Plan.
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many feels, or no feels. I feel you friend.
I wish I had a place to write the post I want to write.
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I’m in a funk.
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I come here not to defend Greg McGarity, necessarily, but to assign blame for changing coaches on McGarity is ignorant of the influences, both inside and outside the university bureaucracy that led to the decision to fire Mark Richt.
I don’t disagree with some of the criticism of McGarity’s seeming tone deafness at times, but the idea McGarity is stupid, or does not care about the university is simply ridiculous.
The idea McGarity did not have any idea of the impact of changing coaches, that he just went and did it unilaterally is absurd. That he had no idea of the risk of hiring an assistant with no head coaching experience is ridiculous.
I would venture to say no body is more disappointed in the way the season is playing out than Greg McGarity.
This is a guy who grew up in the shadow of Sanford Stadium, grew up in the very heart of the Bulldog Nation.
We can certainly examine and criticize every word that comes out of his mouth. We can certainly blame him for everything that goes wrong with the program if we chose to do that because shouldering blame is part of his job description. Scapegoat is in the third paragraph of that description.
A former athletic director at the university once said the main function of the athletic director at Georgia is to protect the president of the university from the football program.
McGarity is trying to do that part of his job as well as he can. Whether he will be successful remains to be seen.
McGarity does not have the luxury of being apathetic. A little understanding of that might be constructive.
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The AD made his bed with me the Saturday morning he threw a good kid under the bus in that press release before the Missouri game in 2014.
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McGarity has yet to make a single coaching hire who has distinguished him/herself.
Once USC elected to hang on to Helton, the Georgia opening was the top job in the country. To hand that to Smart without going through a full-blown evaluation process of all options was a poor way to go about that.
All of which is another way of saying I don’t really give a shit what McGarity cares about or knows from a risk standpoint.
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“To hand that to Smart without going through a full-blown evaluation process of all options was a poor way to go about that.”
You really believe that was McGarity’s choice?
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So in one breath you say McGarity is trying to do his job as best he can and in the next he’s simply a puppet. Which is it?
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You’ve made it abundantly clear you think McGarity is not doing a good job.
Puppet is your word, not mine, and I find it inaccurate.
Again, do you think hiring Kirby was a decision McGarity made on his own?
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No AD acts completely on his own, but remember that McGarity tried to fire Richt after the 2014 season, but couldn’t get Morehead’s backing.
From what I’ve heard, McGarity wanted Smart, and not just because that’s whom certain boosters wanted. The hiring process — or, perhaps more accurately, the lack of a hiring process — reflected that.
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Yep, that’s similar to what I have heard, but I also hear slight variations on who wanted what and who brought pressure, etc. A “national search” is easy to focus on now, but at the time the pressure to hire Kirby was…ah…very high. The stories about why that pressure existed are pretty interesting…I assume you have heard some of them.
I have also heard there were other candidates at one point…or at least there were feelers out.
All this is very interesting, might make a good spy novel.
My view of McGarity’s role in this is basically more sympathetic to Greg than yours.
The strong probability is that neither of us is “right”.
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Eight coaches at Bama since Bear…eight including Saban…if you accept Dooley was our version of Bryant (who else would it be?), then we are doing a little better I guess.
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I don’t know what is a worse decision, giving that kid a ship or keeping on sending him out for another punt! Probably my biggest disappointment with Kirby to date.
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