Here’s an interesting piece on what Georgia’s former defensive coordinator has done as Alabama’s defensive coordinator since replacing Georgia’s current head coach. Per the Sabanator,
“Well, I think that we’re playing the same system,” Saban said. “I think the one thing that we’ve done is we’ve repped the things that we’re going to play in the games, sort of pared it down a little bit. I think our players are a little bit more confident in what they’re supposed to do, the adjustments they need to make. I think they’ve played well because of that. It’s interesting to hear that the players think that, as well. It’s good to know.”
A little comparing, too:
Since taking over for Kirby Smart this year, Pruitt has created controlled chaos. After all, he hasn’t sacrificed aggressive tactics by condensing the playbook. The Tide is blitzing at a much higher rate than last year. During a three-game stretch earlier this season against Kent State, Kentucky and Arkansas, Alabama sent an extra rusher 49.5 percent of the time.
“Coach Pruitt, he does a great job at simplifying things for us to make sure that when we go out there on Saturday there’s not much confusion on the field and making sure everybody’s on the same page,” linebacker Shaun Dion Hamilton said.
Maybe Georgia’s defense could have used some simplifying in the fourth quarter last Saturday.
Get The Picture 
Having Alabama’s players probably wouldn’t have hurt either.
LikeLike
Georgia’s defense against Tech in 2016: 7.5 yards per play.
Georgia’s defense against Tech in 2015: 4.68 yards per play.
Georgia’s players appeared to be enough for Pruitt to get the job done.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Playing devil’s advocate: what did that look like in 2014? Not to make excuses for them, but Tech’s 2015 team had UGA 2013 level of injuries.
LikeLike
Tech is better this year and we lost 4 good players in Ganus, Floyd, Jenkins and Bailey. People can spin things any way they like to support their views.
LikeLike
5.38. It was about a half yard above the average on the season, but not terrible. Pruitt’s defenses didn’t have the spikes we saw against Ole Miss and Tech. Their worst performances in both of his seasons were against mediocre at best Florida offenses though.
LikeLike
That was meant to be a reply to gatriguy.
LikeLike
Nevermind, sorry. Didn’t realize they were links that I could click myself.
LikeLike
LOL. As if losing Leonard Floyd, Jake Ganus, Sterling Bailey and Jordan Jenkins had nothing to do with it.
LikeLike
It is college football every team lose and gain players each season and turn 90% of the team over every Three years
LikeLike
Fortunately, there was absolutely no player turnover since last season, making it a completely apples to apples comparison. Pruitt’s a good defensive coordinator. The defense was not as good this year as last year. How much of that has to do with Tucker not being as good as Pruitt, how much that has to do with the fact that the best players on the defense are mostly freshmen and sophomores, and how much that has to do with learning curves to be expected from coaching overhauls remains to be seen.
And since you singled out a game, I give you the Florida comparisons for 2015 and 2016: 6.16 to 3.16. Overall YPP are more in line with Grantham in our one year sample, for what it’s worth, which at this point is pretty much nothing.
LikeLike
don’t forget’ ua had 5 seniors and 3 juniors (starting line up) who were very familiar with the defensive scheme in place. over simplifying would have changed the connecting of the dots. CKS and crew is installing the scheme/PROCESS.
LikeLike
Georgia’s Red Zone Defense in 2015: #3 nationally;
Georgia’s Red Zone Defense in 2016: #127 nationally.
(That’s dead last if Texas State makes a stop next week.)
http://www.ncaa.com/stats/football/fbs/current/team/704/p3
LikeLiked by 1 person
Uh, we don’t have 5 stars backing up 5 stars like they do at Bama. Paleeeze!
LikeLike
Pruitt will alway be our Icarus. He just flew too close to the sun.
LikeLike
That’s one way of putting it.
LikeLike
I’m trying to be positive. That sounded better than “insubordinate asshole that burned the house down”.
LikeLike
Icarus plummeted to Earth. Pruitt landed on his feet as DC of the team poised to win the National Championship. Pruitt’s former team (and its new coaching staff) plummeted to Earth instead.
LikeLike
It sure was nice to see less confusion at the snap under Pruitt (or Tucker for that matter).
LikeLike
So, the Broyles award finalists were announced – Kirby’s replacement at Alabama and Cheney’s replacement at Pittsburgh are in there.
LikeLike
Classic. Pitt scored 75 friggin’ points last week (no, no overtimes).
LikeLike
Well, Chaney scored 75 in the first three weeks of November. 102 if we throw in the tech game. So there’s that.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Arkansas clearly got better replacing Chaney with Enos too.
LikeLike
Tennessee’s offense got better too after he left
LikeLike
So will ours, if we had the sense to make the change….any change would do if it started with Chaney. As mush as TN fans complain about Debord, they don’t want Chaney back. And I don’t blame them.
LikeLike
Whole lotta snark in the past few posts. Uncharacteristically so. I’ll try the veal and tip the waitress.
LikeLike
The 9:00 show is completely different than the 7:00 show.
LikeLike
LOL!
LikeLike
The prime rib is better, try that. There is a whole lot of get off my lawn.
LikeLike
Or some depth in the secondary since three starters went out with injury on the first TD drive in the 4th quarter.
LikeLike
As soon as Aaron Davis went out and Quincy Mauger came in, it was like a shark smelling blood in the water. They went right after him and exposed him.
LikeLike
I do think we missed Ganus and JJ against Tech, so it’s not a totally fair comparison. Still, it was a bit of a dumpster fire on D this year against Tech.
I would also keep in mind that Saban probably isn’t interested in playing nice with Kirby. Maurice Smith probably strained their relationship, and Saban is no fool; he will use the success with Pruitt against Kirby on the recruiting trail, and that’s undoubtedly a big reason for him to make the statements he did. He wasn’t hiding the contrast in any way.
LikeLike
My uninformed opinion: Tech really saw something with our secondary. I can never remember playing Tech when they ran so few dives.
It seems like not only did they think they could hit some big passes on us, but they were really determined to run a lot of pitches and wash the safeties out.
LikeLike
I thought the same thing. I haven’t watched a lot of Tech this year but they seemed to pass it more this game than in previous years.
LikeLike
They didn’t run the dive play much because of how the QB read the play. It seemed like Smart / Tucker took “Stop the Dive” as “Focus on the Dive”. Especially early in the game, every play had the first optioned man knock the piss out of the fullback while the QB kept the ball. Then, the second optioned man hesitated, this sucked in the man with pitch responsibilities, hence the pitch and the long gains. They got better as the game went on, bu
The first part of stopping the dive requires you to force them to run the dive. If you are optioned, try to knock the QBs teeth out. If the defense can’t stop the dive without the unblocked man, you are going to lose anyway.
As I wrote earlier in the week, I was quite worried about how Tucker and Smart would defend Fish Fry’s offense the first time. The scout team just can’t run the offense with the speed or precision needed to get a good look, and no one in the front seven really played much against it either. I suspect that they will do much better next year just as Martinez, Grantham, and Pruitt did.
LikeLike
I’d just mark that up to us having a nice defensive line this year. It was just easier to run wide and throw over the top.
LikeLike
That, and they saw how bad we were setting the edge one week earlier vs La-Laf.
LikeLike
Your last paragraph is spot on..Satan sees the numbers of the top recruits in GA that are actually committed to UGA..we have been his pipeline for too long.
LikeLike
“Satan sees the numbers of the top recruits in GA that are actually committed to UGA”
According to Dawgs247, Robert Beal is the only GA commit on Bama’s target list. We have several common targets though.
LikeLike
Much better than in years past. One thing that will happen to Kirby…he will not get outrecruited in Georgia.
LikeLike
Is anyone else annoyed by the “like” stars?
LikeLike
If you guys don’t like them, no problem removing them. Just let me know.
LikeLike
I didn’t sure it was a choice. I vote thumbs down but you can get a consensus and decide.
LikeLike
I did it as an experiment. If it doesn’t work for you guys, no worries on my end.
LikeLiked by 3 people
It is probably a bit better than nothing, but if you are aiming at civilizing the discourse there is no substitute for a dislike/downvote that ultimately buries comments. It’s stunning how well it works on reddit. An article on the most divisive topic imaginable will have a comments section stuffed with people politely, cleverly disagreeing. If wordpress offers it now or in the future, I’d give it a whirl.
LikeLike
Thanks. I’ll keep it mind if WP ever does.
LikeLike
Seems like a GFY button has been missing for the last couple of weeks. Imagine the use that would get.
LikeLike
How about a like, dislike and go cheer for uf/au/tech (as opposed to a go to you know where) buttons?
LikeLike
Or miami, as some here keep telling me to do 😉
LikeLike
^ Thumbs Down, definitely !
LikeLike
Doesn’t bother me either way…
LikeLike
I like it, but still trying to figure out if I’m going to create a WordPress account to log in and use them.
LikeLike
This site is a good balance/alternative with the vent because it solicits more thought and writing as opposed to brief comments and likes. If it aint broke don’t fix it.
LikeLike
I really like the stars. Best update this blog since the Montana Project. Now I just need to find a comment worth liking.
LikeLiked by 2 people
That’s worth a like. 😉
LikeLike
It would really be good if we had the ability to edit for a limited amount of time.
LikeLike
Agreed. And not having to sign in with a username and password to LIKE……..
LikeLike
Wish I had control over that.
LikeLike
There is an edit feature. It’s called, *read what you wrote, think about it, then if you’re sure go ahead and post”. Works for most folks.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Except for thee fact autocorrect can change things as you hit post.
LikeLike
The
LikeLike
Excellent demonstration, Debby. 😉
LikeLike
I’m strongly in favor. The whole reason I post is to obtain the affirmation of strangers. Its probably very transparent.
Like this….please!!!!
LikeLike
Did I stumble onto facebook? When do we get imogees ?
LikeLike
Lmao! I know that you aren’t popular with many commenters on here because of your short temper and sharp tongue. That said, you and I have always had civil discourse because of common courtesy shown. I enjoy your football comments. I HATE your political comments. As a fellow alumni, I have to love you. I hope you have a great holiday season.
LikeLiked by 1 person
You don’t have to love anyone. But it’s pretty cool to. At least Jesus thought so. 🙂
LikeLike
I like the “Like” stars.
LikeLike
Hello Fran Tarkenton and the rest of the thin skin wine and cheese crowd.
You folks would not know a damn defense if you played in one.
Think you know where I stand on Pruitt and Smart.
Now if we can get Mel moving.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’ve always heard it was Saban’s defense anyway, the coordinators are just there right?
LikeLike
Went from #8 in scoring defense last year to 40 something this year, even that has not improved. Was hoping for a Bobo (HC), Pruitt lineup – and a McGarity termination. For now, I will just dream, it will keep me going. GO DAWGS!!
LikeLike
Yes losing a couple of NFL draft picks in Floyd and Jenkins and very good senior leaders in Ganus and Bailey…..and having nobody to replace them….that made no difference…..Bobo as HC….LMAO.
LikeLike
losing only 2 of 11 is no reason to drop. Dawgs also #127 in red zone defense…that is out of a 128 teams. They were #3 in the country a year ago. Bobo??…even Vince Dooley was endorsing Bobo, perhaps McGarity should have paid attention. Bobo’s scoring offense – #39, the Dawgs – #107…..besides, at least we would have someone who has played the position (QB) to develop the rookie….and someone who has experience at running an O’.
Perhaps you should do your homework or pick another sport….
LikeLike
You telling me Chaney was not a QB ?
LikeLike
We should be losing 2-3 to NFL each year on both sides of ball if things are going right.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Maybe if you guys looked at the SEC and CFB stats re defense you might have a little better outlook on where Smart is taking this defense.
Dawgs are on the right path considering how young this defense is across the board and the player they lost to early exit NFL. If those junior LBs decide to stay and with the current recruit projections on defense, I think Smart will have a solid defense in 2017.
Compare Dawgs to Tide. The latter had a lot of their 2016 players forego NFL entry and return.
Tide has a very good D. No doubt, but do not be surprised if Gator give them a run Saturday.
The two teams Dawgs will see more improved in 2017 will be Carolina and UK. Both at home. Think home games in 2017 will be different than 2016.
No doubt UF and even Vandy will be tough on road. Vandy brings back a lot of offense in 2017, but 41 on D is probably gone.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Florida will not cross midfield against that Tide defense without either defensive breakdowns, turnovers or special teams. Their offensive line is as much garbage as ours.
LikeLike
Play calling on offense in 2016 vs prior years.
Tech games. Not much difference in CMR in ’14 vs KS in ’16. But wait, CMR had been there awhile and KS is first year with a frosh QB and very substandard Oline re SEC bar.
Plus since it is SEC championship week and Tide and UF are there again. Seems like these are the only teams that go now. Want to think back to those closing seconds and CMR and MB decided not to spike the ball and set up a play and let the clock go.
LikeLike
The real story.
Scoring defenses against ranked teams:
2015 34 a game (56th in nation)
2016 15 a game (4th in nation)
LikeLike
Hmmm…defensive scoring versus ranked teams:
1- Pruitt took the players Coach Smart recruited and trained and improved them from #4 to #1, a +3 improvement.
2- Coach Smart took the guys Pruitt worked with and improved them from #56 to #4, a +51 improvement.
Oh yeah!!
LikeLike
But once they got inside our twenty they scored and not just field goals.
LikeLike
ranked teams only scored 15 pts per game versus Coach Smart. 4th best in the nation. Big improvement from Pruitt’s 35 pts per game last year, THAT was some scoring from every spot on the field.
LikeLike
Oh yes, let’s cherry pick D stats. Last year we played 3 top 25 teams vs 2 so far this year and Florida’s season isn’t over so it maybe 1. (Auburn) we might have only given up 15 to ranked but we give 26 to unranked. Last year ranked was 34 pts a game and unranked was 11. After all is said and done it might be just 7 pts —- and what does that say about a weak conference schedule last year vs this year
LikeLike
I guess that means we really lost close games to Florida and Ole Miss.
LikeLike
If Kirby had Pruitt as his DC and Enos as his OC this season would’ve been very, very different. So we’re stuck with McG and Chaney. Talk about 2 totally useless beings. Tucker is by no means a bad DC. But we let the top DC in cfb walk away with 2 years left in his contract!
LikeLike
There was no way in hell Pruitt would have been employed at UGA this year. And that’s not at all on McGarity.
LikeLike
Seriously…for those of us not around the program more, can’t you just give a better synopsis of what was happening with Pruitt? No one’s asking you to break a confidence (which you clearly would never do) but a summary and timeline of what’s “out there in public” sure would help to clarify these comments. I can only piece together that:
Pruitt was very loud and demonstrative on and off the practice field. Treated some of the older BM staff poorly. Complained beyond Richt loudly. Something at Richt’s house happened after the WLOCP and a fist fight almost(?) broke out with McClendon at BM? Also something about “they should replace Richt with me if it’s going to happen…”?
C’mon man…or at least get a surrogate commentator to fill-in the blanks. 😉
LikeLike
What I’m referring to has nothing to do with anything you’ve listed. It was worse and that’s all I can say.
LikeLike
Ok…thanks and wow?! Seems something that awful would have been leaked from other sources though, so not going to keep digging at you, but does that give you pause that the story you’ve heard may not be all true? Nobody keeps secrets that well…players, the aggrieved parties, other reporters, the janitor, etc.
LikeLike
This one was such that they did. And I heard it from more than one source I trust.
LikeLike
There were rumors about behavior at FSU that encouraged the move to UGA in the first place, right? Was it in a similar vein?
LikeLike
So why wasn’t he fired then? Why did CMR publicly support him and suggest that he’d be back the following year?
It’s hard to think of something worse, never leaked and also worthy of forgiveness.
LikeLike
Coach Pruitt’s simplification skills results in giving up 35 points per game versus ranked teams.
Kirby has cut it down to 15 points per game with his “complexity” schemes.
LikeLike
And yet that great defense you are talking about rolled over and died against UT, Vandy and GT. We were mediocre at best on defense. Ole Miss, who was ranked when we played them by the way and who I guess I have to remind you, will not be going to a damn bowl, beat the snot out of us.
LikeLike
the players have ditched that CMR loser mindset of Vand/UT/GT is the biggest game of the year.
LikeLike
Say what?
LikeLiked by 1 person
thank goodness for that. I sure was getting tired of beating them almost every year.
LikeLike
Vandy? did you watch that game. The D gave up 1 freaking drive all game. You cannot put much on D when the other team gets a freaking 94 yard KR to the 6 yard line.
LikeLike
I’m sorry but did you miss the fact that the last drive of the game won it? Not the KR. We had overcome that. The defense could not stop Vandy, GT or UT when it counted the most.
LikeLike
Something like telling the DB’s to actually cover receivers? That’s the biggest issue…they had three drives of over 75 yards that averaged about 2 minutes a piece. Tech’s offense isn’t supposed to work that way.
LikeLike
what could be simpler than just letting the other team’s offense run straight down the field? We looked like a team that likes contact as much as a golfer.
LikeLike