Loran Smith, playing the “stay the course” card for Kirby Smart’s benefit, totally loses me with this nugget:
It is an old story, a latent trend which has plagued the Georgia program in recent years. There often has been no killer instinct. Putting teams away has been an issue for some time. The Nichols State game was not exactly an anomaly. The Colonels were simply better than Georgia in many areas with regard to personnel.
If that’s not the result of poor editing, that is the most delusional thing I’ve seen all season. Nicholls didn’t finish its season with a winning record and we’re supposed to believe a 5-6 FCS squad was competitive from a talent standpoint with Georgia? Oh, puh-leeze.
If that’s the case, Kirby Smart is the SEC coach of the year, hands down.
Get The Picture 
Loran Smith is the ultimate brown nosed tool. If you’ll notice the 4 long strings exiting his back.
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If you’re a company guy, it’s your job to put the best public face on things that you possibly can. Sometimes the face doesn’t make a lot of sense.
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Yeah, but if I were a player and I saw that, what would I be supposed to think? That’s bullshit.
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Absolutely agree but I don’t think he had the players in mind when he wrote it. Just the folks who shell out for tickets.
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He’s not even thinking about them. He is by and for the administration and the big money boosters.
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This is tough for me. On the one hand, I’m not as high on the talent as most. In the other hand, Loren represents the worst of the Georgia Way to me and to suggest we didn’t have much more talent than Nichols is absurd.
Loren’s a dick. It’s time for some fresh blood.
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I’m not sure he’s a dick (never interfaced with him personally), but he’s the ultimate yes man. He’d give Baghdad Bob a run for his money.
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“It appeahed that ouah playuhs were a little dehydrated in the second half of the Nicholls game.”
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When I used to drink at the Lighthouse people would say. “don’t talk to him, he’s a dick”!
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Uncalled for comment.
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Really? THIS is the comment that warrants tisk-tisking?
I don’t make those statements w/0 my reasons, and I stand by them. Loren is a jerk.
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First you said he was a dick. Now you say he’s a jerk.Which is it?
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Lol. True. I’m a flip flopper
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new category…….he’s a dirk
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Are those categories mutually exclusive?
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First he’s gonna shit, then he’s gonna kill us!
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This kind of comment is the reason I log on. Well done.
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I have met the man, heard him speak numerous times..class act comes to mind.
That said, continue on with the name calling if it makes you feel better..
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Met him, interacted with him too, he was a jerk when I met him. Maybe caught him on a bad day, but the overwhelming majority of people I’ve spoken to shared my interaction than yours. YMMV of course.
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Fair enough, I do think his comment was nuts, FWIW.
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How do you think the guy has hung round as long as he has, back stabbing, brown noser #1 , knows exactly who to cuddle up to and who he can completely ignore. When BM wants whatever started the first move is , “hey Loran” .
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Well whatchya got on Loren?
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Damn. Just damn.
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I have read three unbelievable things the past few days.
UGA AA posted a job opening and interviewed at least 11 head coaching candidates BEFORE THE JOB BECAME OPEN and no one noticed.
Smart college head football coaches sometimes intentionally lose games to tamp down expectations for the following year.
Nichols was simply better with regard to personal than Georgia in many areas.
Quick poll. Which comment is the most absurd?
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Are you suggesting Loran is trolling us? 😉
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I wonder if he has a couple of message board aliases he uses?
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I think we’ve figured out who the sock puppet may be!
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Boom goes the dynamite!
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More like a white cotton glove.
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Hilarious post Gaskill….And here I accused the (im)poster of being McGoofy under alias. We should’ve known that Greg would assign one of his underlings to do the trolling;-)
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LOL
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Gil Lebreton of the Ft Worth Star Telegram pens a nice article today for you “thorough coaching search” crybabies…..LSU & Texas both QUICKLY hired their new coaches without stopping to smell the coffee. He hits a note stating that in today’s world of big time agents, AD’s are put in a tough situation. IMHO, the days of a 2-3 week search process are gone. A wise AD has his guy either A) before he cuts ties with his former, or B) or has a connection to an interested party just in case his guy decides to pack up & leave.
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I think LSU took more than 2-3 weeks before they named a coach.
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I think LSU wanted Jimbo or Herman and could not get them under contract. Rahr Rahr was easy to sign and likely less expensive.
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LSU fired Miles on September and started its search then. It also was able to give Orgeron a test run.
Texas hired a guy with a head coaching record it could evaluate.
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LSU also made Fisher tell them no and wouldn’t commit to Herman’s demands. They turned around and went to Plan C which they’d been evaluating up close and personal since September. Texas just hired a guy that knocked off two top 5 teams at a non-Power 5 school and won the Peach Bowl convincingly against another blueblood last year. None of that was the nonsense that was the hiring “process” that resulted in Kirby in Athens. Whether he was the right hire or not – I don’t see how anybody can claim with a straight face that the process LSU and Texas used to hire their coaches is somehow comparable to the process (or lack thereof) Georgia used to hire Kirby last year.
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Agree 100%
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Nailed it.
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Though, in slight fairness, TX acting fast to hire Herman before LSU did is kinda similar to “quick, we have to hire Kirby before SCar gets him.”
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Other than that little tidbit where one has an actual track record as a head coach, those two situations are the exact same.
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The Georgia Way officially is in full CYA mode this morning. The Nicholls disaster was nothing but the failure to prepare, the failure to execute and a total lack of coaching. I’ve seen some stinker performances in my 35 years of attending games at Sanford, but that one was pretty much a total collapse. If we had played that way the week before or the week after, we would have been beaten by 40. It would have been the Ole Miss game early.
In a similar situation in 2007, Alabama beat Western Carolina 52-6 in Saban’s home opener.
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Is it The Georgia Way that is in CYA mode or The Process? Or is The Georgia Way CYA’ing The Process?
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The Georgia Way and The Process have been merging and are forming a mutant hybrid culture.
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Dayum! A mutant hybrid culture. Lock up your wives (if your lucky) and daughters.
Seriously, I do think we are a different animal….just don’t think it is anything new.
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This year, The Georgia Way TKO’ed The Process.
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Could be the other way around. I hope not, but it’s a real possibility.
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The frequency of noon games and noon game letdowns show that culturally, The Georgia Way is alive and well.
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I think Loran’s spellcheck changed “effort” to “personel”
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He should have retired when Munson died. Unfortunately, I think Dowdle is another Loran Smith in the making.
That said, we obviously have had trouble putting people away. Settling for FGs cost us against tech and many other times in recent years. Freaking tech was done and ready to be put away yet Chaney goes full freaking Chaney. I guess Kirby is actually gonna keep him another year since they’re tag team in-house recruiting. Ugh!
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Loran Smith is pretty astute in realizing that the Nicholls State game still needs to be explained. That hot, sweaty afternoon between the hedges was every bit as infuriating and inexplicable as the ones that came after it. Frankly, for me, the only thing that embarrassed me more was the loss to Tech.
As noted above, Loran Smith is the ultimate company man. This absurd claim goes too far. Nicholls might … MIGHT … have had two kids that could play major conference football. If we did a player draft the night before the game, the Nicholls coach would have taken Georgia players at every position. This will go down in the book of ridiculous party line bullshit right next to complimenting a shitty team’s punter.
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A little inside baseball here but Munson and Loran portrayed the getting along great on air but they bitterly disagreed on how to “promote” how things really were inside the program. This coming from a direct relative of Munson. In fact, after Larry died LS couldn’t wait to cash-in on another book- against the wishes of the Munson family. Unfortunately LM wasn’t as astute as he needed to be relating to the rights he gave up to the athletic department so they had to relent. I know this screams “rhetorical comment” but I talk to the relative on a daily basis and have heard the stories repeatedly.
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The individual paragraphs in Loran’s article only vaguely relate to one another and reading it is disorienting.
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The Colonels were simply better than Georgia (thought) in many areas with regard to personnel. **** Maybe it is a case of poor editing. Surely he doesn’t believe it as it reads.
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Loran is, as usual, off his rocker. But, most UGA fans just need to pump the breaks. We inserted Jacob early and often this season because of what is to come. I truly believe that if we played Grayson we would have had a better record. We probably would have lost different games a won a few we lost. Heck, Maybe we even win the East or compete for it a little better.
I believe that Nicholls game was a function of where we were with a freshman QB. It was a crazy game. We were not hitting on many cylinders offensively because Jacob was so green. Early in Stafford’s career, we were much the same…erratic.
We were up 12 about to be up 19 late when the long INT happened. Then we get a stop up 9 and fumble a punt. It wasn’t some indictment of talent. Had we scored to go up 19 and won by 19, no one would have thought anything about it. We made those plays because we don’t know how to close out games yet and we had a very, very young QB.
I would NOT feel good about 2017 had we gone 9-3 with Lambert and played Jacob a series here and there. Kirby rolled the dice on this kid for the future, and in his first year, it was absolutely the right call. He also gave us the best chance to win the bigger games.
We were what we were. If we improve on red zone scoring and red zone defense, our team will improve dramatically.
It was not a throw away season, but it was a season in which Kirby could afford to play for the future a little. He’d have been a fool not to. I think that costs us early on but will serve us well later on.
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So….. Chubb could only manage 80 yards against an FCS loser because Eason?
It kills me when people do gymnastics to keep from blaming the coaches.
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Well, it’s possible. If you noticed during UNC, we were much more effective running the ball when Lambert was in. Much of that was him getting us into the right looks. Not much checking at the line w/ Jacob. This was true throughout the early part of the season. We began to trust him more as the season went on and improved.
That’s why we put Lambert back in at the end of the UNC game, to make good decisions, and that has more to do w/ play-calls than throwing the ball.
They stacked the box, we couldn’t push them around (and were outnumbered up there), and we didn’t quite trust Eason to air it out.
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It would be interesting to look at Nicholl’s opponents this year to see who was able to move the ball against them. Then look at their OL, QB and RB talent levels compared to UGA.
It was scheme.
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Nichols straight up DOMINATED the LOS that game. It was honestly humbling and saddening to watch in person. You can call that talent, to which I call BS given other teams railroaded Nichols, or you can call that our coaches not prepping our players and their respective CURRENT skillsets to execute a gameplan worth a flip.
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Yes it was scheme, not the freshman QB.
You can talk about a QB’s inexperience until you’re blue in the face, but it shouldn’t matter against Nicholls, who while they were better this year, they are still a mediocre FCS team.
That game should’ve been a warning sign to the coaches that trying to play with a physical philosophy was going to burn them and burn them bad against FBS teams.
But yet it took one of the worst rushing performances in decades vs Florida for the attempt to be physical and play straight up on the OL to be abandoned. Georgia started to call running plays where they pulled offensive linemen after that and whoa, the running game came around!
Trying to push a square peg into a round hole cost Georgia the Vanderbilt game. Going back to doing it last weekend cost them Georgia Tech.
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Yeah, the worrying thing was I don’t think they fully grasped the problem. Runs outside and from the shotgun worked great vs UT after the run game was somewhat stoned by Mizzou/Ole Miss. But they were back to pound it up the middle whether it works or not vs Vandy. Then, it did work for 2.5-3 quarters vs SCar, and they kept with it even when it didn’t work late to turn what should have been a blowout into “we need a special teams TD to cover” win.
Then flashback to Saturday, after getting gashed for 3 quarters, Roof stacks the box and…Chaney keeps calling runs up the middle.
And that’s how you get rid of Schotty yet wind up with the 104th ranked scoring offense in the nation.
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Jim Chaney makes Brian Schottenheimer look like an offensive genius. The guy is terrible, and if Kirby isn’t successful, it’s going to be because of him.
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At this point, who cares? Either Loren is correct that Nichols had a personal advantage or he is wrong and the score was due to some other factors.
I guess your shorter answer is Loren was wrong.
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But they recruit Scooba, PAAAWWWLLLL!!!!
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The notion that Nicholls was more talented is a joke, but Ronald Ollie would be a starter at Georgia.
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Oh, come, on!
Which teams had more talent on the field than Georgia when we played them in 2016?
I’m going to hang up and listen until someone says Georgia Tech.
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I hope for Loran’s sake that this was written from his usual UGA employee point of view and not due to senility.
He’s always said and written some loopy shit, so my guess is his mind is still ok (for him). But this may take the cake.
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For that game, Nichols had a decided personnel advantage: coaches.
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So, Loran…The Georgia football team does not have the killer instinct, and as soon as Kirby gets us loaded with great players, then he’s gonna quit recruiting. That’s what you imply, dude.
Online evaluation of talent is always dangerous.
It apparently matters a great deal to some that the public wisdom is that Georgia did not conduct a national coaching search after firing Mark Richt.
Did Georgia conduct a national coaching search when they hired Mark Richt? 15 years of an average of 10 wins has kinda glossed over that.
When you lose to Vandy, Tennessee (on the board), and Florida and Tech, everything you did or did not do, every play your OC called that did not work, every shanked punt, every sack every little detail takes on a life of its own.
Win one of those games and angst is more manageable, win two of them and the constant whiners are reduced to trolls.
If you are surprised and deeply disappointed over this football season I feel for you.
Maybe you should watch less TV.
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To answer your question, yes.
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“If you are surprised and deeply disappointed over this football season I feel for you.”
I expected to see ups and downs if Eason was the QB.
I hoped for better offensive play-calling.
I expected tough games and possible losses to UNC, OM, UT and UF.
I had hoped the OL would be better.
I expected rooky mistakes by KS.
I expected a young but talented D would be as good or better than last year.
…but I didn’t expect to lose to Vandy or get crushed by Ole Miss or be in a close one with Nicholls.
Surprised? Not so much. Disappointed? You bet I am. So I’m glad you feel for me…and I have watched less TV.
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Games against cupcakes only matter if you lose. That’s my mantra. I don’t see why anyone feels the need to talk up Nicholls’ talent, talk up the Nicholls game, etc. etc.
Having said that…there is still football being played during the game and the reason the game ended up so close in the score really boiled down to a completely untimely pick that was run back 95 yards and a muffed punt. At the time I thought they were anomalies…but looking at the season as a whole, those were the kind of plays that killed us all year.
Now I’m not sure how to pinpoint the cause…was it bad playcalling or bad execution? But you can look at just about every close game and find a spot where the Defense gave the team a chance to take control and the offense sputtered…either by not sustaining a drive, not scoring, giving up a pick, settling for a FG, etc. I’m bullish on the D…I think they can be really good with another year in the system…so many of the long passing plays they gave up seem fixable with coaching… and there are some really talented kids who may be EE that can play next year and might help us be more physical in the secondary….but I just am worried about the offense.
Part of me thinks it is awful playcalling…how else can you describe an offense that just stops working for long stretches of the game and can’t get into the endzone? The other worries it is offensive line play…which the stats seem to agree with. There is still another part where I just don’t get how we can have so many improbable turnovers/penalties at such key moments….the INT against Nicholls, the INT against Ole Miss, the INT against Mizzou, the Fumble against Tennesee, the false start at the 12 against Vandy, the false start at the 2 against Florida, the two fumbles in the second half against UK, and we all remember what happened on Saturday….and yet, those only being to explain the issues with the offense.
One other item…we probably did the least I’ve ever seen with turnovers…I swear we got turnovers on the short end of the field 5-7 times this year and I don’t know if we punched it in the end zone once. GT we got a fumble on the 28 and settled for a FG, UK we got a fumble on the 38…FG, got an INT from UF on the 25…FG, UT fumble on the 38…FG and INT on the 42 that resulted in a punt…Mizzou game was the worst offender…got the ball on the 31 off a fumble and had to PUNT, INT on the 27 and missed a FG, and INT at the 47 with another missed FG. That’s 8 turnovers on the short end of the field that resulted in 12 points. That’s atrocious.
Sorry…just so tired of broad, sweeping statements about ‘the program.’ I’d rather look at real data/plays even if it takes 200 words.
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yep. points off turnovers was crazy this season.
also concerned that this team never bounced back after the Tennessee game.
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I dunno. I thought we did pretty good against Auburn
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Exactly. Didn’t give the offense a chance to screw it up.
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It seems that UGA fans always blame the offense for loses, never the defense. I guess this comes from the long lived love affair with Erk. If the offense stinks up the joint but has a lead then it is on the defense to protect that lead. Our defense went on the field a minimum of three times this year handed the lead and blew it. Bitch about the offense in games like Auburn were they can’t score one TD but we were in the lead. A hallmark of Erk’s defense were their ability to hold the lead at the end of a game. Either by holding the other team or more likely by turnover. To the defenses credit they did create and finally hold a lead against Auburn. The massive inconsistency of this team from game to game and quarter to quarter was mind blowing. While the way we won and lost was great television to a uninvolved viewer, it was a heart ripping experience to our fans. Every time I thought Kirk’s team had finally got on track, they regressed. The Tech game was just the couch on the fire of the hot mess of this season. I can tell you if Kirby loses to Tech or Vandy next year his ass will be on fire.
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I can blame both, but put more blame on the offense. The Defense was terrible, truly, nearly last in the nation, terrible in the red zone…but was good at other things, and as the Auburn game proved, could keep bad offenses away from the red zone entirely.
The offense? Put it together with decent running and passing in one game, vs what wasn’t exactly a ton of world-beaters in UT. Seemingly every great Chubb/Michel run game wound up paired with Eason looking bad. Each great Eason passing day was paired with an anemic at best run game. And the offense wound up joining Donnan’s “waited 55 years for a team this good” 2000 squad and Goff’s 1990 team as the only UGA squads in nearly 3 decades to never score over 39 points in a single game.
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I don’t think it’s consistent. Once Bobo found his mojo, our offenses were impressive and we went as far as our defenses could take us. This year, it was the opposite. UGA is 16th in total defense and 89th in total offense.
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Perhaps we were dehydrated that Saturday.
Lol.
Loran has to be what? Nearly 80. Still going strong but missing on a few cylinders maybe.
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As usual, the B-M apparatchiks are tone deaf. Regardless of where fans were one year ago on the decision to fire Richt and hire Smart, most that still follow the program enough to read blogs and articles on a daily basis just want to get information about the program without having their intelligence insulted. There is a way to signal confidence in the direction of the program even while admitting things did not go as planned in year one-p. Instead Loran, Dantzler, and the rest choose to piss on our leg and tell us it’s raining.
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Coach Smart is not going anywhere, but the team does lack that “fear factor” motivational leadership. The lack of focus showed itself not only in the noon games, but also in the last few minutes before the half and in the red zone on both sides of the ball when it is needed the most. The small group of upperclassmen was a contributing factor, but it is a trait shared with many of the post-Van Gorder and pre-Pruitt teams under Coach Richt.
Having a full off season should offer the time to work on gaining a mental edge.
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Loran Smith knows more about Georgia than anyone on this blog will ever know.
Here’s what he actually said:
1- The CMR players Kirby inherited don’t have the Bama killer instinct-no debate these guys have been programmed to coast on leads, up by 13 vs GT, even a field goal puts it away, and just knock down the Hail Mary on the last play vs TN, and just pick up a few yards on a 4th down vs Vandy, but la di da, casual.
2- The CMR players aren’t very talented–consider Georgia has no players projected to be drafted in the first round this off season. None.
3- Nicholls St was talented–understatement, 10 players finishing all conference, how many georgia players will finish 1st or 2nd team SEC? The cupboard was left bare.
4- Vanderbilt was legit- They neat Ole Miss & TN & Georgia in the same season
5- Fans were unrealistic in expectations because of Kirby’s success at Bama and the Spring game attendance.
6- People forgot how Georgia teams do with Frosh Qb’s like Eason.
7- Ultimately, Kirby needs new blood with urgency and the killer instinct and will likely get it with his recruiting skills.
With 4 rings, Kirby does know what the killer instinct looks like, we do remember the SEC Championship game where we get to the 5, and our offense chokes, and Kirby’s goalline D made the stop. That’s what’s missing that no one else seems to be talking about–killer instinct and urgency at end of games.
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Point 1 has been a problem for every team that didn’t include Hershel. Not bashing the staff, just saying that it’s been a problem for a loooooong time. Sadly, I think it’s in our DNA.
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I agree, good point, it does go WAAAY back. Kirby has his work cut out for him, CMR was SUPER casual and laid back. And was here for a long time. I don’t know if you can change those CMR guys–they have been programmed to lose close games and be ok with going 10-3. Best to just get new blood in here and start out right and fresh.
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They were okay with 10-3. I wonder how the feel about 7-5?
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10-3 is the ceiling with these CMR–that’s their comfort zone, some years worse, some better, but they are conditioned to lose the game that matter, like they have ever year under CMR.
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Gosh, I bet they really freaked out in 02, 03, 07, and 12. You know. When they won more than 10 games. Must have been 4 flukes.
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Yeah, but they were the wrong 11/12 games. 😉
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Damn, donuts is back online and I’m about to busy for the next 3 hours.
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Nope, done for the day, tried to say it all in one long post instead of 50 1 liners. Also, no interaction from me today guys, sorry, too busy doing what big dogs do.
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Are you pissing on fire hydrants this afternoon???
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LOL. Thanks for the laugh 69. I think this is Chili.
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Dude.
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He appears to be making shit up from whole cloth. Preseason southland all-conference teams below, Nicholls has one (1) player on either the first or second team. There appears to be no record on the internet of postseason all-conference teams having been announced, and a 5-4 conference record probably won’t get them 10 slots.
http://southland.org/news/2016/7/20/FB_0720163206.aspx
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Yeah, no news on the southland football site of postseason all-conference teams: http://southland.org/archives.aspx?path=football
He’s trolling.
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sure is
http://geauxcolonels.com/news/2016/11/22/football-arceneaux-laiche-highlight-10-colonel-all-southland-honorees.aspx
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That says 2 first team, 4 second team.
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10 made it as 1st, 2nd or honorable mention, Georgia will have 0.
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Aw shucks, we won’t even get any honorable mentions?
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They had quite a few preseason. http://www.secsports.com/article/17384983/preseason-coaches-all-sec-teams-announced
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quick response Senator:
Nicholls St will have 10 guys all conference.
Who will make all SEC for Georgia?
No top 4 stats in tackles, tfl’s, int’s passes defended, or rush defense.
No top 4 finishers in rushing, passing, or receving.
No top 4 in special teams.
No 1st round NFL draftpicks, no all-SEC, is that a first in 50 years?
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Your own link shows one single Nicholls player on the first team offense and first team defense teams, and 4 second team players.
FWIW, Georgia would easily have 15-20 players on the all-southland first team alone.
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Georgia also has the shortest, and lightest offensive line in the SEC.
https://www.seccountry.com/sec/the-heaviest-and-tallest-sec-offensive-lines-in-2016
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Ah, thanks for that, that explains why Nicholls’ solitary all-southland defensive lineman was able to push them around and bottle up Nick Chubb.
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Georgia had an o-Line in 2011 that was bigger than any in the NFL and they were terrible. I’d also be willing to bet that Tech’s o-Line is smaller on average.
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LOL.
Apples to oranges, son.
Again, if you want to insist there’s no talent gap between the two, be my guest. Just don’t expect anyone to take you seriously.
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Georgia was a triple threat in talent this year:
1- no one on the entire team team performed this year conference wise- defense-0, offense-0, special teams-0, no all-sec guys-0-none
2- The NFL who evaluate talent better than us will draft 0 Georgia players in the first round on draft day 0- none worth a 1st round-None
3- and to top it all off, it’s the smallest and lightest oline in the SEC. 0 Last
It’s an absolute miracle, given the 0 talent stockpile, Kirby didn’t go 4-8 like Kelly, Dantonio, and Helfrich did this year.
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It’s on coaching for the team underachieving, there’s some talent, take your blinders off.
Of course a small offensive line is going to look bad when they’re constantly made to play a scheme that doesn’t suit them for almost three fourths of a season!
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not in your 1st year without your own recruits, those are CMR guys.
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What does any of that have to do with Nicholls being more talented than Georgia?
I’ve already warned you about repeating nonsense. Consider this your second warning. You won’t get a third.
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When did I say Nichols St had more talent than Georgia? Never said that.
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Loran Smith did. And you appear to be defending him with your all-conference comparisons.
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Georgia had 0 players drafted in the first round the year after they won the national title in 1980.
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Yeah, but we won the wrong national title that year. 😉
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Ok maybe I was wrong about the NFL, looks like 2016 won’t be the worst
http://www.nfl.com/draft/history/fulldraft?abbr=G&collegeName=Georgia&abbrFlag=0&type=school
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Not sure what you’re driving at?
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The great thing about that question is I’m not sure if you’re directing at yourself or him.
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The question mark was a typo. Bigdoghunts mentioned that he felt it was significant that Georgia has no players projected to go in the first round of the upcoming draft. And used that fact as an indication that the 2016 team has a talent deficiency. I find that sentiment to be overly dramatic, and a bit absurd. So I pointed out that in contrast the 1980 national championship team also had no first rounders in the next draft.
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I think I like it better with the typo. 😉
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Ron Burgundy?
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Always wondered what handle Dantzler posted under?
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1- Killer instinct is an intangible criticism that has always used by Georgia fans to try to explain away losses and bad plays. It has now become an easy way to try to blame Mark Richt for Kirby Smart’s underwhelming first season. Is it Richt’s fault that Jacob Eason didn’t develop? Is it Richt’s fault that the nation’s #1 pass defense dropped to 20th with basically the exact same secondary players? Harbaugh and Meyer took over reeling programs at Michigan and Ohio State and immediately put them in the CFP playoff chase. Before you tell me that Kirby doesn’t have the same head coach experience, please recall that nobody forced Georgia to hire an unproven HC.
2- There are only 32 first round draft picks each year. Very few schools have more than one per season and most don’t have any so Georgia not having one this year means nothing. Having said that, Chubb was a sure fire top 10 pick before his injury. Thompson will also likely be a first rounder. The majority of Georgia’s two deep is 4-5 star recruits with some 3 stars sprinkled in. Talent is not an issue. I know you’re worried that Smart will be a bust, and that we’ll look stupid for firing Richt, but repeatedly stating that talent is a problem won’t make it true. It’s kind of a joke really. Remember Kirby and Saban were recruiting all the same players at Bama.
3- Please tell me you aren’t suggesting that making the All Southland Conference team puts you on the same level as an SEC school that annually recruits in the top 10 nationally?
4- Vanderbilt barely qualified for a bowl, lost to USC, Kentucky and Tech, and only beat Western Kentucky by one point. They had some nice wins and were better than normal, but still not in Georgia’s stratosphere from a talent perspective.Tennessee lost to them, but also had a ton of injuries just like we did when we lost to them in 2013. We should still never lose to them, but there was no excuse this year.
5 – It’s not unrealistic to assume that a team like Georgia who fires there coach would get better immediately with the next hire. That’s what happened at literally every school that is in the CFP race.
6- First of all, this is an entirely new staff so comparing Eason to previous freshmen qb’s doesn’t work really work. But, if you want to go down that road David Greene was a freshmen qb in Richt’s first season and did pretty well, also Eason posted a worse qb rating this season than any qb in the entire Richt era.
7 – I think I’ve addressed everything here.
As for your last paragraph, Saban doesn’t seem to have taken a hit by losing Kirby and taking on Pruitt. Maybe CJP took all the killer instinct with him when he left Athens.
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I’m not involved in the CMR v CKS debate, but I can’t disagree more with any argument that the lack of talent resulted in the poor on the field play this year. I think Loran’s article is the classic example of a collective false narrative that just followed itself right off a cliff.
Further, the arguments that the team did well when you consider that we have a new head coach don’t hunt either. Unless we are grading on the curve. If so, we need the CFP to adopt that curve so we can play too.
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You crushed it.
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Thanks for checking in, Loran.
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Do we ever expect Loran to say “Georgia sux” and “they don’t hire good coaches?” When you see his byline you can predict what he’s gonna’ say, just like a Dowdle interview. They work for UGA for cryin’ out loud.
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They collect a nice check too. Don’t agree with them but can’t blame them.
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I don’t get your gripe. Are you saying don’t mock the propagandists?
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I have no problem with that, but they should try to use an argument with some semblance of logic. Insisting that our talent (when’s the last time we had a recruiting class out of the top 10?) is worse than a middling FCS school is absurd in the extreme. I’d list conditioning, injuries, youth, inexperience, weather, stomach flu, literally anything other than Loran’s argument above.
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Matchup problems costed Georgia the Ole Miss and Florida games.
The unsportsmanlike conduct penalty costed Georgia Tennessee.
Coaching costed Georgia Vanderbilt and Georgia Tech.
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The points bigdawghunts are on point and well said.
Recruits. The staffs for 2014 and 2015 did nothing on the offensive side of the game. Those staffs were in flux and no recruit watching those changes were not going to commit.
How many people on this site has seen any high school games in person or TV in the past two years. There are players in this state but the alleged program failed.
CMR had an OC who left along with an oline coach. But the latter was a good coach but a poor recruiter. Then no OC was coming on board because of CMR and the influence he was under. CMR was influenced to hire a DC off the NFL tree, and then an OC off the NFL tree. Where are they and what have those guys done. UK trucked this past weekend CMR’s former NFL DC.
Some people need to come to the realization that there is a problem in the stands and on the field.
You do not see what you think you see, and you do not hear what you think you hear.
There are not enough players on the roster. And CMR never put a blue collar work ethic in his players. And some of them are still there. Pruitt was able to change some on the D side but the wine and cheese and NFL crowd in the B-M would have none of it. Pruitt was a kick ass coach. Either you suited up to play or get ready to sit. That was his resume, coaching experience, and pedigree.
Smart has the task of not only getting players in but of changing this lazy, not playing every down and the full 60 minutes, but of going against the naysayers and the culture that exists on the UGA campus.
It is an uphill climb.
But no doubt he is not a favorite of this site.
Sort of reminds me of Hoosiers.
I say give the coach a chance. But if you feel compelled to whine and complain about a season not over. Go ahead. But extent to some of us what HC and staff you think can get the job done based on your expectations.
In closing, this is a good site with good input.
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“The points bigdawghunts are on point and well said.”
You lost us.
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Name one area of the 2016 Georgia team that was not lacking. Offensive line=d. Defensive line=c Too many running backs getting way too much yardage in most games. QB=c. Wide receivers=c. Tight ends=b maybe. Did not use them nearly enough. Defensive backs c+. Field goal=c. We went half a season before we would even try a 40 yarder. Punts=f. Might have been the worse ever.
Our best player was our smallest player. Nauta should be a threat to get the ball on every pass play.
I have watched Jake Fromm play a lot of ball games. I am going way out on a limb and say he starts the first game for Georgia next year. He is just that cool and calm a player. He makes all the throws, is tough and can run the ball as he proved the last three ball games this year. He has been playing high pressure games since the Little League World Series.
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I would be very surprised if Fromm takes the first snap next year. That either means Eason gets hurt in the preseason or becomes a complete bust. Either way, our record will be similar to last year.
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“I am going way out on a limb and say he starts the first game for Georgia next year.”
That IS way out on a limb.
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The limb broke.
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While I don’t necessarily agree with all your UGA positions grades, and it doesn’t matter anyway, I am supportive of your optimism on Jake Fromm State Farm. Gonna crawl out on that limb with you but I won’t say he takes the first snap of the season. But when he hits campus in January he will be better that Eason was this past January. And I don’t think it will that close. I will say it will be no surprise he gets to start a game before mid-season.
The issue is, with Eason being so far behind the curve, he may still require the most attention and Fromm will not get the same treatment/chance that JE got. Eason will have the edge of a full year’s experience but the gap will close by the Spring Game, and even more before the end of Summer Camp. I doubt the current offensive staff will make a change, don’t have much confidence in them doing anything right at all, but there will be competition for the start before mid-season. Eason just didn’t get much better as the season went along, and accuracy was consistently an issue throughout the season, especially on deep throws. Accuracy is a hard thing to teach at this point.
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If Eason is such a flop, maybe we should be recruited the local 5-star QB a little more intensely.
By the way, Eason is very similar to Stafford at this point.
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Yep, tell me which games Eason lost us. He did about as well as any freshman QB could do in this situation. Stubborn playcalling (lining up and playing smashmouth with the smallest line in the SEC) cost us the most.
Fromm will be great after he red shirts next year, and then backs up Eason in Eason’s final year in 2018. Then it will be Fromm’s team.
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Good Lord, anyone who thinks Jacob is the problem…I can’t even…gracious.
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I hope you understand that I don’t think Eason is a flop. I just don’t understand how so many people are blaming him for the team’s offensive woes this season. He seems to be exactly what we thought he was … a kid who has never played in a pro-style system from under center but has a ton of talent. I don’t believe Fromm will overtake him unless Eason’s confidence get shattered by Jabba the Hutt.
Honestly, I still don’t understand why neither Smart nor Richt aggressively pursued Davis Mills.
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Eason was so behind the curve that he only threw two go ahead touchdown passes with less than a minute left in his first 3 SEC games ( not to mention the work he did in the second half against UNC and the 2 go ahead drives in the 4thQ against UK.
Good gracious I can’t stand the wild leaps to justify dumb opinions around here.
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I don’t know why you’re responding to me. I thought Eason played well this year for a freshman thrown in the deep end of the pool with a questionable offensive line. He’s only going to get better. I only wish we had a better OC and QB coach to develop his immense talent.
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I think because you were the one who used the word “flop” referring to Eason when replying to my comment. I never said he was a flop, said he has a way to go and has accuracy issues. And said, in my opinion, that Fromm would hit campus ahead of where Eason was last January. I am not anti-Eason at all, just feel like between the two, if they started equally Fromm would win out. I hope JE steps it up and leads UGA to an SEC title, but I think Fromm might be the more likely one to do so.
BTW, I 100% agree with you that the bigger issue is Chaney and his staff. I put the offensive shortfalls more on him than a freshman QB or a talent gap. If we don’t fix that enormous problem, it may not matter who the QB is.
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Clearly, the killer instinct is the fault of the former coach and current players. If only they would play full effort for 60 minutes. Was it Richt, Eason, or the OL that decided to run out the clock at the end of the first half against GT and multiple other games? Was it Richt, Eason, or the OL that decided to call vanilla 3 TE up the gut plays for long stretches of time in just about every game? Was it Richt, Eason, or the OL that designed and called the worst collection of gadget/cute/trick plays in recent UGA history? I know it must be Richt’s fault we settled for so many field goals (he is field goal Jesus, after all) but please let me know on the others so I can properly and completely hold the current coaching staff blameless. Thanks!
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Exactly right. The offensive line was playing in a scheme that did not suit them until the Kentucky game. It’s amazing how much they continued to try to jab a square peg into a round hole no matter how much it was failing.
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The thing that drives me crazy is the fact that other teams are taking freshman QB’s and competing for a playoff slot. We get a great talent and because we are Pro style he has to not only have the physical attributes, which he has in spades, but he must be a rocket scientist to learn the complex system of the OC. I think we need to decide if UGA is going to keep being a training school for NFL QB’s or are we going to win using a college offense that can be taught and learned in the 20 hours per week allowed. I’m sorry Jacob but if the Fromm kid is as good as advertised and we want to win the East you may need to transfer for further OJT for the Pro’s.
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But we, unlike Gus, recruit good qbs. The problem with going with the crowd is that there are only so many good qbs around and those systems require excellent qbs to succeed. Auburn is a nightmare to defend with the right qb. They’re easily defeated with a middling qb. We beat auburn with Greyson Lambert and a freshman who has yet to fully grasp the offense.
You can win in our system without a great qb and you can win when your qb is having a bad day. There’s an advantage in that.
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True. Kirby is (I believe) trying to build in the Bama mold, with dominant lines of scrimmage. This is a pro-style, but doesn’t always require a world beater at QB. If we have one, so much the better. But Bama’s (and Kirby’s) model doesn’t rely on a ton of skill players.
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Bama’s model does rely on skill players. OJ Howard, Julio Jones, Calvin Ridley, Derrick Henry, Amari Cooper, Kenyon Drake, Eddie Lacy, TJ Yeldon, etc. didn’t go to Alabama to play in a system that doesn’t take advantage of their skills. Nick Saban offered Jacob Eason a scholarship, so he would love to have a world beater at QB.
The difference is that Bama has put an emphasis on recruiting (and, more importantly, developing) players along the line of scrimmage. It’s really easy for Jacob Coker to find OJ Howard open when he has 4 1/2 seconds to sit in the pocket. It’s really easy for those 5-star running backs to hit big plays when they are consistently getting large holes to run through.
It’s not either/or … it’s both/and.
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