Judging from these pieces in SI.com and CBSSports.com, I don’t think the national media is jumping on board the Jeff Dantzler train. If that kind of thinking gets picked up by the talking heads at ESPN this summer and fall, that’s gonna make for some tough sledding trying to defend another subpar season without at least a divisional title.
By the way, for those of you who want to argue that Job One for this staff is something other than cobbling together a functional, competent offensive line, there’s this analytic bit to ponder:
… Georgia’s offensive line (it ranked 101st and 113th, respectively, in Football Outsiders’ Adjusted Line Yards and Power Success Rate statistics in 2016)…
Pretty, that’s not. Time for Mr. Pittman to work his magic.
Get The Picture 
It’s been said before, but when you have a low-talent O-Line, true freshman qb, and mediocre/young receiving corps, you get lousy offensive production (RBs notwithstanding). If we accept that Pittman is, at the very least, a competent O-Line coach (and most would suggest he’s about as good as they come), then you have to expect better overall production this year. What’s amazing is that we graduated 3 starting offensive linemen, none of whom are being invited to the combine. Of course, we’ll still have the issue of youth on the line this year, so I’ll expect more actual mistakes to be made, but we should see vast improvement all around. If not, then I will doff my prognosticator’s cap once and for all.
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Agree, we will not be a dominant, road grading crew up front but we will see improvement in Year 2. There is enough talent/experience on hand, and enough time to analyze what bklew up in their faces in 2016. Offense was so bad last fall, there is but one way to go.
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If we don’t have a better offensive line next year then Pittman isn’t who his reputation says he is. We lost Pyke, Kublanow and Catalina. Loyal Dawgs but none are the caliber of what we signed. We added the best freshmen OL class in history for UGA plus a very good JUCO. Everyone of these players are physically more imposing than any of these 3 we lost. Right now. Plus each player still on the roster is now a year older and in the 2nd year of the system. It may take a few games and they will certainly have a large learning curve but this OL will be light years better
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Pyke will get a look in the NFL at guard. He was never ever a tackle. Remember David Andrews was not drafted but he seemed to do rather well at the next level.
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Agreed 69. Pyke is a good ballplayer who was played out of position. He needs to be given a serious look by somebody.
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2017 is a huge year for UGA and for CKS. Not winning the East and not beating UT and UF would be huge setbacks and momentum killers, IMO. Expectations to be in ATL are very fair, given the level of competition. It would be our first trip in five years. Can you believe that?
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2017 to do list:
Win all home games
Beat UF and UT (we will win others but need these the most)
Win at least 10 games
Tighten up the 2018 recruiting class
This should be realistic with the defensive talent coming back, a year under everyone’s belt, and the return of Chubb and Michel.
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IMO winning 10 games is not only realistic but a bare minimum expectation. Sure there will be youth in some areas but EVERYONE in college football has to deal with this sort of thing except for a handful of teams every year that are dominated by experienced players. The last four recruiting classes have ranked #5, #8, #5, #3. Time for excuses have long gone.
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I agree. We have the resources, facilities, players, recruiting base, and at least $94 million other reasons to expect major improvement.
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The Dawgs will be favored over every opponent on their 2017 schedule except arguably Notre Dame in South Bend. If we end up with another 7-5 regular season record…………
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Do not see anyway that any incoming freshmen will be in their first year will be a better player than Kublanow or Pyke was their senior year. When used correctly these guys were certainly adequate, Pittman gotta prove himself this year.
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Hayes is a junior. Isaiah Wilson is better than Kublanow or Pyke, right now.
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I’m not trying to be a smartass, but last year at this time people were saying Ben Cleveland was better than most of the offensive linemen on the team and that he would start right away in 2016. I didn’t believe them either.
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I’m with you. I think the ceilings of the new freshmen (and hopefully some of the young guys already on the team) are higher than the guys who graduated. But are they going to be demonstrably better in 2017? I’ll have to see that to believe it.
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OL recruiting finally caught up last year. Hopefully we paid the bill in full.
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Crazy. Look at the football outsiders stats and what you find is our O line ranked 6th in 2014, 31 in 15 and 101 last year. Does anyone really think that our Oline 2 years ago was a top 10 Oline? Or that 15’s Oline was a top 30ish? One thing, and one thing alone has been the trend setter —- OC and scheme. Bobo, Schotty, Chaney. What those stats do tell me is for whatever reason, the scheme we ran last year caused many to declare the Oline is terrible. I disagree. This stats indicate the scheme was terrible for our personnel. Throwaway season indeed. What does this next year hold for us? No idea but my optimism is a bit dampened.
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Kirby was playing Alabama ball without Alabama players. Once he saw the season slipping away he let the offense stop the smash mouth and return to what they were build for finesse. Tech was a coaching screw up all around.
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The national media is going to be pushing for UGA in the playoff as a darkhouse all off season. If UGA doesnt meet that, then it becomes hot seat talk, muschamp 2.0 talk, and all that. Some of you can preach patience all you want, but the national narrative for Georgia is going to be CFP or bust.
Smart needs to either win the SEC or come damn close in 2017.
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Why shouldn’t the narrative be CFP or bust? Any athlete knows if you do not set your goal on the final prize there is no need to play the game….
All the talk concerning “the process” is fine and dandy as long as part of that process is to win it all.
Mediocrity is rampant…there is plenty of room at the top…time for UGA to bow it’s neck and get back to the Junk Yard Dawgs days.
I have a gripe to add to the pile of Sanford Stadium issues: send ADGM a message and do NOT show up, that is the ONLY way to get the pencil neck’s attention. He couldn’t motivate a monkey with diarrhea to have a bowel movement! Can you GTP….
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