July 25, 2017 · 8:30 AM

“Year 2, everybody kind of knows what to expect.”

David Greene, from your lips to Gawd’s ears.

21 Comments

Filed under Georgia Football

21 responses to ““Year 2, everybody kind of knows what to expect.””

  1. Dave
    July 25, 2017 at 9:17 AM

    This, I think along w/ having a QB who’s not a true freshman anymore, is probably my biggest reason for optimism.

    You go and look at those examples, there are several that were exactly 7-5 there. People like to say, “yeah but who’s gonna fix Chaney’s playcalling,” or, “we still have an unproven o-line.”

    The big thing to keep in mind is that there must have been similar hand-wringing going on with all those other teams that went 7-5, 8-5, 6-7, etc. heading into year 2. I find it hard to believe that OSU fans were saying, “Future’s bright, boys!” after losing to South Carolina, for example.

    So, while there’s not some mystical power that is going to make Georgia automatically win the SEC because it’s year 2 of the Smart era, it’s comforting to me that other teams that one might compare Georgia to as a program saw similar results in year one, and really turned it around in year 2.

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  2. John Denver is full of shit...
    July 25, 2017 at 9:32 AM

    And none of them had Chubb.

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  3. Got Cowdog
    July 25, 2017 at 9:36 AM

    Huh, this red Kool-Aid is pretty good ……….

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  4. Will Trane
    July 25, 2017 at 10:10 AM

    Dooley. Second year 6-4. Was that not the year they went into Ann Arbor and took down Michigan. Got ranked high. But then the team became riddled with injuries.
    Moral of the story at UGA if you regress a tad in your second year, you get to coach there for a very long time.
    My, my ,my I will be glad when the season starts and these guys can have something to really write about … actual wins and losses, team play, stats, and yeah…maybe some more phone logs and player suspensions.
    Dooley’s utterance to Gawd’s ears…thank you Lord for Herschel Walker!
    Wonder how inspired the AD gets when he hears all this preseason hype.
    Goes south, well, move over Hugh Freeze, another resignation is coming thru the door in the SEC.

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  5. reality check here
    July 25, 2017 at 10:22 AM

    National Champions. 1979. Dooley said he was voted coach of the year in the ACC because everybody from that league whipped Georgia like a rented mule.

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  6. Snoop Dawgy Dawg
    July 25, 2017 at 11:47 AM

    I think the gist of all the year 2 stuff is that when the coach is going to win big AT THAT school, you see a monster leap in year 2. Not winning big in year 2 doesn’t mean that it can’t happen. It doesn’t mean the coach won’t go on to win big. The trend seems to indicate that if you want that coach to win big at your school, you should see some incredible improvement in year 2.

    Again, Dabo is the exception.

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    • 3rdandGrantham
      July 25, 2017 at 12:12 PM

      Also Chris Petersen at Udub — my huskies friends were ready to run him out of town after his second season, and basically felt Pete was overwhelmed trying to manage a big program. Now of course their concern is losing him to a bigger program or the NFL.

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      • Snoop Dawgy Dawg
        July 25, 2017 at 12:45 PM

        correct. Also Chris Peterson, who I think is a top 3/4 coach in america. The caveat I’ll add to this is when you look at the coaches who have fared well, they have done so at schools with great recruiting and history. UWash doesn’t have either of that in my lifetime. What he is doing there is unbelievable.

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        • AuditDawg
          July 25, 2017 at 1:30 PM

          Petersen had a much deeper hole to dig Washington out of and a lesser recruiting base as opposed to what Kirby walked into in Athens. Prior to last season, they hadn’t won more than 8 games in a season since RIck Neuheisel was coach back in 2000 and they were less than a decade removed from being the loser of the Crapple Cup and going 0-12 when Petersen took over. The Washington job in 2014 compared to the Georgia job in 2016 isn’t even close to being a fair comparison.

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          • 3rdandGrantham
            July 25, 2017 at 2:52 PM

            I’m not comparing the two situations at all — merely discussing the second year bump for solid coaches.

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            • AuditDawg
              July 25, 2017 at 3:26 PM

              I get that. Just saying that Year Zero (h/t – Bill Connelly) is a reasonable thing to expect in some situations. Colorado went through it a few years ago and reaped the reward last season with Macintyre. While not as dire as Colorado was when Mac took over, I think Petersen’s first season was also close to a Year Zero. We probably could argue Butch Jones’ first year at Tenn was a Year Zero after Dooley literally blew up recruiting (in a bad way) at the end.

              I don’t believe that last year in Athens should have been a Year Zero (contrary to whatever Dantzler and Butler have to say about throwaways) so to me it’s definitely fair to expect a bump this year for Kirby.

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              • Snoop Dawgy Dawg
                July 25, 2017 at 5:04 PM

                I agree with you that expectations for Peterson was lower than for Kirby in Year 1, but it still is an exception to a new coach that has the ability to do so making the big jump in year 2.

                I’ll add an addendum to my Year 2 theory, in that that school has to be in an insanely rich recruiting environment to do it. A la, UGA,Clemson, UT, UTk, UF, Bama, etc, etc. you can’t fix a roster in 2 years at Washington. You can at a UGA, and UGA’s roster wasn’t that bad for smart entering that first recruiting season.

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              • 3rdandGrantham
                July 25, 2017 at 8:28 PM

                As a close follower of Udub (relatives attended/loved those early 90’s teams under Don James), Sark actually did a solid job of restocking the program talent wise during his time there. This explains why they had 3 picks taken in the first round of the ’16 draft — more than the number of first rounders we’ve had selected in the last 4 NFL draft combined.

                Sark taking over for Willingham was ground zero; Petersen taking over for Sark was much closer to Smart taking over for CMR (relatively speaking concerning the talent level of most Pac 12 schools). It absolutely was not a bare cabinet situation at all.

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  7. Timphd
    July 25, 2017 at 12:10 PM

    “Year 2 everybody kind of knows what to expect” FWIW here is what I expect in year 2: beat Florida, beat Auburn, beat Tech, beat Tenn. Win SEC East, make a serious run at SEC Championship game, win a meaningful bowl game. Anything less is a disappointment for me.

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    • 3rdandGrantham
      July 25, 2017 at 12:16 PM

      As many know here I’m all in on Smart and the season ahead. I’ve already predicted an 11 win season; perhaps 12 with a break or two. With that said, if we don’t win 10 or more I will be very disappointed. And gosh forbid we only win 8 again.

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      • AuditDawg
        July 25, 2017 at 1:40 PM

        Winning less than 9 games (barring a 2013 injury run) and getting run off the field again in a rivalry game will seal the deal for me on Kirby. Honestly – the record last year wasn’t what was most disappointing (could have the same record, but just some bad luck in close games a la Notre Dame last year), but it was a lack of improvement from Week 1 to Week 13. I can get totally onboard with being talent deficient at some areas that kept them from doing some of the things they wanted to do scheme wise (hard to argue against that when your best option at LT was a Rhode Island transfer), but when a team doesn’t get better over the course of a season it feels like something was lacking in the coaching department.

        Nobody is going to confuse the results from last year’s UCF team as a harbinger that they’re gonna be a top 25 squad this year, but they markedly improved from the beginning of the year to the end of the year. That’s all I wanted to see out of Kirby last year and we didn’t get it so I’m really hesitant to put my faith into him right now. Hopefully he’s taken his lumps as a first time HC and he absolutely could change my opinion this year, but as of right now I ain’t buying that he’s anything other than a great recruiter and DC.

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  8. GruvenDawg
    July 25, 2017 at 2:06 PM

    Disclaimer: I never played fooltball above high school, just a armchair QB trying to maintain reasonable expectations for UGA this year.

    I am not sure why everyone is all in on SEC East champions this year for us, I don’t see it. I still think we are a year away due to the deficiencies on the O-line, still unproven WR corps and kicking game, and no lockdown corner or proven sack specialist. CKS and Pittman need to get their guys on the O-line in and competing. O-line is the glaring weakness on this team discussed ad nauseam. It impacts QB play and indirectly WR play. Potentially starting 2-3 true freshman on the o-line who didn’t enroll early in the SEC is asking for pain. I am sure a good chunk of the other coaches and teams that had year 2 success did not have as bad a roster and O-Line to deal with when comparing themselves to their other conference teams. CMR I love him to death as a man, but we are in this hole because of his failure to manage the roster. Having said that Kirby has raised the expectations and I expect UGA won’t have any Nichols St. or Ole-Miss type games this year, IE not get blown out and beat the teams we are supposed to beat handily. It’s a shame because Nick Chubb is one my favorite Dawgs of all time.

    Per the Senators post yesterday about Brian Fremeau’s Fremeau Efficiency Index (FEI) http://www.bcftoys.com/. If I give teams the benefit of the doubt for their higher finishing odds this could be what our schedule and wins could look like along with UF (my speculation). Would this be a disappointing year to everyone because we didn’t be UF and play in the SEC championship? I am not trying to be a negative nelly just trying to be reasonable with my expectations. Given our roster management issues under CMR I am not giving Kirby a throw-away year but I am looking at what he has at his disposal. 10-2 is possible, but to me it’s drinking the Kool-Aid when you look at our current deficiencies. It sucks but I will take the progress if we go 10-2 or 9-3 and look like a complete team, beat the teams we should, and keep games close in the ones we lose.

    UGA 10-2*, 9-3
    (1 SEC West Loss, 1 SEC East Loss)

    App St 11-1, 10-2 G/AA (W)
    ND 9-3, 8-4 VG/G (W) (close Win)
    Samford (W)
    MSST 7-5, 6-6 AV (W)
    TENN 8-4, 7-5 AA (W) (Close Win)
    VAN 6-6, 5-7 AV (W)
    MIZZ 7-5, 6-6 AV (W)
    UF 9-3, 8-4 VG/G (L) (Close Loss)
    SC 7-5, 6-6 AV (W)
    AUB 9-3, 8-4 VG/G (L) (Close Loss)
    UK 6-6, 5-7 AV (W)
    GT 8-4, 7-5 AA (W) (Close Win)

    UF 9-3*, 8-4 SEC East Champion
    (1 SEC West Loss)

    Mich 9-3, 8-4 VG/G (L)
    TENN 8-4, 7-5 AA (W)
    UK 6-6, 5-7 AV (W)
    VAN 6-6, 5-7 AV (W)
    LSU 9-3, 8-4 VG/G (L)
    TAMU 8-4, 7-5 AA (W)
    UGA 10-2, 9-3 VG/G (W)
    MIZZ 7-5, 6-6 AV (w)
    SC 7-5, 6-6 AV (W)
    UAB 3-9, 2-10 AW (W)
    FSU 11-1, 10-2 E (L)

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  9. Jared S.
    July 25, 2017 at 2:43 PM

    I can’t help it. I’m buying in for this season. I tried not to. Same story every year. Try to stay objective. Then by the time September rolls around I have visions of (finally) Georgia Greatness.

    Btw, if Georgia’s two generally recognized NC’s are 1942 and 1980 – 38 years apart, wouldn’t it be weird if we won our third in 2018….?😳

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  10. W Cobb Dawg
    July 25, 2017 at 7:45 PM

    Will David Greene be calling plays? If so, I would share his enthusiasm.

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