Someone thought that the surrounding context of what Gary Danielson said about Jacob Eason and his surrounding talent might make the one-liner I posted yesterday come off a little less harsh.
During a conference call Thursday, Danielson backed the sophomore, saying that he thinks improvements are needed elsewhere in order to help him better thrive.
“I was shocked at the lack of talent surrounding Jacob Eason last year,” Danielson said. “I’ve been doing Georgia football for 10 years and it was the worst set of combined talent at receiver. Their run blocking and pass blocking was below standards that I’ve seen for any Georgia team. (Offensive coordinator Jim) Chaney and (coach) Kirby (Smart) did not want to say it publicly, but they were shocked with what they had to deal with. Too many people were worrying about a true freshman quarterback and not noticing that he didn’t have anybody to throw to.”
Sounds like the worst thing Danielson’s guilty of is slight exaggeration. Although I’d love to hear from Chaney and Smart about what they really thought of last year’s offensive talent.
Get The Picture 
That’s a tough thing to read for sure. I, too, would love to hear about how Kirby and Chaney really felt about the offensive roster.
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Oh lord, how long until someone trots out here with the recruiting rankings again in order to counter Danielson’s comments?
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I would love to hear what Kirby really thought of his offensive coordinator/QB coach’s performance. I thought it was putrid and made me long for the early days of Mike Bobo.
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Kirby was critical of several areas of importance last year. He has never been shy to say what he means in that department. I dont think what Danielson says is a surprise at all…
Richt got lazy with roster management. Kriby inherited it.
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Right recruited well, but you are right, he failed to fill holes. Jeepers, we nay have up to six starters via transfer including kickers. Replacing Mckenzie and bringing in quality punting and kick off talent has been masterful.
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Kirby did a lot of crying poor mouth early on and we thought it was just typical coach speak. Turns out he was speaking a lot of difficult truth. Danielson isn’t really saying much of anything Kirby didn’t. It’s just that Kirby needed to say it in a way that didn’t cause his players to give up on him. Gary gets paid not to use that filter.
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Taken as words from any analyst this sounds about right. We had coaching turnover for 3 years and that is the main point, I think. Sure, citing recruiting rankings refutes the situation, but the team never really became a team in the chemistry. Aside from better coaching, continuity is what’s needed. Chaney is in a unique position right now. He knows he needs to step up but he also knows that Kirby would be making a huge mistake to bring in a new coordinator for the 4th or 5th time now (I don’t remember how many coaches have come and gone since bobo left, I think this whole mess originated at the beginning of bobo’s last season).
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Rhode Island transfer starting at LT….
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Yep. Think that says more than anything.
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Smart was very clear about his impression of our roster. The only people that find this comment shocking are those that want to continually blame the AD, CKS and Cheney for not winning 10 games last year after we let “a great man” go.
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Are you saying we should blame Richt for UGA not winning ten games last season? Might as well blame Bobo, too. 😉
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I don’t get the criticism for winning 8 games in year one. CMR did the same; it’s about par for the course with new everything being installed. To get the meaningful improvements expected, there has to be some bumpiness at the beginning.
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You’re right… we should totally be cool with losing to Tech and Vandy in the same season. And that struggle with Nicholls? Just a little bumpiness, no big deal.
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Don’t forget to throw in being down 45-0 to Ole Miss. Just a little turbulence … nothing to see here.
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But Nick Saban lost to ULM in his… … …
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Not have adequate blocking or route running seems like poor player development to me. The playbook really did not change much, however the team struggled with the basics. That could fall on both CMR and Kirby. We are going to find much about the coaching this year.
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I don’t think you have to be ‘cool’ with losing to Tech to also say that 8-5 in the first year of the Smart era is about what we should have expected. That doesn’t mean it is to be celebrated…but it is what it is. It’s rare that a first year coach sets the world on fire.
But it’s true…this season was a lot like Richt’s first year. And I don’t think it is unfair to expect UGA to compete at a level like that 2002 or 2003 team.
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The overall record isn’t unprecedented, but the low points certainly were.
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Was it all bad? UNC, Auburn, TCU? About par for the course for a first year coach, I think. Ups, downs, learning curve, etc. IMO, certainly not bad enough to dwell on and complain about. A transition year for an entire coaching staff with a freshman quarterback tends to be a work in progress.
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A near death experience against a mediocre FCS squad and an actual death experience against Ole Miss? What other year — years, actually, since you think that was typical — would you compare to those games?
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Very successful coaches have struggled in their first year. Saban lost to ULM. That loss is worse than any under CKS last year. The general point is that first year coaches, especially those with freshman QB’s, tend to struggle. Last year fits the established narrative very nicely, IMO.
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You’re sidetracking here. The issue was whether another coach could have done better than eight wins with last year’s squad.
ULM is a mid-major school, not an FCS school. The one FCS school ‘Bama played in 2007 lost to the Tide 52-6.
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I didn’t think we lost to an FCS team last year. And why do you think another first year head coach with a freshman QB would have done better than Kirby? Why so cup half empty?
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If you’re happy with last season, I’m happy for you.
Even Smart doesn’t think he did that great a coaching job last year.
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the Senaor hates Kirby and bitches about everything that isn’t perfect..
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I’d rather lose to ULM than GT.
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I’m saying that we had issues up and down the roster that CKS had to deal with and that obviously impacted our performance. It appears Danielson would agree. Those upset with CMR’s termination want to ignore this as it undermines the “CKS sucks/bad hire” torch they’ve been carrying. I don’t know that any other coach could have done much better.
If you note in my comment I did not blame anyone. But it’s not as if roster management and depth weren’t persistent issues.
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Georgia won ten games in 2015 with a similar roster.
Again, I’m not defending Richt’s roster management. But that doesn’t equate to giving Smart a pass on the job he did last season.
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We had better Oline players (playing in the right spots), including a LT that was drafted, better, more experienced receivers- one drafted, two seniors at OLB that were drafted, one in the first round, a great transfer senior ILB and continuity with defensive coaching. Not to mention Faton Bauta.
I honestly don’t think Kirby had a similar roster, at least with starters.
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Georgia started a UAB transfer at ILB, and a second-string Virginia transfer at QB. That isn’t the sign of a great roster.
The implosion of the 2013 class had a major impact on the 2015 roster.
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Sorry Senator but you’re proving my point. You would take a commenter over the coals for using the W/L records of two different rosters of two different years against two different schedules to somehow make a point about how one coach was better than another…..yet you’re doing that now to defend CMR and downplay how ragged we were coming into last season.
Also….are your really citing Ganus as a “transfer” to somehow note a similar a lack of talent/depth in 2015?
Wtf?
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Wait, is Ganus NOT a transfer?
And the thing that the Senator is saying(I Think) is that, the coaching change was to install a better coach with a higher ceiling. Playing with roughly the same roster, roughly the same schedule, one team won 10 games, the other did not. As a case in point, Kirby’s QB beat out Richt’s QB, so perhaps Kirby had a better QB option.
Regardless, very few are saying that Kirby cannot get the team to where we want it to be. What many are saying is that Kirby inherited a team that was not bereft of talent and coached it to play as if it were against teams that certainly were bereft of talent. Hopefully that’s a Year 1 situation, and he knocks the lid off the program as Richt also once did.
I was as big a Richt fan as it was, but my expectation for him, coaching this team, this year, would be a playoff slot. And yet, I only expect Kirby to be playing in Atlanta in December, so in reality, I am giving him a new coach handicap when I’ve been beating the drum as loudly as possible that year 2 coaches that win championships make HUGE leaps forward in year 2.
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I can tell you were a BIG Richt fan….
The notion that 2016 team was similar to 2015 is fake news.
Only 13 (59%) returning starters from 2015…..and the QB was one of 13.
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“What many are saying is that Kirby inherited a team that was not bereft of talent”
Danielson apparently disagrees – which is kind of the point.
Also, Ganus was a transfer obviously – but not somebody I would cite as an example of the roster issues that CMR had to coach around. He was a strength of the 2015 team – not a weakness.
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I think the real issue here is that Richt did “More” with a team that was starting to show major talent holes in 2015 than Kirby did in 2016. Plain and simple. He won 10. Kirby won 8. Richt may have won 8-10 games in 2016, too. Might have even done it again this year. He’s a really good coach and has shown to be pretty adept at covering roster issues.
But Kirby’s job is to change the status quo. He hasn’t done that yet on the field…he’s certainly doing that in the way he recruits…but I think he gets more than one year to show that he can do it on the field.
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And who was responsible for the 13 class?
We will know what we have in Kirby after next year, IMHO….
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“We will know what we have in Kirby after next year, IMHO….”
After 2018?? I guess your implying we’ll know what we have after he has a full roster of his own recruits. Let’s hope he shows some ability to coach with what he has been dealt in 2017 and 2018. I don’t want to wait until 2019 to feel good about what we have.
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“Georgia won ten games in 2015 with a similar roster.” Yes, they won 10 games with that roster. It was also year 15 of Richt’s program, not year one. If you can’t understand the difference enough to avoid drawing comparisons, I suggest you go out and coach some pee-wee team for a season. See how well you do against the Dad who has been there with the same kids running his same plays for a while. Kirby should have done better, no doubt, but I don’t think it is fair to compare his season with how the Dean of the SEC did the year prior with the same guys that HE recruited. No excuses this year though. Beat Florida dammit.
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That is my only point in this conversation. The rest of it is just noise.
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You are aware, however, that the ’15 season was all smoke and mirrors, thanks to a pathetically weak schedule. We beat exactly zero P5 teams with a mere winning record in the regular season, GSU took us to OT, and we were humiliated by UF.
The fact that an eventual 10 win UGA team ended up playing in a throwaway bowl against a 7-5 PSU team tell you all you need to know about that season. Yet to this day people talk about that 10 win season as if it was glorious affair filled with all sorts of memorable wins.
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I would say the 2016 schedule was weak as well. Eight of the teams played were the same and I would say the four games that were different in 2016 were a bit tougher overall but not to the degree that it should have been a major factor in the overall season record. Bama is tougher than Ole Miss and we lost both. La Monroe/Southern Univ. vs Nichols/UL La is a wash and Georgia won all of those games. So basically it comes down to UNC vs. Ga Southern which UNC was a tougher game on paper but Georgia won both of those. Georgia was 3-1 against both sets of four games. The difference between the two seasons was floundering against Tech and Vandy last year.
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It was ugly for sure, but it’s better than losing to Vandy, Tech, and Tennessee all in the same year.
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Do you really think 8 wins reflected a great job last year? I didn’t and don’t care who was on the sideline. Chaney last year made Schottenheimer look like a genius.
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It is not a contradiction to believe that Richt’s roster management was subpar and that Smart’s management of the roster he inherited was subpar as well.
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I totally agree on both accounts. Roster management is what did the previous guy in (plus his last 2 disasters in Jacksonville). We got to pay more last year for the current guy’s on-the-job training and to watch his offensive coordinator with 20 years of experience bumble around like he had never put together a game plan before.
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That’s the single greatest sentence to sum up last season to ever appear at GTP. Funny it took you this long. 😉 Those two issues (what CMR left and what CKS did with them) were in near perfect balance last season. This year the shift is almost, but not entirely, on Kirby and staff. Win the East and it’s validation. Fail to look competitive in what could turn-out to be a very weak division and it’s validation of a different sort.
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was more strategic coaching errors, like switching to zone blocking, end of the game situational strategy (GT/TN/VAN), decision to use backups on special teams, than roster placement. 7-5 was all on the coaches, it wasn’t a talent or roster mngt issue, never has been in 15 years at UGA.
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“Chaney last year made Schottenheimer look like a genius.’
Come on, man. I get you hate Chaney and are willing to use a little hyperbole to make your point, but ain’t nobody gonna make Schott look like a genius. At least, no one that can get hired as an OC.
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Personally, they both sucked. How about this? Chaney is a more amiable version of Charlie Weis.
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I remember a lot of people predicting anywhere from 8 to 10 wins given the circumstances. We ended up on the low end of that but still within most expectations. I don’t think Smart did a great job but also don’t think he deserves all of the snark he was getting last year from the “10 wins or else” crowd given some of the obvious issues he had to deal with.
I can almost hear the knives being sharpened now so they can be ready to come out if we stumble and yes – we may very well do that because it’s still a young team in a lot of areas.
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I love Gary. And I really think he’s right. No one needs to worry about Eason.
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Gary did not say one positive word about Eason, just pointed out that Eason was slightly more productive at his position than the wr’s and rb’s. All were horrendous from a production standpoint. No one is saying Eason’s going to throw for 3500 and 35 td’s. Did you watch Eason in the Spring game a few weeks ago? Now Fromm, beast mode, but Eason, not so much.
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Eason faced a much tougher D than Fromm in the G Day game. Fromm was facing walk-ons in the secondary. I would put too much into Jake’s performance even though it was promising. Plus, we all know you must reference QBR from spring games for the analysis to have any worth! 😉
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*would not put (sorry)
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Fromm has outperformed Eason in every scrimmage this year. It was not a fluke. Eason has struggled with accuracy in EVERY scrimmage, Fromm has not at all.
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You’ve been at the scrimmages have you?
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Watched the Spring game with my own eyes, and AJC has highlighted other scrimmages re Eason’s horrendous Qb play from firsthand reports.
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This. Cracks. Me. Up.
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Should make you cry. An ALL American Hall of Fame Qb Fran Tarkenton said the same thing that Eason isn’t all that, and Smart needs to play Fromm. Guess you know more than him? Hilarious.
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Yeah, cause Fran is always on point. I love that people like you actually think this way, bless your little heart.
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My bullshit detector just went off.
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It took you long enough. You probably ought to have that thing looked at. 😉
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That thing was simply over whelmed with, shall we say, bullshit. And we all know that an inordinate amount off bullshit tends to slow things down exponentially. But yeah I’m still poring over all those scrimmage stats and have concluded that Fromm was indeed outperformed Oh wait, was Fromm supposed to be the out performer?
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The only time we hear good things about Eason are non scrimmage practices where he isn’t allowed to be hit. Anytime he’s allowed to be hit, he has done poorly, see the spring game video, and read the post scrimmage ajc articles. I can’t find a scrimmage all this year where people said Eason’s accuracy was terrific. Maybe you can cite 3 or 4 for us.
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In other words, you don’t have the first clue, personally speaking, about what goes on in practice.
You’ve been given free rein to spew BS today. Time to move on to another topic.
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My alarm clock just went off. Cher singing, “I’ve Got You, Babe”.
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Yeah, in the end, Eason is going to be a first rounder based on his potential alone. I mean, the Bears traded up for Trubisky.
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Just hope he figures out how to beat Vanderbilt before he goes to the NFL.
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I don’t disagree with anything he said. The offensive line last year was as bad as I have ever seen at UGA in my almost 40 years of fandom. When a 5’7″/160 lbs slot receiver is your best offensive weapon you have issues.
There is a large portion of our fanbase that still dumps on Eason (probably the same ones that used to dump on Aaron Murray while he was setting SEC records but I digress) and I just don’t get it. Considering what he had to work with and the fact that he was a true Freshmani thought he did a good job. His numbers were better than Stafford had as a Freshman.
If the Oline can improve enough to have a legit running threat and pass protect it will be amazing how much Eason has “improved” since last season.
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Eason did not have a great year, if you compare him to other freshman starters, he was below average. But, how much of that is attributed to oline, wr’s, and no production from the running backs, hard to say definitively. I’m trying to be optimistic about Eason, but Eason’s numbers again were terirble in this year’s Spring game a few weeks ago, don’t see him improving from then much at all.
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Didn’t Huston Mason have better spring game numbers than Aaron Murray one time? Totes should have started Mason over Murray. Not sure who to blame more there – Richt or Bobo.
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Hutson Mason beat more ranked teams in 1 season than AM did in any of AM’s 4 years. I’d take him anyday over AMurray.
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Wow
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Your opinions are so bad, I almost think this could be a bit.
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Recruiting holes prior to come on board was an issue. We are not saying it is all CMR’s fault, but it was an issue for some assistants. I thought CMR’s o-line coach was a poor recruiter. What say you? After all that was much of the ten positions Danielson and the rest of the SEC saw, too.
KS has manned up about some poor decisions re practice but I can see where he was coming from. Vandy game in particular and playing on Sunday. Huge advantage to a good Vandy team that beat their big rival, UT. No doubt the team was tired. The play in TCU showed they were fresher and quicker.
What I liked about KS remarks this week is what many of us outside of the “24/7; happy days” recruiting blogs and news media metro Atlanta see and agree with. Bama, FSU, Florida, Auburn are not subject too that way overboard crap…”he is a beast; he is a 5*; and the other bullshit those jerks spew out. Hurts the players and UGA. But those dumbasses will never figure it out.
2017 is here and let’s see how things go.
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Well, now your boy Fran has chimed in with his usual pearls of wisdom.
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Fran Tarkenton agrees with me that Eason isn’t nothing but a big arm, and Fromm has earned a chance to play. We’ll see if Smart agrees or not. If Smart starts Eason for all 12 games, I predict another 7-5 record, leopard don’t change those spots.
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Is that a song? ‘Leopard don’t change those spots’? T Swift has a new album coming out soon, pitch it to her.
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Eason’s not a winner, he has a 6-6 record as a starter, that’s who he is.
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He may be right, but he’s still an asshole.
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You’re not wrong, Walter. You’re just an asshole.
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Probably ought to put some quotation marks on that, Pink. There may be a sensitive Walter out there. Possibly with the handle “DustyJ”.
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“Fran Tarkenton agrees with me . . ” Are you sure it’s not you agreeing with Fran?
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Danielson may be guilty of a little extra drama in his comments, but I agree with the crux of it. When I watched last year’s team, Eason wasn’t near the top of my list of concerns, and I doubt he will be this year.
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I honestly don’t think this is as big a dig as we are reading it out to be. Yes, our players (and coaches) need to improve across multiple positions. In other news, water is wet.
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What? UGA didn’t finish top 75 in production at QB, RB, or WR. It was a disaster show on offense.
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That’s why I said Danielson’s comment wasn’t as big a ‘dig’ as people are making it out to be, because we do need to improve.
And yes, I think it was a disaster show on offense and we need to improve (I wasn’t suggesting this wasn’t a big deal)
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Makes you wonder if UGA if ranked too high again, like 6 out of the last 9 years, where UGA didn’t surpass preseason expectations. The schemes on offensive are so horrifically bad, and there’s not one player that cracked the top 75 in production over there at his position. Same coaches, same scheme, same players= 7-5. 67% chance UGA finishes worse than #15 based on last 9 years. 33% they have an improved year.
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I’m buzzing from my binge of off season cool aid, so I’ll think I’ll pass on that bucket of cold water ;)…but consider me warned Dusty!
Seemed we found something in the bowl game last year on offense, but like you, I’m not convinced we stick to what works (like the pistol formation).
My expectations are high this year nonetheless.
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Hope you’rte right, but 9 years says 67% chance you’re wrong about your optimism re UGA. UGA rarely exceeds preseason hype. But there’s a small chance, so you never know. The question is, given last year’s lack of production everywhere on offense, why the optimism? It has no basis.
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My optimism springs from pre season happy talk and the 2nd half of the Bowl game. My fingers are crossed that our o-line will be better. Hopeless optimist I guess.
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If you start to feel optimistic about the run game, watch the UF-UGA and the most recent public performance, the Spring game. If you start to feel optimistic about Eason, watch the Ole Miss or South Carolina game or the Spring game. If you start to feel optimistc about thecoaches, watch the final minute of the gt & ut games, and the last 4 minutes of the Vandy game. Then you’ll see why UGA only exceeds preseason hype 33% of the time.
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You just poured a gallon of tap water in my cool aid DJ…way to kill my buzz….
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I was (and still am) much more concerned about the offensive line, the receivers, and Chaney. If the OL and WR are improved this year and Chaney isn’t as bad as he looked last year, I think Eason will be fine.
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Ho will the OL, WR, RB, TE, QB improve this year in production? The oline lost 3 and will be starting a frosh, and it’s the same personel and coaches elsewhere. Look for mroe of the same on offense, no signifcant upgrades on offense anywhere. Consider this, what if the oline is WORSE? Very good chance by losing 3.
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Me and a few others got grilled on here last year this time for predicting an ugly season ahead. I did think we would win 9 games, however, but of course we actually fared worse than that. I also said Smart would have a general rough go of it and many would question if he was the right hire.
The good news is much better days are ahead, starting now, and the overall team/roster is significantly better than last year. With that said, as I mentioned the other day, don’t be surprised if we start out slow – including a loss to ND – before catching fire and throttling most of the remaining teams on the schedule.
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team is much better? same qb, same wr’s, same te’s, same running backs. Lost 3 offensive lineman. Better? On offense? Really? No.
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Just wait.
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watch the UGA spring game form just a few weeks ago, and you’ll agree with me, the oline STILL can’t runblock, or passblock for Eason. Eason STILL is wildly inaccurate and the rb’s are STILL unproductive.
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Again, just wait. Season is almost here so the wait is about over. I’ve predicted an 11 win season since June. What’s your prediction?
Spring game? Are you kidding me? That whole affair was a total work.
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I’ll go with the 67% odds and say UGA won’t exceed the preseason expectations, so might finish top 25, but worse than #15 ranking. Then again, UGA hasn’t finished in the top 25 in the last 2 seasons. You got Notre Dame, UT, UF, GT, and Auburn. UGA has been 0-2 vs GT, UF & UT, so I have those all as losses as usual, don’t see UGA beating Notre Dame at Notre Dame, but UGA usually handles Auburn, so what, 8-4, and maybe throw in a meaningless bowl win to finish in the top 25? In other words, another VERY UGA kind of year.
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Will you send me the tape of the spring game that was ‘just a few weeks ago’? For some reason, I thought that was more like a few months ago, but not sure if Trolls use a different calendar.
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youtube it bro, UGA fans call it GDay.
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Watching the Spring Game to glean basically anything of value is a terrible idea. You…know that right, right?
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Thomas? Brown? Is that you?
Probably not I guess. The posts are too short and don’t have pages of cherry picked statistics.
We get it. It is impossible for players to improve.
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Not impossible, just a 33% highly unlikely chance UGA exceeds preseason hype.
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Nail, meet hammer.
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ice meet fire.
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booger meet lips
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Nah, MSU might sneak up on them, Auburn will be better than we think. UF is, well, UF. I don’t think ND has the horses.
I’ve been into the Kool Aid pretty heavy. 10-2, 9-3 maybe. Then look out CFB world. This is a young team, once they get a little swagger and learn how to win, They will be in the discussion with ‘Bama, Clemson, OSU and the like.
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Gary’s surprisingly correct.
Eason has gotten most of the blame for last season from my bar buddies, but could they be wrong? Eason did finish in the top 100 in touchdowns, yards per pass, yards per game and passer efficiency, consider…
Neither Chubb or Michel finished in the top 100 in yards per game or yards per rush.
None of the receivers finished in the top 100 for yards per game or yards per catch.
At least Eason finished in the top 100 in his categories, granted, it was one of the worst performances at Qb I’ve ever witnessed at UGA, but still, it was a slightly better performance than we got at running back or receiver.
I think the strategic switch Chaney made from zone blocking to man to man blocking, was a massive strategic error given the small size of the oline, they got dominated upfront.
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Amazing the opinions on here. It was a disaster roster last year versus the year before. At least then we had Malcolm Mitchell, Theus, Leonard Floyd Ganus and Jordan Jenkins. And they were running systems they all knew with the same coaches. Comparing that to a 1st year with a new coaching staff, no offensive line, no WRs, a hurt Chubb and a true freshmen QB who should otherwise not have been playing…..its ridiculous. You sometimes have to tear down to build back up. The entire culture was far below where championship football in Athens needs to be. If the same stuff happens this year then yes, its time for questions and evaluations. But last year was irrelevant. Even if UGA beat Vandy and wiped Nicholls off the field it was irrelevant. I actually like it that they played like shit those games. A much greater motivator in the offseason and in practices. Hang those losses up in the lockeroom.
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The Vandy and Nichols St games make you question the coaching, given the massive talent gap, should have been blowout wins. We know Kirby’s staff cxan recruit, so could Muschamp’s at UF, and for that matter, CMR at UGA. But can Smart coach?
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Saban went 6-7 in his 1st year. Richt went 8-4. Good programs play bad against worse teams, it happens. It was one year changing an entire culture. If it happens a 2nd year then those issues could be valid. CMR didn’t recruit NEAR this staff. Not close. Same with Champ. Very good recruiters but not where this staff is going. And they won’t have near the fallout as a result.
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CMR recruited great, average top 10 class during his 15 years. Talent is never an issue at UGA. Coaching strategy and ability to get players to execute is where it’s at. UGA hasn’t won more than 10 games since 2012. Been a while.
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Talent is never an issue? UGA had 69 players on scholarship in the 2012 SEC Championship. That was inexcusable. We had NO DEPTH on defense as a result and we couldn’t get one stop and it cost the national championship[. Rankings meant nothing because we ended up losing several a year including 3/4 of the 2013 class. Recruiting and retention and depth at all positions is everything. That is why FSU, Clemson Ohio State and Bama are consistently at the top and why UGA is not.
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It;s not talent, UGA is top 5 there, it’s coaching, 100%.
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And how are you coming up with this “Top 5” figure? After this year I would agree we will have top 5 talent, but Richt did not have a top 5 roster. Ever. Facts are stubborn things…
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source was cited a bunch on this blog, look it up. Talent ain’t an issue at UGA, hasn’t been since CMR got here.
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I don’t give a rats ass about sources. They don’t know the program or the facts they don’t do the work they simply cite class rankings. Those numbers are so flawed because of attrition and each position rankings. You think 69 scholarships is Top 5? Losing almost an entire class, that class should now be ranked 100 because nobody was left from it. It was a joke. Class rankings mean nothing when you are never signing big time OL and have no depth because of attrition.
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ok, you feel Vanderbilt is more talented than UGA. Nice to know.
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Yes and Clemson was better than Pittsburgh last year but still lost to them. And that was a very good team with a staff that had been there for years with QB ready for the NFL. It happens. Especially in the 1st year when you are trying to change a culture. Vandy had more NFL players drafted than UGA. No they didn’t have better talent but some times it happens when taking over a program.
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So it was not talent that mattered in the Vanderbilt game? So why did UGA lose to Vanderbilt? The million dollar question for all people who think the season can be explained by lack of talent.
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Your lack of understanding the differences in what went on at UGA the 2 years prior to Smart taking over and the changes he has made culturally, systematically, and in talent tell us all we need to know. Just sit back and wait, you may even enjoy what you see!
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There;s absolutely no difference in Smart and what Muschamp did over at UF. Both has top defenses, recruited well, were Saban disciples, and lost tor rivals key East opponents. How did that turn out?
Kirby Smart is Will Muschamp 2.0
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Would y’all please stop with this dumbass comparison? Saban had also been a head coach for 10+ years in both college and the NFL with a national championship under his belt to boot. That alone earned Saban the benefit of the doubt that Kirby hasn’t yet earned.
It’s not heretical to state that the roster wasn’t optimal AND Kirby did kind of a shit job with the roster he inherited. Those are both true statements.
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Horseshit. It does apply. Did Saban have more talent than the 7 teams that beat him? Yes or no?
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And I didn’t say there isn’t doubt. Absolutely there is. But it was year 1 with a pathetic roster.
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Saban didn’t have a blowout loss that year, and Saban’s offense and special teams ended up ranked a lot higher than Kirby’s, all prove Saban was coaching them up. And Saban recruited the best class of all time in the off-season to turn things around. Saban was light years ahead of Smart.
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’07 Bama took the eventual #2 (us) to OT and should’ve beaten the eventual #1. They also destroyed UT, who won the East (ridiculously, but they won it).
Bama sorta quit on the season after yakking up the game to LSU, but you could see how that team could eventually put it together with a great class on the way.
’07 Bama would’ve nuked ’16 UGA IMO.
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Yes they had more talent on that team than we did last year and yet… still lost to Louisiana Monroe.
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Saban’s 7-6 is a useless data point. He had a national championship and had been an NFL head coach before arriving in T-town. The Alabama faithful knew what they had.
Richt’s 8-4 is an appropriate comparison. There were no Vandy or tech comparable losses (maybe the bowl game loss against BC). There was no Nicholls type of win. The hobnail boot and the tech smackdown happened. The worst loss was by 14 to #6 Florida compared to the embarrassment in Oxford. The team scored 40+ multiple times.
The 2016 Georgia Bulldogs were much worse than the 2001 Georgia Bulldogs in my opinion. That extends across the staff and the roster.
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I didn’t use the 6-7 to back up that Kirby is a National title coach or comparing with Saban’s future. I used it to say good coaches lose to teams with worse talent in year 1. Did Saban have better talent than some of the 7 teams that beat him the 1st year?
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I didn’t say that. My point is that most people have questions about whether Kirby can handle the job beyond recruiting based on the team’s on-field performance in 2016. Saban sort of got a pass for the ULM disaster because the sensible Alabama fans knew what they had. By the way, Saban finished 6-6 in the regular season and won their bowl game after taking a program that was mired in the one of the worst stretches of the program’s history.
I used Richt’s first year as a better barometer to compare to Kirby. Sure, we lost a couple of games that were winnable (South Carolina and BC) and a game where Richt made an on-field decision making error (Auburn) to prevent the game from going to OT. We also competed hard against a top 10 Florida team losing by 14 in Spurrier’s last WLOCP. We had the Hobnail Boot and broke the tech losing streak (which cost Donnan his job). We blew out a number of teams as well. At the end of 2001, there was optimism about the future and direction of the program. I don’t see that right now … most people I speak with are still skeptical about this head coach and especially his staff. No one was asking why we fired Donnan at the end of the 2001 season.
I’m cautiously optimistic about Kirby. I hope to be proven wrong about Chaney. The jury is out on Tucker. If we had beaten tech and Vandy and held on against Tennessee, expectations would be sky high this year and none of the “Wait until 2018” or “Atlanta or hot seat” talk would be out there. That didn’t happen, so the skeptics reign.
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We could also agree that Richt inherited a better roster than what he left Kirby.
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Oops, your last sentence said that.
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That’s a fair comment, but the difference wasn’t so dramatic for the struggles we saw. The same team that manhandled UNC couldn’t block Nicholls. The same team that held Auburn without a first down in the 2nd half couldn’t stop Ole Miss until Freeze pulled his starters. My point is similar to the Senator’s – Richt mismanaged the roster (although that was changing) and Smart mismanaged the utilization of the talent inherited.
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Please do name the mismanaged talent from last year.
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How about the decision to change blocking schemes with guys recruited for another scheme? How about the almost wasted redshirt year for Solomon Kindley? How about the fact we only ran the ball 19 times against Florida? Should I go on?
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How about the decision to allow Ham to kick the ball a single time at the beginning of last season while the best freshman kicker in the league sat on the bench?
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Yes. And his players don’t have to take calculus.
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Yo, some people tried to point this out last year. Just sayin’.
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Yep, UGA coaches can’t figure a way to consistently beat UF & UT. CMR, Smart, doesn’t matter, same result, 0-2 both years. Until they change the focus from beating their chest for meaningless wins like NC & Auburn to winning the East, nothing will change.
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I guess those 10 wins against the Vols Richt had are irrelevant. Don’t let facts get in the way of your message.
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as I said, 0-2 vs UT, 0-2 vs UF, last 2 years of recent history.
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Umm. Since when is Auburn a meaningless win?
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most UGA fans know Auburn is an SEC West team, 100x less important than say the 2 best EAST teams each year.
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I couldn’t agree with him more. Eason’s only sin was being a freshman on a bad team.
The line couldn’t run block so there was no real play action threat. The line couldn’t give him time when they did pass, and when Eason was able to get the ball out, the receivers outside of Nauta couldn’t catch a damn beach ball.
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that’s a copout, Eason should have hit his rb in the flat then or had a quicker release. Eason was locked onto receivers, rarely knew his outlet, rarely scrambled to buy time, rarely had a quick accurate release under pressure, etc. Eason doesn’t handle pressure well, he only completes @35% when you pressure him, he collapses mentally.
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LMAO. An 18 year old that played in Washington, comes in and should’ve redshirted. Instead he has a decent season, with NO OL or big time WRs and tons of dropped balls, brings the team down the field twice at the end including TN we should’ve won……and on some blog a guy says he collapses. I recall the same people saying the same about Murray.
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Eason throws too hard, he thinks it’s about his arm, so did Jeff George. AM’s record against teams with winning records tells you his legacy at UGA and he’ll never be forgotten for his 2012 mishap at the end of that Bama game.
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You are clueless. The all time passing QB in SEC history with 13,166 yds, 121 TD, 41 INT . If Georgia had any semblance of depth on defense those years he would’ve had 2 SEC titles and a national title.
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AMurray won less than 35% of his starts vs ranked teams, he SUCKED, you ARE in denial. Stats were against loser teams.
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Um……he didn’t play defense. Look at the points scored by the opponents in those losses.
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AM didn’t lead well when it counted most, that’s his legacy. A leadership bust = no championships during his 4 years as a starter.
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Stop feeding the troll.
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POTD
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ulpq
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That’s part of the name game
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Dusty%20J
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FLA URBAN DICTIONARY
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=FLA
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Sure thing buddy
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Come on man, you can’t put that on Murray. Heck, it was because of him we were in position to win the game.
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If it was only 1 game, no, it’s not AMurray, but we have 4 years of video to watch, and we all know he barely could perform vs ranked teams and rarely won big games and never won a Championship.
Champion and Aaron Murray will never go together.
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Man, it’s like I’m reading A Troll’s Greatest Hits here.
I think play time is over for you, guy.
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Aw come on, he’s only posted 43 times in this thread.
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Oh, wait, I’m supposed to care about what Gary Danielson thinks?
Look, we all know what’s up: the ’13 class left a whole in the talent, the OL was a disaster, Kirby was more concerned with imposing his ideas than doing what would win (I’ll grant he’s taking a long-view approach over short-term gains), true frosh QB, new co-ordinators, new everything…
I find it hard to accept that at the end of the year, with our talent (even granting the issues), we should accept blowing the Tech game. I’m having a hard time with that and will until we win on The Flats this fall or do something note-worthy (win in Jacksonville).
Some of my harsh feelings towards the state of things are directly attributable to winning the UNC game the way we did (222 yards from Chubb) then not living up to that promise (especially the Tech game). I admit that.
If we win at Notre Dame, win out at home, beat Tech, I can probably see myself feeling better about things.
And I don’t see why I should disparage a guy who owned Tech, turned the Tennessee series completely around, and kicked Auburn’s ass repeatedly. All good things and by all accounts a successful era of Georgia football.
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UGA had top 10 talent on the roster for the last 5 years.
PJohnson has exceeded expectations top 40 in the country, UGA is bottom 40.
Chubb ran well, against UNC, #109 run defense.
Beat GT & Notre Dame, should happen, but could still lose the East.
AM did great vs UNRANKED teams, or teams with LOSING RECORDS, built a lot of ins and junk stats vs THOSE teams, no one is questioning that. Also has 0 rings.
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Gary being Gary/ Touched a nerve with the georgia people. He likes the big nfl type qbs in college. Eason is that in spades. He likes Eason.
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But whew, 100 comments rehashing the CMR firing metrics.
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Where did he say anything positive about Eason?
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Where have you had anything relevant or coherent to say this entire day?
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He doesn’t get much right but he’s right on this one.
QB play isn’t the problem. It’s the OL and WR groups that need to step up.
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Wow I’m late to the Troll Fest. Can we just say that it is never acceptable for UGA to lose to Vandy and GT. I don’t care who the coach is or was. I’ve made my position on Kirby clear, he’s our coach but he has to do better. I think that last year he was late coming into the job. He was tied up recruiting until signing day and he absolutely did not know what he had in the existing team. He knew that Alabama had stoned us the year before and that we had not improved our talent that much. He has had a year to get to know the players he inherited and that is going to help a lot. I don’t expect us to win them all or even win the East this year but I don’t expect to be humiliated by anybody, beat in the last ten seconds by anybody or lose to Vandy and GT. Now I have lowered my expectations to as far south as they can go. If he disappoints me it will truly be a bad season.
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I take the roster weakness angle with a grain of salt. If we’re comparing UGA to our sec east opponents we weren’t such a bad team. Throw in a rather weak schedule – with many of the big games at home, along with UNC in the dome in front of mostly Dawg fans. I expected 10 wins. Nine wins would’ve been acceptable. But 8-5 was a big disappointment.
The offensive and ST coaching was terrible for much of 2016. That coaching needs to improve dramatically if Kirby is going to have any success.
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