Welp, this should put entirely to rest the how bare was the cupboard Mark Richt left Kirby Smart debate.
“They don’t come any finer than coach Richt,” Smart said. “I still talk to him some, and it says so much about him the way he’s continued to support the kids on this team and support Georgia. The cupboard wasn’t bare when we got here. Now, we had to go sign a quarterback, but we had players. I know a lot of new coaches talk all the time about how they don’t have enough good players when they get there, but I can tell you this place was in better shape than Alabama was when we got there in 2007.”
That quarterback he signed was recruited by Richt, as well.
For some of you, the horse’s mouth probably won’t be enough, though, amirite?
Get The Picture 
One could nitpick that the talent was disparately distributed across units… and talent type didn’t philosophically fit what Kirby wanted to do (O Line for example), but that doesn’t make Kirby wrong.
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+1.
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Doesn’t say anything about the lack of depth from our self-imposed scholarship restrictions…
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pretty sure Smart had the full 85 when he got there…..however, Smart has kicked it up another level in recruiting (quality).
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I’m shocked CKS didn’t throw Richt under the bus. I mean, he would’ve had so much to gain from doing so.
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I wouldn’t expect him to throw Richt under the bus if he felt short-changed. I’d expect him not to comment at all.
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True, some coach speak non answer.
Both coaches have responded well to the situation and everyone seems to be better for it.
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So all the talking Kirby did last year about needing better players, coaching up the ones he inherited, etc was total bullshit. Got it!
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I take it that means you’re calling Kirby a liar. Cool.
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Last year or this year?
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Kirby 100% made, at a minimum, innuendos about a combination of talent and depth. It’s water under the bridge now, we should all just drop it.
I’m of the position that Kirby came into about a good of a situation you could have with a fired coach but that Georgia was not where it needed to be depth wise in a few areas. For example, the mi$$es on Van Jefferson (ole mi$$) and Darius Slayton (auburn) at receiver are still affecting our depth at the position. We’ve had some guys come on this year, for sure, but we’re nowhere near where we were in the Mitchell-Conley-Bennett-Tavaras King days.
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You are speaking directly to the receiver position, of course?
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I will. He was constantly whining about the lack of talent.
He should have done a better job of scheming last year based upon the talent he had. Unfortunately he chose to line up in a bunch & run up the middle w/ little to no success.
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I used to think that last year but I now realize that Kirby was changing the culture from being a finesse team to being a physical team. I don’t think you can keep on playing finesse while trying to do that. Kirby was right and I was was wrong last year.
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Agreed, Mayor. I was wrong, too.
And if the excitement from this year can’t help you move on from last year, you must live one sad life.
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“Kirby was right and I was was wrong last year”.
You can count me in too….and boy am I glad.
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completely agree…Also thinks that going to a zone blocking team to a power one for the most part of the year hurt them. A lot of key elements has made them better this year. Fromm is one, he is more suited for this team and runs the offense a helluva lot better imo. The juniors buying in and coming back (Chubb, Michel, Bellamy, Carter, etc). Special teams has been lights out, haven’t seen this since Dooley.
The whole team has just bought in, got to give Smart and the staff credit. I for one, have been surprised …pleasantly. In a lot of ways, this team does indeed remind me of some of the championship teams that Dooley had. Talent makes it easier…but this team is focused.
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This.
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I don’t think he felt shortchanged…he knew what he was walking into and made it pretty clear with his comments a year ago. He set expectations based on what he saw.
But now he’s a year out and we’re ranked #1….and on a pretty good trajectory. It would’ve been stupid to rehash this topic and his answer was the right thing to say. It was a gracious response and another example of how CKS is growing into this role.
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get in between richt and senator…You’ll get the horns.
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LMAO. How are you still here, then?
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Best GA football site ever. That why
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He didn’t ask “why?”, he asked, “How?”
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An important distinction.
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So what that tells you is that Richt failed to coach them.
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Exactly. There are only two seasons in the 115 years of UGA football where our coaches didn’t fail to coach up our team.
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We’re counting on Kirby knowing what talent looks like…so, if he said we had players, then we had players. I think the most important thing now is that he is showing us he knows what to do with them. Let’s hope he can do as good with the talent he brings in as he has with the talent CMR left him.
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There’s no money in throwing Preacher Coach under the bus, unless we were not 9-0…
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Kirby continues to say and do the right thing. Kudos.
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Agree. A compliment costs nothing, but can mean so much.
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A very good coach and a much better person.
If you cal yourself a Bulldog and you aren’t pulling for CMR to beat ND there’s something terribly wrong with you.
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Miami winning does nothing for us. Notre Dame is our ace in the hole, so I will continue to pull for them to win out.
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We don’t need an ace in the hole. We just need to win out. If we win in Atlanta we’re in. If not, we’re probably out no matter what ND does.
If you think that a 12-1 UGA without an SEC titles gets in over a 12-1 ND team, you’re smoking something. The best way to back in is more chaos i.e., getting as many teams to 2 losses and thus disqualified as possible. Miami winning does that.
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ND would be 11 -1 and not have the conference title game. Committee may then toss out UGA’s 13th data point, and we’re 12-0 with win over ND to their 11-1. Only Herbstreit and TV revenue greed would put ND in over the Dawgs in that scenario…
…which I fully expect to happen and blame the Russians.
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Disagree entirely. 12-1 Georgia team with only loss to Alabama gets in because of a regular season schedule that includes a win over #3 Notre Dame. The committee has already shown how much they value that win.
If the Irish go on to lose 1-2 more games that win gets significantly diminished, THEN our chances to make it with a loss to Bama are eliminated.
Go Irish.
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You’re high.
They will put ND in on their SOS and say it trumps head to head and it was only one measly point. Bank it.
Logical doesn’t save us from getting fucked.
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I can’t pull for the Irish and Brian Kelly. No matter how much their winning “helps” us.
Plus. If we can get into the CFP, I’d rather face Miami than ND there.
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Miami winning does help UGA. If both Georgia and Notre Dame end the season with one loss the Irish will be ranked higher than Georgia. Head to head will not matter. They’re Notre Dame and we’re not.
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No they won’t. Committee already proved that. That’s why Oklahoma was ranked ahead of Ohio State when the rankings came out, despite what the AP and Coaches said. Head to head matters.
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Tell that to Penn State, who won the conference title only to have Ohio State leap frog them. Same committee.
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Totally different scenario. Penn State had two losses versus only one for Ohio State and one of the two loses was by 30 or 40 points.
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I remember Da’ U and some cheating, thuggery, “Shapiro”, some gender abusive rap recordings by the team. etc. So I’m not a fan. I also do not want to have to play CMR, I like him and do not want to pull against him. Thanks to The media, I would very much like to play ND again in a national setting, The term “rented mule’ comes to mind. If for no other reason than to make Herbstreit hem, haw, and stammer through the various excuses.
So I guess there is something terribly wrong with me.
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But Notre Dame is just fine? Seriously?
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How did you get “Notre Dame is fine?” from that? Seriously.
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From the extensive list of reasons you gave indicating that no person should ever pull for fucking Notre Dame.
Another way of saying it is that your analysis was entirely one sided. I don’t love Miami. But I hate Notre Dame. When Miami was good I always pulled for them to beat Ohio State, Michigan and Notre Dame. Also Florida.
Now when Miami played alabama in 1992 that was different.
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Oh, OK. Let me clarify: I don’t give a shit about Miami, no matter who their coach is. I would rather ND win out and back into the playoffs, where they will likely encounter Alabama or Georgia and will promptly get their asses handed to them, again. Which will make me very happy. So I say this in all selfishness, Go Irish.
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So you think ND would be easier to beat for the second time then Miami?
I guess that puts your input, loyalty, judgment, comments and opinions in the appropriate context: worthless.
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I don’t know that ND will be easier to beat than Da’ U. Again, I would rather play them again and win convincingly again to further my own selfish agenda. Good luck to CMR as long as it suits me. 🙂
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That’s the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard. Miami winning has the potential to hurt the Dawgs. Obviously you should be a Canes fan. Were you a Jim Jones follower who failed to drink the Kool-aid?
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How does Miami winning hurt us?
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Makes our win at ND not as good. Hurts our strength of schedule.
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Again, why does it matter if we keep winning? If we lose to alabama, ND will take our spot unless they are out. Two losses puts them out. We don’t need SOS if we lose to Bama because it won’t help us. What we need is ND and a lot of conf champs to have two losses.
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There’s just as much argument that we want insurance against a loss in the SECCG and so the more 2-loss teams there are, the better it is for us.
Go ‘Canes and go CMR. Dawgs will handle their own business.
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We need the Canes to beat Miami and Clemson to beat the Canes.
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Are you by chance the same bigshotdawg that posts on the Dawgrun?
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I want Miami to win because I think they are the easiest out in the top 10….simple as that.
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That too.
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Hear what you’re saying, but I can’t pull for Notre Dame in anything, fock’em….unless we need them to win. Right now, we don’t.
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Class from both coaches. Love it.
Now if only anonymous fans on the internet could follow their lead…
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Evidently that’s too much to ask.
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Hearing the respect between Coach Richt and Coach Smart is a good thing. The seniors ( and juniors) Mark Richt recruited and coach are a big part of the success of this team. Both men are showing class and sportsmanship in how they are handling the transition. Some of our fan base could learn a lesson from them.
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Whatever happened to last year’s narrative of “our offensive linemen are horrible and we have to wait for Kirby to recruit and coach better ones”?
That usually came packaged with “we shouldn’t expect anything until at least 2018”.
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We’ve been playing the QB with the better Spring QBR. 😉
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I too love the respect between both coaches, I’ll almost always pull for CMR while he’s there at MIA especially if he can out-recruit or steal a good bit from FU. If FSU gets there stuff together and MIA continue to do as they are now, all FU can say is “Well, we play in the SEC” as does Mizz, Vandy and UK…I’ll love that. Fully behind coach Smart, still got love for coach Richt.
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Two damn good dawgs, hope they both win tomorrow.
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Ha! You thought he was referring to Eason.
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What would you expect Kirby to say?
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Isn’t this supposed to be a throw away season?
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I love Mark Richt and wish him the best. Always have. I think for Bulldog reasons I have to root for Notre Dame tomorrow, but it’ll be the first time I’ve ever rooted against Coach Richt.
I wonder which quarterback Kirby’s referring to here, though. I wonder if he thought of Eason as being a holdover from Coach Richt’s recruiting and he’s talking about Fromm?
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He’s talking about the QB he started last year and picked to start the season this year. Kirby had to re-recruit Eason when he was hired.
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I’m aware of that. But I also don’t think there’s any debate that the offense is running better with Fromm playing. Granted, we really don’t have any idea how it would be running with Eason at the controls this year. But to get where we are now, we had to sign Jake Fromm. Doesn’t mean it couldn’t have happened with Eason, but it didn’t.
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You inferred a whole lot that wasn’t in the question/answer.
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There’s no debate but we don’t have any idea. Got it.
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I’m definitely pulling for Miami because the scenario of barely losing the SECC and getting snubbed frolm the playoffs is a very real possibility. Mark my words, between a 1 loss ND and 1 loss UGA, ND will get the nod.
I also think the root for ND for our strength of schedule argument falls flat. A 2 loss ND would still be top 15 I believe, and wins against a ranked Miss St and Auburn would leave our resume very competitive.
It’s imperative that ND gets another loss somewhere and I’d love to see CMR give it to them.
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+1000 JC. I think too many Dawg fans have red colored glasses on if they think we get in over 11-1 ND with an SECC loss, just because “SEC!” Many of you have issues with Derek, but he’s spot on above when he says we need lots of 2 loss teams to guarantee a back door in to the playoffs should we lose to Bama.
All of that said, I expect more chaos to actually happen (who saw Iowa crushing OSU?) but if we take care of our own business, everyone else can go undefeated the rest of the season and it won’t be UGA that is left out.
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Does anyone else remember the ole miss game last year? I am pretty sure ESPN crew spent the last quarter talking about how much more talented Ole miss was, and how far behind UGA was in terms of talent. Not saying they were correct, but just interesting that 1 year later how the tables have turned.
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Well, the “horse” has spoken from both sides of his mouth between this year and last year. I think he had some first-year coach jitters and was hedging his bets and pre-emptively looking for reasons / excuses in case he didn’t win to expectations last year.
The cupboard wasn’t bare, but it wasn’t exceptional or deep, either.
Winning and time have perhaps made CKS a little more gracious and feeling more secure. But he’s winning with both his players and CMR’s players, and that’s great.
I will say this – as mentioned above, I think he’s improved in his PR and demeanor 100% since he took the job. I sure like him a helluva lot more than I did two months into his tenure…although winning can do that, too. 😉
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There was talent on the roster, BUT we had zero depth at QB, WR, and OL.
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Maybe Smart is a politician like the rest of them.
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OoooWEE, these comments gonna be GOOD!
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Since who I root for affects nothing regarding the game outcome or playoff picture, but only is an external expression of my feelings, I’m rooting for UM and Coach Richt against ND, a team I’ve never liked. Easy call.
I will root loudly for our Dawgs tomorrow on the Plains and bring more red to an orange land. Maybe we’ll see the hoses again once its over!
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‘ “I tell our kids all the time that humility is just a week away, and that goes for our entire program,” Smart said. “We’re not there yet, not even close. We’ve made progress and are continuing to make progress in a lot of areas. We’ve got good players, and I love the way our kids are working and have bought in. But we don’t have the kind of players Alabama has. They’re the standard, and we’ve got to keep recruiting better players, developing those players and coaching them.” ‘
http://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/21353392/timing-was-right-georgia-bulldogs-coach-kirby-smart
FWIW
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One day before the biggest game of the last five or six years or longer and you guys are worrying about shit that simply does not matter.
I would prefer to worry about Awbun…that matters, the only thing that matters.
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I am worried about awbun. That’s why I’m screwing around with possibles…. to keep my mind off the fact that my gut tells me Kirby isn’t fucking around and the Gus bus out of town will be warming up by start of the 4th. Also to drown out Little Munson who is yelling in my other cosmic ear “Hey, it’s Auburn! They can play too and they hate us as bad as we hate them.” Not to mention all the face plants and foot shots we have been conditioned to expect over the last decade or so.
My eyes say this is not the same team, my well trodden heart isn’t quite there yet. So allow me the indulgence?
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Thank you. Truer words have never been spoken
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Cupboard may not have been bare but there was some moldy bread and Kirby made a killer run to the grocery store.
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Maybe the quarterback Smart was referring to isn’t Eason. Maybe he was referring to Fromm.
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Fromm was committed to Bama.
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It never ceases to amaze me how some of you can’t bring yourselves to say (or type) a nice word about CMR anytime he is mentioned. If it weren’t for him we wouldn’t be at the level we are at now. In case some of you have forgotten (and those of us who lived through the Goff/Donnan years haven’t) we were one more bad hire away from being S. Carolina or present day UT. The final years of the Dooley regime started the downward trend. Goff recruited well but couldn’t coach. Donnan would beat who he was supposed to and lose to UF, UT, Auburn, and GT every freaking year. Mark Richt raised the standard at the program during the first part of his tenure and kept the program at an above average level until he left. WS it time for a change? Absolutely. And I think both parties made out for the better. Never forget that the series against Auburn and Tech both turned and were sustained by CMR coached teams. He is a DGD and a good man. I’ll root for his teams unless it is against the Dawgs or affects our chances for the playoff or a bowl game in a negative way.
It’s possible to appreciate what Richt did for the program, be glad the change was made, and support Kirby and the current staff. It doesn’t have to be one side or the other.
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I think the world of CMR. Met him twice. Great guy. But he don’t work here no more.
Now let’s go kick ass. Awbun first.
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Yep, all this angst about the previous hired help. Interesting in light of the game tomorrow.
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You are correct, of course. But it’s not going to matter to a bunch of folks here, who are determined to MAKE it be one side or the other.
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Nicely said.
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Meant for Rocketdawg, it’s late. Udub going down to the Tree.
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