One of the faithful narratives of a certain segment of the Georgia fan base eager to see Mark Richt shown the exit door was that the man’s ability to recognize talent was overrated — this was, after all, a coach who pursued Cam Newton as a tight end, we were told repeatedly. Obviously, judgment like that was prima facie evidence that Richt was unqualified to run a football program.
Nah, you need someone whose eye for talent is unimpeachable. You know, somebody like Jeremy Pruitt, who could be counted on to identify the perfect future for a recruit. Like Lamar Jackson, for example.
Jackson has said that as a recruit he heard from at least one SEC football program recruiting him to play safety, though he hadn’t played safety in high school.
“Georgia said they wanted me at safety,” Jackson said in a 2016 interview prior to his Heisman Trophy-winning season. “They were out of the equation right after they said that. …
“I think it was the defensive coordinator. He called me and was like, ‘I like your speed. I think you’d be a great fit at safety.’ I was like, ‘Coach, I play quarterback.’ He was like, ‘Well, here’s the offensive coordinator.’ I was like, ‘Yeah, I’m not going there.'”
This would have been former coach Mark Richt’s staff at UGA, and the defensive coordinator – assuming that was the coach who called Jackson – would have likely been Jeremy Pruitt, who went on to become the head coach at Tennessee.
The point here isn’t to knock Pruitt’s judgment. After all, he was far from alone in recognizing Jackson’s ability to play the quarterback position in college. Nor is it to immunize Richt against all criticism. But, man, was that “Cam as a tight end” meme dumb.
(h/t)
Get The Picture 
I haven’t had my coffee yet but if I’m reading this right you are using the fact that UGA apparently recruited another Heisman Trophy winning quarterback for another position as a way to defend Richt’s talent evaluation. Alrighty then
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I love it when people with poor reading comprehension skills try to blame it on my ability to communicate clearly.
Needless to say, you didn’t read it right. Not that I expect you care. Although you do make my underlying point nicely.
Enjoy your morning cup!
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Thanks I will.
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Please tell me this is a joke. Otherwise you have the worst reading comprehension skills on earth.
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It wasn’t a joke – but I was standing in line at Starbucks.
Admittedly freshman English was the worst grade I made at UGA and weighed on my magna cum laude distinction.
Notwithstanding being dense on the meaning of this post (which I still haven’t re-read), I’ve managed to do ok for myself somehow.
I’ll remove my foot from my mouth now
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Props for admitting you made a mistake; most people would either double down or attempt to move the goalposts in some fashion.
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But if Jackson’s tape was already out there as QB, didn’t Richt see him as a prospective QB and pass him over, where Jeremy saw him as a diamond in the rough safety? 😉 Just giving you a hard time Senator. Can we all agree that evaluation is not a science? If so Coker would of rocked it leveraging the recruiting rankings.
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Bingo.
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Great, that’s really helpful. It’s good to know people can’t be held accountable for a poor decision because it’s not a science. Man, talent evaluation is a really hard job !
I offer a more productive way to look at it : mistakes were and are made. Once a mistake is identified you check your assumptions and figure out what needs to change about them so this same mistake is not made again.
I’d rather recognize good and bad talent evaluation than just say , aw hell thats alright, there’s no science to it !
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LMAO. Richt is gone, so somebody held him accountable.
If talent evaluation was a science, Nick Saban would never have to run a player off, because everyone he signed would pan out.
What Saban and Smart do, along with all the other great recruiters, is flood a program with talent and shoot for a lot more working out than not. If you want to call that science, be my guest.
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I don’t want to call it science, but I don’t want to hand out free passes, either. So Richt missed on Newton, Watson , and now we hear Lamar Jackson also. Of course he hit on plenty of good ones as well. I don’t expect any coach to get it all right. The NFL has virtually unlimited resources and they whiff all the time. I just don’t think it’s productive at all to make use of or even point out the obvious crapshoot excuse.
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Yeah, it’s a shame he could never sign a talented quarterback.
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Not making this about Richt , just using the two examples you cited. (I threw in Watson). The post is about talent evaluation , and we’re all familiar with our own high profile misses. If invoking Richt muddies my point, then feel free to swap coaches and player names.
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And now 3 years later, after the fact, a new meme emerges. “Richt didn’t get no good QB’s!” Kirby’s system of signing two top prospects in a row and mixing in a throw-away season to get the younger one ready is the new trend. 😉
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“But, man, was that “Cam as a tight end” meme dumb.”
I felt that way as well. You know hindsight makes people look really smart, and those who need the ego boost will play it like a drum.
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Cam would have made a terrible TE, even though he had the physical attributes to be great at it. Here’s why..Cam is a ham. He needs to be the center of attention. I remember how, at AU, he would often lay on the ground for an inordinate time after a play, while up in the stand, the Barners would hold their collective breath in fear that he was injured. Then he would get up and the Barners would all cheer and slap hands and backs. Cam would flash his grin and go back to work. He couldn’t do all that if he was blocking at TE. But I’ll give him this..he almost single handily won them a Natty.
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Shit he still does this in the pros. The man is a showboat, no two ways about it.
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Can I just say, Cam’s career is going about the best way I could have hoped. I love seeing him get teased with success and then get squished like a bug.
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People in NC always wondered why I hated the Panthers with all of the Dawgs that have played there and been stars. I respond with two words … $Cam Newton.
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#1 sure did look a lot like $cam out there on Saturday. Not quite as big but big enough. Fields also has better burst and he’s a much better passer this early in his career.
That kid is going to make some DC’s miserable.
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I agree. The kid looks like he’s going to be an electric player.
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Agree. Cam’s main issue has always been accuracy. Heck he’s only something like a 58% career passer in the NFL, which ranks I believe second to last over NFL QB’s over the past 10 years who have started at least 5 games. Aside from Cam’s MVP season, looking objectively at his stats, they are very mediocre and clearly shows he’s overrated in his career.
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Yep, he’s got to run the ball to be effective. He did that during his NFL season, but it takes a toll on your body.
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Am betting he will not be stealing computers either and getting kicked out of UGA to go to highest bidder.
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Basketball is king and with the ACC around, many people in NC don’t even know about Cam’s time in college. It genuinely surprises them as he’s had some success and does good things in the community when they find out most SEC fans are not big supporters,
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Is there anyone who truly believes Urban Meyer, you know, the guy who let his DE play in the SECCG (IIRC) after being loaded behind the wheel the week of, the guy who didn’t suspend a player for trying to steal his gf’s car from the police impound (again, IIRC), would have let Cam Newton go if he knew, correction, if had had correctly evaluated, his potential?
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Great point. UM had some really “nice ‘uns” that he let stick around because of their talent. If he had only known CN’s potential, we would have likely never heard about his transgressions.
It’s the kind of mistake that could give a man chest pains.
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This isn’t about “evaluation” it’s about getting the right fit for your team. As good as both these guys were they were not under center, read the entire field, go through progressions, stay in the pocket and throw strikes qbs out of HS.
Whether you feel we should have been something else is a different question. You don’t sign Nick Marshall to play qb at Washington state and you don’t sign matt Stafford to play at tech. Doesn’t mean both can’t play the position at the right place for them.
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Yes there is a point to that but in the college game, you have to evolve as you can’t make anyone a franchise player and keep him for a decade or more. Bama and now UGA are recruiting pocket passers, and dual threats.
UGA passed on dual threat QBs who were more on the run side once Bobo took over at OC. One of the gripes the fire Bobo group had was he forced talent to fit his play calling rather than adapt to what he was given. The observation goes for talent that was signed as well as talent he passed on recruiting. It was not THE reason Richt was fired but it was a reason, and we’re in the off season with little to talk about.
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Not arguing that point, I’m just saying its a different point. We were a pro-style offense under CMR and they weren’t going to take a chance on a kid that might not adjust to taking snaps under center.
It does seem that the middle ground Saban has picked allows for you to go with either or in terms of QB archetypes. But much like his defense, that choice requires better players at almost every position than the other guy.
A simplified pass game behind a dominant running game is not something you can always count on. Most teams have to specialize in trying to be one type of offensive team or the other. Trying to be all things to every qb would be a disaster at most places including UGA under CMR.
Given that we nearly beat Saban in 2012 with CMR’s approach with a roster that objectively was not in the same league, I can’t say he was wrong.
What Kirby has done is say that we can replicate and beat Alabama by beating them on the recruiting trail. We all hoped that could be true, but we didn’t know it until it happened.
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Richt last won the under Shockley who followed Greene. He was recruiting and playing pro style and dual threat. He then handed the keys to the offense off.
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*won the SEC
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They didn’t change the offense for Shockley. He got under center plenty.
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He ran plenty too
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Running the ball isnt what changes the nature of the offense. You can have pro-style offenses that run plays that require qb athleticism. See: NE running throw back pass to Brady in the SB. You just don’t run them so much.
The real distinction is where the qb lines up: center or shotgun AND
What is the qb’s responsibility in getting you in the right play and going through progressions.
For example at auburn even what appears to be a read option is often dictated as a hand off or a keep when the play is called. That’s not what a prostyle offense does.
Having a qb who can mentally do all that stuff, get under center and throw into tight windows vs. complex coverages is where the dividing line is.
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Shock was the last CMR QB where the offense called QB runs or optional run in normal down and distances. Murray’s mobility was an asset when recruited but rarely displayed in game and often only when the game was on the line his senior year. Bauta started and his mobility was not used.
A good staff can shift play calling style as the QB skills and other skill players change.
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Patience lost:
This is where we don’t really understand why were full of shit.
We were not a running QB team. So using a running qb wasn’t really our bag and therefore recruiting running qb’s was not something were were looking to do. So we did not recruit Lamar Jackson or Newton or Marshall to play QB because SEE BAUTA dummy and Logan Gray before that. Those guys were recruited to be scout teamers to give us looks, period. The good players saw that or feared that so they went elsewhere.
Shockley ran our offense. He ran some. But he ran our offense as intended. Pro-style, play-action, balanced.
Throwing Bauta out there thinking we’re suddenly going to morph into UF circa 2008 is fucking stupid. He had his chances to tuck it and run just like Shockley did. He had chances on both designed runs and improvised runs. Bauta DID NOT tuck in and run. They recorded it. You can watch him one on one with a UF edge defender and BAUTA loses.
Was it fear? Was it over confidence in his arm? Was he just not that good? (My theory btw.) I don’t know. I do know that there were plays that he could have tucked it and ran JUST LIKE SHOCK and he did NOT RUN. He also had read options that he kept it and got eaten up. That’s on him.
Yes there are runs designed for the QB and you call them more when Shock is the qb and not so much when Hutson is the QB. That’s why you saw less of them: Matt, Aaron, Joe, Hutson and Greyson were NOT Shockley idiot.
We simply were not a team for whom it made sense to recruit those guys to play QB. Watson was different because he could throw dimes. Do you know that when he’s 14 tho? Probably not. We could not afford not to care whether or not he could throw the ball and he couldn’t afford to be fair catching punts because we recruited a better fit at the position.
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Totally, if only Newton was a good passer.
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Pretty good HS recruiting tape. Anyone show that to Bobo?
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Very well. Mostly passes.
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Also, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0QrsdCY7z8s
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Bauta was never given the chance to be Tebow not in a spring game, not in a regular season game. He was never even given the chance to be Shockley which I disagree with you on the amount of called runs for DJ
Simply not being a team to recruit those guys is not an excuse. As evidenced by Bama currently, Clemson went back to more pass oriented after Watson. Auburn also went back to fewer runs from the QB last year based on the skill set at QB. Using a QB with mobility is not a complete program overhaul.
The dividing line with UGA is clear Bobo did not give his QBs room for mobility nor did he recruit them for such. Murray’s runs against UT and Auburn his Senior year compared to his prior games are evidence of that. If you dig back here, there was a post linking an article where CMR said he knew Watson was going to be a good prospect but Bobo did not pursue him. Bobo wanted a pocket passer, and was bent on calling such. Richt had success with dual threats and pockets and could shift between the 2 at FSU as he did while calling plays at UGA.
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Otto, you are right. DJ in 12 starts ran a whopping 78 times in 2005.
Meanwhile, Murray ran a measly 87 times in EACH of his first 2 seasons.
(Stafford ran a mere 55 times in his final year.)
What can I say. You’re right. Shockley ran more than Murray.
You know they keep stats on these things right so that your opinions don’t stink like you know what?
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CB,
I bet this kid is the next Joe Mantegna!
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Derek thank you for admitting you’re wrong. Congrats on showing how little you understand. Rush attempts includes sacks.
Shockley had 322 yards and 4.1 per carry compared to Murray’s Sr year with 186 and 3.5 per carry. BTW 53 yards were in 1 run against Tennessee. Murray’s Jr year was -1.2 yards per carry.
Lets keep this on, I like winning and you’re an easy target.
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Fine, the 78 rushes were all called runs and he never improvised and took off nor was DJ ever sacked. Fine.
I’d think his rushing totals in comparison to Matt and aaron are a reflection of DJ’s ability to run and his similar number of attempts is a reflection of the fact that they did not substantially change the offense.
But lets test your theory which is:
Clemson’s offense with Watson can be compared to UGA’s with DJ. Ok fine lets see.
DJ ran 78 times for 400 yards in 12 games.
Meanwhile, Deshaun ran the ball 372 times for 1732 yards in his last 30 starts.
But despite the fact that Deshaun ran twice as many times for twice as many yards, Clemson’s offense in 2015 and 16 was EXACTLY LIKE UGA’s in 2005. MIRROR FUCKING IMAGES!!!
Stop dummy. Just stop.
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Y’all can have it out about Murray and Shockley’s rushing attempts, but your argument that Cam couldn’t pass in high school is downright moronic. I didn’t say anything about Nick Marshall.
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On the Nick Marshall Film: There are like 3-4 passes in the highlight, one of which should have been intercepted, and it ends with him picking off a pass as a db lol. Are you sure you meant to submit that to evidence?
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You didn’t disprove anything, you can have an impact on the game .Never said they were mirror images. So stop adding words to my posts. Again you can run a dual threat effectively without completely changing the offense. So just stop before you prove my points.
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DJ was run enough to force teams to factor him in to defending. OC is a numbers game and making the D defend as much as possible. We hear all the time about making a D defend the deep threat. How many throws actually exploit that. Allowing a QB to run as Shock did is enough to keep an ILB busy which is one less man the OL has to defend or one less covering a TE or RB.
Watson rushed for 500 fewer yard his last season at Clemson. Was that because he worse or the team declined? Or did the OC take advantage of the attention defense gave him. BTW passing yards went up by about the same amount. I think someone won a national title in their last year.
Did UGA or Auburn completely change between Auburn games this past year or did some quick passes open up the offense?
It doesn’t take a complete scheme change for an element to be added which impacts the entire game.
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Otto,
Exactly. If you can run too great. But changing the offense to accommodate a different skill set is not necessarily a good plan.
That was precisely my point. Thanks for making it.
CB,
There’s more to being a passer than arm strength. The most important value in a passing qb is accuracy. Nothing in cam’s HS tape showed that quality. In fact he struggled with accuracy during the first half of his last college season and still struggles with it.
As good as jalen Hurts is his inability to throw it almost cost them a natty. Saban can’t assess talent I guess.
Some teams are gonna make a guy make throws from the pocket. I know you all know all these can’t miss sophomores in HS who are dual threat prospects who won’t be that liability in the passing but I just think your both full of it.
As the entire post was about: it’s a crap shoot not a science.
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You should rewatch Cam’s highlights. Most of his passes are short throws. You’re clueless my friend. But you seem determined to die on this hill so I’ll leave you to bleed out. With your last breath you can declare that Cam Newton wasn’t suited for Georgia’s offense. I’ll send word to your family.
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Also, why are you talking about offensive strategy like you’re qualified to evaluate SEC caliber game planning? You don’t know what the strategy was. You weren’t there. You don’t know why Bobo didn’t recruit Cam Newton. Did you have a one on one conversation with him? Using your logic from below unless you were there you couldn’t possibly know. One thing is for sure. You are in no way qualified to explain Georgia’s offensive strategy. I don’t either, but I don’t have to be an astronaut to tell that you can’t fly a space shuttle. Please sit down.
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Hindsight is 20/20 but Newton won an NFL MVP Award. Doesn’t get anymore prostyle than that.
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Mike Vick made 4 Pro Bowls. Doesn’t make him a pro-style qb.
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Cam Newton and Mike Vick really only have one thing in common and it’s not the way they play qb.
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Herpes?
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LOL
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I’m willing to give CMR a pass on Cam and Jackson. Nobody has a crystal ball when it comes to recruiting. Plenty of 5 stars don’t turn out to be what you hoped and some three stars turn out great. A lot of it has to do with player motivation which you can’t always get right. What bothered me about CMR, and why I’m glad he’s gone, was (1) roster management and (2) his annoying habit of blowing games at the end with an absolutely bonehead decision. Otherwise CMR was a good (not great) HC.
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I agree, but one I can’t give him a pass on was Deshaun Watson. It was a complete miss by Richt and Bobo with all of the evidence right out front.
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Do we REALLY know what happened with Watson? I see all the speculation about it but I don’t know any real facts about it. It looks to me that we just lost a recruiting battle or at least that what’s known.
If they really just liked Ramsay better then yes that’s fucking stupid. I just don’t know what’s “real” there. I think it hurt us that it had been so long since Watson could see us use a qb like him whereas Boyd was playing at clemson during his recruitment.
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A lot of rumors but the main thing was Dabo offered Watson as a 9th grader and did a great job of recruiting him. We didn’t offer until he was a junior.
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and that’s hardly indefensible. Dabo took a chance and it paid off. He fell in love with the right 13 year old. I say that’s more luck than skill.
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Fair enough … there were lots of rumors in and around Gainesville about how Georgia mishandled Watson’s recruitment.
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I know all that. I just don’t know what’s true and what’s bullshit. A lot of people like to claim they know the “scoop” and they don’t know anything.
I think we were patient wanting to see how he’d develop before we went all in on him and we couldn’t show him any recent examples of how we’d deploy him and clemson was all in early. Can’t blame anybody there IMHO.
It sucks but if we recruit him early and he ends up being LeMay v.2 (who may have served as a cautionary tale) then where are we?
I’m a firm believer that Ramsay would have won 3 Heismans and been the no. 1 pick if we lose him to Bama because that’s just our luck under CMR. The ones we got flamed out and the ones we lost became all-world.
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Your last point is something people conveniently overlook. Ramsay was a 4* recruit that Bama and a lot of top programs wanted, and it was a “win” when we got him. For whatever reason, he didn’t pan out in college. It happens.
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An offer from Bama and an offer from UGA under Richt are two totally different things. Bama offers any and every player that they think might have a chance to be decent.
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In fact, Bama offered and signed two qb’s in Ramsey’s class, one of which was ranked higher.
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Yeah, all zero of the heisman qb’s in the history of Bama’s program make that a solid assumption.
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Any coach who wasn’t in on Watson early just wasn’t paying attention. I’m not at all qualified as a talent evaluator, but I was pretty confident that he was going to be a Heisman contender after he threw for 3oo yards and 5 TD’s in a region championship game against my Alma Mater during his sophomore year. I told Clemson fans as much in 2014. I even left my section in Sanford when we played them because I just knew they were going to come back and win with Watson in the game, and I didn’t want to hear it from the obnoxious Clemson morons that were surrounding me in the 600 section. Fortunately Dabo is dense and took him out. Bobo dropped the ball with Watson and by extension so did Richt.
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Did you know it when he was in 9th grade b/c that’s the relevant time frame?
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No, but it’s not my job to know. I discovered Watson’s Heisman caliber talent by accident during his sophomore season, and I’m just some guy with an interest. Bobo didn’t figure it out for another year. You find that irrelevant? Bobo was paid hundreds of thousands of dollars annually and decided that Brice Ramsey was the guy.
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I’m saying that you don’t know that you knew before Bobo. I’m sure its very self-gratifying to think so.
If Clemson offered in 9th grade and he picked Clemson because “they believed in him first” good for them. I don’t think every team that didn’t offer before Dabo is manned by idiots/people dumber than you. You are free to believe that tho.
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Every team that didn’t Watson him isn’t less than an hour’s drive away. I’m not tooting my own horn, I’m saying that any idiot (me in your view) could see the greatness in Watson early on. And if you watch Brice Ramsey’s high school film, it wasn’t exactly promising. Now, did I just guess correctly on both? Perhaps, but that’s not the issue here. The issue is Georgia whiffed on a can’t miss prospect in their own backyard. Are you seriously going to make me post Watson’s tweet about Bobo? I’m trying to give you a chance to make a clean break from your position without resorting to that hammer drop.
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Again, its great to think that you were ahead of the curve here and we dropped the ball. I get that some think that and you KNOW that. I’m just willing to say “I don’t know” because I don’t. I don’t know the date of Clemson’s offer and I don’t know the date of UGA’s.
I don’t know if we fucked it up and lost him or if we never had a chance because of circumstances outside our control. I DON’T KNOW.
I will say that if we weren’t on that kid after Gainesville beat Buford someone should be shot. IF that happened. I DON’T KNOW.
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BTW I know about the tweet. Do we have Bobo’s retort? Any follow up questions. It proves that there were adverse feelings for sure. Why they were there I don’t know. Again I DON’T KNOW.
Watson went to Clemson FIVE times in 2011. That’s 4 more than anywhere else. Maybe Bobo knew they were late and were trying to tease or challenge him. Who knows? They do. I DON’T KNOW.
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The great thing about the internet is you can look that up. Watson committed to Clemson on Feb 1 2012, and Georgia didn’t offer him until Januray of 2013. Apparently Clemson offered so early that it didn’t even register on the 247 timeline which was admittedly a gamble, but it paid off. Other programs of note that offered Watson before Bobo were Auburn, Ohio State, Georgia Tech, Louisiana Lafayette, Cal and UNC.
With regard to the tweet A. coaches aren’t allowed to comment on recruits and B. It doesn’t matter why there were adverse feelings, if Watson was given the impression that Bobo didn’t think he could run Georgia’s offense then Georgia fucked up. Period.
Whether I KNEW Watson was going to be great or not is of no consequence. Nobody (not even the coaches) really ever KNOW because nobody can predict the future. I could tell you that I predicted Fromm’s success at Georgia when he was in high school, but you wouldn’t care. I could tell you that I watched Bailey Hockman in high school and determined that he wasn’t any good, but you wouldn’t care. As you shouldn’t because it’s irrelevant.
My ability to evaluate talent has no impact on this discussion. All that matters is that a Heisman caliber qb in Georgia’s backyard never gave us a look and there are no magic forces that put you out of the running before you even get started.
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As far as either one of us know someone asked Bobo why Deshaun was going to Clemson and Bobo out of frustration, an attempt at humor or whatever said that. OR someone made it up and told Deshaun. OR it could have also been the omission of an offer. WE DON’T KNOW.
There is nothing in the tweet that says: Bobo told me to my face on X date that I wasn’t good enough to play at UGA.
The UGA offer came the month after the tweet right?
Might be a lot more to this story than we know.
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Maybe you are perhaps right if something that may or may not have happened perhaps didn’t, but if we weren’t there then nobody knows, and I’ve never seen Nick Saban up close in person so he may be a robot. Who could say? Nobody knows for sure. Maybe he wasn’t a robot at first but he got kidnapped by aliens and replaced with a robot. There is no way to know after all, I wasn’t there and you weren’t there where is the proof? Did DeShaun Watson tweet about it? If he did could he be trusted? Why would he say that? All I know for sure is that we don’t know anything.
^^ This is you
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Saban as robot just isn’t that far fetched. Have you seen him try to smile?
There’s a flaw in that model.
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Maybe there is a flaw… Maybe. No way to know. We are full agnostic on everything. Your eyes could be deceiving you. Maybe Saban has a normal smile and everyone else is doing it wrong. There COULD be a lot more to the story. This IS NOT Mike Bobo’s fault.
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This is the version my Clemson boss relays when I ask
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Not to fan the Richt-click flames, but….didnt Pruitt/Ala (prior to FSU stint) poach Derrick Henry from Richt/UGA….Henry was committed to UGA for the longest….after UGA wanted him to play LB….and Pruitt/Ala wanted him to play RB?
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I don’t think so. I always thought he saw the depth chart at running back with Gurley and Marshall and decided to reopen his recruitment.
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He definitely wanted to play RB. I don’t think he committed to us as an OLB though. I think he was recruited as a RB. I have to admit I was shocked at how good he turned out. I didn’t think a guy that big good be that productive. His conditioning was unreal.
The guy we told the truth to and lost on was Allen bailey. He ended up going to Miami because they said they’d play him at ILB. Of course he wound up where we said he would all along playing with his hand in the dirt.
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Those of us that have “Been in the Arena,” view Cam as a TE the least of Preacher Coach’s deficiencies. Starting in the ’06 Sugar Bowl, CMR had several on-field coaching decisions that cost games. It was like having a First Year Coach every year for fifteen years. Completely unfair, of course; in football there’s winning and misery and nothing more miserable than the Squib Kick vs Tech and overruling Murray on the Spike in ’12 SECCG. Two in-game decisions that were egregiously bad calls. Not fans don’t know nothing bad calls but Football 101 bad calls and bad calls that would prompt any organization to make a change.
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https://www.instagram.com/p/Bh-Du4KANMr/
This is pretty funning as well. “Powered by the T”
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Somehow I missed Tracy Rocker landing at Tennessee. The name of the game in rebuilding is recruiting, especially in a less that less than fertile state like Tennessee.
That’s a bold strategy, Cotton. Let’s see if it pays off for them.
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Another familiar name on that staff – Will Friend for OL coach.
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Amazing how a guy who made working in Athens miserable can hire former coworkers from his days in Athens……
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This is a giant crock of shit. Does anyone think Floyd (UGA), Mathieu (LSU), Fairley (Auburn) or Ha Ha (Bama) want their likeness on a UT recruiting pitch???
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I am obviously pleased with Kirby, but I still say firing Richt was a low percentage move, like running a red light, sure you might save some time but you also may die. Fortunately, we beat the historical odds when you fire a .750 coach and so everything worked out for the best, we got an even better coach, Richt was unemployed for about 10 minutes, and our exceptional luck will inspire generations of our opponent’s fans to think maybe they can also beat the odds. Cheers to us.
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I don’t run red lights because I always leave with enough time to be early for everything (thank you US Navy and disgusting smugness, lol) but sitting at one just because it’s red with no cars coming and knowing you can move forward can be frustrating. In the CFP world (not a big fan) historically going .750 and not winning the division (unless you’re Bama) wasn’t going to cut it and a move had to be made: factoring in risk, factoring in difficulty and moving outside of the comfort of 10 wins a year. It’s a higher percentage play than I respectfully think you credit because systematically UGA is set up to win at around .750 worst case scenario. Like the saying A students work for C students: C student UGA Athletic Department needed a new A student to coach football to a better spot than it was.
A question I have: does Richt stay at Miami 15 yrs winning 10 a season? Miami actually won something during the 38 yrs we’ve gone dry and has a right to demand more.
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Well, I’ve never “been in the arena”, but if UGA is set up to win at a .750 level by default, then why haven’t we over the last 120 years?
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Bad hires, and being afraid of the NCAA (Gurley, AJ)
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Good point, Sir and valid. My thought on this is with the money coming in over the last 20 years, the scheduling and the change in Georgia producing talent all fundamentally set up Georgia better than previous decades. To go back a little further to Coach Dooley and since he became coach, UGA has been in an upward trajectory as a program (with some natural stumbles) to hold a very good position winning percentage wise where the only tweak needed is at the head coach position. Let’s make no mistake, too, Coach Richt took our program to a level that over 120 years was an outlier but I think everyone agrees he left it in a better place fundamentally than previous coaches. Do you think I’m wrong to credit him for that? Looking at future our scheduling and current resources do you think .750 would not be a reasonable expectation for any UGA Headcoach?
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Okay, I do agree that we’re now all rowing in the same direction and ready to actually take advantage of all the money and talent we have access to. We should be a monster, if last season is any indicator (and I think it is). So in that context, 0.750 should be a minimum.
Richt certainly moved the bar, but he had peaked for whatever reason. I was in the “keep him” camp, but it’s obviously been the best move for everyone. I’m going to enjoy the Bammer tears when we kick their ass, repeatedly.
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I look forward to all the smiles when that happens, Russ. GoDawgs!
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Because UGA the program, school, and even state is vastly different than it was 30, 50, or 80 years ago. Total night and day.
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I disagree, and in fact as most of you know here, I called for CMR’s dismissal starting back in ’10, as I knew first hand just how poorly the program was being run. Regarding his winning percentage, in his final 7 years at UGA, it was almost identical to Donnan’s – and ole’ Jim was fighting against both a UT and UF programs at their absolute zenith. Hell, even GT was a far better program back then. More so, CMR’s record against ranked opponents was abysmal in his last 6-7 years – something like 13-29
Sure, firing CMR and hiring Smart (or anyone else) could have backfired on us, but we had to take that chance, as otherwise we would have continued in a typical state of drift with CMR at the helm.
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Donnan and Richt’s numbers were similar over the latter half of Richt’s tenure, except for the fact that Richt owned Auburn and Tech, and beat Tennessee most of the time, and started to even up the record against the Gators. Losing to ALL of those like Donnan did eats up a lot of goodwill with the fans.
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Like I said, I encourage all our opponent’s to attempt to replicate our success with this coaching change. I’m thrilled with how it turned out, however I will forever respect and appreciate Mark Richt for the reclamation job he did on Georgia football, I can’t help but think that those who seek to harbor so much rancor against him had to have 6 years old or younger when he took over or either have really poor memories. In the 12 seasons between Dooley and Richt we sucked ass, Goff especially. Donnan was slightly better but went 6-14 against AU, GT, UF, and UT. Richt never went worse than 2-2 against those guys in a given year and went 3-1 or 4-0 multiple times. We went 4-7 a couple of times under Goff, in 1998 under Donnan we went 8-4 with losses to UT, UF, AU, and GT, I’m here to tell you, I’d rather have not fielded a team that year. Dooley won ten games in 66, 71, 76, 80, 81, 82, and 83. Before Dooley I think we won ten games 3 times in 42, 46, and 59. Goff won ten once in 92, and Donnan once in 97. Richt won ten in 02, 03, 04, 05, 07, 08, 11, 12, 14, and 15. Many people fatigued of Richt and that’s fine, it’s over, like I said it worked out for everybody. However, the fact is Richt had more sustained success than anybody who has ever coached here outside of Dooley and Dooley’s edge is largely due to the fact he happened to be here when Herschel Walker came, not to recognize that is to be ignorant of the actual history of Georgia football. Kirby appears poised to take us to heights never seen at UGA other than 80-83, I’m as happy about that as anybody but I’ll always respect Mark Richt and the job he did here.
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Agreed. This past season was a thing of beauty. With the coaching failure at Auburn being the exception. So far, so good with Kirby. I like what he’s doing with the program. I’m still no fan of Chaney, but the offseason coaching changes seem to indicate CKS isn’t completely sold on his decisions either. We beat people like drums this year and the Rose Bowl was magical. All of that being said……the jury is still out in regards to Kirby. 2 seasons does not a successful career make. Year 1 was abysmal. Year 2 was magical with 2 exceptions. Yet with all of the magic, we ended as SEC Champions (which I am more impressed with than a NC) and 1 regular season loss. Which is exactly where we were in 2002. If there were a 4 team playoff in 2002, we would have been the 3rd seed and very likely would have won the MNC. So. Let’s continue to wait, shall we, before we anoint CKS, Saban the Sequel……but the recruiting……
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As tough as Goff’s career was, his ’92 season beating ohio st bought him a lot of goodwill at the time. Moving to Glen Mason, er, Donnan and then Richt both moved us forward.
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Never understood Pruitt’s obsession with getting Mecole Hardman to be a DB. He was meant to have the ball in his hands, IMO.
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Pruitt is obsessed with everyone playing DB it appears. He wanted that big WR at Auburn, Darius Slayton to play DB at GA. Now he’s moved that Alontae Taylor, who UT got by promising him he’d play WR to cornerback.
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Slayton at Georgia as a WR would have been a good thing.
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Agreed.
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Most of the after-the-fact, 20/20 hindsight, recruiting “whiffs” taeks are extremely dumb, because its easy to say in hindsight, “this guy was good!”. But anyone with sense knows recruiting is a much more complex process than the simple question of “can this guy play X position well?” There are dozens (hundreds even!) of factors that go into evaluating, offering, and ultimately signing, on the part of both the staffs and the players. Reducing it to a single-factor, when a multi-factor analysis is required, is grossly misleading.
And of course, the ultimate question these people never even bother to even ask (much less answer!), is “would team ABC have been better off over 4 years with X at position Y, instead of the guy(s) they had?” And the reason they don’t ask this question is because then they would have to take a firm position that would be subject to scrutiny, instead of just taking pot shots at others…
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Rumor has it that even Dooley missed a few. I read somewhere that Deion Sanders was interested in Georgia until Dooley told him that he would have to redshirt. Now THAT’S a bold strategy, Cotton – if true.
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Joe Montana took a visit too… just sayin’.
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Mark Richt gave Pruitt full authority over the defense and carte blanche recruiting that side of the ball. Pruitt was pursuing defensive players exclusively. Just as Bmac recruited RBs to the exclusion of other positions. That’s the way CMR had it set up.
I wouldn’t be surprised at all if Pruitt and the D staff rarely coordinated with offensive coaches about recruits, be it Jackson, Hardman, or anyone else. It wouldn’t be a stretch to call it ‘every coach for himself recruiting’. That’s a big reason position coaches who recruited poorly, like the series of OL coaches, had such poor results.
I strongly doubt either CMR or CMB had any interest in Jackson as a QB. They want the prototypical pocket-passing QB. If he happens to have scrambling ability, like AM or DJ, it’s effectively coached out of him.
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Based on Jackson’s comments, they had plenty of company.
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That’s my take, too. Lack of coordinated, complementary, team-focused recruiting efforts. Very happy that “good enough” no longer appears to be the standard.
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“I strongly doubt either CMR or CMB had any interest in Jackson as a QB. They want the prototypical pocket-passing QB. If he happens to have scrambling ability, like AM or DJ, it’s effectively coached out of him.”
This, and they either could not or would not recruit the linemen to make it work.
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To make what work, exactly?
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The offense they were trying to run. Yes, I know they had one of the most prolific and productive offenses ever seen. Until they played a ranked team. Just my opinion, of course.
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Nick Marshall also at DB
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IMHO, Marshall would have been a first rounder at corner.
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