Looks like the 2017 Auburn loss is the new hope.
“Some of us experienced players that were here for that last year can grab some of that stuff from last year,” junior running back Elijah Holyfield said.
Georgia rebounded and reeled off three straight wins to reach the College Football Playoff.
“We’re a new team,” Holyfield said. “We’ll go back to work similar to what we did last year.”
…
“It gives us a platform,” quarterback Jake Fromm said. “Something to kind of work off of. It helped us last year and hopefully it helps us this year.”
Two problems I see here. One, it’s an imperfect analogy, as Smart acknowledges.
“I mean this is very similar to last year, and we probably played better leading up to our loss last year,” Georgia coach Kirby Smart said . “I didn’t think we had played as well this year. But we lost to a team (in) the West, on the road, everything’s still in front of us, what are we going to do from here? Because they define you by how you respond, not how you react. We’re going to respond the right way.”
The team played better leading to the Auburn loss than it has this season pre-Baton Rouge, so there was a standard then to bounce back to. That’s not the case in 2018, as the team has yet to turn in the kind of whole-game performance we all believe it’s capable of from a talent standpoint.
The second problem is that there’s a somewhat fine line between using what happened after last year’s regular season blowout loss as a road map to a better place now and simply using that experience as a crutch by assuming the magic will be there because… well, because. And if that sounds like an extension of the mindset that’s marked this Georgia team, so far, it’s only because it is.
The coaches have a couple of weeks to figure out that right response Kirby assures is there. Hope he can find the lever for that, and soon.
Get The Picture 
These guys need a pool day and the first off the high board should be Chaney.
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Cannonball. Thanks for making me laugh!
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If Chaney first that would be it for the day, no water left.
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Damn son.
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Saturday was a hard loss but I am still optimistic because there were plays that the team usually makes that were not made. I think that if they are able to really focus on correcting those mistakes and what they do well then this team can get to Atlanta without another loss.
If they cannot then we could lose to Florida and if things spiral from there we could be looking at another loss to Kentucky or Auburn. I am optimistically realistic in the rest of the season. We have good players and the last season and a half is not smoke and mirrors, just need to limit making mistakes and play smart.
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If we lose to Florida this season has turned into a disaster
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I wouldn’t goes as far as disaster, but definitely would say it’s headed south.
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I don’t know, dude. If we lose to Florida, it’ll sure feel that way, and no other win on the schedule will ever salve that wound.
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To not win even the East after going to the National Championship last year? To have ANOTHER first year UF coach go instead?
Yes, disaster
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By all rights, our team should whip Florida only needing 2 run plays and 2 rpo plays. Our D should just play base-man. If it takes a miracle performance to beat Florida then yes, disaster.
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Agree, it would be a disaster.
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I agree.
Expectations can only fall so far before they become disappointments.
Just go back and read all of those expectations..from the most highly regarded CFB “experts” on down to me, we were thinking the East would be a cakewalk. Now it’s becoming a hand-wringer hinging on the WLOCP outcome.
I think the Dawgs win, but I won’t sit down to watch it with a confident attitude.
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“Because they define you by how you respond, not how you react”? What does that even mean?
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The response is what happens next. Their reaction is to compare it to least season.
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Hair = split.
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Forget it, Gastr1. It’s coachspeak.
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Yeah, I know, he was rolling.
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You RESPOND to a 3-point, even a 10-point, deficit by ramming the ball down the opponents’ throat, then continuing to do so since they show no sign of stopping it. You REACT by abondoning said run game and resorting to assorted gimmickry. Hope this helps.
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Bingo!
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Reaction: emotional, in the moment action from your lizard brain
Response: reflective action based on core values, after some thought, from the front of your brain
It’s a popular phrase circulating in psychology right now: “Respond, don’t react.” Everything from corporate management to parenting classes.
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Oh FFS.
Psycho speak aside:
Run the damn ball, Kirby!
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Maybe Kirbz can go full corporate lingo and discuss ramping up to UF and incentivizing the players to perform better. Lort
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We need some synergy enhancing this team’s core competency.
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…..going forward to maximize brand recognition.
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Gotta get “drill down in there somewhere.
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And think outside of the box…and work smarter, not harder.
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I’ll save everyone the paywall for the Barnhart nugget—“We’ll learn a lot about Kirby and his staff over next 2 weeks. “
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“Keep an eye on Tennessee. Coach Pruitt and his staff have things headed in the right direction in Knoxville.”
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“You can throw out the records at the Cocktail Party in Jacksonville”
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“This year’s Cocktail Party will be a pivotal game for both programs.”
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Yes, they actually have a chance a bowl eligibility this season. My guess is it will come down to the Vandy game.
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The talent is there, so is the coaching at fault? Egos? Bad team dynamics? While we won’t know what the root of the problem is, I hope Kirby adresses it and fast! The Dawgs have had seven games to figure it out and yet it still stays the same. Get it together Dawgs!
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The consensus from the eternal optimists is that because our team is heavy on underclassmen, we can’t expect them to be coached, tackle, stick to their assignments, block, or show up for big games.
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There were at least 2 big plays we gave up that were the direct result of freshman not sticking with their assignments. Not saying that would have changed the outcome, but it would have helped.
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I think the consensus is more like young teams won’t play perfect every play, coaches are fallible, being down 3 DL and 2 OL matters, and it is very hard to go undefeated.
It’s not a bad place to go to the cocktail party with every goal for the season still in tact.
UF game will tell us more abut whether this is a one off or a trend.
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Following up on the two OLs who are out. Whatever happened to OG Kendall Baker? He started most games in last year’s championship hunt, and is a seasoned vet. Why put true freshman Salyer in to replace Kindley when you have Baker? I’ll hang up and listen.
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I have no good answer other than Pittman saying all things being equal he’s preferentially starting an underclassman if he’s tied with an upperclassman as far as execution since he would theoretically have more upside
That’s my best guess
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E.g. Burrow makes LeCounte look like a middle schooler on the long QB run. Is #2 not as talented as we presumed? Has he not been coached well? How do you decide?
Let’s stipulate you can’t make the decision on one bad play. But LeCounte — and Campbell — have begun to accumulate bad plays. Not as good as we thought, or not getting coached up to get the most out of their talent? I’m perplexed.
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Richard has not played to his potential last year or this.
Campbell is a true frosh and has played well for the most part. You would see his mistakes a bit more on an island, of course. Remember Brendan Langley, Shaq, or even as far back as Tony Flack, who started every game as a true frosh getting torched on one play by PSU in the Sugar.
The question really is, why is there a frosh starting, no matter how talented?
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The youth is certainly a factor. The best coaching can’t impart maturity, familiarity, and instinctiveness. Once players understand the system fully, they can play faster by reacting, rather than consciously making decisions.
But the bigger factor Saturday was coaching. Cheney never seemed to recognize that Fromm brought his C- game. Smart and Tucker never adjusted to LSU’s simple offense. In the SEC championship game, those same coaches nullified Auburn’s pace with their substitution strategy. Saturday, Tucker had his Belk Bowl moment trying to swap 300 pounders on the fly against a HUNH. Dumb.
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Unfortunately, some of our problems have been evident since the first game and they have not been corrected throughout the season. This UGA defense is soft up the middle. Austen Peay ran on us! Cox has consistently not set the edge, remember the “tough love” from the older teammates? We just aren’t there yet and folks need to understand that. The leadership we lost last year hasn’t been replaced as of yet. Sometimes, a loss will cause a shakeup and I hope that is what happens here. The offense can’t keep sleep walking through the first half and the defense cannot keep making the same mistakes over and over again.
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This is a tough one. My head says it’s 50/50 if we respond well and whip FU. We are who we are. We have been pretty consistent in our inconsistent play this year. Last year’s team had a completely different vibe. I don’t think anyone was surprised when we stomped AU in the SECCG. Even though a few weeks before we were humiliated by the same AU team. I don’t have that same confidence at this point. It’s hard to change who you are but that is what we have to do. My heart says this is just the slap in the face we needed. We play like wild men beat FU and win out. We will find out in 11 days.
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Definitely. We all knew the AU game was an aberration. The LSU game was an abomination. If what we’re doing isn’t working, for whatever reason you want to go with, we’re going to get handled. The only way we can overcome a talented, well-coached team is for Fromm to be on fire. That just doesn’t appear to be a possibility at this point.
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It would be interesting to go read the comments post Auburn last year. I have a feeling that the prevailing sentiment was probably not that was an aberration and we are just fine…
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Kirby Smart’s blow out losses to teams in the West.
Ole Miss on the road in ’16. Game over by half time.
Auburn on the road in ’17. Game over by half time.
Bama in championship game. Allowed a QB to come off the bench and truck Tucker’s defense and Chaney had no answer to Pruitt, “coach Urange as you all say”, who went on the road and beat Auburn.
Then comes LSU on the road. In essence Game over by half time.
Is there a coaching issue going on here.
Why, heck yes.
Every position coach at UGA is way too comfy with their job.
Especially, Tucker and Chaney.
Have some talent or so Dawgnation and the world rave about…all those 4/5*s.
45 for LSU dominated the Dawgs Oline. Too fast, did not miss execution, do not know what his star value is but he annilated all that frosh / sophomore talent on the O line.
Sdie bar.
Stop playing in JAX. Times are different now. The party is over.
Go home and home.
3 road games in a row.
WTF AD allowed that to happen.
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Never go home and home with UF, keep it in Jax.
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Agreed. The location is a feature, not a bug.
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Florida will be a front-seven line of scrimmage game.
Georgia needs to get Marshall, DaQuan, and Wyatt at full speed. Also, shuffling on the OL has hurt us since Cleveland went down. Kindley and Thomas are not 100%. Need to get them there as well. Perhaps this is why Georgia’s coaches took more risks with the LSU and Vanderbilt play calling.
Florida’s Jefferson and David Reese have returned since the Kentucky game and they are back at full strength along the defensive front. Also, since the Vanderbilt ejections took place right before the half, both Vosean Joseph and James Houston will be fully available for the Georgia game.
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Road games with a young team.
South Carolina
MIssouri
LSU
Florida
Kentucky
That is way too much games on the road for any SEC team.
This is was why alot of us had concerns about this team at the beginning of the season.
What frigging AD allowed that to happen.
KS should find the AD and kick his arse!
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If that’s why “alot of us had concerns about this team at the beginning of the season” then how come people like you only start bitching about it after a loss 7 games into it?
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Florida ain’t a road game, not a home game, but far from Red Stick and Lexington. These are the 2 big boys. I know Florida is 1st, but Lexington will be the decisive game to get to Atlanta.
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So, put “The New Bama” meme on ice for a couple weeks, and pull out the “National Signing Day Will be Epic” meme just in case Jax goes bad? Got it.
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It is interesting than the Auburn games last year is brought up, I thought the play selection reminded me of the Auburn game as the short perimeter passing game was not used in the loss, the runs were largely up the gut while struggling and passes were 15+ yards down field more often than in games past.
Fans may bash coaching but the team has 68% Freshman and Sophomores, I remember Tennessee pushing stats like that in the past and we all remember how those teams performed. The goal is still to sweep the east, split the west, and make a trip to Atlanta which is all still in play. Yes I and all of us want a perfect season. I don’t know if the young team can do anything with Bama (who is hitting on all cylinders) but you have to get there to find out.
If this is a young rebuilding down year then I am quite happy. Hopefully recruiting cycles can level out going forward where you don’t have such a large percentage of young players. The loss isn’t the end of the world, I am also happy fan expectations have been raised such that fans aren’t shrugging off the loss as being par for the course. It is time to move forward see if the team learns and beat Florida.
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..and yes before anyone calls me on it, I was expecting an undefeated season. LSU’s win over Auburn has proven unimpressive, and UGA has over the years played well in Baton Rouge as evidenced by a 5-6-1 record there, seemingly the team other than Bama which was immune to Death Valley. LSU does historically play very well at home day or night. UF was not looking to be a contender going into the season which seemed to be confirmed after UK, Auburn is down, and UK has started fast in the past but not had the depth to sustain it. Last Saturday is why you play the games.
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My immediate thought after the game was also ‘the same thing happened last year with Auburn and we turned it around’ but you’re right to point out that we’d played much better up to that point in the season and had a standard to return to. We haven’t played to that same standard this year.
On a more positive note, the defense did a good job of holding LSU to field goals and keeping what could’ve been a real blowout close. Without Fromm’s bad sack after the Hardeman punt return we have a good chance of cutting it to a seven point game early in the 4th quarter despite playing very poor ball against a team that was having the game of their season.
Obviously this team doesn’t have the chemistry that last year’s did. I think we need to consider whether last year was more of a season where we caught lightning in a bottle with a great class of seniors than year one of the Kirby Death Star. I’m sure it’s a bit of both and, really, that’s exactly what we’re seeing — a super talented, young team that has been beating teams by 30 points on talent alone but that doesn’t have the chemistry to hold together against another talented team on the road.
I think we’ll get it together but have to accept that we aren’t going to be at last year’s level even in a best case scenario. The cynical optimist tells me that it’s OK because there’s no way we’re beating Alabama for the SEC or national title anyway so it’s a good year to be in transition with the young guys.
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Starting Ben Cleveland helped Georgia improve its running game last year. Also, Georgia kept nearly everyone healthy while late season injuries took their toll on the competition. Given the respective injury situations this year, the two weeks’ prep time should help Georgia more than Florida.
I am not as concerned about leadership on offense as much as leadership and communication on defense, especially when hurry-up offenses and injuries disrupt the substitution pattern Georgia relied on the first half of the season.
Adversity arrived much later in 2018, allowing the newcomers more game experience to draw on. Lets see how they handle the next two weeks.
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HOW MANY TIMES HAS SABAN AND BAMA PLAYED LIKE THAT ON THE ROAD IN THE SEC.
NOT ONCE SINCE HIS FIRST SEASON.
HOW MANY GAMES HAS FROMM PLAYED. SOPHOMORE, YES. BUT HE HAS PLAYED ALOT OF GAMES. HE IS SEASONED.
SO EXPLAIN THAT PERFORMANCE.
LSU HAD HEART. NOTICE THEIR TEAM GESTURES TOWARD THE END OF THE GAME. THEY DID NOT LIKE LOSING TO THE GATORS. THEY KNEW THEY WERE BETTER THAN THAT.
THEY WERE MEN WITH PRIDE, AND THEY TOOK IT TO THE DAWGS COACHING STAFF, AND THEY HAVE KEEP UP THE COMMENTS 3 DAYS AFTER THE GAME.
TWO WEEKS OF MISERY? YES. WILL IT GET LONGER. HIGHLY PROBABLE.
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Bama lost 35-21 at SCar 2010.
Saban also had 2 prior College Head Coaching jobs in addition to being a NFL head coach. He has had some experience mastering the craft of being a head coach. Saban’s LSU seasons would be a better comparison.
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You are Right, and before Bama he had never lost less than three games in any season other than 2003.
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Man, that big win against Auburn has you fired up.
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It may be more like involuntary CAPS syndrome, with Trane blurting out his screed in advance of who is coming for a visit Saturday.
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Saban’s record at Bama and Kirby’s record at UGA in the first 3 years are pretty darn similar.
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Saban got his clock cleaned at Auburn last year as well.
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Really, there’s no other mindset you CAN take about the loss, if you’re a player or a coach. The only alternative is to be defeated by it. Yes, you have to actually put in the work to make sure it doesn’t happen again, but I don’t think we can read anything into the comments. Not much else we could expect. This IS a young team, and clearly Kirby still has some things to learn himself. Beat Florida and this is all forgotten.
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Yep… And talk is cheap.
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20*. 6. 3.
*two 4th quarter TDs for Miss St in a game they were never in a position to win.
Mullen’s scoring when Smart on the other sideline. Mullen’s offense just doesn’t work against Smart’s defense.
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Huh. 3. 10. 7. 7. 7. Should be in front that of that 20. Not sure why it disappeared.
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They played a bad game and still had plenty of opportunities to figure out a way to win it. If they don’t bounce back in two weeks, then fine, people can freak out all they want. Until then, I just don’t get it. Really good teams lose a game every year. Most people assumed Georgia would go 11-1 or 10-2 this year, and they just lost the game most people would have pointed to as the most likely loss.
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Yeah, I don’t get some of the panic. Hell, Will Trane is using all caps today over this one. Shit is getting real peeps.
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Will is just excited because he thinks the Vols turned a corner. Don’t pay any attention to him.
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It’s not “that” we lost, it’s “how” we lost
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I don’t think it is. I think people would still be freaking out even if they’d managed to cut it to 19-16 and lost like 22-16. I think that because people were already freaking out over comfortable wins.
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Whatever adjustments we make over the bye week I hope it involves feeding Holyfield and Swift more.
Those dudes are beasts and I think Florida will get tired of tackling them in 2nd half.
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I’m hopeful that CKS and Chaney actually challenge this team to play to that philosophy and game plan- and then stick to it.
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I am very worried about Florida’s back Perine. They used him Saturday the way a good back should be used; fed him carries, established a rhythm. We need to do the same.
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Not a chance. You get some carries and you get rotated out. CKS doesn’t go with the hot hand. He goes with the next man up (RBs) or based on what he sees in practice (QBs). I hope we continue to accumulate talent so eventually we can overcome those philosophies.
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I don’t play and I don’t coach, so I am going to embrace the Auburn 2017- LSU 2018 thought for two reasons: 1) it is possible; 2) it’s really all I have.
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Because, Biggus, This team is talented enough to win a poorly played game IF it is a well coached game.
It wasn’t. Not even close.
Players are kids who will screw up. Coaches are paid millionaires who should show a little more competence than we saw Saturday.
I hope they get better.
My largest concern is the lack of steady and focused performance. That is squarely on the coaches.
I hope the coaches realize THEY got beat more than the kids.
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Yeah, I still don’t get it.
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What baffles me is buying into the assumption that this team can replicate what happened last year. This team is vastly different from last year under somewhat similar circumstances after a loss: Lack of leadership, key injuries, 68% underclassmen, bonehead in-game coaching, identity crisis on both sides of the ball all contribute.
UF is a make or break game for this team/season in many, many ways. I’m hopeful we can right the ship. That’s all we got at this point…hope.
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It wasn’t so much replicating last year, as having depth and the way the season set up. See my post above about LSU’s win over Auburn not looking as impressive now as it did at the time. UGA was facing the possible losses later in the season giving the youth time to get snaps and learn before they faced the heavy hitters.
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coaches are the same
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It’s rarely ever mentioned that the obvious glaring reason we dominated Auburn in the SECCG is because Bama knocked out Kerryon Johnson for us. The guy who made their offense go, and who killed us in Jordan-Hare.
That doesn’t apply in season because we probably aren’t going to play LSU again.
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This season*
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Yes, the SECCG would have been different with a healthy Karryon Johnson. We may still have won, but Aubjrn would have been much tougher with him at full strength.
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Kerryon Johnson played four quarters in the SECCG.
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And he was injured for all four of them.
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So I’m confused. Is it now okay to say Georgia had some issues heading into the LSU game? I thought those were supposed to be crazy thoughts.
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I believe you are now allowed to focus on some issues, but due to being a young team, you still aren’t allowed to say there are systemic problems. This will be reevaluated after the UF game.
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I didn’t see much about it being the job of the coaches to put the players in the best position to win. Just more of the players have to respond and execute. Who thinks 34 passes and 19 carries is a solid plan for Baton Rouge? Who does that and wins? Ugh!
Seems like the staff needs to win titles before they can get away with this. Then again, this is Georgia and uSmart is already untouchable. Fromm let the team down and didn’t execute that solid game plan Chaney had and Smart backed. These quotes are really disheartening because it seems that the only change will have to come by way of the players. I wish I could get away with blaming my employees.
At least Smart will always have a job at Hallmark Cards if coaching doesn’t work out. Smh
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Play freshmen, lose games. That’s a pretty old adage in CFB. I think Kirby knew this was coming. We have a young team that was kicking the shit out of people without really trying and that wasn’t going to work at LSU (or in Jax). Hopefully now Kirby has their attention, some leadership will emerge, Jake will clean out his underwear and get back to the steady service he showed last year, and we will see the team move forward.
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You can’t replace the defensive guys we lost from last year with freshman and sophomores. Remember there was a reason our best running backs this year where 3rd and 4th string last year. We did not substitute R as much for a reason, he was a great player but also a great leader. We don’t have that this year and we aren’t going to get it this late in the season. We needed Munson to sound the alarm about the youth, instead we assumed the 4 & 5* could step right in and we wouldn’t miss a beat. UF has a very good defense and now has an offense that is marginally capable. This is not going to be the cake walk we once thought it was going to be.
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Weren’t we complaining after the 17 Auburn loss that Chaney had no choice but to begin to trust Fromm more ? I seem to remember us continually running into a brick wall with no success and no changes. LSU was the polar opposite of that, but I wonder if the 17 Auburn effect (West road game, roughly equally talented) played into the heavy pass game.
I keep hearing that LSU adjusted but did we ever test that adjustment ? If the run had stalled, I wish we could have gone to vintage Chaney and go with play action rollouts, a la Jonathan Crompton 09. My wish would be to see Justin Field under center running play action combos with Holyfield and Swift while dinking and dunking to Isaac Nauta on the backside with the obvious option to keep it if it’s not open. Beat their brains in for a while doing that and then flip it to Mecole.
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Look…Kirby’s MO is clearly to throw one game a year. LSU was the obvious one. Really, how else can you explain that much bad coaching? A jet sweep with Rodrigo!? C’mon man! That’s a dead giveaway. Fromm was told not to run, look bad, and he kept Justin off the Field (see what I did there?). Now he’s got everybody’s attention, underdog status, and opponents completely fooled. What the hell can Mullen possibly learn from any tape this season?
I keep telling you…that Kirby is a sly one!
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IMO this is a by-product of poor scheduling. When you play bad in conference teams and out of conference cupcakes there’s no accurate measuring stick. By contrast LSU had already played 3 Top 20 teams. They know exactly who they are, because they’d been tested.
I don’t ever want to see another 2018 schedule again.
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https://www.sicemdawgs.com/2019-uga-football-schedule/
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One of our biggest problems this year is that Roquan Smith had 10 tackles for the Chicago Bears yesterday. It was always going to be difficult to replace his presence this year, much less his production.
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Sunday, not yesterday.
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Man, you guys are flipping out. As the headline says, it is just one game. Don’t really know why there is that much surprise. We knew we had to grow as the season went along, unfortunately the early games didn’t get us prepared for the meat of the schedule as we had all hoped. But is was never going to be a 12-0 season, and LSU was the biggest gorilla game on the schedule. Let’s see if this sobering loss gets everyone attention during the bye week, but come on, Saturday wasn’t that startling.
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