I guess we’ll find out soon enough if competition is as an effective motivator as Kirby banks on it being.
Coaches will have more time to evaluate personnel because Georgia has a bye week before playing Florida Oct. 27 in Jacksonville.
While much of the focus was on quarterback Jake Fromm’s subpar day, he was hardly the only one who may want to flush the game from their memory.
Freshmen cornerback Tyson Campbell and punter Jake Camarda had their share of struggles.
They could find themselves pushed in practice this week with some competition from players behind them.
“Hopefully a lot,” coach Kirby Smart said after Tuesday’s practice. “We’re pushing guys to go out there and play and do some good things. Jake, we worked some other guys in there kicking today. He’s got to execute better. Talented kid, just didn’t have his best day. It’s kind of the same way with Tyson.”
Camarda averaged 35.5 yards per punt Saturday including punts of 29, 32 and 34 yards. He’s averaging 41.9 yards per punt, ninth in the SEC.
Campbell, the five-star recruit who has started every game this season, was targeted 12 times by LSU giving up passes of 37, 50 and 36 yards.
“We know that he’s a really good, talented player and he’s played better in some other games,” Smart said. “He went against some good players Saturday and they went after him. He didn’t make as many plays as he’d like to. It probably took some of his confidence away but he’s got to grow up fast and we’ve got to help him. We’ve got to help him some.”
That’s all fine, as far as it goes. If it turns out you don’t have the competition to push, though, you’d better have a Plan B in mind. Not sure what that would be in Camarda’s case, but it may be that some different scheming is in order to give Campbell more help. A true freshman cornerback leading the team in tackles is not a goal of a good defense.
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I don’t think more safety help is a great answer. You do that and you’ll soon be plugging other holes.
I don’t see why Stokes and McGhee can’t get some reps along with 3 especially if a team is committed to targeting that spot. As much as those corners have to run against a stable of different receivers I don’t know why you wouldn’t want to keep these guys as rested as possible.
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Competition is a great motivator, but the coaches know at some point the team needs consistency in personnel to develop timing and coordinate assignments. That point is now.
A loud road environment limits the ability to communicate effectively. Georgia paid for it in spades by trying to deploy a complex passing game while rotating personnel.
Same could be said for the defense, especially when facing hurry-up offenses. With the cooler weather and the longer media timeouts, it’s time to identify the best personnel this week and keep them in the game.
Can’t make everyone happy.
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I wouldn’t be surprised if someone announced we substitute more often than any team in cfb history.
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Your last line made me curious. 4 out of the 5 leading tacklers on the year are DBs. Safeties, ok, they’re asked to handle a lot in this system. But the two starting corners are 3 and 5. The first two DL on the list appear at 7 and 11 – and Ledbetter at 7 gets there by virtue of 18 assisted, only 3 solo.
Alabama’s starting DL, by contrast, sits at 5, 6, and 7 in their season totals. with a combined 41 solos. Georgia’s entire DL position group has 30 solos.
I just don’t think we’re going to see much of the 2018 defensive recruits on the field until 2019 – the defense is just too assignment heavy. And that makes the competition thing much less effective. Now, get two blue-chips with a year or more under their belt pushing each other?
The jump for this team from ’18 to ’19 could be significant. But those DL recruits better pan out.
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I have always thought that if you have the DB’s making the most tackles on a team then that D is not all that good. I think we are missing R more than we could ever imagine. We obviously have no LB’s inside or outside that can even begin to replace him. Kirby may be a great recruiter but he has dropped the ball on the LB’s.
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Question: Where’s the competition among the coaches? Who is pushing that guy who called for a fake FG and put our All- SEC kicker at risk? How about that guy who made the decision to start passing on every down and only gave Holyfield the ball 8 times in the game when he was running like a second Herschel? Who is pushing that guy for HIS job? The players weren’t the problem in Red Stick—the coaches were. Who’s pushing THEM?
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Yeah, the honeymoon is over and done. Hopefully Kirby has prepared for this time where doubt creeps in from every angle.
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Where is Brice Ramsey when we need him
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Yeah, he could have played QB AND Punter!
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They need to leave Deandre on an island and roll the safeties over the top to Campbell’s side. Give Campbell a short zone to use his speed and quickness without having to worry about getting beat deep.
They really need to replace the inside backers. You may give up something in pass coverage, but stopping the run should be job one. Franks isn’t an accurate passer, but they will probably run him off tackle and around the edge better than Burrow could.
If we can’t stop the run, we will lose to Florida.
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As far as punting goes, stop trying to pin returners to the sidelines. It’s obvious he can’t do it. Just let him boom it and get down the field to cover the kick.
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Abso-freakin-lutely^^
Camarda’s problems began when everyone was bitchin’ — “Yeah, he can boom it, but it goes in the end zone every time.” Hey, I’ll take the touchback over the ball on the 38.
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Coaching, Kevin would have straightened his butt out by now. Just because you are a special teams coach doesn’t mean you are a kicking/punting coach. If we have a guy that can only punt it short use him for the short punts and leave Jake to change field position. It’s not rocket science.
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Yeah, Butler needs to get a master’s degree.
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Is Marshall Long still injured or just not as good as Camarda?
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Rodrigo needs to be running sprints to improve his speed to the edge and maybe hit the weight room. Ok, that’s just silly and stupid. Better to have Holyfield kicking FG’s so we have the right personnel package in place.
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