The ESPN spring football preview of Georgia is full of back-handed compliments, and this is easily my favorite: “But on the whole, Georgia’s offensive line appears to be in pretty good shape.” Nice of you to say so.
When you can’t beat ‘Bama, it comes with the territory.
Filed under Georgia Football, Media Punditry/Foibles
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I continue to be amazed that not a single national writer has called out Jim Delany and his coordinator of officials for that abortion of officiating known as the 2018 national championship game. This team is on the door step and is ready to kick it in. There was nothing mental about the CFP championship game. The only problem in the SEC championship game was the decision to deflate the game and the fake punt.
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What is up with this narrative?
“Coaching turnover isn’t easy. Smart can ask his former boss, Nick Saban, all about that. Alabama had to make a change at both coordinator positions last season, and it appeared to catch up with the Crimson Tide in the national title game.”
It is insane to me that people are holding coaching turnover at Bama up as a problem when they started the season 14-0 without even being challenged until the Georgia game and ultimately only lost to another 14-0 team in the national championship game.
Now, coaching turnover IS hard, and how this first round goes is a test (maybe the last one aside from getting bast Bama) for Smart, but Nick Saban is the last person to ask about how difficult it is. He’s done it practically seamlessly for a decade. He’d be the guy to ask how to make it look easy.
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He must have read it somewhere.
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To switch subjects a bit, the landing of top QB Carson Beck yesterday from Florida was a monster get. Not only did he commit right after his official visit, he mentioned that UGA was always his dream school and he was thrilled to get an offer last month.
UGA is getting a top rated passer in the ’20 class, and UF is losing a recruit that many felt was in the bag for them, as he grew up just an hour from Gville. More so, UF put all their eggs in one basket with him, and as a result recently lost their other QB recruit.
I understand that recruiting isn’t covered much here, but yesterday’s news was absolutely huge for UGA; horrible for UF.
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“I understand that recruiting isn’t covered much here, but yesterday’s news was absolutely huge for UGA; horrible for UF.”
You say that like it was a bad thing!!
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Not a bad thing at all! I’m a very casual follower myself.
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As Seth Emerson puts it in his piece about Beck’s commitment,
I’ll be happy to discuss Beck’s prospects when his signature is on the dotted line of his NLI.
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It’s not like Plumlee was a real defection though. Georgia offered him a lesser deal, and he went somewhere that valued him more.
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Not the point. Until a commit turns into a signee, I’m not gonna waste time on a discussion about a kid. An eighteen-year old can change his mind at the drop of a hat (see what I did there?).
For that matter, so can a head coach.
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Generally, coaches change at the drop of some ca$h….
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kinda like…. “a sale ain’t a sale until the money is in the bank”.
Anyway, I’m sure it pissed off a few Bama people…..for that, I’m happy. For now that is.
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“pissed off a few Bama people”?…That’s a great bonus!
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If we ask Beck to pay his own way in Sumer and Fall 2020 and not practice with the team I guarantee he will decommit just as Plumlee did. However, we are not going to treat Beck as we did Plumlee because, among other reasons, we paid for an official visit from Beck and that prevents us from blueshirting Beck.
Other than Plumlee I cannot think of any other QB commit who failed to sign with us during the Smart era.
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I see. So you’re guaranteeing Beck will be in Athens next year?
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As Gaskilldawgs unsolicited and unpaid counsel, I will note that he guarantees only that Beck will decommit if he gets the Plumlee treatment.
I wouldn’t be surprised if Beck wants to see if Fromm is staying for 2020 before committing. This is getting to be more and more of a chess game driven by the new fluidity (that may be a word) of players
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Thank you, Uglydawg. What I am guaranteeing is that Plumlee’s situation is unique, and Beck’s situation will be nothing like Plimlee’s. In other words, Plumlee is not a warning that Beck will decommitt.
Beck may very well decommitt for some other reason, such as following a girlfriend to another school, or another school hiring a QB coach and OC he likes better, but saying Plumlee’s decommirt would be indicative of a Beck decommitt misses the unique nature of Plumlee’s recruitment.
As for the comment that no QB other than Plumlee has decommited to Smart, that is what it is. An expression that the odds are in our favor, not a guarantee that there won’t be a first time for it.
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What difference does that make as to why I don’t write about kids’ commitments? The point is that nothing is written in stone when it comes to recruiting until the NLI is in.
I’m sure everyone thought Toneil Carter was a lock, too.
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FWIW I’m with you Senator on the commit thing–until the kid is on campus we can’t count on him as being part of the team and it shouldn’t be a big part of this blog. A mention about someone now and then is OK, though. To me at least.
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Oh, I don’t mind if you guys want to mention somebody in particular. It’s just not my personal cup of tea.
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Trump?
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“nothing is written in stone”
Nothing is written in stone, even with a Signed LOI. I give you the transfer portal, Eason and Fields as examples. I won’t get excited until a QB is starting, winning games and showing his talents on a consistent basis.
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I don’t care if you never post about recruiting. I just don’t see Plumlee’s situation is anything like Beck’s. Jadon Hazelwood is a better example of not counting your recruiting chickens before they fax a LOI than Plumlee is.
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I think your points have been very solid on this commitment. In this crazy day and time, nothing is for certain, even if it were in a tightly written contract, but this is a very different situation from Plumlee and Beck, his family, and coach, all feel this will stand. He is a Dawg fan, our offense is a better fit, he is smart enough to see what is happening (especially with the OL and WRs) at UGA, and his family is in step with what he wants/needs. They didn’t rush into this, it was just the right fit.
It is probably in the 95% area as a lock for UGA, but you cannot ignore nine months of pressure if Fromm were to declare he was returning, and every top program’s coaches were pounding him everyday about immediate playing time. I will never trust recruiting because of the weirdness we have all seen, but while I will always a little bit of the Senator’s sentiment in me on this subject, I feel a whole lot better about our QB position than I have since last December. Kirby has taken us from a very precarious position to a nice comfortable, even if not totally secure, area. And he did it quickly, with what looked like little effort. Suck it, gaytors.
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Well, I for one appreciate your comment about Beck and recruiting overall. I agree this was yet another big get of a top 100 recruit – and in fu’s back yard to top it all off!
While fu was dealing with CTG’s Cinci interview b.s., Kirby was entertaining the top DL recruit in the nation and his parents. Our juggernaut of a recruiting operation is putting together a 2020 class that would impress Saban!
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Lazy offseason blog posts are the worst kind of blog posts.
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Hope this guy doesn’t deploy the Frank Cushman process. Though this isn’t the NFL. Yet.
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