I don’t think you have to be an advanced stats geek to grasp the story being told here.
Dayum. If South Carolina needed a +4 turnover margin to squeak by the Dawgs in overtime, what’s Tech gonna need? +8?
Daily Archives: November 26, 2019
Jeremy Pruitt isn’t a doctor.
He just plays one in Knoxville.
Former employees with Tennessee’s sports medicine staff told Outside the Lines that in those first months, Pruitt tried to pressure athletic trainers and interfere with how sports medicine staff managed injured athletes. They said he would yell at them to hold off on immediately tending to fallen athletes.
“He wanted us to wait until he decided it was OK. He thought that the players were too soft and sometimes they needed a second to get up and shake it off. But that’s not his decision to make,” one former employee said. “Jeremy [Pruitt] had enough juice behind him to where if he really wanted to, he could get things his way. If you invest this much money in a coach, that’s their guy.”
Another former employee confirmed Pruitt’s request but said that in the interest of athlete health, the athletic training staff didn’t always comply.
That shit works, until it doesn’t.
Filed under Because Nothing Sucks Like A Big Orange
Upon further review, TAMU edition
I went back and watched the replay, mainly to see if I could figure out why I was more sedate experiencing Texas A&M’s fourth quarter comeback than I was Auburn’s.
Believe it or not, I found an answer. Whereas it looked like Georgia’s defense came undone against Auburn after going to a soft zone, the Dawgs’ still played pretty aggressive defense against TAMU. Lanning and Smart obviously went back, watched tape and tightened things up. All good.
The problem was that on the Aggies’ touchdown drive, they turned to a formation they hadn’t shown all game, an empty backfield set with two tight ends.
Georgia didn’t have an answer for it, at least not on that series. One big reason for that was TAMU’s o-line bowing up, giving Mond time to wait on crossing patterns to open up, which they invariably did.
Strangely enough, when A&M got the ball back on what turned out to be its last series, Fisher didn’t stick with what was working, but went back to a one-back set until his last playcall of the game, when he tried the empty backfield, twin-tights formation again on a pass that Stevenson managed to break up.
I’m a little surprised that Danielson didn’t make note of that, because it’s just the kind of detail he normally jumps on.
One thing he did catch that I might go back to review further came on a running play in Georgia’s penultimate series. Fromm was in shotgun with Herrien to his left, motioned Herrien to shift to his right side, handed off, only to see Herrien get stuffed in the hole on the left side. Danielson made a comment to the effect that the defender knew the late shift meant the play was going to go to the other direction.
I wanted to see from there if Danielson had found a tell in Georgia’s running game, but Georgia never called another running play from the shotgun set with a late shift. Coincidence, or some three-dimensional chess between Coley and Elko? Like I said, I’m curious enough to go back and see what happened before.
A couple of other quick notes. One, if you go back to watch the game, make sure you pay attention to Solomon Kindley and Texas A&M’s Justin Madubuike. That was an all-out war all game long.
Also, this huge run of Swift’s that essentially iced the game…
… came on essentially the same play as the first one of the game, when he lost eight yards. The difference was that the A&M defense got suckered on the movement to the right and Georgia got the blocks it needed from Simmons and Woerner. Amazing what a little execution can do for you.
Oh, that reminds me — after essentially taking off most of the second half with his playcalling, Coley was en fuego with that on that last drive. That’s what’s most frustrating about watching this offense. You can see the talent turn it on and click for a series here and there. You can see Coley figure out how to attack a defense now and then. For some reason, though, they can’t get their collective shit together except in fits and spurts.
Filed under Georgia Football
An exception to the fake juice rule
Is the juice really fake when you already hate ’em?
Filed under Georgia Football, Georgia Tech Football
A constipated offense
This here is a problem.
This isn’t a “Has Jake Fromm regressed?” problem, either. Sam Pittman hasn’t forgotten how to coach. The offensive linemen haven’t stopped training.
The o-line is being overwhelmed by scheme, as defensive coordinators don’t worry about Georgia’s passing attack and flood the line of scrimmage with more bodies than the o-line can block. Making matters worse, Coley continues to call running plays that plow right into the clog.
I do think Coley recognizes there’s a problem. I saw a definite attempt against Texas A&M to get the backs outside in space. I just didn’t see enough of it. And Kirby can’t quit the middle, baby.
Filed under Georgia Football, Stats Geek!, Strategery And Mechanics
It was the best of times; it was the worst of times.
Bill Connelly, master of the silver lining.
Let’s be honest for a second here. If somebody had told you when they fired Richt and hired Smart that we’d get the ’09-’13 version of Alabama, you’d have been thrilled.
Filed under Georgia Football, Stats Geek!
My Week 13 Mumme Poll ballot
No struggle for me this week. Nothing Georgia or Alabama did convinced me to move them into the same class as the three teams I voted for in Week 12.
My ballot this week:
- Clemson
- LSU
- Ohio State
Less than five minutes’ time.
Filed under GTP Stuff
Today, in righteous indignation
Bless your hearts.
He was watching Georgia’s offense in the third quarter — of course he looked miserable.
The irony here, of course, is that Uga lives at home with a loving family.
Filed under Georgia Football
TFW you’ve run out of rat poison
C’mon, Nick.
As we like to say here at the blog, “probably” is doing a shit ton of work there.
Get The Picture 
You must be logged in to post a comment.