From Andrew Thomas’ exit interview with Seth Emerson ($$):
Georgia’s offense was so good in 2017 and 2018. Can you put a finger on any single one thing that caused things to stall in 2019?
The only thing I can do is look at myself and see how I played, and as an offensive line as a group. We didn’t get enough push, like we usually did (in previous seasons). Everybody knew that Georgia… we like to run the ball, we run downhill. And I just felt like last year a lot of teams tried to stack the box, and tried different schemes, different twists, things like that. I don’t think we adjusted well enough.
Umm… who was in charge of adjusting?
Get The Picture 
Ding ding ding. Exactly OL played poorly. Said this all season.
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Shoulda hired one of them Adjustment Coordinators instead of a weight room coach PPPAAWWWLLLLLL
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The new head coach at Arkansas.
The offensive line’s run blocking was very disappointing. I was hoping to see a line that played like Alabama’s 2012 line. Never happened.
I think when CKS said: “some guys get full” i think he was talking about that OL group, Wilson and Thomas in particular. I also think he brought Cochran on board to try to get at least three focused and determined years out of these guys.
Its great to have five stars but if their program is:
1 year to learn
1 year to play
1 year to coast
Those 5 stars won’t translate into the sort of value we need to win championships.
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Thomas was a consensus All-American. Sorry I’m not buying that.
If you want to point a finger, we missed Lamont Gailliard as the anchor of the line. Trey Hill had big shoes to fill.
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Trey Hill had a bad year. He needs to move to guard. He’s not a center.
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Can’t disagree with that….just hope we have someone better.
Tough position, like the QB of the OL (adjustments & etc).
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Some of those things are based on reputation, potential, past performance, draft expectations etc… Clowney was a first team all-american after his third year too. He was barely on the team. He was out of shape and unfocused in his third year. I’m not suggesting Thomas had that sort of drop off, I’m simply saying that award/status isn’t a measure I give much weight to.
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That’s an interesting take, especially hearing some programs claim they would rather have a committed 3star than a 5star prima donna.
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If the 5* prima-donna performs, that’s who I want every time. Race cars are testy, moody beasts. But good drivers can control them. A good coach can reign in prima-donnas, and kick the shit out of teams starting a bunch of easy driving Honda Civics.
To me, though, those highly touted linemen played very well. 2019’s anemic offense was a matter of strategy and play calling, not player apathy or diva attitudes.
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Exactly
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Yep, hard for five 5 stars to move eight or nine 3 stars. Especially when the 3 stars know what’s coming.
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The more distance I get from last year’s offense, the more an incoherent mess it seems.
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We all saw the power run game not working. They were getting a mediocre push, plus UGA shrank the line spacing. So you have an OL not getting push going into a stacked box in even tighter quarters – we saw the result. I think the frustration I felt in seeing this offensive constipation was knowing there was likely a way for a good play caller to adjust and do more of what was working (or even running play sequences to test to see what might work) instead of the collective banging our head against the wall. Maybe that’s where we ran into limitations of WR’s…
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coley & kirby.
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The injuries on OL certainly didn’t help…..but when they did adjust, there were plenty of drops, wrong routes and WR getting jammed at the LOS.
Team game, plenty of blame to go around:
But Georgia also lost its top four wide receivers and its top tight end, with Riley Ridley, Mecole Hardman, and Isaac Nauta leaving early, Terry Godwin graduating, and Jeremiah Holloman being dismissed in the offseason.
“This year, he’s got a transfer in from Miami wide receiver – he gets injured and then a bunch of freshmen at wide receiver,” McShay said. “He’s got three different injuries on the offensive front and it’s hard to really carry the offense. Everyone that I talked to is like, ‘he needs to go back to school. You know, he really regressed this year.’
https://247sports.com/college/georgia/Article/Jake-Fromm-NFL-draft-decision-2020-ESPN-mock-Todd-McShay-Georgia-Football-141032690/
Agree with Air Force dawg above for the most part….
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With the personnel losses, no doubt Alabama’s 2020 offense will look just like Georgia’s did second half last season.
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I can only hope…honestly thought Jones looked pretty good last year when all is considered.
But agree with you, thinks they may have a few hiccups. They lost a lot, but they always seem to reload.
They will be favored imo.
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The main problem is now Jimbo’s problem.
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The O line certainly didn’t live up to their hype. But they weren’t chopped liver either. Seemed to me that the entire offense under performed. Ultimately that’s CKS’s responsibility and he’s taken steps to improve offensive performance. It’s a shame he waited until after the season to take action when it was apparent to even casual fans that change was needed. To Kirby’s credit his great D kept him winning. With the addition of Luke and Monken hopefully this time next year we’ll be talking about how innovative and dynamic the program has become under Kirby’s exceptional leadership.
Frankly, I’ve grown weary and frustrated with Manball.
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I think once it became obvious that the offense sucked it was too late to make significant changes. Something about changing horses midstream comes to mind.
I do think mid season Kirby made up his mind to make serious changes in the offense.
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Agreed. Unlike Ed O benching OC Matt Canada after going 2-3 with a loss to Troy in the 2017 season, the Dawgs were winning. Orgeron needed to simplify their scheme to salvage their season while Kirby just had to limit the damage. For the most part they were both successful. Let’s hope that Kirby’s new hires work out as well as Big Ed’s did for hjs team.
Ya know, I believe that Ed Orgeron is a lot better HC than he gets credit for. It wasn’t simply luck, an innovative new tactician and and a great QB that allowed LSU to go undefeated in the toughest conference in college football, spank Okie and beat the tiger piss out of the defending National Champs. He’s the HC that assembled the parts and held it together. Since he was able to do that after all the brain cells he burnt out fighting and drinking in bars I have confidence that CKS can do the same multiple times. Kirby is building a chest of experience.
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Coach “O” is my favorite coach not named Kirby.
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There’s nothing wrong with smash mouth football as long as you can throw the ball effectively too. When you have no effective passing attack and the other team knows you can’t throw it effectively that’s a different story.
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It all started with the Texas game in the Sugar Bowl. Remember Fromm said they didn’t adjust fast enough to what their defense was doing. We were probably very fortunate that it took the first half of last season for other teams to replicate what Texas did. South Carolina reminded everyone.
Whether it was Pittman or Coley or Fromm… hopefully Kirby knows. Then again the loss of Cager seems to also coincide with loss of productivity… which goes back to your recent posts regarding the woeful depth and recruiting of that position in 2017 and 2018. Kirby evidently figured it out… the offense needed a major change. Run it and throw it where they ain’t.
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Georgia’s offense makes me think of when a commercial airliner crashes. It is rarely one screw up that causes it, but rather a collection of them.
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Ummmmm . . .
Thomas said in the interview that he talked to his agent after the SEC Championship game about whether or not to play in the Sugar Bowl.
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I caught that too. I’m not exactly familiar with the rules at that point – I’m assuming you can “talk” to an agent as long as you haven’t signed with them or taken money from them, but I really don’t know. That line popped a little red flag in my brain too.
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Kirby. Why is he getting a pass on this? Coley was his hire. These were his players, etc.
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Not to mention the fact that up to this point he has dictated and controlled the type of offense we ran.
Blaming the coordinator is a time honored Georgia tradition…
it’s Willie Martinez’ fault
it’s Mike Bobo’s fault
it’s Todd Grantham’s fault
it’s Brian Schottenheimer’s fault
it’s Jim Chaney’s fault
it’s James Coley’s fault
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Yes, ANY OL under ANY coach is going to struggle when you bring more guys than there are blockers because the OC is predictable.
Still, the OL had nothing to do with either loss in 2019. The SC game was all Coley and Fromm and the WRs.
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Disagree. I thought the SC D line put more pressure on Fromm than other teams had before. The O line might not have been the main problem, but they figured in.
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It’s time to move on from the sc debacle….but, with all the eyes in the sky, on field coaches (supposedly coaching) making tweaks/adjustments in the on going game plan that left a ton to be desired, especially with UGA’s talent gap vs sc (it was a home game on a wonderful Georgia afternoon), not big on blaming players as much as i am on coaches/coaching the players up, still believe CKS knew then and there the oc was out of his deepth….now lets move on , please!
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Sure the O-Line underperformed and the WRs were green, but the fact of the matter is that Fromm’s physical limitations dictated the scheme.
Fromm is an absolute disaster with regards to arm strength and the deep ball which was a large part of why WRs couldn’t be “schemed open” as so many armchair OCs were demanding. And of course, he has poor accuracy under pressure, he’s brutal outside of the pocket, and he has essentially zero ability to extend a play…
I think Monken is a huge upgrade on Coley, but had he been brought in this past offseason I’m not sure the results would look terribly different. There was only so much blood to be drawn from that particular stone. Newman has limitations of his own, but the deep ball is there and none of the passing concepts Monken is bringing in will work without being able to threaten space vertically.
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Georgia was seventh nationally in yards per play in 2018 with the same quarterback.
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Please explain how we overcame having such an utterly incompetent QB in 2017 and 2018.
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LOL, did you deliberately miss throws which covered 55 yards on a line hitting a receiver dead in stride for a TD? I believe that was Vandy FR or Soph year. I only bring it up because that is all you ever need to see regarding Fromm’s arm strength, unless he injured t later. Did he have Stafford or Eason arm strength? No, but you don’t have to range of 60 yards without looping it is enough. Virtually all passing RDs are thrown less than 40-45 yards in the air. To say he was “an absolute disaster with regards to arm strength” is either an outright lie, or demonstrates you know nothing about football.
Not the strongest arm by any means, but you don’t need that (especially if it isn’t accurate) JF is far from unable to throw the required passes. I am sure he would like to be 3 inches taller and able to gun it 20 yards further in a “long drive contest”, or because he might have to throw an 80 yard Hail Mary attempt twice in his NFL career….maybe. Sure wish we had that noodle arm back for 2020.
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