Kirby Smart’s never heard of it ($$).
“I’ve never gotten on an offensive coordinator’s headphones and said, ‘Please run the ball right here. Please run the ball right here.’ That’s never been the case,” Smart said. “Unfortunately, I think some people might believe that but that’s not my goal. I’ve never said, ‘Please don’t score more points, please don’t score.’ I’ve never done that. We’re gonna do all we can to score points and I think the reason Monken was hired is he is a really good football coach and we’re going to use his experiences and his strengths and the players’ strengths, which is much more important, and we’ll put those at the forefront and hopefully have success.”
Seth said that answer came “largely unprompted”. Unlike this one:
A reporter asked Smart whether Monken was going to bring a radical change to the offense, away from the “Georgia way.”
“Define the Georgia way,” Smart replied, with a knowing smile.
Running the ball a lot, for one, the reporter replied, also with a knowing smile.
“Running the ball a lot,” Smart said, repeating the question. “Hmmm. I believe in doing what you have to do to win. So I’m going to let you define it how you feel comfortable defining it and then I’m going to define it with the best way that gives us success.”
James Coley, he hardly knew ye.
Get The Picture 
If he can come out and say that, why can’t he say that they went more conservative last year because they couldn’t afford for Fromm to get hurt?
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Telling Fromm not to keep the ball on the zone read had nothing to do with being conservative. Maybe he wanted to minimize hits on him in the passing game … that’s doubtful because the offensive line was better in pass pro than they were in the run game last year.
It seemed, after the South Carolina game, Kirby decided his defense would carry them to Atlanta, and his first instinct on offense has always been to do no harm and protect the ball and field position.
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Your last sentence basically sums up Kirby’s approach to offense the last four years. Job number 1 for the offense was to not muck it up for his defense. Job number 2 was to not muck it up for his defense. With the hiring of Monken, hopefully he is evolving as a head coach which results in just letting Monken do his thing.
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So then, is he saying that it wasn’t his choice to stop throwing the ball and running Nick Chubb directly at Payne for less than one yard per carry for the entire fourth quarter of the 2017 Title Game, including that awful set of three play calls in overtime? Or he also had nothing to do with taking our foot off the gas after Fromm had the best QB day up to that time vs. Bama in the 2018 SEC Title Game? That it was all Chaney?
While I’ve been one to put what I consider the right amount of blame on Chaney’s shoulders for those losses, some of that play not to lose direction had to have come from Kirby. You know, like how our offense always went into fourth quarter shells last year even when it was going mildly well versus Floriduh and Auburn? Allowing for comebacks to happen?
I’d say Kirby has perfected Saban’s ability to speak b.s. and mean it.
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When you talk football, we actually agree sometimes.
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You mean B.S…..
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Yes. I’m not a #sticktosports dude, but some people on here are Jekyll and Hyde when it comes to talking about UGA football and everything else.
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Or, you know, people can have a variety of opinions and thoughts and beliefs, and we can either be okay with that like adults used to be once upon a time or we can act like children who prefer being in an echo chamber surrounded by people who only agree with us.
I prefer the former over the latter. Constant agreement is a boring way to live a life.
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Pot meet Kettle…
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Sigh. The point you think you’re making, you’re not.
I have never called for anyone to be censored here. I have never complained publicly or privately to the Senator, even about some who’ve made personal attacks. Why? Because I’m an adult who even if he completely disagrees with someone, respects their right to disagree with me.
I like discourse. True discourse breeds disagreement. If someone has something to say and we disagree, I welcome the disagreement. I like it. Because it’s an exchange of ideas. Sometimes minds can even be changed or ideas modified. It doesn’t happen all the time, but it can. I am always open to the possibility.
I don’t know what it is you think I’ve acted like that runs counter to what I said, classiccitycanine, but you’re not making that point. You’re making my point. Just because we disagree doesn’t mean I believe you don’t have a right to believe what you believe. Even if I attack those ideas with a counter argument, I’m not attacking you.
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The flip side of that is our cultural tendency to see argument as a competition rather than a collaboration. Score lots of points, play good defense, WIN!
We rarely see people saying the following, “I hadn’t thought of it that way, but that’s a good point.” Because we tend to approach it as a zero sum game – if his point is valid, then mine must be invalid. And vice versa.
True discourse breeds agreement and disagreement alike. Otherwise, it’s just broadcasting and turning the volume all the way up.
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That’s a good point. I hadn’t thought of it that way. Probably because I don’t personally look at a discussion or an argument as a competition to win. I look at it as… I dunno. Fun? An opportunity to play a philosophical version of a tennis match that may never end? I like thinking. I like trying to find a counter-argument. It’s brain exercise.
It’s why I don’t get angry when someone disagrees with me. It’s why I don’t see someone attacking my ideas as an attack on me. It’s why I love defending those ideas. I really think that nails it. Many people nowadays sees any disagreement with ideas they hold dear or important as a personal attack. It wasn’t always that way. I can only blame a confluence of some really poor public education with a media that seeks to divide to produce targeted revenue and the rise of social media which makes all our tribes bump up against each other in ways we are not prepared to deal with in a constructive manner during this stage of our biological evolution.
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Sometimes I swear I think you’re my brother from another mother.
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Ooo-Rah, devil!
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All I can think of is the Florida game……How many times was it we had a chance to make 1 yard??
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Well, he was screaming his face at someone over it. Telling Chaney to throw the damn ball?
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Kirby may not be calling plays in the headphones, but if you don’t think he wasn’t telling Coley to bleed the clock in the 4th quarter of the Auburn game or Chaney in the national championship game, I got nothing for you.
He isn’t going to just allow Monken to put together the game plan without his philosophy being part of it.
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It’s right there – “I believe in doing what you have to do to win the game…” The problem with that sort of attitude is it can have the effect of significantly reducing your margin of error, as you mentioned above – SCar, and Auburn and A&M this year ended up being a lot closer than they should’ve been….
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I want us to be more exciting or explosive on offense but the alleged “Manball” way is a successful philosophy against all but 1-3 teams we would play all year. There is no need to allow lesser talented teams hang around because the QB is having a bad day or because a WR lets a pass bounce off his hands for a pick 6. I have faith that Kirby will get his way and IF there is a season in 2020 that we will be pleased with the adjustments made on offense.
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The whole point of bringing in Kirby was to beat those 1-3 teams, not run up the record against the SEC East. He needs a strategy that can beat equally talented teams. I know he loves to say players not plays, but the championship teams are about players AND plays.
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I agree with you but check Bamas record against “lesser” teams since they have become a more wide open offense. They are still beating the dregs but Auburn has been more competitive as have LSU and Clemson. It is probably my love of Billy Henderson showing but slowing it down helps win the game.
I don’t think any of us want to become Oklahoma on offense if that means we are similar on defense. I think our best case scenario is that we run the new offense as needed with a lot of ball control built in depending on the team and scenario.
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Those teams you mentioned also got better and your sample is very small. We played pure ball control last year and got slaughtered by LSU. The ball control strategy is as obsolete as the triple option. Defense doesn’t win championships anymore. You have to have a high scoring, dynamic offense (plus a respectable defense) to win it all. Orgeron figured that out before Kirby did, and that’s why he has a real Title and we have an If-Only Title.
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Sounds like a politician.
I mean that in a bad way.
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Sounding like a politician…is there ever a good way?
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Kirby has got UGA in a great place. I fully support him, but I really wish he wouldn’t be such a smart ass when asked a question. He bristles when asked anything other than the most benign question. I understand him not wanting to answer all these questions, I wouldn’t want to have to explain my decisions either. But he is the face of GA football and part of his job is getting out there and answering questions. He’s a smart gut. With a little effort he could do a much better job at the PR stuff.
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Have never been to interview sessions, ever….I have heard some of those questions posed to coaches, after about 3 minutes into a 15 minute interview there are no more good questions to ask….let the coach pr as best he/she can, now should they step in a pile of poooo, then it’s on…..
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Well he did learn from the master. I’m just waiting to hear what the Coke bottle has to say one day.
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I love Coca-Cola, but given that Bama was the first to start doing a Coke bottle, I’d love to see us use a different beverage in the Coca-Cola family. Why not a bottle of Powerade? Or VitaminWater?
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Sound like Kirby has a future in politics. Answer the question without ever answering the question.
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“I never said run the ball here .” “I may have said run it there ….
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“I’ve never gotten on an offensive coordinator’s headphones and said, ‘Please run the ball right here. Please run the ball right here.’
Because Kirby doesn’t say “please.”
Reminds me of CT Fletcher video. ( NSFW for language, like, for real)
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