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“I want to score points. Do you care how? No, I don’t care how, as long as we can run the ball, control the line of scrimmage, not turn it over, throw the ball downfield,” Smart said. “I’m very pleased with all those things.
“I do think that being explosive is much more important than being balanced, and explosive can be done in a lot of different ways.” [Emphasis added.]
That may be the most heretical thing ever uttered by a Georgia football coach in my lifetime. Maybe I should start referring to Todd Monken as the Kirby whisperer.
Get The Picture 
Does this qualify as an awakening? An epiphany?
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For us or him? 😉
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Oh him definitely. Though he still pays his mandatory homage to “run the ball”.
What is it with these post Vince guys like Smart and Muschamp, with the three yards and a cloud of dust baked in to their brain?
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Who wins big without being able to run the ball?
If you like losing 67-63 to UCLA then you can give up rtdb.
3rd and short happens. 2pt plays are sometimes necessary. Telling a defense, “we’re not running, ever” makes getting the conversion harder.
Up 10 with 2:30 to play and they have three to’s happens too. Helps to be able to burn some clock and force the other team to burn to’s.
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🤣
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My God. Kirby has bought in. Team will be very dangerous going forward.
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Nah! Don’t worry! He’ll get his cold slap in the morning!!!
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It sounds like regular old Kirby Manball Smart to me.
“… as long as we can run the ball, and control the line of scrimmage.”
That’s a helluva qualifier, Senator. I want to score points, BUT. I want to be explosive, BUT. How is this any different?
This sounds like the same guy who continued to give Bennett and Mathis more practice reps and playing time after the Bama game because he felt that they gave the team the best chance to win because “… a mobile QB will help the run game.”
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I really don’t get what you think we should be doing. I’ve seen an offense that woke up over the last 2 games to give us what we’ve been hoping for due to a QB change. One that can throw when needed and one that can run when needed … an offense that has generated explosive plays in both the run and pass games and points.
I’m guessing we’ll have a good idea on Saturday about this offense because this defense will be the best we’ll face with JT taking snaps.
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It just comes down to the qualifiers he makes here to me. I want to be explosive BUT we need to run the ball. I want to score points BUT we must control the line of scrimmage.
Most times, you can’t do those things any more. Most times, you can’t run on 8-men boxes. It’s just not the way it works. Modern offenses use the pass to open up the run. What he says here sounds to me as someone who still wants to use the run to open up the pass.
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Did you watch the Mississippi State game? Monken threw care to the wind and let Daniels take over the game (of course, there was the one really bad series in the 2nd half) when it was clear they were not going to let us run the ball.
In the South Carolina game, we hit McKitty for a big play off the RPO. From that point on, we had them off balance and gashed them with either the run or pass whenever we wanted.
Football is a line of scrimmage game. If you don’t control the line of scrimmage, you generally lose. With the linemen and the backs we have, teams are going to stack the line until you make them back off. Maybe we have the QB who can make them back off.
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I watched our first drive of the third quarter of that game.
I watched us waste downs running the ball into 9-man boxes when the passing game was killing them because they sold out to stop the run.
Both of those things scream Kirby is still meddling.
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Dude, you’re a hammer, so of course it sounds like the same old, same old to you.
Alabama runs the ball and controls the line of scrimmage. If that’s manball these days, sign me up.
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They run the ball off the pass. It’s not exactly “dominating the line of scrimmage.”
When Kirby says stuff like that, I hear, “Run the ball into 8 and 9 man boxes with a one score fourth quarter lead.”
If he would’ve said, “I don’t care how we’re explosive, how we score points. Throw the ball 50 times a game, fine,” then I’d believe he was different or had changed.
But the qualifier he makes here makes me worried.
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LOL. They’ve got the best o-line in the conference, but sure, no domination there.
‘Bama runs the ball one less attempt per game than does Georgia.
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And they’re able to do so because opposing defenses would be committing suicide to bring one or both safeties into the box. Kirby’s way is run to open the pass. To have a mobile QB to help the run game. He said that! Modern offenses way is the pass to open up the run. To have a mobile QB to make passing the ball easier.
I hope Kirby has seen the light, but we’ve all been burned too many times by this guy to honestly believe he has without some long-form proof in varied situations. I want to see him allow the offense to keep passing with a 10 or 13 point lead in the fourth quarter. I want to see him keep his foot on the gas instead of trying to run the ball into loaded boxes. I want to see him allow the offense to pass, pass, pass, pass when the box is loaded and stop trying to run the ball when it isn’t there.
I want actual proof, not trying to look for proof in his words when his words are still loaded with qualifiers like this.
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And yet he’s got the least mobile QB on the roster running the offense. Inconceivable!
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No, but that was his excuse as to why he didn’t prepare Daniels to play between Bama and UK. His knee wasn’t the issue from a playing standpoint. He could’ve played. Kirby said that.
He said he believed Bennett and Mathis gave the team a better chance against UK and Florida because he believed a mobile QB would help the run game.
After losing to Florida, the season was over.
But you still see how he thinks. It’s not about hitting the WRs down field. It’s not about being more accurate. He wants a mobile QB to help the run game. His words. I’m not taking them out of context or twisting them.
And he says it again up there. I don’t care, but we have to run the ball.
As a lawyer and a parent, you know every single word that comes before the “but” in a sentence is bullshit. Everything after the “but” is the truth.
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All I can deal with is the here and now. Daniels is playing. Mathis is leaving. Bennett ain’t seeing the field as a starter again, barring injuries.
You want to wallow in the status quo from four games ago, knock yourself out. You can hang on to the words; I’ll go watch Daniels play.
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That’s not really what I’m getting at here. It’s more than who is playing, it’s still about philosophy and more than that, how much meddling will he continue to do.
That first series in the third quarter after the first defensive stop in forever where we ran like morons into a 9-man box two straight downs and completely wasted a key series was all Kirby. How much more of that will we see?
How much more will we see our offense turtle itself with a 10-point 4th quarter lead and stress our defense because we have a bunch of three and outs against good teams?
Daniels is playing because the season is over. He should’ve been playing starting at UK, but Kirby wanted a mobile QB to help the run game. After that horrific offensive performance and then getting blasted by Florida, only then does he give the better passer a shot.
I would love for Kirby to stop making compounding mistakes like that about the offense because of the same stubborn reasons, mistakes that keep us from winning it all. These are the things preventing us from winning a national title or beating Bama or teams that are like Bama. Like Clemson.
I hope next season is different and he just lets Monken do his thing. I’ll believe it when I see it, though.
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Georgia threw the ball 38 times in that game, but sure, go ahead and fixate on a series.
I’m not debating with you with the expectation you’ll change your mind. I’m just bored this morning.
If you can stay pissed off about Kirby after two of UGA’s better offensive performances of the last two seasons, that says more about you than him.
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I’m not pissed-off, I’m just firmly in, “I’ll believe when I see it,” mode.
And it’ll take more than a couple of games. Pressure reveals our true nature. I want to see Kirby stick with wide open offensive philosophy when the game is on the line. When he has a 10 point lead with 15 minutes left in the game. I want to see him prove he is different. I’m done believing he is from parsing his words, which again seem to always come with qualifiers that show he’s still likely the same manball guy.
Who will be be when the chips are down and Saban’s called his bluff?
Until then, I’ll believe it when I see it.
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I’m not sure I get your point. Maybe you could repeat it six or seven more times today.
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Corch I have finally figured it out – you are wasting your life posting on blogs when you clearly should be coaching a major college football program.
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Yeah, don’t be that guy. You’re better than that.
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I don’t think Kirby has had some big epiphany. He hasn’t lost his thought that being more physical than the other guy is the best way to be explosive on offense and to produce havoc on defense. That’s what manball really is.
If you’re going to put all 11 guys within 10 yards of the line of scrimmage, he is going to let the QB take shots down the field. If you’re going to protect against the big play, he is going to allow a road-grading offensive line open holes for the best group of running backs in the game.
With that style of play, you don’t need a dual threat QB. You need a guy who can make all of the throws, get the team in the right play, and protect the ball. If he can also run on occasion, all the better for the offense.
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“I don’t care how, as long as we can run the ball, control the line of scrimmage, not turn it over, throw the ball downfield,” Smart said.”
“…as long as…” Hate to break it to you coach, but the level of control you want is frequently not possible against good teams. Even teams with losing records have been effective at loading the box and denying the run. You can continue to beat your head against that opposing wall, or develop a passing attack to negate the opponent’s strategy.
The real question is whether you want to get in the CFP OR instill manball. Saban came to the realization that in order to ‘control’ a game a team must have a highly effective passing attack. If anything, running is an afterthought to bama now – even with their great RBs and OL.
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Both Mac Jones and Najee Harris are 4th nationally in yards passing and rushing, respectively.
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Your point? Are you implying bama runs an offense similar to what Kirby is describing and/or has implemented this year? Cause I don’t see it.
If Kirby and saban were to switch teams, do you believe those gaudy numbers bama puts up would go on unchanged with Kirby calling the shots?
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My point was “afterthought” was dumb.
If they both have Sark and the same players then “yes.”
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Kirby has talked about explosive plays since he’s been here. There was an interview about the 2017 season where he mentioned a relatively injury free team, an offense that made some explosive plays and a defense that limited them as the difference. Also, that explosive plays cost us the title.
Honestly, on game day radio, Kirby mentioning “explosives” is a regular occurrence. Hell, I’ve harped on him and the offense but this doesn’t seem like a revelation for Kirby. He did can Coley rather quickly after all.
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I am glad we are playing at Noon. I am ready to watch our Dogs again !
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This is happy progress, but I’m still waiting on him realizing that you can’t really build an explosive mentality with games like the Kentucky game, or, and this will be interesting when / if the Vandy game happens, not letting backups run the real offense. Bama let Mac Jones throw when Tua spotted him big leads. They let Bryce Young throw in games this season.
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The biggest gripe about Kirby this year is how full of sh!t he has been in the media.
Why in the world would anyone believe him now?
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You want to see why we are behind BAMA and haven’t beaten them the last 3 times. Go to Youtube and look for Brooks Austin’s 50 minute grinding of the tape to show you the difference between how BAMA and UGA run the same exact plays but BAMA gets double the yardage. The opening is showing the difference in body types of the BAMA OL and the UGA OL. It’s an eye opening look at why we can’t compete with BAMA for a full game.
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