There is a shit ton to unpack from this Todd Monken quote:
During the interview, Monken revealed that the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic caused some early setbacks with Daniels prior to his arrival in Athens last June.
“The pandemic was obviously a setback in terms of his rehab, so getting him here was probably the best thing we could do,” said Monken. “Once he got here, all he did was work his rear end off to try and get healthy, to learn the offense.
“He’s a rare individual in terms of loving football and studying the game. He didn’t get his opportunity early on, again, due to his health. He was eventually healthy, but he requested to go down to the other end (scout team) to continue to work. He continued to work and compete, and when his opportunity came, he took advantage of it.”
Monken was asked if there were any regrets.
“Obviously, there are things, I’ll be 55, and I look back at things I could have, should have, and would have done differently. But there’s no sense in looking back at that,” Monken said. “The moment JT played and prepared, it was time to move forward. And I think he’s done a great job, not only for his opportunity, but since then.”
What I get from that is:
- Daniels wasn’t physically ready when he signed with Georgia.
- His recovery time was further delayed due to the pandemic.
- He recovered, but wasn’t game ready, so he practiced with the scout team.
- It appears he was game ready prior to the Mississippi State game. (In time for Jacksonville, in other words.)
- The decision as to when to start Daniels was Monken’s call.
It bears repeating there is no mention of Kirby Smart in that quote. Monken doesn’t even say “we”. Maybe it’s time to consider the possibility that Smart’s kept his hands off the wheel more that he’s been given credit for in certain quarters.
Get The Picture 
Well there you are. All this time I was told it was because Kirby was stubborn and wanted to win with Mathis or Bennett.
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Well now…I see you’re trying to take FIRE KIRBY!!11! of the table and go with Blame Monken! At least we’ll always have Mark Richt to kick around.
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I think we can all agree that Kirby keeps his hands off the wheel. . . route.
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Just watched the entire video. Good job by both Monken and JT (except Monken needs to get closer to his mic). JT strikes me as a focused dude.
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Was he supposed to lay blame at his bosses feet in public? Is that fly shit or pepper? I can’t tell.
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He’s not laying blame. He’s accepting responsibility.
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Correct, and when in a leadership position you sometimes do that regardless of who deserves blame.
Am I missing a quote where Monken says JT was ready for Florida but we didn’t play him? I’m just taking what he says at face value here.
When he was in full health he asked to work with scout team. What date was that?
“When his opportunity came…”
What date was that?
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Well JT got named the starter 48 hours after the Florida game, so he would have had to have been in full health before the Florida game in order to have been working with the scout team.
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Correct, and I dont think that would have happened without the injury and turnovers.
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Which we now know was a huge mistake in hindsight and probably cost us the East.
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It is what it is, I just don’t think a change would have happened unless SB got hurt, or he just got turnover happy.
FWIW, I do think there is some value in not just yanking QBs in and out and ruining their confidence. But I think they were gonna make their bed with their first two choices until they realized if it continued they might get fired. Cause Bennett and Mathis weren’t gonna beat anyone decent.
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I don’t understand your point because SB did get hurt and he was turning it over. Plus they yanked both him and Mathis in Jacksonville.
What is the rationale for not playing Daniels when the opportunity costs were generationally bad qb’s?
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“At the end of the day no one gives a shit.”…..
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Sounds like he’s talking about the future for both of them. That’s what I want to hear.
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I was on board when his parents said they appreciated the way UGA’s staff had handled JT’s problems. If both he and Monkin will be back for 2021 I’ll be a happy ole man.
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“ It appears he was game ready prior to the Mississippi State game. (In time for Jacksonville, in other words.)”
If he was game ready (appeared), why didn’t they play him in Jacksonville IYO??
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Because they thought they could get by with Bennett. And, if you’ll recall, that decision looked pretty sound until they lost a wide receiver and got Bennett banged up on the second TD.
I know people want to second guess, and that’s their business, but considering what Monken was laboring under this season, I’m not gonna criticize him for it. Besides, I have the feeling he’s been beating himself up over it enough to cover me, too. 😉
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I guess we will probably never know….my guess is, he may have been as ready as he was for MSU (physically), but didn’t get enough of reps to prepare for the game.
Yep, Bennett looked good for a half until the injury. Good point on the receiver going down, forgot about him…..he’s gonna be a difference maker in the future, he has speed to burn.
Nonetheless, all water under the bridge. Hard to second guess or question someone if you haven’t walked in his shoes.
Just glad to see Monken take ownership, to put the KS narrative to rest…..maybe.
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I agree with not second guessing Monken. Early in the season plays were open but the QB and/or WR wasn’t making them. He was calling plays that could work. Yes talent development and execution fall under the coaches but given COVID, spring camp, opt outs, completely new system. I can’t blame him.
Also it is easy to say JT Daniels has worked out, on the flip side if you start a QB before he is ready, you can create bad habits which can be hard to break. Maybe Monken did wait longer than needed, maybe he timed it jsut right. We’ll never know
The offense looks to be on the up and up, I’ll give this scheme/OC time to play out.
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Somehow his remorse doesn’t make up for potentially flushing 2020 CFP hopes down the drain by choosing to go with Mathis over Daniels once Bennett got hurt.
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LOL. “Potentially” is doing a shit ton of work there, my man.
And, again, Monken may not have been prepared to rework the scheme for the less mobile Daniels on such short notice.
Sorry your fee fees are hurt, though. I can only hope that Monken sees the error of his ways and apologizes to the fan base for cheating them of their rightful place in college football this season.
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If I say Georgia could have “potentially” beaten Florida with JT at qb as opposed to Bennett or Mathis you think “potentially” is doing a lot of work?
Jee. ZUZ. Cripes.
Easily the worst take of your blogging career, and I haven’t even been here most of it.
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You didn’t say potentially beaten Florida. You said “potentially flushing CFP hopes down the drain”. That means (1) throwing Daniels in the UF game would have won it and (2) UGA would have beaten ‘Bama in the rematch.
Plus, whatever hopes you were implying in the CFP itself.
Sorry for the bad take.
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Allow me to clarify:
The moment we lost to Florida our hopes of making the CFP were basically dead. Had we won the game our hopes would have still been alive.
Therefore Georgia’s CFP hopes and beating Florida were one in the same during the game in question when JT was held out of despite the fact he was physically able to replace the generationally bad qb’s running Georgia’s offense in Jacksonville.
Get it?
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Your butt hurts. I get it.
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Yeah, when the OC admits to not playing a qb that is head and shoulders above everyone else on the roster against Florida it really pisses me off. I have long suspected Daniels could have played (because he basically said as much), but with Monken all but confirming it I am now pissed off again.
If you pull for the Georgia Bulldogs, being pissed about losing a football game to the Florida Gators is the correct response. Especially if there is a good chance the loss was unnecessary. YMMV.
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Hindsight is undefeated.
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Wouldn’t life be easy if the hindsight defense excused any and all mistakes?
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Monken is the best OC we’ve had since Bobo was humming in 2012-2013. It sucks but I’m not about to question his smarts given what we’ve seen in his play designs (even with the other QBs). To think that he’s that good at game planning and play design and having Daniels looking so good, but is some kind of ignorant rube about this one thing is just crazy talk. It’s fog-of-war type stuff…….the season is in full swing before JT’s recovery so he’s dealing with juggling balls of player recovery / game readiness reps…. problems that aren’t actually mutually exclusive, and tough as hell to do in-season.
It’d be one thing if JT was either (a) recovering from injury but previous starter for Georgia before 2020 or (b) not injured but lacking reps (like showing up late). Throw them both together and it’s a tightrope walk with a kid’s health on the line to boot.
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I’m not saying he’s an ignorant rube. Im not even questioning him. I’m saying he fucked up because he admitted he did which is more than I can say for Kirby. Whether or not we can rationalize it doesn’t make it any less infuriating. As always YMMV.
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Really?
I think “his remorse doesn’t make up for potentially flushing 2020 CFP hopes down the drain” reads a little different than “Georgia could have “potentially” beaten Florida with JT at qb.”
One sounds like there was a decision that ruined the playoff chances, and the other that we could have beaten Florida with JT.
I agree that we could have potentially won that game, but that doesn’t mean we win the SEC championship much less reach the CFP.
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Sorry, saw the responses after I posted
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If we had beaten Florida with JT our playoff chances wouldn’t have been ruined, at least not in Jacksonville.
I see how the two statements could be confusing. The Senator already expressed that sentiment which is why I explained what I meant above.
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There weren’t any running plays for Stetson. ‘Reworking the scheme’ is doing a shit ton of work there senator.
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Don’t tell me, man. Tell Monken. He’s the guy who said it. Then again, what does he know?
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Agreed.
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I got a similar feeling about Monken.
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In addition to everything you have said, throwing JT into the Florida game as things developed, might have been terrible for his development.
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Can’t prove it and I don’t know it, but I believe that hit on SB’s shoulder was on purpose and prescribed in some indirect way by someone on the MF coaching staff. It’s particularly bad considering that Mullens showed the world his ass the week before against Missouri for a hit on Trask. I never cared for Mullen but now I loathe the creep. I hope the Dawgs crush him next year. The war cry should be, “Do it for the Mailman”.
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I don’t know if I’d call it on purpose, but I’d definitely describe it as a cheap shot.
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They were told if they have the shot to take it. It was borderline, and you are right, Mullen had a team brawl about a similar thing in the prior weeks.
FTMFs. To hell with them. Never trust them. Never believe them.
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My question is why didn’t JT come off the bench when Stetson went down?
One thought Ive had is that they were really worried about the knee and how JT would play/protect himself in hostile action. When Stet goes down and Dwan play poorly vs. UF they were really out of options.
I’m sure the coaching staff has all had “damn we’re idiots” thoughts ever since.
My speculation is that they thought the risk was too high to play him until they really had no other choices.
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That’s a fair question. Based on a comment made by Monken today about how they’re not running the same offense with Daniels that they were to start the season because of mobility issues, it may be that he simply wasn’t prepared to revamp the game plan and play calling on short notice like that.
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Based on the parents being happy with how the staff handled Daniels, and with how Daniels had to push to get on scout team, I get the feeling Daniels may have felt more physically ready and less worried about his knee than the staff did at that point.
As in the staff and his parents might have been a little suspicious he was trying to play injured. Kind of a “yeah I know you trust your knee and you’re ready to play but you’ve been saying that since June.”
Courson’s like “well when they say there’s no pain when I wiggle it this way it means they’re healed… but he’s been denying pain since June.”
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There were plenty of times he looked to be favoring the knee on the sidelines and in the first few games.
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That’s a pretty speculative take on Courson, but if it’s in any way true I have to believe the Blalock reinjury was weighing heavy.
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Just hypothetical as far as details and who might have said/though what. Point is once the “adults” know a kid is going to do whatever it takes to play as soon as possible without regard to his own health, it’s hard to gauge when to actually let him play without risking injury.
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“once the “adults” know a kid is going to do whatever it takes to play as soon as possible without regard to his own health”
☝🏼where are you getting that from?
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or he’s covering his bosses ass so he can get work for another year or 2.
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The regular season is over and we can all second guess the second half of the FU game. There other side is he may not have been ready and throws 3 picks derailing the rest of 2020 and we
re left thinking he is a dud. Well never know what would have happened its over I`m ready to forget that game.My best take away is Monken has the keys to the offense to do as HE sees fit. If that is the case and JT looks ready to roll in 2021 we certainly have a lot to look forward to.
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Nothing leads me to believe other than GREATNESS…..Nine TDs and One pick in the last three games….my bet would be JT storms Georgia back into the Fla game for a heroic win!!!
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Yeah, maybe JT would have played horrible against a Grantham defense that even DWan Mathis managed to score on.
But it couldn’t have been any worse that Bennett or Mathis. And even if it somehow was I don’t see what effect that could have had on the rest of the season.
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“4. It appears he was game ready prior to the Mississippi State game. (In time for Jacksonville, in other words.)
5. The decision as to when to start Daniels was Monken’s call.”
I don’t see these two point in his presser, but maybe I’m reading between the lines differently.
Sounds like he was medically cleared but not game ready so he went to work on somethings with the scout team.
He says there are things he wishes he had done differently, but he’s not saying exactly what. I know Monken has been around and can manage a press conference without saying something to cause problems, so I take this to mean the QB situation didn’t work out like he wanted. Like Newman, Mathis, and finally having to lean on Bennett until Daniels was ready.
Jacksonville was bad. So bad I can’t see a game ready Daniels not getting a shot. There were guys open all over the field.
I really like Monken’s offense and listening to his press conference reinforces how capable he is as an OC. The guy is far far from James Coley. I can’t see him playing Mathis because Kirby told him to. I can see the staff all contributing to that decision though, and that’s a good thing.
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“I take this to mean the QB situation didn’t work out like he wanted. Like Newman, Mathis, and finally having to lean on Bennett until Daniels was ready.”
How would any of this qualify as a regret for Monken when there was nothing he could to to control any of it? Occam’s razor says he regrets not playing JT in Jax.
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Ocam’s razor also says that Kirby and Monken play to win and wouldn’t have left JT on the bench while Bennett and and Mathis completed 31% of their throws.
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Wrong, because Monken admitted that he regrets not playing JT sooner.
Occam’s razor is about the least amount of assumption, and there is no assumption necessary in this case unless you choose to assume he’s lying or referring to something other than the subject matter of the question, but that would still fail the test because it requires additional assumption.
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I keep saying that Monken ran a different scheme for the other quarterbacks than he did for Daniels. But don’t take my word for it:
He thought they could get by with Bennett and that’s how they built the game plan and scheme. What I see Monken saying there is that he should have pulled the trigger on Daniels before the Florida game. YMMV.
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Concur……the only logical thing I can think of, basically said the same above:
I guess we will probably never know….my guess is, he may have been as ready as he was for MSU (physically), but didn’t get enough of reps to prepare for the game.
Hell, it ain’t like the staff wanted to initially lose the game.
But critics are gonna do what they do…..criticize. A lot of reaching going on in this here post.
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“I think we’re only going to get better and get on the same page more and more during the offseason and 2021.”
Not that Monken would ever use a press conference to announce, “I’m outta here and J.T. is, too,” but it sounds like he’s planning to be back in ’21 with J.T. as QB1. Go Dawgs.
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Am I the only one who saw Salyer’s quote about JT struggling early on until he got that scout team work? Not the first time we’ve heard that either. Think maybe that had something to do with him not starting sooner?
It’s like half of you all think the coaching staff does things just to spite you and makes obviously bad calls about personnel for no good reason
Trust the coaches. They get paid a lot of money to make these decisions and have tons of incentive to win. To think they are either too stubborn or too stupid to make the right call flies in the face of everything they see that we don’t.
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I hope that the one thing this settles is that Monken wasn’t pouting because Smart made him play Stetson.
I also would hope that people recognize that the coaches we’re probably as pleasantly surprised as the rest of us as to how JT performed in live action.
The players and coaches weren’t terribly impressed with 34 until they ran him out there in Knoxville.
All Monken is saying is what Vince would have said if he would have waited another week to put Herschel in:
“Wtf was I thinking ya dumb ass?”
We’ve all been there. Do we beat UF and Bama if they make different choices?
Maybe. Would we have been better off if Newman never darkens our door?
Its sounding that way. It appears that Newman was the guy and then they went with the guys who most approximated what Newman did when he wasn’t available.
It makes some sense do to that, all things considered.
Its the kinda of coaching thought process that leads one to offer Cam as a TE. Why change what we do? I suppose you have to be invested in your approach if you’re going to have/instill any confidence in it, even if the result is the occasional myopia.
Oh well. Another “what if” and “wait til next year” moment for us suffering dawg fans.
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I do think we can all agree that Jamie Newman fucked us pretty hard. Opted out September 4th. Lots of August reps and resources eaten by a guy who would never dress out for Georgia.
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I can’t agree with you more Tony. Newman’s departure so late in Fall camp- literally the week of game 1 was scheduled- put this team in a terrible bind. I firmly believe the coaches did the best they could under the circumstances his departure created. Mathis aside, Stetson did the best he could, given his limited skill set. We’ll never know what coulda/ wouda happened if Daniels had been physically ready in the Spring and Summer. It sucks, but for the life of me I can’t understand what the coaches could have done better in the situation.
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And Newman will be rewarded with a selection in the 5 th or 6 th round and will be a practice squad allstar. Love me some karma.
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As an avid Sherlock Holmes fan, gotta like the “curious incident” header from Silver Blaze.
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“UGA is cutting back on the bowl bonuses of its football coaching staff this year.
Coach Kirby Smart and his 10 on-field assistant coaches will see those payouts reduced 50 percent for the Bulldogs playing in Friday’s Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl in Atlanta. The move is based on bowl budgeting affected by the SEC’s allocation, athletic director Greg McGarity said.
For Smart, that means his $175,000 bonus will drop to $87,500.
Assistant coaches were to receive 20 percent of their base salary.
That means $711,000 total in assistant coach bonuses for the New Year’s Six bowl game will drop to $355,500.
“With the allocation we got from conference, we had to make the bowl trip work within those limits,” McGarity said. “All of our expenses had to fit under that umbrella so we didn’t exceed any budget.”
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87k is like lotto money to me. Its always mind blowing. Will Kirby survive? 🙂
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Amazing blog – we have folks that know more about JT’s knee than a trained medical staff. We have folks that know more about coaching than the men being paid MILLIONS to win games.
I really wish some of you would get over it and move on – enjoy what we have – look down the road not in the rear view mirror.
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This should cheer ya up!
“Georgia has only had Daniels for seven months. He committed to the school during quarantine in May, choosing to move across the country to a school he had not visited and a coach he had not met during his original recruiting process.
What was going through Daniels’ mind as he made that long flight to Georgia?
Nothing, it turns out.
“I slept the whole plane ride, so I couldn’t really tell you,” Daniels said.
But as soon as he arrived in Atlanta, the drive to Athens — and ensuing time in the area — let him know he belonged.
“Everywhere you go in Georgia, everything is football here,” he said. “Something I instantly fell in love with.”
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Can we move on from this idiotic defense please? JT said he could have played in September, Monken said he regrets not playing him earlier, and the medical staff cleared him in week two. End of discussion.
If that doesn’t bother you then fine, but some of us find it a little frustrating. Nobody is claiming to know more than the coaches, staff or players. We’re simply processing the information that they’ve given us.
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Bullshit. Everyone that says JT was able and ready is taking the position that the coaches are idiots.
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What’s your point? 😉
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Everyone makes mistakes, even millionaire coaches, and Monken admitted his above.
Problem have been a bunch of jock sniffers claiming they know for a fact that JT wasn’t physically able to play against Florida ever since he went off against Mississippi State. Y’all just don’t want to admit y’all were wrong the whole time.
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