Marc Weiszer has a good write up of how Georgia handled the challenge of the flu bug hitting a 70-man SEC road trip roster, but that’s not exactly what I wanted to focus on in this post. Instead, take a look at something he brought near the end of his article:
Offensive tackle Jamaree Salyer traveled and warmed up Saturday but didn’t play after injuring his foot against Florida.
“It bothered him a little,” Smart said.
Smart didn’t rule out moving Salyer inside and leaving Broderick Jones at left tackle. Xavier Truss stepped in for Warren Ericson at right guard Saturday.
Georgia hopes by then the team’s issues with the flu is behind.
Sure, Jones is coming on and Truss played his best game in a Georgia uniform Saturday, but I am more than a little surprised Smart didn’t flat out shut that kind of speculation down. Barring having your hand forced by injury, what coach embarks on a personnel switch on the o-line this late in a season like the one Georgia is enjoying, especially a coach who openly embraces the value of continuity as Smart does?
I’m really doing what I can not to read too much into this, but I think it’s pretty clear the guard position has been the weak link on the o-line this season. It’s just that I thought if Salyer was moving inside, it would have happened several games ago. Would the coaches really make a big move like this now?
Get The Picture 
I think the answer to that lies in whether Kirby and Luke are confident that Jones and McClendon will be able to hold up against Will Anderson on the edge.
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I think you’re right. And in this situation “making changes” means continuing with Jones at LT and he’s been there for 2+ games. Has he shown Luke he can handle the job? Moving Salyer to G is a known move. However, there is a question of chemistry.
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If Salyer is healthy at left tackle, you can probably trust him when he’s 1-on-1 with Anderson most of the time (and not have to slide the protection every time). You can give McClendon help when Anderson moves to the left side of the defense. I’m not sure you have that luxury with Jones at this point.
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Going to be interesting to watch; but if you could pick two teams in an order to play with the line a little bit – this would be the two teams. You can rest some folks as well – especially this week.
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Maybe it depends on the matchup: great DE then Salyer plays T, or great DT then Salyer plays G.
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The interior of the O line makes me nervous if I’m honest. Without a mobile QB, how many sacks would we have given up in Knox?
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Are you suggesting Kirby is starting the best QB he has?
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I’m suggesting the O line may have forced some hands to play a more mobile QB.
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Definitely possible, although I think a healthy JT sees more of the field and gets the ball out faster.
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Absolutely. Its hard to tell really from our far away vantage point of who would be better.
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Doesn’t surprise me at all. Kirby wants to be able to run downhill. Stet at qb doesn’t work if an opposing defense can defend the run without overcommitting to it.
If they can play base (or play pass) we’re toast. If they have to play run first, they’re toast.
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I know you can’t have every unit performing lights-out, but you’d think we’d have improved guard play by this point in the season. We better see some serious “coaching up” because hell’s coming after we dispatch the nyerds.
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Maybe, but Alabama has its own O line issues and more in their defensive backfield. I’ll take ours and think we beat ’em by more than two touchdowns.
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The hell Derek refers to above only STARTS with Bama. Three straight games (I hope) against the best teams in the nation.
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We did move Ben Cleveland into a starting role after the 2017 loss to Auburn, so there’s some precedent for late season changes. It is late to make a change, but we’ve known the guards were holding us back this year for a while. If the coaches feel like they can finally trust Jones at LT, then I think it’s worth a shot at moving Salyer inside.
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The first play I noticed it was Xavier at Right guard was also when I noticed a safety came up and absolutely lblasted him He went down and Zamir carrying the ball fell over Truss. I was like UH-OH but then he settled in better than i thought he would.
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Seemed to me Kirby didn’t really say one way or the other in the answer I heard. He neither confirmed nor denied the moves. But it wouldn’t surprise me to see them moving people around these last two games especially.
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I think people are just completely unaccustomed to what “players compete every day in practice” means. Kirby doesn’t walk into a season and say “these are my starters, this is the personnel grouping I’m rolling with – no matter what.” He says “these are the guys this week…let’s see how they execute.”
Want to know why this team has seemed playoff ready for most of the year? Because they LIVE in “win or go home” mode. Hell, look no further than the TN game to see that Kirby is perfectly happy making personnel changes mid-stream if someone isn’t executing to the necessary level.
The greatest thing is, they don’t look at the people who beat them as adversaries…because they’re all working toward the same goal.
There is definitely an importance to OL continuity… but you can develop that outside of the 10 Saturdays we’ve watched the Dawgs. As long as the guys know their plays and responsibilities, Luke can likely plug and play with success.
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Is the awareness necessary to make those personnel changes mid-game a result of the number of analysts Kirby employees? It just seems like a really specific detail for the head coach to notice multiple times in a game.
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Kirby himself probably doesn’t even make the decision, though he might. It’s possible the assistants have the latitude to make those changes.. or at the very least, I’d imagine they’re the ones suggesting them.
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As the OL goes, so goes our offense and championship chances.
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These next 2 “scrimmages” are the perfect opportunity to tinker with the line if the bosses feel that’s needed.
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Flying Peak Dawg nailed it. If we can’t run the ball then Kirby needs to pull SB4 and let JT try to bomb them. Either way the Bama thing is more mental at this point than physical. Hopefully our players are out to kick some butt no matter who we play.
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By my observation the right side of the line blocked better with Truss at right guard.
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The problem is that Jones is still not strong enough to move big and strong DL on running plays unless he has a head of steam while pulling, and even then his feet aren’t always in the right position. He’s getting better with the latter, but it’s hard to gain strength in the middle of the season to address the former. There’s a chance Kirby experiments a little the next 2 weeks, but if there’s any place on a football team you don’t want to mess with continuity, it’s the OL, so I doubt he makes changes for the SECC and playoff.
On the inside, Ericson just hasn’t improved since his injury and Shaffer has always been mediocre. Van Pran has been terrific in spots and keeps improving, but he can’t cover for everyone and he’s still a freshman. I remain concerned about how they manage against Bama’s DL, but I don’t see how anyone else comes in and does better. Let’s roll with what we have and get them as good as they can be in 3 weeks.
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I’ve got the solution for Kirby….hire these coaching geniuses on this blog…they seem to be able to brilliantly analyse our line problems without being at the practices and observing rep after rep with various players. See Kirby there’s hope springing eternally right here on GTP!!
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Never said my opinion was more important that that of the head coach. If you don’t like reading opinions, stay out of the comments. Good day.
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