If it makes y’all feel any better…
… Kirbs is seeing what we’re seeing. The difference is he’s the one who’s gonna have to decide what to do about it.
- Bloviation for the Dawgnation
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“We remember the Sugar Bowl, I think it my junior year of high school, we let Alabama beat us twice,” Brinson said of a team that also lost to the Crimson Tide in the SEC Championship game. “We’re not letting Alabama beat us twice. In the Sugar Bowl in 2018, they… thought they should have been in the playoffs and lost to Texas.” -- AB-H, 12/27/23
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Get The Picture · Bloviation for the Dawgnation
Get The Picture 
Yes, Stetson has made some plays with his feet. JT Daniels, meanwhile, consistently has completed passes to convert third downs…
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‘Cept when Daniels hasn’t. Tell me again the # of 3rd downs he converted with his arm against Cincinnati and Clemson?
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Watch the last drive against Cincy.
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He looked great. All 1st and 2nd down completions, though. 5-7, 44 yards. Last 3 attempts: 1-3, 4 yards. Left Podlesny with a 53 yard attempt. If that’s wide right, we’re remembering the 1-3 for 4, not the 4-6 for 40.
Just saying, there’s some hyperbole starting to creep into the mix on JTD’s “clutch” status.
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Yeah, I love JT and would love to see him playing, but the blinders some have are pretty big. Everyone thinks every long pass JT throws is a touchdown, but there have been several potential TDs turned into long gains (just like with Stetson). Conversely, they have both hit beautiful long balls in stride for TDs. Both QBs have warts and strengths.
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I’m sure JT has hit a long pass downfield in stride but I sure can’t remember it. I do remember several long arching passes which our receiver stopped for and made a great play for a long completion. A decent pass would have been a sure TD. He had some great games last year against some overmatched, COVID depleted opponents. The decision might not be as easy as some think.
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Against Cincy, he turned 14 sure points into 3. Overthrew Pickens on a long circus catch that turned into a pick later in the drive, and then an under-throw that turned a TD into a FG attempt (good).
Remember all the energy spent over the summer on his long ball mechanics? Good times
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Cincinnati isn’t a fair barometer to judge JT in regards to this season. Both QBs have since benefited from a full offseason under Monken, except we can’t really gauge how much JT has improved because his sample size this year has been so small.
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Why do I have this ominous feeling that I’ll be reading an autopsy like this in about 25 years?
https://www.espn.com/espn/feature/story/_/id/17211520/how-brett-favre-landed-green-bay-packers-made-happen
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They gotta evaluate the trade off between his feet and his decision making. Looks to me that his feet didn’t do us much favors last game but his decision making was a liability at times…but what the hell do I know, I don’t evaluate the tape and know what is supposed to happen every play.
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My view is that you don’t grade this:
You just play the guy.
I don’t need gd calculator to know which one of our qbs is fucking talented and which one ain’t.
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We have a QB who can do that ?
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I hope🤞
https://247sports.com/college/georgia/Article/National-Signing-Day-Top-100-QB-Gunner-Stockton-signs-with-Georgia-Bulldogs-178383979/
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https://247sports.com/Player/Brock-Vandagriff-46050870/high-school-210589/
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How about putting Daniels in with up-tempo, quick-fire passes. Give Tide a taste of their own medicine…
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How many yards or 3rd downs did his feet get last game?
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That would be checks notes, 11 whole yards on 7 attempts. Really gamebreaking stuff–the kind of stuff that offsets multiple interceptions for sure.
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I went back through the play-by-play on with Cincinnati and Clemson. Yes, there were extenuating circumstances both games. I’m not pretending there weren’t. But, if the argument is that JTD’s clearly a 3rd down stud, he should be able to overcome at least some of that, right?
JTD’s 3rd pass attempts in those two games combined:
20 attempts
3 moved chains (1 by penalty)
O TDs
1 pick
1 sack
The 2 completions that moved chains: a 4 yard completion to MRJ and a 12 yard completion to BB.
His completion rate was pretty good, but he hit a ton of stuff in front of the sticks. Hard at this point to blame the OC for that.
We probably need to temper the conventional wisdom on JTD and 3rd downs somewhat. These stats don’t prove Stetson’s the better option, but they’re pretty persuasive that it’s not as obvious as we’d like to think.
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Hey, I love Stetson Bennett. I very much disagree with Derek above implying that he isn’t talented, he is. Mel Tucker is right, he’s a beast. I do know that Stetson Bennett has played Alabama twice and I know that the second time came after more than a year of training and preparation to improve. I know that the games unfolded in a remarkably similar fashion with respect to his play. Stetson made some plays, y’all. He had me believing both times. In both instances, though, Alabama was able to do enough to confuse him and befuddle him and neutralize him in the second half to win the game. His mistakes didn’t just set Georgia back, they were fatal.
I believe enough in the way Bennett has played this year that I don’t write off our chances in a potential rematch with him starting the game. A big part of me thinks he’s earned it regardless. But, the bigger part of me says that we know who our opponent is and we have tried to beat them twice with Stetson Bennett and we failed. Are we really going to do the same thing a third time and NEVER find out what JT Daniels can do against them? Ya know, I really hope not.
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Your second to last line is the money shot. We recruited Stetson to be a backup. We recruited JT for the very reason of playing teams like Bama.
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I went back through the stats and found that JT is undefeated as a starting qb at the university of georgia.
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Yep. 5-0. But the offense averaged less than 20 points a game against the 3 defenses with pulse that he faced. How many points did Alabama score again?
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Hey. Stop talking damn sense in the comments.
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I don’t know if we will beat Alabama if we start JT Daniels. I do know we have no realistic shot of beating Alabama if stetson is the quarterback. How Kirby can run the other 95% of his program at such an elite level and fail so badly and be so stubborn in regards to this critical remaining 5% (that 5% being developing and playing the QB that actually gives you the best chance to win) is as baffling as it is sad.
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Imagine what you’ll know tomorrow.
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I hope Kirby signs two QBs every class until that position becomes elite too.
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I guess it depends on your definition of elite, but between the two guys who started games I liked our quarterback play better than every team we faced this year save for one.
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Most of the opposing QBs could do exactly what Stetson did if they swapped places.
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Decide what to do about it? Good Lord. This isn’t rocket science. Put in JT first and give him three series. If he sucks, then pull him, put in Stetson and pray. If Michigan already has put the game out of reach by three series, it didn’t matter who our QB was to start with anyway. I can’t understand why Kirby makes this look so hard when other coaches yank or rotate QB’s successfully each weekend.
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I saw SOS win rotating qbs on every other play.
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He’s still evaluating them. 🤦🏻♂️
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“…he’s the one who’s gonna have to decide what to do about it.”
Maybe Kirby likes to listen to Rush: If you choose not to decide. You still have made a choice.
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His next line was “But, he wasn’t the only one.” Which, I thought was accurate and also telling (in that it says that this is a non-definitive statement)
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LOL. Y’all know Kirby is starting Stetson NYE, right?
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You win the internets today.
After reading all these well thought out arguments above for why JT should start, I get to this and sadly it vetoes everything above. Well done sir.
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Whats CKS’s story if he doesn’t start Stet?
For that reason alone I think you’re probably right.
And unless JT is ?????, hurt, an asshole, on dope, what the fuck do I know?, there isn’t much of a good explanation for not making the change on the 4th so he won’t make it before the 31st, most likely.
But I’m hoping for a Christmas miracle….
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Let’s say JT does start the game against Michigan — and is horrible for the first half. Would you want him to remain in the game the second half or put SBIV in there to try and spark a possible comeback. Then let’s say he does spark a comeback victory. Who do you start against Bama?
(NOTE: I firmly believe JT is not physically available to play so the conversation is nothing but a fun speculative event)
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I do not believe that Kirby Smart worries as much about explaining his choices to reporters or boosters as you seem to think that he does.
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Bingo stoop. That ship has sailed. We live or die with Stet.
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A couple? That’s generous.
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I said before the game that I’d take SBIV with our defense over Young with Bama’s defense.
The problem with my choice isn’t that I inflated SBIV’s worth…. he performed exactly as I expected him to. The shock and surprise for me was that I (EVIDENTLY) inflated the worth of our Defense. Generational defense it was not, on 12/4/21.
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Nobody accounted for the fact that we hadn’t seen a qb/wr combo like that.
I tried to warn. No one was listening. To many thought the defense was impregnable and that Stetson was an NFL qb.
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The results indicate you are correct. The coaching of said defense is another story.
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Name all the QB’s available to Kirby who have put up more than 40 points on Bama’s defense. Bonus question: How many times did Bama lose when held to less than 40 points?
Beating Bama means keeping them from scoring, not getting into a shootout. Which style are we as a team best suited for? Argue for JTD all you want…I don’t necessarily disagree..but he won’t beat Bama. The defense HAS to.
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I’ve been going back and looking at the games bama has lost over the last 5 years…
Short story is you don’t win scoring 24 points. You gotta put points on the board…
… But in most of their losses they haven’t been straight up out gunned like what Joe burrow did to them. You gotta capitalize on their mistakes. Force meaningful turnovers. Protect the ball on your end. A&M got out gained considerably by bama but their quarterback had a career day and they got meaningful turnovers.
It’s unlikely that Georgia beats Bama with stetson starting a third game in a row but it’s not impossible. Our defense needs to man up big time. But I also like our chances better with JT assuming all is well with him and the team.
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A&M also got a kick return for a TD. They played a perfect game.
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And Bama played their worse game all year.
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Forgot about that. In my very flawed memory of that game, TAMU turned 3 turnovers into touchdowns.
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Agree. The Dawgs have a chance, assuming that they beat Michigan, if they protect the ball, convert on 3rd down, and get/capitalize on TOs. If Stet throws 2 or more picks or the O goes 3/12 on 3rd down or Nolan tries to pick up a fumble half-assedly on the run (don’t watch the replay of that play unless you’re hankering to be filled with impotent rage), Bama wins by at least 10 points.
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What is lost in the “we evaluate every day” is that one guy is getting first team reps and the other is getting 2nd team reps. Who is going to look better? The result is baked in. This sort of evaluation gave us codon as a starting Lt last year and Mathis as starting QB in our first game last season.
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How many teams have made the CFP still evaluating their QBs to determine who will start? Coaching malpractice. Other than the fact we made the CFP. 🤣
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Man if we do stick with Stetson and yield the same result against Bama, we’re in for the longest, most insufferable offseason of our lives aren’t we. I’m pouring a drink.
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If we assume JT can’t play, who besides SBIV gives you hope based on their body of work this year?
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I wasn’t trying to weigh in on either side, I’m just saying the ‘Kirby can’t manage QBs’ cohort will go nuclear.
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At this point, it’s as much about philosophy as it is QB choice. Granted, the QB choice he keeps making is wrong, but Kirby’s offensive philosophy of playing risk-adverse, run-first, clock-killing play not to lose offense is the real problem here. It’s why he’s obsessed with scrambling QBs.
Think about it. Why does Kirby want a scrambling QB? He’s not changing his offense to a wide-open, pass-first offense, either pro-style like the Air Raid or dummy-style like Tosu’s or Mullen’s offense. He still wants to play the same ball control offense he’s always played; that Bama perfected in 2011. The proof is how he’s forced Monken to call plays. Monken has only ran more than he’s passed in three seasons as an offensive playcaller. Two of those seasons have been the last two seasons at Georgia. So why is Kirby obsessed with a QB like Stetson Bennett who couldn’t throw from behind to win a game if you spotted him 9 yards every down? Because even though he refuses to change his offensive philosophy, deep down, Kirby knows the way he wants to play on offense puts his team behind in a game. But if he had a QB who could scramble out of trouble and keep the chains moving on those important 3rd downs, Kirby truly believes he can overcome the limitations of his “win only one way” offense.
Whereas he saw first hand that Saban adapted and decided to go to a pass-first “win any kind of game” offense ran by multiple kinds of QBs who won as statues and scramblers (Jake Coker, Jalen Hurts, Tua, and Mac Jones), Kirby doesn’t want to change. He doesn’t want to evolve. He just wants a scrambler that he thinks can overcome the deficits of his preferred offensive philosophy. Think of Mike Vick playing his first year in Greg Knapp’s offense, or the way Kyle Shannahan had to call his offense in RGIII’s rookie year. That’s what Kirby wants here. Run run run. Hit play action down field. Then run run run some more, with the RBs, WRs on jet sweeps, and the QB scrambling when the play breaks down.
As long as Kirby refuses to change his philosophy, does it even matter? BVG, Gunner Stockton, even Arch Manning… if any of them come to Georgia, will they ever win a National Title being chained to Kirby’s current offensive philosophy? He’s had 6 years to change, and hasn’t. I hope he does, but at this point, if he hasn’t, will he?
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What you’re missing is he’s finally almost done with his daily evaluation…
Nevermind, just read “We re-assess everything about how you practice, what you do and everything you do.”
Always be crootin and valuatin. 😂
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Seriously, the glove does fit. He doesn’t sound like someone that thinks QB is the problem. If Monken stays, does that say he’s on board with the philosophy or just wants to call plays for this level of college talent?
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Do you really think UGA can’t beat Bama? The commenters on Roll Bama Roll give us a much better chance to win than many on this blog. They are still very concerned about playing us again. I have been surprised by the number of comments about them already exceeding expectations in a rebuilding year and even if they lose to us it will still be a successful year. They realize they caught lightning in a bottle in the SECCG and it will not likely happen again.
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We have a Zero-Point-Zero percent chance of beating Bama with Stetson Bennett at QB.
At least Daniels, even playing in Kirby’s offense, gives us a better chance.
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You were certainly correct about the SECCG. But I think if the game were played this Saturday it would be a toss up. More like 50/50 than 0/100.
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You also were convinced we’d lose to Clemson.
You continue to beat this drum, so much that I almost admire your tenacity if nothing else, but your theory always sidesteps or outright ignores several variables, many of which are out of Kirby’s control.
Why did Kirby fire Coley and hire Todd Monken if he didn’t want to change philosophies? Coley was and could continue to run a bastardized version of Bama circa 2011 if that’s what Kirby really wanted.
Why did Kirby recruit his ass off for QBs with a wide variety of skillsets instead of game-manager clones if he didn’t want to evolve?
Jamie Newman was recruited to open up the offense, but covid happened and he inexplicably transfers. JT was recruited to open up the offense, but he was injured for most of 2020 and 2021. Our star receivers were also cruelly injured for much of the year, so we leaned on our run game and elite defense to win games (which by the way is not the worst strategy.) Injuries and bad QB luck may be forcing Kirby’s hand more than some dogmatic belief that manball is the only way. I’ve never heard Kirby espouse anything close to the “play not to lose” philosophy you describe. The only thing I’ve heard him say consistently about the offense is he wants more explosive plays.
Personally, I would love to see JT out there if he’s healthy and willing. I think we have enough of a sample size with Stetson against Saban at this point, so why not roll the dice. However you have to assume there is something going on in that QB room that none of us are privy to. It’s really hard to believe Kirby would bench an objectively better QB in some stubborn attempt to win “his way.” There’s no one outside of the players that want to beat Bama as much as he does.
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Kirby injured his starting pocket passing qb himself, on purpose, because he’s stubborn. Isn’t it obvious?
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if we are still in run first narrative, recruiting smaller 3 star OL is no way to achieve success running. . .so look for more of the same.
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Obsessed? Hmm… that would explain why Bennett was named the starting QB in the preseason, despite Daniels’ good work at the end of the 2020 season. Oh, wait.
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“Kirbs is seeing what we’re seeing.”
But we’re not seeing what Kirbs is seeing. For whatever reason he doesn’t think it’s anybody else’s business to know the details.
I don’t even pretend to know much about how the game really works. But for you to convince me that CKS is simply being hard-headed, you’d also have to convince me that Monken is begging to put JT in, but Smart is shutting him down. I’m not buying that. There must be details that we’re not privy to.
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