After the Mizzou game, the brickbats were flying Searels’ way in the comments section here. It appears to be the same with Seth Emerson’s mailbag this week ($$).
Disclaimer, I don’t pretend to be a student of the finer details of the game but I’m wondering if current perceived offensive line deficiencies point to Stacy Searels? I know Searels has coached a long time and had good to very good statistical success in the running game most recently at UNC, but do you think there might be a slower development of the line play because of coaching or the fact the line coach just changed from Matt Luke to him and the players are still adjusting to a different style or voice? — Mark L.
There were more than a few pointed questions about Searels this week. There’s probably some confirmation bias going on here. The fans who were disappointed in the Searels hire are seeing the offensive line struggle — not all the time, but enough — and pinning it on him.
Yeah, well, that’s like Georgia fans’ opinion, man.
Seth throws out some stuff to contradict…
In fact, when I sought out opinions from people I respect in the business — who played the game, and on the offensive line — coaching wasn’t pointed to as the problem:
• The effort seemed there, but the concentration was not, according to one expert, who said the result was poor technique for most of the game — then it magically got better, as if a switch flipped on. The good news is it’s fixable; players just have to play better technique. The bad news is the players didn’t do it in the first place. And it wasn’t on any single player: None of them should have had a winning grade for the game, and it was the pass and the run blocking. They both stunk, then they got better.
… but color me skeptical that’s gonna change many minds.
I will say something that probably deserves more attention is that the o-line is working under its third position coach in four seasons, with one of those being a pandemic-shortened one, to boot. Maybe, just maybe, that should be a consideration in this debate? Eh, who am I kidding here?
Get The Picture 
If the issues was bad technique, does that point back to coaching? I don’t know the answer really, but at least it was corrected at halftime and you would think that was due to coaching.
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Ding Ding Ding! We have a winner! Soooo…it wasn’t the coaches fault that they weren’t concentrating and thereby reflected in poor technique….I guess then all that the coaches should be responsible for is recruiting? Perhaps we should try recruiting some guys who can concentrate and remember the technique that is taught them? I keed…I think…
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Stinch broke it down pretty well on Finebaum this past week. Stinch basically said that every individual player on the OL demonstrated proper technique on at least a few downs. The problem is that they rarely did it collectively as a group and inexplicably took plays off or used bad technique on other downs. He basically said “You’ve shown me you know how to do it the right way. Now do that on every down, not just some downs.”
It sounds like a discipline or motivation issue to me, and I’m hoping they got their collective shit together in the 4th quarter where they pancaked the entire Missouri defense. Hopefully they grew up some that quarter and it took the mouth hitting they needed.
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You , as a coach, work all week on some idea that you think will work. When things go bad. Lack of focus, lack of communication, call it what you like. Every coach will make the same first move and that is to simplify the blocking. That is what SS and Monken did. Were they a little late in making that move? Probably. But, that is the move they made and it worked. They are the coaches we will live with this year and I will back them all the way (until the off season). Coach Monken will have to get really bad (I don’t think that is possible) for me to turn on him.
So, that leaves SS. Wake up coach.
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whb, are you a former Georgia football player? So of your posts give hints that you were.
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Mr. Gaskilldawg,
I player one year (1966-67) at UGA. It was a learning experience.
I do not see how freshmen come from high school and start for a SEC football team. Times have changed. HS’s have players ready for college ball, weight rooms and such. I never saw a weight room until getting to GA. I was 6 feet tall and weighed 209 lbs. I was the starting defensive guard in Coach Russell’s old split-6 defensive. After one year I decided (after being told I was being red shirted) that I needed to attend school and let football go. One of the hardest decisions a 17 year old had to make. I made the correct decision for me. I was not mature enough to attend class, go to practice and party 6 hours a day. Something had to change. I love GA and I love the game.
PS- At that time no freshman played on the varsity. There was a freshman team. As there should have been, as I stated, no high school had players ready for SEC football.
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Thanks for sharing that!
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Fire erryboddy!
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He’s soft as shit
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Yup, the board I follow has already had several post with suggestions of his replacement. LOL
My knowledge of football is limited. But have had that curtain pulled back a little bit over the past few years. Block schemes are much more complex than people realize and there are various responsibilities, depending on the play/scheme.
Perhaps the most least understood position group, which leads to simple-minded thinking. “They suck – fire Stacy”.
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Yea—let’s insulate from blame the one guy that is in charge of schemes and responsibilities from O-Line play. Makes sense.
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Trash away baby. Y’all clearly know what is best, apparently more so than the guy who brought him in.
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Ran A, I heard a former UGA line coach (who was then at Texas – I can’t recall his name) speak at a coaches clinic about their zone blocking schemes. I was lost after about a minute. It can get very complex quickly.
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I mean, isn’t a lack of “concentration” and poor technique from the players ultimately on the coach, too? When an entire unit is underperforming, people are naturally going to look to the man responsible for overseeing them.
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CMR has lost control of technique.
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My favorite comment today!
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Chris Doering seems like a fairly intelligent guy and he pointed out how we basically canned the zone scheme late in the game and we saw how that worked.
I definitely wasn’t a fan of the hire but mostly for his below average recruiting during his last stint here. Still, you don’t have to be an “expert” to watch a replay and see how bad the OL struggled with the zone scheme vs last 2 or 3 possessions.
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That seems to be the general consensus, which makes me wonder if we scrap it for good, or if we go back to banging heads against walls.
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I kinda feel like you have to stick with it since that’s the scheme Saerles runs and it’s probably what Monken wants. Just gonna take time adjusting. Hopefully it doesn’t cost us before it happens.
I also feel l like we went away from it in the Missouri game, especially late, because we were doing more running between the tackle and less misdirection. We were also trying to eat clock. Missouri looked tired so we shortened the OL splits and went right at them.
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See the guy in front of you? Move him. Complexity is the devil’s work.
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*Displace him
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Must be a different Stacy Searles.
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No, it’s the same one. Because every season at Georgia is like every other season at Georgia.
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*Offer not valid on 2021 season…
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When Kirby brings Willie M back I’m sure you’ll be singing his praises. Not me
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Except for the part where we say THIS year we’re going to throw to the tight ends more. Now, we actually do it! And it works!
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This is what came to mind when they first hired him. I’m torn between not trusting him and trusting Kirby
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My guess is that Monken made that particular call.
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Pour a case out for all those old posters, RIP….
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Just go kick the crap out of Auburn and everyone will settle down
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I know that there are a lot of people who make their living talking about the intricacies of football and that the o-line is one of the most detailed and complicated units that must be in sync to have success but ultimately it comes down to 5 or 6 on 4 or 7 and you just have to get your hands on the defender set your body and move your legs. We have stellar athletes at these positions and we need to make it simple to them while also putting the onus on them to do their jobs.
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There are a lot of coaches out there who keep getting work and it makes you scratch your head a bit. Maybe Searels is one of them? I know zilch about X’s and O’s so it’s hard for me to say.
He’s been on some successful teams and Smart’s worked with him before. If the o-line continues to struggle I have no doubt that Kirby will make a correction in the offseason.
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I agree with mddawg. The end of the season is the time for evaluation and accountability.
I am very disappointed in the O line, especially given the talent level, but there is a lot of football to be played this year. I flunked fortune telling when I was at Emory. I don’t know what is going to happen. I hope for the best but if he proves to be a bust fire him after the season.
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If we have 2 TEs, a RB and 5 OLs – and all of them do some level of blocking, then throw in a QB with good mobility, we shouldn’t be having pressure problems against mizzou. This is also an experienced OL with highly rated recruits with multiple returning players coming off a national championship.
The OL should be one of our top strengths as a team, not a liability. So yes, I absolutely assign blame to the new OL coach.
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And that’s just it. Searels flipped the switch for 1 half…get him to flip the switch for 4 quarters, each game the remainder of the season and then we will re evaluate re-treads are good for our elite program.
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Powerless people (and AU boosters) always look for someone to blame.
At the end of the day, most angry folk round here couldn’t tell you if a TBLOS came due to a missed assignment, a missed step, simply getting whipped, an unfortunate slip, a timed snap, too many to block, etc.
They know “Georgia guy down. Me mad. Coach blows!”
But, griping is how some people “enjoy” the game, I guess. Sure works for my sis.
Auburn Sucks.
Go Dawgs.
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This isn’t a gripe but a genuine question. Shouldn’t we have settled on our starting 5 by now? I listen to way too many goddamn podcasts about this team, some with former offensive lineman, and they all complained about our over-rotation, especially this far into the season. They’re unable to gel and learn eachother’s instincts is the consensus.
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I don’t know—-but I have read analysis from others including the Senator that make perfect sense and bring good insight—-actually from many on here. But we went in the arena I guess so it should be dismissed. I assume you were in the arena but I don’t know because I wouldn’t waste 2 minutes researching it or care less. But no doubt you don’t bring much more insight from what I have to others here.
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Lol. These type comments crack me up. I hate to break it to you, but football is not complicated. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see whether an O-lineman missed a step or got whipped. If I was interested in viewing a sophisticated sport that only smart people play, I would spend less time on football on more on chess matches. The idea that most don’t know what they are looking at when watching football, while morons like Kanell get paid to talk about it, is laughable.
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But where would we mere plebs be without Ben here to remind us on a daily basis that he is the one true football analysis wizard??
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Look at the Bright Side …
What has Kirby accomplished with two Miserable games against sub standard opponents?
1. Gets his character building, team unifying, G’dam diversity he’s been crying about…
2. A fat slice of Humble Pie (remedy for rat poison)
3. Brilliantly hid any new (or effective) O or D schemes from
SEC opponents… especially in the Red Zone…
4. Lowered the expectations of the Fan Base (maybe they hang around for the 2nd half now, unlike bama)
5. Throws a little cold water on the Monken sweep stakes…
Well Played Sir…
Man’s a Got Dam Genius!!!
What did I miss?
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Wow, Mr Know-it-all isn’t weighing in!
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Most difficult position to recruit and to coach … I tend to think the problem on this past Saturday was both coaching and execution. We weren’t complaining about the offensive line play when we scored 7 consecutive TDs against Oregon (all came from red zone) or were scoring at will against South Carolina (once again, all of the TDs but one happened in the red zone).
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We went thru this changing from Pittman to Luke. Makes sense we’ll struggle a little going from Luke to Searels. Just hope they simplify enough to get the victories and have the boys humming for the post season.
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Thinking Searels needs to keep his resume updated, just in case.
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He’s gotta be following the Grantham rent, don’t buy playbook, amiright?
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Also I’d say closing out with 6 scoring drives and a kneel (much of the yardage coming the ground) is a pretty good sign heading into this week.
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Meh. I wasn’t thrilled by Searles as a hire for the O-line, but I have faith in both Kirby and Monken that he fits for what they want to do.
I think that Mizzu’s D-line is better than we thought and that their coach stayed aggressive, combine that with some lingering injuries and some lack of focus on our part and you get what we saw. I do think they are all fixable issues (on the O-line at least).
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You don’t have to be an ichthyologist to know a fish is dead. You can smell it’s stinking corpse. The O line sucked for three quarters last Saturday and that’s on Searels. The Dawgs can get away with that shit against the lesser opponents. Not so much against the teams with similar talent and depth, which admittedly are few.
If at the end of the season the Dawgs are hoisting a consecutive NC trophy I’ll gladly say I was wrong. There’s too much talent on the Georgia O line to be that porous.
I wonder would we be having this conversation if not for the negative turnover margin and lackluster play from some of the stars from the NC game?
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I love how people make excuses for the coaches when the players REPEATEDLY screw up yet reward them with multimillion dollar contracts when they get it right. Can’t have it both ways.
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Thoughtful note to put a bow on this subject. Hopefully I’ll owe Searles an apology in mid January.
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That was meant as a reply to RR
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I didn’t play past high school as a WR & DB who never payed much attention to line play on either side of the ball. That gives me the necessary insight into the technical aspects of OL play & techniques to give a reasonable & well thought out response to the Dawgs OL play last Saturday. I, like all GA fans, am both thoughtful and reasonable in my weekly assessment of the team and its coaches. Here it is. Stacey Searles is the single WORST coach at any position, in any sport, in any age group on planet earth. If he remains at UGA as the OL coach, his mere presence will be solely responsible for the rise of a modern day Uber Hitler who will take over the earth and be the cause of the downfall and destruction of the U.S. & the rest of the free world.
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Many here seem to believe that a coach is a coach and any failure to perform as a unit is solely on the player. If that’s the case, let’s bring back James Coley as the OC because the failure under his tenure was TOTALLY the player’s fault….right?
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Kirby strikes me as a guy whose professional loyalties lie solely with success. He will make changes whether he thinks a coach or player is not meeting the challenges that come with being a championship-caliber team. But I think if there are any shortcomings with this year’s team, they result from the new issues of keeping a team focused after winning a NC and are his responsibility. Thankfully, Kirby has proven that he will grow and successfully overcome new challenges .
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