Eat Mor Tarheel

Well, that was fun.  Let’s do it for 14 more.

·       It was an interesting atmosphere.  Dawg fans got really, really loud before the safety.  I’m sure I was more aware because of my lovely bride, but I saw more mixed couples or families than any other game I’ve ever been to.  I even saw several people with gear from both teams on.  The fans were very cordial.  It’s the same people groups.  I think that’s why it’s hard for us to really hate Bama.  Of the people that actually go to games, it’s the same people groups.  Most UNC fans had on a polo and/or Carolina blue pants or shorts.  I can respect that.

·       To describe Nick Chubb is impossible.  It’s a long season, and he needs to make it through it, but I’ll say it – I think he’s better than Todd.  I wasn’t sure I’d ever say that.  I thought Todd was the best back we’d had since Herschel, even better than Garrison, who I had considered the post-Herschel best before.  I think Nick’s better.  If he stays healthy, he might, MIGHT, sniff 2,000…because Coach Kirbs is going to give him the rock.

·       My Lord, is Charlie Woerner going to be some kind of football player.

·       After watching the tape, I’m not as worried about kicking as I was.  I know.  You’d like what I’m smoking.

·       Kimbrough probably made a good career decision.  He ain’t playing in front of those two jokers.

·       Mo Smith’s 2 deep ball break-ups were as good as I’ve ever seen a UGA DB do.

·       No one talks about this, but we really missed Christian Payne when he got injured last year. 

·       It will be fascinating to see where Herrien ends up once Sony and Elijah get back in the mix.  I was elated to see Kirby’s short leash with Douglas after the fumble.  The kid’s just not that good.  He’s had ball security issues his whole career and can’t hit a whole.  Good on Kirby to go to a more talented freshman in a big opening game.  It won the game.  The kid made huge runs, and there’s a good chance he’s our 4^th string back.  That’s one of those decisions that I just don’t see Richt making.  He had gotten more and more conservative through his career.

·       I think I’m going to love our offense.  For our personnel, we did about all you can do…in game one!  I didn’t realize how many times we went empty until I watched the replay, and we only did it with Jacob.  Kudos to the staff for putting a package in to make him comfortable based on what he did in high school.  Who knew you could do that?  We were empty, 5-wide on the bomb to Joystick.  It won the game. 

·       We’ve gotta get 5 involved more.  I had heard he was in the doghouse a bit when I was at practice, but he’s still our most explosive player.  We need to unlock the doghouse.

I’m beyond excited about Kirby.  Watching the TV copy, I loved his coaching.  He coached.  I really believe his style is going to quickly become one of the most attractive in the nation.  There’s an edge without the disdain that Saban has.  He’s ridiculously intense but looks like he’s having fun.  Good for him.  Good for us.  Having said that, this week matters a lot.  We need to start the Seattle Slinger©.  It’s clear he’s a star in the making.  We can win the East this year, and we’re very capable of being 11-1 when we get there. Maybe we’ll see more holes as the season progresses and UT and Florida get better, but we’re very capable of going 11-1.  If we get there to play the Tide, they’ll have a true freshman QB, too, but they won’t have Nick Chubb.  We’ve gotta get our kid ready, ‘cause we’ll have to throw it to beat them.  That’s a loooooooooong way off, but we have to be thinking that way.  If we doesn’t start, fine.  He needs to come in early and get as many reps as possible.  It starts mattering in Columbia the next week.

Go Dawgs!

Chubb for Heisman!

Kirby/Eason ’16!

45 Days

Well, boys, it’s only 45 days away.  We’ll be at six weeks on Saturday and it will really start speeding up.  A few observations:

·       Can you imagine us heading into this year with Mark Richt as coach?  8 months ago we were days away from the Tech game and thinking surely he stays if we win.  I just can’t believe the difference in vibe.  But will it translate onto the field?

·       I’m not sure coaches think like this, but do you even consider the emotional edge you get in the Dome if 10 and 27 are on the field for the first snap?  I think 27 is there for sure.  We will hold our breath every time he touches the ball for the entire season.  Get used to it.

·       Speaking of 10, Kirby says he wants to have a starter determined by end of the 2^nd scrimmage.  Think he announces it?  I wouldn’t

·       It’s not unreasonable to think that we are on the brink of a dynasty.  Kirby is so much younger than Saban and Miles.  Saban will be 65 in October.  Miles will be 63 in November.  In five years, where will they be.  Right now, we are #2 on the composite 2017 recruiting rankings.  Florida is #27.  I don’t think the guy down there can recruit, and Richt will also help us a great deal, as I think he’ll get those South Fla kids to stay home.  And I’m pretty sure the guy in Knoxville can’t actually coach.  It’s feasible that it becomes a foregone conclusion in a year or so that we are going to win the East every year.  As good as the West has been, Bama has won it in 2008, 2009, 2012, 2014, 2015.  That’s 5 of 8 years.  And you have to be darn good (like go to the NC game to win it over them).  I see our talent rising like Bama’s, but I don’t see the same kind of rise out of UT and Florida.

The older I get, the less I know.  I cannot remember a year when I knew less about what to expect from this team.  But I think it’s going to be fun to watch. 

What are your gut feelings?

Just the Beginning

Well, have we ever seen a spring quite like this one?  Energy and excitement are palpable around the program, but that’s not excites me most – it’s the fans of other teams.  They are afraid.  Very, very afraid.

 

·       Boy, Georgia sold their soul, didn’t they?
·       Don’t y’all know something better than Ludacris to spend your money on?
·       I guess y’all are gonna do anything to win now?
·       It’s football first, huh?

 

The answer to those comments are:  No.  No. Just about.  You got that right.  And the money…we’ve got a lot of it.  I keep telling myself we won’t win every game.  I keep telling myself that.  But we’re going to win a lot.  I believe Kirby has awakened a sleeping giant.  Our fanbase.  The talent in our state.  The power of the G. 

 

There are differences.  The culture of GA and the metro area is much different than Bama.  We will hold an academic standard that is, um, higher.  I don’t think we’ll see the kind of complete surrender to the monster like they have in Tuscaloosa.  But Kirby’s not taking over a train wreck, either.  Bama had been on a very bad run, and the hiring of a few coaches had been a joke.  Kirby is taking over a team that has gone 10-3 the last two years.  He’s also taking over a team, make that THE team, in a state that is overflowing with talent.

 

I told Law Dawg I’ve decided what I want.  It’s early, but this is it.  It’s simple.  I want to win three national championships in a row.  I want to do what Bama has never done.  No team has done it since 1950.  Army in the ‘40s with Blanchard and Davis was the last team to do it.  It’s not just 1.  Don’t get me wrong.  I want one.  We need to think bigger.  There’s no reason we can’t.

 

Saban will be 65 in October.  Miles will be 63 in November.  Are you really scared of Malzhan and McElwain?  Does Booooch scare you?  I didn’t think so.  There are other good coaches out there.  But we have the potential to be a on an historic run in about 5 years.  There’s only one coach that scares me to get in this league, and he coaches in Fort Collins, Colorado.  If Texas had a brain, they’d hire him and take over the Big 12.

 

That’s my ramblings.  G Day was G Day.  Amazing atmosphere, but the players are what matter:

 

·       Just start Eason
·       Impressed by Ridley
·       We gotta get all those TEs on the field
·       Me like Natrez

Kirby's 680 Interview

Did y’all hear Kirby on 680 this morning?  I missed it but listened to it online.  Guys, I don’t want to be Mr. Happy Talk, but this guy’s going to kill it.  Alabama is going to miss him gravely.

 

I love Mark Richt, but the bottom line is recruiting is about hard work and long hours.  “Getting ahead of the other guy.”  He sees recruiting as a competition as much as the games on Saturdays.  He wants to beat the other guy.  That’s the edge I think Mark missed in the new era of recruiting.  When Meyer came to the SEC, everything changed, and Saban made it more crazy.  I’m not sure we put the work in.  Kirby said the coaches get an hour for lunch.  That’s it.  1 p.m. recruiting evaluation starts every day.  It’s February.  We just had signing day.

 

I think he’s on speed or Red Bull.  Or both.  And a lot of Surge and Volt Cola.  And I think we’re going to win a lot.

 

It’s a much different vibe than CMR.  It’s okay to love both guys.  But I think he’s got the thing to take that next step.  It’s an edge I, frankly, have never heard in a UGA coach, but it’s what I imagine it’s what Butts had.  It was in Dooley a little.

 

It’s gonna be a fun few years.

I've Got to Change the Way I Think About Football

The Super Bowl finally did it.  I’ve got to change how I think about the game.  I’ve seen the story too many times.  It’s all about defense.  If you can stop people, you can beat anyone at any time.  I’ve got to change what I think. 

 

Denver over Carolina

Seahawks over Broncos

Ravens over 49ers

Giants over Patriots twice

Patriots over Rams

 

Bama over Clemson

Ohio St. over Bama & Oregon

Auburn over Oregon

Bama over LSU

Bama over UGA and Notre Dame

Bama over Texas

Florida over Ohio St

Florida over Oklahoma

LSU over Ohio St.

 

You have to be able to score some points.  You have to, but good gracious, Denver ALMOST scored 24 points in a super bowl w/o an offensive TD if the cat scores on the fumble.  If you could point to a failure of Mark Richt, it’s that he didn’t learn ENOUGH from Bobby and he fell in love with himself as an OC and Offensive minded coach.  Richt didn’t win those titles alone at FSU.  He won them with the help of Mickey Andrews and monster DEs on almost every FSU team back them.  As dominant an offensive player as Cam was in 2010, they won the title game because Oregon couldn’t block Fairley.  Auburn scored 20 pts and won on a FG on the last play of the game.  They had 17 pts most of the game.

 

If there is a cultural change we’ve got to go through, this is it.  Goff’s hire of McDuffie in the early 90s and signing of Garrison, Hastings and Zeier issued a sea change in Athens.  We became known as an offensive powerhouse.  We hired Donnan, another offensive innovator, then Richt, the best OC for a decade in college football.  He groomed a record breaking OC in Mike Bob. 

 

Since 1991, we have set records offensively.  Garrison was a Heisman finalist.  Zeier set every SEC passing record imaginable.  Bobo set efficiency records under Donnan and Hines Ward became one of the most versatile players in the sport’s history.  Greene broke nearly all of Peyton’s records, and whatever was left of Manning or Weurffel’s records were smashed by Murray.  We had 1,000 rushers.  Nick Chubb did something not done since Herschel.  We signed the most unstoppable WR we’ve ever had in AJ.

 

But our best years under each coach were when we had elite players on defense, especially pass rushers.  Mitch Davis, Champ Bailey, David Pollack, Jarvis Jones, Alec Ogletree.

 

I want us to be sexy on offense.  It’s in my nature.  I’m wrong.  I need us to be sexy on defense.  Sexy offenses ALL get shut down at some point by a better defense.

ATTENTION: TENNESSEE UGA FANS

Tennessee Dawgs! The time has come to campaign for a University of Georgia license plate in the Volunteer State. Are you ready to show your pride and do your part?

The alumni chapters in Tennessee have rallied together to give Bulldog Faithful this opportunity, but they need you to take action TODAY to ensure that a UGA plate is offered across the state.
The State of Tennessee requires 1,000 cars be pre-registered by June 30, 2016, to make this tag available. To pre-register for the UGA tag, make a $45 payment – $10 of which is a Georgia Fund gift to support university-wide scholarships.

The tag will only become available when 1,000 commitments are secured by the deadline. Should that effort fall short, UGA will return your $35 tag fee.

If you have any questions, please email alumni@uga.edu.

CLICK BELOW TO ACCESS "A LICENSE TO BARK" WEBSITE.

https://dar.uga.edu/funder/campaigns/a-license-to-bark-in-tennessee-2/

Interceptions

Just caught wind of Lambert’s stats and it brought something to mind.  The kid threw 2 INTs all year.  If you’d have told me before the season that Lambert is our starter all but 1 game and he throws 2 picks, I’d have said we were in Glendale.

 

Over the last 2 seasons, we have thrown 14 interceptions.  Six of those were thrown by Hutson Mason and Greyson Lambert, who started a total of 25 games in that span, playing at least the majority of 24 of them.

 

Faton Bauta and Brice Ramsey threw EIGHT of those 14 picks, with Faton starting one game and Brice starting none, playing about 2/3 of one game. 

 

It’s a remarkable stat.  It’s almost hard to believe.  I’m excited about the future.  I’m not glad we tanked this season in the most weirdly emotional way.  I’m not glad I spent a grand to go see us get rocked by Florida.  I’m not glad to see a good man in whom I believed get fired.  I am glad for new beginnings and the excitement around the program now.  But, one day, I want an answer for why in the world we started Faton Bauta in Jacksonville.  It’s just not hard to imagine us winning a tight game with Greyson playing.

 

FWIW, the kicker of all those stats is that it is incredibly clear that Hutson and Greyson were our best options the last two years, and that’s why we were so incredibly uninspiring in many ways.  Chubb and Gurley were what was inspiring in 2014, and Sony and Isaiah in 2015.  We had no sort of inspiration in the passing game, as our most memorable pass plays of each season were thrown by a running back and a wide receiver.