SB Nation User Blog: fotodog

Who should Georgia fire?

fotodog — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 11:44:16 -0000

First, let me state that this isn't really to find out what the best solution, it is more to see who receives the bulk of Georgia fans' disdain at this point. Obviously, if Richt is fired, then none of the other coaches would probably keep their jobs and so on. All is not an answer, so you will have to weigh your choices and pick just one.

Time to fill out some pink slips.

Poll

If one coach has to be fired this season, which one would you want to see relieved of duty the most?

Richt

16 votes

Martinez

80 votes

Bobo

7 votes

Fabris

2 votes

Fabris, but only from special teams

6 votes

Other

1 votes

112 votes | Poll has closed

Vacuum

fotodog — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 13:53:39 -0000

I was watching the UGA-Tenn Tech game online and heard Buck Belue make a comment about a lack of senior leadership and talent, especially on the offensive side of the ball. He said that 4-6 years ago, someone really dropped the ball in recruiting.

I had observed the same thing. So tonight I did a little bit of hasty research. Please feel free to correct this if I made any mistakes.

From the 2005 and 2006 six classes, which at the time looked pretty good, the attrition has been pretty painful. The 2006 class was pretty large (25), but 05 was a little smallish (16).

Gone to the NFL:

Stafford, Moreno, Allen, MoMass (note 3 of those could still be with the team this year)

Graduated:

Byrd, Chandler

Injured this year or during a significant portion of his career:

Battle, Coates, Banks, Dewberry, Wilson*, Durham, J Miller

Transferred or never entered:

N Ward, Lemon, Wilson*, Hebron, Kearney, C Moon, Sesay, Baldwin, I Smith

That is 21 players out of 41 that are no longer playing for UGA.

Add to that players that are mainly bench players or have spent more time switching positions than actually playing:

Perez, Washington, Tripp

And players that would at this point be labeled busts or disappointments:

B Wood, Evans, Miller, Crawford

And what you have are mostly a bunch of roll players with a few strong players on defense:

Owens, Weston, R Jones (probably should be in the group above), Dobbs, Gamble, Dent

And starting on offense:

J Davis, C Davis, Chapas (or Munzenmaier), Moore, Cox

That's not the strongest group and is probably one of the reasons we are so crappy this year. Of course, it is the coaches' job to evaluate talent and help players to improve.

Garbage in, garbage out

fotodog — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 11:56:30 -0000

There is a saying especially with computer programmers (which I am not), that if you put bad data in (garbage) then you will get bad results (more garbage).

Unwillingly, I have come to the opinion that darker days are ahead for the Bulldog Nation. For quite a few years now, I, like other Bulldogs, have been frustrated and dumbfounded by the performance of the team and coaches. However, like some of the more level-headed bloggers and commenters, I have tried to rationalize the mistakes and subpar showings of the Bulldogs. I realize that the offense has put Martinez' squad in bad situations with turnovers and poor play. I know there have been days with Bobo's squad have tallied more than enough points to secure a win, but the defense managed to surrender more points. I (still) think Richt is a great man and a really good coach. However, I have reached my breaking point.

After recently reading some articles and posts regarding special teams and personnel, I have come to the conclusion that this coaching staff philosophy is broke at the core. When your core beliefs or mission are compromised, everything that stems off of that will suffer and that is why my hope has all but vanished. It isn't a matter of fixing the direction of a kick or replacing the kicker, it is a matter of accountability and chain of command.

Hopefully, I can clearly present the evidence that led to this position.

Recently, some nagging injuries have taken their toll on the Bulldogs in a few positions. One of the injuries was to backup cornerback Vance Cuff. That led to this development I read on David Hale's blog:

After working a few snaps on offense in each of Georgia’s first four games, Smith might see less action on that side of the ball for the next few weeks.

Smith, who has one catch for 3 yards and six rushes for 80 yards this season, didn’t earn a touch on offense last week against LSU after his practice time with the group was cut short during the preceding week.

“With some injuries at corner, he’s been playing more corner here lately, so practice time with Branden has gone down a little bit,” Bobo said. “Yeah, it’s easy to draw up a play and say we’re going to do this play, but if you don’t have guys to practice it, it’s a little more difficult.”

Okay, that makes sense. You are thin at CB, so you keep your young CB on defense, instead of splitting his time with the offense.

The next part of Hale's article coupled with some other segments began to raise some questions though:

The same situation holds true with backup quarterback Logan Gray, who Bobo said has been avoided in the game plan because of an injury to third-string quarterback Aaron Murray.

“You have Aaron Murray out and your backup in the game running some plays, if you get him hurt, that puts you in a situation where you really don’t have a back-up quarterback,” Bobo said. “So that changes your thought process a little bit of what you’re going to do offensively with Logan Gray.”

Okay, I get it. Bobo wants to redshirt the two freshmen, and one of them, Murray is injured, so he isn't a viable option. Plus, we don't want to put Gray in the game for a few plays at QB- where thus far all he has done is run or hand-off- to make sure we have a backup in case Cox is injured.

However, if protecting Gray is one of our priorities then why is this happening?

While Gray may not be seeing much action at quarterback so far this season, he’s getting plenty of work on special teams. Gray has worked on Georgia’s kickoff coverage unit and has been the team’s primary punt returner in situations where a fair catch is likely.

Those were roles Gray played last season, but he said he wasn’t expecting another year of action. But he’s not complaining.

“I think it comes with being the backup quarterback, I wasn’t going to do as many special teams,” Gray said. “Coming into the season, I didn’t even think I was going to catch punts. It was sort of a last-second thing with our punt safe team when we know a fair catch is coming, I guess Coach ( Jon) Fabris wanted me to keep doing it.”

While the chances of Gray getting hurt are limited on punt returns since all Georgia ever does now is field fair catches no matter where they are on the field. But how in hell do you justify putting your backup QB on kickoff coverage?! Especially when you are trying to protect him by not playing him at QB (his natural position)! That is like saying we want to save our closer, but you end up using him as a pinch hitter in the 5th inning.

Instead of using some backup DB, LB or TE on kickoff coverage, we've got our backup QB- our only other QB- trying to make tackles. You would think a professional coach would sense the foolishness of this, but not our guys; we get more excuse and misdirection.

Possibly benching Walsh:

"It's been considered," Richt said. "We haven't done it to this point, but everybody's got to perform and certainly we want Blair to do that. I definitely don't want to throw him under the bus for all the issues on that team, but it's been part of the issue, not getting it where we need to get it. The ball placement hasn't been as sharp."

Talk of injuries:

Richt pointed to injuries to special teams stalwarts like Chad Gloer, who missed last week with a hamstring injury, as one reason for the problems, but he said the biggest solution will simply be giving the younger players time to develop.

Lack of experience:

"We are very, very immature on that team," Richt said. "We have too many young guys side-by-side on those teams, on the kickoff coverage team in particular it’s probably the youngest bunch we’ve ever had out there."

Which was later debunked (sort of) by Gray:

While Gray concurred that an excess of youth on the unit has caused problems, he said the key to improving coverage going forward is far more about effort than experience.

“We did lose a lot of guys that played kickoff their whole careers here that were seniors last year, but I think kickoff is about want and desire and guys wanting to make a play,” Gray said.

And also Groo (Dawgs Online) noting that the player that was likely flagged for the additional 5 yard penalty last week's kickoff debacle was veteran.

"...two of the bigger mistakes on the play were made by 1) Georgia’s starting placekicker and 2) the SEC’s leading tackler. Is that really a question of experience?"

Finally, the Dogs faithful were reminded that you can just put starter on offense or defense on special teams and expect him to excel:

"Some people think you can just throw a guy in there and all of a sudden he’s good," Richt said. "There is technique involved in that just like there is technique involved in playing linebacker or anyone else. It’s not that easy just to throw someone in there. All that stuff takes reps and time to get better at."

Of course, AJ Green might have something to say about that... ahem, blocked kick.

So that was the final straw. After putting up with defensive meltdowns, questionable offensive playcall and failure after failure on special teams, I finally threw up my hands and raised the white flag. We are contradicting ourselves in personnel decisions- are we going to protect Gray or not? We hear excuses and instead of seeing consistent improvement. And we are made to suffer because a subordinate is too stubborn to try something new and his superior makes excuses and blames players instead of being a leader.

I want to believe in Richt, but he is going to have to show me some real change in mission and direction before I can completely buy into what he is doing.

(quotes from David Hale & Groo)

Sleeping with the Enemy: Time for a Rule Change

fotodog — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 10:49:39 -0000

I never thought I would ever take this side, because the thought of people like Chad Johnson and Terrell Owens makes me sick. I hated "da U" when they were the big show-boaters. I can't stand it when players make a huge fuss over a sack of loud tackle. However, I have decided to make camp with the enemy, because the enemy of my enemy is my friend... or at least for now. Right now, the greater evil is the NCAA Rules Committee and the referees that subjectively interpret the NCAA's rules.

The following is what I found when I search the NCAA rules on celebration:

NCAA Football Rule 9-2, Article 1(a)(1)(d) prohibits "Any delayed, excessive, prolonged or choreographed act by which a player (or players) attempts to focus attention upon himself (or themselves)"; in addition, Rule 9-2, Article 1(a)(2) asserts that "After a score or any other play, the player in possession immediately must return the ball to an official or leave it near the dead-ball spot." [2] Additionally, if a player's actions is considered "unsportsmanlike conduct" the result is dead-ball foul; a "flagrant unsportsmanlike conduct" foul requires player ejection. If a player’s nonfootball-related act (e.g. taunting or cursing) causes an opponent to physically retaliate, it is considered fighting and both players are ejected. [3]

The timing may sound like sour grapes, but I vividly remember about ten years ago when Fred Gibson caught a long TD pass to go up on Tennessee in a pivotal SEC East match up, turning and saying to Kirk Herbstreit, "What is up with the celebration call?! It's a huge game. Let the players play." And he nodded in agreement (I was on the sideline working for a TV station at the time and Herbstreit and the Gameday crew were in town for the game).

Again, today, when UGA scores a late TD to go up on a top 5 team in SEC play, we got hosed again. Now, I didn't see AJ committing the penalty, but a friend and LSU fan working for CNN said on the unedited feed you could see Green later go toward the crowd in the endzone and mouth off, thus getting the flag for celebrating. However, do we really expect a player who just made a potentially game winning catch in a huge game to "immediately ~~must~~ return the ball to an official or leave it near the dead-ball spot" and walk calmly off the field?

Furthermore, I think the celebration penalty called on Charles Scott was complete crap and probably called out of guilt rather than good officiating.

And while The '07 Celebration was fun at the time, it was wrong, just like the V stomp was wrong. I loathe stupid gestures like that, but I am willing to put up with that if it means an end to frivolous calls that strongly influence games.

The subjectivity we face from officials is getting out of hand and we will see more of this garbage affect not only the Dogs, but every team. Therefore, I would like to see the rule changed or done away with. I would propose the following rule:

Excessive celebration penalty of 15 yards will be charged upon any choreographed act including outside objects or unchoreographed act that harms another player or simulates a violent action (such as slashing the throat or shooting a person) by which a player (or players) attempts to focus attention upon himself (or themselves). in addition, if a player’s nonfootball-related act causes an opponent to physically retaliate, it is considered fighting and both players are ejected.

So dance around like an idiot, spike the ball, do your stupid Omega sign, moonwalk, wave your hand to your ear a la Hulk Hogan, dial up the LSU fanbase after scoring a TD, whatever! As long as you don't physically hurt an opponent or ref, pull your cellphone out of your sock or act like your are decapitating someone, you are okay. The rule is clear and enforceable and should prevent gray areas getting the best of teams and allow teams to settle it on the field by their play.

Cheese, ice cream or...

fotodog — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 00:45:20 -0000

Cheese, ice cream or...

Mayor,
I thought you should see this if you haven't already.

Good article about Walsh

fotodog — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 14:18:45 -0000

Rivals posted an article that has Rex Robinson talking about what he thinks happened to Blair Walsh this year. Since the 3 easiest ways to get lots of comments are:

1. Post about CWM's job as a defensive coordinator

2. Post something about the BCS vs. Playoffs debate

3. Post about UGA's crappy kickoff coverage...

I decided to throw this up on the wall and see what sticks. Rex makes some good points. Enjoy.

Chicken or the egg... or the talented junior?

fotodog — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 05:40:14 -0000

I was reading an article about the upcoming draft that listed who is probably staying, leaving or undecided. The article which was on ESPN's site, but now I can't find said they are expecting a record number of underclassmen to enter the draft. It cited two main reasons. The first, is the rookie cap expected in the near future. "The second factor is a marginally talented senior class. Most underclassmen are aware of the competition at their respective positions and have some idea where they stack up in relation." It seems like that statement: "marginally talented senior class" or something like that gets batted around every year. Seriously, I would venture to say that 3 out of 4 senior classes have marginal number of talented or high-profile prospects. But what else should we expect when 25-50 of the top underclassmen bail for the NFL each year?! Of course there are less seniors to choose from because 1/4 - 1/2 of the really good ones left a year or two ago. So stop blaming the seniors and blame their peers who cut and ran... for the money.

Moreno & the running game

fotodog — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 03:04:13 -0000

16, 2, -2, 2, 3, 8TD, 4, 0, 3, -2, 5, 3TD, 2, 10, 27, 4, 11, 0, 2, -9, 1, 1, 0, 30, 21

Those are the yards for each carry that Moreno had against ASU. A lot of people have been talking about what a great game Moreno had and when you look at 149 yards and 2 TDs, it certainly looks impressive. However, when I was watching the game I felt underwhelmed... not so much by Moreno, but by our running game in general. If you take out the 51 yards at the end which weren't exactly "junk yards", but were after ASU had pretty much conceded, you are looking at a sub-100 yard game with quite a few stuffs.
3 runs for negative yardage
3 runs for no gain
8 runs for 3 or less yards
= 14 runs that were for little or no gain

Yes, he had the spectacular leap into the endzone, which reminds me of the insane body control Moreno has. Yes, he did have flashes of great moves, a few of which that were only ended because of facemasks to bring him down. And yes, Moreno should have had a 3rd TD (against 12 defenders), which the refs blew... But I thought ASU did a pretty good job of slowing down Moreno until the last 5 minutes of the game.

I don't think it was Moreno's fault, I think most of the blame is on the OL. Running up the middle was tough. And 24 had defenders on him before he got to the line of scrimmage several times. I just think that it wasn't as good of a day as it will look on paper 2 weeks from now.

Did anyone else see it that way or just me?

UGA VI Passes

fotodog — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 15:57:40 -0000

from Josh Kendall, Dawg Post

ATHENS – Uga VI, Georgia’s beloved English bulldog mascot, died Friday night in Savannah, Cecelia Seiler confirmed to Dawg Post Contributor Josh Kendall on Saturday morning.

“He didn’t suffer,” Seiler said of her 10-year-old dog. “He lived right here in my den with me for 10 years. He was a happy dog.”

Uga VII’s readiness to take the field for the 2008 football season is a topic for school officials, Cecilia Seiler said, and none could be reached immediately Saturday morning.

Sonny Seiler, whose family has owned all the dogs, was at his office Saturday morning, his wife said, and could not be reached for comment or to add details on the dog’s death.

Uga VI took the reins from Uga V early in the 1999 season. He turned 10 in July and would have been the only one of the dogs other than Uga I to serve past his 10th birthday.

The line of mascots has long garnered national attention, culminating with Uga V’s appearance on the cover of Sports Illustrated, which named Uga as the nation’s best mascot.

UGA football great Rauch dead at 80

fotodog — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 21:23:06 -0000

From Athens Banner Herald:

By Lee Shearer

Wednesday, June 11, 2008
John Rauch, one of the University of Georgia's greatest football players, has died at the age of 80.

Rauch died unexpectedly in his sleep late Tuesday night at home in Oldsmar, Fla., said Jane Rauch, his wife of nearly 61 years.

When his four-year college football career was over in 1948, quarterback Rauch was the NCAA's career passing leader with 4,044 yards and had led UGA to two Southeastern Conference championships and four consecutive bowl games.

After a brief stint playing professional football, Rauch began a long career in college and professional coaching, including tenures as head coach of the Oakland Raiders and the Buffalo Bills.

In 1967, Rauch was named the American Football League's Coach of the Year after taking the team to the AFL championship and the second Super Bowl. The Raiders lost to Green Bay in Vince Lombardi's last game as the Packers' coach.

He is survived by his wife, a son, a daughter, three grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

Published ion OnlineAthens.com on 061108