There's nothing special about our kick coverage

David Hale has an article about the inconsistency in the kicking game at Georgia on Macon.com. It's a good read, but the better read is his breakdown of disastrous kickoff coverage incidents since 2008 that have taken the momentum away from UGA and given it back to the opposition.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again. It's simple physical science and rudimentary math. Slow doesn't catch fast.

If you have the fastest player in college football returning the kicks, you aren't going to have a reasonable opportunity to chase him down and tackle him using walk-ons, 280 lb defensive ends, back-up fullbacks and back-up quarterbacks. That issue is complicated when they approach the ball carrier tentatively and don't maintain their lanes.

We have a roster full of players like Richard Samuel who were born to cover kicks. The kid was a dominating linebacker in high school who runs fast and has no problem running into people. Why he's not on every coverage unit, I'll never know. There are an abundance of tight ends, linebackers, safeties and wide receivers on this team.

Jon Fabris is a whale of a very good* defensive ends coach, but his unshakable approach to personnel utilization on kickoff coverage and his entire approach to the subject doesn't work. It just doesn't, and it has never worked. It's not the kicker either.

The celebration penalty changed the game. But our inability to cover the final kick lost it for us. Think back to Baton Rouge in 2003. Everyone remembers Billy Bennett missing three field goals as a major reason we lost. Most folks remember our WRs inability to catch that day and our daycare aged offensive line being manhandled by the veteran LSU defensive line. But most folks forget that it was the kickoff following the 93 yard TD run by Tyson Browning that was returned to near midfield that set up the final Tiger miracle score.

How many more games will our kickoff coverage hurt us before we try something truly different? It's maddening.

See Also:
-- Upon further review - Blutarsky

PWD



*I over reached with the initial adjective. I do believe that he's done a very good job with what he's had HEALTHY to work with over the past 9 years. The DEs have arguably been our most consistent group during that period. Last year, he had next to nothing to work with that was healthy. He had one starting DE that was 2 biscuits shy of 300 lbs and a redshirt freshman as his only healthy guys.