Not to look past South Carolina, but...

This is the head coach of Coastal Carolina. Don't be a cat. Be a Dog..

PWD

Samuel as Running Back

I know this is old news, but I can't get too excited about it.  One one hand, Samuel had his shot at TB, was serviceable, but is a natural linebacker. The running back deal was a recruiting promise kept.  Why wait to make the switch back now, especially considering they knew King was on thin academic ice and Ealey was out? On the other hand, if the coaches need to find another body to ensure the necessary depth to run the play book, who else do they pick?

There are two things that come to mind:  One, they just don't trust one of the players they have at their disposal to be the player(s) they need at tailback, either as a co-number one or as a primary back up. That is puzzling and a bit strange.  And scary as hell.  Two, had Samuel been at LB his whole career, the coaches would not have to worry about moving him, as I believe he'd be too important to the defense to move around. 

The constant position swapping is putting players' careers in bad places and is wasting talent. I realize we are very deep at places on the defense, but damn. At least Richard is in a good place about it.

Tech and the NCAA

What does it say about the status of Tech's football program that the AJC spent three days on Brent Benedict transferring to Virginia Tech, but never picked up on an NCAA investigation (apparently a big one) at the North Avenue Trade School?

Or does that say more about the AJC?

Looks like Tech might get to vacate the Orange Bowl debacle against Iowa, though.

--------------
More response:
-Bud Peterson: "We didn't mean to do anything wrong and we aren't sorry we did," AJC
-Dan, you ignorant slut, Bradley
-It was UGA's fault!, Stingtalk
-We thought Georgia Southern was already on probation, ESPN

Poking the Bear

Either Chizik is starting to believe the Alabama press about his intelligence or getting a pretty ring to wear has made him very arrogant, but I don't think trying to show up the NCAA's head of enforcement is a good idea, either way.

Maybe he should have Gus Malzahn with him all the time.

TD

Chuck Heater Needs Work

Until Jan. 2nd, Chuck Heater was the co-defensive coordinator for the Florida Gators with specific position coaching responsibilities for safeties. He joined Florida from Utah along with Coach Meyer in 2005 as recruiting coordinator and cornerbacks coach.

At age 57, he's served on coaching staffs that have won two SEC titles and two national titles at UF, a national title at Notre Dame, an undefeated season at Utah, a Rose Bowl and Pac 10 title at Washington, a Big Ten title at Ohio State, and an 11-1 record at Colorado.

He's a winner.

As a recruiting coordinator for the Gators under Meyer, they built a recruiting machine with few peers. Also under Meyer and Heater, the Gators produced defensive back fields with devastating speed and toughness with kids who were coached well enough to begin contributing their freshmen year. He's a tough as nails coach with high expectations for his kids.

Yet, Will Muschamp isn't keeping him. So, he's looking at his options.

Hiring a guy with a resume like Heater's would strengthen our horrific DB production and give us another recruiter strong enough to further diversify our almost unhealthy reliance on Rodney Garner.

So...is UGA talking to him about replacing Scott Lakatos as defensive backs coach? It doesn't appear so. Well...there's something to be said for stability with complete disregard for merit I guess.

Am I suggesting that Richt should immediately fire Lakatos and hire Heater? Actually, no; although, the resumes of the two men aren't from the same planet. I'm suggesting that a move that bold wouldn't even be considered right now. And that's depressing as hell to me.

PWD

Nesbitt for Heisman Watch

Some stats to consider as part of the Joshua Nesbitt for Heisman Campaign. For the season, Nesbitt is completing 36% of his passes. That's 8.3 attempts per game and exactly 3.0 completions per game.

On 3rd down:

• 3rd and 1-3 yards -- 0 for 1
  
• 3rd and 4-6 yards -- 1 for 2
  
• 3rd and 7-9 yards -- 0 for 1
  
• 3rd and 10+ yards -- 2 for 4

For the season, Tech has faced third down 38 times, and they've converted 50% of them. Therefore, no one can completely dismiss what Coach Johnson wants to do in the short term. He's going to run the ball on anything shorter than 3rd and 8. Everyone knows it, and folks are really struggling to stop the very large Nesbitt.

But again, it's the long term that's interesting. It always comes back to the issue of why would any kid in their right mind ever want to play QB or WR for Johnson? Same for offensive tackles and defensive backs (who don't see a competent passing scheme in practice). So what happens when Nesbitt...their Heisman Candidate leaves?

But back to Johnson and Nesbitt. Consider these red zones

• Inside their own 20 yard line (regardless of down) Nesbitt is 1 for 1 passing.
  
• Inside the opponent's 20 yard line regardless of down, Nesbitt is 0-2 passing

All that said...5 of the guy's 9 completions have gone for 25+ yards.

Against UNC, he was 3 of 4 passing for the game for 76 yards and a TD. Outside of the UNC game, he's 6 of 21 for 124 yards with 1 TD and 1 INT against Kansas and SC State.

GT passing nationally rankings....

• 119th in attempts
  
• 120th in completions
  
• 120th in percentage
  
• 119th in yards
• 93rd in passing TDs

Only Army passes the ball less effectively. Source: CFBstats

The stats are simply amazing. Where's my Heisman ballot?

PWD

Dispatch from the Dept. of Irony

Yesterday morning a Total Tithead Person driving a truck emblazoned with GTU football propaganda crashed into a building at the intersection of Peachtree and Roswell roads in Buckhead. Ironically, the truck sign says "Brace for Impact," which one can only hope will serve as a harbinger/metaphor for GTU's 2010 season.

[Photo: John Spink/AJC]

Apparently the no-texting-while-driving law doesn't go far enough. If you want to keep Georgians safe from nerd-guided truck missiles, what we really need is a no-twelve-sided-dice-rolling-while-driving law.
[Insert Rambling Wreckage joke here]

HT: edsbs

Cordy Glenn to Enter the Ninja Draft

Cordy Glenn, a 6'5" and 330 pound offensive lineman at Georgia, announced today that he'll abandon his final years of eligibility to enter the Dark Arts of the Ninja. The news came on the heels of the University of Georgia's athletic department announcing that Glenn ran a 40 yard dash timed at 4.81 seconds. Apparently, football is too easy for a man of such size, grace and speed so he's moving on to a new field*. (Image: ABH)

Also, Cornelius Washington, a 6'5" 255+ lb defensive end, was timed in the 40 yard dash at 4.29 seconds. It's worth noting that only 8 players have run under 4.3 seconds at the NFL draft since 1999, and none of them weighed over 210 pounds.

And lastly, Brandon Wood, a 290 pound defensive tackle with eight career solo tackles in three seasons, was clocked at 4.71. It's worth noting that Tim Tebow only ran 4.72 at the combine. We must be truly stacked at DT if a player with those wheels is riding the pine.

In completely unrelated news, the University of Georgia also announced that a member of the athletic department's Strength and Conditioning Program has been nominated for a Pulitzer Prize in the category of Fiction.

In all seriousness, what's the point of inflating the strength numbers of our players like this? Is it to take pressure off our S&C coaches? Because it's sure not going to take any pressure off our kids when fans think they can move like that. I just don't get it.

Or as someone said on a message board today, "If our guys can run that fast, we should be able to cover kickoffs." I love our coaches, but I haven't seen this much fake demographic info on the internet since I last logged into Match.com.

See Also:
-- Cuff runs 4.24 - DawgPost.com

PWD


*Note: Not a shot a Glenn. It was a shot at the press release. He's actually one of my favorite Dawgs.

After thinking about recruiting for a few days....

My opinion is more mixed and baffled by this class than it originally was. On the one hand, I'm a big fan of this defensive class. I think we addressed needs, and there are kids who are more ideally suited for the 3-4 than the 4-3.

I'm also not all concerned with most of the kids who got away. More on that later. Regardless, I'm happier with the defense than most because I think it's an elite group.

What I don't get is the offensive in state recruits from this class. How do you miss out on the top QB, RB, WR and OT in state all in the same year? Kolton Houston (OG) is the only top player at his position we inked. How is that possible? I've been following UGA recruiting pretty closely since the 1997 season, and I don't even remember a class so shallow when it comes to in state offensive talent.

The crazy thing to me....all the coaching instability was on the defensive side of the ball. We were entrenched and solid on the offensive side...and the puzzling stuff is all isolated to one side of the ball where we had the most margin for error. Granted there is some territorial / geographic overlap from offense to defense, but still. It's mystifying.

The good news. This is the only UGA recruiting class under Richt that has been such a train wreck, and it's also the only 5 loss season. If Murray/Mett and Grantham improve their respective roles vs. last year's struggles, we'll should be back on the right track in recruiting and organizational momentum.

But I still can't fathom what went happened with this class offensively in state.

For a good read on what went wrong, check out Legge's Recruiting Manifesto. I don't agree with all the causality in his post, but I do think he makes some very legit points about the 2011 class.

*Update: I will say this after being challenged on the issue. It's very hard for me to say who was better at QB in this class in state than Mason. It was a very thin year for QBs in state.

PWD

I have no problem with Kirby Smart staying at Bama

Quinton and I both said numerous times throughout this search that we thought it was unlikely that Kirby Smart would come here. Not because of any mythical rift between Richt and Smart, but because it just made more sense for him to stay in Tuscaloosa. That's why, I don't have an issue with his decision to stay at Alabama.

What I most certainly do have an issue with is the way this was handled by Kirby. The job had been open since Dec. 2nd, and Kirby has known since at least Dec. 15th that Georgia was interested...if he was interested. That's the magic phrase in all of this.

UGA started the search process with Bud Foster and John Chavis because (A) they are more qualified for the job than Kirby, and (B) Kirby would be tied up until at least Jan. 7th. When the Foster and Chavis deals never materialized, Richt made his pitch to Kirby because he had reason to believe Kirby was legitimately receptive to the pitch.

If Kirby wanted to stay in Tuscaloosa, that would've been fine by everyone. He could've quietly and respectfully told Richt to move ahead with his search without him. There was positively no reason to wait 3-4 days to make up his mind when he had a month to ponder this scenario. Making Richt wait weakened the search process and took more shine off the position.

Bear Bryant was famously asked why he left Texas A&M for Alabama, and he responded, "Mama Called." Well, mama called, and as T. Kyle King said, "Kirby hung up." Georgia needed Kirby because of the timing and because of the prior rejects, and we went out on a limb for him. We were willing to make a 34 year old guy with only one year of defensive coordinator experience the third highest paid assistant in the country. In that scenario, you don't make us wait for almost four days to make up your mind.

So it's not the decision that pisses me off. It's the process and timing.

I respect his decision to stay with Saban. Professionally, I think it was the right move for him. It's lower risk, and as close to a frictionless path to a head coaching gig as you can find in college football. But he should also respect the anger and backlash that UGA boosters feel towards the way he handled this.

It's not just business when it's your alma mater. Not if you ever want to come back.

Where do we go from here?
The search was never about hiring Kirby Smart. The search was about finding someone better than Willie Martinez. That's the minimum threshold for success. And as I've stated before, the process from our end worries me less than the outcome. We can still hire someone terrific. Particularly, if we're willing to offer another viable candidate as much as $790,000 over three to four years.

Kirby wasn't Richt's soul mate for this job. There's more than one person that will work. We just need to move quickly to find them.

By the way....can we please stop with the "Damon won't pay anyone good" meme. The offer that UGA made to Kirby given his resume was wildly out of step with the broader marketplace. It was an incredibly generous offer.

Oh...and one last thought. Maybe it's Todd Grantham now. Maybe not. But what has Todd Grantham ever done to make you or I think he's the answer except have Pollack and Donnan throw out his name often enough to have Anthony Dasher start calling his agent?

If it's him, I'll be open minded, but I don't get the love.

PWD

Urban Meyer stepping down as UF Coach

Urban Meyer is stepping down as the head coach of the Florida Gators after the Sugar Bowl citing health issues. This is Meyer's official statement:

"I have given my heart and soul to coaching college football and mentoring young men for the last 24-plus years and I have dedicated most of my waking moments the last five years to the Gator football program," Meyer, 45, said in statement. "I have ignored my health for years, but recent developments have forced me to reevaluate my priorities of faith and family.

In 1998, Meyer was diagnosed with a cyst on his brain. On Dec. 7th, SI.com wrote a 10 page article on the situation with Meyer's health. We can only assume that this is related to that. In my opinion, the first red flag was the diagnosis of dehydration episode after the SEC Championship. The Gators invented Gatorade. Their coach shouldn't dehydrate.

But speculation aside, the next step will be finding a new head coach for the Gators. It's one of the premier jobs in all of football. The only downside of the job is the level of expectation surrounding the position. At this point, it's impossible to keep the Gator fans happy. They were complaining about an undefeated season THIS year. Other than that, Foley will pay whatever it takes. But still...Meyer is the best coach in college football right now for my money. The pressure is really on Foley.

Here's to Meyer's health. Hopefully, he makes a full recovery. As a Dawg fan, I hope he gets things together, gets healthy and returns to coaching...somewhere far, far, far away from the SEC.

Turn to ESPNNews for wall to wall coverage right now. It's the Urban Meyer Network right now.

BTW -- Comments are open right now. I'm editing and writing. I may move them back to moderation later. But for now, this is open.

PWD

Beep, Boop, Woof, Woof

Seriously, PETA?  Won't the drool cause electrical shorts?  I'm in full support, however, if it is of a size and demeanor matching Truckasaurs.

And LSU thinks it has a intimidating mascot?  Wait until we crane in Robodawg to opposing stadiums.

Quinton

LOOK AT THE WEEDEATERS FALLING FROM THE SKY!

You shipment of fail has arrived. Look at the weed eaters falling from the sky! I'm too pissed to type, and I'm too annoyed to read anyone else's rants either. Shreveport here we come.

Comments are open. Lay off the profanity. I don't have time to delete a bunch of that stuff.

PWD

Tailgating on North Campus...your days are numbered

It's one thing to empty a dumpster on your bitter enemy's front yard. It's another thing to empty one on your own yard. One makes you a mean prankster. The other makes you a stupid slob and a horse's ass. There's no excuse for leaving North Campus looking like this.

And this wasn't the work of hobos or homeless people post game. This was what it looked like because the students and recent alumni who tailgate on North Campus made it look this way. Sweeping changes are needed to protect North Campus. Some or all of the following options need to be on the table at this point:

• Banning tailgating on North Campus
  
  
• Pay for Play tailgating in a limited number of labeled spots with fines for littering in that spot. This is my favorite option.
  
  
• Banning Styrofoam Coolers on the Entire Campus. This is a no brainer The cost of buying one is so low, there's no reason to not just abandon it at the end of the tailgate. As you can see from the image above, North Campus is littered with Styrofoam Coolers.

The Athletic Department also needs to step up and invest in more trash bins. They are bringing the fans to town. They have a $28 million surplus. They need to help us keep the place cleaner. The University shouldn't be the one stroking that check. It should be the AD.

We had to go a long ass way out of our way on Saturday to get a trash bin for our very large tailgate. There just aren't enough bins. However, even without more bins fans can and should bag their own garbage. Just dropping it where you stand is completely unacceptable.

It's a damn joke what's happening on North Campus. And if you tailgate there, your days are numbered if the UK game ends the same way the Auburn game did in terms of filth. And even people like myself and Dawgnoxious who hate Mike Adams would stand behind him on his efforts to protect North Campus from what appears to be a massive group of idiots with no home training whatsoever who tailgate there.

See Also:
-- Slum Dogs - Augusta Chronicle
-- Time to Crack Down on tailgate Trash - AJC

PWD

Hookers and Blow?

"I'll bury these coaching cockroaches," said Redding.*
From the two day old news bin, I have to ask. What exactly has the SEC been spending it's $2.5 billion on if not HD TVs for the replay officials to view the games? If Slive and Redding are spending ESPN's money on coke and whores, I give them style points. But it's likely nothing so cool.

If we're saving that cash for a rainy day, look around fellas. It's raining. At least on your refs. I literally refuse to watch sports on a standard non-HD set...at a bar. And when I'm at a bar, I'm drinking with my head on a swivel looking for hot chicks...and barely paying attention to the TV to start with. I certainly wouldn't run my business through a standard TV.

I would be more indignant about this, but Slive and Redding won't read a blog posting. The Internet is a fad.

PWD


*Obviously not.

So...about our talent

While I was stuck in traffic post-game that was so bad I got out of my car and argued with two cops about the situation...remarkably not going to jail and actually getting them to more or less do what I wanted...I was partially listening to the 750 am post-game show.

During the show, Dantzler and Mike Cavan were talking about our talent level. It sounded like they were pushing the theory that it's not the coaching. Or maybe they were basically just saying that all our "Top 10 recruiting classes" were overblown. Either way, it sounds like we have huge talent problems per their conversation.

Dantzler's comment was that we're currently ranked 8th nationally by one recruiting service, but that's still only 5th in the SEC in recruiting. His shockingly lucid point being, that talent rankings are all relative.

We'll ignore the fact that 2 of the past 5 seasons, we finished higher in the Rivals recruiting rankings than the Gators. And just let Jeff's point stand on it's own for a minute. From there, I'll just agree the rankings are all relative. Moving on...

I don't care what we are ranked by Rivals, Scout or anyone else. I simply want us in the same living rooms as our rivals/peers, and I want us protecting our home state's top talent as much as possible. I figure if we're recruiting the same guys as UF, UT, Bama, LSU, and/or Miami, then we're usually recruiting the right guys.

With the exception of Cox and Gray, most of our current peers and measuring stick programs wanted most of our starters on offense and defense. Most of the elite programs can be wrong about a few players. But everyone can't be wrong about all our players.

I am not saying that this roster is as talented as the 2002 unit. There are typically less than two teams per year in all of college football that are as loaded on both sides of the ball as that group.

Nor am I saying that our talent is where it needs to be. At QB, RB and DE, we had multple recruiting whiffs that will only sort themselves out with time. As the better players aren't so darn raw or young.

But this roster ain't chopped liver either. We are most certainly more talented top to bottom than Oklahoma State and Tennessee. As well as Auburn, Kentucky and Georgia Tech.

QB is it's own fiasco right now. And that's not a trivial matter. But we're better than our record would suggest.

Or said more briefly -- we ain't the best 4-4 team in America, but we are damn sure the most talented one. And there's no trophy for that.

PWD

So...about those uniforms

It didn't work that day in Jax either.
(Image: Andrew Davis Tucker, ABH 11/1/98)
Preface: This is NOT my biggest issue from this weekend. If you wrote a list, this would probably be 20th on the list of 20 things. But it's topical and timely and I've already written about #1. But here's my thoughts anyway.

Blutarsky nailed this one. Well, technically Gator Ryan Stamper nailed it when he said, "That’s a bunch of fake juice."

You had an entire year to get mad about Meyer's timeouts. You had two weeks to prepare and get focused for your bitter rival. You had the excitement of playing the #1 team in the country.

And you felt that it would be a wardrobe change that would tip the scales in our favor? When they came out in their Halloween costumes, I was totally deflated. Because I knew that meant the coaching staff felt we needed a trick to give us an edge.

You know what gives real confidence?
Being prepared.

Mark Richt puts a great deal of emphasis on helping our players become good men, good fathers and good citizens. Aside from our inability to locate a nearby DMV office for drivers license related issues, he does a pretty good job. Michael Lemon's problems were an obvious glaring exception, but generally speaking Richt should be commended because he sincerely does care about his players beyond simply football.

But this is one area where he's doing them a huge disservice in preparing them for the real world and giving them a lesson about sports that will most certainly serve them well beyond the arena. And that's about preparation.

You want to be a better public speaker? Get more prepared. Know your material inside and practice your delivery. You want to be a better negotiator? Think about what your opponent or client wants/doesn't want and how you can handle his objections before the meeting. You want to be a better salesman? Know your prospect's business inside and out before making the first call.

You don't win in business by going shopping. There is no store that sells "Lucky Ties." Your lucky tie becomes lucky after you close a big deal. Not before you close your deal.

We didn't lose because we wore black outfits. We lost because we weren't prepared for the Gators. Maybe we lost because they are more talented. Maybe, but they aren't THAT much more talented. More importantly, there are teams with less talent than Georgia who gave them much tougher games.

If we win, no one cares about the unis. I only care because it screams desperation. It doesn't scream confidence. And this team needs confidence much more than it needs fake juice.

The other thing that erks me on this one. I think special uniforms should be worn by special teams. You beat the Gators, you can have a blackout against Auburn. You get a Sugar Bowl birth, you can have a blackout against Hawaii. You come into the Bama game undefeated with ESPN Gameday in attendance, then sure...a blackout is fine.

But 4-3 teams shouldn't get special treatment. They should just work harder. And by team, I mean coaches and players.

See Also:
-- You're missing the point of the uniforms - HacksawDawg (DawgVent $)

PWD

So...about that game on Saturday

Yes. Joe played badly. Yes. Logan played badly. Yes. The turnovers were a contributing factor to the game getting out of hand and our ultimate defeat. However, the defense never really stopped Florida. So what did the turnovers do except accelerate our demise?

The Gators had 11 offensive drives. Two ended in end of half/game. And one ended because they dropped too many wide open passes. That leaves two drives where we held them scoreless, plus one commendable performance where we held them to only a field goal following a turnover.

Therefore my question is simply this....

If the entire defensive coaching staff had gone to Bermuda for two weeks and simply met the team at the stadium, what would have been different about our game plan or execution? Seriously.

If that question is too inflammatory for someone to ask Coach Richt, then my question would be...why did Arkansas and Mississippi State have a better game plan defensively than we did? They have far less defensive talent on their respective teams than Georgia does, and they each had half as much time to prepare.

That's where I come down on this performance.

After the game listening to the 750am call-in show with Jeff Danztler, Mike Cavan and I think David Greene, they kept saying that someone needs to grab this program by the ears and drive it forward. They made it sound like a player needed to do it. Like there's a player leadership void.

Maybe it is player leadership at the root cause. Two of those guys know more about lockerroom dynamics than I'll ever know. But from where I'm sitting, the person that needs to grab the program by the ears is Mark Richt.

PWD

A Couple of Things

Judging by the comments on my last post, very few of you will read this so I'll be brief.  On offense, we are a play action passing team that can't run.  That's as simple as I can put it.  Monte played a lot of zone defense to take away the deep throw to A.J.  We couldn't do anything else to spark a real threat of offense without that route.  That's because we don't do anything else competently, except punt.

On defense, we can game plan, but find it impossible to react to what the other guy is doing.  If I was playing Tennessee, the plan would be to focus on Hardesty and the Vol running game.  Let Crompton beat you.  Our defense was so intent on that objective, Kiffy & Co. wisely ran play action to loosen it up.  The problem is we reacted like we had never see a play action bootleg and never adjusted through three quarters. 

I can't recall a more devastating loss since Richt took over.  The UF loss was bad last year, but UF went on to win the national title.  Tennessee lost to UCLA in Knoxville.  Some people think a giant catfish would be more effective as a quarterback than the guy we just handed the SEC Offensive Player of the Week award.  Tennessee isn't very good and they just beat the piss out of the Dawgs.

No one is without blame.

Quinton

AJ Green "Celebration" another camera angle

Unbelievable. Uploaded by DrewinSC. I'm more sick about the play after watching this than I was before. What a screw job.

PWD