Before I even get started, any
DISNEY DAWGS (people who think the program is fine, everything will work out, never take off the "Red and Black sunglasses," don't rock the boat, etc.) may not want to read any further. Seeing as how people think booing and berating college athletes is wrong (which is bullshit because they're getting a free education which ends up costing some kids around $80,000) I'll direct this rant towards the guys who do get paid mega-bucks to make this program a success and are failing miserably- the
COACHES.
I'll start at the bottom and work my way up Georgia's football team has finally taken on the
prevalent attitude of our coaches- flat in terms of emotion and weak physically(thanks a lot Van Halanger). Van Halanger, supposedly Richt's right hand man, is terrible at what he does. Strength and conditioning coach, ha, what a joke. Thank God Georgia recruits athletes that already have some size and speed because they sure as hell don't get bigger, stronger, and faster once they step foot on campus. Our players are undersized and underdeveloped (minus Thomas Brown because I'm sure he refuses to take any of Van Halanger's shit). This is why we get manhandled on both lines, linebackers can't get off blocks, and our DBs and WRs get thrown around like ragdolls. I feel bad for the kids here because they have a chance to be real special, yet Van Halanger manages to squash those chances. We haven't had as many draft picks the last couple of years either. Georgia use to churn Pro Bowl caliber players. Hell even if you're not that good in college, if you have the size and speed there's a good chance you'll get drafted. Georgia might as well not even hold Pro Day anymore because our guys just simply aren't cut out for the next level (not all their fault). Enough on Van Halanger, let's move on (feel free to add or detract from these statements).
Sorry excuse for tackling= Another Tennessee Touchdown
Next we will move to Coach Jancek, our linebackers coach. A man who coached the defensive line for two years at Central Michigan comes to what is suppose to be a consistent top 10 team now and moves to coach linebackers. It's clear Jancek is in over his head. Once again talents like Tony Taylor masked the lack of coaching lack of coaching. Our linebackers just don't look like they know what they're doing. Why is this? Because they're dumb football jocks? Absolutely not. It's because they haven't been prepared properly in terms of gameplans or fundamentals. CWM's non-attacking, non-aggressive, "catching" type defense doesn't help the linebackers but I'll get to that later. None of our linebackers, with the exception of Ellerbee, can tackle worth a damn. Instead of trying a little "bull in the ring" at practice, Jancek finds playing patty cake or grab-ass as a more appropriate use of group time. Georgia's tackling, especially its linebackers, this year reminds me a lot of Georgia's teams in the 1990s (
NOT GOOD). As with many other spots, the talent is there, we're just not developing it like we should be and that is a
COACHING PROBLEM. Next Victim!
Another Drop... So What Else Is NewNow it's time for one of our most disappointing position coaches year in and year out- coach
John Eason. How many drops will it take to get this guy off staff. Drop after drop after drop, many in crucial situations, seems to be a recurring theme among Georgia's receivers. Now drops are a part of football. I'm realistic, I don't expect the guys to catch the ball every time because that's just not humanly possible. However, our receivers manage to drop the ball at an alarming rate, no matter if they are taking a hit or not. We've had some playmakers come and go (Reggie Brown, Fred Gibson, among others) and we have some playmakers now (Sean, Bailey, MoMass better known as MoMiss for some of his catching escapades, Mikey Henderson, etc.) but for the life of me to make a play we have to catch the ball first. This is one of the more basic fundamentals that should be coached up at every level. Well apparently Eason is content with helping ruin kids lives by not helping them. When Georgia fans boo receivers that drop the ball, the technical staff at Sanford Stadium should plaster Eason's face on the big screen as well because a lot of those jeers should be directed at him. Use the tennis ball machine technique like they do at Texas Tech (where they throw for 500 yards a game) or come up with something else that actually works because it's your job and that's what we pay you to do. We have 5 star wideout A.J. Green coming in '08 and I can only hope Eason doesn't squander his talent like he has with everybody else. It's embarrassing, it's a shame, and it's an injustice to Bulldog players and fans. I could go on for days about Eason but let's move to the coordinators.
Eason please don't screw this kid up!I won't spend a lot of time on Bobo because I think he's still getting his feet wet with the play calling duties. Bottom line, get Knowshon Moreno the ball as many times as possible. He's our only game breaker and the only one to show any enthusiasm. Whether you throw to him, hand it to him, toss it to him, hell line him up at QB, just get him the damn ball. I was a little disappointed that we were trying to still establish the run late in the third quarter Saturday down 28 points. I realize Tennessee was probably dropping 8 men into coverage a lot to shut down our non-existent passing game so Bobo probably figured we could break a big run. I also realize the line is young and the protection isn't great plus what good is a pass play if Eason's
receivers won't catch the damn ball anyway. Stafford hasn't been very accurate at times either so all of this could be hampering Bobo's playcalling. I like the fact that he brought back the toss sweep and tunnel screen (Donnan) but I hate the fact that the screen pass is our bread and butter go-to play still (Richt). I think he could be a little more creative at times but like I said, he's young, he's gonna make mistakes, and he needs to find his style. I just hope he finds it fast and that CMR hasn't rubbed off on him too much. Much like on defense, I think we need to be more aggressive on offense. Take some shots down the field, stretch a defense vertically, maybe throw to set up the run every once in a while instead of the other way around. This will help establish more of a rhythm in the passing game instead of run, run, incomplete pass, punt (7 punts on the first 7 possessions Saturday is
UNACCEPTABLE). I'm also in favor of more 3 and 5 step drops so Stafford can set his feet and throw. He looks great and accurate for the most part on plays of this nature because he's not running for his life and throwing off his back foot to the other team. I just don't know enough about Bobo's playcalling yet to make an intelligent decision on his future. However, I know what I'm getting with coach Martinez and his defense and I don't like it one bit.
Willie, Willie, Willie, the s*** has finally, once and for all, hit the proverbial fan. This has been
three years in the making. I hope this was the tipping point for CMR to turn CWM loose. Willie is another product, like Jancek, of the Central Michigan coaching tree. Well somebody forgot to tell coach Martinez he's not in the MAC anymore. This is the
SEC. This is
BIG BOY FOOTBALL. There's so much stuff I want to say I don't even know where to begin. We'll start with his lack of coaching ability as this has become a depressing pattern with Mark Richt's assistants. Willie is the secondary coach of a secondary that is absolutely God awful and has been for quite some time now. A more disturbing trend that has arisen this year showing even more of a lapse in fundamentals is our secondary's refusal to look for the ball. It's a lot harder to intercept a pass when you can't see the damn ball. In terms of our zone techniques, when receivers enter and exit the zones nobody is picking them up. Much like our linebackers (another Jancek-Central Michigan correlation) when watching our secondary before the play starts it seems like nobody in the secondary knows what they're doing. Kelin Johnson is having to direct traffic and sometimes he's not even sure what to do. It's mass confusion and when you combine that with poor tackling and poor coverage techniques it's a recipe for disaster (see Tennessee '06). Enough of this technique stuff. We know the man can't coach but can CWM gameplan?
HELL NO!!!!! Coach
Martinez likes to employ his patented soft zone defense every week, no matter what because he's not exactly a coach that likes to make adjustments (one of a coordinator's most important duties). This style of defense where you keep everything in front and bend but don't break (even though we seem to be breaking a lot, especially when it matters) might have against a high powered MAC attack offense but the s*** just doesn't fly here. Sitting back and waiting, instead of attacking results in a defense being gashed on the ground and picked apart through the air. Occasionally you can get away with this defense if your front four is dominating, which ours is not this year, but even then you need some added pressure. Also, with this soft zone comes the ridiculously large cushion our corners give receivers (and we still get burned). Teams could go down the field on our defense by simply running 5 yard stops and outs. How about some aggressive play. Get up on the receiver and bust him in the mouth. Jam him at the line, bump him, drive the receiver out of bounds so he can't make a play. Do something, anything because with our piss poor tackling at all levels on defense those 5 yard hitches turn into 20 yard plays. Here's a novel idea. Let's prevent the QB from even throwing the ball by getting some
G** DAMN PRESSURE on him. Rushing four down linemen doesn't seem to be working so how about we
BLITZ!!!!!!!! BLITZ EARLY AND BLITZ OFTEN. Shake up that QB's confidence.
PRESSURE = TURNOVERS and that's the name of the game on defense. CWM as made somewhat of an attempt to blitz in recent weeks but his blitz packages suck. In the words of a Michigan St. radio host, his blitzes never get home. I can think of a play off the top of my head from Saturday where we blitzed a safety and he barely got to the line of scrimmage by the time Ainge threw the ball. You have to disguise the blitz, especially against a senior savvy QB like Ainge. Put 8 guys within a few yards of the LOS then rush two and drop nine. Set up your base 4-3 defense and then bring 7 or 8 guys in a QB's face. Mix in some stunts, use zone blitzes, bring safeties and corners. You don't have to be so damn predictable all the time. Unfortunately because CWM refuses to adjust his vanilla defensive schemes I feel he will run Georgia's defense into the ground and we will see embarrassment like the one witnessed on Saturday more often than any of us would like. That is why we must make a change
NOW. That brings to the head coach/minister himself... CMR.
Lord, I know the ass thrashing I received from Fat Phil was a sign that it's time for change... AMEN!Do not get me wrong, I like CMR. Hell it would be like a sin not to like him seeing how connected he is with God but he has got to grow some balls. But in my IMHO, I think CMR is a better man than coach. His loyalty lies with his assistant coaches instead of the Bulldog Nation when surely he must see that there are changes that need to be made. This is the same Bulldog Nation that
pays his hefty salary and pays him to make these difficult decisions to make our football program the best possible. Thankfully, UAB came along and snatched up Neil Callaway (I bet they regret that decision now) or our young offensive line would be 1000 times worse than it is now. Coach Searels is doing one hell of a job with what he has to work with and I hope he hangs around for a while. Essentially the assistants on CMR's staff have job security for life because he will never fire anyone. We need boosters to put pressure on Damon Evans who in turn needs to put pressure on CMR. Unfortunately, I think Damon Evans may to nice to pressure Richt as well. It's going to take someone with guts because they might subject to a lot of public criticism (even though, on the inside, many people will be thankful). How cam you give such a nice guy like CMR an ultimatum to fire some of his staff members. CMR has made 3 assistant coaching acquisitions since he's been here because of assistants leaving: Tony Ball from Virginia Tech (runningbacks), Stacy Searels from LSU (O-line), and Jancek (CWM probably told him to-
BIG MISTAKE). Two of those three have turned out pretty well so I'm optimistic CMR is capable of bringing in some better coaches. Richt's mentor, 94 year old Papa Bowden, said, when asked about all of the coaching changes before the 2007 season, that a head coach is only as good as his assistants. Bobby himself had a hard time letting people go
and it took several horrible seasons and pressure from the higher ups to change things up. Finally, after becoming a laughing stock and playing in low rate bowl games, the Seminoles look like they might be on the right track. CMR does not need to fall into this trap. LET ME STATE THIS: I DO NOT WANT CMR FIRED! Bottom line:
MAN UP! Take care of the viruses plaguing this team and holding it back from greatness. Do the damn job that you're being handsomely rewarded to do.
I will be posting some other thoughts on Mark Richt a little later but I think this is plenty long enough so I'll stop here. Like I said earlier, feel free to add or detract. I'll be more than happy to debate the issues with anybody.
