Enough is Enough

This will be preaching to the choir to one person who has been calling for his head for awhile, but I think the time has come for Willie Martinez to pack up his stuff and move on. I say move on because I find it very hard pressed for Mark Richt to just fire him. Yesterday's game was a complete joke defensively. Poor tackling, stupid penalties, and a lack of any kind of pressure resulted in the 3rd straight week that Georgia has given up over 30 points. Lets go to the stats.

Just this season, UGA has given up over 30 points four times. 41 points to Bama, 38 points to LSU, 49 points to UF, and 38 points to Kentucky. Since CWM became defensive coordinator in 2005, UGA has given up over 30 points ten times, and that includes 34 to Troy last year. During this time, UGA went 4-6 during those games. Compare that to Brian Van Gorder whose defense gave up over 30 points just one time during his 4 year tenure.

Interestingly, when you look at the rush and pass yards per game over the last few years, there aren't too many differences between Martinez and Van Gorder. The best year for Martinez came in 2006 when his defense gave up a total of 3357 yards. For Van Gorder it came during the 2004 season when they gave up 3466 yards. Even sacks and interceptions are comparable. From 02-04, the defense had 112 sacks and 38 picks. From 05-07, the defense had 109 sacks and 50 picks. So no real decline in sack production and an increase in secondary production. That is until you look at this year's defense. So far UGA has 17 sacks and 9 picks, 2 of which Dobbs has grabbed. That is 2 more than Prince Miller, Asher Allen, C.J. Byrd, and Bryan Evans have had all year combined.

But enough of the stats. "Stats are for losers. I like winning games." This coming from Will Muschamp when he told Pat Forde what he thought about stats.



Who wouldn't want to play for this guy? You don't hear that very often, or at all about Willie. So who would UGA grab to replace him? I really don't know. It won't be Muschamp, Charlie Strong, Van Gorder, or some other person we all really like, so we might as well just not even go there. Feel free to suggest any coach you would like to see next year on the sidelines.

I'll leave things on this comment made by Willie yesterday after the game.

“I thought our guys were ready. I thought we were prepared,” Martinez said of Kentucky, which ran more option Saturday than it has all season. “There were a couple of defensive calls we made that weren’t good. Early on we were trying to get some pressure on them and the worst thing you can do is come hard up the middle when they’re hitting you outside with the option. But I think they blocked it well more than anything.”

I got news for you buddy. If you thought it was bad watching Kentucky's fullback gash your defense, then wait until the nerds from North Ave come to Athens and run that option all over the place. Change has come to America, and change is needed in Athens. Man up Mark.