Are the Georgia Bulldogs Coached Up?
I was reading THE Bulldog’s Blog and one of David Hale’s readers used the term “coached down”. It’s not a very commonly used phrase, but very descriptive and it made me think….no comments please! Especially you Bernie! It reminded me of a conversation I had with one of Thomas Brown’s high school coaches several years ago. Thomas was probably a junior at UGA at the time.
He was expressing some frustration because he felt Thomas was having his natural running instincts and abilities “coached out” of him. He said Thomas had shown a game breaking ability that I am sure helped him get recruited and a scholarship offer. Why then would the Georgia running backs coach go against that grain?
It could be as simple as the coach wanting the backs to run north and south and not to go east and west. That’s a pretty common mantra, but sometimes you have to go east and west just a little. These days that hole that was supposed to be there just isn’t there. Some of our backs run there anyway and fall down.
One of my favorite books as a kid was Run to Daylight by Vince Lombardi
That’s some basic stuff, but do we do that? Seriously.
Here’s a question for you. Since when do we recruit running backs as projects? The comments from Coach Richt recently regarding Richard Samuel prove to me that he is an ongoing project at running back. The fact that he is “still learning the position” doesn’t ring true to me. He’s been on campus 18 months and still doesn’t know what to do or how to do it? How can that be? And he’s starting again this weekend vs. Tennessee.
Now I have an occasional reader that feels I dislike Richard Samuel. That’s not the case. I want Richard to be successful. It’s up to the coaches to give him a chance to be successful. I’m just not sure that running back is the spot. If this weekend is Richard’s coming out party, I will dance naked in the street and kiss him square on the mouth, I swear I don’t care.
To clarify, I will get dressed again before said kiss on the mouth.
I think the more likely scenario is it could be Washaun Ealey’s coming out party. A fractured jaw and concussion for Caleb King may have created that opportunity for Washaun. It took an injury to Thomas Brown in 2007 for Knowshon Moreno to get the numbers of carries that proved his true value.
Bottom line is, I want to win. I am very concerned about our ability to run and consistently stop the run. Monty Kiffin will have his defense ready. He will put the onus squarely on Joe Cox to win this game. Joe will be hit early and often if we can’t slow the Tennessee pass rush by running effectively.
This will need to be our best over-all game to win.
Let’s do it! Go Dawgs!
1) 35-13 0 SEC Championship Games, 1 win over UF
2) 33-11, 0 SEC Championship Games, 1 win over UF
One of these records is that of Coach Donnan from 1997-2000 and the other is Coach Richt’s from 2006-2009.
Can you tell a difference? Me neither.
Does this mean Coach Richt should be fired? Absolutely not. His overall winning percentage is behind only Carroll, Stoops, and that guy at UF. To fire Richt or advocate doing so is lunacy.
Does it indicate a decline in the program? Yes. But for Richt, such a record would be the norm rather than a decline and for that we owe him a great deal. Nonetheless, the record still demonstrates a real decline over a four-year period – a significant amount of time in the world of college football.
Given our talent level (UGA averages a top 10 recruiting class under Richt & is in the top 5 programs for the amount of current players in the NFL – again, both are to his credit) and the financial resources dedicated to the program (salaries and facilities), it is clear that the only other remaining major variable, the coaching staff, is underperforming.
We all hoped that 2008 was an aberration. But now, when that season is combined with 2006 and with what has transpired so far in 2009, it seems much more likely that 2007 was the aberration rather than 2008.
I hope I am wrong, that we win out, beat the pants off UF, and are all toasting the Dawgs in NOLA. If not, however, Richt must upgrade his staff. Otherwise, we risk slipping out of the top tier of programs.
Go DAWGS!
10/09/2009 at 10:38 AM
Interesting and well worth the consideration. I have said we don’t have play makers. Just fill the void type players. To be honest Richard doesn’t run to daylight he runs to contact.
With this article, the success (limited) of Ealey, is he hasn’t been coached enough to hurt him yet? One of the strengths of Moreno was he would get yards when he was supposed to be stopped in the backfield. I was as much impressed with some of his 3-4 yard runs than some of his longer ones because of his effort. I saw some of the same stuff with Ealey last Saturday.
We haven’t had the mos top notch RB coaches. After all Coach Ball is coaching recievers now and Coach Mclendon is just off the playing field.
Before this year I felt our best coach was Searels but in all honesty he and the line has under performed. I know injuries happened but we should have had a year under our belt of how to best deal with that.
I think we are where we all feared we might be. Much talent, little play makers and it doesn’t look much different for next year.
I hope Murray is the real deal and a play maker. We need it.
10/08/2009 at 12:56 PM
Look at all the examples of “busts” we’ve had where the players haven’t gotten better or the coaches put them in an position that was not natural. Samuel = Linebacker not Running Back. Anyone who’s seen his youtube highlights could tell you he was a linebacker playing running back….and he still looks like a linebacker playing running back. Think about Demiko Goodman (you mean to tell me there was no consistent place on the field for one of the fastest kids in the history of GA sprinting), Brandon Miller (all everything but they couldn’t find a home for him), Michael Cooper (all everything running back that appeared to be coached down), Kiante Tripp (he’s on offense no he’s on deffense, no Searls “says I can make you lots of money as a LT” no he’s on defense again), Marcus Howard, (is he a LB is he a DE, is he a special teamer, no he’s an all SEC DE!) AJ Harmon is he a OL or is he a DL, he’s lazy and overweigh oh wait he’s a DL)…The list goes on and on and on.
Rex What do you think about this quote from Richt today:
“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.”
Now we know why he missed the chip shot field goal. The coaches have been giving him the business about kickoff’s. Nevermind he leads the conference in TB’s.
10/08/2009 at 12:00 AM
Answer coming momentarily….
10/08/2009 at 12:09 AM
Rex,
As always, I enjoy your blunt assessments of Georgia football and have agreed with all of them that I’ve read. I don’t say that to kiss up or to make you like me; I say it because it’s good that a former player such as yourself can step back and not blindly defend the program just because you played there. You see the same issues that we, the alumni and fans, see and can objectively bring them to print on your blog for other Bulldog-loving fans to respond to. Thank you.
That being said, I think that the season is at a crossroads this week. Either we’ll win and feel good about ourselves heading into the Florida game (yes, if we win this week, we’ll win @ Vandy) or we’ll lose the game and watch the season go into the tank (where we’ll have a losing record). After watching us not have a running game, I kept asking “where’s Washaun Ealey?” I also wondered “where’s Marlon Brown?” At least 1 of those questions was answered last week. I do have to admit that I was surprised to see Ealey in the game in the 3rd quarter, but I knew that we had found our running back after his first run. What I can’t figure out is why the heck are we starting Richard Samuel AGAIN? Compared to Ealey, both Samuel and King looked as though they were running with concrete boots!
It comes down to this…if we’re going to win in this league, we need a running game and Ealey is our best bet. I don’t care if he doesn’t know where he’s going or who he’s supposed to block, PUT HIM IN THE GAME and let him get experience! Why the coaches don’t seem to have any clue is beyond me (in special teams, play-calling, the running game, etc). I guess we’ll see this week if they do.
10/07/2009 at 9:22 PM
Being a big bulldog fan, I’M convinced our coaching is really lacking. It didn’t start this year like most folks are saying. When you get blown out at half time like West Va., and Alabama have done to us , with the talent we have, its the coaching. All week Sirrus radio has said Ga. could not have produced a run like LSU did at the end of that game, thats obvious. I really believe at this point we will loose to Auburn, Alabama, Florida, Tech, and even Tennessee, not for talent, but because our guys are not coached, not diciplined which is coaching. Look at the Huskies 0-14 last year, bring in pro coaching, look at Auburn , they are way way ahead of what anybody pridicted, look at Alabama and Florida coaching. Our quarterback looks like a deer in the headlights. Our great running backs are averaging 1 to 2 yds. per carry. The defense runs around lost most of the time. We will continue to be mediocre in this league, unless we recruit some seriously good coaches.
10/07/2009 at 8:27 PM
I am starting to wonder about our recent coaching shifts in this regard. I realize your citation of Thomas Brown is a few years old, but it is still a thought provoking subject.
10/07/2009 at 6:45 PM