Shot:
Chaser:
Of course, Kirby has yet to name a starter, but thatās nothing new, now is it?
Stocktonās entrance into the SECCG and eventual win had its moments, like something out of a movie. Some gritty plays, his first pass getting swallowed up by Georgiaās biggest receiving āliabilityā in Arian Smith, as though Smith had had stick-um hands all season, getting knocked unconscious while still holding the ball. All catalysts to a magical comeback and storybook moment.
There was also a wildly terrible interception, but he followed with a commendable Sugar Bowl performance where – letās face it – he had little room to operate and was getting pressured on what felt like 110% of his dropbacks. And there was a crucial dropped pass and a dunce dancing in the officials box, so some of the Georgia head-scratchers from 2024 didnāt fully get exorcised because Gunner was under center.
So what do you think 2025 will look like? Will Stockton be QB1 by the Tennessee game, or after? Will a better surrounding cast, albeit a huge question mark on the OLine notwithstanding be the solve to undoing the ills of 2024?
O line uncertainty, the love of screens/short passes and no proven deep threat means every defense is going to load the box.
I was frustrated with three things Gunner related in NOLA:
1) no, or very few, designed runs. The āwhy?ā behind that is concerning.
2) no suggestion that if the play breaks down that he is a threat to tuck it and pick up a first down. No suggestion that he could extend a play behind the los either.
3) there was never any real sign in the second half that he could lead a comeback.
Will any of that bleed over to 2025? No idea.
What I do know is this:
If he isnāt a run game threat, weād better be bad ass on the LOS and at RB. If weāre gonna play like we did with Fromm and keep the pitch count under 25 weāre going to have to be pair a running game with great defense or some games are gonna get ugly for the good guys.
OR
Weāre going to need to incorporate the qb into the designed run game, draw the safeties up and make them pay.
If weāre gonna play try to play offense like we did in 23 and 24 with Beck, it will be ugly. I just donāt see this kid as a NFL style qb who puts it up 42 times and gets the W.
He looks to me to be more like Fromm who was 0-6 when his pitch count exceeded 30. But playing offense like we did in 2017 can work, we just need Chubb and Sony and Roquan type players.
Ideally, Stockton is a slightly bigger Stetson with a stronger arm who can run those read option keepers up the A gap and frustrate the hell out of a defense.
It will be interesting to see how it plays out.
^^^ All this.
Fuck it. Let’s play already the suspense is killing me.
Itās a really good year to have two warm up games ain’t it?
We wonāt really know what weāve got until Tennessee or Alabama week.
After those two weāll either be looking forward to Texas or fretting over Kentucky, Auburn, Ole Miss and Florida.
I do know that weāll be bad because Bobo or good in spite of Bobo.
RE your first point, I think that the coaches were a bit concerned that if Gunner got lit up like the end of the SECCG, our next option was a significant step down and didn’t want to risk it.
If thatās the case, I hope that faith in the second option has increased substantially OR weāre looking for a 16 of 21 for 215 sort of stat line and riding a great run game and defense.
Frankly, Iād rather do the latter but I donāt know if we have the dudes.
I think that 2025 Puglisi with a year of practice in the system will instill much more confidence than 2024 Puglisi. Remember, we didn’t have Jackson Muschamp available to save the day :).
I have confidence in Stockton given a full off-season as the defacto starter. I think the team will play for him, and I think Kirby knows it. I’ve got my Dawg-colored glasses on about this season.
2024 is in the history books, film study for #14 from the seccg plus sugar bowl is over, the dc for nd probably said “Fuck it” for the nd d scheme, blitz, blitz, blitz bring strong side/weak side pressure 1st down, 3rd down, whatever down it was, do all he could do, to move #14, make him off balance….#14 will learn from those situations, new season, new team, newer team mates, lets see what the staff can do for UGA football success, week in, week out…GO DAWGS!!
Gunner play well in the ND game. He couldnāt catch his on passes of block on his blind side. Left tackle as to be addressed this year.
He also didn’t play on the kickoff team. For one bad sequence at the start of the second half, no one did…
And Kirby puked up the end of the first half. With everything happening, down 6-3 at half was ok. Kirby instead decides to take a chance. Turnover, sudden change ā¦ now down by 10. The kickoff return was damn ridiculous. Down by 17. Game not over, but an enormous hole to climb out from.
I think that the focus on the “middle 8” (or whatever the number is) will be a bit heightened this year. Say what you want about Kirby, but making the same mistake twice is not in his nature.
You have given me a great idea for a post ā¦ thanks!
That was me, BTW. My browser updated and logged me out of WP. Being a pud, I didn’t notice…
Greene and Freeling were both playing hurt at the end of the year.
Cole Cubelic likes both of those guys.
I mean I “could” go along with that if I didn’t see so many instances of our offensive line implementing a different blocking scheme on the same running play or passing play.
It all comes down to the OL in my mind. With Searles coaching I have very little hope that this will be a very good OL, much less a great one. While I will never be mistaken for someone who knows how to coach an offensive line, I do recognize what good OL vs bad OL play looks like. Last year was far less than stellar & got worse as the year progressed. Does anyone here know how Searles is perceived by the coaching community? I honestly don’t know and am curious. It feels like the line play has gone down steadily since he arrived here.
I don’t know how he’s perceived, but he wasn’t very good when he was at UNC before coming to Athens. Sam Howell was running for his life all the time behind Searel’s O-lines.
I said as much when Kirby hired him and was taken to the woodshed by a few folks on GTP. Then our OL showed out in ’22 and I thought I had been wrong about him. The last two years have made me rethink that.
How many snaps did the line that started the year miss due to injury last year? How many snaps did those guys try to get through while hurt?
No doubt line play did not meet expectations last year. How much of that was coaching vs. circumstance?
I know Greene, Freeling, Fairchild, Ratledge and Wilson all missed significant playing time or were playing injured. I may be wrong about Fairchild, but all the others were spending time in the training room.
Fairchild hurt his calf, yep.
I agree about OL play and how it has steadily declined since Searles’ arrival. Criticizing him gets you blocked by some folks on the Xitter, careful! hahaha
Has it steadily declined due to coaching or due to the fact that the Pitt Bossās recruits are all gone now? Thereās a reason Matt Luke decided to go spend time with his family. I donāt think he was near the recruiter Kirby wanted in that role.
I do think this is a perform or hit the road year for Searels, but this discussion of the OL is a lot more nuanced. I think you know that as well.
I hope you’re correct that this is a make it or break it year for Searles. Agreed that injuries may have been the biggest factor last year. If we run it in 2025 like we did last year I’ll have seen enough, though I’m pretty sure no one that makes decisions cares about that. š
Here’s the litmus test for me. CSS coached for one Nick Saban while at LSU. Saban never brought him back again.
I think we could do better than Searles. I’m thinking this could be his last year if the OL doesn’t pan out. But those weren’t his recruits and but, but all the injuries. No excuses this year. Get it done or get his ass gone.
If Sam Pittman gets the heave-ho at Arkansas, well, you know what they say about what happens when one door closes …
The only door Sam is opening is the door on his lake house. The man has earned his retirement.
I’d imagine his reputation is decent considering he keeps getting hired on at one job or another, but a lot of these head coaches seem to hire guys they know and are comfortable with. Even Willie Martinez is still coaching secondary in the SEC (Tennessee).
I expect the OL to be very much the same. I expect the playcalling to be very much the same. I think the RB production will be very much the same. The one area where I think we’ll see improvement is fewer drops.
Like Beck, Gunner has all the tools. But anyone expecting him to carry the load and make up for mediocre offensive coaching is going to be disappointed. Please prove me wrong.
Iāll still take Mike Bobo over any Georgia OC hire not named Todd Monken made since Wayne McDuffie was transforming 3 yards and a cloud of dust to a pro-style offense.
Should Kirby have gone outside the program to hire an OC after Monkenās decision to head back to the NFL? He probably should have assessed the field of candidates, but you donāt have a bunch of guys looking to come down to college now. Maybe he should have elevated Faulkner to the role. Monken seemed to recommend Bobo to Kirby as he was walking out the door.
As far as offensive coordinators at UGA, I would take Jim Chaney over Bobo any day.
Not a fan of Bobo, but pretty sure I don’t want Chaney back over him.
No shit.
Dudeman, did you forget the 2015 Vandy game?
Vanderbilt aside in that first year Chaney did get us a Rose Bowl win and in the CFP the second year.
“Maybe he should have elevated Faulkner to the role”
Yeah, that would have been good, at least in hindsight.
I’m not a pessimistic, but even if all we do is catch the damned ball, the offense will be demonstrably better in all phases. When we couldn’t pass, it was easy to stuff the run.
I think Beck is a better pocket passer than Gunner, but Gunner now can get the first team reps experience and feedback loop, so weāll see how he improves. His throwing motion is cringeworthy, and he has inconsistent pocket awareness. Both can be improved.
I’ve been drinking the kool-aid around this time every year since the early 70s. No reason to stop now, I reckon.
I just hope Bobo puts together a good offense for Gunner and surprises the hell out of me. Honestly I am tired of the guy and wish he would move on so I don’t have to get anymore “Damn it Bobo” texts from all of my friends and family who actually watch the game amd know football. His name is like a curse word in my circle. If I stub my toe I shout “Damn it Bobo” from some kinda of Dawg football PTSD. On I20 I shake my fist and yell “Bobo” at bad drivers. The man has been punishing us since the mid 2000’s. No mas.
That’s pretty funny! May need some therapy for that Bobo PTSD
Prove it year for Searles and Bobo. I don’t have any predictions for our outcome, only that we either rise or fall with how this offense performs. We have such a small sample size on Gunner, everybody sees what they want to see. Will he be Steton-esque or 2020’s version of Joe Cox? I have no idea, but I think Kirby is on the mother, as Blutarsky always said…….
Bobo and Searles should have been replaced.
However:
> So what do you think 2025 will look like?
16-0, National Champions.
Game scores:
70-0 every game.
#GoDawgs
With all the shade being thrown at Bobo and Searels, can we spare some for James Coley? I’d think that teaching receivers how to catch the ball is one of the responsibilities of the Wide Receivers Coach. His one season as our OC was underwhelming too, so I doubt he’s adding much to the game planning effort.
Were guys dropping it in practice all week or did it only rear its ugly head in games? If the former, you have a point. If the latter, other than throwing the next guy out there, what do you do?
Believe me ā¦ I agree with your assessment of Coley the OC and play caller. Not sure I agree on him as a WR coach.
I absolutely can be on board with questioning Foley’s ability to coach any position. I don’t think Kirby keeps him around for X’s and O’s. Even in this environment, Foley can close recruits at a high level. When Foley left, I think we saw a significant drop in the skill players we wanted. If he keeps us stocked with talent, I can overlook his coaching.
For CSS, he can certainly coach technique. However, I have seen neither a great aptitude for recruiting (Pittman ruined me on that account) or a great skill set of getting his offensive lineman to be on the same page at any one given time.