Long as I remember, the rain been comin’ down. Clouds of mystery pourin’, confusion on the ground…”
We’ve entered a new season for Georgia football, and it’s not comfortable for players, coaches or fans. It’s been 5 years since the last time we were here together, when we had an underperforming offense led by a veteran QB having a surprisingly bad year throwing to average receivers and tight ends. Other similarities include a non-elite DL, holes in the secondary and a special teams unit having to bail the Dawgs out of way too many situations. All year, we’ve been gnashing our teeth about how this offense can be turned around. Is it Beck, is it Bobo, is it all the drops, or the average OL play? Well, obviously the answers to those questions last night (and most of the season) are “Yes, all of the above.” Given the recruiting advantage Georgia has held over most of the rest of college football, a game like last night and the inconsistent/stubbornly average-as-grits play on offense we’ve seen all year don’t make much sense.
Good men through the ages, tryin’ to find the sun. And I wonder, still I wonder, Who’ll stop the rain?”
The last time this occurred, it felt like a 2 months’ long car accident because Kirby refused to make any changes during the season. He’s known to be stubborn about making immediate changes, and to an extent that’s understandable because these are still college kids and it’s difficult to completely overhaul a system, a position group or a coaching staff overnight and expect a major turnaround. It usually results in worse outcomes, actually. Better to finish out the year while reaching out behind the scenes to gauge interest, assess the needs and make the changes then.
Five year plans and new deals, wrapped in golden chains. And I wonder, still I wonder, who’ll stop the rain?”
And this time, some of the needed changes are more complicated by friendship. Players can be replaced now, others recruited or acquired from the portal in the offseason. But firing your friends, the ones you were so confident could come in and coach up the elite talent you’ve recruited and developed over the last few years on the back of two championships? The ones you’ve paid handsomely to take the Monken keys and keep the train rolling, but instead are crapping all over them? Complicated and painful.
Last night was an abomination. As I wrote in a pre-game comment, my analysis was that Ole Miss was a better version of Florida (or similar to Texas), but as long as the Dawgs came to play I saw this as a 4-7 point UGA win. I did have a key matchup concern, though, which became horribly correct and I’ll address shortly. In any event, losses like this are often difficult to recover from. It’s going to be a bumpy ride, Refugees. What will Kirby do to find that port in the storm? I don’t expect massive changes, but we’ll see. On to the (most frustrating) bullets (in 5 years).
- I don’t know how I can start the bullets anywhere but the offensive line. My pre-game comment noted that my biggest concern was our banged up (and not amazing anyway) OL vs. Ole Maid’s DL, which had a really talented first string. Welp, hopefully someone called the police because there was a mass murder last night at Vaught Hemingway Stadium. Earnest Greene literally could not pass block to save his life. Fairchild lost half the stunts ran against him, Wilson was playing Red Rover against Walter Nolen and JJ Pegues, Tate was clearly hurt, and Truss is, well, Truss. We haven’t recruited a true LT since Broderick Jones in 2020, and we missed one in this year’s class as well. That’s 5 years in a row, and it shows. Folks, we have a bunch of guards, and some of them aren’t great at that position either. It’s a crisis, and it has to be addressed. Within a game, you do that by keeping TEs and RBs in to chip and help in blocking; in the short term you can develop other guys or move your 11 guards around; in the long term you must recruit and portal better; and perhaps you may need a new OL coach to do all that.
- The game started pretty well though, with tons of pressure applied by Schuman overwhelming the Ole Maid OL, creating a pick by Dirty Dan and an injured ankle for Dart. Things were looking up!
- With a short field, Bobo smartly ran right at Nolen a couple times for good yardage, Kirby stayed aggressive and went for it on 4th down and Frazier (who ran really hard until his catastrophic fumble) mashed it in for a TD.
- Momentum is a tricky bitch though, because had Naz’s tip on the next defensive series resulted in the second INT for Georgia, there’s a chance this game has a different outcome,. Instead the Ole Maid TE (who remained open all night) snatched the pass for the bailout first down. It was going to be one of those nights.
- After that, the dam seemed to break on our defense. Kiffin went with fastball, which was a smart counter to Schuman’s constant early blitzes and left guys running free over the middle of the field. Ole Maid came in without their #1 WR but also their best RB by far. Kirby and Schuman had to know they would go with empty backfield sets more than normal, but they didn’t play much dime coverage early on and the LBs seemed slow to recognize and cover crossing patterns. Should they have adjusted sooner? Of course. Would it have made a difference? 8 ball says, “Not Clear.” The DBs also looked lost a lot last night as well.
- Like the Florida game, we really missed Anthony Evans on returns. Cash bungled a kickoff and Starks continues to win the Logan Gray Fair Catch Memorial trophy.
- Time to talk about Carson yet? Sure, why not. On the one hand, the OL pass blocking was atrocious. On the other hand, how can he not see or feel a single pass rusher and leave the pocket for safer ground? I understand it was loud, but he’s got to be better. If the OL gave him 3 seconds to throw, this team would be unstoppable. There were numerous throws and decisions from the pocket by Beck that were elite last night. But since there will always be several pressures every game with this OL, Beck’s got to be better at fixing protections pre-snap, feeling the rush and rolling out, and making throws on the run. His mechanics really suffer outside the pocket, but I’d prefer a throwaway than a 7-yard sack.
- The offense again yet again, through drops, turnovers, penalties and sacks, couldn’t put points on the board. The defense played the bend-but-don’t-break strategy to a T yesterday, but the offense never put it all together. Just a really average unit.
- Raylen Wilson and Chris Cole had nice games defending runs and screens. If they recognize a play, there’s little chance of it succeeding because of their speed and aggression.
- Speaking of speed and aggression, does Frazier ever fall backwards? That kid inflicts a ton of pain on opposing linebackers. I worry about his knees with how choppy he runs, but his style puts a smile on my face every time.
- I think that tunnel screen to Lovett was the same as the one he scored on against the Gators. Feel like that’s a guaranteed 7-12 yards every time. Keep throwing it until someone stops it.
- I’m sure we all noticed the stat ABC showed indicating that Georgia leads the nation in drops and that we all said, “Duh.” Humphreys, Bell and Yurosek all contributed again to that stat yesterday. I don’t count Arian’s since the pass from Beck was uncatchable.
- Negative turnover margin on the road is how you lose. We’ve been saying for weeks that they’ve been playing with fire, and yesterday they got burned.
- Did anyone else see Monroe Freeling’s leg hyperextend on the rollout pass to Cash? I was shocked he didn’t leave the game, but maybe his brace just locked up and saved his knee.
- While Bobo’s playcalling coming out of the second half was really good, I was surprised with the weak 3rd down call on the goal line. That said, Luckie was coming free but Beck didn’t see him because of the pressure. I knew in the moment that would be significant, and those 4 points later dictated our inability to mix up runs and passes, which allowed Princely and Nolen to pin back their ears and finish the game.
- Yet another game where we can identify a drive as the Daylon Everette Drive. He just gets so sloppy and lazy sometimes. Two coverage busts and a poor form tackle led to the later TD by the Georgia Killer, Juice Wells.
- Lastly, because this is starting to wear on me, but why was there no urgency by the Georgia offense in the 4th quarter? They let the clock run down way too long on a lot of downs, and that resulted in having not enough time to mount another comeback drive. The two late (and totally predictable) fumbles made this a moot point, but still.
In his post-game presser, Kiffin harped A LOT about how much this game was planned for and focused on by his entire program since last year’s loss in Athens. His team absolutely looked like a team with it’s back against the wall. They looked more motivated, played harder and were coached better. Georgia looked like the team that knew it could drop this game and still make the playoffs. The season for Georgia is not lost, but it’s now in jeopardy. Tennessee comes to town next Saturday, under the lights. Gameday will be there. Will the team and coaches show up? The rest of the year is obviously worth watching and cheering for the Dawgs. For me, at least, giving up on them is almost never going to be a consideration. YMMV. That said, the writing is on the wall now for 2-3 coaches and some players as well, and it’s in permanent marker. Let’s see how they handle it. What else did you see?
This is just who UGA is this year. Average with a few great players (all on defense). Screens passes galore, no deep shots, let the defense put all 11 in the box and then run into it. It’s 2016 all over again.
Say it ain’t so, history never repeats itself…or does it?….GO DAWGS!!
I’d say closer to 2019 but YMMV.
Great job Dawg in Autin,
Our OL looked like a high school team playing not to get hurt. In other words, they were embarrassing. The D backs were running into each other (not really, but that would have been a good excuse). The LBer’s did not play up to GA standards, although OMs’ damn sure did. It was just an ass kicking all around. I don’t know what else to call it. I wish I could blame it on one player or one coach or one segment of the Ga team, but it was the whole outfit. It will be interesting to see where this GA team goes the rest of the season. I know Kirby will not allow them to give up.
If the NIL has been leveraged for the line of scrimmage, it ain’t showing. Our DL will get better next year with some recruits and the WR room will improve with some portal movement, but we’ve got some guys that absolutely need to see the field of play before they hit the portal. I see zero reason why Ellis isn’t seeing the field, nor Tuggle or White in the WR room. We’ve gotta keep those guys and Kirby is going to have to lean on the portal a little more across the offensive line…a lot, we need to get a dump truck of money to get a good LT. I wonder if we burned a bridge with Buster Faulkner…he’d be a great pick up if we could pull it off.
You hit the nail on the head, this is complicated by the friendships, but it’s not to say that they can’t stay on in a different role. What that role is, who knows, but the NCAA opened it up where more folks can be on the field and I can’t help but think Bobo would be better served being on the field and with his QBs when things start to go south.
Yesterday we looked like the teams we have beaten up physically and bullied (including Ole Miss) on both sides of the ball for the last 3+ years. That was the part of the game yesterday that surprised me.
We haven’t seen physicality on the Offensive line since Pittman. I don’t know if Searels has ever coached physicality. There is a reason that Saban never went back to Searels as a position coach.
Going to fall in the camp, where the relocation program will be in full force during the off-season, team & staff, revitalization of CKS and UGA football is on the menu, championship can make you into something different than before, losing (which CKS hates more than winning) will get CKS’s attention on the crootin’ trail….GO DAWGS!!
I think Beck was better yesterday than he had been most of the season. Not that he was great but he wasn’t the reason we lost. I don’t fault him for the pick and fumble; the OL gave him no chance on either play.
This is the least capable team Kirby’s had since his first season as HC. I’m curious to see how things go this offseason because I really hope this year is a blip and not a trend. It seems pretty obvious that player development has suffered after the loss of so many good coaches to other programs and the NFL.
I have searched long and hard trying to find something positive to say about this game. It finally came to me:
At least we don’t have to worry about getting screwed out of the Joe Moore Award this year. 🤢
That’s some classic gallows humor right there.
Post of the day!
You win! 😂
Great write up DIA. All I’ve got to say is, “I See a Bad Moon Rising.”
I thought about that one too, but the lyrics were better from WSTR, and given the weather and all…
It’s a rainy Sunday here in NE Georgia. Thanks to DIA Mrs. Cowdog and I are digging on CCR and ordering pizza. Empty nesting rocks.
Yeah, I keep waiting to hear from that special someone, “Put me in coach, I’m ready to play.” Thought it might have been Frazier, but so far there have been no “Fortunate Ones.” Looks like we’re stuck down in “Lodi” again.
There’s something very wrong about being able to match up so many CCR songs to this team. :~
Good one! 😂
The offensive line is by far the biggest disappointment to me. They’ve been bad all year and maybe it’s the culmination of injuries or whatever, but yesterday looked like we had Klabanow and that crew out there.
I’ve never been a fire Bobo guy but shit what we saw was all you could come up with. The announcer was doing what we as Georgia fans have been able to do all year which is to call out the play prior to it happening and if McElroy can do it and we can do it then so can everyone else. We handed the ball off the Cash once in a counter that went nowhere, so our tendency now is that we only through it 98% of the time when he is on the field.
The defense deserves some criticism as well. No matter how great they say Williams and Walker are they don’t seem to be put in a position to do much and instead are more likely to be seen yesterday 5 yards behind a guy who just caught the ball in the middle of the field. It’s a frustrating thing to watch.
We will probably do ok against Tennessee but any combo of Texas, Bama, Ole Miss, Ohio State, Oregon will do to us what we’ve seen 2x already this season barring Beck becoming something he’s never shown.
I hope Kirby looks around at this staff and makes some changes. Not because we lost but because we have been getting dominated on the line of scrimmage and trending in a direction even moreso.
Just guessing, but Kirby said something pre-game yesterday to reinforce the notion that this team has lacked leadership since last Spring. Kirby mentioned there are “a lot of leaders including a freshman (forget who he named)”. Starks and Beck should be, but some chemistry is missing. Who is the OL leader? We’re a mess getting by on talent with no cohesion. Can it be fixed? Sure. Will it? One week to find out. Tuesday should be interesting at practice.
Ratledge was the OL leader but he’s been sidelined.
Anyone remember the preseason question:
If we could add a player to the current roster from a pool of Kirby’s guys?
I said Andrew Thomas.
I think the fact is that while we’ve played portions of games really well, we’ve played a lot of mediocre football this year. Lots of carelessness. Lots of poor effort. Lots of marginal focus.
But we were a play short of being undefeated. Hard to get guys wired in when they’ve been able to get the W (or close to it) no matter how ugly it was.
Now that playing like ass has caught up with us and risks turning the season to shit if we don’t bring our best, maybe things get turned around.
I don’t know what Kirby is going to put these things down to. Is it this set of players? Is it the coaches?
It isn’t just offense btw.
I don’t see the head man sitting still if he thinks the coaches we have aren’t giving the program the best chance to win games.
With Kirby, to borrow a phrase from Glengarry Glen Ross, “its fuck or walk.” Ask his first DL coach at UGA.
Yeah, I don’t think it’s only the OL coach either. Donte Williams is a goner.
It will be interesting to see how ruthless Kirby is in the offseason. Is he more like his mentor or more like Richt? Will we see underperforming players and coaches having a “change of heart” and finding a new home or will we try and “coach ’em up” with the coaches we have?
I think at least 2 coaches are gone.
I suspect several “will want to spend more time with my family”.
I wish I could believe the meme that Kirby wasn’t that interested in beating O’Ms and having to face a tough SECCG….He’d rather slide into the playoffs as a higher seed. So..he spent most of the week working on Tennessee.🙃 It’s horse manure but I wish it were true.
So why bring it up?
If the Dawgs come out against the Vols like they did against TX it becomes at least as believable as “Elvis is alive” (some say he was at the game..very old and sitting next to Sasquatch).
In reality…OM took us to the woodshed and wore us out…not a fluke..just an old fashioned beating.
Hearing some predict a loss to GT…”some” being GT fans.
In sincerity..I believe Beck has lost confidence in the O line to defend him…and he can’t be blamed for that. Why Kirby didn’t learn that a mobile, fire eating QB like Stetson can cover a multitude of offensive line problems is a head scratcher.
Don’t be silly, no such thing as Sasquatch. (it was Ranger Russ).
The offensive line is just plain bad. Searles deserves all the criticism he’s getting. The Hate Bobo cult and that’s what they are, a damn cult, likes to make Searles Bobo’s fault but Kirby hired him and hired Coley too which has proven to be a mistake as well. Don’t look for Kirby to do anything during the season as far as changes. That’s probably not going to happen. I couldn’t understand why we kept going after Dart with blitzes when it clearly wasn’t working and they were getting the ball out way too fast anyway. But we kept right on blitzing while Dart played pitch and catch. That’s on Kirby too.
The whole thing did have a 2019 feel to it. This team just is t all that good. It’s up to Kirby to figure it out and fix it. That’s why he gets paid like a king.
The Bobo Apologist Cult and that’s what they are, a damn cult, likes to make nothing Bobo’s fault even though he’s had the exact same stat padding, bed shitting, vanilla, trash offenses through TWO different head coaches in TWO different decades, and then everywhere he coached in between he was the exact same type of failure.
Bobo doesn’t even find new ways to fail. His offenses fail in exactly the same way over and over and over and over and over again.
All this time you’ve been out there and nobody has hired you. What an injustice.😂
I watched Radi Nabulsi’s Post Game Overreaction Show last night and somebody said when Beck runs it doesn’t look like running. It looks like somebody trying to get away from a dog. I cracked up and am laughing again right now. He does look weird as hell and unnatural when he runs.
Replace Mike Bobo with an innovative, elite OC.
Recruit some 1st round tier QB/WRs.
That’s it. That’s the post.
“Within a game, you do that by keeping TEs and RBs in to chip and help in blocking”
Mike Bobo kept calling plays without a RB in to protect. It was infuriating to watch. I was never really anti-bobo. I was rooting for him, but he is not elite