Thursday Thought Provoker: What’s Up, Schotty?

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Here’s a relevant question that I think we’ve all wondered about for over a decade now.

I asked earlier this week about what’s your biggest WTF moment as a Dawg fan, and I can recall one commenter mentioned the Bauta fiasco in Jacksonville.

Today’s Thought Provoker is this: “what’s the biggest question, if you had the chance, you’d ask a former player or coach about a decision that seemed to have no discernably intelligent decision making behind it?”

Mine: “Coach Richt, why the hell did you squib kick against Tech in 2014?”

Have at it.

76 thoughts on “Thursday Thought Provoker: What’s Up, Schotty?”

  1. To me, the biggest WTF moment wasn’t starting Bauta. It was starting Bauta without putting any plays into the offense that would take advantage of his running or whatever skills he brought to the game. Trying to run the same offense was the stupid cherry on top of the stupid plan.

    • Watch the tape. Early on they ran a read option that placed Bauta one on one with FL’s 280 lb edge. Bauta lost.

      The problem wasn’t taking advantage of Bauta’s strengths. The problem was that he didn’t have any.

      • You can run more than one read option or QB draw style plays. 2007 Bobo stuck with a ground game against UT that didn’t work and apologized for sticking with the run until the game was pretty much out of reach. Bobo could have tried more plays that used a QB run threat.

        • But if a 280 lb edge guy is three yards away from you and you can neither elude him with quicks or outrun him with speed, variation and design isn’t going to help.

          • Bobo did scheme Clowney out of the game in ’13? One play doesn’t decide if it is effective. Murray came in as a dual threat and didn’t run much until his Senior and that was on broken plays not designed runs. Bobo didn’t know how to use a dual threat.

          • That’s apples and oranges.

            You either have an athlete or you do not have an athlete.

            Bauta was given the opportunity to show he had some athleticism and he was found wanting. End of story.

            Telling yourselves tales of how Joe T IV coulda woulda shoulda been Dan Marino with proper play calls because hell, Greyson had that one game with a 93% completion rate that time is meaningless.

            You can’t make chicken salad with chicken shit.

          • No it isn’t and further, by your logic Stetson threw more than enough INTs to be pulled multiple times over. There wasn’t a large enough sample size to claim Bauta wasn’t effective in a QB run friendly offense.

            Pulling Joe T up just shows how clueless you are in this debate. I was never in favor of him playing. What other football clueless spin and deflection do you have?

        • Rewatch the tape. Stories of Bauta not getting a fair chance are apocryphal.

    • As far as starting Bauta, I recall Richt often mentioned slogans he’d found useful. The slogan I remember best was “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result”. Well, he sure as hell did something different when he started Bauta.

      • We weren’t playing well with Greyson and we didn’t play well with Greyson after that experiment. So I don’t judge too harshly.

        The whole faton thing reminds me of D’wan. Mathis’s short career at qb. Some guys may look capable in a non-contact jersey.

        Put them under actual fire and then you see what you really have.

        One of the reasons Stet is so special, and not given enough credit for, is that playing qb in the sec, especially if you’re using your feet, takes incredible amounts of courage. Some may say levels that equate to extreme stupidity.

        Most guys are going to take one look at Jalen Carter and say:

        Nope. Thanks, but no thanks.

        I think that’s what happened to Bauta.

    • Russ, here is the point, there is not but three types that wear a hat turned backwards:
      Umpires
      Welders
      Cocksuckers
      Which one is he?

  2. James Jackson intentionally dropping the ball against South Carolina back in mid 80’s. Luckily harmless but it was a whiskey tango foxtrot moment.

    • I very nearly died…

      Only time I can remember seeing Coach Dooley livid in a postgame interview. USC coach Morrison wouldn’t shake his hand and insisted there was :01 on the clock.

      There wasn’t.

      “THE BALL GAME WAS OVA!!!”

    • That was truely a stupid ass move by Jackson. Talk about shitting the proverbial brick!

    • I was at that game, end zone where it happened, and at 15 I recall saying to my dad, “WHAT IS HE DOING?”

  3. I can’t leave this with only one…

    1) In roughly this tone to Kirby:

    https://youtu.be/_GQm4ch0yoE?si=d0lMo-OPdvoJGLTA

    4th down and 11 with 3 to play at midfield in a tie CHAMPIONSHIP game, wtfff?

    Without question the dumbest shit I have ever seen in a big game. I challenge anyone to find a worse big game decision than that one. And yes it still makes me angry.

    2) I’d really love to hear the entire staff at the time tell me what was going on in 2021 when they were deciding between Stetson and Daniels, especially after the SEC Championship game.

    3) I would really like to know whether or not a TO was contemplated before 2nd and 26 and what coverage were we in? Who blew it? Parrish? Sanders? Both?

    4) given the situation, was Aaron supposed to throw it left on the final play of the 2012 SECCG?

    • Ah, I forgot about the Fields fake punt play. Not only was it a) obvious since Fields hadn’t been on a punt play yet and b) took an hour and a half to snap the ball while Alabama read A Tale of Two Cities from front to back on the other side and had it sniffed out by the time we snapped it. That was befuddling.

      • I don’t care if the execution was perfect and it went for a td and Herbstreit blew Kirby at the presser…

        It was fucking dumb football.

        You punt and play field position and defense.

    • 4) The way I understand it, the throw would have been there for Mitchell had the ball not been tipped. Gurley let the defender get too far in the backfield, if he picks up that block sooner, the ball doesn’t get tipped. Then I went back and watched the replay, which still hurts. I’m not so sure Mitchell gets that ball, but it would have fallen incomplete with about 3-4 seconds left. So I’m not ready to say it was a bad call, just bad execution on Gurley’s part.

      • I just don’t think you throw to the short side vs their best db and a blitzing LB.

        On the other side, no lb blitzer, and because you have so much more space, you can throw it to the back pylon, TK can separate, use his body to ward off the defender and adjust to the ball.

        Just a much tougher throw and catch to Malcolm and he was not open and even if he makes a miracle jumping catch, their CB can push him out of bounds before he gets a toe down.

        My personal belief is that 11 knows he fucked that up.

  4. To me the bigger WTF in the 2014 tech game, why call timeout at the end of regulation to let tech get the FG unit on the field?

  5. “Coach Bobo, vs Carolina in 2014, why did you call a bootleg for Hutson Mason on 1st and Goal instead of giving the ball up the middle to your stud RB Gurley?” Truth is, he was asked that after the game and said they thought it was a good idea at the time. Mike Bobo ladies and gentlemen.

    • That was awful. That play shouldn’t have been in the game plan. At all.

      No problem throwing it there, but putting Mason on the move vs an unblocked sec edge defender ain’t smart.

      • I appreciate that yours is a more nuanced take than what we usually see regarding that play. Most people say “why pass the ball there?!”, ignoring the fact that we’d already scored on a pass TD from the 5-yard line to start the 4th quarter.

        I don’t think there’s any way the OC can predict the QB committing intentional grounding there. But, to your point, getting sacked by the edge defender would’ve been just as bad or worse.

        • To me passing makes sense because all eyes are on Gurley.

          A naked bootleg with Mason, who is one of the least athletic qbs ever to play at uga, vs an unblocked edge just seems crazy to me.

          If the edge guy chases Gurley, great, but what if he stays home? Which he did.

          You don’t have that play in the game plan for the same reason you don’t have a qb draw in the game plan. The kid is ill equipped to succeed at it.

          Play to your players strengths.

          • We did not lose the 2014 South Carolina game because the offense didn’t score, we lost it because Pruitt got schooled in his first SEC game by SFS….

          • South Carolina was a team loss, Pruitt not getting stops, Offense settling for FG attempts, and the FG unit missing 2 FGs that should be automatic.

    • ^ This and referring to the Chaney>Bobo thread yesterday: “Jimbo, vs Vanderbilt in 2016, why did you run the exact same play to the short side of the field with a pint sized receiver on 3rd and 4th down with less than a yard to go instead of using one of your stud RB’s to the wide aide with room to run?”

  7. Richt, why didn’t you fire Schotty and take over playcalling or hand it over to McClendon?

  8. There is absolutely nothing that benefits my mental health contemplating this question with 23 days left before the season. Nothing. I am on Wellbutrin now and I prefer to not increase my dosage until possibly at least after the SECCG.

  9. Pooch kick 2014
    South Carolina goal line 2014
    Pooch kick against Tennessee 2016
    Why the hell did you redshirt Knowshon Moreno in 2006?

  10. Todd Grantham, Willie Martinez, Brian Schottenheimer. I’ll hang up and listen.

  11. 2012 SECCG not clocking it to get set for at least one more play. I get the mentality you have the defense on the ropes but the offense was also scrambling. I feel like you still have the defense stressed but you’re able to get a play in not just a desperation back shoulder that ultimately gets tipped and you know the rest.

    • I think thats over exaggerated. Not allowing them to call a defense let us know they’d be in zero coverage. You clock it and they get a play in and you don’t know what it would be. Could be the perfect counter to your call.

    • Where is the old “Mayor” when you need him. Lawd he harped on this in many a GTP thread over the years.

    • I think this could be another post altogether as a “what was a damned if you do, damned if you don’t” moment. The logic for not spiking is there, the logic for spiking is also there. A defense like Alabama’s under Kirby and Saban would’ve had something up their sleeve would be one opinion, suggesting that catching them off guard in zero coverage to Derek’s point would’ve been a better option. Other “Dammit Bobo” folks would’ve criticized a spike and subsequent failed attempt as Bobo’s typical overthinking the situation and would forever fault Richt/Bobo for the same as not spiking it.

      Not spiking and going for it as we did is great for the chaos that ensues on the defensive side of the ball, but detrimental on the offensive side. People not being set, confusion on an audible or even a rehearsed play, not to mention that everone’s hearts had to have been cresting at 200 bpm right in the moment…I’ve written here before about how the trajectory of everyone involved in that game and one play would’ve changed had that been a touchdown. Richt probably gets a Natty, Smart may never had been hired and would be in Columbia right now, Bobo would’ve possibly been the next head coach in Austin. Grantham would’ve gotten (biggest shudder here) credibility. Alas, this is the way the world works. I can only imagine that if the 2025 Dawgs get it together and win it all this year, the person who would be happiest and possibly have the biggest weight off their shoulders would be Mike Bobo.

      For our sake, I pray he gets his relief and trophy this year.

  12. I forget the game, but, we ran like 5 jet sweeps from the opponent’s 2 yard line (might have been SCu or Tennessee, I do remember we were the beneficiaries of a couple of offsides penalties), rather than just punch it in. We eventually settled for a chip-shot field goal.

  14. I used to be able to list dozens of responses to questions like this.

    Now? Now I live in the age in which Stetson Fleming Bennett IV has freed us from those chains.

    • I wouldn’t say “freed” but the chains of shame damn sure feel a lot more comfortable.

      Damn good dawg right there.

      We have had the greatest player in college football history and we’ve had the greatest story in college football history.

      Gawd IS a Bulldawg!!

  15. Why do people pursue OCs like Shotty when Bobo is clearly so much better but his players wont execute?

    Thats my burning question.

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