Does Aaron Murray have the makings of a championship QB?

RollDog, seriously, do you give an equal amount of money to a charity in one lump sum? Since you are chastising people in your latest post, I am chastising you if your answer to my question is “no”.

• Link
• Report this comment

If I were Coach Richt, one of my off-season coaching drills would be for Grantham to plot and scheme against Bobo’s offense and Bobo’s predictable play-calling patterns. I would lock them in a room and have Grantham explain to Bobo how he would stop our offense. ……THEN, I would give Bobo the assignment to IMPROVE his nonsensical predictability or plan on becoming the QB Coach/Recruiter in Chief. To me, this would seem like a good coaching exercise…….

We need medium pass routes, better plays for 1st and 20 after holding, more variety of run plays, better plays for 3rd/4th and 1, and for goodness sake, something OTHER than a run between the tackles on 2nd and 10 after almost every incomplete 1st down pass!!!!! Oh, and we need to play 4 quarters of AGGRESSIVE offense, instead of playing Pansy Ball whenever we get a modest lead….! …….GO DAWGS!!!

• Link
• Report this comment

no, he misses wide open receivers and turns the ball over way too much.

if we have a run first offense without turnovers with a stout defense we’ll be fine. just don’t lose the game murray, you don’t have to win it.

• Link
• Report this comment

“Does Aaron Murray have the makings of a championship QB?”

Yes, if he played for Bama, LSU, UF or Auburn.

• Link
• Report this comment

Aaron Murray is better than most quarterbacks at his age. that sad, HE MUST IMPROVE IF THE DOGS ARE TO WIN THE SEC!!
He lacks maturity that impacts his leadership and judgement on the field. He tends to let media interviews and articles increase his image of himself more than the facts. THE NUMBER ONE PRIORITY OF A QUARTERBACK IS TO FIND A WAY TO WIN!

I think Murray can become a great quarterback if he works hard on the field, gains more discipline, and makes more mature decisions about when to run, throw away the ball, and how to hold onto the football. He has the tools, but does he have enough desire to be a winner to pay the price to improve?

• Link
• Report this comment

I personally know that Murray is a great kid. Unfortunately I don’t think our coaching can improve his game much beyond what we’ve already seen. To be a championship team, we may need a quarterback that can succeed in spite of our coaching staff. Given that our AD isn’t going to demand any coaching changes.

• Link
• Report this comment

Two receivers make catches that hit them in the hands in the first half of the SEC championship game or a kicker make a 42 yard field goal in the bowl game and we aren’t really having this discussion. This young man has never given up, never taken a play off, is arguable one of the toughest players on the team, he doesn’t pout or point fingers when things aren’t going well. He has proven he is a leader and more importantly he has proven he in the leader of HIS team. With no running game the last two games what QB could have won or have comes as close to winning the game vs LSU or Mich St?? Does he need to get better to win a championship yes he and the entire team needs to.. and baring injury .I really think his is the best player we have to lead the team to it.

• Link
• Report this comment

Nothing else needs to be said.

• Link
• Report this comment

No, he doesn’t. He would be a perfect back-up QB. He’s
1)inaccurate(those back shoulder throws simply weren’t designed and that pass at the beginning of the 3rd OT in the Bowl game was a perfect example-those happen way too often)
2)Too short(batted passes galore AND it eliminates a lot of plays such as the screen pass and certain crossing routes- which is why 80% of his throws are to the outside)
3)turnovers(well, we all know about these)
4)coaching/playcalling(you have to ask yourself, “why do we call all of those conservative plays?” well, it’s simply because the coaches don’t have enough trust that Murray will make the play. Period.)
5)pressure(he simply nuts up in pressure moments)

Oh, and those 4th down throws against Florida, the ones where he simply threw the ball up and hoped our guy came down with it, are you talking about those throws?

Bottom line, he had 2 good games this year. Not going to be an ‘elite’ QB.

• Link
• Report this comment

In his second season behind center for the Dogs, Murray completed 218 of 371 passes for 2,861 yards (a 58.8 percent completion rate) and broke the single-season school record for touchdown throws with 33. He also ran for two scores, giving him the UGA record for single-season touchdown responsibility.

He also lost the 4 toughest games he faced and played the easiest reg season sec schedule in the history of the conference. The facts showed up against lsu. This year will be the same. Another easy schedule and 3 losses.

• Link
• Report this comment

Murray is good enough to win with. You need a complete team to win it all – even if you have a complete team there is guarantee you’ll win it all – That’s why you typically have to be a top 5 program consistently to win the MNC. Like most college teams, we usually have a glaring deficiency or two. We are a cycle program, every 3 years or so we are good enough to make a run. Every time we start a new QB though, we lose AT LEAST 4 games (even future #1 NFL picks).

Richt, like Murray is certainly better than average (I dont advocate firing him-he is good for the program in many aspects) but I don’t think we will win it all anytime soon. Watching Bama, UF and LSU win 2 recent titles EACH and Auburn and UT winning it, I’m convinced that MNC are for other programs as we are just not consitent enough year in and year out. We would have to have everything fall right to win one (luck is usually a factor even for the best teams) and that typically does not happen.

• Link
• Report this comment

Murray is a good quarterback but not great by any standards. The thing that bothers me the most is the “reads” or lack of reads. It looks like he is locked on one receiver almost 90% of the time and when in trouble he can’t find the second or third check downs. Since he studies so much and works so hard it has to be coaching or lack of coaching to a great extent. I don’t think he can get past these issues I also believe Bobo needs to come down on the sidelines and get in the face of not only him but the netire offense when they are underachieving. They need to tell him if in dire trouble to hit the ground it’s always better to punt then give away a pick six or fumble. This in turn keeps the pressure off the offense to try to make up ground which can and did cost them a couple of games. There’s no way we should have lost to USC or Michigan State and yes he cost us these two games. Again I hope he does well this year because if the line play and he improves it could be a magical season. Go Dawgs!

• Link
• Report this comment

Murray is a good QB, sometimes a very good QB, who’s better than he plays, particularly in big games against ranked teams. It’s fair to say that the O-line and RB problems have affected his performance. Until he leads the team to a signature win that really counts in the SEC and national standings, he’ll be hounded by the charge that he’s just not quite good enough to turn great stats into big wins. There’s reasonable hope that 2012 will give him the opportunity to show he’s the QB we all want him to be.

• Link
• Report this comment

How many big time opponents has he beaten? How many disasterous turnovers has he had in 2 seasons? He is just good enough to keep you in a game, also just good enough to get you beat….

• Link
• Report this comment

My answer is yes. He proved it not in the Florida game but first half of LSU game. Two drops for touchdowns. Right call, right read and perfect throws, under pressure against as tough a defense you will see. If those passes are caught todays blog does not exist. Malcolm Mitchell shoud be catching 40 thrown balls per day and not competing in 40 yard races

• Link
• Report this comment

@Reality Dawg you lost me when you touted AU and UT’s being consitent enough year in and year out? Have you been in a coma?

• Link
• Report this comment

@LawDawg “Stacy Searles is worse than Hitler.”

That is a little over the top. Searles messed up our line, but who did he kill? What nations did he take over and people did he suppress?

• Link
• Report this comment

Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha
hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha
hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha
hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha
hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha
hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha
hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha
hahaha……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

• Link
• Report this comment

Please, no talk of NC! This team hasn’t proven it can win against a top 20 team let alone an NC. If you put these bunch of young men under Saban, you’ll see a fundamentally sound team. The jury is out on coaching, not the players IMHO.

• Link
• Report this comment

@Nom Nom Nom Chuck, “Lets just start by NOT calling anymore shotgun draws”

If we do them, I would like to see Murray run several steps with the Running back like Tim Teebow does. Besides looking cool, Murray could keep the ball, stop and toss it to a short crossing route or some other option (reverse, keep the ball and follow the runner if he feels the defense is keying on the RB, etc).

The play looks more fluid than just catching the snap and handing it to the RB. If you are going to do that then direct snap to the RB and save the time of the slow developing draw play.

• Link
• Report this comment

Win some big games and take control doing it and I will jump on board. He has tons to prove before I would say that he is one of the breathing.

• Link
• Report this comment

@dixiedawg,

He needs to slide when surrounded rather than getting the ball stripped while trying to get another yard.

I thought he didn’t run enough this year. But, when he ran, crashed into several defenders and got the ball stripped, he then zoned out for several possessions. He needs to slide, and he needs to do some of the ball stripping exercises the RB have to go through.

• Link
• Report this comment

BoBo needs to watch the BCS championship game again- and again- and again- and again. A short passing game can be the equivalent of a ball-control ground game when the O-line cannot dominate the line of scrimmage. Murray is a perfect fit for that, but MB can’t seem to figure that out.

• Link
• Report this comment

A few observations.

1- Murray seems to be getting WORSE with experience. His performance in 2011 dropped in most areas like accuracy, interceptions, yards per pass, passing efficiency, etc. His td count and total passing yards went up (largely due to weak schedule as most were against unranked teams).

2- Murray chokes in big games. He has never beat a team that finished in the top 25. 0-9 record lifetime. Most of these, he had multiple turnovers. He completed @40% against Florida & Mich St. Had 3 turnovers in 75% of losses in 2011. Threw 3 interceptions against Miss St in 2011. Going back in 2010, Murray had multiple turnover games in 3 losses. In 6 out of 10 of the losses 2010-2011, Murray had multiple turnovers.

3- In games where Murray throws 29 times or more, his record is 4-4 in 2011.
In games where Murray throws 26 times or less, his record is 6-0 in 2011.

The LESS Murray throws, the MUCH higher chance of winning the game. Bobo attributes this to running game, but that lets Murray off the hook for his own turnovers. Murray does better when he is efficient wiht the ball, like the Auburn game. Spurrier limited Shaw’s pass attempt to an average of 18 a game. Murray’s was at 28. That’s WAY too high. Murray need to stay UNDER 20 pass attempts average per game, and limit himself to 5 interceptions per season. 14 interceptions was LAST among SEC QB’s.

4- It’s not the offensive line’s fault. There are ways to handle pressure without a great o-line: draws, screens, keeping more in to block, hot outlets (Murray almost never hits the short outlet), hurry up offense, etc. Murray’s 32 sacks, MOST came from him NOT throwing the ball away, or making a quick decision to tuck and run, in other words, slow reads, slow decision making.

5- Murray plays better when he fears competition for his job. Look at the New mexico St game, Murray knew Mason was coming in to start 2nd half, so he threw 5 td’s in 2nd quarter. Yet Richt RARELY benches Murray for poor play (see New York Jets to see what effect this has on team morale). Lemay or Bauta needs series in EVERY game, and if the team does better then, and it will, then Murray should LOSE his starting position. Can’t afford a 3rd consecutive loss to SEC East rival South Carolina where murray commits 3 turnovers each game.

Murray will not improve, he got worse in 2011 in most passing statistics. I KNOW he is not a big game QB due to his 0-9 record against teams that finished in the top 25. His sense of timing is off, and his poise is not there. And he lacks leadership, no wins over a big time opponent.

• Link
• Report this comment

DIT, I finally turned off my autocorrect. I think the programmers put some of that junk in there on purpose.

• Link
• Report this comment