Richt’s actions speak volumes about assistants
Quiet. Quiet! Shhhhhhhh!
Listen closely. Can you hear that? Georgia football coach Mark Richt just made another statement. By now it ought to be coming through loud and clear.
Despite constant and often unbridled criticism of his coaching staff — and his defensive coaches in particular — by some of the more vocal members of the Bulldog Nation, Richt continually answers quietly and subtly through his actions. His message is, “I don’t agree with you.”
Not only has Richt retained all his assistants from the “disastrous” 10-3 season just past — Doc Eason’s move to administration and Bryan McClendon’s promotion was long in the works — he has given all of them raises and several of them promotions. The latest came Tuesday when he made linebackers coach John Jancek co-defensive coordinator. The new title was a reward for Jancek’s decision to forego this week an offer to become South Florida’s defensive coordinator.
This should in no way be viewed as demotion for current defensive coordinator Willie Martinez. Richt, who wasn’t available for comment, made that very clear and was specific about it in the official news release he had prepared. “Willie Martinez is our defensive coordinator and as co-coordinator John has been and will continue to be instrumental in our game planning on the defensive side of the ball.” In other words, Willie’s still the main man on defense.
Richt was at Lake Hartwell Tuesday and not available for interviews (but he will available via a teleconference on Wednesday). But, in reality, Richt had already said as much when he gave Martinez a $15,515 raise to $325,815 after last season. That figure grows another $10,000 with a retention bonus that kicks in for remaining another year. This was how he reacted to what was unprecedented criticism of his defensive coordinator.
Offensive coordinator Mike Bobo also caught some flak this past season, despite the big numbers Georgia’s offense rang up. All Richt did was give Bobo a $57,500 raise to $325,000 (not including a $10,000 retention bonus).
I don’t get paid to give you my opinion — we have excellent columnists that are highly skilled at doing that — and I’m not here to defend any of these coaches. They are well compensated and sufficiently jaded for that. Yes, I am aware of how Georgia’s defensive numbers have crept up each of the last few years under Martinez. And, sure, I’ve seen some redzone calls by Bobo that have left me scratching my head. But sooner or later don’t you have to let the head coach be the head coach and make those determinations?
Hey, I’ve gotten umpteen mileage and thousands of page views here from people complaining about “Soft Willie’s defense” and “BooBoo’s offense.” But every time I turn around I keep hearing Richt say, “I don’t agree,” in not so many words.
HERE’S AN UPDATE OFF OF CMR’S PRE-SPRING TELECONFERENCE CALL:
On how roles might change: “Well this is really a situation where his role is not going to change a lot because he really has been very involved in game-planning with Coach Martinez, as all are coaches do. But he’s had an awful lot of input the years he’s been here, so it’s not going to change really at all. Just to make it clear, Willie Martinez is our defensive coordinator. It’s not like two co-coordinators on an equal basis. Willie is the tip of the spear defensively, so to speak. He’s where the buck stops and he’s the leader of the group. But John has been very instrumental to this point in formulating our defensive plan and he’s gonna continue to do that. We’re just basically making public notice of it.”
Asked if a raise would come with Jancek’s new title: “I’ll just say this, the way I feel about salaries, I feel like salaries are a private matter. If it was up to me everybody’s salary wouldn’t be published. I’d never make any public comments on guys’ salaries.”
On keeping the whole staff together: “It means an awful lot. Number one, I think we’ve got a tremendous group of assistant coaches that do an outstanding job and have for quite some time now. To keep the continuity I think that’s extremely important. When it comes to recruiting I think it’s important; when it comes to our current players having the peace of mind knowing they don’t have to start all over, it’s important. I remember when I first came to Georgia and Brian VanGorder became the defensive coordinator, he was the fourth defensive coordinator in four years. Neil Callaway was the fifth offensive line coach in four years. It’s tough to be good, it’s tough to get anything going when your kids are constantly having to learn a whole new coaching staff or a whole new philosophy or a whole new way of calling a defense or an offensive line blocking scheme. To be able to continue to keep the same staff, especially when they’re as good as the one we have, is fantastic.”
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104 comments Add your comment
AltamahaDawg
March 4th, 2009
5:11 pm
It was a pun, Chip brought in the second string post after his first was injured. Subtle.
Cuz
March 4th, 2009
5:13 pm
I recall an Erk Russell team that lost to Virginia at Homecoming 31-0. Talk about embarassing. By todays standards both Erk and Vince would have been fired after the 79 season. Then no Herschel, no 1980 wonder season. Thank God there were no blogs back then.
BirminghamDawg
March 4th, 2009
5:20 pm
Fans will be fans. Hopefully, CMR continues to ignore all their sage advice and opinions and continues to rely on what he sees first hand everyday and his own assessment to guide his decisions about coaches, players, what plays to run, and everything else.
Gene Stallings once said, and this not an exact quote but a paraphrase, “If a coach listens to the fans in the stands, pretty soon he’ll be sitting in the stands”.
DawgGirl32
March 4th, 2009
5:28 pm
BugKiller and CalDogg: I respect your thorough analyses but I have a few points that I’d like to make in response.
1. Les Miles did not fire his co-defensive coordinators. They left for different positions. Whether or not he would have actually fired one or both of them, we don’t know because he didn’t have to.
2. Also, I’m pretty sure that just one year ago Florida was looking at a 9-4 season and the blame was put on *gasp* Charlie Strong and his defense. Of course, you say, they had lost so many players to the NFL that their defense was simply inexperienced. Well, you could have definitely said the same thing about UGA’s defense this year considering that we were playing so many 2nd and 3rd stringers. gdawginkalamazoo brings up a good point: there’s a reason why some players are starters and others are back-ups.
3. I don’t see how you can talk about how we’ve statistically gotten worse on defense without recognizing that our defense was ranked in the top-10 just one year ago. I also don’t see how you can’t take into account the fact that STATISTICALLY offenses are scoring more points now than they were a few years ago. Everyone’s defense has suffered statistically because of this.
4. I agree that we aren’t just competing with Florida, that we’re competing with USC, Texas, Oklahoma, etc. If you look at it that way, we’re doing pretty damn well in my opinion. We have the winning percentage, the conference titles, the top 10 finishes, etc. The only thing we’re missing that these other schools have is a NC trophy. I honestly believe we’ll get there soon.
5. One last thing: you talk about competing with these other schools. I’m pretty sure that even our “atrocious” defense finished the year still ranked in the top 25 while schools like Texas and Oklahoma had defenses ranked somewhere in the 60s.
Anyways, my overall point is this: While I wasn’t happy with our performance this year, I am willing to give Martinez one more year to prove what he proved in 2007: that he knows how to coach a defense.
Sautee Dawg
March 4th, 2009
5:30 pm
Why don’t you folks get off Willie’s back. And kicking Eason around is uncalled for too. Uga was near the top in recptions and yardage in the SEC this past season so Eason done his job. CMR said all season long we couldn’t pratice tackling b/cause of so many injuries. We tackled more in pads the 2 weeks before the Bowl game than we praticed all year long put together. Don’t hear any of you complaining about Rennie Curran causing a fumble against SC, or Making a goal line stand against Auburn or kentucky, or Darryl Gamble’s 2 int’s against LSU. Same coach coached these plays, wasn’t nothing wrong with him then.
I personally think Willie will be fine in 09, Lots of injured players back so we’ll see, maybe i’m wrong.
For those who think Janeck’s promotion was to shake up Willie, i don’t think so. Anytime someone gets a promotion it makes them want to work harder and produce more,
D can’t stay on the field the whole game as it did in all 3 of our loses this past season so quit picking on Willie and support him, he’s here to stay. Like it or not.
birddawg92
March 4th, 2009
5:36 pm
I have long since given up on the WM situation (he should be GONE in my opinion—should you give a rip about anything else I’ve said on the subject, check saturdayinathens.com), but to say that WM is in the same zip code of Russell is ridiculous. Erk’s defense gave up more than 28 points maybe 3 times in his entire 17 YEARS at UGA. Martinez has quadrupled or quintupled that number in less than a quarter the time. Not to mention the discipline issues (on-and-off field that Russell would have nipped in the bud FORTHWITH).
AltamahaDawg
March 4th, 2009
6:10 pm
Actually it was 16 times in 18 yrs, but to compare the scoring strategies of the 70s with the current state of college football is not going to be a very good indicator. Not coaches from different eras for that matter. How many games was UGA putting up 40 point back then either? I’m mad if we Don’t score 40 now. It’s all relative. How many 6 loss seasons had WM had, if we are playing that game. I do agree about the players not getting arrested by the Athens police for drinking and ending up io the internet. It never happend with Erk in charge.
GATORMAN 722
March 4th, 2009
6:21 pm
The coaches at UGA are good ones and need to stay in place for a long time. You people should be happy with the 9 or 10 win seasons because that is all you ever will have.
Oledawg
March 4th, 2009
6:28 pm
Alt- You are beating me to my point(s). I also followed Erk and his “Three yards and a cloud of dust” days in the SEC. He didn’t have the Dance to raise morale, he gleaned morale off “Meaner than a Junkyard Dawg” phrase from Bad, Bad Leroy Brown lyrics. LSU had the “Chinese Bandits” on defense. Everyone has and had a gimmick. And ,Yes!, he lost games and it wasn’t against spread offenses and other more modern offenses. I thought the world of him just as you do, Alt and I am honest in my analytics as you are. VanGorder and Erk both lost to more than a few option offenses which still gives D coaches fits today. Except we have some ravers on here that put Willy’s name to it on a personal level.
BugKiller and Zoomie- You guys can beat on your dead horse all you wish, but if you are out to try to reconvince anyone, try looking and imagining yourselves in the staff’s situation this year. Players were injures at key positions from a team that had flattened opposition in the last of the previous year. Losing those players meant putting players that were not first string into some positions, but before you get into an uproar, Yes we should expect them to excel when they got their chance. But everyone seems to ignore what Richt has tried to communicate: some of those replacement players got injured. In trying to cover where they were thin, the staff CROSSTRAINED players to slide to positions that were not their familiar grounds. The players complied and tried hard, but the threads or gel wasn’t coming together. Then we became dangerously short in positions that we were deep in earlier. How to keep from losing all players in some positions, Richt (and Staff) decided to hold back in practice so as to cut the losses(we had as many as 26 players unable to take the field because of injury plus many more with sore hammies and groin muscles AT THE SAME TIME). So, when we say the words “because of injuries” , that is the tip of the iceberg. It’s the gel you lose as well as talent level at those positions plus trying to prevent losses with one hand tied behind each player. Richt gave you the info , but you seem incapable of imagining the conflagration it all resulted in. Very much like our present fiscal crisis, the damage was deeper than you seem to be able to assimilate. Now why don’t you guys quit playing Rush Limbaugh and stop throwing rocks at Richt and Staff. You are becoming the problem instead of supporting the solution. What in two dozen hells do you think you will accomplish, becoming the “nay” in Bulldog Nation?
When you speak of blind loyal fans, you hit the mark here. I’m legally blind and loyal as hell to the Dawgs. I don’t recommend the blind part, but the least you could be is loyal. You might look up the definition of sport’s fan.
SOUTHGADAWG88
March 4th, 2009
6:28 pm
I think we have simply recruited a lot better offensive players than defensive players over the last 5-6 years.It has been more pronounced the last 3.We have some good players on D… just not many elite players at any position.Having Owens and Washington back should help some because if healthy those two guys can play.Allen will be missed though…I thought he was the best player we had in the secondary.2009 will be a big year for Martinez and Garner in this way.They have recruited these kids for this scheme we run ..so now it’s time to see what they have.I look for a lot of new faces on the defensive side of the ball this year.Maybe they will prove that our defensive recruits are better than I thought..either way this year is huge for those two guys.How the D rebounds this year is more important than last years struggles
AltamahaDawg
March 4th, 2009
6:44 pm
Any student of UGA sports and a fan of Erk Russell would remember where the term Junkyard Dog came from. It came about in 1975 as he tried to answer from a 6-6 record the year before. It worked then but 2 year later they went 5-6. In fact the decade of the 70s leading up the the NC would be the definition of inconsistancy. Couple of good years seperated by bad years. Lazy old Vince , cowardly protecting his BFF.
ZDog
March 4th, 2009
7:02 pm
When discussing the player discipline issues from different eras, keep in mind that you are discussing just that….DIFFERENT ERAS. Remember the stories of the “Team Barbecue” in 1980 that ended not with arrests and lawsuits, but with the offending players being punished internally over the summer leading up to the NC season. And don’t forget the “Shooting the streetsigns” incident (I don’t recall the year) that ended with a warm hearted warning and some extra running.
When discussing player behavior and discipline there is no comparison between today’s spotlight and media frenzy for ANYTHING to do with sports. If you need further evidence, just scroll up.
AltDog, nice comments, as always…
Jimmy
March 4th, 2009
7:17 pm
I think before it’s said and done, CMR’s name will be up there w/ Bobby Bowden, Joe Pa, Tom Osbourne-coaches who were allowed to stay w/ one school for a very long time, and EVENTUALLY won a MNC. Lot’s of factors have to go your way to win a title; luck and lack of injuries first and foremost. CMR runs a clean program, and wins 70% of his games. Patience people.
Cuz, you were right, if the internet and blogging existed when Vince was coach, along w/ Osbourne, Jo Pa, and Bobby Bowden-they all would have been fired after maybe 10 years.
That brings me to another question: How in the heck did you old folks follow sports w/o the internet back in the day? ‘Back in the day’ circa the pre mid 1990’s. Ha!
AltamahaDawg
March 4th, 2009
7:22 pm
ZDog, thanks. Me winning isn’t. You do.
AltamahaDawg
March 4th, 2009
7:27 pm
Jimmy, simple. You climbed on the roof and stopped turning the antenna when your dad yelled “right there”.
Oledawg
March 4th, 2009
7:33 pm
Alt- Some of these bloggers don’t have a baseline when making comparisons because they are unfamiliar with any Bulldog history if it didn’t happen in the last two years. They can’t analyze the details into their scorched earth opinions. I like a hearty blog, but blustering out unfounded opinions is just not as interesting as other points these Dawg fans make. It’s good info, meant to lead you in a certain direction, but it won’t come together as far as lancing old wounds. There is not any Dawg fan on here who liked the defeats this year, but gutting the Staff and Richt’s decisions won’t throw spit at what has happened this year. Some of you sound like Donnan or his new buddies at ESPN. Have you seen his name come up again as a coach? He can’t even beat out a former Miami coach for the UT@ San Antonio job. The reason may be that he isn’t welcome after his show of petulance after he was canned for not winning the big ones. Well, Richt is reversing that and has a “down” year in spoiled Bulldog Land. Get over it. All of us want big revenge for the losses this year, but if you don’t support Richt and Staff, who would bring it for you? No one. Not one over-egofied one of them.
Question: What team has beaten the reigning NC two years in a row? Why not make it three in a row this year?
exNFLplayer
March 4th, 2009
7:44 pm
Anybody here that wants to brush off or minimize the impact of injuries to 19 starters needs to think a little harder about that issue. One really needs to look no further than the implications of the weekly NFL injury report to understand that injuries matter big time. Watch how a betting line flunctuates with an injury to one key starter. Why do some coaches go to such great length to manipulate that report? Because entire game plans change dramatically because of a key injury. It limits or changes the team with the injured player/players game plan and what the coordinator can put in his scheme for that game and entire offensive or defensive packages. It changes how the opposing team plans to oppose the team with injured players. Do you think losing Trinton Sturdivant for instance didn’t have a major impact on how a DC schemed to attack UGA’s offensive line? Do you think it didn’t have an impact on what Mike Bobo could or could not do? Think again. Times that by 19 folks and you will see that the UGA staff actually did one hell of a job this year. UGA just got plain whipped by UF and Bama but I think what is sticking in UGA fan’s craws is the loss to Tech. A lot of things contribute to a loss but fans seem to want to zero in a handful of plays and cast blame. There were 3 plays in that game folks, only one of them defensive, that heavily contributed to that defeat. Matthew Stafford’s pick six, Richard Samuel’s kickoff return fumble when Tech was gaining momentum, giving them a short field, and Rashad Jones’s whiff of Roddy Jones on a TD run. Did UGA’s D play a sub par game? Yes. In spite of that, take away the pick six and Samuel’s fumble UGA wins by double digits. Could Tech have beaten a UGA team that didn’t have 19 injured starters? I seriously doubt it. And I mean no offense to Tech at all. I guess what I have tried to say in way too many words is that injuries matter. A LOT! For UGA to have won 10 games under those conditions tells me that their coaching staff did one hell of a job this past season.
AltamahaDawg
March 4th, 2009
7:45 pm
is the answer UGA? I’m all for 3 in a row. On that note we have defeated the reigning NC the past 5 times we have faced them.
Cuz
March 4th, 2009
7:51 pm
Alt, quit beating me to the punchline. Jimmy, the baptism of Herschel was the Tennessee opening game in 1980. Not on TV, we had cable then but I don’t think ESPN was around, could have been in it’s infancy. We were listening in our car to Munson tell us we were getting killed all the way to the half, driving back from a dove shoot. Right before we got home the half ended and Dooley said what the heck, put in the third string back. The kid from Wrightsville proceded to make history. We got in the yard, stayed in the car and listened to the rest of the game, with appropriate hollering and barking. Overnight How bout dem dawgs? changed to HOW BOUT DEM DAWGS!!!!!
That is what it was like in the stone age. You had to read the papers on Sunday and go to the barbershop to talk dawgs. Of course Athens caught on fire and stayed that way all Fall. It was great. I was lucky to be right in the middle of it and wound up in New Orleans on New Years Day.
reservoirDAWG
March 4th, 2009
7:55 pm
Does anyone know what channel Raycom is on Comcast in Atlanta?
Cuz
March 4th, 2009
7:58 pm
Hey Alt, I was at two of Erk’s losses over thirty points in one year, we still loved the guy. He was like having Superman walking around campus. Well, except tougher of course. I never saw him leap a tall building much less Conner Hall, but I would not have put it past him.
AltamahaDawg
March 4th, 2009
8:01 pm
You had cable in 1980. You must have lived in the big city!
to EX NFL Guy
March 4th, 2009
8:08 pm
You had an easy schedule (that was rumoured to be hard….at the start of the season). From first in the nation to second in the state!
Cuz
March 4th, 2009
8:24 pm
Yeah Augusta and Athens had cable, I think we had like 17 channels, awesome.
reservoirDAWG
March 4th, 2009
8:38 pm
Piss off! It is on Fox.
Cuz
March 4th, 2009
9:24 pm
Alt, with your little bouts of trivia you are in danger of costing Zeier his color job. We do not need to boost unemployment in these times.
Cuz
March 4th, 2009
9:26 pm
Hey Chip, everyone gets a double post mulligan. We only make fun of you if you do it twice.
AltamahaDawg
March 4th, 2009
9:27 pm
3 and 11 out of Savannah, and maybe channel 22 on the UHF dial. If a solar storm was blowing through at the same time Venus was in line with the third moon of Jupiter, we would get a Jacksonville station for a couple of hours. You would think we had found gold in the backyard.
BugKiller
March 4th, 2009
9:29 pm
If the buck stops with Willie Martinez, then WHY is Willie Martinez still here, coach?
And Altamaha, you brush off plenty of important statistics, inexplicably so, like the insane number of 30 and 40 point games Martinez’s defenses have given up over his last four years.
You can continue to bury your head in the sand and ignore the problem if that’s what you want to do, but that’s not me.
And to the person who defended John Eason because of this past year… that’s ONE YEAR. Also, you notice in Eason’s time, the more raw a receiver is, like MoMass as a freshman and AJ as a freshman, they performed great, and then when he really got a hold of them, like MoMass as a sophomore and junior, they regress horribly?
Regardless, Richt won’t make the difficult decisions when it comes to his coaching staff. He has a proven track record, and because of this, his team will always lose those one or two games every year they should never lose, like to South Carolina or to Tech, that keeps them from winning the SEC or the MNC.
He has a track record.
And again, Chip, if the buck stops with Willie Martinez, how the hell does he still have a job with the 4 years of his defenses getting WORSE and the insane number of 30 and 40 point games his defense have given up?
I think Coach Richt is full of it right there. The buck never stops with his coaches, not when their are players to blame.
BugKiller
March 4th, 2009
9:30 pm
Oh, and to the person who thinks Les Miles didn’t fire his defensive coaches… you’re incredibly naive.
Cuz
March 4th, 2009
9:55 pm
Bugkiller, change your name to Buzzkiller.
C’mon, drink the koolaid, join us, join us.
Dogs on top in basketball with Kentucky, is there a double eclipse tonight?
AltamahaDawg
March 4th, 2009
10:07 pm
We put up 40 plus points on Will Muschamp the 3 times we played his defenses, at 2 different schools. 40 plus points on Charlie Strong. Bo Pelini, Bud Foster, John Chavis. Would these guys be considered some of the very top DC in the country? We put up 30 and 40 points on them …..so?
Cuz
March 4th, 2009
10:11 pm
Basketball Dawgs beat Kentucky at Rupp for only the fourth time. The heck with Megamillions, I coulda retired on this bet in Vegas.
AltamahaDawg
March 4th, 2009
10:12 pm
WOW! beat Ky at Ky. Venus lined up with the third moon of Jupiter once again.
Cuz
March 4th, 2009
10:20 pm
Venus and Mars are alright tonight. Where’s Sir Paul when you need him?
AltamahaDawg
March 4th, 2009
10:26 pm
Mars, now that’s who we need to hire. That guy would never give up 40 points. If they even tried, he would send down with a thousand fiery chariots.
bbdawg
March 4th, 2009
10:29 pm
How ’bout them BB Dawgs!!. If you think we dawgs were upset over the Florida lossin fb, you should be in Lexington tonite. I lived in Ky for 12 years and I can tell you that the radio waves are burning up and Gillespie is in deep s__. Go Dawgs!!!
Jimmy
March 4th, 2009
10:46 pm
I remember sometime in the 80’s, the cable box(literally a box), was connected to our TV w/a cord. The box had ten buttons on it, and a lever. You position the lever up high, in the middle, or down low, and on each row you had like 10 different channels you could possibly watch. If you would switch channels very fast by hitting one button and then the next, you could possibly see like 10 seconds(at a time) of a porn channel. This was great for me considering I was barely a teen during this time, in the mid 80s. Fun stuff.
Jimmy
March 4th, 2009
10:46 pm
Oh, I might have elaborated on my past too much.
ceph
March 5th, 2009
7:18 am
Typical Richt, he would have continuity than someone who is a great coach!!! CAllaway for example was lousy but, he would still be there if he hadn’t left on his own volition The great thing about all of this though, is that poor assistants will eventually get you fired then maybe Richt can get Liberty college to hire him and his whole staff.
AltamahaDawg
March 5th, 2009
7:24 am
Callaway was a lousy coach? Interesting. Based on?
Zoomie
March 5th, 2009
8:38 am
Oledawg, I don’t know what dead horse you’re talking about, but one man’s dead horse is another man’s coaching concern. I’m not beating up on WM; I’ve clearly stated I’m not privy to the detailed picture, so I’m very reluctant to pass judgment. I’ve been a UGA football fan my entire life, but have only been in a position to watch every game for the last two seasons. I can assure you, the problems I saw in the 2008 team were also evident in the 2007 team. For some reason, the 2007 team’s sizzle ignited and they steamrolled through the remainder of the season. Last year, they sizzled and sputtered throughout the entire season; never caught fire. As I said, I don’t know why, but hope Coach Richt and his staff do, since their jobs will depend on it. We are, in fact, primarily in competition with UF. They dominate the SEC East. No SEC East, no SEC Championship. No SEC Championship, no MNC bid. No MNC bid, no national standing with OU, USC, et al. I think this is what Coach Richt means when he sets the goal of winning the East (one step at a time). When we have comparable recruiting classes, we should be competitive; 18-3 is not competitive. UF, and for that matter, any of the national sweetheart teams, do not lay down and have their rearends handed to them in games that matter most. UGA simply was not prepared to play in those games. Back to AltamahaDawg’s original point of discussion with me: there are numerous influencing factors; to me, it’s evident that coaching issues are among them. I look at changes that are being made by Coach Richt in team preparation, and it seems to support my view. I support Coach Richt’s “family” approach. More importantly from a leadership perspective, I strongly support his “staff continuity” approach. It’s just the cold, hard facts of business: if UGA continually plays second or third fiddle in the SEC East, the current coaching staff will not stay together, and Coach Richt’s job at UGA will be in jeopardy regardless of how much we like him.
Christophorm
March 5th, 2009
9:16 am
I was hopeing he was going to go back to calling the offensive plays again…
MoDawg
March 5th, 2009
10:38 am
Folks, I am all for UGA being a nice place to live and work for our coaches,their staff and families, but I think it’s about time for UGA to be a bad team to pi$$ off, too.
Hopefully, our coaches can find that fine line this year. If we lay down this year like we did a few times last year, this could be the ugliest season in the Mark Richt era. I trust CMR is taking the right steps to keep that from happening again.
AltamahaDawg
March 5th, 2009
11:27 am
Zoomie, well stated. For the record I think coaching are a valide concern anytime. If you dont go undeafeted every year obvious somebody didn’t guess right, motivate, train, or recruit to perfection. And there is always room for improvement.
And things run in cycles. We will be in contention in the EAST as much as anyone else over the next decade.
Pitbull
March 5th, 2009
12:13 pm
I value Coach Richt as much for his values and leadership as I do for his success on the field. In fact, I think that his values and leadership are two prime factors for his success on the field.
Supporters of our competitors must feel the same too as they attempt to tear down his image to their own sad level to harm him and the Georgia program.
Coach Richt said that if all of your competitors like you, you must not be winning on the field. He is 82-22 in 8 years. I hope he stays at Georgia until after I die of old age – and I am a young man.
Oledawg
March 5th, 2009
4:07 pm
Zoomie- Perhaps I should have addressed “BugKiller and to a lesser extent, Zoomie”. The dead horse I was referring to was the plethora of blogs that insensitively couldn’t come to the conclusion that injuries were responsible. Several of us then implied that injuries were responsible while the naysayers tried to drown us out by blogging how much football they knew, how much better coach they were than Martinez and Richt and how many plays they saw that were interpreted as coaching mistrakes and not due to inexperienced players at some positions screwing up. Those outcries were supposedly laid to rest when later (after schedule played) Richt verified what some of us were guessing. He didn’t blame the season on injuries, quite the contrary, he lauded his coaches for winning IN SPITE OF the injuries. He felt that under the circumstances, they had had a good season and I agreed with him. Then there was more blogging against them before Richt was quoted that some complainers didn’t know what they were talking about. The river of blogs slowed, but still people come on here and repeat the same old poor reasoning over and over asw if they can’t believe others rejected their egotistical and disloyal blogs. I simply began to think that most of them were not fans and were interlopers from other team bases, but had seized on the division to try and drive a wedge between the UGA fans. That’s the dead horse. That was over until, lo and behold!, it reared its ugly head in yesterday’s blog. You stated in your blog,”I just think Coach Richt put a lot of emphasis on injuries as a problem last season and many of the problems I noticed seemed to have little to do with injuries.” I replied to that statement at length to try to demonstrate that what you saw could not be directly blamed on the absence of an individual due to injury, rather it could be explained by noting the cascading problems that resulted from those injuries. I even mentioned the latter part of the 2007 season as a reflection on the team having “gelled” as a team. That expectation went into 2008 until the injury situation finally involved all aspects of the team. Put that together with some special teamer problems and it comes down to individuals more than coaches were the source of the problem. The players were even quoted that they made the mistakes and they had been coached against those mistakes before they happened. I feel that the players ended up being the victims of the injury problem because it was unfair for them to be judged on play and positions that were new to them while they did their best to fill in.
Richt didn’t mention that injuries were the overall problem until the end of the season. He kept quiet because he didn’t want opponents to understand just how bad it was. If you listened to Richt last year, you could read between the lines for most of the games , but he didn’t use the excuse during the season for reasons already stated. Now I saw some of the same bad play that you did and was as upset as anyone because Bulldogs don’t make excuses. They pick their butts up and act like Bulldogs and blast an opposing player into next week. Alas, they are human when constrained from playing their own game in their position and were as embarrassed as we were as fans, except moreso. There should be no contingencies in anyone’s mind going into next year like giving Martinez one more year, ripping coaches first and asking questions later. I don’t give a frog’s butt what any of you think about individual coaches you egotistically think you can coach better than or if you have cracks in your loyalty that can’t be repaired by your ego. If you can’t come to grips with explanations from your head coach and are planning a wait and see year next year then do it elsewhere with another team. You don’t have to see it the way I do at all, but why don’t you give your valuable insight to any team that would like to use it. I admit that I didn’t understand your reply that was a year’s worth of glossover. Alt, you said the opinion by Zoomie was valid. Want to explain it to me?
AltamahaDawg
March 5th, 2009
9:45 pm
oledawg , as you well know, I never completely agree with everything somebody says in a single post, as i have a reputation to uphold. I was nodding only to the point that zommster made directly to me.
wreckmaniac
March 6th, 2009
8:43 am
This in-house argument amuses me. This is the stuff that brings out
non-UGA blogers like me. Anyone should be delighted by what CMR has bought to UGA. We Techsters have had nightmares since he arrived.
He is, in my opinion, a good person,one of the nations top 5 recruiters,
a consistent winner, has kept his team out of the NCAA violation spotlight, and has ingnited awesome fan support. What more can you ask for ?
Well, those that say we should have more are fools. The recent record at UF, Alabama, and LSU will result in problems down the road.
There will be a NCAA penalty somewhere, a coach will leave for the NFL,
a key assistant will leave to take a head coach job, key injuries will take place. There is such a thing as pure fan greed and you can always find it here.
Zoomie
March 6th, 2009
9:23 am
Oledawg, we’re not necessarily in disagreement here. We’re just two people, without an inside scoop, speculating on the problems of our favorite football team (with me being maybe just a little more of a hard@ss than you). Granted, injuries took a terible toll on the team, but if play drops off that dramatically between the starters and the “depth” players, coaches are responsible for not having the “depth” ready to play. The play of the defensive line was horrendous, and that sets off a domino affect throughout the rest of the defense. I don’t know if coaching could’ve done anything about that; if you don’t have the players, you’re stuck. The tackling skills of the defense in 2008 were embarassing, and didn’t seem to be addressed at all during the season. That’s on the coaching staff. Penalties: coaching staff. Assignment discipline: coaching staff. I pin so much on the coaches because this went way beyond individual player mistakes, these issues were characteristic of the entire defense for the entire season. As mentioned earlier, you don’t see this with the nation’s top-tier programs. I think team leadership is still in flux due to the rather recent changes in responsibilities (play calling) and the experience level of those with the responsibilities, so they get a pass on some of the strange things we saw last season. However, there’s no excuse for not having the young men ready to play. There’s no excuse for not ensuring the players know what they’re supposed to do and how their roles fit in the overall scheme, whether they’re a starter or a third-stringer — and that, my friend, is the most important function the coaches have. When you send a soldier into battle without the proper training, mission preparation, rules of engagement, and without a clear objective, failure of that mission is directly attributable to the commander, not the defeated soldier. Now, that may be an extreme analogy, but it’s apt, nevertheless.