Happy New Year, this starts year 2 of the Haney page. So I decided to wait a couple days to post about the football game on January 1st. Not because I was one of the crazy folks I have been reading on the message boards, radio stations etc, that are back on the Fire Richt bandwagon. Not because I am not disappointed or frustrated, but just because I have been busy and just wanted more time to think.
First of all, much has been made about Bobo, and also Coach Richt. Of course Bobo calls the plays but Richt hired him and groomed him to take on the job. I will admit, I am NOT a fan of the play calling all the time-maybe most of the time I am not a fan. But, while I do think Bobo should get some blame I also think the players should get blame for their lack of execution. As much as I love Aaron Murray, the kid is a VERY streaky player. As good as he will play in one quarter or half, he can look just as bad the next quarter/half. His INT's against Michigan State completely turned that game. The first was him running away from the pocket and having open space in front of him. Typically Murray is keeping it there and running about 10 yards and heading out of bounds-that is certainly what Tavarres King thought as he turned to block. That first pick gave MSU the ball around midfield and they we right down and put 7 on the board, what followed next was a pick 6 that put the game at 16-14. Soon after Michigan State scored again and went ahead for the first time. We then scored to take the lead and soon after our stellar D was not so stellar and let MSU drive 85 yards in less than two minutes to tie it and send it to OT. Lost in all the offensive and special teams blunders was the defense collapse in the second half. Ok, I know the offense did not play well against our last two opponents but I will agrue, as good as the D played in the first half of both games, they could not maintain that level of play in the second half-yes, I know again the offense and specials teams play a part in that. BUT, a truly GREAT D stands up to the challenges and makes stops when the game is on the line-or bows up and holds a team to a FG instead of a TD. I guess my point is, our team was improved in 2011 without question but we still are not a great football team yet. And that goes for both offense and defense. I think the D is ahead of the offense but the D is not there yet either.
So, with that in mind, what can we expect for next year. On offense it will all hinge on the play of our OL. For all that was made of our OL this year, we are the biggest OL in college and pro football, our OL this year was NOT very good. For starters, our best OT was lost for the year last spring-Sturdivant. So, our best OG in Cordy Glenn was moved to OT. Glenn didn't have a bad season but I think he will play OG in the pros. Our other OT was Justin Anderson-quite possibly the slowest footed SEC starting OT out there. The kid was moved from OL to NT because he was so mammoth, he was a space eater and that is perfect for the NT, course he got hurt and never played NT last year. When we got our new OL coach, and considering our lack of depth on the OL, Anderson was moved back to offense. He won the OT job I believe by default. Our other tackle prospects, true FR Watts Dantzler and Kolton Houston who was not allowed to play this season. Our guards were Burnette-who had been playing center and also Kenarious Gates-who was solid. Also we had Dallas Lee who had never played snaps before. My point being, besides Glenn and Ben Jones-our best two OL without question, I think our OL has a chance to be better next year and I do think we will have more numbers. We REALLY need Mark Beard to come in this spring and be ready to play, we need Theus to be as adverstised-the top OT prospect in America and ready to start day one. We need Watts Dantzler and David Andrews to be ready to contribute a lot in 2012 after getting a few snaps this past year. We also have a couple other OL that were redshirted that hopefully can provid some depth-Debell and Ward. Course hopefully Houston can play in 2012 as well. IF our OL can come together and provide some blocking, I fully expect our offense to be even better next year. Murray will be solid-especially if he cuts down on his mistakes. We are loaded at WR, we redshirted a couple others that are solid, also recruiting a couple outstanding prospects. RB, hopefully Crowell will get his head on straight, we have Marshall and hopefully at least one other stud RB coming in. Malcome I thought played well the last two games of the year, he is a decent back to have in rotation. Thomas, well, he might be a garbage time player, Samuel would be a good move to fullback in my opinion.
Here is my thought for our offense for 2012-I REALLY believe our coaches need to go visit the New Orleans Saints this off season. I think Richt and Bobo need to sit with Sean Payton, discuss with him how he uses Drew Brees. Aaron Murray reminds me and others so much of Brees, I think we need to start using him like the Saints use Brees. They do have some pro set formations but the Saints come as close to running a spead offense as just about any team in the NFL. Considering our depth and talent at the WR position, considering we basically have RB's that are better "in space" than between the tackles, we have a young but more athletic OL, I really believe this is the way we should go. Will we, probably not but I am just a firm believer in molding the talent you have to an offense that suits their talents-and with what we have on hand, I think a Saints style spread throwing, screening to backs offense would work well for us.
On defense, plain and simple, Grantham has to continue to build depth. We have to continue to recruit elite level talent. Hopefully our JR's will return, if they do, I think this D will be OUTSTANDING. Even if Smith, Rambo and Williams leave, I still have high hopes for this D but we just have to play more bodies. If you look at who we lose after 2012, we are going to need to be getting a lot of guys reps this year. I think with the schedule we have, that shouldn't be a problem but we have to keep recruiting the elite talent that we have the past couple years. The Olgetrees, Drews, Herrera's, Smith's, Swann's etc, elite talent and let our D coaches then coach them up.
Ok back to the game itself on Monday and Bobo. I simply don't understand why he wanted to run up the gut on this team, when they continued to blow us up in the middle of the line-negative yardage plays galore. We never ran a toss sweep, we rarely went outside except a few carries by Smith/Boykin. We didn't use our TE-course maybe we tried to call his number but Murray couldn't get him the ball because he was running for his life. Bottom line, the problem I have with Bobo overall is his lack of ability to adapt/change his gameplan on the fly. It is like he has it scripted, this is what we are going to do regardless of how the game is actually playing out. Thing is, with a bowl game you have a month to study your opponent. He HAD to know that MSU had a strong and disruptive DL-heck, they were ranked 5 just behind us in total D and they played a tougher schedule than we did. With how we had WR's easily running past their DB's all day long, I would have bet that could have continued or use the TE in the middle of the field while sending the WR's deep??? Or throw some screens to the RB's in space. Of course the decision in OT to basically line up Walsh for a FG without gaining ANY yardage, I thought that was a HORRIBLE decision. Walsh of last year, great decision. Walsh of this year, he has proven time and time again he is NOT dependable this year. I hate to be down on a kid but he has missed 12 kicks coming into the game, including some easy ones. He is not a lock to make any FG this year and so why not move the ball closer?? I will never understand that decison.
Now the game is over and it is on to recruiting. In the next couple days, I hope to be able to reach out to my recruiting experts to bring you some information on kids we are after. I know one target is announcing today-Chaz Elder, between UGA, SCarolina and Vandy. I FULLY expect him to pick SCarolina. Also, we need to find out sooner than later which of our JR's will leave. While I would love for all to return, if you follow UGA football at all, you know we ALWAYS are going to lose a few kids to the draft every year. Not sure why our kids seem to like to make the jump when they probably shouldn't but it happens every year so I feel sure it will happen again this year. I certainly think though that Boykin and Glenn, both who gave serious thoughts to leaving after last year, made the right decison. As Grantham said recently, unless you are a top 15 pick, you should come back. I wouldn't go that far but I would say if you get a first round grade, you SHOULD leave, maybe even a second ground grade because you might work your way up to first round with your workouts for teams. But, 3rd or later, you should come back, but it is not my decision so I say best of luck to those kids if they leave and welcome back if they stay.
Final note, first SEC game is this Saturday against Alabama. The Dogs are 9-5 on the season and have won 5 in row since the HORRIBLE loss against the Nerds. Granted, we have not played great teams since that game, but at least we have found ways to win. Bama by the way, just beat GT by 25 in Philips arena the other night. I will try to preview that game tomorrow if I get the chance but needless to say, it will be a HUGE challenge to beat them, they are 11-3 with wins over Tech, Okie State, Maryland, Purdue only losses coming to ranked K-State, Georgetown and unranked Dayton. Game time is 7p and it will be sports south I do believe.
No comments:
Post a Comment