1st of all, GREAT win on Sat. night in Arky! Our boys in Red & Black, especially Joe Cox, showed tremendous poise, desire, passion, and determination in securing an extremely hard fought victory!
Per my opening lines above, I am a hopelessly optimistic Dawg fan and tend to look at the bright side of things but after reading wlayton's \"Great Article on CWM\" thread, like most of you, I felt sickened. In fact, it struck me to the point that I decided to conduct a little bit of my own research. What I found confirmed my worse fears and if yall care to read further, here are some more depressing stats regarding our rapid decline on the defensive side of the football under CWM:
Martinez' 2005 Georgia defense finished
8th in the country in scoring defense (16.4 ppg)
Martinez' 2006 Georgia scoring defense (17.6 ppg) AND was ranked 8th nationally in total defense, 5th in
PASS defense and 1st in the SEC in
third down efficiency.
Martinez' 2007 Georgia scoring defense (20.2 ppg)
Martinez' 2008 Georgia scoring defense (24.5 ppg)
Martinez' 2009 Georgia scoring defense, thus far (34 ppg)
Me being but one small and powerless member of Bulldog Nation I have NEVER publicly called for CWM's head (to this date) BUT the SAD thing is, thinking back to dapolla's post regarding \"OUR AMAZING TALENT\", even IF our defensive talent isn't up to the usual UGA standards both THIS year and LAST year, the stats above show an alarming trend. FACT of the matter is, ever since CWM took over as DC our scoring defense has gotten progressively worse.
Yes, defensive players have come and gone since the end of the 2004, but the one thing that has remained a constant is DC CWM. Maybe, just maybe we had much better players on defense in 2005 and EVERY year since then our defensive talent level has regressed?
Still, it would only seem resonable to conclude that our 2005 defensive players actually REMEMBERED the coaching they received under the previous DC and many of those same players remained in 2006. A handful of these players still remained in 2007 but come 2008 and definitely by this year (2009), we've got NOTHING but defensive players who have only known one DC in their entire collegiate careers.
Now, as much as I hate to credit the Gators or Vols for anything, to help make my point, I feel that I must. Hopefully yall do remember that Florida's pass defense was absolutely atrocious in 2007? If you don't trust me, they STUNK to the high heavens. However, with some obviously GOOD coaching and a year's experience, these exact same players who couldn't cover my grandmother in 2007 became world beaters and Nt'l Champs in 2008.
How bout the Tennessee defense btw. 2008 and this 2009 season? Like UF from 07' to 08' they too have many of the same players on this years' defense as last years', but unlike Florida, their DC actually changed during the offseason. Fact of the matter remains, their results are about the same and those results are IMPRESSIVE. Hmmm, seems like the new DC at UT must be at least as capable as the prior DC or else you'd expect for their defensive performance to have taken a step backwards. I'd argue, both the prior and the current Vols DC as well as the current Gators DC ALL know what the hell they are doing.
Our downward spiral on defense is too PAINFULLY obvious to ignore and quite frankly, as a fella who lives and breathes Georgia Bulldogs football, it really pisses me off!
Though I may be powerless when it comes to helping Georgia football succeed I am certainly NOT voiceless and this voice of mine will be in the stands at Sanford loudly cheering and barking for ALL of MY Dawgs, as always, come Saturday night!
That said, it is PAST time for CMR to take the reins as our BELOVED head coach and
AT LEAST ATTEMPT
TO CORRECT OUR DEFENSIVE FAILURES and now I too will FINALLY say that finding a more competent DC would be a great start!
Organizational stability is one thing, accepting mediocrity is the tactic of many a DEFUNCT organization that have come and GONE!
Don't do it for me or for any other lunatic UGA fan Coach Richt, do it for YOUR PLAYERS that pour their hearts and souls into carrying on the winning tradition that is Georgia Bulldogs football and do it for yourself!
I can only speak for myself but this Dawg fanatic feels (correction-I KNOW) that the young men that CHOOSE to wear THE
G
deserve better and so do YOU!
GLORY GLORY TO OL' GEORGIA!!!