Some Thoughts and a Question

DS, I've been thinking more about what you said and thought I would share another side to the subject.

I agree that the defensive coaches should teach more aggression, but it goes a lot deeper than that. Aggression is great, but Kevin Ramsey was as aggressive as they get. Man-to-man, blitz every down, and you see where that got us. The issue is partly scheme, but it’s much more the development of the talent once they get on campus in my book. Reshad Jones should be the best safety in football right now (outside of Eric Berry of course). He has as much talent as Taylor Mays at USC. Bryan Evans was an Army All-American, and he’s the fastest guy on the team. Yet somehow he is atrocious in pass coverage, tackling, and overall decision making. Prince Miller was a four-star cornerback that everyone in the country wanted. Yet he’s at best an average cornerback. Boykin is incredibly talented and (mark my words) will be a GREAT NFL cornerback, but he’s certainly not great right now. All of that is coaching. Our LB play is simply pathetic. Rennie is wonderfully talented, but he gets by on his speed alone. How often do you see Rennie read the play and meet a running back in the hole at the line of scrimmage. (Think Brandon Spikes hitting Knowshon on the first play of the Florida game last year.) It just doesn’t happen. Rennie instead runs the guy down from sideline to sideline. That’s great, but Rennie should be coached to read cues from the OL and recognize where the play is going. The same holds true for our other linebackers. Gamble, Dewberry, Dent, Dowtin, Williams, and Robinson are all talented. However none has become a very good player. They are all average players under Jancek. I can’t argue too much about the DL coaches. Garner has consistently turned out solid DT’s and Fabris (until recently) has developed solid DE’s. I think that Houston is moving into that category right now. My problem with Fabris is he special teams.

The talent is there, it just needs to be developed.

wlayton wrote:

UF usually has the bye before us and believe the last time we won in '07, we had a bye week.

wlayton, we had a bye in 2007 and in 1989, the only time Ray Goff beat Florida. We've beaten Florida without the bye in 2004 and 1997.

HOWEVER: since Steve Spurrier started coaching Florida in 1990, the Gators have had the bye the week before Georgia a whopping TEN TIMES in years that they won, including two incredible streaks: from 1994-6 and from 1998-2002, Florida did not play ANYBODY the week before they played us.

By way of comparison, in the week before Florida in those years, Georgia played:

1994: Kentucky (won 34-30 in Lexington)
1995: Kentucky (won 12-3 in Athens)
1996: Kentucky (lost 24-17 in Lexington)
1998: Kentucky (won 28-26 in Lexington)
1999: Kentucky (won 49-34 in Athens)
2000: Kentucky (won 34-30 in Lexington)
2001: Kentucky (won 43-29 in Athens)
2002: Kentucky (won 52-24 in Lexington)
2005: Arkansas (won 23-20 in Athens)
2006: Mississippi State (won 27-24 in Athens)

Look how many close games there were in weeks before Florida. So Florida, rested after a bye week and in their home state, gets a Georgia team that's dog-tired and worn down after eight straight weeks of grinding it out.

By the way, the last time Florida beat us when WE had the bye was 1991. Florida had played Auburn the week before. You know. Just to be fair.

Also, remember that D.J. Shockley was injured (MCL) in the 2005 Arkansas game and couldn't play against Florida. I'd love to see how many injuries -- even how many which could have been rehabbed with a two-week break -- were incurred by Georgia players in those ten years in which Florida got the bye.

dapolla.......that's something I have NEVER understood with our scheduling. I realize we take a week off before GT but we use to get 2 weeks off each year and why we wouldn't make it before the UF game baffles me.


Yeah, plus wasn't it in '02 when Musa was out, Gibson played injured along with a couple of OL that cost us THAT game. We have had a BUNCH of bad breaks with injuries for the UF game.

I apologize. I miscounted my dates.

In fact, Florida had the bye week before Georgia for ELEVEN STRAIGHT BALLGAMES, from 1993-2003. The first game in that span in which they did not have the bye (they lost to Mississippi State the week before, and the following day Ron Zook was fired effective at the end of the season), we beat Florida. The very next game in which they did not have the bye (Urban Meyer's Gators beat Kentucky that week), Georgia danced in the endzone en route to beating Florida 42-30. So in the past 18 years of Cocktail Parties, Florida has beaten Georgia without a bye week exactly twice: in 1992 and in 2008.

What an unbelievable edge that is! Good GRIEF!!!

Always have said it was HUGE.