Early Ratings and Opinions

Buc, I hear you on the D, my problem is that can and will the players back up their mouth. If you will remember, they ran their mouths in the SEC championship about they were the best D. To their credit they did back it up for 2 quarters. Got blown out the 2nd half. We go to the bowl game against a big
10 team that we should have beaten by 14, they come out the 2nd half and run us off the field. It just seems to me we have players that only want to play 2 quarters of ball. We have the same group returning that played 2 quarters of outstanding D only to give out the middle of the 3rd and the 4th quarters. Will they be in better condition this year, I don't know, I hear so, but for me the proof is in the playing.

duck, I am going to assume that you have played football, think I saw where you mentioned that once upon a time. Older I get, the less I remember 5 minutes ago.

Going to play a game with you, if you are willing.

Name one player on our defensive side that you would swap for a player on South Carolina's side. Go through the entire 11 players. Remember I understand that you are trying to point out coaching. I am not against that, discussing personnel on the field in pads at this point.

Next exchange would be this . . . . what defensive coach on UGA's side would you exchange for one on the South Carolina side.

Would also say this . . . . have listened to many in the media bring up the fact that we were all over (excuse the following language) LSU's ass for one half. Name one team that has been that hard or progressive against LSU other than ALABAMA.

duck, can only speak for myself. I watched Erk for more years than I can count take young men and produce a defense that had more to do with UGA wins than VD's production on offense with three yards and a cloud of dust. Young men that were inspired to play football in Sanford Stadium. I try not to do that, know that many on this board grew up with VD. VD in fact did not or does not come close to what Mark Richt has done. That is a fact.

You know that I do not harbor any ill feelings one way or the other about how you feel. That is what this board is all about, or should be.

Todd Grantham is the best "teacher" in the short span of time he has been in Athens that I have witnessed watching UGA Football in all of my years. Brother, when he departs it will be a damn sad day in Athens and Merritt Island, Florida. I watched this happen with Erk, many on this board were too young to know what had happened . . . I remember. The Stadium in Athens is Sanford Stadium, if that changes, so will my feelings.

One more statement . . . why are all of the publications and talking heads talking about UGA's Defense and Todd Grantham . . . . with all of the powerful backfield additions we have added in the past two or three years to the offense, why are we not pointing out the offense. You have made mention of AM. I have tried to stay away from that. Would you (duck) want to stand behind what AM has had to do and take the beatings he has taken? What about this year, do you or anyone else want to guarantee AM that we are ready on the offensive line?

Go Dawgs, Coach'em up!

Buc, I was on board with CTG and I still think he has done an outstanding job. I guess, I have been reading to many other quotes from other sports writers not associated with UGA. I have read several statements from others about our great D pading stats against week teams. What did our D do against BS, USC, Vandy, Fla, LSU, MS. For me, our D did win the Vandy game, but let it get out of hand, the D did lose the MS game, and almost let a weak Fla team come back and win. So you see, I read this and start to think, maybe we do still have problems.

I don't know Buc, I am not saying that CTG is not the best thing since Erk, he is, I love his fire and his desire to win. I just know that this year, we have the horses, and we should be 2 to 3 deep and every position. I am just being skeptic until we beat our first top 20 team and not let someone like Vandy or KY score 28 to 35 points on us. I am so tired of the media giving us high ranking and such, then on the other hand, come back and say well UGA has not beaten a top 20 team in 2 years.

It is just a catch 22, you want to believe that this is the year, and that all the pieces are in place, the coaches are on the same page and we will not lose. As you know, I am not the type to just jump on the band wagon and say we'll win 11 games this year, blow everyone out, make SS at USC eat crow. I just take one game at a time, and hopefully over the course of 4 to 5 games I can judge how good we are or just how ordionary we are.

Oh, as for your question about changing coaches, would not change any of ours for any of USC. Last year, they just had the better players than we did, not coach. Will be interesting to see how our two D stack up this year. USC is getting a lot of attention about their D as well and the O, with Shaw. Just saw a sports breif with SS and said that with Garcia gone, Conner Shaw will make USC a great offensive team.

Really hard to predict wins and losses this day and time. Many years back we could come reasonably close on those we should/would beat and the games we figured to be tight. There are too many quality athletes in the football "business" these days for any one school to rule the roost. Although Alabama might strongly disagree with the last statement.

SS could be on the mark with Shaw being better than Garcia. Garcia was "all that" in high school in the Tampa area, had one serious problem that does not need to be discussed here, it however prevented Garcia from being special in college. We have witnessed that at UGA also.

I mentioned on this board when UGA received AM's signature to play for the Red and Black that he was a gunslinger. That to a point has proven to be true. I don't believe that he has had all of the necessary parts to be alll he could be. I will also say that he has tried to be "more" than he is on more than one occasion. I would love to see AM use the folks around him, rely on the other players to do their jobs and not push the envelope.

This season I do believe from all I can gather, IC is going to be more than a handful. He flat out did not know the play book last season and if you don't know where you are supposed to be, creates problems for the entire unit. Saw too much of that, had me screaming at the Television, was not the TV's fault. I also believe that IC has had a rude awakening about the amount of time he will spend in the UGA backfield, Mark Richt has let him know that he is on pace with the way Grantham does things. Next man up. I like the fact that Richt appears to have had a "attitude" change, look what the "attitude" change did for our defense. (Willie vs. Grantham).

Not really fretting about the suspensions at the beginning of the year duck, there are a lot of SEC caliber players residing in Athens and it only helps us, not hurt us in the long run. This is what creates that "two deep" lineup that has proven all too often to bear fruit.

Sorry to be so long. This year will tell all of us a lot about where we are when we discuss players and coaches. Can't hide from facts whether in the press box or on the field playing and coaching, out there for all to see. Defense says they are ready, not hearing a lot from the Offensive side, that could be a very good thing for both units.

Malcom Mitchell the first true two way player since Richt has been coaching.

dogbytesonline.com/malcolm-mitchell-geor...r-under-richt-58094/

The D will be just fine this year..........we are 2 and 3 deep at most positions, so when Bobo runs it up the gut for a 3 and out we can at least put some fresh legs in to give the starters a rest. That was the problem that I saw last year. Not enough depth at key positions, so late in the game our D had the hands on hips look. Hope to see very little if any of that this year combined with our S&T program.

Talent on both sides of the ball, so this year it is on the coaching staff as to how well this highly touted team will do.

Me I have bought into our D but still will not drink the kool-aid of a Bobo run O.