scooby,
Coley was a scapegoat for nothing.
College football at this level is serious business. Despite the fact that he and Jimbo are friends, don't think he's not jumping from the frying pan at UGA into the fire at A&M. This is a results-driven business and the expectation to perform will be the exact same at A&M. He knows this.
If you want to know why Coley is gone, I direct you to my good friend Wartdawg's statement that "Georgia is in a special kind of football hell" right now. Good enough doesn't mean anything. The goal is a championship. Anything less is complete failure. We've endured "pretty good" seasons, we've endured "exciting seasons," and we surely have endured "moral victories" for long enough. Coley isn't gone because he was the scapegoat. He's not gone because Kirby is a mean guy who sacrifices his staff for his own shortcomings. He is gone because on offense last year, there was a monumental shift backwards in offensive production, creativity, and results. We didn't just come up short this season on a last minute play against LSU. If that would have been the case last season, Coley would still be here. We watched this season as the offense literally imploded on itself from where it was in 2018. In 2018, Georgia's offense put up 530 points and was ranked 14th in the nation. In 2019, Georgia's offense put up 430 points and was ranked 50th. That is a huge step back, and frankly, that statistic was manifestly seen by all on the field of play in 2019. Sorry but that simply ain't gonna cut the mustard. That's not getting us any closer to a natty, that's taking us farther away from it offensively by a wide margin, and given the rise of dynamic offenses in the SEC, it puts us that much farther behind the 8 ball to start the 2020 season.
And I do not buy into the common belief that this was "all Kirby" on the offense. Do I think it was some of his influence? Sure, of course. The HC gives the OC his offensive philosophy, but it's still the OC's playbook and play calling at a game level. Chaney was presented the same offensive philosophy and while none of us were ready to award him with anything, he did produce an effective, and at times, a dynamic offense. The Rose Bowl game against Oklahoma was one of the best offensive games I've ever seen called. Chaney's problem was that he was far too inconsistent. Some games were incredible, others made you want to throw your remote at the screen. This past season, all I wanted to do was take my MacBook and throw it against a wall and start chugging Maker's straight from the bottle.
Coley will have a little less pressure at A&M, but make no mistake about it: A&M has poured a ton of money into Jimbo Fisher and his staff. They are now heading into year 3 of the Fisher experiment and they will expect results. Coley will be expected to produce, he'll be subject to similar pressures. Well....
Welcome to SEC football in the fall.
It's unforgiving. It's a business. Sometimes its an ugly business.
A lot of people around here treat you as a troll. I've always been fair with you. I hope you will be fair with me in return and see the points I'm making here. None of us hate Coley. I wish him nothing but success, except on the Saturdays he plays UGA.
