I think this is one of the dumbest comments Finebaum has made in recent years(and he has made several that were totally wrong). He was SAYING THE OPPOSITE THE PAST 3 YEARS! Talk about overreaction! He also said that LSU's record this year would be what? 8-4 at best? Or was it 7-6 or 6-6? And Coach O might not make it through the season? First it is more than 75% working, probably 85-90% working. I am quite sure Alabama and Saban thinks its working per the last 2 meetings where they were LOSING 98% of both games, pulling them out at the VERY END, IN OT. And to discount the effect of losing your top 6 receivers from the past season with mostly all young and inexperienced ones remaining is asinine. I understand that OK that is a weakness so makeup for it elsewhere. In todays college football, the receiving game is paramount and extremely difficult to overcome if that is full of inexperience. The WR and QB positions take the most time on offense to develop and that takes experience. Running routes, learning blocks, getting in sync with the QB. That being said, it is the responsibility of the OC to deal with it and make the most of the strengths of what you do have and to develop the weakness and inexperience. Losing to the best team in the nation, who had an exceptional QB and receiving corp does not indicate that "IT" is not working. Finebaum is trying to make headlines and get attention and this is an opinion, that he may or may not even believe himself. But as a talking head, making controversial comments, that will not get you in hot water, is what keeps him most relevant. Imagine having Nauta, Hardman, Ridley for Fromm to connect with? Or just ONE of them? If Cager was healthy and Pickens the whole game TOGETHER on the field? Probably would have been MUCH closer and with the additional first downs they would have provided, our defense that played so awesome, would have had even more rest, less time for Burrow to put up points. I mean, come on, a couple of good experienced receivers, and this game would have went to the wire. The difference was not that huge, just 1 or 2 WR's! I tell you what Finebaum, give Fromm LSU's receivers and give Burrow UGA's receivers and Finebaum would be saying Kirby has created Alabama 2.0! Because a team was a weak area due to attrition, its not working? I would say that on this comment, YOU are not working.
We surely need an offensive makeover ! Its time to really start fixing our problems. Im proud of our team. We need a offensive over haul ! New ideas, new playcaller, new philosophy. LSU changed, Alabama changed, its time for UGA to evolve!
It was sarcasm Fred, it's obvious you're not trying to start a discussion, just trolling. If I'm not mistaken you're a Bama fan, by the way IMO your boys are much better than 13th.
It would be nice to win it all. But 11-2 regular season with an appearance in the Conference Championship is not bad. Hopefully we can get back there next year. It was a surprising year in that we were able to do as well as we did with an offense that was suprisingly weak in both passing and running segments....against the better defenses. Leaves you scratching your head with so many four and five "star" players and not much punch to the offense.
If you disagree feel free to say so. That's what a discussion forum is for. I won't be offended
I wonder if having Fields and Eason made Fromm better. Is there something, psychologically, with not having to worry about your job that causes a decline.
UGA has been great recruiting lineman and Def …… The offense looked good using CMR players (he was always good at recruiting skill offensive players) Now CKS has to figure a way to get his own RBs/WRs/QBs in school and to stay in school
Pittman to Arkansas. Lanning to FSU. Coley stays.
Finebaum is right, Kirby ain't the guy
I also trust CKS. I trust that he has enough sense to realize his mistakes and does something about it. I am not so sure that hardheadedness can be overcome. GA lost the big tight end to Penn State. Why would he come to GA to be a blocker and not get thrown to. Just put a smaller lineman at tight end and run the ball off tackle and be in the same place next year. If a change is not made in offence philosophy, CKS might not be as happy at his allamata as he has been.
You still can DallasDAWG..just click "quote"in the options at bottom of comment..vote up, vote down, off topic, quote and flag
Couldn't agree more, fighting through a shoulder injury, especially a QB, limits your range of motion. This just keeps sticking out though.. Why would he say 1 thing after the game, and that changes less than 2 days later.. Puzzling
This is one time I wish we had the "old" comments section, where we could respond to comments directly. So much to, as they say now, "unpack here" from these comments. Let me try to respond to some of them. @SWP04, it took Ogeron 4 years to get to the playoffs. Kirby did it in two. We have been elite. We're still elite (being ranked #5 in the country qualifies as elite), we're just not playoff worthy in a 4-team playoff system (which still leaves me baffled as to why Kirby doesn't want to expand, but I digress).
Thank you, @DeppDogg , for your class and intelligence.
So @DAWGeyes, I can't speak to the veracity of the tweet you received, but fwiw, Fromm himself said after the game Saturday that he was 100 percent healthy entering every game he played this year. You make good points @RedDawg. People make fun sometimes at so-called "system players," guys who are just a product of their coaches systems. But what would we give for someone like that now at the controls of our systems, where we could plug anyone in at QB and know that they're going to be a success. Or at receiver. Or at running back.
As usual, @kirkhilles, your take is spot on. You aren't missing anything. I hadn't actually done the research, but I, too, wondered what happened to all the guys we signed after Kirby's first year but before this year (Webb, Landers, Bush, Blount, Holloman, Jackson). Yes, Holloman was kicked off the team and Webb got switched to defense, but if just one of those other guys steps up, we should have been decent. As you pointed out, our three best receivers this year were guys who weren't on the team a year ago and two of those three were still in high school. Even given our injury situation, that's embarrassing.
Here, here @diesel_7, Georgia fans need to stop "sugarcoating" things. With the exception of the coaches in the playoffs (and possibly Saban), I'm sure any coach in America would gladly take UGA's roster right now, as is. We recruit at the highest of levels (thanks, Kirby) yet for two years running, we have failed to make the CFP, even when most experts predicted that we would be there (thanks, Kirby). Meanwhile, Clemson and Oklahoma are making annual appearances, and make no mistake, Bama would have been there again, too, if Tua had not been injured. Kirby's talent matches all of those guys, yet we can't ever get over the hump, whether that's Alabama or LSU or, this year, South Carolina. Somewhere between National Signing Day and getting these kids on the field, there is an epic fail -- unless the recruiting gurus are completely off base.
At least Saban always has a qb that can throw and receivers that can get open and catch
After the SECCG, Fromm stated he came out 100% healthy every week, prepared to help the team.. That could explain part of his sub par performance the last half of the season if it's true.
I am pretty sure that those that hired Kirby Smart to coach at UGA were not expecting Alabama 2.0 they wanted UGA 1.0 and compete for the occasional national championship. And I know that most of the fans that I interact with wanted to see us recruit at the same level as Alabama, Clemson, etc. and we have. But watching the offense struggle this year trying to run a system that even Nick Saban runs no longer was frustrating. We will have a hard time recruiting elite tight ends or wide receivers if all they can look forward to is blocking the vast majority of the time. Our hope is that Kirby will sign a super smart offensive mind (such as Joe Brady) and an offensive line coach that can recruit and develop lineman in the manner of Sam Pittman and let them bring our offense into this century and let them run it. The defense looks to be in great hands with Dan Lanning (and Kirby). There’s no reason why UGA cannot compete for national championships in the same manner as Alabama, Clemson, etc. We have the facilities, the funds and the best fans in the whole **** country. Sorry for being so long winded.
Can people please admit that Kirby has had the benefit of coaching during what is the weakest SEC East Division in the past 20 years? He inherited a 10 win team full of talent and has had to coach against some of the worst Florida, Tenn, and South Carolina teams this millennium.
There is no question the recruiting has been vastly improved under his watch but honestly ask yourself what is Kirby's signature win? I think he only has one - the win against Oklahoma in the Rose Bowl. I don't want to hear about either ND games (2019 ND got blown out by Michigan and 2017 ND lost 42-8 to Miami (coached by Richt)). Auburn didn't have Kerryon Johnson in the 2018 SEC game and even though hes always beat Florida is that really an accomplishment these past few years? This year (2019) was Florida's best team in a long time and they still lost to everyone they played that was good and almost lost to Miami and Kentucky.
People need to be rational about Kirby and the UGA program as whole. Richt was fired because he couldn't get UGA over the hump and Kirby has done nothing to suggest otherwise. People will argue that the 2017 National Championship says otherwise but UGA had an incredibly easy schedule that entire season and was loaded with NFL talent that Kirby inherited (Richt would have been in the 2002/2003 playoffs if they were around).
Not a Richt apologist (it was time for a change for everyone), but the sensationalism that the UGA fans had about Kirby being the savior and Saban 2.0 was extremely premature and caused the backlash Finebaum and the national media are now sending our way.
Given the events of the last two days with the game, Pittman, Bobo, etc., - any guarantees it gets better next year? What if Fromm leaves? Lots of uncertainty as yet another season ends as it seemingly always has for us.
Finebaum is right on! The game is changing and even Saban recognized that. Kirby needs to do the same. Could it be that Pittman saw the writing on the wall? I mean why else would you go to Arkansas (the bowels of the SEC)?
The window is closing on our opportunity to be a NC team. Orgeron did it in 4 years - look how far LSU has come and I'm sure that our recruiting classes have been better than them over that span. How are we not elite like those guys.
I understand that you have to adjust to the talent that you have and what's available. Since South Carolina we have been waiting for our offense to break out, and it hasn't. At what point do you say this ain't working and we need to do something different?
Kirby Richt better figure it out and soon!
Paul Finebaum at times sounds the fool. Not so much this time. We got what the powers that be wanted, a Saban disciple who unlike the real deal, is a bit stuck in the past offensively. Saban 2.0 appears to be Saban pre-Lane Kiffin running the offense. That pre-Lane ship at ALA hit the rocks and is not the way they play offense in 2019. HC Kirby Smart hopefully will re-route the ship. Which means having an OC who is not as predictable and cemented to the past - unfortunately a dinosaur past. To answer the query, is Saban 2.0 a bad thing? Unless one likes to have high quality talent get beat offensively, yes it is a bad thing. And if one makes $7M to make smart decisions, time to start making those decisions for the future and not be anchored to the past.
These schools like Oklahoma, Ohio St., Baylor, and other prolific high scoring offenses just plug and play. Mayfield, Murray, now HUrts Heisman winners or finalist. Fields couldn't beat out Fromm(although he was never given a real game opportunity to even try to throw the ball around some) and now he's a Heisman finalist.
Why can't we have a good enough offensive system to just plug guys in and watch them become successful? Remember FLA in the 90's with Spurrier? We did beat OKL with Mayfield but so what, we had CHubb and Sony,(they chose to come back as seniors) and receivers that eventually got drafted. To pull off a BAMA 2.0 you have to have everything come together perfectly.
Does anyone believe OKL will have trouble scoring points when Hurts leaves? Not me. Will Ohio St. when Fields leaves? Not me. If Brady remains at LSU does anyone believe they will have problems scoring 35-40 points a game next season with a yet to be determined QB and a fresh receiver squad? Not me.
First off, I trust Smart and would give him a 10 year extension today even given the disappointment.
The problem is adaptability and adjustments. I really haven't seen the Dawgs come back a "different team" in the 2nd half of a game (at least not in a positive way). That's unusual for highly successful coaches. You might get 3 TDs up on Bama, but you better watch out as they'll come back and wind up beating you. They've done that COUNTLESS TIMES. We have not. Saban will throw in a freshman QB in the 2nd half. Saban will adjust strategies on Offense and Defense.
But first, you need someone who will just take control of the Offense. We need a guy that is willing to compensate and admit when things aren't working and adjust on the fly. We need someone that is willing to create plays for a running QB and adjust schemes based on the players. Justin Fields should never have chosen Georgia. Period. We were trying to turn him into OUR model instead of changing our model to meet him and allowing him to excel using his strengths.
Look, the problem with Fromm is psychological. He doesn't trust our receivers and there's good reason for that. I don't know if it was a coaching issue or what, but you can't expect him to be confident in himself if you drop every pass that's thrown to you. He'll start compensating and making things worse.
Pickens was our only huge WR grab and he seems to need to be monitored more closely. We have a whole ton of 4 star WRs from 2017 and newer. Why is it that Cager (a 3 star originally) seemed to be the only one that could catch a ball? I mean, it's crazy. 2019 stats: Mark Webb (4 Star): 0 passes, Holloman (4 Star): 0 passes, Blount (4 Star): 1 pass, Jackson (4 Star): 5 passes, Bush (4 Star): 1 pass, etc.
What happened to those guys? It's as if nothing happened before 2019. Cager (33 passes) is a transfer this year, Wolf (13 passes) is a transfer this year, Pickens (37 passes) is a freshman and Blaylock (18 passes) is a freshman too. What am I missing here...
Agree a bit with most comments. But one note ref: the "class" UGA would like to represent. Answer Finebaum, disagree, debate, all that - that is the point of sport analysis after all. But to come to a blog and offer no more than a catty comment about the appearance of someone with whom you disagree is simply bad form. We're better than that. I think.
If the DAWGS miss out on Theo Johnson today, it's down to Darnell Washington as the elite TE UGA needs. As much as I've read on here about recruiting, those were the only 3 the DAWGS were targeting for the TE position. The commitment announcement for Theo Johnson is at 1:45 this afternoon, don't know what time zone it is.
We'll have an answer about 1 TE recruit today, after Theo Johnson announces his school of choice. I'd say that's the biggest reason Arik Gilbert chose LSU, better utilization of the TE position. Plus, he's fast enough to split out as a 6'5 255lb WR in LSU's Offense.
Like it or not Finebaum, and other critics, and those of us on these boards know we underachieved offensively. I don't think it's smart to over react in a knee jerk way but steps need to be taken to correct the things that went wrong this year. Another year like this and KS knows what can happen.
We lost a five star recruit (Haselwood) to Oklahoma because of our off offensive philosophy. I believe we are going to miss out on signing an elite tight end this year. I don't know what the right steps are, but I'm not the one making 7 million a year. We need a good OC, and good position coaches. Is Coley the answer, I can't make that call. Maybe he gets another year and we bring in a bright analyst to work with him. I think Jake Fromm comes back, Beck gets the luxury of spending a year in the system before being thrown in the fire.
I don't think we're that far away, we need some tweaks, but not a total overhaul. JMO
I agree with Paul (unfortunately)
And if Kirby is trying to be “Alabama 2.0,” is that really a bad thing?
ANSWER: No, but it's NOT WORKING, which is Paul's point.
UGA has won the SEC East three years in a row under Smart, and the Bulldogs reached the national championship game in 2017.
To Paul's point, UGA is recruiting with ALA, CLEM, OSU & LSU, but not (truly) in the NC picture.
It's a FACT, stop sugarcoating it.
Yes we need to evolve and we need to do it quickly because our offensive game plan is horrible. Fromm took a step back he is off and he has been off all season. We always grab five-star DBs we need to grab a couple five-star wide receivers
We just need an offense! Defense is definitely bama 2.0, and getting whipped without an offense is bama 2.0 as well.
How did Finebaum get this gig? He tries to be this Commando Commentator. Not sure how these guys get to make so much noise publicly.