Not throwing anyone under the bus. Coaches can do all they can, but if a ball hits a receiver in his hands and it pops out for an interception is it the coaches fault? If Jake has DROB running down the middle of the field for an easy score and he under throws him, is it Kirby's fault?
Would better coaching make him a more accurate passer or have a stronger arm? If the OC coaches harder will that make the receivers run faster, jump higher, and catch a pass with a defender draped on him? My point is it's a combination of coaches doing better as in divising schemes, blitzes, routes to provide the best opportunities for the players.
I've been a pretty harsh critic of our OC, but at the same time everyone(maybe not you) knows that a few more catches and a few more accurate throws would have made Coley look much better as a coach. Players make coaches look good ,more than the coach makes the player look good. But it shouldn't be one way or the other. I'm not sold on Coley, but I'm also not blind as to the under performance of some of our players.
receivers run routes and catch balls(or don't) -- QB's throw balls and hit the receiver or under/overthrow/lead them to much or too little
receivers make adjustments and/ or fight for the ball , not coaches, Qb's , not coaches, throw the ball
Our offensive woes were and potentially still are a combination of Kirby being stubborn to change and a lack of coaching and more important as you wrote a total lack of imagination in the scheming and play calling. Not to late to fix that but a lot more focus needs to be put on the offensive development.
Your reference to Andy Johnson brings back some great memories. My family was from Gainesville "Georgia" with the great head coach Bobby Gruhn leading the Red Elephants. I remember a couple of playoff games against Clarke Central with Johnson as the QB . Don't believe we ever beat them. Thanks for the memories.
Anyone with any type of football knowledge should be able to recognize that Fromm’s problems this year has been coaching. A player with his experience and success should NOT have a year like he had. Evidently the receivers coach isn’t up to par either if by the end of the year, the departed receivers were still being used as an excuse. Coley should have went to a&m 2 years ago or at least gone with Pittman to Arkansas. Then Kirby could have gotten Bobo to be OC. Kirby has to stop being stubborn and open up the offense. At the very least, run the 2 minute drill the whole game. It was usually successful. Go Dawgs!!
Merry Christmas!!
I still think we have a pass blocking O line with a run first offense.
I also think we keep running these RPO's without any threat of a QB run. THAT is the only mistake I take serious grief with. Fromm needs to start running some of those or just stop with the wasted motion.
But none of that matters when you lose 8-9 WRs from your roster the year before like we did this year. Just dumb bad luck. And we still won our division! Sky ain't falling folks.
Oh good grief. I swear some of our fans have the memory of a fish.
How many yards and PPG did our "stodgy" offense have last year again? And the year before that?
I might just have to ignore it all until spring ball.
Maybe so but uga need to get back to using mobile/dual threat qbs. They have won 10 sec titles, 2 national championships with mobile/dual threat qbs and only 3 sec titles with pro style qbs. Bama and lsu didn't beat us with their spread offense, they beat us because their qbs could runaway from our defenders. That's what uga qbs use to do to their opponents.
Tired of seeing Georgia fans and sports writers call this offense we run Pro-Style or compare it to CMR
Its neither . We line up in shot-gun every play. We don't have a FB on roster.
We run a finesse offense built odd the QB. The trouble is we have an average QB
I know it won't happen but let me say that Anthony Edwards would do well to stay for a second year in college BBall, Not just saying this because it would help the Dawgs (which it obviously would) but it would help his game as well.
As for Fields vs Fromm, can we agree that Fields grew and matured greatly from his one season as a Dawg? He got a whole year of college coaching, film study, workouts, training table, game experience. No wonder he is killing it at Ohio St. To bad we aren't getting the benefit of all the experience. AE should consider the same before jumping to the NBA but I know he won't.
As for how Kirby handled the situation, well that is another matter. Kirby was obviously trying to avoid the dreaded QB controversy. If you recall, Kirby rarely gave Fields more than a play at a time. The only time he got to run a series was in mop up duty. He runs and throws better than Fromm ever will, but last year, he didn't have the experience to beat out Jake. Too bad we will never see him in a GA uniform again although he sure looked sharp in that red and black tux at the College Football Awards ceremony.
We'll get to see Bama's "air corps offense" without Tua and at least three of their four SEC quality WRs next year in Tuscaloosa. Except for a broken coverage in the NC game, the Dawgs have owned Tua and his SEC WRs!
”indicate Smart’s coaching staff has a problem coaching/developing QBs.” I believe this to be true. Fromm’s mechanics were sloppy all season.
I agree. Most are advocating for a spread offense but I need to see if lsu can win a NC with it because it didn't work very well for bama against Clemson. In my opinion, uga just need a oc who will play his best players and call plays that make sense.
With sophomore Jake Fromm and fresman Justin Fields, I thought Kirby would do a masterful job handling the two star quarterbacks. Wrong. I remain baffled by that situation. However, Kirby is still improving and still recruiting at a high level. Jake may still go to the draft, but if he comes back, Matt Luke will have this O-line playing much better than they did in 2019. We all love the Pitboss, but the line was just out of sync all season. Injuries be damned, we have 8 linemen who would be starting at any of the other schools in the conference. Like new bosses, new coaches also add different sets of expectations. But with those hogs and the way our receivers can block (even if tgey can't catch), we should have run for 300 a game. Swift should have had 20+ touchdowns.
Our offensive problems can be fixed with a top notch OC and a top notch qb who is mobile. We have a good O line and receivers.
You may need to worry about the defense.....Mike Norvell, new HC at FSU, has his eye on Dan Lanning!!! That's all UGA needs!
I guess we commenters have like company...dual it up again like my old friend Vince Dooley. Backed up by a solid rushing game, Fromm looks respectable, not having to use his arm to come from behind. It 's comical but UGA used Hot Rod to boot us back into games. UGA either comes into 21st century football or remains chopping wood with an axe, not even a chain saw!! So to speak. Bama joined the air corps offense...why not Smart??? These defensive coaches don't make the best head coaches necessarily. They play not to lose...true. All four of the top teams play to win and that means air it out every game. UGA....loses by almost 4 touchdowns to LSU. My point. Could have been closer but not a win by UGA....not under the current "administration." Kirby may just see the light here soon. Some decent WRs have committed. Commit Carson Beck...well he's a pro style QB. But has the ability to leave the pocket....encouraging. GO DAWGS!!!
One proven SEC quality wide receiver and he was hurt half the year and the problem was Fromm and the OC. Please, someone name the receivers that could have lined up in the spread and made a difference whose name is not Cager. With Cager, Fromm 70+%, equal to Burrow with three experienced SEC quality receivers. Without Cager, 50%.
It sure seems that Dawg fans were a much happier lot when our chances of even playing in the SEC championship game were decided in October and we had our bowl game out of the way before New Year's.
As for me, I realize Kirby has had just three full recruiting classes and a 13 win season, an 11 win season, and probably a 12 win season. I'll give him the benefit of the doubt that he may know what he's doing!
Great article as usual Bill. You summed up the major concerns coming out of this season very well.
Concerning UGA's outdated offense, I couldn't agree more. Evolve or die.
Concerning Fromm, I do think that unless we seriously change our offensive attack to a more spread, dynamic, and fast-paced style, then Fromm will continue to struggle against those teams (which are most of them) that load the box and force him to pass. I also think that college football teams, in general, do much better with a DUAL threat QB who is big enough yet mobile enough to be a run threat. 3 out of 4 teams in the playoffs this season use dual-threat QBs (Clemson being the lone outsider although Lawrence can move if he needs to do so).
If Fromm comes back next season I hope to heck another QB will challenge him and possibly replace him. I think his best days are behind him in our current style offense.
Uga abandoned the Mobile/Dual Threat QB when coach Dooley retired. That's too bad because several Elite Mobile/Dual Threat QBs were starting to come down the pipe line. Charlie Ward, DJ Shockley (started only 1 season), Cam Newton, Deshaun Watson and Trevor Lawrence (who by the way is as mobile as they come) all won a championship and 2 won the heisman trophy and if Justin Fields wins a national championship this season that will be 5 QBs who left the state to lead their team to a national championship victory.
Smart better be searching for the best offensive minds in the country. Because that run the ball down people's throat time is over. and you can say what you want to say about our quarterback but he isn't better than Justin. fromm is the check down King if he has two 1,000 yard rushes behind him he will look decent if he has to pass to bring us back we're in trouble. Smart better fix this our defense is elite our offense is just playing horrible. We will be better off running the option
Although the sky is falling is nothing new for college fan bases, especially for us UGA fans, i think too much is being made about this one season. Everybody was excited for it to start with expectations but deficiencies were noted at the start and had a huge part in the outcome. I think there is something to the arguments for modernizing the offense but at the same time there wasn't a collective feeling of outdated in 17 and 18.
Technically, you can fit a round peg into a square hole. Great article though, Bill.