Hey folks - as a member of the DawgNation community, please remember to abide by simple rules of civil engagement with other members:
- Please no inappropriate usernames (remember that there may be youngsters in the room)
- Personal attacks on other community members are unacceptable, practice the good manners your mama taught you when engaging with fellow Dawg fans
- Use common sense and respect personal differences in the community: sexual and other inappropriate language or imagery, political rants and belittling the opinions of others will get your posts deleted and result in warnings and/ or banning from the forum
- 3/17/19 UPDATE -- We've updated the permissions for our "Football" and "Commit to the G" recruiting message boards. We aim to be the best free board out there and that has not changed. We do now ask that all of you good people register as a member of our forum in order to see the sugar that is falling from our skies, so to speak.
- Please no inappropriate usernames (remember that there may be youngsters in the room)
- Personal attacks on other community members are unacceptable, practice the good manners your mama taught you when engaging with fellow Dawg fans
- Use common sense and respect personal differences in the community: sexual and other inappropriate language or imagery, political rants and belittling the opinions of others will get your posts deleted and result in warnings and/ or banning from the forum
- 3/17/19 UPDATE -- We've updated the permissions for our "Football" and "Commit to the G" recruiting message boards. We aim to be the best free board out there and that has not changed. We do now ask that all of you good people register as a member of our forum in order to see the sugar that is falling from our skies, so to speak.
Comments
Well, I would have never hired Kirby for the HC job, but he's here now so that's that.
Positives: He can recruit well, he's obviously a good salesman as he has gotten UGA & the donors to buy-in with more money & facilities that ever before. Another sign of a good salesman, go back to the first comment about his recruiting.
Negatives: He's a good salesman, meaning that he's says what people want to hear. I know there are a LOT of Kirby lovers out there, so ask yourself this: What are his RESULTS? Ace recruiting, top-notch facilities, hotbed recruiting ground, but obviously not one of the top 5 teams in the land. Why? Answer: Coaching.
I would cut Kirby a little slack. This is his 1st time being a HC and he has made it to the SEC Championship not only 3 times, but in a row... He probably still has a lot to learn on being a coach of coaches rather than a players coach, but that is who he is. But I would appreciate that for now on, all related social media outlets that supports the team just focus on facts rather than hyping up or writing speculative articles. Georgia is not elite (yet) and won't be until they can prove that they can win big games... I'd like for anyone to prove me wrong on that... (i.e. National championship game, past 2 SEC championship games) Georgia had a lead on 2 of the 3.
I think if they made a few key personnel changes and are open-minded to things. I think that will get this team over the hump, but they need to know that Georgia does not intimidate anyone so they have to change the culture of the program as well.
First off, don't criticize the players -- they are 18-23 year-olds who are college students. Yes, there are guys who drop the ball too much, or don't make blocks, or miss on tackling a QB, but come on -- leave the kids alone.
As to the coaching staff, all of you are entitled to your opinions. Kirby's results are **** good. Has he won the national championship? Not yet. Has he won an SEC Championship? Yes. He's one of just THREE coaches to have gone to the SEC Championship Game in three consecutive years -- joining Steve Spurrier and Nick Saban. That's it.
It's not like we went 6-6 this year and went to the Liberty Bowl. We consistently beat our rivals on a regular basis. This year's results were disappointing in many ways -- we didn't beat teams as handily as we did the past two seasons, the offense struggled regularly, the defense is not one that gets turnovers regularly, etc.
Kirby has his blind spots. But for those of you calling for his head, tell me this: if you fire Kirby Smart after 4 years during which he went to the National Championship Game and 3 SEC Championship Games in a row, who will you replace him with? Who will you get that is BETTER?
Answer that question first before you start whining and b**ching about Kirby.
Conner hit the nail on the head and said what so MANY of us frustrated fans have been saying for YEARS. We're all sick of it. Excuses, excuses is all I keep hearing.
Fans deserve to be frustrated, disappointed, and dismayed at our lack of finishing power since - heck - 1980. We can't continue to rest on our laurels from one unexpected undefeated season 40 years ago. UGA has been recruiting at the Top 5-10 level for years - not just since Kirby showed up. SEC Championships are nice, sure, but we've only made it to the playoffs ONCE. That's the goal.
So that boils down to two things - coaching and player development. We have obviously failed at both.
"Rice did point out the Georgia defense didn’t exactly help out the Georgia offense on Saturday. The unit did give up a season-high 37 points against LSU and struggled to contain Burrow." Hummmm? Against a superior team, UGA failed pretty badly. We always say UGA plays up to the better competition? It is coaching...both sides of the ball in this case. Smart is a defensive genius so they say...he was at 'Bama. As a head coach, things are different....he is now UGA's Saban! I will say this...there were some very close plays that could have put UGA in the game.....at least in it. Then all the major injuries. I am giving every benefit of the doubt to Smart and have literally bitten my tongue over Coley. Four years. UGA needs to make some changes. Hiring a new OC is not tweaking. Pittman is already doing some damage just leaving...commits are not solid as they were. Coley I'm sure is a good friend to Smart. No way should he be on the staff next season. IMO. Matt Luke, just fired from Ole Miss, I doubt, would even entertain working under Smart?? I can't read Smart's mind on all of this. UGA passing game needs BIG tweaking. They need Fromm to stay and work more closely with him to build his confidence back. He literally has no one to throw to as he did Cager. He just isn't comfortable in the slot any longer?? Either that or begin anew with Carson Beck...another pocket passer. We need WRs and TEs. This is not tweaking! Whole game scheme. Smart needs to become more versatile as a head coach. Don't fire him...get him back in the real game so UGA can again attain more than the SEC East. That is an achievement, yes, but fifth or sixth is not the elite...close..but no way. GO DAWGS!!!
I think Kirby needs to turn the offense over to a legit OC, his DC fingerprints are all over it. I won't lose much sleep if he makes wholesale coaching changes on the offensive side of the ball. I personally don't really care what he does as long as we keep beating Florida.
Sorry, not sorry, @Dawgfan1995, I pay my money and I criticize anyone I want to, including the players. 18-year-old "kids" drive, vote, fight in wars, so they can handle the criticism. They cannot have it both ways -- we love you to cheer for us like crazy when we do something well, but when we screw up, zip your lip because we're just little old college students. I ain't the one. I don't see college football as life or death, but there are millions of dollars being spent on them so when they don't do the things that they ought to be doing, I'm going to let them know about it. I might not boo (I don't think that's productive), but I sure as heck can say that I think Matt Landers needs to catch the ball better, that D-Rob needs to run better routes, that Jake Fromm needs to regain his accuracy and timing, that Richard LeCount needs to take better angles to the ball carrier, that our O-Line, as a whole, underperformed this year. Those are all criticisms, but I don't think they are unfair or out of line or too much to ask of them.
Having said all of that, this article clearly points out that the problem is beyond the players (because they're clearly talented enough), it's about coaching and development. When we play teams where we just flat out have more talent, we win (South Carolina notwithstanding). That's why we keep winning 10-11 games every year. But in big games where the talent level is equal to ours if not better, we struggle. And the fact that we do that consistently in big games shows us that: A) we have the talent and ability to reach those games in the first place and B) our coaches are not doing enough to get our talented players to excel and produce in those games against equally talented competition. Really, that's what has set Nick Saban apart from everyone else. It's not him beating the Mississippi States and Vanderbilts of the world. It's CONSISTENTLY winning on the big stage, year in and year out. And he did it, regardless of who his assistants were. So if Georgia wants to get better, they need to do some major COACHING changes. Go Dawgs!
I'm tired of people pointing out our regular season success over the last 3 years. In that time frame, the majority of our regular season opponents were vastly inferior. Of course we're going to beat them. Then, this year, we didn't even beat South Carolina, at home, when our defense held them to a really low score. Our offense needs more than a "tweak." I'm not saying we need to switch to the opposite extreme and start running a spread offense; that would be silly. But we have the players to be better than we were this season. The coaches need to figure out how to get things working.
Anyone who thinks it time for a change at the top just needs to slow down and breathe. Give CKS time to think this through and see what he does. Some of you are in panic mode, right now we have a solid foundation, you don't rebuild the house when you have a roof leak, you repair it.
I want to see how Kirby reacts and what he does to fix this offense. Hopefully he now realizes Alabama 2.0 is not the answer. If he doesn't want to fire Coley maybe he brings in a top notch QB coach and make him Co OC with an eye on the future if Coley can't get it right. It's clear Fromm lost that "it" factor this year, he needs new oxygenated blood.
We know we will be getting a new OL coach, sounds like Matt Luke might be a possibility. Next question is what to do about the development of the current lot of receivers and the recruitment of others. The tight ends need some love and attention.
It takes a strong Leader to make changes, we will see what kind of cloth Kirby Smart is cut from. If we see similar results next year without some tweaks we will know we have a true problem.
Smart needs to nab Bobo from SC as QB coach. Matt Luke as OL coach might get better results out of an overrated line.
Mobile Dawg ...Think things through??? We have been saying this for a couple years! Make changes.......things got worse! We need coaching moves to augment player development and master scheme. No one respects UGA any longer.....no one....! UGA beat many of them this year but next year watch out! LSU spoke loudest....UGA is not all that great! Coaching makes the difference between good and great. It has been four years. Has UGA improved? In your mind maybe but squeaking by teams on field goals doesn't make for great football...and even good old dependable Hot Rod faltered against LSU. What is going on with UGA? 4 and 5-star talent on both sides and same results.....it is COACHING! Coaches set the battle plan and carry it out. PERIOD! Does Smart have to go? Will a new more dynamic OL coach make the difference? It is not the players...it is the coaching. Matt Luke could come in as OL coach and eventually replace Smart...could!!! Vision. You have to have that vision great coaches seem to be endowed with. Coach Smart..great guy....great defensive strategist....good head coach. Not great ...yet. IMO.
@DallasDawg I pay my money for season tickets too. I paid my money to attend the school as well. The kids you are complaining about are kids. Just because they are 18 years old and can vote and drive and play football doesn't mean that you should take potshots at them when they screw up.
I'm sure you were perfect at age 18, though, so go ahead -- feel free to talk about how you think Fromm is the worst QB we have ever had, or how our 7th receiver Matt Landers should quit the team because you think he can't catch. I'm sure he doesn't care about learning to catch the ball. In fact, he probably drops it on purpose. Right? He doesn't want to get better at being a WR, does he? I'm sure none of this stuff means anything to these kids. They're just all happy as larks about losing to LSU, right?
As for coaching changes, I reiterate my point: But for those of you calling for his head, tell me this: if you fire Kirby Smart after 4 years during which he went to the National Championship Game and 3 SEC Championship Games in a row, who will you replace him with? Who will you get that is BETTER?
Answer that question first before you start whining and b**ching about Kirby.
None of us Georgia fans like that we lost. But some of y'all need to back away from the Georgia football coverage, take a walk, spend time with your family, and stop thinking about Georgia football for a week. Do it for your mental health. Being obsessed idiots isn't a good look for anyone.