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.
The 8 ways George Pickens' injury impacts Georgia's national title hopes
System
Posts: 11,467 admin
The 8 ways George Pickens' injury impacts Georgia's national title hopes
George Pickens will have knee surgery to repair an ACL injury. The absence of this talented wide receiver will have a huge impact on the national title hopes for Georgia football.
Comments
Losing Pickens hurts. But we will be fine. This does nothing to our playoff hopes. We have too many weapons, and for the first time in years, too diversified an offense to worry. Even if we lose JT the offense has multiple ways to attack using any QB. This injury changes nothing in regard to our ceiling this year.
Alabama lost Waddle last year, Smith steps up and wins the Heisman, then he went down. The sky isn't falling. although I was looking forward to watching Daniel and Pickens this year. Sometime you have to learn to live with disappointment. I'm sure it's devastating to the athlete and their teammates.
It sure seems like there are a lot of "non contact" ACL injuries.
Yes this hurts, but it's certainly not the end of our Title hopes. Clemson will be the toughest test so early in the season. But even if we lose that game, we should still win the East and play for the SEC Championship. By then we'll know for sure what kind of team we have. It gives all these receivers and Daniels plenty of time to develop their skills and determine who our playmakers are this season. I still believe Washington is going to be an intregal piece of the offensive puzzle. Heck, how do you defend the guy? He's another Gronk.
Losing George Pickens was a big loss for the offense but I believe Kirby can beat bama and win national championships if he had a dynamic QB (dangerous passer and runner) or a dynamic RB. Here's a few examples.:
Dynamic - (DYN)
2008 Tim Tebow (DYN) beat bama and won a national championship
2010 Cam Newton (DYN) beat bama and won a national championship
2014 Ezekiel Elliott (DYN) beat bama and won a national championship CAR 20 YDS 230 TD 2
2016 Deshaun Watson (DYN) beat bama and won a national championship
2018 Trevor Lawrence (DYN) beat bama and won a national championship
2019 Joe Burrow (DYN) beat bama and won a national championship
I believe Kirby has both.
Tennessee is breathing a sigh of relief knowing their QB will be safe from water bottle squirts when they get run out of bounds.
Thanks for making the points I made last night Conner about losing Pickens was our equivalent of BAMA losing Smith or LSU losing Chase in their NC drive. If it wouldn't have hurt those two teams or as you said Clemson's if they had lost Ross., then perhaps it won't hurt ours either.
However, if you can just casually say, no big deal, then you aren't being honest. As you said, no way to sugar coat it. But we can try. I guess we have to, don't we?
Pickens is a great player and he'll be missed, but Georgia is loaded in every receiving category and we have one of the best if not the best passer in college football. We'll be fine if every player does his job, and I expect that that's exactly what will happen. Go Dawgs!!!
All of the "we have depth at receiver" and "this won't impact our season" peeps must not have watched the Kentucky/Florida games last year (the two games Pickens missed with injury).
Our QB's were 18/42 in these 2 games, completing 42% of passes, with exactly 9 completions a game and averaged 122yd/game in the air. In the remaining 8 games (which Pickens played in) they were 160/264 and completed 61% of passes, with 20 completions/game, averaging 282 yds/game by air. Meaning, overall production was up by nearly 60% and completion pctg up nearly 20% when he's out there.
This injury has a clear/definitive impact on the outlook of next season... how large/small depends on how players/coaching staff respond. Let's stay tethered to reality and acknowledge that this is a MASSIVE BLOW this team couldn't afford... the team's gonna have to step up and respond to adversity... and we got the guys to do it!
I hope they rise to the occasion and he comes back late next year for title run. Feel awful for Pickens but excited for the opportunity this creates for Blaylock (especially), Burton, Smith, Robinson etc.
GO DAWGS!
I don't know if UGA offense has bad luck or if we have some kind of conditioning issue or if we practice too hard. But something is going on with all the ACL issues we have with at RB and WR. It's not a one season thing, it's a consistent issue every year. I"m sure CKS is asking the same questions, but this is especially concerning year after year.
I have had an ACL injury, and let me fill you in it's no fun, but if surgery is done in the next few days, and George attacks rehab, then he could be back by the SEC Championship game. In the meantime all the other receivers are going to have to bring their A game.
We have many talented RBs, we place one in the backfield and put Cook in the Slot. Not Pickens, but he is a known receiver.