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Kirby Smart: Georgia football 'always evaluating guys at quarterback'
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Kirby Smart: Georgia football 'always evaluating guys at quarterback'
Georgia football coach Kirby Smart said the Bulldogs are being thorough at quarterback, but he didn't indicate any changes could be forthcoming
Comments
Always miss evaluating guys at QB is more like it.
Has anyone notice that we are statistically down in all offensive categories this year even though some of the averages have gone up. This points to one thing, most of our league is passing the ball at a much higher rate. Either we find a QB that can improve upon those stats or get left behind the rest of the league and struggle. Trust me, I love a running game especially our non-existent toss sweep but the defenses have evolved and these guys are too fast to just try and pound the ball all game.
You don’t base your season on one game, tell Dwan that coach...
Major drop in (2) of the most important categories when all is said and done - 3rd down efficiency and Red-Zone offense. Not good at all.
I don't care who is at QB - if we cannot drastically improve those stats then we will never make it in to the playoffs with the high flying and scoring offenses that are happening everywhere today.
Evaluate all you want....is Kirby bold and confident enough to make the tough call to change things up when they are not working? Seems none of his comments apply to Mathis...only Bennett. I don't think Mathis is the answer either and maybe JT may not even be healthy enough. So Bennett is it this year...but Kirby is responsible for allowing us to get in this weak QB room. And Kirby better work his tail off this year to get a passer at QB by next year or I'm officially off the Kirby bandwagon based off his stubbornness and lack of vision/execution for UGA to be contender and not a pretender every year.
Smart went out and got not one, but two promising transfers with starting experience. He signed a talented freshman this past recruiting cycle after signing one in the previous cycle (and the one before that, and the one before that, and the one before that, with yet another on the way). One of the transfers bailed right before the season began for reasons that will likely never be entirely clear, abruptly leaving the QB room with Bennett, Mathis (recently recovered from brain surgery), Daniels (ACL tear) and Beck (true freshman).
But the uncertainty is entirely Smart's fault. Care to elaborate? What would you have liked to see him do differently in assembling the QB room?
@E Roc, Kirby could have and should have named a starter from Day one of camp. Everyone knew Newman should have been named the starter based on his experience and if one of the others on the roster beat him out then there would be no confusion. We've tried time and again with not naming a starter citing QB competition and what has it gotten us...nothing but frustration and confusion. CKS is the coach for a reason and owes us no explanation but with that responsibility also comes criticism for what others perceive as him being stubborn.
How do you win the Natty without elite receivers and QB? Rush for 300 a game? Perhaps,, eat the clock up. play awesome defense. OK sounds like the plan. However, we aren't going to rush for 300 a game against BAMA , Clemson, or Ohio St. and our vaunted defense gave up 300 yards by halftime against BAMA. The Offense clicked for a while til BAMA made halftime adjustments. Something we don't seem to do against BAMA. You cannot turn the ball over against the top tier teams and win. A 3 game walk-on starter did.
@ E_Roc...
Hey, concerning your response below to randyglass14.
Here's my take and opinion on what he said....IMHO, getting 4-5 star QBs isn't a problem for the Dawgs...we had one in Fields and look what he has done at OSU. Daniels and Beck are 4 and 5-star QBs. Heck, Vandergriff is coming in next season as a 5-star QB. You think he'll be satisfied sitting on the bench? 'Tis the way of the college football world these days. Limited time to find, develop, and play stud QBs and make it to the playoffs before they head to the NFL. Swinney and Saban have figured out the QB formula and pretty much do it year after year with every QB they decide to start.
And back to Justin Fields....Fields is a Heisman candidate this year. He looks impressive again this year after coming in last season to OSU under a completely different offensive scheme under a first year coach and with very limited previous playing time at UGA. He fit right in. It's more about QB development and figuring out the player's strengths, weaknesses, and deciding how best to fit the offense into that and around those strengths. Look at Burrows - couldn't get the starting gig at Ohio State and then he transferred to LSU playing one year as a pretty average QB at best. Then however, in 2019 LSU switched up the offense and played to his strengths. The rest is history. He went from Joe Average to Joe Stud.
I think we made a mistake in continuing on the Fromm bandwagon after Fromm struggled on and off last year. Fields was a 5-star dual threat QB and in my opinion the future of the Dawgs' program. Fromm was a great game manager, but that's not what we need going forward in the era of high flying passing and scoring offenses. Is Bennett another game manager with a pretty good arm? Is he another Kellen Mond or Kyle Trask - good one game and completely off the next? Pressure him and he starts throwing incompletions and interceptions?
Does Kirby know how to SEE and DEVELOP true QB potential or is he satisfied with another 'game manager' at QB? Honestly, at this point I'm not convinced Kirby knows what he is doing at QB. Maybe Bennett will end up taking us to the promised land or maybe not. Maybe Daniels, Mathis, or Beck will get a shot. Time will tell.
I like asking my friends and relatives who are avid UGA fans what they think of the present QB situation. No one thinks SB can take us to the playoffs. No one. Maybe he's the best we got if there is something mental happening with the 5 star sitting on the bench. Maybe he's just better than JT according to CKS. If that's the case he won't get a chance(I suppose) unless SB REALLY messes up royally. I don't know what's going on , maybe an "insider" does. But we fans would sure like to know.
Well, the good thing is that I'm quite confident we'll beat Kentucky and honestly I have no doubt that Bennett will start because that's the best QB to help the running game and avoid the "boat race". Then against Florida, it'll be Bennett because he has the most experience playing...
The problem with Georgia football is the stubbornness. For Richt it was a spiritual "this is the RIGHT way to play the game" whereas Smart seems all about practice and "winning the job". Well, that's great, and all, but you can't determine who is going to help you win that way. I have ZERO doubt that Bennett wins the practices because he's scrappy and knows he has to make the plays. But I'd be willing to bet that situations like Bama gave us with defenders reaching up and the middle of the field blocked and needing to get that NFL-perfect-pass in the corner.
Clemson and Bama have figured out how to get NFL level teams together and hit you with Heavyweight punches and ADAPT to you. Bama had their strategy all ready to play against Bennett. Putting in Daniels probably would've given us a big advantage just eliminating their strategy. I have no doubt that they likely have data analysts and computer analysis looking over weaknesses and patterns for each player on the opposing team and teach the tricks needed to beat that team.
We've NEVER come up with a specific strategy to beat a team. We always play generically and so we are always at a disadvantage.
Hey @E_Roc ,
I think you sort of answered your own question in your post itself. You point out, correctly, that CKS recruited not one, but two transfer QB's with Division 1 starting experience. He also recruited a highly talented freshman QB, as he has done every year since he's been in Athens. So, I think the question many UGA fans are asking (at least this year), is with ALL of that recruited QB talent, how is it that the undersized kid who was originally a walkon at UGA and only got a scholarship to come back because we were too low on QB's to run a decent spring practice, getting to start now? Especially for the nation's #5 team, no less, when the statistics show that our offensive production is, shall we say, underwhelming. One would think that one of the stud transfers, or the highly-recruited freshman would be in position to lead the team. Or at the VERY LEAST, they could get some quality playing time. Thus far, only two of those ballyhooed QB's has even graced the field.
Granted Newman quit, and Daniels was apparently injured early on, but beyond that, is Bennett really THAT FAR ahead of both Mathis and Beck (and now) Daniels? And if so, how in the world was his talent and skill so misjudged by the UGA coaching staff that he was told by Coach Monken before the season started that he wouldn't ever be given the chance to start for UGA? In this day and age of uber, high-data recruiting, how does that happen? And if that is the case, then one has to wonder, Coach Smart, if perhaps we're wrong in the other direction; in other words, is Brock Vandagriff really as good as we think or that we've been told? Was Carson Beck overrated by the coaching staff? Is D'Wan Mathis -- who went from opening game starter to nearly forgotten bench warmer in less than a half -- ever going to be worth anything and will he get more than 20 minutes of game action to show it (since as you say, you don't make evaluations based on just one game)? Go Dawgs!
Hi all. Thanks for the thorough responses, but I still disagree. Well, it might be more accurate to say I think my point was missed. The post I was responding to was faulting Smart for assembling a "weak" quarterback room, and I maintain that one cannot reasonably expect more from a coach than to recruit blue chip after blue chip before bringing in two highly regarded transfers in the same off-season.
As for the question of how it is that Bennett became the guy in that room, I believe I mostly addressed that, but I'll reiterate and expand on it a bit: We had 4 other options a month before the season began. One abruptly left the team for reasons all his own, one was working his way back from brain surgery, one is coming off a torn ACL that appears to be taking longer to heal than we would have liked and one is a true freshman. After Newman flipped the table over, Smart was hoping Mathis' miracle comeback was complete; turns out it wasn't, not by week 1. Daniels wasn't yet medically cleared, which left Bennett and the true freshman. It made sense to go with the steady hand in that situation, and he played so surprisingly well and his teammates respond to him so well that it made sense to keep playing him. So, that's essentially what's gotten us to this point.
Now, after what we all witnessed in the Bama game, the real decision is upon Smart on how to proceed from what CAN prove to be a meaningless loss if sufficient improvement comes out of it. I'll be the first to admit I'm not terribly confident that we're going to see an earnest effort to pivot from Bennett. I have to agree with kirkhilles on the stubbornness issue, and frankly Smart's comments don't inspire much faith. (Although I'll tip my cap to anyone who can penetrate such dense coachspeak.) All I'm saying is I don't think it's reasonable to criticize Smart for the fact that the options are what they are, and I for one will be waiting to see what option is taken before I judge. As I've said under other articles over the past several days, I could see any one of the remaining 3 options being ready to take things over, but I could also see a scenario where none of them is really ready yet, all for different reasons. I do think it's certainly time to give it a go (at least trying Beck if recovery time still precludes the other 2), and if over the next couple of games I don't feel that Smart is giving that an honest effort, then I'll be ready to join y'all in criticizing his inaction.
Lastly, there's not much more to say about Fields that hasn't been said. I think the stance of blaming Smart is one rooted in hindsight, considering how both Fields and Fromm were playing in 2018. It's late, and this whole conversation is exhausting, so I'm going to have to leave it at that.
Kirby has a blind spot when it comes to the qb position. His last two quarterbacks have been diminutive in stature and had/have weak throwing arms. He refuses to use other options when it is obvious the current qb is not effective.
My take is CKS doesn't like looking bad. Who does, one could argue. He doesn't like being second guessed, he, from what I can tell, gets snippy when reporters ask probing questions, especially about the QB situation, he just gives coach speak(a master of it). He road Jake Fromm because he was the "hot hand" in 2017 and rightfully so. In 2018 Jake Fromm was his guy, A proven winner, not flashy or exceptional but wasn't going to lose a game due to turnovers. Fields was a QB controversy waiting to happen so he never got any quality playing time. He didn't want Fields getting in and throwing it all over the field with that arm and fans going hey wait a minute Kirby, you're starting the wrong guy. So, he just didn't play him and then when later questioned about it he replied , "Fields didn't show him that much"(in practice).
That may be the dumbest thing he's ever said and doesn't ring true. All you have to do is put on Fields highlights with Ohio St. He will be a 1st round draft pick and 2nd QB taken in the draft. So, either CKS is smarter(pun intended) than all the NFL evaluators of QB talent or if he truly meant what he said about "Fields didn't show him that much", he's the dumbest evaluator of talent.
Lord help UGA if he truly meant what he said about Fields. If he didn't, he was just feeding the press bull to save face for making the wrong decision and choosing Jake Fromm instead of Fields. As a head football coach he either couldn't recognize a once in a decade player in Fields or he's just a very conservative coach who made the easy choice of "the bird in hand instead of the two in the bush" in Fields.
The question remains: Is he doing it again?