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Georgia football willing to deal with the growing pains that come with playing freshmen
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Georgia football willing to deal with the growing pains that come with playing freshmen
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In a way, I wish they didn't put 5 star designations out there. The vast majority have the ability to be elite, but it takes time. Ladd McConkey wasn't recruited by any big school save UGA and UT. He was a three star. Now he was really a 5 star, but no one knew it. It allowed him to grow. He had some drops, but by they time he left, he was awesome. Kirby will make sure Taylor becomes a superstar.
The new football landscape has hit Georgia squarely in the mouth this season. We saw the start of it over the last 2 seasons, but the toll of losing experienced talent to the NFL and portal year-after-year means the Dawgs simply aren't as loaded as they used to be...and will never be again. We see Kirby and his staff struggling to adapt and figure out how to manage a very young roster with a lot of freshman starting in games. Mistakes are common, some guys aren't living up to their billing, but others are shining stars. It takes time to develop from high school to an elite college player for most of these guys. Unfortunately, the football schedule and fan base won't allow that to happen without a lot of pushback if we aren't winning.
Georgia is currently 57th nationally in offense (6.1 yards per play) and 59th nationally in defense (5.2 YPP). That does not bode well for the rest of the season. We were in a similar unenviable position last season.
I will say this - since Lanning left at the end of 2021 and Monken in 2022, the Georgia program and its dominance has regressed overall. Of course, that was also about the same time that the transfer portal and NIL was just kicking in.
Coincidence?
I dunno.
I will say this for certain: Some teams have figured things out in this new landscape much better and quicker than we have.
Let's just be glad we're not Dabo and Clemson...a team and program that is definitely struggling in this new landscape.
But let's give this team more time to gel and figure out what's going on and how to move forward. As Kirby says, Better never rests.
Kirby Smart is a smooth talker. So smooth, in fact, that we pay him a million dollars for each and every three hour game he coaches. UGA has been guilty of favoring seniority over meritocracy in deciding which players get to see the field. Should be common sense to play the best talent available instead of who's been there the longest. The biggest problem for most UGA alumni is the sorry state of our coaching staff. Smart peaked three years ago. The team has been weaker every single consecutive year than the year before since 2021. Smart initially hired outstanding assistant coaches. So good, that they were poached by other teams for promotions and more money. Smart became so fearless in his job security, however, that he took the easy road of hiring his mediocre friends and family with UGA ties instead of recuiting the very best from around the nation. The result was predictable: the team is now held back by a coaching staff almost exclusively incompetent. Nobody, including Smart, is indispensable to our football program. If Smart does not right this ship with vigor and speed, then it will be time for him to leave too. He has lost his Mojo.
Kirby is awesome, and maybe the best thing to ever happen to UGA. With Talyn Taylor, I realize special teams is important and he's playing, and playing an important role as a freshman. But, that's not the same thing as playing him as a 5-star in the position we recruited him to play. He was so wide open - send him out there again. Benching him after a drop, as bad as the drop was, is not showing him that you're going to "come back at you". Ryan Williams had a bad drop that cost his team a touchdown, and he stayed out there and made key plays later.
What’s Gibson up to these days?
It’s Still a long , long season. So the Bama loss hurt down to the bone I have hopes. But and If this season doesn’t pan out At Least these young guys Now will no longer be young next season. I sure hate using the old “next season” routine though.
It’s a long season and maybe Dawgs can turn it around. Gotta pull for them winning or losing as they are Our Dawgs. Go Dawgs !!
@Beachwagon If you believe that another coordinator would have done any better with the WRs and RBs that UGA had in 2024, plus in 2023 when McConkey and Bowers were injured, then it is only because you choose to forget that the Florida Gators won the SEC East over Todd Monken's UGA, and this was when UGA had George Pickens (2nd round, NFL starter), Jermaine Burton (third round, NFL 2nd string), James Cook (2nd round, NFL Pro Bowler), Darnell Washington (3rd round, NFL backup), Tre McKitty (3rd round) and John FitzPatrick (6th round, NFL backup) plus Zamir White (4th round), Kenny McIntosh and Matt Landers on the team. If coaching was why Arian Smith, Dillon Bell, Dom Lovett and Oscar Delp couldn't get open, hold into the football and make plays then you need to ask why those guys didn't do much in 2022 either back when Monken was still here.
I'm definitely not giving up on our freshmen. In fact, like Kirby, I'm encouraged by what I've seen. One kid missed a block, another dropped an easy pass. Everyone will say it's because "they're freshmen." But the fact of the matter is that ALL players make a mistake or two at some point. What you look for is consistency. That was the problem last year, our receivers CONSISTENTLY dropped passes and our O-Line CONSISTENTLY missed blocks. If these youngsters learn from their mistakes, then put it behind them, I think they'll be fine. And @UGACC, I think the reason that Taylor didn't go back in the game was because the coaches knew that he was probably just beating himself up over the drop and probably wouldn't have been in shape mentally to go back in the game. Ryan Williams, on the other hand, is now an experienced veteran who has dropped passes before but knows how to shake that off and come back stronger. Heck, during the game ABC even showed a "highlight reel" of Williams' biggest drops from just this year. But again, because he has CONSISTENTLY shown that he will catch more balls than he drops, the Bama coaches are rightly going to keep playing him.
Growing pains with young players is fine with me as long as the players are getting developed by competent coaches. The best Jimmies and Joes in the NCAA will lose every game with incompetent coaching.
I don't believe that another coordinator would have done better than Bobo. I believe almost ANY coordinator would do better than Bobo. Most people have figured this out by now.
We need to prohibit any receiver from wearing #11.