State of Georgia Football

A FALL FROM GRACE

Glory, Glory to Ole Georgia.

It is the verse of the timeless fight song, and the immortal words of Larry Munson that boom forth at the start of every game, enlivening the crowd and echoing in the cement and scene of Sanford Stadium like so many of the great plays, fabulous teams and legendary players that called the grass between the hedges their stage.

But now, though the setting hasn't changed, the show has. Georgia is 2-7 over it's last 9 SEC games, and 9-11 over its last 20 games overall. Why? Was Munson more than just a broadcaster? Is Russ bad luck, a spotted imposter annoying the football gods until a true Uga guards the sidelines once again?

It may sound facetious, but Georgia fans are getting desperate and desperate times call forth all manner of remedies.

What is wrong with Georgia? Was the Sugar Bowl really that long ago?

If the blackout game against Alabama was Richt's Waterloo, the 49-10 loss to Florida four weeks later was his exile. Georgia, the preseason #1, lost by a combined 90-40 in those two games. And believe me, the scores could have been much worse. For me, the '08 season was a greater failure than the '09 season in a myriad of ways. Granted, Georgia was not the first slightly overrated preseason #1 team in history, and they certainly won't be the last. But that team was essentially the same as the year before, and whatever losses suffered to the NFL or by graduation were supposed to more than made up for by the continued maturation of the younger, better players.
When you think about the talent on the '08 team that went 9-3, and the major drop off of talent on the '09 team that went 7-5, the difference of two games isn't so great, and I would argue that the '09 team did more with what it had than the '08 team did.

What is wrong with the team this year? If you'll humor me, I think it's more simple than not.
In short: the schemes and the personnel don't match up.

Grantham is installing a 3-4 defense, and he simply doesn't have the type of players he needs to make that work. We don't have a big nose tackle, and we don't have enough linebackers that are big enough to take on a lineman, but quick enough to drop into coverage. Grantham deserves more time. I'll give it to him.

The offense is a disaster. The linemen are undersized but athletic, and are much better in pass protection than run blocking. It follows that we'd be much more successful if we ran a quick strike, spread'em out offense that didn't require the line to move people five yards down the field, but instead just hold their blocks long enough for Murray to throw the ball.
Unfortunately, we run a pro-style, run first offense in which the linemen are required to block like it is a run every play in order to sell the play-action fake. We can't run block, so there's no reason to think we can fake-run block either.
In addition, most of the passing plays have slow developing routes whose success is predicated on a legitimate run game. The problem, previously stated, is that we can't run the ball effectively enough to make defenses keep eight players in the box, and Murray ends up throwing to covered receivers, and often into double coverage.

On a less schematic note, the general attitude and personality of the team the past two years has and is a major concern. The Dawgs looked uninterested against Miss St, which should have been billed as a must-win game all week during practice. During the first 18 minutes of the Colorado game, the team looked rejuvenated by AJ Green's return. Then he misses a few series with a minor injury, and the team deflated to Miss St level. Disappointing. It's clear there is a substantial lack of on-field leadership.

Here is a scary thought, the biggest three wins of the past two and a half years were as follows: '07 Florida, '08 Auburn, '08 Hawaii (actually in 2009, I know).
What is the common theme of those three wins?
In each, Georgia used some hokey motivational tool to get themselves amped up. "The Celebration" against Florida, and the black jerseys against Auburn and Hawaii.
Make no mistake, this should give Dawgs fans a collective pause. Is this what we've become? An under coached, under achieving team more concerned with vanity and "cool jerseys" than out-preparing, out-hustling, and out-playing the opponent?

I hate to say it, but I think Georgia is lost in the forest. I just hope we won't wander around for forty years.