Georgia - South Carolina: 5 Thoughts

The woman and I made the trek up to the Classic City this past weekend for the game, so all of you were deprived of my "5 Thoughts" that usually come to you via Twitter. Fear not, loyal followers. Here they are ...

1) Let's start with what I liked, shall we? Under CTG, the defense had their best game yet. In my opinion, our D-line was the best unit in the trenches for the majority of the game, either side considered. Geathers and Jenkins consistently clogged the middle, and occasionally created pressure in the backfield. Lattimore ripped off a few big runs in the 4th, but I attribute those mostly to his exceptional talent. The DBs played well, but took poor position on a few key conversions. The LB core played really well considering Tree wasn't there. More on that latter.

2) As far as the offensive gameplan and play calling goes, it was the tale of two games. The first half was classic Bobo - conservative, predictable, oblivious to our playmakers and what Carolina's defense was giving us. In other words, 13 points when it should've been 17 or maybe even 21. The second half was a welcome blast from the past. We called some quick hits across the middle, exposing their vulnerable linebackers. We lined up in power sets and had success. We lined up in power sets but ran toss sweeps or counters. We got the ball to our young playmakers: Crowell and Mitchell.

3) Crowell, Mitchell, and J. Jones. One word - wow. Instead of replaying some of their best plays, because I know you saw them, I'll just drool. Crowell, simply put, is as advertised. Mitchell isn't the freak talent that was AJ Green, but he's just as dangerous, albeit in a different way. He's quicker, and clearly has an innate feel for the game. Jones means as much for our 3-4 as Geathers and Jenkins do. His sideline-to-sideline speed is something we haven't seen in a Georgia LB for a while. And unlike Justin Houston, he doesn't seem to take plays off. These three are gems.

And now, you knew it was coming, the things that bothered me.

4) In his second year, Aaron Murray is playing like he probably should have in his first. Don't get me wrong. Murray is a wonderful talent, and he appears to possess the ability to let a mistake go instead of allowing it to stain the rest of his game. He made some great throws, and often made plays with his feet. But the mistakes are hard to look past. The Clowney sack-fumble, and the fumbled handoff to Crowell are too easy to point out. However, those are easily corrected. What bothered me most was what he did for most of the game, and what was made quite obvious on the pick 6 -- Murray was staring down receivers all game long. I'm not quite sure whether this should truly bother me, if I should just chalk it up to a true sophomore gradually learning to be a better QB, or if it is simply a product of him running for his life for one and a half years which would make any of us want to get the ball off to the 1st option every play. Either way, it's indisputable that we've witnessed some growing pains in the past two games.

5) We are now 6-9 over our last 15 games. That's a powerful stat. But this one is downright shocking: we are 1-9 against ranked teams in the last 10 games. In other words, we are Ole Miss. There has long been a place for mediocre SEC teams that feast on the DII's and Vanderbilt's, and in turn are eaten by the elite SEC programs. We have officially taken up residence in this place.
Not too long ago, I ignored the relative success of our 9 or 8 win seasons by harping on our lack of a mean streak, our mental and physical weakness in the 4th quarter. Now it seems that many Georgia fans wish to ignore our abysmal record, and instead find encouragement in our progress and young talent. In moments here and there, I have been one of those fans.
But I have finally realized the logical fallacy in both arguments when held against each other.
Look only at the bright side, and we should have been a top 15 team last year and a top 15 now. We are not that team.
Look at both sides mixed in together, and we're a solid top 25 team; a few games we shouldn't have lost, a few games probably shouldn't have won, but an altogether above average team in both record and aesthetics. We aren't that team either.
But if, instead, you look at the criticisms, we are a team that hasn't beaten a good team in 3 years, a team cites injuries as an excuse twice too often, a team that has come to define the perennial underachiever. We are that team.

After 2009, I jumped off the CMR bandwagon for the first time. Since then, I have been coaxed back on, jumped off, and then been coaxed back on again. No more. My small knowledge of what it takes to be successful in college football and short time on this earth aside, I know enough to call a bluff when I see one. CMR is a damn good coach. It would be senseless to argue otherwise. But in the past 7 years, he has let one of Georgia's best DC's slip away, replaced him with ill-equiped college buddy, waited until the last minute to remove said ill-equiped friend, relinquished offensive duties to another ill-equiped friend, all the while largely ignoring more talented coaches either through blissful ignorance or blind loyalty.
The greatest indictment against Richt is not that he has lost his touch recruiting players or coaching football, it is that he has completely failed at evaluating and hiring talented coaches and coordinators, or worse, naively believed that he didn't have to, believed that the rules of the game somehow didn't apply to him. In other words, as a head coach - the CEO of the program - he has displayed an inexcusable inability to put his team in a position to be successful.
It should come as no surprise that success has been hard to find in Athens these past few years.