To Answer a Question

One thing that keeps popping up when I get asked what I think about 2017 Georgia Football® is what makes me think Kirby can take a significant step forward in year 2 as a coach.

Thankfully, William McFadden and Blutarsky does the heavy lifting for me. Reading McFadden's feed yesterday (NSFW for Bulldog fans), I had exactly the same feeling I had leaving Vaught-Hemingway last year: We Mark Richt because his teams were not prepared in big games to hire one that hasn't learned to prepare a team for a big game.

Let me preface this by saying, I almost never say that Kirby has already learned how to do that, just that I believe he can and think he will. That is what all of us are counting on, right?

Because stuff like this

Maurice Smith got caught sticking his nose into the backfield and the Bulldogs paid the price. Rebels go up 45-0 #UGAFilmReview pic.twitter.com/wKxKumqwG1

— William McFadden (@willmcfadden) June 13, 2017

will happen this year, because we are likely to have several 'big' games, including one on the road on September 9th that will be, at worst, the 3rd biggest game of the college football day, and in prime time.

The biggest hole in Kirby's coaching resume when we hired him is that he never had a head coaching gig, and he didn't bring in someone that had recently been a head coach to address that. As head coach, you can talk about how it was done at 'Bama, but until you actually find the buttons to push, you are really just trying to paint your dog crimson and hope he looks like an elephant.

To put it another way, Ole Miss wasn't 45-0 better than Georgia last season. Hugh Freeze was 45-0 better at getting his team ready to play a highly ranked opponent with a chance to make some news than Kirby was.

I think Kirby Smart can be that coach, or he won't be coach at Georgia for nearly as long as Mark Richt was.
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No Kool-aid for you!

I read this last night and was stunned:

"Well first of all I didn't want to give any awards," Pruitt said. "But that's what they've been doing here at Georgia, so that's what we did."

As excited as I am over a coach calling it like it is, this is....different. I posted the awards yesterday, but Pruitt wasn't in the mood to discuss how Wilson and Green did in the Spring:

Pruitt was asked about Ramik Wilson being named the defensive MVP, and J.J. Green winning the hustle award."To me, those awards are spring awards," Pruitt said. "I mean those two guys may end up being starters, leaders or whatever, or they may not play. That'll be up to them until they end up in fall camp."

Even coach Richt is picking up this a bit with his comments about Tray Matthews' hamstring. It looks like a brave new world in Athens. Now, if Will Friend will only come clean about the offensive line....

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Georgia Football Awards Banquet

I had the chance to attend the football awards banquet last night. It was a really cool event. Yes, there was plenty of tasty cool aid, but I was thirsty. And I drank it up.

It probably goes without saying Aaron Murray won the Vince Dooley Most Valuable Player Award, as well as most valuable offensive player. He was also elected permanent team captain. Amarlo Herrera claimed Most Valuable Defensive Player honors, while Connor Norman and Kostas Vavlas were named Most Valuable Players for special teams. 

Kolton Houston won the David Jacobs Award, which is awarded to the player that shows courage, determination, and spirit in the face of adversity. Which is right. 

It comes as no surprise that Ramik Wilson won the Most Improved Defensive Player award. As noted here, he barely saw the field last season; now he leads the SEC in tackles. Ramik also won the Charley Trippi Most Versatile Award. David Andrews won the Frank Sinkwich Toughness Award.

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“Bottom line is, we’re probably going to score every 13 to 15 plays”

- Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney.

Last season, Clemson scored in the neighborhood of once every 12.5 plays. UGA did so once every 11.55 plays. Clemson loves to push the tempo, getting in nearly 82 plays per game. UGA got in a very average 66ppg. That is how you end up scoring many more points than UGA.

As you can tell, that basically benefits a team that can use their offense to slow down another team's offense, something Georgia is geared to do. My concern, which I've voiced before, is if that becomes a goal instead of a feature. If we become too one dimensional worried about using the clock, that'll lead to us giving Clemson more opportunities.

I believe we can win a score fest. I just hope we don't have to find out if we can.

Something tells me we won't have to. Why am I that confident now? Just think those young guys are going to actually do better than last years team.
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Battle Hymn: Father Tom Vaughn

Love this.

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Quayvon Hicks, come on down

I was looking back at some old pictures of guys from last year's recruiting class when I came across this

From @Radinabulsi

That is Quayvon Hicks from last summer around the start of Fall practice. Now check out the picture from Weiszer's article on the Pierce County native earlier this week:

I have to admit, I was surprised Hicks didn't get more of a look later in the season, but with the way Richard Samuel picked it up, I don't think Hicks would have seen much action even if he hadn't been out for the Florida game. Now, Hicks is getting praise from Richt for doing the one thing that gets you the most playing time as a back in his offense:

“You don’t read any stats about him, but just playing some fullback (Friday), he picked up a blitz and just did it with enthusiasm," Richt said.

The reason I thought Hicks would get more playing time is his hands. He played TE in high school in a Wing-T offense. He can catch. Don't be surprised to see plays in the fall that leverage his size and that ability some. If he becomes a great blocker to go with that, fogetaboutit. Hall will likely start, absent an injury, but Hicks will see plenty of playing time.

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And why I place less and less stock in Spring Practice....

Take it away Blutarsky....

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Tasty Kool-aid Mix

I'm not sure if this is some sort of photoshoped video or what, but if this is real? Damn.  If Marshall is as fast as Malcolm Mitchell. Damn.

Thank goodness Justified is on tonight or might go into full fledged Kool-aid making mode.
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