A Promise Kept - Georgia Wins the National Championship

Hey.

Yes, I still have access to this account. Back in Fall of 2018, I decided Waitn' Since Last Saturday provided the much needed outlet blogging previously provided, Twitter is actually much easier for me, and I suck at writing.

Mostly, though, it was because I didn't have anything new to add. After ten years of blogging and 3+ of podcasting, it felt well worn.  

Because it was.

When Kirby was hired, I promised myself I'd write a post when Georgia won the National Championship, one in which I'd formally retire from this blog. It is said that you can't really retire when you aren't working, but I've always admired folks like Spencer Hall or Kyle King that could openly and publicly say they were done. Honestly, I expected to see the post that had been languishing in drafts since January 2019 after the Texas Sugar Bowl loss, the one in which I said I was done. It never became a post because I figured UGA would get a bigger stage and one that I'd feel good about doing a last post on. I never considered that for the Sugar Bowl last year, not because of the opponent or anything like that, but because I'd totally forgot I still had access to a blog.

But then they actually went and won it. 

So, there you are. Georgia won the National Championship. I was there. It happened.  

It was a blast doing this. I appreciate Westerdawg (Quint and Dawgnoxious, too) for letting me play in the sandbox they built. Who knows, I may end up unretiring one of these days and get back to turning out multiple posts a day.

But a promise is a promise, and God kept promises last Monday night in Indy, so I'm out.

Go Dawgs and see you around. 

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ESPN on Urban Meyer's Florida

An excellent read, if only because it documents something many of us knew. Meyer remains one of the best strategic and recruiting coaches there is. It remains to be seen if his approach to getting his teams ready, and his willingness to tolerate...activities...that other programs won't, has changed at Ohio State.

The one thing that stood out to me is the Legend of Tebow being a bit debunked, in that

The quarterback's presence as the team's leader was stronger on television than in reality. On TV, he was the alpha dog. In the locker room, he was one of several players in leadership roles.Tebow's famed "Promise" speech after the Ole Miss loss is now celebrated with a plaque outside The Swamp. What went untold: wide receiver Louis Murphyconsoling a sobbing Tebow minutes before that speech, assuring him Florida would win out.

There is no doubt that Florida team was stacked with talent and was the best coached/prepared team in the nation. That is the part of Urban Meyer's genius that makes him one of the best college coaches of all time. The article does a great job or lifting the carpet to show the dirt that Agent Muschamp was tasked with cleaning up.

And after reading the article, I think you'll find there is no wonder Urban Meyer wanted out. He created a monster and would have probably consumed him, and his career, if he'd stayed on that course.

Meyer stressed core values -- respect women, no stealing, no drugs, no weapons -- and even sent graduate assistants to clubs to monitor players. Eventually, though, some players said they sensed a strategy of damage control from Meyer. "Get guys to Saturday," Brown said.
"Keep guys out of the press."Too often, Gators players acted "too big-headed" and had problems with locals at nightclubs, Haden said. That led to fights and brushes with the law.Influences were everywhere when players left the facility. Gators received perks and meals here and there in Gainesville, some players say. Agents would stalk the dorm rooms of top players.

Compelling read.
TW

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More Lambert4QB

I'm staying on the record that the full time starting qb race is far from done. But I've heard/seen some quibbles about Lambert's days as a qb at UVA. I've given some thought about that this summer, especially thinking about him graduating from UVA in three years with a degree in anthropology. He's certainly smart enough to pick up the playbook in three months.

One other thing I was thinking about, something Blutarsky hit on in several of his posts, is the difference in coaching Lambert is seeing in Athens vs. Charlottesville.

@DavidHaleESPN Lambert's most amazing stat from '14: 3rd Down, 4-6 To Go, 21-27 passing... and only 11 first downs.

— Senator Blutarsky (@MummePoll) September 1, 2015

As the chart Hale linked illustrates, Lambert threw a lot of passes to the wrong guys. But when you consider the stat Blutarsky shows about Lambert's 3rd and middle yardage situations last year, I can't help but think that is illustrative of 1) a qb who isn't getting time to make reads, 2) an offensive system that is set up to get folks open quickly, as opposed to at the right distance, or 3) a qb who is not good at making the right reads/doesn't have options at those reads.

Or a combo of all three. Yes, Lambert looked brutal at times. But when you consider that two of UVA's top four receivers last season were RBs, there is context to consider about the offense they run and the philosophy of the coaches. For reference sake, none of those running backs were named TJ Yeldon.

Now, I'm not ready to make a complete comparison, but I can think of one very good example of the difference coaching and philosophy can make. Russell Wilson:

						Passing
Year	School	Conf	Class	Pos	G	Cmp	Att	Pct	Yds	Y/A	AY/A	TD	Int	Rate
*2008	North Carolina State	ACC	FR	QB	11	150	275	54.5	1955	7.1	8.2	17	1	133.9
2009	North Carolina State	ACC	SO	QB	12	224	378	59.3	3027	8.0	8.3	31	11	147.8
*2010	North Carolina State	ACC	JR	QB	13	308	527	58.4	3563	6.8	6.6	28	14	127.5
*2011	Wisconsin	B1G	SR	QB	14	225	309	72.8	3175	10.3	11.8	33	4	191.8
Career	Overall					907	1489	60.9	11720	7.9	8.4	109	30	147.2
	North Carolina State					682	1180	57.8	8545	7.2	7.5	76	26	135.5
	Wisconsin					225	309	72.8	3175	10.3	11.8	33	4	191.8

Provided by Sports-Reference.com/CFB: View Original Table
Generated 9/1/2015.

Wilson was a good, not great, college QB at NC State. He had no run support, with the Wolfpack averaging 3.5-3.6 ypc in his time there; he had substantively better offensive line and receiving options than Lambert did last year. Then he goes to Wisconsin and gets an offense that averaged 5.5ypc. And wins the B!G championship under Bret Beliema. For my money, UGA is far better off in the QB coaching area than either staff Wilson played for.  Insert your own NotoriusTOB/paleoball coaching snark here.

One last thing. I've heard a lot of 'he only got an offer at UVA' so he can't be that good. Take a look at Lambert's offer list:

School	Interest	Offer	Visit	Recruited by
Virginia	COMMITTED (08/06/2011)	Offered	11/11/2011
Alabama	None	Offered	None
Arkansas	None		None
Auburn	None		None	Jeff Grimes
Boston Coll.	None	Offered	None
Clemson	None	Offered	None	Jeff Scott
Florida	None		None
Georgia	None	Offered	None	Mike Bobo
LSU	None		None
Miami (FL)	None	Offered	None
Mississippi	None		None
Mississippi St.	None	Offered	None
N.C. State	None	Offered	None	Jim Bridge
Purdue	None	Offered	None
South Carolina	None	Offered	None

FWIW, I believe his 2014 season is what Dak Prescott, minus running the ball, is facing in 2015. That is the talent level Mississippi State has vis-à-vis the competition Lambert had at UVA at OLine, receiver, and running back. To boot, Prescott has better coaching than Lambert did last year.

All this is to say that if Lambert is the full time starter from here on out, it is because he now has the coaching and offense to go with the talent to support that decision. In other words, let's let the house catch fire before we are ready to call the insurance company.
T

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November 21st, Cupcake Saturday

November 21st has the potential to be the reason the SEC doesn't get a team in the playoffs. Scheduling a patsy Saturday the next to last weekend of the season made sense under the old regime. Now, it gives national media/opinion makers cute talking points about SEC's refusal to play OOC games against Power 5 conferences. More importantly, it gives the playoff committee reason to evaluate the SEC is so tough discussion in less flattering light.

Of course, that defies logic with Georgia, Florida, Kentucky, and South Carolina playing ACC teams the next week, but whatever. All those folks will see is this:

Charleston Southern at Alabama

Idaho at Auburn

Florida Atlantic at Florida

Georgia Southern at Georgia

UNC Charlotte at Kentucky

The Citadel at South Carolina

That's the likely SEC West (Alabama/Auburn) and East (UGA) winners playing two Sun Belt teams (Idaho, I looked that up, and Georgia Southern) and one FCS team. Throw in Kentucky or Florida playing for the C-USA title that weekend, there are no winners unless all of the SEC teams win big.

This isn't a call for a nine-game SEC schedule, but if you want a very good revenue reason for doing so, this week is a solid top three.
T

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Fire Richt! An alternative view

What if it were December 2009 and UGA decided to make a change, because 'it is clear Mark Richt will never get us the championship we deserve with all of this talent' and 'we aught to NEVER lose to Kentucky' (both actual quotes from various places, with emphasis in original). We get the feel good, thanks for all you did for us, win over Texas A&M in the Independence Bowl. During most of December, we quietly talk to Jimmy Sexton, because that is what programs do. Rumors are floated about Boise State's Chris Peterson, Jon Gruden, Central Michigan's Butch Jones, Houston's Kevin Sumlin, Falcon's assistant Brian Van Gorder, Florida assistant Charlie Strong, Will Muschamp, Kirby Smart, and in the craziest of all crazy rumors, Steve Spurrier.

And, of course, Houston Nutt because we talked to Jimmy Sexton.

Behind the scenes, however, we do an extensive search and after making two offers (one to Gary Patterson and one to Miami's Randy Shannon) that are spurned, we find our man in Greenville, North Carolina.

Skip Holtz. The same Skip Holtz that ran South Florida into the ground starting in 2010. Who took Jim Leavitt's talent and went 8-5, 5-7, and 3-9. He was fired last season six months after negotiating a new contract.

The same Skip Holtz that now coaches Louisiana Tech and lost to Tulane last night. The same Skip Holtz that went for two down nine points with 4 minutes left to play. Of course, LaTech didn't convert, so he coached his team into a two possession deficit with 4 minutes to play.

Suffice it to say, the Bulldogs lost to Tulane, who matched their win total from last year with the win.

Where do you think our program would be right now? If that doesn't convince you, how would you feel about South Carolina being in the National Championship talk after having hammered us at home last week? What about five losses in a row to Florida? Having gone 2 of the last 5 to Tech? Being so far behind talent wise that we look like Auburn? Oh, and we also have about $6.5M a year less in the budget each of the next three years for coaching buyouts.

Look, I don't write this as a hand wringing, devil you know is better than the one your don't type post. We should never you run our program afraid to make changes that need to be made. If we'd had another year in 2011 that we'd had in 2010 (and frankly really started in 2008 with some things) with the same issues we'd faced in S&C, recruiting, and program ambition and urgency, I'd be willing to say there would have been a need to consider a change.

Right now, I'm just thankful the Tylers in Atlanta don't run the football program.

TD
(EDITORIAL NOTE: Added link to S&G post regarding the statements at beginning)

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Thanks for the Memories

Where does the time go? We would be remiss if we let Coach Michael Adams' retirement go unnoticed.  We had some good times together. Like this, and this, and this and this and this and this. Best wishes for a robust retirement.

The bow tie can also retire from holding his foreskin down.
Now, our eyes turn to the future. Thirteen months ago, a search committee was named to replace Il Duce. Executive search firm R. William Funk and Associates, Dallas, Texas was brought on to help identify candidates.  Given the nearly seven billion people on planet earth, it was truly a daunting task.  Improbably, out of all the people in all the world, the best only qualified candidate was just across the quad, toiling in obscurity.  So, congratulations to the new No. 2 Mr. Jere Morehead on first day as president of UGA.

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