Kicking It

Looks like Kirby is on to something:

Georgia appears to be trying out that route once again. Russellville, Kentucky native Landon Stratton announced via his personal Facebook page on Sunday that he intends on joining the Bulldogs' team.
“After a long past few months, I’ve never been more excited to announce that I will be continuing my football and academic career at the University of Georgia,” Stratton said.
"Thank you to everyone who stuck with me during this process, and a bigger thank you to those that left. I'm so thankful for all the love from my family, friends, and coaches during this time. I'm excited for the opportunity and can't wait to get to work!"
Starting the past three seasons for Murray State, Stratton has averaged 41.2 yards per punt, earning third-team Ohio Valley Conference honors last season. Nizialek averaged 45 yards per punt last season for Georgia, ninth best among FBS punters. Stratton has 212 career punts, none of which were blocked,  41 of which traveled 50 yards or more, 18 of which went for touchbacks, and 51 of which were fair caught. 

First, if you are getting depth for no ding on your scholarship numbers, great. The competition, especially from someone who has punted 212 times in live game action, is good. If he pays off as an improvement over the punters currently on the roster, that is a bonus.

Second, fostering a model where very good, but unheralded, special teams players can come to Georgia as graduate transfers and get a year playing on the high visibility stage that UGA football promises is brilliant. There are currently over 300 non-FBS football programs, many that aren't in markets that the NFL scouts. Being in a position to encourage top special teams players with proven game tape to spend a year in Athens, with the payoff of having the kind of media attention that comes with it, is a win-win.

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You Can Only Hope to Contain Kirby Smart

Sometimes, I think Scott Sinclair has the hardest sideline job in football.

Photo courtesy of Jim Hipple

There is nothing about this picture that I don't love. Even Aaron Feld is perfectly framed here.  By the way, any doubt one of the lesser heralded upgrades with Smart's hire is featured in the picture?

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And now a word from the realist in me

First, stay with me. This is the game I've been waiting to see under Kirby Smart. The game where it appears the team is bought in. The game where it appears the coaches are coaching to win, instead of to make a point.

All against a good team. Auburn came in top 5 in the nation in rushing offense and top 20 in defense. They've routinely averaged 4.5 to 9 yards a play, except for one game: The season opening 19-13 loss to Clemson, where they averaged 3.69 ypp.

Georgia held Auburn to 3.04 ypp.

Second, understand where I am coming from. This season is no different than last, save knocking down a pass against Tennessee and stopping a screen play on 3rd and 12 against Vandy. But...we did win against a better Auburn team. For my money, we lose to this Auburn team last year.

So that is were we stand. I'm not ready to proclaim all is well. I am ready to proclaim that we may look back on this game in a couple of years and say this is the start of something awesome. Keep playing solid team ball, bring passion to each play, coach soundly and with confidence in taking what is given. That is the mantra for the rest of the season. That should be enough to win out.

For now, we are a good and improving football team.

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For those that think Kirby is just Saban 2.0

Contrast Chad Clay's situation with Cam Robinson's situation. I get there is an element of two arrests vs. one (that we know of), but in the grand scheme of things, Clay's two offenses were less 'harmful' to society than Robinson's one two. That is unless you own the property Clay broke or the headphones he allegedly took.

Part of Clay's dismissal is a UGA cultural/policy decision, which I am glad to see is staying in place with the coaching change. I also have no doubt that Kirby made it clear to Clay and Rochester that any further legal issue probably ends with a dismissal. Where the future rubber meets the road is how penalties are meted out for guys that aren't dismissed from the team. It may seem hypocritical, and maybe it is, but if someone is still on the team, I don't see the need to put yourself at a competitive disadvantage vis-à-vis your peers/competitors to prove something.

That goes doubly so for giving media the quietest three months of the football season to talk about it.
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Too many faces, not enough palms

I mean, good for the program to address this issue. I love seeing this type of attention to detail.  Kinda crazy they have to, though.

Apparently, according to Smart, Briscoe wasn't the only Georgia player who did not have a license.
"We had some other guys on the team who didn’t have driver’s licenses and we got it corrected," Smart said.

I know, "kids" and all that, but you would think after all the attention given to students by the local constabulary, combined with the ongoing pandemic of Georgia football players involved in driving infractions, we'd be in a position to already have something in place to ensure this.
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Winds of change

They are a blowing......

And I'm ok with that.

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This means Saban is moving on, right?

I thought that was the go to when someone sells a house.

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The missing piece

I'm telling you, this might be the most important hire Kirby makes:

Mike Cavan, a former Georgia player and assistant coach – when he was credited with signing a recruit named Herschel Walker – who has also been the head coach at three other programs, has been named to a newly-created role: Special assistant to the head coach.

I've been saying Smart needs someone who has been in control of a program to help him anticipate things that a first time coach can't possibly anticipate. Cavan well fits that bill. That he has a long history with UGA, knows where a lot of bodies are buried, who buried them, and why is a big deal.

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Related:
- Mel Tucker named Georgia Defensive Coordiantor

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My thoughts on Jim Cheney

I've gotten the question enough for me to seriously ponder his hiring, more so than the reported Mel Tucker hire. On it's face, the Tucker hire is...interesting, since his only stint as a DC resulted in historically bad defenses for the Chicago Bears. Also, the whole hiring former NFL coordinator thing hasn't worked out well in Athens recently. Still, everything I hear is that he's a great teacher and recruiter. And he worked with Kirby at Alabama, which means his boss has seen his work up close and personal.

So about Cheney....here's why I like him: he isn't affraid to mix up his offensive philosophy based on talent at his disposal. He's like Lane Kiffin in that way:

arguably no coach over the last two seasons has been better at strategically “stealing” plays than Alabama offensive coordinator Lane Kiffin. Kiffin has a history of being flexible with offense, as while an assistant at Southern Cal under Pete Carroll and offensive coordinator Norm Chow, Kiffin spent a lot of time at Tampa Bay’s facilities where his father was the defensive coordinator and Jon Gruden was the head coach, where he picked Gruden’s brain and studied hours of film on Gruden’s West Coast Offense.

Kiffin has reinvented himself doing just what I would hope Cheney is going to do at Georgia. I don't see a problem with that. Cheney started his career as a spread guy at Purdue. Urban Meyer modeled his offense on what Cheney was doing at Purdue. His time in the NFL gave him experience in the more traditional under center attacks.

Another thing I like is he's coached TEs, OL, and QBs. And he's pretty good at coaching QBs. I've mentioned Cheney's role in getting Jonathan Crompton drafted into the NFL. Hell, Tyler Bray is still on a roster. What he did this season with Nathan Peterman at Pitt is pretty impressive. Peterman, who was a graduate transfer from Tennessee, when 193 of 313 with 20 TDs and 8 Ints. That puts in in Josh Dobbs territory already.

Finally, he's worked with a graduate transfer QB before. There isn't any reason to think that UGA will bring one in, but if they did, Cheney has dealt with that.
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Kirby: Georgia needs size and depth

Not hard to see why he pursued Pittman, then, right?

Arkansas' starting offensive line is also humongous, weighing a total of 1,638 pounds, making them the largest front five in all of football -- college, NFL or elsewhere.

Parsing it out, it also isn't hard to see that Smart thinks Mark Richt's recruiting philosophy is different than the one he'll employ. Much hand wringing has gone on around these parts about the roster numbers, especially in the late part of last decade, but even now, with nearly a full compliment of scholly players, it isn't hard to see Smart's divergence from how Mark Richt operated.

In other words, look for grey shirts, more guys transferring after two seasons, and those nebulous 'decided to quit' due to [FILL IN THE BLANK]. It's all about numbers, baby. He who has the most numbers, has the most depth.

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