Has the Time Come for a Coaching Change?

I feel that the problem is not just with the WR Coach.  For 4 years David Greene was coached by the QB Coach, Mike Bobo.  I would say that, argueably, Greene's first year was also one of his best.  I, for one, saw very little progression in his passing ability from year 1 to year 4.

In Bobo's defense, Shockley played outstanding his senior year.  But without seeing Shockely get considerable time under center in his previous years we can't really say if that is attributable to Mike Bobo's leadership / coaching ability or Shockley's ability.

However, Greene has had 1 + year with Joe Cox and 5+ months with Stafford.  Sure the WR are dropping balls but I think some of the blame has to be in passes that are under / over thrown or just thrown wide.. The passes just don't look as crisp to me for some reason as I think they should.

What are your thoughts??

After that rumor about Eason never came to light (and all it amounted to was "Eason might be moving on soon"), I sort of forgot about that comment (concerning Ball being a possible replacement for Eason).

I hate just dog cussing our guys as well.  But the Receiver play has been the most inconsistent and IMO lacking area of play in the Richt era.  I don't know if this is part of a solution - it may be that Eason is not the problem, or that a new coach won't be a big improvement (the grass always looks greener thither, but so rarely is once seen up close).  It may be that wholesale change is needed.  Different coaching/teaching (we did alter how we trained WRs this fall, a first).  

I feel like we are getting to the point where something has to give, though.  And other questions are begged.  If you do lose an offensive coach, is it time to make the replacement a legit OC?  I love Richt, but he could use it.  I'm not quite as freaked out about the 2nd "we abandoned the run!" portion of the programming (once up 14-3, we ended up passing like 8 out of our last 13 plays I think), though I wish we'd have attempted to be a little more3 balanced (throughout, to be certain).  I love Richt's willingness to throw on 1st down but he outsmarts himself sometimes IMO (like last night, we needed to be in the I earlier, and running more frequently).  Someone to come in and help bring some offensive coherence would be nice.

The OL is too inconsistent as well, but it's not as glaring as the WR play (IMO).  

Lots of "the sky is falling" going on in the Bulldog nation.  However I don't think it's as bleak as some think, and this despite the fact that we won a game we maybe shouldn't have (awful call on the blocked punt).  Cox didn't play that well (uga-bless him), and he seemed to badly misthrow a couple of times.  Stafford, OTOH, seemed more accurate Saturday night than he has all year.  If not for the drops, he winds up with numbers that are pretty good(and even if we still have 1 or 2), we extend some drives, and probably get into the endzone at least one more time.  I was pleased Richt stuck with Staff and Lump in the second (with ware getting some time spelling lump).  

I would love to know if the third and long handoff to Sutherland was an incorrect check or just a questionable call (or failed execution?  I don't recall anything glaring at the time), and that might be another issue in the offense.  I like license to check, but you'd better be really careful in checking to Sutherland in a situation like that.  

The proper technique for catching a football is not really that complicated.  You should almsot always try to catch the ball with your hands. Waist high balls and up you catch with your thumbs touching, low balls with your pinkies touching. The receiver's coach should ensure that player's practice this over and over so they get experience catching at every different angle with coverage coming from all different directions.  Eason, I'm sure, knows very well how to teach these basic techniques.

If you want to fault Eason, fault him for the more complex aspects of receiving: proper form on running routes, good blocking technique, how to carry out a fake, what to do on hot reads, or for poor preparation, etc....

But you can't fault him for not catching the ball.  That is the one thing he can't do. The receivers have to catch the ball, and if they don't it's not Coach Eason who can provide the incentives to lead them in the right direction.  

If you want to blame a coach, blame the head coach and the offensive coordinater -- Mark Richt.  He decides who plays and who doesn't.   And it has been his decision, thus far, to continue to play receivers even when they demonstrate over and over and over again that they can not be relied upon to catch the ball.  

If Steve Spurrier's receivers dropped the ball as often as UGA's receivers, Spurrier would be holding open campus tryouts.  And he would be playing freshman, walkons, etc.... all the way down to backup defensive tackles at the receiver position until he found a few that could actually catch the dang ball.  

And Spurrier wouldn't wait four games or four years to do it.  The visor would come off at the first dropped pass, and the butterfingered receiver would be on the bench with the next. The backup would have an opporutnity to earn one more snap, and would play until he too proved to be a butterfinger.

Richt might have a plan, but it isn't a good one.  And he's far too slow in correcting problems with game performance.  Certainly the average fan, of which I am one, can not fully appreciate the complexity of his decision making process.  But we all know that the ability to catch the ball when it counts -- during the game -- is the sine qua non of being a receiver.  If you can't catch it, you shouldn't play. Period.  

Look at the top WR's recruited last year.  Only one in the top 60 went to Georgia.  I mean, if you are going to recruit top throwing QB's every year, where is the equivalent WR talent?  I love Georgia, but our WR's have been weak for years.  Proof" the "best" or #1 guy in recent years has been Edwards and Gibson.  Need I say more?  Gibson caught one great ball against Florida, that is all I remember him catching.  Where is our Dallas Baker or Calvin Johnson?  Richt seems to like that undersized or skinny WR with average hands.  How many did Mo drop on Saturday that touched both hands?  Hate to use this example, but Peyton Manning would be less than 50% with this receiving crew.  Maybe what we have is good but they just need better or more drills/coaching?  I do know we haven't recruited the same tier WR as we do QB.