Brief Thoughts in the Aftermath of the Kirby Smart Escapade
by T Kyle King on Jan 11, 2010 5:08 PM EST
in Football
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PrintMonday, January 11, 2010, is a date that will live in infamy as the least productive business day ever in Bulldog Nation the day Mama called and Kirby Smart hung up on her. What have we learned?
I believe the lessons of this dreadful day are these:
Go 'Dawgs!
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No idea what went wacky with the line spacing there
It’s been that kind of a day, hasn’t it?
Go 'Dawgs!
I remember a comment from you last night...
that you were preparing the “Welcome” post. I thought you may have also prepared a post for the opposite, and only mentioning the welcome post because you were confident he was coming home.
Another lesson
Take a David Pollack Tweet with caution.
"If we score, we may win. If they never score, we'll never lose."
-Erk Russell
agreed both on Pollack and recruiting based websites.
I too had high hopes for CKS to return to UGA, but alas he has declined the offer. Time to move on to bigger and better things. No reason to get down and out, for the head man is still working on finding the right man for the job.
Well, we got an answer on Kirby today. Time to move on. We didnt lose him, we never had him.
The season is not lost, the year is not lost, the program is not lost. We went after a most excellent coach and it didn’t work out.
What I care about is metrics on the D next year. And most only that. If CWM gave up 27 points a game average, we need not just a 5-10%improvement on that, but at least a 25% improvement on that. And 35% would be better. It was so bad, that when I hear “anyone that is better than Willie” I have to disagree. Our Grad Students did better than Willie against the Aggies. We need marked, immediate improvement on some things and If we are trying to get the right guy in February, so be it.
Finally, I imagine this is just as frustrating for CMR as anyone. And although I do wish he would do a small presser, it’s good leadership for him to stay his usual calm and collected self.
"Sometimes, you just can't get rid of a bomb." - batman
Agreed
I just want somebody right now. It can be anybody. I honestly believe Corky Thatcher would be an improvement over Willie Martinez.
Sic 'em Dawgs
by ClassicCityDawg on Jan 11, 2010 5:45 PM EST up reply actions
Although disappointing as of now...
I never really considered Smart coming to Georgia. When he took the RBs coaching duties in at UGA in 2003, I think, he did it for one year and left to go to LSU. If Richt wanted new ideas and a new scheme, chances are that he is going to look at it on the NFL level. Don’t know if fate plays a part in it but Richt will probably get someone with NFL experience. Grantham will be the next coach on the rumour mill for the next several days until he says no. And then on to Travis Jones.
Now, the name Travis Jones looks to becoming popular, and the odds are that he would have a more likely chance to take the DC job than Smart. Other than that, I can’t think of any names that would come up in the search.
by thefirstgenesis on Jan 11, 2010 5:44 PM EST reply actions
Ironically, I posted last week "we know Smart isnt coming" and then all this blew up. I hate it when I second guess myself.
To my gut I think we need an NFL guy to provide greater wisdom, experience and leadership. A guy that can hopefully do 5 years. A guy that can look at Reshad Jones and say “I know what you need in the NFL”. A counterpunch to CMR where needed. Kirby was too young for me with an already pretty young staff.
I learned my lesson on this one. I am going back to where I was before the weekend to a calm, wait and see attitude and make my judgement after an announcment, but mostly after we play UF next fall.
For those who believe this cost us recruits, it may have. But there is nothing we could have done for that unless we hired a mid tier guy – and it seems we are truly going for quality. Signing day is weeks away, and I fully expect a name by then.
"Sometimes, you just can't get rid of a bomb." - batman
The lesson I've learned?
The internet is evil!! Things were so much simpler before message boards and twitter feeds and plane tracking. No information means no disappointment. From here on out I’m sticking my head in the sand when it comes to coaching searches. And recruiting, for that matter.
My lesson learned:
Where do I sign the petition for TT for DC? Cause that’s the only person I’m more than 50% sure would take the job. (Notice I didn’t say 100% – concerned about needing to fulfill current responsibilities to Uncle Sam.)
Also – Rivals doesn’t know )(^$#)&#)(&#$ anything more than the rest of us.
"Never refuse to do a kindness unless the act would work great injury to yourself, and never refuse to take a drink- under any circumstances." Mark Twain
Kirby Smart...
honestly I am still not sold on him. I don’t believe that he had nearly as much to do with the Bama D this year as people give him credit for. I think we need someone from the NFL or with NFL experience to be able to say to recruits “I know what you need to do to get to the NFL” and to identify NFL level talent to recruit in the first place.
I trust CMR to get the right guy in here and I will be patient until that time comes.
You mean a Kirby Smart....
….who coached at the Dolphins with Saban. I love how everyone throws out…oh well, we need someone with NFL experience when Smart had that as well. We got spurned in this, there is no silver lining other than we may get someone else who does a good job. We have to be honest with ourselves about Kirby. It may also be telling in that what may have kept Kirby at Bama is he could have seen a defense at GA that was bad…and not bad because Willie made them bad.
What evidence is there that this is the case?
Two Georgia defenders just left school early for the NFL draft. Every year, when they list the dozen most represented schools in the NFL, the list is always Georgia and eleven teams that have won national championships in the last fifteen years. As Dr. Saturday noted earlier today:
The SEC will be lacking even more for star power: With the earlier draft declarations by Tennessee’s Eric Berry, Georgia’s Rennie Curran and Dunlap’s Florida teammate, Joe Haden, McClain and Dunlap’s exits today mean fully half of the first-team All-SEC defense is bailing from school a year early, and the other half will graduate. All of them are likely bound to go off the board on the first day in April. The only all-conference defender coming back in ’10 is Alabama safety Mark Barron.
Things are tough all over and they’re no tougher in Athens than they are anywhere else.
Go 'Dawgs!
Just curious, T. Kyle__how many of the UGA
guys in the pros are pre-Richt? And how many of the Richt era guys in the pros are defensive players? Just asking.
A lot of them are pre-Richt
I don’t have the media guide handy, so I don’t have the breakdown available, but we’ve certainly seen our share of defensive talent pass through Athens . . . and some of the former Bulldogs who should be playing in the NFL right now aren’t because their careers were shortened either by injury (David Pollack) or by poor life choices (Odell Thurman).
The point, though, is that everyone in the SEC is losing defensive talent heading into 2010, and Georgia actually benefits from at least one of its losses: Bacarri Rambo is better than the player he replaces. I’m just saying Kirby Smart didn’t decide to stay at Alabama because of a dearth of talent on the Bulldog D.
Go 'Dawgs!
Like Quentin Moses?
We have our fair share of busts as well. I tend to lend a lot of credence to Tuberville’s comments (which he has repeated several times) that Martinez is/was not the problem. If coaching isn’t the issue, the players have to be because I don’t see many other options than either the player or the coach.
Here's how I see it:
UGA, Mark Richt and Damon Evans look like a fat woman in a milkshake store: Grasping at straws. I am very let down over todays events, but not disheartened. This is just an indicator of where we are as a program. Not great. Not God-awful mind you, but not great. We are, well, just good. Yeah, we are a good program. A good program that needs fresh blood and new motivation. We are far away from a SEC championship and the next person that says “National Championship” and UGA in the same sentence and isn’t talking about gymnastics will earn the level of distaste I reserve for people who are too lazy to put their shopping carts in the corral at the market.(That may sound silly, but it is the one of the things that drives me nuts…). Winning season, with a few thrilling moments, and the let downs isolated to top ten ranked opponents. I am not being pessimistic, just realistic. I am going to settle back into the Tanker Toad lying back and containing myself mode until this DC search is done. We were a risky move for Kirby, and I bet that is how Saban pitched us. No ill will towards Kirby. I just want a good DC. Hopefully UGA will deliver.
I think Erk Russell could have kicked Clint Eastwood and John Wayne's butts with a corn cob and one hand tied behind his back. GATA!
Aero, that is the best way to put it: Mark Richt and Damon Evans look like a fat woman in a milkshake store: Grasping at straws.
Now, that’s funny. I don’t care who you are.
Yes, it is. Courtesy of john Heder as Carville on Weekend Update. Just seemed fitting.
When something crappy like this happens, Those Carville skits on SNL always cheer me up. Piss pants funny.
I think Erk Russell could have kicked Clint Eastwood and John Wayne's butts with a corn cob and one hand tied behind his back. GATA!
Sorry, Bill Hader.
I think Erk Russell could have kicked Clint Eastwood and John Wayne's butts with a corn cob and one hand tied behind his back. GATA!
Funniest guy to join the "Saturday Night Live" cast in the last fifteen years
Heck, I even cracked up at his performance in the trailer for “Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian.”
Go 'Dawgs!
hey now…the last 15 years includes a lot of the greats. will ferrell started in 1995, and within the next few years you have Darrell Hammond, Chris Kattan, Tracy Morgan and Chris Parnell, followed by a whole bunch of other hilarious folks. To say Hader is better than all those guys is sayin’ a lot.
"Dum spiro spero"
by Bravely going forward on Jan 12, 2010 2:41 AM EST up reply actions
I stand by that . . .
. . . although I will admit that Darrell Hammond’s inclusion gives me pause.
Will Ferrell is a far funnier movie actor than he was a sketch comic. Tracy Morgan is funny on “30 Rock” but he really wasn’t on “Saturday Night Live.” I’m funnier than Chris Kattan and Chris Parnell, and I’m not that funny.
Go 'Dawgs!
True . . .
I find Ferrell’s style funny over the course of an entire movie. In one sketch it just came across as sort of cloying. And Chris Kattan just isn’t funny in sketch comedy. He seems like an improv guy, what with the manic ticks and twitches. I still assume however that the character of Mr. Peepers was based on a juvenile Urban Meyer, and that makes it pretty funny.
Yeah, I was just looking at Wikipedia and throwing out the first few names I saw from the mid/late 90s. Out of the guys i mentioned, I agree Darrell Hammond was obviously the best “sketch comic,” but i do think Ferrell was hilarious, at least in the sketches on his “best of…” collections.
"Dum spiro spero"
by Bravely going forward on Jan 12, 2010 2:38 PM EST up reply actions
I will vouch for the fact...
… that Kyle is not funny. :-)
The best years of Saturday Night Live, IMO, were a tie between the first years in the ’70’s with Aykroid, Belushi, Murray, Gilda Radner, Jane Curtin, Garrett Morris, et al, and the “new glory years” in the early-mid ’90’s.
Just think about 1991, when the cast included Dennis Miller, Phil Hartman, Kevin Nealon, Dana Carvey, Mike Myers, Chris Farley, David Spade, Chris Rock, Adam Sandler, and Tim Meadows, among others. For my money, there was no better era than the early ’90’s.
by vineyarddawg on Jan 12, 2010 4:45 PM EST up reply actions
If you had asked any of us on Dec. 1 what our criteria for a new DC would be
We would have all said:
1. Not be Willie Martinez
That’s still my only criteria.
And since footballcoachscoop.com already reported WM is coming back, we know it isn’t true. So I’m still happy.
Leaving insightful football commentary and analysis to other people since 2006.
Living in Bama...
hasn’t sucked quite as bad as it sucked today, except the shellacking we took against them at the dome. I’m not saying that I think CKS was going to fix all our ill’s but I do think we would have been better off with him. With that being said, at least this DC search is giving us something to follow/get excited over during the off season. I know the names that are still being batted around as to who we will go after next but I really don’t care at this point. As other’s have pointed out “In Richt I trust” Here’s to whoever we end up with turning our D around. Go Dawgs!
Quick note...
Rumors here are stating that Bama is giving him 800K…That would be another reason things are “special in Alabama.”
I give Mark Richt credit for trying. The reason all these guys keep getting raises after talking to us is because there good at what they do. They are in good situations that only get better when you get more money. I would rather still be looking for a new DC than have Vin Koenning
Seriously?
Still holding on to that one? Can’t a brother get a break? I mean, it’s not like we lost the game or anything.
Just curious.
I just think he could be great. I don’t really feel like he would ever take it, but I’ve been wrong before. Just throwing the spaghetti up there to see if it sticks.
Don't take it personally, Tiller
I mean, yeah, take it personally, but understand that I do that to everyone, including myself.
When your actions inflict bad mojo on the Bulldogs, there will be a reckoning. It took me years to forgive my wife for buying trash bags with orange drawstrings on the eve of the 2004 season. I will always believe that cost us the national championship.
Go 'Dawgs!
I hear...
Ron Zook is seeking employment. Just think about the constant improvement we could expect!
We still have Grantham and Travis Jones as potential hires
Don’t know if college head coaches can contact NFL coaches during the playoffs, but the next thing Richt would do is pursue Grantham. If these two guys are our targets, the worst case scenario, is that both Grantham and Jones are playing for the SuperBowl on February 7 which to us would be a bad thing with the DC search dragging on and signing day on February 2. However, a blessing in disguise is that if we hire one of those two, we will be hiring a coach who has been through a championship at the highest level in football. I’m still looking at the positive though and remember, Richt always has a way of finding coaches who are not well known to many, see VanGorder.
by thefirstgenesis on Jan 11, 2010 9:41 PM EST reply actions
Well, the good news is
that your worst case scenario isn’t a case at all, as it is impossible. Grantham coaches for the Cowboys, while Jones coaches for the Saints. As both of these teams are in the NFC, only one of them can reach the Super Bowl. This weekend, if the Saints beat the Cardinals and the Cowboys beat the Vikings, then they will face off next weekend in the NFC Championship. Worst case scenario: We can talk to atleast one of them (assuming they’re both candidates) on Monday, January 25th, at the latest. Best case scenario: We can talk to Jones as soon as this Sunday, January 17th, and Grantham on the 18th.
by hailtogeorgia on Jan 12, 2010 8:15 AM EST up reply actions
2010 is not starting off the way we hoped for
I don’t get why we don’t look at the Air Force DC. He is aggressive and has done well with mediocre talent. Held TCU to 20 points and shut down Houston’s aerial attack in the bowl. We need someone fast…preferrably by the end of the dead period this week. You know Kiffin is calling our recruits just laughing it up telling them we can’t even find a coach. Florida has signed 9 of the top 33 players….11 already enrolled this winter…and their head coach may not be back. We need to do something fast before we sink to the bottom half of the east.
Go Dawgs
by Charlotte NC Dawg on Jan 11, 2010 10:23 PM EST reply actions
Spewed all my CKS vitriol on my blog....
So I’m happy again, and can be positive again. Had a look at the AFA’s DC and the guy would be an intriguing hire. We could probably get him for half of what we’ve offered, and the guy looks like a comer. Right now, I think I’d LOVE to find another BVG-level talent out there and lay waste to the SEC. Revenge is dish best served cold….
Sweat not about the recruits. As somebody once said (maybe here?) CMR is the steak – the assistants are just the sizzle. He’ll be the guy getting the solid citizens who can play good football. I’m still not considering Lame Kitten a very valid threat: Our worst year in a decade netted the same record as their “progress.”
And, based on my experience, half of the 5-star guys will end up washing cars and half of the 2-star guys will be all-SEC. While we’re subject to the same law of averages, I think CMR and staff do a good job of finding the diamonds and not choosing the busts. In a related story, former Vols receiver Nu’Keese Richardson today plead guilty to attempted robbery…….
by misguidedkid on Jan 11, 2010 10:44 PM EST up reply actions
Actually....
5 Star recruits tend to pan out….the problem is, over the last decade, we haven’t gotten nearly as many as UF, LSU or Alabama. Our recruits tend to be of the 3 or 4 star rating which carry much greater risk. Feel free to go to Rivals and look at past classes if you don’t believe me. We have in general scored high on recruiting classes that have carried much higher risk than others in the SEC.
So, every time you see a 5 Star recruit....
assume he will be good, every time you see a 4, consider he has about 75% shot of being successful and a 3 is about 50-50….anything less and you are either recruiting for a specialty offense or you are playing russian roulette with your team.
UGA won a national championship with what would have been two and three star recruits
"Sometimes, you just can't get rid of a bomb." - batman
by tankertoad on Jan 12, 2010 2:21 AM EST via mobile up reply actions
Apples and oranges
First of all, from a talent perspective, there are many (at least skill) players that I would think would have been highly sought after recruits on the 1980 team, obviously beginning with Herschel, but notably including Jimmy Womack and Lindsay Scott.
I have heard that the coaches knew going into the Florida game that Lindsay was the fastest man on either team, so that if they could get him the ball in space, he could make things happen. Someone that fast must have been highly touted coming from high school, except if…(and here’s my point…)
There was much less recruiting information available at that time, so it was much more likely to find a diamond in the rough that no one else had heard of. There might not have even been “star” ratings on recruits in 1978, and if there were, they would have been much less reliable than they are now.
Recruiting ratings are often wrong. There are few things in this world that are less predictable than an 18 year-old man. People mature physically, mentally, and emotionally at different rates. There are always exceptions. However, those little stars are right quite often, and I’d rather have a boatload of 5 stars than a boatload of 2 stars (provided they’re upstanding men, and we don’t have to sell our souls to get them).
Like that tailback . . .
who we fought USC for until Easter. What was his name again? Or the star quarterback from Valdosta High School, that Belue guy?
I’m not trying to be snarky (well, maybe a little . . .) just saying that there’s a bit of a mythos around that team that may not be deserved. Some of them were as blue as blue chippers get. Sure, the fact that Terry Hoage ended up at Georgia is about as unlikely as any recruitment ever was, but Vince Dooley was bringing in his share of talent.
yeah, but....
Herschel was a 6 star game changer, and without him, I don’t think you win the national title….
A view from a 1000 miles away...
Like many of you here are DawgSports, I’m generally saddened and frustrated by the “consensus” reaction of real and faux greater Dawg Nation fans to this whole DC situation. If anything, a lot of the interwebs postings tend to reinforce national criticism that we are a spoiled and unrealisitc fan base…the kind of derogatory generalization I usually prefer to assign to Texas fans.
To the CMR bashers…utterly crazy. Clearly one of the best coaches in the country, a record to prove it in the toughest conference in the country, and will continue to improve. Exactly who would we want as his replacement….Leach?! Leavitt?! Tuberville?! Please.
To those of us who succumbed…perhaps late….to the “fire CWM” chant, I don’t recall any replacement being named other than “…anyone is better.” Well, right now, that’s who we are looking at…anyone. Give CMR his due…he’s conducting a thorough search in a challenging situation, such as being amidst much competition for DC talent, and getting tremendous influence “help” from idiots rich alumni highly interested parties.
Not sure KS was “our” man beyond his UGA credentials. He is young and so is his resume. Pretty sure we expected a bit more experience / prestige being brought to the position, right?
If it’s Grantham, Jerry’s probably not going to allow talks to occur until the Cowboys finish their Super Bowl run…why would he? And, despite our money, for any NFL coach, we’re competing with NFL money, so CMR still has to search the college and recently unemployed line as well.
This takes time to get it right. Richt promised he’d get it right, why not give him that discretion?
Run Lindsay Run!
Things can always be worse...
…we could be USC right now.
HBTD
by Gen. Stoopnagle on Jan 12, 2010 11:49 AM EST reply actions
Not sure
He’s a native Georgian,
Wikipedia says Kirby Smart was born in Montgomery, AL. Take it for what it’s worth though.
"A man's character may be learned from the adjectives which he habitually uses in conversation." - Mark Twain
by Stu from Tuscaloosa on Jan 12, 2010 12:28 PM EST reply actions
Fair point
He was raised in Georgia, though you are right that he wasn’t born here. If you asked him where he was from, I suspect he’d say he was from Georgia originally since he grew up here.
My point being, of course, that he probably didn’t view this as a cynical attempt to wring more money from his current employer, given his ties to the state and the school. This was a serious offer to which he gave serious consideration before making a sensible career decision. I regret his choice, of course, but I can’t hold it against him. I am disappointed, but I don’t feel we’ve been used.
Go 'Dawgs!
by T Kyle King on Jan 12, 2010 12:37 PM EST up reply actions
DC Search
Pollack just tweeted that he is good friends with BVG. He says BVG loves Georgia and would listen.
The one thing I don’t get about this search is what seems to be a lack of urgency.
Should CMR not be on the phone with BVG or DeRuyter from AFA like yesterday?
More news comes out daily about recruits taking visits elsewhere because of the uncertainty.
DeRuyter from AFA has everything we are looking for. He has proved he can shut down a great aerial attack (Houston), a spread attack (Utah) and the triple option (Navy). He also held TCU to 20 points with a lot less talent than that he would have at UGA.
The lack of a sense of urgency is bothersome.
I am not a CMR basher….I thing Coach Richt is great. If my son had a chance to play for any school I can’t think of any other coach I would want him to play for. Just seems we have become complacent.
by Charlotte NC Dawg on Jan 12, 2010 12:39 PM EST reply actions
Perhaps . . .
. . . but we don’t know what’s going on behind the scenes. Maybe these calls are being made right now and we just don’t know it. Remember, this whole search has been played very close to the vest.
There is a timetable for these sorts of things, which depends upon a coach’s availability. Protocol generally prohibits contacting assistant coaches before their seasons are through, so Kirby Smart was contacted formally about as early as he could have been, and assistant coaches whose teams are still in the NFL playoffs effectively are off-limits for the time being.
I loved David Pollack as a player, but that’s just nuts. Brian VanGorder is as likely a candidate as Will Muschamp, which is to say, in our dreams, but nowhere in reality. I wouldn’t buy that even if Pollack’s Twitter feed had any credibility, which, after the last four days, it doesn’t.
Go 'Dawgs!
by T Kyle King on Jan 12, 2010 12:46 PM EST up reply actions
This is what Public Relations folks . . .
call “losing control of the message.” That is, by refusing to comment on things Coach Richt is forcing others (Kyle and I, Marc Weiszer, David Hale, David Pollack, footballcoachcrap.com, etc.) to fill the vacuum.
In the short term it’s probably best. Coaching searches that play out in the papers are rarely good. But the longer it goes on, the more out of control the message gets, and the more you lose the ability to control the perception around things.
which is why i think he needs to do a small press conference at this point
"Sometimes, you just can't get rid of a bomb." - batman
I'm thinking seriously of contacting the SB Nation technical support folks . . .
. . . to see if we can change the name of this site to “footballcoachcrap.com.”
Go 'Dawgs!
with what we are doing right now - you would be spot on! )
"Sometimes, you just can't get rid of a bomb." - batman
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