SEC Power Poll (Week 13): Everything Shakes Out During Rivalry Week

1. “Yes, we’ll get Aaron Murray back. But who is he going to throw it to?”

AJ Green is a phenom. However, I do recall a time before AJ Green when we had some pretty decent receivers.

2. “Can we get by just throwing the ball to Orson Charles every play?”

Yes, excellent game plan. Better yet, how about every third or fourth pass attempt, AM just tosses it out of bounds—in memory of having AJ Green on the team.

3. “Moreover, we’re losing our veterans on the O-Line. How is Murray going to stay upright?”

Good question…are the DBs putting any weight on over the off-season?

Seriously, the chicken-little thing is getting old. I respect our differences on CMR and the general direction of the program. However, some constructive “what-ifs” would be a whole lot easier to chew on than the “We suck and we will suck some more” motif.

I quote: “None of our receivers not named Green or Durham have contributed squat this year.”

That’s because in a two running back, one tight end set, our base offense, you can only have two wide receivers on the field. Mike Bobo would be a moron at this point to put anybody on the field other than Green and Durham in those two slots given their production. You know as well as I do that you were one of the folks after the Florida game complaining because we didn’t throw to A.J. more. You can’t have it both ways, hoss.

And you do realize that at this point the only senior starter we have on the offensive line is Clint Boling, right? Unless Cordy Glenn jumps we’ll have 4 out of 5 starters (Glenn, Sturdivant, Gates, and Jones) back. In fact, we return the entire two deep on the offensive line except for Boling and Chris Davis, who’s been relegated to third string guard and second string center. Let me fill in your response: “none of those guys are any good anyway.”

I don’t mind pessimism. Heck, I encourage it. But at least get your facts straight.

I believe the Bulldogs’ defense will improve in its second year under an almost entirely new defensive staff and an entirely new defensive scheme. I believe this because there has been statistical improvement in several areas, because the scheme itself is fundamentally sound (and has been lacking chiefly due to blown assignments), and because there is another recent instance of the 3-4 making quantum leaps between years one and two in the SEC (at Alabama in Nick Saban’s second season at the Capstone).

I believe the Bulldogs’ offense will improve, despite the loss of A.J. Green, because Aaron Murray has made huge strides and because the inability to go “bombs away” with Green may actually encourage greater use of the short passing game and the tight ends as medium-range options. (One bright spot on Saturday was the active involvement of the tight ends for what seemed like the first time all season.)

I believe the Bulldogs’ record will improve in 2011 because Georgia’s across-the-board statistical improvement ultimately will pay dividends (which, by the way, is the only sense in which I have ever said we were better than our record, and I have not made such a statement in the wake of a win last weekend which I freely admitted did not solve any of the underlying problems and meant relatively little; we came by our six losses honestly, but only minimal improvement in a few key areas could have turned at least half of those losses into wins, while only one of our six wins was ever even remotely in danger of going the other way). I also believe the Bulldogs’ record will improve in 2011 because a six- or seven-win season by a head coach who has never before won fewer than eight games, and who has won fewer than nine games only on two previous occasions in nine years, is the outlier in an otherwise successful career.

That doesn’t mean there aren’t real problems. I believe we need to upgrade our strength and conditioning program, and I would be in favor of replacing Dave Van Halanger as strength and conditioning coach. I believe we need greater consistency in offensive play calling, and I repeatedly have advocated letting Mike Bobo coach quarterbacks and letting Mark Richt call plays. I quite agree that we need to close the deal with more top-shelf recruits, almost all of whom we missed out on last February, and signing a nose tackle who is suited to Todd Grantham’s system is a must.

At the end of the day, though, I also take the long view because, as a Peach State native, lifelong Bulldog fan, and University of Georgia graduate, I have been encouraged by the heritage that is my birthright as a citizen of Bulldog Nation to take the long view. The powers that be in Athens did that with Wally Butts, and we were rewarded for our patience. The powers that be in Athens did that with Vince Dooley, and we were rewarded for our patience. If the powers that be in Athens are, in the sincerest sense, “true to their school” by doing that with Mark Richt, we will be rewarded for our patience. Robert E. Lee put it best: “It is history that teaches us to hope.”

I understand and respect that you and many other loyal and reasonable Bulldog fans like you see it differently, Afghan Dawg, and I apologize for my part in making our exchanges upon this subject more heated than they had to be. The truth is that we do not know now, but we will know a year from now, whether the program will be turned around on Mark Richt’s watch. We can only make educated guesses, hope for the best, and agree to disagree about matters beyond any of our control while cheering for our team.