Georgia Moves around Defensive players
by SurferLucas on Mar 3, 2011 5:18 PM EST
Email
Print
Per Seth Emerson, and coming from Todd Grantham...
"Give Georgia credit for keeping this one a bit under its hat: In a somewhat major personnel change, Alec Ogletree is shifting from safety to inside linebacker.
Defensive coordinator Todd Grantham announced the move Thursday.
"He's a tall guy. He's got good size, he's got good speed, he can hit," Grantham said of Ogletree, who started the latter part of the 2010 season at safety. "I feel like moving him closer to the ball is going to allow him to make more plays, and be more productive for us."
Ogletree's move also allows Jarvis Jones to play outside linebacker. So that's settled too, apparently.
Grantham also detailed a few other personnel notes:
- Justin Anderson is indeed shifting back to offensive line.
- Dexter Morant and T.J. Stripling, still rehabbing injuries, will not participate in spring practice.
- Cornelius Washington and Ray Drew will compete at the "Will" outside linebacker spot, vacated by Justin Houston's departure to the NFL.
- Christian Robinson, the other inside linebacker, is essentially being made the captain of the defense. Grantham is putting a lot of his trust in the leadership of the junior-to-be.
- As for safety, Grantham said Ogletree's move is "a good opportunity" for Jakar Hamilton. The junior college transfer started several games last year before slipping out of favor. Grantham also mentioned Marc Deas, but you have to imagine some of the incoming recruits will also get a look to play alongside Bacarri Rambo.
Read more: http://dawg-extra.blogspot.com/2011/03/alec-ogletree-moves-to-inside.html#ixzz1FZqfSOuO
23 comments
|
0 recs |
Do you like this story?
Comments
Intriguing
I’ll have to wait until at least G-Day to see if I like the move, but Grantham seems pretty confident. And as you all know I likes me the Grantham.
"If there's one thing worse than chlamydia, it's Florida." ~ Emma Stone, Easy A
I am hopeful
We don’t have great depth at safety (especially for the spring), but I am all in favor of getting Ogletree involved in more plays. It also seems like it will be easier to mix up pressure from the secondary if you have a tested safety at ILB.
I wonder if we’ll ever see ‘tree and Richard Samuel on the field at the same time at ILB: that’d be two 5-stars playing positions other than the position they played as freshmen.
Our deep depth (lol)
is still a challenge. Maybe CTG’s plan is to destroy the line and the QB so it doesnt even matter.
"One thing I will never do as long as I’m at Georgia is lose to Florida." - Herschel Walker
Wow
We just got faster at linebacker. If Richard Samuel pans out, we might be talkin’ ’bout something here.
"If we score, we may win. If they never score, we'll never lose."
-Erk Russell
Great post!
Like RedCrake – I loves me some Grantham too. Good to see he isn’t “locked in” and is willing to uh, find what works!
"One thing I will never do as long as I’m at Georgia is lose to Florida." - Herschel Walker
I would have to think the coaches aren't in a vacuum -
Everyone else would have to see CTG moving folks all around, making them compete for positions.
I am fairly certain that the 1st down deep pass is part of how Bobo wants to develop his play action plan. The problem is we didnt have that strong a running game – heck, we didnt have that strong an offense in terms of play action execution. A lot of times it was backyard ball with great athletes. So, I don’t expect that much departure from the green book. I just hope it can be adjusted a little more.
"One thing I will never do as long as I’m at Georgia is lose to Florida." - Herschel Walker
hmmmm
an intellectual response, and here I was trying to be funny…………………./humor fail
I can bake like a demon.
I'd have figured he'd go outside...
over the TE, to both cover TEs and exploit his athleticism blitzing off the edge. But fair enough. I really don’t like the screwing around with Bean though, just give him a spot and let him learn it since that’s been said to be a problem in the past.
Hope the remaining safeties step up.
http://sportsandgrits.blogspot.com/
Unlike past years
this staff seems more inclined to put the best 11 on the field even if it is a little bit of a stretch (slightly under sized LB’s) – I love it.
With his frame...
an improved S&C and nutrition plan, I doubt Ogletree will be on the smaller side of LBs.
http://sportsandgrits.blogspot.com/
And visions of Thomas Davis are dancing in my head
Well, that’s what happens when you play Thomas Davis backwards, I guess. I like the move. Four athletic, hard-hitting linebackers, mixing up coverages, rotating frequently so that the QB can’t pick up the coverage? Isn’t that what the 3-4 is supposed to be about?
Not sure about the Bean move, though. I had thought the idea was to have him be BBJ’s understudy and move Tyson back to DE?
Guess we gotta hope Kwame Geathers is finally ready to play...
not sure who else we got for Nose.
http://sportsandgrits.blogspot.com/
He just might be:
I will say I’ve been pleased with Kwame Geathers in the offseason," Grantham said. "I think he’s busted his tail, and I’m looking forward to seeing what he can do in the spring. … He’s worked hard. He’s older. He’s mature. He’s changed his body a little bit. He’s gotten stronger, and as he’s added weight, he’s decreased his body fat. I’ve seen him work really hard.
h/t Leather Helmet Blog
If Kwame can provide NT depth, thus allowing for Big Bad John™ to remain fresh, this defense might just become one of the more improved units in all the land. Kwame’s family has always said that of all the football-playing kids they’ve produced, he’s the one with the most natural ability. Color me excited.
"If we score, we may win. If they never score, we'll never lose."
-Erk Russell
I wonder if this is a personnel move or a tactical one
I.e. Does Grantham want an ILB he can trust on to drop back and cover on passing downs or nickel situations.
Leaving insightful football commentary and analysis to other people since 2006.
Good point
kind of like a short field middle safety that is an effective MLB Spy (for those video game football junkies) on both run and pass.
Either way i’ll be honest, it wasn’t something i expected. Makes things interesting all over the defense.
Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may win.
I Corinthians 9:24
by Southern Dawg on Mar 4, 2011 2:02 AM EST up reply actions
Maybe not nickel...
…but an awful lot of pro defenses use the Tampa-2 scheme, where the safeties show a 2-deep look but the ILB drops back as a third safety. This really screws up the QB’s reads. With the general youth of several signal-callers in the SEC this year, I like the thought of QBs looking at Ogletree and trying to decide if he’s blitzing, playing man, or dropping deep. He’s the kind of guy who can make a QB pay for making the wrong read.
If Ogletree can be stout against the run, I really like what this lets us do against the pass.
by first and thom on Mar 4, 2011 9:49 AM EST up reply actions
As I read your post - I was thinking exactly what you finished with.
Ogletree is almost like the secret weapon in this plan. Very cool.
"One thing I will never do as long as I’m at Georgia is lose to Florida." - Herschel Walker
The Tampa 2 would be interesting, but it would be tricky.
Because of the Tampa 2 alignment, it would force us to use one of the middle linebackers as an outside backer to cover the distance between the line and the corners. In that situation, I’m not sure whether I’d prefer C-Rob playing the middle and Tree on the outside or vice-versa. You want your middle linebacker to be small and fast so that they can cover a streaking inside receiver, and Christian and Tree are both around the same speed.
Personally, if we decided to run the Tampa 2 out of our defense at all, I would bring Drew or Washington off the end with a hand in the dirt alongside Geathers, BBJ, and Abry, then I’d have Tree playing the weak outside spot, Robinson in the middle and Jarvis Jones on the strong side. Pair them with Boykin and Commings at corner (you want physical, strong tackling corners in the Tampa 2 to be able to press at the line and support the run) and Rambo and someone else at safety. I’d like to see Rambo at SS, simply because you need a big, intimidating guy at that spot in the Tampa 2 (think about how John Lynch played the position with Tampa in their heyday).
by hailtogeorgia on Mar 4, 2011 11:15 AM EST up reply actions 1 recs
It fits with the Lakatos CB model...
Which is “big, fast, strong, can cover, and can hit.”
I don’t think we’ll be a full-fledged Tampa-2 team. You’re dead-on with the challenges with running the scheme as a base defense, but I don’t think that’s where we’re heading. Rather, having a converted safety at ILB lets us run a three-safety D out of a base formation, giving us some Tampa-2 advantages without the need for John Lynch. With a safety-ish ILB, we can run base, blitz, and cover-3 out of the same look.
And – dang – having Big Bad John at NT just makes me feel a whole lot better about what we can do with the LBs.
by first and thom on Mar 4, 2011 11:54 AM EST up reply actions
Agreed on the formation note (as well as the BBJ note).
The fact that we can keep the same basic personnel on the field and run a legitimate Cover 2 and Cover 3 is really nice from the 3-4 is great.
by hailtogeorgia on Mar 4, 2011 1:13 PM EST up reply actions
I think every DB coach in the country looks for that "CB model"
not just Lakatos
http://sportsandgrits.blogspot.com/
Perhaps he is the exception that proves the rule,
but Exhibit A is Willie Martinez. Don’t ask me why.
by first and thom on Mar 4, 2011 1:21 PM EST up reply actions
Comments For This Post Are Closed
Secondary Sidebar
User Tools
Related FanPosts on Dawg Sports
FanPosts
Community blog posts and discussion.
