15 Thoughts is not Looking for a New Head Coach Today

Those black jerseys with the red trim looked mighty fine on Saturday. Georgia got the win on a breezy day in Sanford Stadium against a team that played hard even if we didn’t at times. Let us now focus on “Clean, Good Old-Fashioned Hate” week, where the clean is a lie but the hate is real.

1. Congratulations, Isaiah McKenzie who is now Georgia’s all-time punt-return touchdown leader with 5. Good things generally happen when you score, so as inconsistent as we played for much of the day I still felt pretty good about the eventual outcome when you took the first snap from scrimmage and blazed towards the end zone. Your punt return was vintage iMac. Do it again against Tech (if we can get them to punt). We’ve still got you for another year, too. This makes me happy.

h/t

2. I suspect points will be typically precious again next week against Tech, although Tech’s defensive front will be nowhere near as athletic as we’ve been up against for several weeks now, including yesterday. Louisiana-Lafayette had some big dudes on both sides of the ball, especially along the offensive line. Question: Have we attempted to block a punt all season? Have we really committed to setting up a punt return as well? I’ve love to get iMac some more opportunites (assuming Tech even punts on Saturday).

3. My favorite play of the day, with no disrespect to anyone wearing black, was Jacob Eason’s long touchdown pass to Nick Chubb. Eason had ample time in the pocket, went through his progressions, with either Riley Ridley or Isaac Nauta as his first two choices, didn’t like what he saw, rolled a little to his right and flicked a perfect ball to a perfectly positioned #27 who cheated behind coverage and took it to the house. This play showed how dangerous Eason will be once he has the type of line to give him the time to read progressions.

thanks, again @Loyal_To_The_G

4. It was a fairly vanilla offensive game plan by Jim Chaney in the grand scheme of things. I’m still baffled why we try to run McKenzie on sweeps inside the 10 like we do. I’m not sure I’ve seen this work down there since the ‘15 Auburn game. We still have great difficulty running between the tackles against larger defensive lines and yesterday was no exception.

5. Nick Chubb (16 carries, 108 yards, 6.8 avg.) is about as healthy as we’ve seen him prior to his injury. If next Saturday is his last game in Sanford Stadium, I hope he gets the ball early and often. He looks to be getting his top-end speed back a little bit as well. Sony did not have his best game yesterday losing a fumble and nearly losing another one early on (13 carries, 41 yards, 3.2 avg.), and most of his carries were between the tackles. He’ll be fine next week. We briefly saw Brian Herrien and there was an Elijah Holyfield sighting as well. I’m still not sure what we have in Holyfield, but Herrien - even with his limited opportunites - just has “it.”

6. It is hard to quibble too much on a day when we probably could’ve scored a few more touchdowns to finally break the 40 point barrier, but offensively we still struggle for consistency. We were missing Isaiah Wynn at tackle/guard because of last week’s injury. Again, a vanilla game plan on a day where passing the ball into the teeth of a strong NW wind sometimes dictates this.

7. Defensively, the 3 interceptions on deep balls by the Cajun’s Anthony Jennings were good to see. Deandre Baker is getting better and better every week...

8. A better collective defensive effort better be forthcoming next week against Tech’s Triple Choption. Our edge broke down all afternoon with poor contain. The Cajun’s QB’s were able to hurt us as well. ULL finished with 465 yards of total offense, and the second team looked like a sieve during their 4th quarter stint. Kirby was not happy.

9. Still, ULL attempted to convert on 4th-down 3 different times and were stoned on all three attempts, including Trent Thompson’s stop on 4th and mere inches. Tech is going to try this next week. A lot.

10. Quietly, special teams has really improved over the last few weeks. Kick coverage has been outstanding on those occasions where Rodrigo Blankenship isn’t putting the ball deep. Reggie Davis’ opening kick return to the Georgia 45 was about the perfect way to start when ULL deferred after winning the opening coin toss. Ryne Rankin and Brendan Douglas played well yesterday.

11. Noon kickoffs are bad enough. The only way (except for most out-of-conference games) to combat this in the future is to win more. That’s the plan, but next season’s craptacular home schedule will be probably be noon-heavy. There are some things the administration can to do mitigate noon kickoffs. Playing awful in-stadium music is not a solution. It’s a problem. I heard a lot of bad music during ESPN’s coverage. I wasn’t there, but didn’t need to be. Did I actually hear “The Outfield” during a break? Seriously?

12. So, Tech has won some games of late. They’ll come in here hoping to make it 2 for their last 2 in Sanford Stadium. It’s another noon start with the possibility of a less-than-enthusiastic/hung-over student section that might not be fully present.

13. I hate Tech. Wreck ‘em with extreme prejudice.

14. A lot of things happened yesterday:

• Florida beat LSU and returns to Atlanta in two weeks as cannon fodder the SEC East representative. I don’t think Ed Orgeron will get the gig in Baton Rouge. Pity.
• With Florida’s return as the victor in the East, was Tennessee’s season a success? It depends on your point of view, I suppose. I can’t help but think their window of opportunity has slammed shut for the next few seasons. Hey, we in fairness we missed our opportunity after the 2012 season as well. But if Tennessee was a stock, I’d be selling. (Am I buying Georgia? You betcha!)
• Texas has not (as of this writing) fired Charlie Strong, but the big burnt-orange boosters are convening down at Billy Bob’s right now and they’re about to write Tom Herman a big, big check. I don’t doubt that Strong is a good guy. It’s difficult to watch his descent.
• Michigan-Ohio State will actually be interesting next week. A meteor game if there ever was one.
• A 55-year old man fulfilled his dream yesterday. Sir, I salute you!

15. A shout out to all those Rebels who trolled me after Vandy beat us in Athens a few weeks ago because of one of these thoughts. Uh, you just lost to Vandy. Wait. I take that back. You just got ROUTED by Vandy. As of today, you are still not bowl eligible (but probation is still on the table). Cheers!

As Always, GO DAWGS!