Season 4 Volume 7: Kentucky

Pissed off Intro

Just a horrible game in every single department. You won’t win many games with 4 turnovers to your opponent’s 0 but the Dawgs had a chance and completely blundered it away. Credit Carolina, they forced turnovers and figured out the formula to make Georgia play horribly. We didn’t do ourselves any favors. Raw talent brought us back into the game and stupidity lost it for us. With the current talent discrepancy, we had no business losing to that team. The good news is, only one undefeated team has ever been in the CFP. 1 loss teams are in all the time and Georgia can be one of those teams this year. There is now zero room for error and a lot of things to fix. There are difficult decisions to be made (both on the player personnel and coaching side) and the difference between Richt and Kirby will be Kirby’s ability to unapologetically make those decisions

Coaching miscues

Listen, I am the biggest Kirby guy you will find. What he is done to build up a staff and flip Georgia’s roster should not be humanly possible to achieve in the amount of time he has had. He has major strides to make when it comes to game management. I have ignored it for a few years because he was getting us such unbelievable players, but it reared it’s ugly head Saturday. The good news here is that I think these are issues that can and will be fixed. Let’s review a few ugly spots from Saturday. Hopefully a little complaining will make us all feel better.

8 seconds left- unbelievable. Absolutely unbelievable. You had a chance to win the game with 8 seconds left and you did not let your All American kicker attempt a long FG. I would say hindsight is 20/20 but it’s possible that most of you heard me screaming from section 120 prior to the 3^rd down play being run. This was an easy call. It’s a call that a man making more than $7 million per year should make in his sleep. Below is a pro/con list of running another play with 8 seconds left:

Pro:

· Pickup an extra ten yards following a successful out route making a 56 yard FG a 46 yard FG

Cons:

· Fumble

· Interception

· Sack

· Run out of clock

· Penalty (thank you Tyler Simmons)

Timeout on 4th down- this was another head scratcher. I totally understand that you want to give your defense the best personnel and call to succeed on 4^th and 1. In doing so, you also give Carolina time to regroup and come up with their best 4^th and short play instead of having to rush to the line under immense crowd noise to get a yard in overtime. In trying to give ourselves an opportunity for a better look, we gave them a first down

Pace in 2nd half- the most egregious overall coaching error of all was our offensive pace in the second half. It was so disheartening to watch Georgia slowly proceed to the line in the late 3^rd quarter into the 4^th and snap the ball with 1-5 seconds left on the playclock. All the while, this game looks like a damn dog fight and everyone in the stadium knows that we may need those seconds ticking away to field a comeback. Overall, I estimate that 4 unnecessary minutes rolled off the clock as Georgia took their sweet ass time running a horrendous looking second half offense.

How to Fix it

Tyler Simmons- I’m sure he’s a great kid but he does not need to see anymore playing time this year. He does not separate, he’s undisciplined, he does not have great ball skills. If you see him trot out on one side of the field, I am sure the defense feels completely unthreatened on that side and can focus more support to the opposite side of the field. The tape is out on Simmons and it’s not pretty. More Blaylock, Pickens, Cager, Landers, Jackson, Robertson, etc. Anyone but Simmons.

Brett Davis-USA TODAY Sports

More no TE sets- Georgia has run 1 play this season without a TE on the field. It’s not an incredibly deep or dynamic position this for the Dawgs this year. If we had an Orson Charles type receiving threat, by all means, keep him out there on every down. But with limited athleticism and ability to go get open from our current guys, run some different personnel looks to get more dynamic playmakers on the field. Way too predictable from a personnel standpoint

Pace- Georgia’s most effective offense is always run in two minute. That’s of course due in part to defensive scheme in that situation but it’s also the comfort level of Fromm in those quick paced efforts. Our offensive pace was absolutely disgraceful and down right boring against Carolina. Pace has to improve to get this offensive problem fixed.

Offensive Line- The “best offensive line in the country” certainly didn’t play like it against Carolina. I know we’ve dealt with some injuries on the offensive line and we’ve had to shake some things up at times. But it looks like there is no rhythm along the offensive line right now. That could be in part because of how much substituting we are doing by series. We have really talented players across the line. We need to identify the best five and plug them in for a consistent, powerful line that knows what to expect from the man next to them.

Kentucky Preview

Kentucky is short handed at QB with their most athletic slot receiver, Lynn Bowden, playing QB last week against Arkansas. I’m sure Georgia has prepared for both a standard QB offense as well as Bowden playing run and gun. If Bowden is in at QB, there will be some frustrating plays that break down and suddenly he creates a first down. But there won’t be near enough of those plays to create consistent offensive performance. On offense, I expect Georgia to be in many different personnel and formational sets. If they aren’t, and we keep trying to slam the A gap out of shotgun 11 personnel, Kirby and Coley have learned nothing and we are in for a long season. I don’t expect them to resist to being adaptable. We should see things we haven’t seen and we should see a shift if the guys they trust in space. Kentucky lost way too many dudes on defense last year to keep it close. I expect us to get back on track. Dawgs 47 UK 17

Bucky’s Easy Money of the Week

4-1 doesn’t feel quite as good when the Dawgs lose. But the Dawgs are gonna make a long season run and I plan to do the same

Last Week: 4-1

2019: 16-14, 53% win percentage

Overall: 106-95-3, 53% win percentage

1. Miami (-18) vs Georgia Tech: Miami

2. Alabama (-34) vs Tennessee: Alabama

3. Oklahoma (-32.5) vs West Virginia: West Virginia

4. Texas A&M (-6) vs Ole Miss: Texas A&M

5. Vanderbilt vs Missouri (+20.5): Vandy