Georgia-OK State Recap

I always find it hard to post after a nasty loss, for a couple reasons. First, I would prefer to keep the game off of my mind. Second, it’s really hard not to be really negative and, from here on in, I’m trying not to bash the players. Coaches, on the other hand, are paid a lot of money to win and are therefore fair game. That being said, here are my thoughts.

1. One of the really key plays in this game was Perrish Cox’s 74-yard kickoff return to start the second half. How could Georgia let this happen? They had just made nice stop at the end of the first half to keep themselves within 3 points. Then, this return happened and they were soon down 10, never to come close again.  This is a continuation of a troubling trend for the Dawgs; after being so good on special teams during Richt’s early years, they’ve had a lot of difficulties in more recent years.  I wanted to find the man to blame for this, but Georgia doesn’t list a special teams coach on their website.  I wanted to know if this was common, so I checked some other teams out.  Florida (whose website is as annoying as their team, by the way) doesn’t list one, but Tennessee does.  Virgina Tech doesn’t, but Texas does.  Alabama and LSU both list someone in charge of special teams.  Now I don’t claim to be an expert on the dynamics of a coaching staff, but I couldn’t find a limit on coaches in the NCAA rulebook- the only limitation that I could find was that total non-uniformed staff is limited to 60.  So it seems very strange to me that Georgia does not have a coach dedicated to this very important facet of the game.

"What's a special team?"

2.  Lately, Georgia has an uncanny ability to not force turnovers.  As I watched the game, I kept waiting and waiting for that big play from the defense that could turn the game around.  It never came.  Meanwhile, the Dawgs fumbled twice and threw a pick, leading to a -3 turnover margin.  Last season was much of the same- a -3 turnover margin for the season, good for T73 nationally.  The great 2007 season was good (+9, T18 nationally) , but 2006 (-1, T68) was as mediocre as 2008.  The obvious person to blame for this is defensive coordinator/secondary coach Willie Martinez.  Now I know that the defense performed pretty well statisically against the Cowboys, but Georgia dropped a couple interceptions and couldn’t force a fumble.  In other words, the defense played reasonably, but not well enough to bail out the anemic offense.

"Focus on getting the ball, not on laying a big hit!"

3.  The offense was about as bad as I’ve seen.  How much of this was due to Joe Cox being sick?  We won’t know until later in the season.  I was so giddy after they drove down the field with ease on the first drive.  But after that, it was downright nasty.  I guess Mike Bobo isn’t that good without studs like Stafford and Moreno.  If things continue at this pace, Georgia will be lucky to win 6 games.

"I have no idea what's going on right now"