Georgia takes Florida Behind the Woodshed

After a long night celebrating the pwning Georgia put on Florida, I have arrived bask in the rightness of calling the shot. I had a feeling that this game would be a tough one for Florida, as they have shown a propensity for let downs (see both losses to Tennessee).  I also knew Georgia had to have a good day and play smart basketball. They did.

Yesterday, we saw the Georgia team that we'd hope we would see all season. Tough under the basket on both ends. Not afraid to get physical with the other team. Taking smart shots instead of aimlessly dribbling around or engaging in the halfassed passing offense until there are 10 seconds on the shot clock. KCP and Gerald had strong games. Ware had a huge game, too.

Also, mad props to the crowd. There were a lot of Gator fans in The Steg. At one point they started chanting some non-sense. Georgia fans drowned them out...and never got quiet after that. It was a good day. A very good day.

TD

If the Human Body is Moderately Complex, What They are Doing at S&C is Confusing

They are here to pump you up.

Am I missing something?

I noticed this posted at UGA's HR site this afternoon. Now, I am not sure what this is for, but unless they are planning on giving someone a new title and need a quick turnaround job posting to do this, it looks like the S&C program is going to be adding someone else.

Like Paul, I'm thrilled.
TD

The Human Body is at Least Moderately Complex

UPDATE: Anthony Dasher says apparently Armstrong jumped the gun on this announcement. It isn't a done deal yet. I assume Dash is headed to the airport to find out.

Georgia has apparently hired Sherman Armstrong as the new Speed Coach to support Coach T and the UGA strength program. He's a qualified and proven expert in his field, and the owner of his own training business. He has trained over 40 pro football players and 60+ NCAA athletes including Reggie Bush. Prior to his work as an trainer, he was an All-American track star.

I am THRILLED with this development.

Sidebar:
-- More about Sherman Armstrong
-- About VAST Performance
-- Pro Athletes Trained

For the past year or so, I have loudly complained about the lack of expertise in Human Performance Optimization in our Strength program. My basic beef has centered around UGA's painfully slow recognition that the human body is at least moderately complex, and it requires expertise (as well as dedication and effort) to get maximum return from our investment in our athletes.

Basically, we re-staffed the strength function last year with guys who were committed to bringing accountability, hard work and focus to the S&C program at UGA. The result was a harder working, stronger and more in shape Bulldog squad (Note: Groo used the term "tougher" and I prefer that to my description). Their efforts generated meaningful improvement, and it was good enough to get the proverbial ox out of the ditch. Coach T deserves a tremendous amount of credit for that improvement.

However, leap frogging Bama and LSU requires more than just hard work. It requires working smarter.

Last year, we welcomed our athletic department to the late 1990s by hiring an actual nutritionist to address the fuel for our players' bodies. Last year, we also welcomed the athletic department to the mid-2000s by opening a high end rehab facility for our athletes inside the renovated Butts-Mehre building. The facility now includes submersible running pools and other facilities that most of CUSA had installed years earlier.

Better late than never I guess. Regardless of my bitching about the past, I am glad to see the program rebuilding the infrastructure it needs to go forward. We have come a long, long way in the past 18 months.

Anyway...back to the Speed Coach. Do I think he's going to make our players inherently "run faster." Nah. But he can improve their change of direction, flexibility and endurance. Those are factors that will make them PLAY faster.

See Also:
-- The Future of Georgia's Strength Program - DawgsOnline
-- Team Speed Kills - Blutarsky

PWD

Final Thoughts on LSU

Well, I've gotten both sides of my mind clear.  A few other thoughts rolling around in my head:

• Playing disciplined: The Vandy game illustrated what can happen if we don't keep our heads about us. They pulled off a fake punt, got free yards on dumb penalties, and nearly won the game because they got in our kitchen. Under no circumstances can we afford to just give LSU free yardage. We have to worry about making plays instead of looking to blow someone up. If it gets personal, show them up on the field with our play, not with some out of the way late hit or stupid attempt to get in their face. You don't have to 'show them' to get respect, especially if all you have to do is point at the score board post game.
• Getting them to play undisciplined: I don't hold out a ton of hope over this. Even with the chippiness and the level of trash talk Mathieu brings to the game, the swagger is deserved. If...IF... we can do that, they are prone to lapses. Getting 15 free yards and a first down is huge. Getting them out of their game, even more so.
• Special special teams: No Brad Wing rolling across the Outback like Quigley. No Honeybadger returns for TDs. No one hop behind the back laterals on fake FGs. No blocked kicks allowed. Butler and Walsh kicking like the NFL is watching.
• Lesticles and the streak ending: Think about Miles' predilection for doing stuff that makes everyone but the dude that does motorcycle jumps on New Year's Eve gasp. The fake FG against Florida. Throwing to the end zone against Auburn. Telling Michigan no. At some point, his luck has to turn. 

Finally, if the Dawgs do win today, will that make LSU just another mediocre SEC East team?

TD

40 Motivational Speeches in 2 Minutes

GATA.

PWD

About Rodney Garner

I have privately held deep concerns about Coach Rodney Garner's results on the field the past few years. I've kept almost all of those concerns off the blog because Garner is such a lightening rod for a subset of fans of a variety of reasons.

With all of that said...Rodney Garner coached his ass off this year. We have our best defensive line since 2004, and it's not just a talent upgrade. Our guys are playing the position with freat technique and fire.

If you're going to bitch about a guy. You gotta step up and admit when he's doing a great job. Thus, this post.

PWD

My 3 Beefs with Richt

"Just put that old hot seat over there. We'll send it to Knoxville."
For the past few years, I've repeatedly listed my three top concerns with Mark Richt and the UGA football program as:

1. Lack of a Sense of Urgency
2. Lack of a Meritocracy
3. Personnel Utilization

Coach Richt embraced the challenge of resolving these issues, and we now have the third longest winning streak in FBS. Only LSU and Houston are riding longer streaks. As Tyler said earlier in the week, who saw that coming walking out of the Georgia Dome in September? Not I.

Where did Richt start? In my opinion, the sense of urgency is definitely back in Athens.

A long rumored conversation between McGarity and Richt after their first year together was said to have gone something like this:

Richt: "What's the biggest difference between us and the Gators given what you've seen so far."

McGarity: "They are outworking your staff and players."

Did that conversation really happen? I've heard it so many times, I believe something similar to it did take place. If it didn't it, damn sure should have. Regardless...if your new boss (who is a credible expert on your #1 rival/measuring stick AND who most certainly does NOT want to fire you) drops that line on you...it packs a punch.

Once you instill a sense of urgency into a program with the vast resources of Georgia, the other two issues can fix themselves.

That said...just hiring Coach Tereshinski, bringing in a nutritionist and upgrading the coaching staff wasn't enough to dig us out of the hole we were in. Not after we lost the bulk of two full recruiting classes due to mistakes, discipline and being asleep at the wheel.

Everything...and I mean everything else had to break Coach Richt's way due to his staggeringly narrow margin for error. Especially after starting 0-2.

The strength program had to fix the 4th quarter collapses. The returning defenders needed to get comfortable with the system. Jarvis Jones needed to be an elite playmaker completely unfazed by his prior neck injury. Alec Ogletree needed to jump into playing LB for the first time in his life like a seasoned veteran. The freshmen defenders needed to step up (Herra has been a revelation), and Jenkins/Geathers need to emerge as a dominating presence at DT.

All while Malcolm Mitchell and Isaiah Crowell lived up to their billing. All of that happened. Some of you will argue that Crowell hasn't lived up to the hype, but I'd argue that a true freshman RB who is still on pace for a 1,000 yard season is doing better than OK. It's even more amazing that all of this happened while Mitchell, Crowell, Ogletree, Robinson and one of our starting OL (when we thought we had no backups) were banged up at several points.

I'm amazed that we're in this position, and I'm very excited about the future. We return a ton of talent in 2012, and we may have an extremely favorable schedule. It's a tremendous position we find our program in. Especially relative to the Gators and Vols.

Still can't believe it.

PWD

Mea Culpa

I'm still here, y'all. (Image: Jim Hipple)

I have a confession. Back in September, I thought Mark Richt would not be the coach of the Georgia Bulldogs on Monday, November 28, 2011. I stood on the Marta platform after the last trip to the Dome and speculated with my friends how few games we'd win. We discussed who we could reasonably get. We nearly all agreed that yesterday would be the day the Mark Richt era would end. I was officially in the dark place.

I did hold out some hope we'd be competitive, blind hope, or so it seemed at the time. Yes, the schedule still looked easy enough. Yes, we'd have a couple of key guys back on defense. Still, the offensive line got whipped in the Boise game. We weren't in a position to run the ball. We couldn't stop the underneath pass or play action. Most damning, we looked tired and uninspired.

At that point, the off season changes appeared to be mere re-arranging of deck chairs. My, how long ago that seems.

I was wrong. Coach Richt made tough off season changes, changes that have yielded results.  I think the results are still a work in progress, and we'll find out how much of a work in progress it is on Saturday afternoon. This team plays like teams in the early to mid 2000's did. This coaching staff consistently makes smart adjustments and plays the strength into weakness game well (something we definitely didn't do the past 3+ seasons). On whole, players get stronger as the game goes on.

I am no Mark May. I admit when I am wrong, without alibi or explanation of why I might have been a little right.

There are strong arguments for three coaches to win the SEC Coach of the Year award. Franklin, for getting Vandy relevant (insert your own snark here). Miles for going 12-0 with that schedule and more QB drama than they had at South Carolina. Richt, for completely and totally remaking his team and himself. No one would have thought Richt would be in that conversation back in September.

TD

Domination

I was trying to remember the last time Georgia played a quality*, ranked opponent and physically dominated them defensively like that. I was looking for games where Georgia knew exactly what the opponent's offense was planning and beat the hell out of them for even attempting it.

I think you have to go back to the LSU game in '04 to find a woodshed treatment as flawless, violent and dominating as that. I'm still blown away.

For most of the past 20+ years, I've considered Auburn the consistently most physical team that Georgia faces. With the exception the final few finesse oriented Terry Bowden years, the Tigers were a gut punching, brawling group. Even with Malzahn's offense, there's still a physical point of attack aspect.

That's why Saturday afternoon is even more impressive to me. To have the defense clobber Auburn and drag them out of the stadium by their manhood while the offense imposed their will and stole their lunch money is just staggering.

I'm so proud for the coaching staff at Georgia, and I can't wait to see what the future holds in the final four games. That's right...I said four.

Go Dawgs.

PWD


*Hawaii was not a quality opponent. They were just ranked as such.

Venerate or Denigrate? My Thoughts on Grantham

Wait, let me title this 'My thoughts on Franklin.'  Lost in all of this, due to the choke sign last year, is that Franklin is way more than complicit in what happened.  As what happened in the game, the second guy is the one that always gets caught.  His condescending statements about the situation merely show that:

“We just had a tough, emotional game and some things were said that I didn’t think were appropriate. I went to find Coach Richt and didn’t find him, so I found one of his assistant coaches and it didn’t go well. We’re not going to sit back and take it from anyone.”

Now, I'm not going to say Grantham is blameless here.  Clearly he has a temper and that temper got the best of him.  But is Grantham supposed to 'take it' when the other guy gives it out?  If the story that Franklin was chastising a Georgia player on the field is true, then the whole situation sits on Franklin's shoulders.  That is a way bigger issue than the choke sign last year.

Of course, there are people willing to lay all the blame on Grantham for everything due to something he did a year ago without even worrying about how it went down, or why.  Grantham is a very passionate coach.  We need that.  From my seat, Grantham didn't do anything other than stand up for his guys.  We, as Georgia fans, deserve whatever we get if we are willing to cast him aside for that.

If I am proven wrong, I'll say so.  Until then, I believe there were at least two men involved that could have handled their business differently.  Regretfully, only one is getting the blame.

TD