FanPost

A Brief Moment of Sanity Before the Fray

Todd Gurley intends to Wet our Hets

I don't think I'm breaking news to anyone when I say tomorrow could get out of hand. Perhaps not - our guys certainly have sufficient athleticism and talent to upset a team like Georgia if the game involves enough turnovers and we finally win a replay challenge on a scoring play (somewhere Mike Slive just smiled and doesn't know why) - but Georgia should certainly be favored by a comfortable margin (33.5 point spread… really Vegas?) Given the general fan reaction last week to losing by 10 on the road to a vastly improved SEC opponent, I’m concerned about how we’re going to react to a potentially much more ghastly defeat at the hands of a team that beat us by approximately 13,000 points two years ago. Yeah, I appreciate that our dissatisfaction on Saturday had more to do with how the offense looked and our perception of how the coaches reacted to seemingly obvious play calls from the opposing sideline, but after reading the comments section on this site and several others it’s clear that our emotions are beginning to play a role in our analysis. Once again I am absolutely not absolving the coaching staff of all of their mistakes or the results of these 5 games, but we’re a unique group of fans who need not experience the same failings of overreaction as our counterparts throughout the country.

Most of what I wanted to discuss has been addressed in other posts, but there are several points I really want to drive home in hopes of avoiding self-inflicted pain and torment when things possibly go awry tomorrow. And I’m going to be far too tightly wrapped in an emotionally-protective ethanol jacket by mid-afternoon to cogently express these thoughts at that point. The most recent iOS update wasn’t radical enough to allow me to dictate it thusly tomorrow: "Siri, appeal to people’s compassion for this team while citing historical precedent and whimsical anecdotes to avoid a full scale mutiny while I remain awash in this single malt stupor." Besides, not even an iPhone this large would possess the computing power necessary to verbally glaze over the heaviness of my tears following this impending contest:

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I'd be lying if I said most of that last paragraph was anything other than an excuse to post the gif that I've been laughing about all day.

Things to keep in mind as you feel the urge to take a weedwhacker to the hedges in Athens after another 37-yard rushing TD:

Our players are all of 14 days older, wiser, more experienced, and physically stronger than the last time I brought up this point that you’re entirely tired of hearing about but is nonetheless the most important factor affecting this team’s performance this season.

Youth. You’re sick of reading about it, I’m sick of typing it, Spurrier is sick of feeling the breeze created by Sims running past his coverage team, etc. etc. It doesn’t make it any less true. There are only two things that are going to change that - time and a metric crap ton of hard work by the coaches and players. The latter is absolutely there, we just need to be patient for the first. Just watch some of the position coaching videos on the athletic site or the SEC Network special showing Mason demonstrating proper foot work to our defense backs. They’re out there sweating and getting hit 6 days per week, and it will eventually pay huge dividends, just not as quickly as we would like. That’s life. We’re getting the privilege (inasmuch as witnessing the inner workings and results of a stomach flu is a privilege) of observing what transpires between the time a high school football player arrives on his college campus, puts on 15 pounds of muscle, sits through several years of position meetings, has their technique corrected in practice, and eventually starts his junior or senior year. The mistakes they’re making and the athleticism gains they’re undergoing are a maturation process that most programs have the luxury of dealing with before the stadium lights come on, but ours are occurring in front of a national television audience. That’s what happens when you have a coaching transition and an entire class detonates (referring to Franklin’s first class, the Scooby-Doo-like hijinks of which have been well chronicled on Anchor of Gold). It creates a performance chasm in the middle of your program and forces 31 freshmen to play significant minutes. Not even Vince Taylor’s gravitational field can fill a void that large.

This coaching staff is far more tactically gifted than we’re giving them credit for.

I agree that the 3rd and 4th attempts at calling an empty back set with late-developing routes against an obvious house blitz on 3rd down with a porous pass blocking offensive line was imprudent. But don’t think that point is lost on Mason or Dorrell, that they didn’t try several things to fix it during the game, or that they haven’t spent time this week developing more fruitful solutions. Listen to Mason’s more recent post game conferences or his weekly coaching show with Joe Fisher where nearly all of our concerns are addressed. He clearly understands the schematic issues facing both the offense and defense and alludes to the manner in which they plan on fixing many of them. As a light example, this brief clip from the SEC Network contains a bit of what I’m referencing. It’s not nearly as in-depth as most of his tactical comments, but it exhibits his ability to diagnose the finer points of quarterback footwork and offensive line mechanics. And that’s coming from a defensively minded coach.

http://www.secsports.com/video/11625653/film-room-derek-mason

"Watch carefully in slo-mo as we lose the 1-on-1 battle at every position on this play."

Pop Warner called, it wants our offense back.

Kidding… they don’t want it back. Dorrell deserves a good bit of criticism for some head scratching decisions, but the deck has been stacked against our offense so, so badly this year. An entirely new staff with an entirely new offensive scheme was forced to teach esoteric (and probably overly complex) NFL playbook concepts to 18 year olds with no college experience. We were already thin at receiver, and losing our only significant pass-catching experience due to Jordan Cunningham’s undisclosed personal issue was crushing. Finally, our one effective QB sustained a several-week-long concussion just as the offense was finding itself. (By the way, Dorrell called a great/creative game while our expected QB starter and only offensive leader was available against USC, but Patton’s injury has been devastating to our ability to move the ball. Freebeck’s going to be great, but for now the playbook is clearly limited while he’s in the game. He just needs more time.)

Against Kentucky we lamented that we abandoned the running game, but in actuality the run/pass ratio was nearly 1. Mason frequently states that we’re a run-first offense both by preference and by the fact that the offensive line is built to run-block, not pass-block. As for Freebeck getting his internal organs rearranged, Mason admits that the play calling needs to put him in better positions to succeed, but he also correctly states that Wade needs to get the ball out of his hands on hot routes when facing pressure and that the receivers are often completely covered up. We also pined for some screens and shorter passing plays. Those were actually called before we found ourselves down 10 in the 4th quarter, but we had several poor throws to open receivers and the UK defense sniffed out the screens we called before they could develop. Time, strength, experience, and continued improvement in play calling will yield far better execution in the future.

Not for nothing, but I’ve read a few too many statements along the lines of "the ineptitude of this offense is unprecedented and beyond anything we’ve ever seen". Nah. Remember the 2011 game at South Carolina during which we gained 77 total yards? And that was with a more seasoned QB, a future starting NFL running back, and the future greatest receiver in the history of the SEC. That year the staff and system were entirely new and there were growing pains. I, for one, am glad we didn’t run that coaching staff out of town because they went on to win 18 games over the next two years. Could've done without the part that happened right after that, but some birds weren't meant to be caged... and others were meant to have their linemen block each other during a failed 4th down attempt:

http://ftw.usatoday.com/2014/09/penn-state-linemen-block-each-other

Wildly inappropriate comparisons to other new coaches because it makes me feel better and carries the weight of historical precedent:

Mike Krzyzewski went 17-13, 10-17, and 11-17 during his first three seasons at Duke while his teams were young and he was working on recruiting players to his system. Many, many people called for his firing, but I think it’s safe to say they’re glad that didn’t happen. Do I think we’re going to the national championship game in Mason’s 6th year like that program did? Probably not. Do I think we should give our new coaching staff at least 2 and a half years to institute their system and recruit guys that fit that mold to supplement our fantastic young talent before we start considering setting our program back another several years by firing a guy before he had a chance to rebuild this team? Yes, hell yes, of course, yes. And yes, despite the 18 wins over the last 2 years I think it’s fair to call this a rebuilding year (or years) because the players that got us to 9 wins last season aren’t here any more, and the two classes behind them are rather bare (Seymour and Azubike are notable exceptions).

Since no piece of sports writing would be complete without an unnecessary reference to Nick Saban, his first Alabama team ended the regular season on a 4 game losing streak including a home loss to Louisiana-Monroe. They finished that regular season 6-6. … He’s done ok since then. Let’s give our guy a chance.

Georgia has something to prove to itself and fans tomorrow, and bringing a more seasoned team to Athens to avoid what may end up being a Truckasaurus rally would have been preferable. But those aren’t the cards we were dealt this year. There are many reasons Franklin was so eager to jump ship this offseason, but you’d better believe the youth of this year’s team was near the top of the list. He recognized the dip we were going to take even if the staff and system were held constant. Let’s do our best to support the product currently being put on the field, because you’ll take pride in their progress if you stuck with them when it was hard to watch. The players aren’t quitting on Mason and they’re not quitting on us. Let’s return the favor.

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October 4th: Wade Freebeck is out several weeks with 3rd degree burns and a fractured everything.

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