Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Dawgs...Off Balance...and Ready!

I read this piece by Dean Legge yesterday and couldn't help but wonder...what better way for Coach Richt to prepare young men for life than to pull the rug out from under them?


Take this portion:
For too long the defense, in particular, has done a pitiful job reacting to turnovers. They have been put into some terrible situations time and again, but for the most part they have surrendered touchdowns rather than field goals and fields goals rather than punts. That needs to change. Fans can beat their chest all they want about Todd Grantham, and he is good, but if he doesn’t get the defense ready for sudden change and adversity then the problem won’t get any better.
The man makes a point. You can't prepare a team for a season without helping them feel what it will be like when Alabama has their right cleat on their throat before the 2nd quarter begins (...like, say...2008...) or the HillBillies have an outer team experience and are kicking your ass down each end of the field (2009).

A long college football season brings its own turds. Flushing them as soon as possible can mean the difference between a crappy win and a schatty loss.

Look, I trust Coach Richt. I truly do. But we're hearing that he's got a new focus. He's the same man but a different coach. I'm sure he's felt he's prepared his past teams for adversity. Maybe this season he should roll a different set of dice. Ruffle some feathers. Jerk the Dawg chain in a different direction.

If nothing else, take Legge's suggestion:
Have a fire drill clear out the bottom floors of the Butts-Mehre building and then go have an impromptu matt drills session. Let them think everything is ok, and then spring one on them, or do it multiple times.
Whatever it takes. Prepare to finish the drill...in August.

2 comments:

Ollllddude said...

Coach Richt may occasionally be able to summon his "Evil Richt" persona but I would not expect that to be a regular thing. It just isn't him. But, the good news is that he may have hired CTG to do that for him. Plus - and I really do believe this - we need only a scheme that allows the defensive talent to flourish for us to succeed. I am not predicting that we will be the best defense in the country. I know we will make mistakes, and sometimes we'll get burned by those mistakes. But we are going to make a lot of great plays as well because we have some hosses and they will be cut loose a lot more than in the past few years. When we play Bama in Atalanta in December it is going to be our right cleat on their throat.

Bernie said...

If responding to adversity is a task for Evil Richt, then we need to bring that guy out more.

And I like your prediction there!