Eason's offense, questions and maybe some answers

It's pretty easy to feel comfortable with a defense that returns so much talent and experience, especially up front. Trent Thompson will lead a unit backed by promising stars such as Roquan Smith and Natrez Patrick. And there's also a couple senior linebackers that put off professional dreams for one more season to try and live up to their potential in Davin Bellamy and Lorenzo Carter.

And I've also pointed out some reasons to feel pretty comfortable with the 2017 slate of games. The home schedule may not offer much at first glance, but I'm encouraged that playing teams like App State and Samford under Sanford Stadium's lights should provide a better atmosphere than last year's game against Nicholls State. And hopefully the scoreboard takes it easy on our nervous system as well.

So most of the questions/concerns I have are on offense and special teams:

• What will Eason in year two look like?
• If When a game comes down to a kick, do we have someone the coaches trust and have prepared for just such an occasion?
• Will Chaney call plays for an offense that is working on the same page consistently?
• The offensive line can't be worse than last year, but exactly how much better will it be with so much youth?
• Can Mecole step in for McKenzie in both the return game as well as the dependable slot receiver position that we depend on so much?

Those are the big ones right now. For that last question, I'm encouraged when I read things like this from Terry Godwin:

“Whenever the ball is up, he’s going to go get it,” Godwin said of Hardman. “When you see that burst of speed, I mean, I haven’t seen anything like that in a long time. He has something special.”

A lot of people were wondering last year where Hardman was and why he wasn't getting more looks with the ball in his hands. I certainly hope he makes the coaches sorry they kept him on defense last year. It might leave a sour feeling in our guts for what might have been last year, but it could sweeten our tea a bit if he can produce like we seem to be counting on him to.

As for Eason, I'm not concerned at all really. It's good to have Ramsey back as insurance, and I think Fromm has the talent to step in if needed this season. And he certainly has the game to challenge Eason in the future.

But this is Eason's season to shine. On the latest Waitin' Since Last Saturday podcast, Lietch and UGA beat writer Emerson discuss the pressure on Eason in the offseason. They point out something that we tend to forget - #10 won a game against Missouri with his arm, and should've won one against Tennessee as well. I would also add that it was his throw to McKenzie that turned the tide against the Tar Heels in the opener.

So we know what he can do in pressure situations and we've seen him make all the throws. Can he have the time to make all the reads this season? Will his deep ball provide a more consistent threat to stretch the opposing defense? Will the receivers drop less passes that are on target?

I think our quarterback is poised for a great season. I think our offensive line is built more for what Pittman and Chaney are aiming for up front. Hopefully that means we can use Nauta and Blazevich as receivers more. And it sounds like Chubb 2017 is back to his old 2015 self, and behind him is enough talent to fill the entire SEC East with starting tailbacks.

We saw what quarterbacks like Greene, Stafford, and Murray were able to do in their second season. They all did so with a competent if not good offensive line, well rounded running backs and receivers to keep defenses honest. If Eason is afforded the same luxuries those guys had, it could be a lot more fun to watch the offense this season than it has since Murray graduated.

Go Dawgs!

Overcoming the Malkom Parrish injury

Smart said it's no "doomsday". And I tend to think the senior defensive back will be ready for the opener against App State. But it's worth looking at what our secondary would be like without him through the rest of August's practices as well as the season opener. After all...

“We could sit around and cry and whine about it. But it’s not a position we’re real deep at right now. It’s not a great situation but that’s what football is, guys. In football, you’re going to have injuries and you have to overcome them.”

In the short term, the lack of depth and experience in the secondary will get a boost as those young guys get more reps. There should be a lot of raw talent there and I imagine Smart will have a keen eye on their progress while Parrish is on crutches healing that tender foot.

But in the long term, with uncertainty and now an injury to a key starter, we should definitely be worried about our secondary unit opening up against a team that likes to chunk the rock around. Taylor Lamb is a senior quarterback for the Mountaineers and he'll bring a squad of shifty, athletic, and TALL receivers.

Parrish has experience, but the younger guys behind him have more the height you'd like to see at this level. Kirby and staff have been recruiting it, hard. Tyrique McGhee is largely believed to be the first guy behind Parrish. McGhee brings some game experience and will certainly be counted on regardless of whether Parrish makes it back for the opener or not. But I'd bet these freshmen step up to show what they can do.

At least I hope so. Because an injury can be a setback. But it can also be an opportunity. Is Parrish's injury just a chance at some more reps in shells? Personally, with their talent and size, I'd love to see someone like Speed, Brini or Poole step up and earn some actual playing time.

2017: will the scenery change this season?

When collecting one's initial thoughts about an upcoming season of Georgia Football, Lewis Grizzard is as fine a place to start as any:

"If you ain't the lead dog, the 

scenery never changes."

For Dawg fans, the scenery has been about the same for some time. Since our last December trip to Atlanta in 2012, the SEC East has remained very much winnable. But Georgia has only gone 20-12 in conference play during that span, finishing 3rd, 2nd, 3rd, and 3rd. So, far from the back of the pack, but still staring at a lot of rivals' asses.

Pass the Lysol please.

What we hope is the gators' view this season.
(pic taken @ Kenny B's French Quarter Cafe,
Hilton Head Island, SC)

A quick glance shows that the division once again is firmly in Georgia's sights this year. Tennessee, 2016's pre-season darling, lost most of its starters and plays at both Florida and Alabama. South Carolina should be improved but is still at least a year away from bringing in the talent necessary to compete for the East. Missouri is awful, and Kentucky and Vandy will do their best to keep the western Tigers in the cellar.

That leaves Florida. I tend to think our schedule is very favorable this season, but a look at Florida's proves they may have an easier road to Atlanta. We have road trips to Knoxville and West Opelika. They're biggest test away from The Swamp is a toss up between Columbia East or Lexington's new Kroger Stadium. The Gamecocks might be improved, but they're still a young offense and Florida's defense will once again be one of the conference's toughest. And while the former Commonwealth Stadium may not be a true beauty to look at, there's only one brand of conference turf whose recent life mission has become to shred as many Bulldog's knees as possible within a 60 minute game - Knoxville's Neyland Stadium.

"It's bad." Advantage gators.

If all that plays out in the division the way that I just typed it, then it will come down to the annual clash along the St. Johns River. Well, I should say it could come down to the Georgia-florida game. We lost there in 2002 and still made it to Atlanta, but wasn't the trip a little sweeter in 2004, 2011 and 2012?

After all, the lead dog shouldn't need a back door in. Go Dawgs!

Cleaning out some off season clutter

Before we get to truly preparing ourselves for the Mountaineers (App State is the Mountaineers, right?) there's a few things I want to clear off the desk so that we can truly focus on football.

A brief Q&A. Yes, I do actually remember the password to this little blog thing. How 'bout that!

No, I did not spend the off season at at the "spa" with Nurse Ratched.

Yes, I will be around more frequently so that we can do all of the gnashing of teeth, fist bumping, high-fiving, commiserating, and crying together, as well as share a drink or three.

No, Jim Cheney still won't answer my calls. So I have no idea how good our offense will be.

Yes, I'm hopeful.

No, not overly so.

At least I don't think so.

BBQ. I'm done tweeting about this, and in a moment I'll be done typing about it. Does it make a huge impact on gameday experience that Dreamland is now contracted by Aramark to provide food for Sanford's visitors? No, and I agree this development has garnered way, WAY too much noise. But that's just the problem, it's a small decision that is indicative of a dangerous separation between Butts-Mehre leadership and us, the fans. It's just the Athens-native in me I guess, support local businesses. Or at least make them say no before you call a business on Central time.

Did Kirby's shiny IPF put a blindfold over CMR's "Eye on the Sky"? I do not miss the team having to travel all the way to Flowery Branch to practice football. I do kind of miss Richt talking about the weather some though. Storm clouds in August and hot chocolate in November..ah, good times. Friend of the blog Robert likes to remind me of my staunch opposition to building that thing. And no, I'd rather the team not use it unless it can be filed under "Drastic Measures Taken". But I have to say, I have no issue with how Kirby has managed practices thus far. I've said before he has always struck me as someone who would have the team's overall development at heart when making decisions about whether to head indoors and make 'em grind it out in the actual true-game elements.

Ole Miss. Holy sh*t what a mess. Whether it's mascot changes or bucking the system, you gotta admit those Oxford Grovers go all in. Like you, I'm still spending a little too much time grinning at the fall that Freeze is taking. Man that SOB has had it coming!

One day I swear I'll get more in line with feeling sorry for the true victims, the players, the Freeze family and the Ole Miss fans. But probably not tomorrow and Wednesday ain't looking good either.

I asked, Siri answered. The more you know... The news caught me by surprise, so:

“Siri when did uf start literally suspending tackle footballers?“

“Bernie, this afternoon. Have a great evening!”#anotherreasongatorssuck

— Bernie (@BernieDawg) August 13, 2017

Have a great week y'all. Go Dawgs!

"Get a BIG neck."

Since everyone showed up by Sunday evening and camp began successfully forthwith, your Georgia Bulldogs have earned a preseason ranking of #15!

"It’s the sixth straight year Georgia landed in the top 25 in the first poll, but has finished unranked in two of the last four seasons in 2013 and 2016."

To avoid finishing unranked again, our offense line is going to have to be much better (because it can't possibly be....nevermind, not going to even finish that thought). To go from #15 to top four, our playmakers are going to have to stay healthy well past that Autumn visit to Neyland Stadium's zombie hillbilly turf of the walking dead apocalypse.

Anyway, thought I'd just off the ol' blogger password and say "Hey!" and whatnot. And also remind everyone to keep following their Erk calendar!

Go Dawgs y'all!

(click to enlarge)
h/t Mac...h/t Kid Terrell

"I think in order to truly succeed in life is dependent on how you truly transition in those seasons.”

This is real good stuff from Emerson on how Tra Battle has "transitioned" through Life's different seasons. He's the one former Georgia player to have been roommates with both Paul Oliver and Quentin Moses, so it hasn't been easy.

“In rationalizing death and grief, you do realize that the people who are no longer with us wouldn’t want you to meet them this soon,” Battle said. 

Jon Fabris, the former Georgia defensive assistant, had a saying that stuck with Battle: “Every man a brick.” So a brick by itself is nothing. It’s just a piece of clay. But when you get every member of the team mortared together, you can build skyscrapers, monuments, etc.

 “The things that were important to Q-Moses, from everyone that was close to him, you still have to continue that body of work,” Battle said. “For things that were important to P.O., in accountability to him, you have to continue that body of work. So the things that were important to those individuals, they have to become important to you.”

 Amen.

Greg McGarity is the Michael Scott of athletic directing

The Office icon was a humorously ineffective leader that managed to stumble around his own blunders long enough to sell ads for NBC. The head honcho of Butts-Mehre's blunders aren't funny. At all. More like a really bad record that skips to its worst part over and over again.

I think HooDawg and Blutarsky are right, In these days and times with UGA Athletics there's so much to live for and also be enormously frustrated about that it's confusing. It's frustrating. It's sad and it's depressing.

It's confusing.

McGarity should bear the brunt of that ball of emotions. His hiring record is not up to SEC standards and he's about to hire yet another gymnastics coach (and likely a baseball coach as well). His public relations skills are worse than early pre-WWI editions of socialist propaganda, mainly because they lack the public censorship necessary to drive the points home. Which is to say that once he realizes he's disenfranchised a large enough percentage of donors he'll sit down with someone at the AJC and clumsily pull a shiny quarter out of his pocket.

The problem is that not enough people are calling McGarity on it. Bloggers and active social media users can vent, and the media will reference our discontent enough to get that quarter back out of Gregory's dockers, but for the most part I get the sense that there's a wait and see philosophy amongst the higher ups.

Maybe everyone's hoping Kirby can break the ceiling again; if the Sky Suite wallets are happy the Scranton office of Dunder Mifflin can keep on selling paper. Or maybe McGarity has compromising pictures of somebody. If so, I wish said somebody would find a way to burn that evidence so that the rest of us can move on.

I don't know what exactly it is that keeps Greg from forced retirement. However, I do know that, administratively speaking, leadership is lacking in UGA's athletic office. McGairty has proven he's not Jeremy Foley, as we once wished when he was hired to replace Damon Evans. In fact, our AD is so far from that level of competence it leads me to believe that McGarity spent all his time during Florida's hey-days making paper clip chains and jamming the Xerox machine...again.

UGA alumni and supporters can continue to turn their heads, but eventually that practice leads to trouble.

Kirby is recruiting at a level that could break that ceiling. Even if he does there's no amount of McGarity propaganda that can convince me that his "search firm" made the decision in Kirby's favor. Should we let this man continue to make important decisions about the other coaching hires, the facilities, whether or not two trash receptacles are enough for a gameday weekend in the Fall, just how full the UGAA ca$h coffers should be, and whether or not he should be so bold and brazen to...I don't know...pick up the phone and call Greg Sankey to say something along the lines of "Hey! Enough with the noon games goddammit!!"

I was lucky enough to attend the annual Terry College of Business Gala the other night. As we waited for friends to arrive we noticed many faces of UGA prominence, in the business, administrative and athletic fields. (The wife even finally got a picture with Sean Bailey!)

My point is that you tend to take notice of people of importance as soon as they enter a room. There's a shift in the air movement, and if you miss that sign you surely notice other heads turning. "Hey, there's Dan Cathy. Yep, that's President Morehead."

Then...there he was. He slipped in practically unnoticed all the way through check in and was putting on his name badge. "Hmmph, there's McGarity."

We need a leader for an athletic director. Instead we have a limp dish rag. And the only ones laughing at these jokes are our rivals.

Happy National Goal Line Stalker Day!

No. 34 is 55 years young today! How I miss that glorious tear away jersey.

Love...true love...should be reciprocated.

McGarity would like us to know that he hears us.

The state of the bathrooms has been criticized, as well as long concession lines and other areas of complaint. McGarity, whose initial response when that was brought up two weeks ago didn’t please some fans, made clear Thursday that he hears them. 

“It’s important to us.,” he said “We’ve made strides. Have we made enough strides, no. Is it important to us, yes. And I think the message that we’d like to convey is that it’s a huge deal for us.”

I can guarantee you that I've stood in those long concession lines and waded through the "water" in the restrooms MANY more times than AD McGarity. But, it's not a "huge" deal to me. I mean if I'm being honest, it's something I have to deal with just a few times a year. So how can it be a "huge" deal to him and the other penny pushers in Butts-Mehre?

You're right. I need to stop picking nits. But what's so damn frustrating is that despite all the calls and emails McGarity has undoubtedly received since the Sanford Stadium expansion news came out a couple weeks ago (and kudos to Bill King by the way for this excellent follow up that I believe really drives the point home) is that I remain wholeheartedly unconvinced that he nor anyone else with decision making power in the athletic office understands any of us.

Hearing what someone is saying, or reading what they've typed at you is easy. Understanding those words requires true public relations and moderate or better empathetic powers.

This past season I missed just one home game and attended two away games. That's about standard for me actually. For those of you that make the trek to see the Dawgs play understand that the decision to do so can be compartmentalized into two categories - tailgate experience and game experience.

"Wooo boy you should see the size of my reserve fund!"

I love watching Georgia play football. Despite it's drawbacks and inadequacies, Sanford's still the best place to be on a Saturday in the Fall. (And again, for those of you that also make the trek, I hope you've been following Silver Britches Blog's recent series about bringing glory back to Sanford. I sure wish McGarity would...) But a big reason I like to go to Athens is to see old friends and be on campus with them again. Share some food and drink and catch up...it's as simply southern as you can get and it always scratches me right where I itch.

I would imagine you feel similar if not the same dear Reader. But what have we gotten lately? If I get up really early I can get to the tailgate in enough time for a brief "How's ya mama and them?", a couple beers to chase the bloody mary, and then hurry off to see another noon kick. "Oh, and for your troubles here's a shitty pretzel and a half-filled cup of Coca-Cola. Yes, the 1970's era urinal stand is around the corner. Follow the smell!"

And that's why we're upset. That's the point Bill King made so well in that post and that's the point Silver Britches is making with their posts on Sanford Stadium upgrades. Why can't Sanford Stadium be in the upper echelon of collegiate tackle football venues for ALL involved - the coaches, the players, the recruits, the mamas of recruits, the sky suite denizens, the referees, the grandmamas of recruits, as well as us...you, and me, the average fan? 

UGAA has the money. So what everyone is wondering is why not make all the changes that need to be made so that everyone can be happy on Saturdays in the Fall?

In many ways, it'd be so much easier to invite some friends over and tailgate at the house. You'd save a lot of money, get the convenience of a modern toilet, and see the game in high definition. "Oh, and for your troubles you get to spend the day feeling appreciated rather than as an after thought."

Because that's what McGarity's version of Butts-Mehre gives us - after thoughts. "Ladies and Gents, look at these amazing upgrades that're coming to Sanford!" Two weeks later, sitting down with an AJC writer,"Of course we care about [insert latest list of latest gripes and grievances]. Here's what we are planning and by the way here's the obstacles that we've had to deal with."

Like Bill said, we find Georgia football hard to give up. It's entrenched in our hearts and minds. The suits should care about that, right? More and more each year it feels like a one-sided relationship.

Rodrigo speaks

Well, I was right about one thing. Rodrigo Blankenship is happy in Athens and sounds like he plans to compete and get better. Because at midnight, with only 14% left on his phone battery, he tweeted this out:

 

Maybe now the dad will shut up and let his kid play football.