Georgia Bulldogs Week 4 Review

Sep 28, 2010

That loud, screeching sound you heard this weekend was the train coming completely off the tracks of Georgia’s season. Recall the train scene from the movie The Fugitive, only that one was a little prettier. After last week’s 24-12 loss at the hands of Mississippi State, Georgia now finds themselves 1-3 (0-3), their worst start in nearly two decades. It was a pitiful display from just about every angle, and the heat on Mark Richt is as hot as it’s been since he arrived a decade ago. I think it’s safe to say at this point that some major changes need to/will be made this offseason, primarily on the offensive coaching staff. I think it’s highly doubtful Richt would get fired after this year despite the poor season, but you better believe in 2011 he’ll be coaching for his job. If things don’t drastically turn around next season it will be the end of the Richt era. I just don’t think that a brand new AD who has only been here a few months is going to want to fire Richt. But rest assured the pressure is starting to build and build fast. Let’s look at last week.

The Positives:-There really weren’t many so this will be incredibly short.

-Aaron Murray. Big surprise right? He’s been the most consistant bright spot for this team through 4 games, which says a lot about the team’s offense since it’s only his fourth career game. 18/31, 274 yards, 1 TD, 0 Int. He also picked up 32 yards on the ground and picked up some big first downs with his legs in the 2nd half. Sometimes it looks like he’s the only one actually trying. The direction of the program in general may be shaky in the next few years, but at least the QB position looks to be rock solid.

The Negatives- Pretty much everything else.

-Effort. When your players openly state to the media that some are taking plays off and not giving 100% effort, that’s not exactly a good thing. How these college kids who are allowed to play on a major SEC team and get a free education don’t go full speed on every play is mind boggling.

-Play Calling. It takes me a really long time before I’m ready to get rid of coaches (I was still on the Martinez bandwagon up until the Tennessee game of last year), but it’s time for a change with Bobo. The playcalling is pedestrian, lacks any creativity or rhythm, and is just plain awful. We continue to ignore our all-star caliber tight ends. We continue to run a 5’7″ scatback up the middle instead of out wide, even when our interior line can’t block. It seems like the only passing routes we have are deep ones. It was admitted after the game that sometimes we were just “calling plays blindly”. In other words, we had a play picked out that we were going to run no matter how the defense lined up. Huh? Why? And even if so, why tell that to the public? I don’t see how with that being on the table (and our atrocious offensive production thus far) that Bobo can continue on in his current capacity.

-Run game. Our leading rusher had 36 yards. We had a player fumble another ball AGAIN at the other team’s goal line. He shouldn’t have seen the field for a while after that, but yet he continued to get the bulk of the carries. Very frustrating.

-Mental errors. We had a punt bounce off a man to give the ball back to MSU. We had a touchdown (what’s that?) called back due to a wide receiver holding. We had an interception and return negated by an offsides. Time and time again we looked to take momentum from a positive play, but just completely wipe it out instead with stupid mental mistakes.

Next Week: @Colorado (7pm Est)

I’ve got a feeling that Georgia and Colorado fans are going to be the only ones tuned into this one, seeing as how these are two really, really bad football teams right now. Colorado would’ve fired their coach years ago but they can’t afford to buyout his contract. Georgia is clearly struggling. This should be an ugly game all the way around. There’s no telling if the travel/altitude will get to Georgia, but considering everyone doesn’t go 100% anyway I’d imagine we’ll show a little sluggishness. However, Georgia FINALLY gets AJ Green back this week from a 4 game suspension. He’s the best wide receiver in the nation and undoubtedly the best player UGA has, so hopefully the anemic offense we’ve had the misfortune of watching all season will start to show some signs of life. Even though Georgia is 1-3, they’re still is a big name program from the SEC so Colorado will be primed and ready for this one. They’ve even called for a Blackout. When it’s all said and done though, I feel like the AJ Green factor will be the difference and Georgia will win an ugly, relatively low scoring affair. At least I hope so, anyway.