But then I saw this and you need to see it, too. (h/t Senator, and big thanks to Dawgs Online)
Come on, this is ridiculous.
So Mark Richt admits that the kickoff team is really, really, super duper young and inexperienced and doesn't know what they're doing 90 percent of the time.
So Jon Fabris challenges them by kicking off out of the huddle, and THIS is the result.
And let's not forget to mention that, while the ball went in the air while the coverage team was six yards shy of the line of scrimmage, they also LINED UP IN AN ILLEGAL FORMATION.
Seriously, it's a kickoff. Why does it have to be treated like rocket science?
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18 comments:
I've never really understood the break from the huddle on the kickoffs. It's not like the receiving team is playing man-to-man defense and has to scramble to find their guy. They block a spot and whoever is running at them. So you could dress everyone in camoflauge, have smoke go off from the 30 and cloak the players in an invisible wizard's potion that hides them from behind the 30 (or whereever they kick from) and it doesn't matter... the receiving team just picks them up later. And it's not like they get caught crazy off guard ("OH MY GOD! THEY KICKED THE BALL OFF! WE HAD NO IDEA THAT WAS COMING!") cause of a huddle break.
I could keep going on about this (how far the flankers have to run to the side totally negates any surprise), but I'll stop.
Fabris must stop coaching special teams after this year or CMR needs to be fired. Enough is enough. Yeah, I said it.
Classic case of over coaching. Just keep it simple stupid! Line up and when the kicker kicks the ball run like hell to it!
"Fabris must stop coaching special teams after this year or CMR needs to be fired. Enough is enough. Yeah, I said it."
I love it! Another DumbDawg treating the football program like a set of Legos. Me no likey! Me smash!
Who ya gonna hire in place of Richt, Spencer? Let me guess...VanGorder/Pollack/Gruden/Whatever else that won't work and won't keep Richt's recruits from bailing? Genius move!
Remember when the story was that Richt absolutely had to stop calling plays or else a bajillion people would stop coming to games and Dooley/Evans would have to give him the heave-ho? Remember how you DumbDawgs crossed your arms and stomped your feet and pouted and whined and moaned?
Remember when Richt decided to make the switch on his freaking own terms? It's because he's earned that right, you bandwagoners. Sit down, shut up, and deal with it. Or change teams. Richt ain't going anywhere.
Want another picture worth a thousand words? Show one of AJ's TD catch. That's on Richt, too.
makes me wanna puke and then slap the $hit out of fabris
I don't understand how we have made kickoffs such a difficult thing. It boggles my mind. This shouldn't be a major issue with a good football team. More importantly, how hard can it be to correct?! What was the quote Richt had about it being hard to fit in the time to fix it because then you lose time for other (more important) things? Maybe (at least until we get it right) it is worth spending extra time on if it is costing us ball games. This is a sad predicament, to be sure.
Anon:
Nice name calling. Do you have anything to say about the special teams coaching? Nope. Thought so. All that you've got is Richt has earned this and that and the rest of you are dumb. Yeah, okay, hoss. Call it how you see it. Again, what do you think about our special teams?
Do you rationally think we beat UF, GT, or anyone else of equal talent and ability with this level of coaching and performance? That is the issue.
And, please, don't tell me AJ's great individual effort where he ripped a ball out of the air in tight coverage is a feather in the coaching cap. That was all talent, hoss.
If you are trying to keep the fringe element in check, you are failing. You're right that Richt is going nowhere anytime soon, but we are quickly approaching the point where members of his staff should pay for the poor performance.
We don't pay our coaches like Western Kentucky does for a reason. We should note the difference in execution and fundamentals on the field.
If at the end of the day, Richt thinks everyone is peforming at the highest level, and no changes are needed, he'll have to simply live and die with his resulting win-loss record. As it stands, we are still putting up good results despite not challenging for a SEC title for a while now. If we slide into Donnan like results, I can assure you that with time, Richt can be replaced just like anyone else. It's not that hard to go 8-4 here.
At this point, I believe we'll be lucky to win 16 games the next two years without some changes on the staff and some luck in keeping Curran for 4yrs.
I love all things about the Dawg program under Coach Richt, except kickoffs. I really don't understand how he accepts our kick off performance over the last year and a half. I'm an admitted homer and I will be the last person to ever jump on the fire Richt bandwagon but this kickoff stuff is worse than crazy.
I think it is time to give it a break, it is starting to look like you have a personal agenda. I have in the past thought you were generally objective but some of that is being to disappear. I know UGA has many fans that are there only when things are going great as well others who are always negative but cut so slack.
Is this picture telling us something new, a week later, that wasn't seen by anyone who watched the game?
overly simple? perhaps. 1:09 (ish) remaining in the game, we've got big mo still on our side despite the BS call on AJ, don't try to get fancy with the huddle. Instead, challenge each man on the field to be man enough and line up go down the field and knock the horse-@#$% out of somebody.
Certainly we've got the personnel that we don't have to trick people to win ball games.
To quote Charlie Sheen from the Rookie: "Its time for [us] to stop being scared and for other people to start"
GATA Dawgs!!!!
Sidney,
Obviously you didn't read my previous post today.
And my job isn't to endorse or criticize. It's to pass along info and analyze it. That's what I'll continue to do.
I gotta say, if you're expecting to like or agree with everything you read, the Internet might not be the place for you.
When asked,"Hey coach, what do you think about the special team's execution", he replied,"I'm in favor of it"!...to paraphrase Coach John McKay's famous quip...and throw in Coach Fabris.
David - great stuff as always. I saw this on my DVR when I got back from Athens last week. I am glad someone was able to find the actual picture to post on the blogs. I can't believe we have several players 5 yards behind Walsh as he makes contact. I just don't understand why we are trying to get cute with kickoffs - especially at that point in the game.
Those were the players closest to the line of scrimmage.
To the left of the photo, you would see Darryl Gamble, a backup QB, a backup FB, and some more scrubs 7+ yards back running toward the sideline trying to get to their lanes.
What a clusterf@&%.
Nice work. Can I be the KO coach? Let me see. the most important KO of the year thus far. Hmmmm. backed up to the 15. Tough. What do I do? Start with putting my fastest and best open field tackling players in a basis KO formation. Then tell the guys in the huddle, along with walsh, that we are going to kick the ball as high and as far as he can. But make Blair understand that heigth supercedes distance. Make sure they know that more than likely, Holliday will catch it on about the 25. With the emphasis on heigth, the coverage will have ample time to place a safety net around Holliday. Worst case, he picks up 5 or 10 on the return and they start on the 30-35. Best case, Holliday has a sea of red in close proximity and chooses to fair catch or run the risk of getting ball jarring drilled. Its simple really but requires the ability of a coach to have situational plans prepared. Fabris is a joke.
Mr. Hale, Could you ask the coaches why we treat the kickoff like a 2nd rate play when you have proved just how important it is?
What if on the next defensive play after the kickoff we had trotted 4 walkons and a backup QB to play defense against LSU in the all important series? How well would that had gone over? Our coaches are basically saying that "" This play really isn't that important.""
How dare you speak against St. Richt! It offends my Disney ears!
Either he fixes the problem or he exposes himself as the problem.
Young?? Inexperienced?? In that picture I see 7 out of 11 players and nothing say inexperienced about it. Take out Walsh and Stephen Braue(who happens to be Senior) you have Shawn Williams, Curran, Rambo, Miller and Nick Williams who all happen to play defense. Isnt their job to swarm to the ball and tackle??? I agree with you, it's not rocket science so if we keep this up we are screwed.
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