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Tuesday, October 6, 2009

Tuesday Tidbits: Week 6

A few pearls from Georgia's Tuesday news conferences...

-- As we reported yesterday, Caleb King does have a broken jaw. The break was a minor one, which is good news, however, he also suffered a concussion on the hit. He will not be allowed to practice until all signs from the concussion have cleared and Mark Richt said King was doubtful for this week -- though not completely out of the picture. The injury will not be season-ending, however, and there's a good chance King will be able to play by Week 7 against Vanderbilt.

-- With King likely out, Washaun Ealey will almost certainly see a big uptick in his playing time, but Richt said he still expected Richard Samuel to get the start this week.

-- Richt said the blocking issues with the line have been a little bit of a lot of things, but he specifically mentioned a need for the tight ends and fullbacks to handle their blocks better. Joe Cox added that the backs simply need to do a better job of hitting the holes when they open. While he said there have been a number of missed blocking assignments or instances of lineman not blocking long enough, the line overall hasn't done a terrible job.

-- Richt and several of the players discussed the excessive celebration penalty. Cox said he would have prefered not to have even heard about the league admitting the mistake, as it was simply just salt in the wound. Richt said he thinks it's time to change the rule because it "takes some of the joy out of the game." Tavarres King added that, beyond common sense things like spiking the football, the players really don't have any clear understanding of what constitutes excessive celebration because the rules are enforced so differently from game to game, team to team and player to player.

-- Richt was asked about changes to special teams in terms of time spent practicing them and personnel on the field. He said he beleives, between practice and meeting time, Georgia already spends more time on special teams than most other programs, and that because of the 20-hour rule, any increase in time would have to come from other areas. He also said that, while they are not necessarily averse to playing other players on the special teams unit, that those players would simply be coming in without any training on those units, so it wouldn't necessarily be a solution.

-- I talked to Rennie Curran about the improved defensive efforts the past two weeks, and he said the better performances have been preceded by significantly better practices. He said he's seen the defense take a much more intense approach against the scout teams in each of the past two weeks than they had earlier in the season.

-- Curran also spoke about Ealey's improvement in practice in recent weeks. He said Ealey seemed intimidated by Georgia's defenders earlier in the year when working with the scout team, but in the past few weeks, he's "stopped thinking about that and just started running." Curran said he's been quite impressed with how hard Ealey runs and how quick he is to hit the hole.

8 comments:

Bernie said...

If Georgia spends more time on special teams than other programs, that's an indirect indictment to those who run each area and the coach that oversees them.

There's another program which shall remain nameless but has had great success, that puts it's greatest emphasis on special teams and lets that enthusiasm filter into the other areas of the game preparation and execution.

Meanwhile we look like a bunch of two year olds trying to find our way through a crowded mall the day after Thanksgiving when we "cover" kicks.

You've GOT to be freakin' kidding me!!!???!!!

Anonymous said...

Simply put, opponents can continue to take advantage of scout team walkons, the backup QB, and the backup fullback covering kicks from the huddle formation.

Who doesn't like a challenge?

Unknown said...

It wouldn't be an immediate solution to just bring in starters and put them on special teams without training them, but I think the idea is that some starters should training on special teams during the week so they can be ready to play on special teams on Saturday.

Tommy said...

David,

What's the latest with Dontavious Jackson and Carlton Thomas?

All offseason, we kept hearing how loaded we are in the backfield.

Silver Dawg said...

Weekly tidbit with no mention of the Rich Brooks comment?

I am embarrassed for you, Sir David.

The Senator has obviously taken a sizeable lead over you in the running for the Pulitzer.

Randy (genxdawg) said...

(sigh)

Why then do we continue to see poor performances on the STUs? I think we all know the definition of insanity and this seems to fit it to a T. Don't want to be a downer, but it is just so frustrating....just like that answer. It seems the worse things go, the more vanilla the coach's answers become. I hate to admit it, but you don't hear those answers commonly from a Bob Stoops (for example). Just today I heard him call out his defensive players and coaches about their performances against Miami last week. He said they should be criticized for that performance. He added that the schemes were good, but players have to make the play and he put the responsibility right at their feet. Maybe I'm off base here, but that was REALLY good to hear...and I could give less than a flip about the Sooners.

Anonymous said...

In the case of the kickoff team, the scheme is bad (the kickoff huddle), the personnel are wrong, and the results are bad.

Six days are not enough to teach a defender to line up in his lane, stay in his lane, get downfield quickly to make the tackle.

Never mind the defender has done this from pee-wee ball through high school.

Anonymous said...

Randy- Willie Martinez held his defensive players accountable for their poor performances multiple times last year and was crucified for it. Damned if you do and damned if you don't.