John Lilly joked last week that he was looking into finding another year of eligibility for former Georgia corner Prince Miller. As a punt returner, Miller was a consistent threat, and that’s a weapon Lilly said won’t be easy to replace.
It’s not surprising then that Lilly – who took over special teams coordination duties from Jon Fabris this season – tried at least a half-dozen players at punt returner during the spring, and he’s still not much closer to making a decision on who will eventually land the job.
“We’ve rotated a lot of bodies back there and we haven’t really made any decisions as far as paring that down,” Lilly said. “That’s one of those things that’s going to go deep into the fall before we decide.”
Rantavious Wooten, Carlton Thomas, Brandon Boykin, Branden Smith and Bacarri Rambo all took reps at punt returner during spring practice, but the practices never progressed to a point where anyone could get a firm grasp on who might land the gig full time.
“We’re just catching balls right now,” Wooten said. “We haven’t set a depth chart or said it’s this guy or anything.”
Of course, the wild card in the competition could be Georgia’s star receiver, A.J. Green.
Green floated the idea a few weeks ago, and Lilly said the All-SEC receiver has been working at returner during practice for most of the past three years.
“He’s caught them his whole career here in practice,” Lilly said. “He has the ability. Everyone knows the kind of hands he’s got and he can judge the ball and do those kinds of things. … He’s certainly one of the guys that’s in the mix.”
The idea of using Georgia’s most dangerous offensive weapon for occasional special teams duty hasn’t necessarily met with universal approval from fans who worry that Green could get hurt.
Lilly realized the concerns, but he said it’s hard to ignore a weapon like Green, which makes the receiver’s presence in the return game a real possibility.
“I think in any position on the field and in any area of the kicking game, if somebody can help you win a football game and has that ability, you would use him there,” Lilly said of Green. “Some people would like to see it, some people wouldn’t want to see it. But if you talk to him, I think he’s love to do it. I don’t know if we’ll necessarily do that, but it’s nice to have it as an option.”
ALL YOU NEED IS GLOVE
It began as an experiment early in the spring, but Aaron Murray said he plans to keep wearing a glove on his throwing hand – at least for a few more months.
Murray said he plans to use the glove during summer workouts before deciding whether the glove will remain a longterm fixture, but thus far, he’s been pleased with the results.
“I felt comfortable with it, I felt I’ve done well with it over the spring, and I feel like I have more control over the ball,” Murray said. “We’ll probably see how I do over the summer with the heat and see if that has anything to do with it, and I’ll talk with (the coaching staff) and keep them updates on how I feel with it.”
WORTH THE GAMBLE
Darryl Gamble didn’t get much practice time at outside linebacker before being thrown into the fire at G-Day, but all things considered, he’s pleased with his progress.
“I did all right having just off two days of practice,” Gamble said of his G-Day performance. “I mean, there wasn’t anything difficult to try to understand. I think I did a pretty good job in my assignments, and I didn’t have anything bad happen while I was out there.”
That’s more than enough to keep Gamble in the mix at a position seriously lacking depth – with just three other scholarship players on the roster at the moment.
Gamble’s familiarity with the position in the 4-3 scheme Georgia ran last year has helped ease the transition, however, and by the time fall camp opens in August, he figures to be on top of most of the major changes.
“In the 4-3 our Sam was pretty much on the line too,” Gamble said. “It’s pretty much the same thing, but we’re rushing more. So it’s just the fact of learning all the plays, and trying to learn more about defensive line than linebacker. That's the main difference.”
Showing posts with label John Lilly. Show all posts
Showing posts with label John Lilly. Show all posts
Saturday, April 17, 2010
Saturday, February 27, 2010
Making Special Teams Special Again
Georgia’s special teams responsibilities have been officially divvied out among the assistant coaches.
Wide receivers coach Tony Ball will handle kickoff returns and tight ends coach John Lilly will be in charge of punting and punt coverage, just as they were last year. The Bulldogs led the nation in punting in 2009 and kick returner Brandon Boykin scored three touchdowns on returns.
The shakeups occur in the units formerly coached by dismissed defensive ends coach Jon Fabris.
Punt return duties will fall to second-year running backs coach Bryan McClendon, who returned punts and kicks for the Bulldogs as a player in 2003 and 2004.
Lilly will handle overall special teams coordination, setting up meetings and practice times, Richt said, but will not hold the title of special teams coordinator
The most notable change, however, comes on the much maligned kickoff coverage team, which will now be headed up by Warren Belin, who coached that unit for eight seasons at Vanderbilt. If last season tells us anything, this should be one of the biggest steps forward for Georgia in 2010.
To wit…
Last season, Vandy ranked second in the SEC in kick coverage and 29th nationally, allowing an average of 20.2 yards per return.
Georgia ranked last in the SEC and 117th nationally in kick coverage nationally, allowing an average of 25.71 yards per return.
How much of a difference was that really?
Vandy allowed 550 fewer kick return yards than Georgia for the season, and at five yards per kick, it probably made a difference of 20 to 25 yards of field position per game, which is hardly insignificant.
Of course, the other important thing to remember is -- Vandy was doing it with worse players.
I won't get into the coverage unit itself, since it should be fairly obvious that the backups at UGA should be every bit as skilled athletically as the starters for Vandy. There's absolutely no question that Georgia should be able to cover kicks as well as Belin's old squad.
But let's look at the kickers.
Vandy finished second in the SEC in coverage despite the fact that their kicker -- Ryan Fowler -- had just three touchbacks all season.
Georgia finished last in woeful fashion, despite the fact that its kicker -- Blair Walsh -- was a Groza finalist and led the SEC with 17 touchbacks.
So to be clear, Walsh had fourteen more kickoffs than Fowler in which the opposition wasn't able to return the kick, and Georgia still allowed an average of five more yards per kickoff return for the season.
Wide receivers coach Tony Ball will handle kickoff returns and tight ends coach John Lilly will be in charge of punting and punt coverage, just as they were last year. The Bulldogs led the nation in punting in 2009 and kick returner Brandon Boykin scored three touchdowns on returns.
The shakeups occur in the units formerly coached by dismissed defensive ends coach Jon Fabris.
Punt return duties will fall to second-year running backs coach Bryan McClendon, who returned punts and kicks for the Bulldogs as a player in 2003 and 2004.
Lilly will handle overall special teams coordination, setting up meetings and practice times, Richt said, but will not hold the title of special teams coordinator
The most notable change, however, comes on the much maligned kickoff coverage team, which will now be headed up by Warren Belin, who coached that unit for eight seasons at Vanderbilt. If last season tells us anything, this should be one of the biggest steps forward for Georgia in 2010.
To wit…
Last season, Vandy ranked second in the SEC in kick coverage and 29th nationally, allowing an average of 20.2 yards per return.
Georgia ranked last in the SEC and 117th nationally in kick coverage nationally, allowing an average of 25.71 yards per return.
How much of a difference was that really?
Vandy allowed 550 fewer kick return yards than Georgia for the season, and at five yards per kick, it probably made a difference of 20 to 25 yards of field position per game, which is hardly insignificant.
Of course, the other important thing to remember is -- Vandy was doing it with worse players.
I won't get into the coverage unit itself, since it should be fairly obvious that the backups at UGA should be every bit as skilled athletically as the starters for Vandy. There's absolutely no question that Georgia should be able to cover kicks as well as Belin's old squad.
But let's look at the kickers.
Vandy finished second in the SEC in coverage despite the fact that their kicker -- Ryan Fowler -- had just three touchbacks all season.
Georgia finished last in woeful fashion, despite the fact that its kicker -- Blair Walsh -- was a Groza finalist and led the SEC with 17 touchbacks.
So to be clear, Walsh had fourteen more kickoffs than Fowler in which the opposition wasn't able to return the kick, and Georgia still allowed an average of five more yards per kickoff return for the season.
Friday, November 13, 2009
Home Is Where Your Helmet Is
A lot was made this week of freshman defensive end Montez Robinson earning SEC defensive lineman of the week honors, just a few weeks removed from some serious thoughts about transferring. That got me to thinking... Robinson certainly isn't alone in feeling a bit out of place at Georgia in his early career.
A handful of players who traveled the farthest to come to Georgia are getting minimal playing time, so I decided to look into how those players -- Brandon Bogotay, Arthur Lynch and Robinson -- have been coping. As a transplant to Athens, I know it can be a bit of a culture shock.
Anyway, my original version of the story came out pretty long, and with newspapers getting smaller, there just isn't room for 50-inch features anymore. So I had to make some cuts, and in the process, I think the story lost a lot of its color and detail.
You're free to read that version of the story online now, if you'd like. But, if like the Big Lebowski, you're not into the whole brevity thing, I figured I'd post the full version of the story here, without any cuts made to it.
Here goes...
It was the Fourth of July before Aron White’s freshman year at Georgia when he took a trip home to Columbia, Mo. for the holiday. He had been in Athens for a while, working out with teammates and getting ready for his rookie season, and the trip home was a welcome reward after a difficult start to his career with the Bulldogs.
Throughout the visit home, White couldn’t quite shake the feeling that he wasn’t supposed to leave. Many of his friends were in school at nearby Missouri, and being home was like old times. He missed family, he missed friends, he missed normalcy. Being home felt right.
Nearly four months passed before White made another trip back to Columbia, this time during Georgia’s off week in 2007. He hadn’t played a down that season, instead redshirting while fellow freshman Bruce Figgins earned praise from coaches and fans for his early contributions. Life in Athens was still unconfortable.
But that second trip to Missouri was different. White was happy to see his brothers, but many of his friends were occupied with school. Most had made new friends he didn’t know. The bedroom he had grown up in suddenly felt foreign. The bed wasn’t as comfortable. The décor wasn’t his own.
He missed Georgia.
“It was home, but it was just like, I knew by the end of that weekend I wanted to go back, I missed people,” White said. “I went home and slept in my old room, and it wasn’t the same. You don’t have all those things you surround yourself with. It wasn’t my bed, it wasn’t my TV, I didn’t have my movies or my posters hanging on the wall. That was definitely the point I realized that if I were to leave Georgia, I’d definitely miss it.”
White’s story is hardly unique. It’s an annual right of passage for Georgia’s freshmen, but it’s never a simple process.
While some players are eased into life in Athens with routine trips to nearby homes and meals prepared by mom or nights out with old friends, players like White can only make the occasional trip home, planned far in advance and paid for with scarce funds.
While some players transition is overshadowed by success on the field and immediate praise from fans and coaches, players like White often have far more time alone on the sidelines to question the decisions they made that led them to Georgia.
It’s never simple, but for some players, the transition is arduous.
“You definitely second guess yourself sometimes,” freshman tight end Arthur Lynch said, his words tinged with a heavy New England accent. “It’s not the easiest thing, and it’s something you can’t really adjust to because it’s so different than where I’m from. But you get used to it after a while.”
Athens may be one of the most beloved college towns in the country, but for players like Lynch, it’s a world apart from where he grew up.
The 6-foot-5 Dartmouth, Mass. native came to Georgia this summer expecting to stand out, but it’s the accent that always throws people. He can’t hide it. He might as well be speaking a foreign language compared to the slow, Southern dialect prevalent throughout Georgia.
There are other differences, too. There are things Lynch finds utterly perplexing about the South. He’s learned to keep most of those opinions to himself. He's not yet comfortable enough with his surroundings to ruffle any feathers. Life is simply different here.
Kicker Brandon Bogotay knows the feeling. He arrived in July from San Diego, and while the weather was a few degrees warmer and the beach was no longer within walking distance, things seemed relatively normal.
And then the rain came.
“It’s been raining, and I never really saw much rain out there,” Bogotay said. “The scooter rides in the morning have been pretty cold.”
Bogotay joked that he owned just two long-sleeved shirts when he came to Athens, but he’s in the market for a new wardrobe now.
For other players, however, the culture shock isn’t so much about the weather or the slang. It’s about family and security. It's about knowing who to trust and where to find comfort.
Defensive end Montez Robinson grew up in Indiana, then moved to Alabama when he was in grade school. His family life was difficult, but he was always close with his brothers. His father died when he was young and he and his brothers spent much of their lives as wards of the state. After his sophomore year in high school, he moved back to Indiana and later committed to Auburn.
When Tigers’ coach Tommy Tuberville resigned at the end of last season, however, Robinson’s life was shaken up yet again, and he re-opened his recruitment, eventually settling on Georgia, where assistant coach Rodney Garner assured Robinson he would find a home.
Through his first few months in Athens, however, Robinson simply wanted to see his family again.
“At first it was hard being away from home,” Robinson said. “There’s a couple other guys that are far from home, and we were always talking about how much we missed our families.”
It happens every season. The initial thrill of college grows old, the lure of home grows stronger, and eventually they all ask the same question: Did I do the right thing?
“I don’t care if you’re from 15 minutes away or 15 hours away, you’re not at home anymore when you go to college,” tight ends coach John Lilly said. “I think it’s natural to go through an adjustment period, and probably a little bit of a homesick period.”
As many times as they’ve seen it happen, Lilly said there’s no universal solution to getting a player past that point. They’re all different, but there is support.
Lilly said the coaching staff tries to talk to players' families and friends, asking them to offer encouragement rather than reminders of what was left behind.
Head coach Mark Richt has worked hard to create a family environment around the team, too. Coaches wives and children are frequent visitors, with the team holding a weekly family night after practice when they all share a meal together.
But while encouragement is offered, the job of most coaches is to impart discipline and demand excellence. They rely on the other players to handle the role of friend.
“It’s a difficult thing when you’re riding someone and you’re pushing them, you can’t be their buddy,” said Jon Fabris, Robinson’s position coach. “Yet you understand that there are players that have been there and you can tell them, ‘Hey, keep an eye on this guy.’ I think you can get better support through their peers because, who hasn’t gone through that?”
The feeling of being an outsider in a strange place is only exacerbated for those freshmen who rarely see the field. That has been the case for Bogotay, Lynch and Robinson this season.
Game days provide some solace, but offer little playing time.
White sees plenty of parallels between his career and Lynch’s. Both came from another part of the country. Both joined the team at the same time as another, more highly recruited player at their position. Both knew their role early on would be mostly as an understudy.
“It’s hard to deal with not coming in and being the guy and feeling like somebody else is getting all the spotlight or that he’s the guy people want to see take over,” White said. “It’s tough to deal with sometimes, but we remember that we’re all working toward the same goal, and so you just have to work hard as a player so you can be a part of that.”
That’s the approach Robinson has tried to take this season.
He admits he considered a transfer. There were too many days when going home seemed a far better option than going to practice. But things change. They always do.
Robinson got his first serious playing time last week against Tennessee Tech. He finished the game with the first five tackles of his career, including two sacks. He won the SEC’s defensive lineman of the week award two days later, and his foster father cried when he heard the news.
“You know when you can do something like that and the gratitude that people give you and the feeling you get afterwards, it eases things down a little bit, and it makes you want to work harder for things like that,” Robinson said.
It helped that Robinson’s two younger brothers, Armonze and Elijah, his foster parents and one of his cousins were all in Athens for his big game last week. They added a bit of home to a place that suddenly didn’t feel so foreign anymore anyway.
“Having success makes him love this place a little bit more,” Garner said. “Hopefully a lot of positives that come out of him having success, and that’s my hope for him, too.”
It’s probably too soon to call the game a turning point for Robinson, but sometimes it happens that quickly. That was true for White when he visited Missouri back in 2007 and realized it wasn’t home anymore. It has been true for dozens of others, too.
“You realize that home changes,” Lilly said. “You have all these great memories of high school and those kinds of things, and then when you do get back, it’s nice to go home and see people, but as the years go by you realize that home really is where you go to school. That’s where all your friends are and where your life really is at that point.”
Lynch tasted a bit of success last week, too, grabbing the first two receptions of his career during a fourth-quarter drive. There were no SEC awards that followed, but it was a good starting point, he said.
And seeing Robinson enjoy the spotlight after an impressive performance – that helped, too.
“You hope to catch a break and get on the field like Montez did Saturday,” Lynch said. “You keep moving, keep working hard in practice, and hopefully your time will come.”
Bogotay has taken the field just once this season, which is one more time than he has visited home. But even he isn’t sulking.
“I’m looking forward to the next trip home, but I love it out here,” he said. “It’s a big change, but overall I’m having a great time out here.”
Things change. Home is wherever you make it. It’s a conclusion everyone comes to eventually.
In fact, while Robinson was considering leaving Georgia just a few weeks ago, he’s now busy recruiting his brothers to join him in Athens.
“I have two brothers getting recruited from here, and they just want to go wherever I go,” he said. “I’m trying to convince them.”
It changes that fast, White said. Sometimes it happens after a big play. Sometimes it happens after a few friends are made. Sometimes, like White, a new perspective suddenly arises.
“Early on, I didn’t know if I fit in around here. It wasn’t so much football, it was just really hard for me to cope, being away from home,” White said. “But I realized it was about more than just feeling comfortable. I made a commitment to be here. The coaches gambled on me, they gave me this opportunity, and I didn’t feel like I was giving it a chance. By season’s end, I knew this was the right place for me and I had made the right decision.”
It’s a story he has passed along to Lynch, Robinson, Bogotay and others. It’s a story that dozens of other players on the team could tell, too, with just a few of the details changed.
Everyone gets homesick, White said. But eventually they all decide that Georgia is home.
“They’ll come around,” White said. "(Lynch), Montez, Bogotay, they’ll all come around. Because there are guys who live 45 minutes away that don’t want to go home on weekends. It’s too much fun being here.”
A handful of players who traveled the farthest to come to Georgia are getting minimal playing time, so I decided to look into how those players -- Brandon Bogotay, Arthur Lynch and Robinson -- have been coping. As a transplant to Athens, I know it can be a bit of a culture shock.
Anyway, my original version of the story came out pretty long, and with newspapers getting smaller, there just isn't room for 50-inch features anymore. So I had to make some cuts, and in the process, I think the story lost a lot of its color and detail.
You're free to read that version of the story online now, if you'd like. But, if like the Big Lebowski, you're not into the whole brevity thing, I figured I'd post the full version of the story here, without any cuts made to it.
Here goes...
----
It was the Fourth of July before Aron White’s freshman year at Georgia when he took a trip home to Columbia, Mo. for the holiday. He had been in Athens for a while, working out with teammates and getting ready for his rookie season, and the trip home was a welcome reward after a difficult start to his career with the Bulldogs.
Throughout the visit home, White couldn’t quite shake the feeling that he wasn’t supposed to leave. Many of his friends were in school at nearby Missouri, and being home was like old times. He missed family, he missed friends, he missed normalcy. Being home felt right.
Nearly four months passed before White made another trip back to Columbia, this time during Georgia’s off week in 2007. He hadn’t played a down that season, instead redshirting while fellow freshman Bruce Figgins earned praise from coaches and fans for his early contributions. Life in Athens was still unconfortable.
But that second trip to Missouri was different. White was happy to see his brothers, but many of his friends were occupied with school. Most had made new friends he didn’t know. The bedroom he had grown up in suddenly felt foreign. The bed wasn’t as comfortable. The décor wasn’t his own.
He missed Georgia.
“It was home, but it was just like, I knew by the end of that weekend I wanted to go back, I missed people,” White said. “I went home and slept in my old room, and it wasn’t the same. You don’t have all those things you surround yourself with. It wasn’t my bed, it wasn’t my TV, I didn’t have my movies or my posters hanging on the wall. That was definitely the point I realized that if I were to leave Georgia, I’d definitely miss it.”
White’s story is hardly unique. It’s an annual right of passage for Georgia’s freshmen, but it’s never a simple process.
While some players are eased into life in Athens with routine trips to nearby homes and meals prepared by mom or nights out with old friends, players like White can only make the occasional trip home, planned far in advance and paid for with scarce funds.
While some players transition is overshadowed by success on the field and immediate praise from fans and coaches, players like White often have far more time alone on the sidelines to question the decisions they made that led them to Georgia.
It’s never simple, but for some players, the transition is arduous.
“You definitely second guess yourself sometimes,” freshman tight end Arthur Lynch said, his words tinged with a heavy New England accent. “It’s not the easiest thing, and it’s something you can’t really adjust to because it’s so different than where I’m from. But you get used to it after a while.”
Athens may be one of the most beloved college towns in the country, but for players like Lynch, it’s a world apart from where he grew up.
The 6-foot-5 Dartmouth, Mass. native came to Georgia this summer expecting to stand out, but it’s the accent that always throws people. He can’t hide it. He might as well be speaking a foreign language compared to the slow, Southern dialect prevalent throughout Georgia.
There are other differences, too. There are things Lynch finds utterly perplexing about the South. He’s learned to keep most of those opinions to himself. He's not yet comfortable enough with his surroundings to ruffle any feathers. Life is simply different here.
Kicker Brandon Bogotay knows the feeling. He arrived in July from San Diego, and while the weather was a few degrees warmer and the beach was no longer within walking distance, things seemed relatively normal.
And then the rain came.
“It’s been raining, and I never really saw much rain out there,” Bogotay said. “The scooter rides in the morning have been pretty cold.”
Bogotay joked that he owned just two long-sleeved shirts when he came to Athens, but he’s in the market for a new wardrobe now.
For other players, however, the culture shock isn’t so much about the weather or the slang. It’s about family and security. It's about knowing who to trust and where to find comfort.
Defensive end Montez Robinson grew up in Indiana, then moved to Alabama when he was in grade school. His family life was difficult, but he was always close with his brothers. His father died when he was young and he and his brothers spent much of their lives as wards of the state. After his sophomore year in high school, he moved back to Indiana and later committed to Auburn.
When Tigers’ coach Tommy Tuberville resigned at the end of last season, however, Robinson’s life was shaken up yet again, and he re-opened his recruitment, eventually settling on Georgia, where assistant coach Rodney Garner assured Robinson he would find a home.
Through his first few months in Athens, however, Robinson simply wanted to see his family again.
“At first it was hard being away from home,” Robinson said. “There’s a couple other guys that are far from home, and we were always talking about how much we missed our families.”
It happens every season. The initial thrill of college grows old, the lure of home grows stronger, and eventually they all ask the same question: Did I do the right thing?
“I don’t care if you’re from 15 minutes away or 15 hours away, you’re not at home anymore when you go to college,” tight ends coach John Lilly said. “I think it’s natural to go through an adjustment period, and probably a little bit of a homesick period.”
As many times as they’ve seen it happen, Lilly said there’s no universal solution to getting a player past that point. They’re all different, but there is support.
Lilly said the coaching staff tries to talk to players' families and friends, asking them to offer encouragement rather than reminders of what was left behind.
Head coach Mark Richt has worked hard to create a family environment around the team, too. Coaches wives and children are frequent visitors, with the team holding a weekly family night after practice when they all share a meal together.
But while encouragement is offered, the job of most coaches is to impart discipline and demand excellence. They rely on the other players to handle the role of friend.
“It’s a difficult thing when you’re riding someone and you’re pushing them, you can’t be their buddy,” said Jon Fabris, Robinson’s position coach. “Yet you understand that there are players that have been there and you can tell them, ‘Hey, keep an eye on this guy.’ I think you can get better support through their peers because, who hasn’t gone through that?”
The feeling of being an outsider in a strange place is only exacerbated for those freshmen who rarely see the field. That has been the case for Bogotay, Lynch and Robinson this season.
Game days provide some solace, but offer little playing time.
White sees plenty of parallels between his career and Lynch’s. Both came from another part of the country. Both joined the team at the same time as another, more highly recruited player at their position. Both knew their role early on would be mostly as an understudy.
“It’s hard to deal with not coming in and being the guy and feeling like somebody else is getting all the spotlight or that he’s the guy people want to see take over,” White said. “It’s tough to deal with sometimes, but we remember that we’re all working toward the same goal, and so you just have to work hard as a player so you can be a part of that.”
That’s the approach Robinson has tried to take this season.
He admits he considered a transfer. There were too many days when going home seemed a far better option than going to practice. But things change. They always do.
Robinson got his first serious playing time last week against Tennessee Tech. He finished the game with the first five tackles of his career, including two sacks. He won the SEC’s defensive lineman of the week award two days later, and his foster father cried when he heard the news.
“You know when you can do something like that and the gratitude that people give you and the feeling you get afterwards, it eases things down a little bit, and it makes you want to work harder for things like that,” Robinson said.
It helped that Robinson’s two younger brothers, Armonze and Elijah, his foster parents and one of his cousins were all in Athens for his big game last week. They added a bit of home to a place that suddenly didn’t feel so foreign anymore anyway.
“Having success makes him love this place a little bit more,” Garner said. “Hopefully a lot of positives that come out of him having success, and that’s my hope for him, too.”
It’s probably too soon to call the game a turning point for Robinson, but sometimes it happens that quickly. That was true for White when he visited Missouri back in 2007 and realized it wasn’t home anymore. It has been true for dozens of others, too.
“You realize that home changes,” Lilly said. “You have all these great memories of high school and those kinds of things, and then when you do get back, it’s nice to go home and see people, but as the years go by you realize that home really is where you go to school. That’s where all your friends are and where your life really is at that point.”
Lynch tasted a bit of success last week, too, grabbing the first two receptions of his career during a fourth-quarter drive. There were no SEC awards that followed, but it was a good starting point, he said.
And seeing Robinson enjoy the spotlight after an impressive performance – that helped, too.
“You hope to catch a break and get on the field like Montez did Saturday,” Lynch said. “You keep moving, keep working hard in practice, and hopefully your time will come.”
Bogotay has taken the field just once this season, which is one more time than he has visited home. But even he isn’t sulking.
“I’m looking forward to the next trip home, but I love it out here,” he said. “It’s a big change, but overall I’m having a great time out here.”
Things change. Home is wherever you make it. It’s a conclusion everyone comes to eventually.
In fact, while Robinson was considering leaving Georgia just a few weeks ago, he’s now busy recruiting his brothers to join him in Athens.
“I have two brothers getting recruited from here, and they just want to go wherever I go,” he said. “I’m trying to convince them.”
It changes that fast, White said. Sometimes it happens after a big play. Sometimes it happens after a few friends are made. Sometimes, like White, a new perspective suddenly arises.
“Early on, I didn’t know if I fit in around here. It wasn’t so much football, it was just really hard for me to cope, being away from home,” White said. “But I realized it was about more than just feeling comfortable. I made a commitment to be here. The coaches gambled on me, they gave me this opportunity, and I didn’t feel like I was giving it a chance. By season’s end, I knew this was the right place for me and I had made the right decision.”
It’s a story he has passed along to Lynch, Robinson, Bogotay and others. It’s a story that dozens of other players on the team could tell, too, with just a few of the details changed.
Everyone gets homesick, White said. But eventually they all decide that Georgia is home.
“They’ll come around,” White said. "(Lynch), Montez, Bogotay, they’ll all come around. Because there are guys who live 45 minutes away that don’t want to go home on weekends. It’s too much fun being here.”
Sunday, August 30, 2009
Deleted Scenes: Georgia's Leadership
I feel like I've probably written a bit too much about the Bulldogs' improved attitude this offseason, but hey, whan you've got to find 8 months worth of stories without a game being played, you've got to come up with material from somewhere, right?
Anyway, I think the newsworthy stuff from my story in today's Telegraph are the quotes, particularly Mark Richt's mention that this team might have the best leadership of any he has coached. Still, there were plenty of quotes that didn't make it into the story, so I figured I should post them here...
Rennie Curran on the team's attitude...
“It’s been night and day with the morale of the team, the attitude of the guys. Whether it’s running 10 hundreds or whatever, everybody’s just focusing on doing whatever it takes. It’s great to have all the guys buy in and know that when they come to Butts-Mehre, it’s time to work, that they separate the work from the play.”
Curran on what has changed...
“I feel like we have just a lot of hungry guys who are ready to get out there and make things happen. You look at the guys who left and the guys who are replacing them – Brandon Boykin for Asher Allen, Darryl Gamble coming in there for Dannell, Bryan Evans – these are guys who have been waiting to get the opportunity and are just hungry and excited about wearing the ‘G’ and are dedicated. I’m excited. Whenever we step out on the field as a defense, it’s a good feeling knowing I’ve got guys who are as dedicated as I am and want us to win as much as possible.”
Curran on what the coaches did to create more leadership...
“Coaches have always been trying to get us to understand it’s not about how many times they tell us certain things, it’s when we as players take charge and take that leadership to get better. Right now, I think we’re in a position where we realize all those things they’ve been saying, all the things it’s going to take to make us successful.”
Michael Moore on the personality of last year's team...
“We were a team full of stars and I guess they’re trying to say we didn’t handle it the right way. I don’t want to say that, but maybe we should have taken a different approach.”
John Lilly on how Richt tried to shape the personality of this year's team...
“Coach Richt really set the tone early in the offseason, and he would continually remind everyone that the star of this team is going to be the team. You think about a lot of great teams that there have been throughout the last several years and in many cases the teams that won national championships, it was hard to really pinpoint a guy that really stood out or was a do-it-all guy. That’s probably where it started, and he’s tried to make a point of emphasizing that. But then the players have to buy into that with a very unselfish and team-oriented attitude. We’ve got a lot of guys who have won a lot since they’ve been around here. The guys that just got here want to win. I think they know what it’s going to take to get that done.”
Mark Richt on how the team developed new leadership...
“A group of men just decided they wanted to make a difference in leadership, especially our seniors, and there’s just been a very strong buy-in.”
Richt on what the leadership has been like this year vs. others...
“I think we have a lot of strong leaders this year, and Rennie is certainly one of them. I really like what Evans has done. Prince Miller, Reshad, Gamble, Jeffrey, Geno, Rod Battle and of course Rennie. A lot of guys are really making a point to be leaders. It’s outstanding. Rennie is a big part of it, but some years, quite frankly, that leader is outnumbered. It looks like an overwhelming task. But Rennie’s got a bunch of guys like him that are very motivated to do well, do it the Georgia way, do it the way the coach says, and they’re the quality control at practice as much as the coaches are. And that’s what I told the guys, as much as we can be a player-driven team, then the coaches don’t have to spend as much time driving you and can spend time teaching and guiding you. You’d rather be taught and guided than pushed. So if you can find a way to motivate from within, coaches can spend a lot more time teaching.”
Richt on how much of a role the coaches have in developing leaders...
“We have a huge hand in that. It’s our job to cultivate the culture that we’re after, and it’s up to us to recruit the type of players that are going to buy in to the Georgia way. We have to understand that on the front end. Some guys, quite frankly, got it before they got here or had a very strong bent to be a leader. A guy like Rennie, Rennie showed up, loved Georgia, worked hard, was going to do what Coach said from Day 1. With some guys, you have to develop that trust. Some guys need to learn how to work. Some guy need to learn what the Georgia way means. It’s a culmination of that kind of thing, but once you get the culture right, you hope it will continue. This year, maybe more than any year that I can remember, if the young guys watch the old guys and say that’s the way to do it, we’ll continue to have a great culture on this team.”
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
Practice Notes: Fine First Day
Jeff Owens hasn't participated in a full practice in 11 months, and he nearly missed his triumphant return. He spent the weekend in New York and a weekend bomb scare at the airport delayed his return until Monday afternoon, arriving back in Athens just a few minutes before the team's first meeting.
The hectic journey paled in comparison to the work he put in to rehab a torn ACL, however, but after one day of practice the effort seems to have paid off.
"I think I did quite well," Owens said. "I even conditioned with the team and I wasn't held out of anything. I think it's going pretty good."
That doesn't mean the practice was easy, however.
Georgia spent nearly three hours on the practice field Tuesday, the team's first practice session with coaches since April. The players only donned shorts and practice jerseys and there was no contact, but brushing away the cobwebs still meant breaking a pretty hearty sweat.
"The first day's always tough," Owens said. "It was tough for me, but overall, I think it went pretty well on both sides of the ball. The guys competed and got after it."
Tuesday not only marked Owens return from injury, but it was also the first chance coaches had to meet with Georgia's incoming freshmen class.
The findings on Day 1 weren't significantly different from the reports coaches had gotten from players throughout a summer of voluntary workouts – the freshmen were prepared and eager to learn more.
"When you can walk into a meeting room for the first time with guys this morning and ask them some questions and they can fire the answer back at you, it certainly means a lot at this point," tight ends coach John Lilly said.
Georgia will practice in shorts again today before putting on shells for the next three days of practice. Monday will feature two practice sessions, including the first with full pads and contact.
"It won't be the same until you get into your first day of pads and contact," safety Bryan Evans said. "We've been running all summer, but when you put on the weight and start banging on each other, that's when you really see where our team is at physically."
GOOD FIRST IMPRESSIONS
The Bulldogs' first practice session may have been an eye-opener for many of the new faces on campus, but freshman tight end Orson Charles couldn't get enough.
After wowing his teammates during voluntary workouts this summer, Charles gave coaches a taste of his high-energy approach, and offensive coordinator Mike Bobo was impressed.
"He loves to play." Bobo said. "He wanted to take every rep. He didn't want to sit out a single play. He's hungry, and when the ball was thrown to him today, he made some catches. He didn't know everything that was going on, but neither did A.J. Green last year, but he made plays."
The comparisons to Green are impressive enough, but the Georgia wide receiver said Charles actually reminds him more of another prominent Bulldog.
"He reminds me of Knowshon a little bit," Green said of Charles. "He's got one of those motors that never stops."
ENJOYING THE SILENCE
Before his team took the field for its first day of practice a year ago, Mark Richt spent the morning answering questions about two players who had been arrested and a third who earned a suspension for damaging property at a local hospital. So when a reporter asked about the quiet offseason this year, Richt's response was relief.
"Amen," he said with a laugh.
The troublesome offseason a year ago foreshadowed a problematic season on the field in which Georgia was among the most penalized teams in the nation. Richt said his hope is that the trouble-free break this year will be precede a similar on-field turnaround.
"Have we been a more disciplined team from January to August than we were a year ago? To this point, we have," Richt said. "We hope that will translate to being a more disciplined team on the field."
The hectic journey paled in comparison to the work he put in to rehab a torn ACL, however, but after one day of practice the effort seems to have paid off.
"I think I did quite well," Owens said. "I even conditioned with the team and I wasn't held out of anything. I think it's going pretty good."
That doesn't mean the practice was easy, however.
Georgia spent nearly three hours on the practice field Tuesday, the team's first practice session with coaches since April. The players only donned shorts and practice jerseys and there was no contact, but brushing away the cobwebs still meant breaking a pretty hearty sweat.
"The first day's always tough," Owens said. "It was tough for me, but overall, I think it went pretty well on both sides of the ball. The guys competed and got after it."
Tuesday not only marked Owens return from injury, but it was also the first chance coaches had to meet with Georgia's incoming freshmen class.
The findings on Day 1 weren't significantly different from the reports coaches had gotten from players throughout a summer of voluntary workouts – the freshmen were prepared and eager to learn more.
"When you can walk into a meeting room for the first time with guys this morning and ask them some questions and they can fire the answer back at you, it certainly means a lot at this point," tight ends coach John Lilly said.
Georgia will practice in shorts again today before putting on shells for the next three days of practice. Monday will feature two practice sessions, including the first with full pads and contact.
"It won't be the same until you get into your first day of pads and contact," safety Bryan Evans said. "We've been running all summer, but when you put on the weight and start banging on each other, that's when you really see where our team is at physically."
GOOD FIRST IMPRESSIONS
The Bulldogs' first practice session may have been an eye-opener for many of the new faces on campus, but freshman tight end Orson Charles couldn't get enough.
After wowing his teammates during voluntary workouts this summer, Charles gave coaches a taste of his high-energy approach, and offensive coordinator Mike Bobo was impressed.
"He loves to play." Bobo said. "He wanted to take every rep. He didn't want to sit out a single play. He's hungry, and when the ball was thrown to him today, he made some catches. He didn't know everything that was going on, but neither did A.J. Green last year, but he made plays."
The comparisons to Green are impressive enough, but the Georgia wide receiver said Charles actually reminds him more of another prominent Bulldog.
"He reminds me of Knowshon a little bit," Green said of Charles. "He's got one of those motors that never stops."
ENJOYING THE SILENCE
Before his team took the field for its first day of practice a year ago, Mark Richt spent the morning answering questions about two players who had been arrested and a third who earned a suspension for damaging property at a local hospital. So when a reporter asked about the quiet offseason this year, Richt's response was relief.
"Amen," he said with a laugh.
The troublesome offseason a year ago foreshadowed a problematic season on the field in which Georgia was among the most penalized teams in the nation. Richt said his hope is that the trouble-free break this year will be precede a similar on-field turnaround.
"Have we been a more disciplined team from January to August than we were a year ago? To this point, we have," Richt said. "We hope that will translate to being a more disciplined team on the field."
Thursday, June 4, 2009
From the Mailbag: Tight End Toss-Up
So far this week I've been posting the responses from Mark Richt and Mark Fox to questions from you guys. Today's question comes from another anonymous commenter (this time, I'm assuming it's from former Atlanta Brave Pascual Perez): Do you believe that the two incoming freshman TEs are physically ready to mix it up inside early in the season, or should we expect to see a good amount of Bryce Ros on running downs and two TE sets until Figgins returns from suspension?
This really is the big question when it comes to the tight ends. There's no doubt that between Arthur Lynch, Orson Charles and Aron White, Georgia has some serious talent in the passing game. But who blocks?
First, let's dispense with the Bryce Ros talk. Ros has made a little progress, but that's about it so far. He's picking up on the details, but he has yet to prove he can take that knowledge and turn it into success on the field. That may happen at some point this season, but he's still a bit of a mystery.
"Bryce is getting his first real chance – even in the preseason last year and bowl practice, he would get some reps but as far as really having a chance to show what he can do and to learn," tight ends coach John Lilly said. "His answers to questions and those things are starting to come together. Now can he take what he knows and take it on to the field."
Of course, it's not an in-depth knowledge of the playbook and an ability to dodge defenders that is the main concern this year. It's blocking. UGA's offensive line should be improved, but with Bruce Figgins -- the Bulldogs' top blocking tight end -- out for the first six games, and a group of inexperienced tailbacks, all of whom have had problems in the blocking game in the past, in the backfield, that O line might not be getting much help.
The first option, ideally, will be Aron White, who got some nice experience down the stretch last season and was the only tight end to play significantly in spring practice.
"He really had a fine spring," Mark Richt said of White. "He runs good routes, he's got good hands, he's playing with energy. There's no question in my mind he'll be productive for us this year. We're going to let everybody compete. But he's shown me enough as a route runner and a ball catcher and a guy who is smart and serious about getting better."
Those things are great, but what about the blocking? That's been the knock on White since he arrived, mostly due to his size. At just 6-foot-4, 235, White is big -- just not that big. So while he's technically sound in the blocking game, he simply doesn't have the brawn to win every battle.
"He has his moments where he does great, but most of the time, he's just battling his tail off," Richt said. "But that's OK because if you're tenacious enough and you put your hat in the right spot and you're good fundamentally, you can be a good blocker. You don't have to just lift them up and roll them. He's ready to play Southeastern Conference football right now."
But what about the two fresh faces? Are they ready for SEC football?
Arthur Lynch looks to be the obvious answer in the blocking game, as he looks the part of the prototypical tight end more than anyone else on the roster. At 6-foot-5, 245, Lynch played in a more traditional tight end formation more often in high school and coaches have complimented his blocking skills even before he has practiced at Georgia. But there's a big difference between stopping rushers in high school and doing it in the SEC.
Orson Charles looks like he could be one of Georgia's most impactful freshmen, but most outside observers are expecting far more production in the passing game -- where Charles dominated in high school as a hybrid tight end, often lining up in the slot -- rather than establishing himself as a top blocker. Lilly isn't necessarily convinced that's the case.
"The big thing with him, it's like people look at Bruce is a blocker and Aron's a receiver, and they look at Artie and Orson the same way," Lilly said. "But Orson's a better blocker than people give him credit for and I think Artie's probably a better pass receiver than people give him credit for."
The bottom line, however, is that someone -- and possibly several someones -- will have to step up and handle those blocking duties, and at this point, even the coaches don't know who it will be. But, Richt said, he's happy he at least has a couple strong candidates to choose from.
"It's doubtful right now in my mind that either one of (Charles or Lynch) would redshirt," Richt said. "Not that we're predicting anyone will, but I would think both those guys have a great opportunity to play this year."
This really is the big question when it comes to the tight ends. There's no doubt that between Arthur Lynch, Orson Charles and Aron White, Georgia has some serious talent in the passing game. But who blocks?
First, let's dispense with the Bryce Ros talk. Ros has made a little progress, but that's about it so far. He's picking up on the details, but he has yet to prove he can take that knowledge and turn it into success on the field. That may happen at some point this season, but he's still a bit of a mystery.
"Bryce is getting his first real chance – even in the preseason last year and bowl practice, he would get some reps but as far as really having a chance to show what he can do and to learn," tight ends coach John Lilly said. "His answers to questions and those things are starting to come together. Now can he take what he knows and take it on to the field."
Of course, it's not an in-depth knowledge of the playbook and an ability to dodge defenders that is the main concern this year. It's blocking. UGA's offensive line should be improved, but with Bruce Figgins -- the Bulldogs' top blocking tight end -- out for the first six games, and a group of inexperienced tailbacks, all of whom have had problems in the blocking game in the past, in the backfield, that O line might not be getting much help.
The first option, ideally, will be Aron White, who got some nice experience down the stretch last season and was the only tight end to play significantly in spring practice.
"He really had a fine spring," Mark Richt said of White. "He runs good routes, he's got good hands, he's playing with energy. There's no question in my mind he'll be productive for us this year. We're going to let everybody compete. But he's shown me enough as a route runner and a ball catcher and a guy who is smart and serious about getting better."
Those things are great, but what about the blocking? That's been the knock on White since he arrived, mostly due to his size. At just 6-foot-4, 235, White is big -- just not that big. So while he's technically sound in the blocking game, he simply doesn't have the brawn to win every battle.
"He has his moments where he does great, but most of the time, he's just battling his tail off," Richt said. "But that's OK because if you're tenacious enough and you put your hat in the right spot and you're good fundamentally, you can be a good blocker. You don't have to just lift them up and roll them. He's ready to play Southeastern Conference football right now."
But what about the two fresh faces? Are they ready for SEC football?
Arthur Lynch looks to be the obvious answer in the blocking game, as he looks the part of the prototypical tight end more than anyone else on the roster. At 6-foot-5, 245, Lynch played in a more traditional tight end formation more often in high school and coaches have complimented his blocking skills even before he has practiced at Georgia. But there's a big difference between stopping rushers in high school and doing it in the SEC.
Orson Charles looks like he could be one of Georgia's most impactful freshmen, but most outside observers are expecting far more production in the passing game -- where Charles dominated in high school as a hybrid tight end, often lining up in the slot -- rather than establishing himself as a top blocker. Lilly isn't necessarily convinced that's the case.
"The big thing with him, it's like people look at Bruce is a blocker and Aron's a receiver, and they look at Artie and Orson the same way," Lilly said. "But Orson's a better blocker than people give him credit for and I think Artie's probably a better pass receiver than people give him credit for."
The bottom line, however, is that someone -- and possibly several someones -- will have to step up and handle those blocking duties, and at this point, even the coaches don't know who it will be. But, Richt said, he's happy he at least has a couple strong candidates to choose from.
"It's doubtful right now in my mind that either one of (Charles or Lynch) would redshirt," Richt said. "Not that we're predicting anyone will, but I would think both those guys have a great opportunity to play this year."
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