Not including an exhibition game against a C-USA team in Memphis- where legends are born!- the 2010 season is now in the books. Needless to say, it wasn’t what any of us hoped for, even worse than most of us feared it could possibly be. We’re hardly far enough down the road for 20/20 hindsight vision, but some analysis doesn’t need to simmer for too long before it’s ready to serve.
Thinking back on this season, it had very few bright spots. The losses were bitter- embarrassing fumbles to lose to Big XII bottom-dwellers, choked away chances to beat bitter rivals, losses to teams we Dawg fans just aren’t used to losing to. And the wins, though usually dominant, weren’t exciting enough to match the brutality of the losses. We blew teams out, but we should have – Kentucky, Tennessee and Vandy were bad. The only close game the Dawgs won over a somewhat legitimate team was the Tech game and while satisfying, it wasn’t exactly a masterpiece in coaching or execution.
With that pity party under way, however, I’ll have to admit that 6-6 this year actually doesn’t get under my skin as bad as 7-5 did a year a go. There are three primary reasons this is the case:
First, margin of defeat (like margin of victory, just the “glass half empty version). The Dawgs six losses came by an average of just under 9 points per game. And that number is a bit inflated because of the way the fourth quarter played out against Auburn and them tacking on an extra TD they didn’t need just to pad Cam’s stats. By contrast, the Dawgs five defeats last year came by an average of just under 15 points per game. Sure, some will say a loss is a loss, which is true when you’re just looking at records. But numbers only tell part of the story of a season. Getting blown out by Florida or a Kiffin-coached Tennessee team is just plain worse the losing in the last few second to an Arkansas squad who will celebrate New Years in the Sugar Bowl. You got the feeling at times last year (and in 2008) that the coaches just got flat out game-planned and then the team gave up when they got down. This team didn’t play that game. Yes, they coughed up leads at times (which is a separate, new and frustrating issue), but when they got down to to some legitimately good teams this team never once gave up. The Dawgs didn’t beat a team with a winning record this year (only teams that finished 6-6 or worse), but they hung with some good ones which couldn’t always be said of arguably more talented teams in the two years before.
Secondly, the defense. It’s still far too early to turn in a verdict on Grantham. Richt has admitted what many of us have thought- we’d hoped the defense would take a little quicker than it did. But it’s obvious there are personnel improvements that need to be made and old habits that need more refining in the current players. Last year Willie’s squad gave up 26 points per game. Grantham only lowered that number to 23. It’s improvement, but it’s not quite what we’re paying him three quarters of a million dollars for. So what makes it better than 2009? Last year’s defense was infuriating because we watched problems we’d seen for a few years not only fail to improve, but actually worsen. DBs turned to look for the ball less often; turnovers became more rare; the line got less pressure. This year’s unit was far from a completed project most of the time, but at least the problems we saw improved some over the course of 12 games and gave us hope for improvement next year. I’m not convinced Grantham is going to be the Van Gorder all Dawg fans wanted (which may or may not be out there and available at any given point), but there’s more hope now for the future than there was a year ago. We’ve learned that Grantham’s bark is better than his bite, but his bite could still improve significantly and turn out to be one of the best in the conference. There’s no reason not to believe the second tour through the conference will be better than the first.
Lastly, Aaron Murray. I’ll admit that while I kept a cautiously optimistic front about this kid I genuinely felt he’d be the thing to hold our offense back this fall. With one season under his belt he didn’t just show that he can be great- he was great! He’d just plain fun to watch! I predict that by the end of his time between the hedges he’ll be in the esteemed company of Greene, Pollack, and other universally-beloved Dawgs. There’s nothing about his play or leadership a straight-faced fan can be truly critical of. It’s been a few year since the Dawgs had a guy like that. Knowshon showed it in sparks. AJ has been hurt too much to give that with any consistency. Stafford was never enough of a leader to win over the masses. But Murray gave us something to hang our hat on week in and week out and he is certainly the most exciting component of this team going forward. And if you disagree just watch this:
What are your thoughts? Can 6-6 really be any better than 7-5? It was a rough year, but there dark spots weren’t quite as black as the year before.
Good article. I agree with the sentiment of the article. As for there being another Van Gorder or whether Grantham can be that person, I would say if Grantham was given Boss Bailey, Kendrell Bell, David Pollack, Sean Jones, Thomas Davis, Greg Blue, Wansley, Jennings, Minter, Odell, Taylor, Golston, Q, Charles Johnson, Sully, etc., etc.,………I think you get my drift. We currently have maybe three guys that can be mentioned with that group. I like what I have seen from the new D. We have good players, just not a lot of great ones like those mentioned. With the influx of a couple of guys and a notch improvement of the guys we have I think we can be very good on D. I certainly like the direction.
I also agree on Aaron Murray. I think he has a chance to go down as UGA’s best QB ever. Certainly he can be remembered with David Greene, Zeir, and Stafford. I do take exception with your comment about Stafford’s leadership. I think it is short sighted to not see what leadership and play he brought to the team. Other than he FR year he never got to play behind an experienced OL. They were almost all rookie his SO year and almost all SO his JR year. Couple that with him NOT having healthy TEs to throw to either of those years, and certainly not of the caliber of receiver as the current TEs we have for Aaron and there was a lot of pressure on the QB position. Not having the TE position consistently available hurt Stafford’s numbers a bit. The threat of his intermediate to deep passing opened the door for Knowshon being able to run behind that young OL. The youth of that OL hurt us early in the year in ’07. The coaches didn’t trust them to protect Stafford and we weren’t throwing the ball downfield much. Thus the losses to SC and UT. Once they got their feet wet enough and we started throwing it downfield we took off as an offense. Tubs was asked before the blackout game if he would be able to stop Knowshon and Thomas Brown like they did DMac and Felix Jones the week prior, and he said, “we won’t be able to stack the box like we did against ARK because Stafford would burn us deep.” Stafford burned them deep anyway and Knowshon and Thomas Brown had big days. Stafford also played dinged up a lot. He was a tough guy. The players on that O would go to war for Stafford. That is the sign of a leader…….someone the players trust enough to follow. I don’t have stats, but I would bet that Stafford completed more third and long(8-20yd) passes than any previous QB in UGA history.
I think the future is bright for Dawg fans. I think Richt made the necessary move on the coaching staff and I think the recruiting is going to be good for us as well. We are only a couple of stars away from winning these close games and Aaron Murray has taken one of those spots of need for us. We will start next season with the play book fully open and opposing teams are not going to be stacking the box against our rushing attack due to the respect of Aaron Murray. One more thing about Murray, I don’t think I have seen another UGA QB hit as many deep balls, percentage wise, as he has. I only saw a couple where the receiver couldn’t get to the ball.
Those A Murray highlights are incredible. He does not look like a RS Freshman. If we can get some more D play-makers and win the close games next year, our schedule shapes up nicely for a run after the Boise St and USCe games.