UGA = AU a few years ago

[Robbins]

Lots of similarities:

1. 2007 Auburn team was pretty good, but struggled mightily on one side of the ball
2. 2008 off-season: Auburn makes radical changes of struggling side of the ball
3. 2008 signing class= sub-par
4. 2008 season: team is fairly talented (made it into the top 10 at one point), then all hell breaks lose
5. 2008/2009 off-season: successful and well-liked head coach fired

Tuberville's problem was that he was too loyal to his assistants and would never make changes except for his coordinators. Richt finally made his moves this past year, but was it too late......

[huntress]

Lots of similarities:

1. 2007 Auburn team was pretty good, but struggled mightily on one side of the ball
2. 2008 off-season: Auburn makes radical changes of struggling side of the ball
3. 2008 signing class= sub-par
4. 2008 season: team is fairly talented (made it into the top 10 at one point), then all hell breaks lose
5. 2008/2009 off-season: successful and well-liked head coach fired

I certainly agree with some things here, but changing a defensive scheme from a 4-3 to a 3-4 is not the same as taking a team that has been a power running football team for 100+ years and trying to turn them into a throw-first spread offense. That is a change in culture. I can see some of the similarities, but Tony Franklin does not = Todd Grantham. Franklin was a very weird individual who was coaching high school a few years before he came to Auburn, didn't get along with anyone on the staff and had little in the way of a proven track record. Grantham's success is well-documented and he has been around for a long time without personality conflicts. There is definitely more uncertainty in the UGA program now than there has been for the last 9 years, but I'm not ready to jump off the deep end yet.

Richt finally made his moves this past year, but was it too late......

Time will tell here, but I'm not sure how you already know Grantham is going to fail. Y'all drank the hell out of the Tony Franklin kool-aid. Let us enjoy the Todd Grantham kool-aid for a minute before you declare it an automatic disaster without possibility for success.

[JD]

Richt didn't just fire his coordinator, he fired the entire defensive staff (except Garner). He also allowed Grantham to hire the assistants he wanted. That alone puts him in a better position to succeed that Franklin who was seemingly working against the rest of the staff.In addition this hasn't been the carousel of coordinators like Auburn

Curious why you think the move was too late from Richt.

[Robbins]

I agree that the change in scheme for AU from 3 yards and a cloud of dust to the air raid spread was a much bigger change than switching from the 4-3 to the 3-4. But UGA over-hauled the entire defensive staff while AU only changed one coach, making a much larger change as far as personnel. I think we could probably agree that the two overall changes are about on the same level.

I didn't mean to imply anything negative about Grantham. He may do a great job. I'll use Jay Ratliff as an example. Jay played his Freshman and Sophomore years at Auburn as a TE. He played his Junior year as a 250 lbs DE. He played his senior year as a 275 lbs DT. Two years later, under Grantham's tuteledge, he is a Pro Bowler at NG (he repeated again this year) in a 3-4 defense that he never played in before.

And to JD, I don't necessarily think that CMR waited too long to make the changes. I only threw that in there to stir the pot and because it was the next link in a similar chain of events between the two schools. But while on the topic, he probably could have made a few coaching changes here and there over the last few years instead of making wholesale changes this past year. These changes made the program seem like it is worse shape than it really is.

[BeastieDawg]

JD, Robbins may have meant the same thing that many thought. Martinez should have been gone after 2008 ended. At that point, IMO the heat went to CMR for leaving things just the way they were. Our defense vs AL, UF, and GT that year were some of the most pathetic ever and we had to score over 38 on both LSU and UK to beat them.



When its all said and done with this team, there is enough talent in this state, enough money and fan support at our school, enough tradition and good enough facilities for this UGA Football program to contend every single year for SEC titles and beyond. FACTS.

[jmirabella]

It has to be mentioned that Georgia had a historically bad - for the sport, not just the program - season as far as turnovers go: -16 TO margin. Richt's worst year to that point had been (I believe) -2. We threw a lot of interceptions, but the real reason for the disparity between Georgia and its opponents in the TO department was fumbles lost vs fumbles recovered, which most people agree has nothing to do with talent or coaching, but is simply a function of luck. In other words, this season was like the 500-plus year flood Atlanta just experienced: a statistical anomaly. Historically, most of the other teams that rate comparably with Georgia's -16 TO margin won an average of about 2 to 3 games a year. Georgia won 8. If Georgia returns to the mean in TO margin, and Grantham turns out to be even a slight upgrade over CWM, Georgia should win 10 or 11 games (or more). The schedule, it should also be pointed out, gets a lot easier this year after two very difficult seasons.

If you want to make a Georgia-Auburn comparison, why don't you go with Auburn of 2003 who also won 8 games (8-5), and which brought in a new coordinator for the 2004 season and...well, you know.

[Robbins]

If you want to make a Georgia-Auburn comparison, why don't you go with Auburn of 2003 who also won 8 games (8-5), and which brought in a new coordinator for the 2004 season and...well, you know.

The problem with that theory is that 2003 was Auburn's first year of bad offense in the period. Petrino was there in 2002. UGA has had several years of bad (read: below average for UGA standards) defense. That is why is more similar to '06, '07, '08 Auburn.

[Kylezone]

The major problem with Auburn was they went to "Air Raid" w/o a decent QB. If they would have had a healthy Chris Todd (ie 2009) CTT might still be coaching at AU. Instead, Todd was playing with a bum shoulder and Kodi Burns can't hit the broad side of a barn on a 5 yard drag route.


I think UGA will be just fine under Grantham. They will be hit and miss on D the first year and in year 2 play at a much higer level.

[Kylezone]

The major problem with Auburn was they went to "Air Raid" w/o a decent QB. If they would have had a healthy Chris Todd (ie 2009) CTT might still be coaching at AU. Instead, Todd was playing with a bum shoulder and Kodi Burns can't hit the broad side of a barn on a 5 yard drag route.


I think UGA will be just fine under Grantham. They will be hit and miss on D the first year and in year 2 play at a much higher level.