Munson - College football is now full-fledeged into the schedules. Impressive teams this week –
Clemson .. Ole Miss took a good shot at
Florida but Tebow saved the Gators. Georgia was beautifully handled and threw it well most of the game.
LSU and
Kentucky were among teams that looked like a million dollars this past weekend.
After mentioning I got home from T-Town around 5 am Sunday, I asked CMR about teams jumping into the no-huddle against us and problems we’ve had because of it. CMR: The best thing we can do – we had wrist bands on everyone .. but its sometimes awkward. We’ve just to make some “field” calls and go with it. Against OSU we had trouble with it in the first half but made a great adjustment, busted a guy in the mouth and they quit running it. But other teams have had success, and when a team sees on film we have trouble lining up they want to try the no-huddle too.
Stephen wonders about a song played during warm-ups, and asked about some defensive players. CMR – Asher Allen playing great, Atkins playing great, M. Washington playing great. Our best combo may be B. Miller at SLB, M. Washington at MLB and Ellerbe.
We had more candidates for captains for this week than in awhile; 9 were nominated and the coaches had to make some tough calls. We’ve got to handle the no huddle better and finish better.
Burt in Roswell – we missed Munson Saturday night. Unbelievable how well we play on the road and wishes we could play with that chip on our shoulder at home. About the transition to Bobo? And does Stafford press some after dropped balls? We had a special teams timeout, two defensive timeouts (one which CMR called to settle the D down). Stafford just forgot we didn’t have a timeout. Football is now so complex defensively .. you could just blind call a run or you could have combinations. But you have to be at the line to adjust based on the defense. We were going to get a five yard penalty anyway.
CMR thinks Stafford sometimes will press, though not as much as last year. The footwork thing has to do with two things – whether the protection breaks down .. Matthew’s ability to get rid of the ball helps with keeping sacks down. Also, he is working on his footwork even when on the move.
Perry in Macon remembered calling last week and said we had Bama right where we wanted them. Hope it doesn’t get turned on us this week.
Injuries – Haverkamp injured his ankle during inside drills on Tuesday and didn’t make the trip. Boling also got hurt in the same drill but was able to hang in there. Haverkamp probably won’t be able to go this week either.
Munson said the last couple of times we played Ole Miss it was a real war. Some of the players have already told Richt they were very physical last year. They love to run a “power O” play, running it right at you. This is one of those you can’t relax with.
Lance in Uvalda is really impressed with Moreno. Richt says he really has a spark about him. Some of the opponents don’t like that. Pollack had that attitude too. Marcus Howard is also playing with that intensity. When guys do that and have success it becomes contagious.
Paul in Centre, AL (still very hoarse) thinks the SEC is extremely competitive and there are no “gimme” games this year. Richt agrees and points out Kentucky in particular. It’s a tough deal and our guys understand that. It’s tough to get emotionally geeked out every week. That’s why you have to practice with good fundamentals every week.
Matthew in Winder wonders when we can get Southerland more involved in the offense. Richt – we’ve actually called the play he catches most of the balls on and defenses have done a good job of jumping him. Early in the game we threw a flag route and just missed Chandler. Brandon is the first option on that play but he was covered. You can put things in for Brandon and he comes through for you.
Scott in Grayson (got home 6:30 am Sunday) hopes none of our guys got hurt in the dogpile from stuff getting thrown. Why do we seem to play so well on the road but sometimes don’t seem to have that same fire at home? Also, what a great job Searles has done, taking the young guys. Amazing that two of them were playing HS ball just a year ago. CMR – our home record is good but not as good, and our neutral site record not as good. CMR doesn’t know what it is, about the road, where our guys get so excited. Our coaches are not out on the road recruiting. And at home, coaches also have to entertain. We want to, but it is still something in addition to coaching and prep. The closer you are to home, you have a comfort level while on the road it’s “us against the world.” Searles has done a great job. When you look at film sometimes the backs are making the OL look even better. And Bobo has done a good job calling plays to put them in good situations.
Wayne in Waycross thought we mixed our defenses well vs. Bama. He also thinks Stafford gets antsy in the backfield. Maybe if we get him in drills where he gets hit a couple of times? Richt thinks sometimes he’s antsy for good reason. The key for him is every time the ball is snapped he has to trust his protection. When you drop back and realize it’s broken down you have to be an athlete. Even on an int. he threw he got out of a sack.
Kevin in Vidalia congratulated CMR not only on the win but on making it to church Sunday. He wondered about trying to run against an 8 man front latte in the game. What about throwing slants or curls. Would we consider running the bubble screen that Florida used to run against us. DO NOT LET THE PLAYERS READ ANY PAPERS OR WATCH ESPN THIS WEEK!
CMR – most fans are mad if you throw incomplete and stop the clock late in the game. We had pretty good field position, got one first down but not a second one. We punted them deep but couldn’t make a stop. They hit a long pass then drove downfield.
The 3 WR screen may have been effective but people can defend that too. One thing that has gotten missed in conversation is the great job Stafford did of moving the team down the field after they tied it to have a chance to win in regulation. If Coutu had made the FG people would be talking about Stafford moving the team downfield.
Mark in Lake Hartwell was glad to see Richt with headsets back on. It looked like he was more into the game. Is Coutu 100% healthy? CMR doesn’t think he’s lost any distance since his injury last year. The last FG had plenty of leg and he just missed it 2-3 feet. He did come up short on one FG but hit a bit low on that ball.
Phillip in Comer wondered about going conservative with about 5-6 min. left or stick with the game plan? Richt – there are two schools of thought. You can mix things up. You have a 7 point lead, got a good return, and their defense has been playing pretty well all night. If you throw a pick, momentum can change in a hurry. Maybe we could have tried a couple of high percentage passes. We did take a conservative route and try to run the ball down the field. We punted them deep and thought our defense could hold but they couldn’t.
Looking back – that is why CMR chose to kick a FG late in the SC game. We thought they might try to throw it and did not think they would be able to run the ball successfully on us. If you’re ahead by less than a TD you have to be more aggressive than if you have a TD lead.
Halsey in Athens thinks Goodman looks very good when he gets a chance. Also, other than keeping guys committed, what are our goals in this class? Goodman looked good in the last game, dinged his shoulder this week and missed some practice, but we took some shots with him vs. Bama. One of them was the play we went to Mikey with to win the game. CMR thinks Bailey, MoMass and Mikey played their best game. We’d welcome the rest to join in.
We’d love an OT, LB, safety, at least one RB…
Tom in Thomasville thought we threw to the TEs more. Is Chandler having these problems in practice? CMR – he’s normally a sure handed guy who just unfortunately dropped a couple in the game. And we have guys to compete.
Jessica in Toccoa thought Moreno did awesome, had a few other comments and asked about Kregg Lumpkin. CMR said Lump got in on some special teams. He goes back to the Dr. and may get a smaller cast.
John in Leesburg (went to HS with CMR in Boca Raton) .. FSU fan. CMR said he’d talked to a couple of the FSU coaches who were trying to figure what to do vs. Bama (Saturday in Jax). That will be a heck of a game.
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