Football hotline for the last time this year. Very long college football season and now the bowl season gets ready. By the time the Dawgs play, college football will be talking about a bunch of other games.
Munson thinks some of the early bowl games could be wild. Texas & Arizona St. have won 19 games between them. The team Tech drew (Fresno St.) is not a patsy.
Clemson and
Auburn could be a lot of fun.
Munson asked CMR about the
Hawaii passing attack. Richt says they’re outstanding and throw the ball every way possible. You read about Brennan and his stats and figure it’s just he throws it a lot. But when you watch closely, he’s superbly accurate and rarely gets sacked. Throws overhand and sidearm and makes all the throws. He’s got 3 WRs with over 1000 yds. in the same season.
I recalled teams we’ve played this year – Okla. St., UK, Troy in particular – and wondered how Hawaii compares to these teams. Hawaii differs from others we’ve played in that they throw almost exclusively. They’ll pass the most and run only to give Brennan’s arm and their WRs a rest. Shovel pass, sprint out screen, throwback screen. Half roll, pocket, sprint action .. you name it.
Also, what about having a Dawg Walk in NO? CMR said he would check into that and find out.
Munson thinks sentimentally, Hawaii could be the favorite. CMR agrees and adds some think Hawaii should be in the national title game. There were others with schedules considered questionable but those teams were highly regarding in the polls during the year.
Rick in Woodstock says our results this season were somewhat unexpected. Some assistants did well too. How do our assistants get paid compared to others? Also, glad to see Cutcliffe take the Duke job. Going into last year, our assistants were tied for 3rd overall. Sometimes, you’ll read about coordinators really high paid but lower down assistants not as well paid. Things are changing very rapidly and you kind of have to hold your breath. We want to stay very competitive because our coaches have done as good a job as anyone in the country. CMR is happy for Cutcliffe if that is what he wants to do. If Cutcliffe was a head coach at the time, CMR would feel comfortable with him coaching his son Jon. Munson thinks Cutcliffe is a brave man for taking that job.
Carl in Bainbridge wonders is CMR heard Desmond Howard of ESPN, who thinks Hawaii will break every record in the book. CMR said we’ll see when the time comes. The Sugar Bowl has probably had a lot of smashmouth games over the years. It may be that Hawaii could break Sugar Bowl records with half to 2/3 of their normal production. Our defense is very excited about this challenge of taking on the top scoring offense in the nation.
James in Covington appreciates the stability CMR has brought, and asked about Brandon Coutu. CMR said his goal was to make this his home and provide stability in an unstable profession, just like Bowden had done for him. He wants to win, build up young men into productive citizens and provide stability as best as possible.
Coutu is fine – he’s kicking FGs and PATs now but not handling kickoffs. We’re not sure about kickoffs yet if Brandon does not do that.
Scott in Grayson said he has lots of friends who are Bama and Auburn fans, and they like Richt even though they don’t like UGA. He got to go to the gala and recommends it to anyone. He didn’t try for many autographs but got a few. And he ran into DJ Shockley on the sideline of the Falcons Monday night game. Scott has followed Hawaii the last couple of years and wonders what CMR thinks of their lines. Scott thinks their OL is strong especially in pass blocking but maybe weak on the DL.
CMR said there were 1,600 people at the gala – a great celebration of Georgia football. CMR is very impressed with Hawaii’s OL. You want to keep pads square to the line of scrimmage. They do a good job of staying square, stopping at the moment of truth and “stabbing” the defensive linemen. Their DL – CMR doesn’t agree with Scott. At times opponents have ripped off some runs but it is more maintaining assignments and gaps when they blitz.
Paul in Centre, AL asked about a “virtual” playoff on ESPN’s site. Paul says he ran it and UGA won 8 of 10 times. CMR said he’s starting to be in favor of something. What about recruiting? CMR says we’re doing well. He always looks for whether we’re filling our needs at every position and project two years down the road when determining needs. We’re meticulous in trying to find the right guys who have the physical ability, can do it in the classroom and are good people. Instead of doing a lot of recruiting now, we’re celebrating with guys who’ve committed to us and trying to find guys for next year’s class. Whether or not we’re ranked 1, 2, 3, etc. is not as important as filling the needs.
Doug in Cumming said he’s enjoyed this past year. Do we have a recruit for kicking next year? What about the scout team?
Richt said we are recruiting a kicker. It must be hard to get a scout team ready for offenses you never see. Logan Gray is doing well as scout team QB. To say we can do it as well as Hawaii is foolish but we’re doing pretty good at lining up and running their patterns. Instead of spending time on inside running drills we’re working on their passing game, since they don’t run much.
Tim in Atlanta is concerned whether we’ll be motivated for a team not considered as good. CMR said there’s no way to watch film on Hawaii and not consider them a great team. They’re a team that has the ultimate confidence to win any game they play.
Kathy in Winder wished Munson & CMR Merry Christmas. She asked if walk ons get to make the trip? Also, has the team (not to mention the fans) gotten over the initial snub of being passed over for the title game? CMR said walk ons get to make the trip. There has never been a question. Some might be ineligible because of a transfer rule or something. Are they over a disappointment? There are a bunch of microphones being stuck in our face the moment we find out we’re not playing for the national championship. CMR thinks that was a bit overblown because of the timing. If they’d done that just 24 hours later they would have gotten a much different reaction. It is an honor to play in the Sugar Bowl and represent the SEC.
Jerry in Millersville says the battle cry for next year is “Leave No Doubt” – and he wants his royalties! Is CMR coming to Macon? Jerry met Munson at Home Team Sports. CMR cut down on speaking this past spring to spend more time with Jon since he’s a senior. He’ll do very few speaking engagements this spring.
Munson wonders what CMR will do if we’re down 21-3 at the end of the first quarter. CMR said we’ll just keep banging away. The last time that happened we got down 28-0 and whittled down
Jason in Sandy Springs said thanks for the great year and looks for next year. He also asked about the rumors that Moreno didn’t make grades. Moreno is in good shape on grades as far as CMR knows. There’s not a guy on the team that we’re concerned about. Sometimes rumors get started and it’s hard to tell how or where they came from.
Stanley thinks if Georgia can avoid dropping the ball and turnovers we can run the ball on Hawaii. If their WRs are so fast, are we going to try and double cover front & back or try to cover with LBs? CMR said we had a few drops early in the year but that pretty much got solved the second half of the year. We’ve really done a good job of catching the ball lately.
They play so many 4-5 WR looks. We may go so far as having 4 CBs. If we’re in man coverage there will be times a LB is on a WR. We have to try to pressure the QB. We also have to make sure we substitute our DL to keep guys fresh. Thankfully we have a bunch of guys who’ve played a bunch.
Richard in Mt. Airy mentioned a couple of big recruits from his area .. and reminded Munson about his preseason comment we’d be lucky to have five wins. Munson is indeed surprised at how the season has gone. How do we handle it with recruits when we’re close to filling up? CMR explained the limits for a given year and overall. Plus there are target numbers at each position. Those recruits are very aware of what’s going on with that. CMR always tells guys to pray over it and have peace over it. Don’t mess around and take other visits because you may lose an opportunity.
CMR wants to thank everyone in the Bulldog Nation – you’ve been great this year. Munson said if Hawaii hit 25 passes in a row then he’d be screaming.
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