Began by complimenting his coaching staff and saying how thankful he is to
have such a great, hard working group of guys coaching withhim; (CMR is as humble
as it gets, guys)
Asked for prayers regarding the health of our players. Apparently Tra Battle
had a scary incident at practice today and it looked likehe may have suffered
a serious head/kneck injury at first. Itactually caused CMR to stop practice
altogether. Fortunately, Tra ended up getting up and "shaking it off"
eventually, and Tra should be fine. CMR mentioned that Bryan Evans had a similar
episode during spring practice, and sometimes we ALL tend to forget that these
young men are one play away from a devastating injury. Well said, IMO.
Began his "State of the Dawgs" address by commenting on the QB situation.
Said alotta folks probably wanted to see Stafford start. Stafford has tremendous
talent, but JT3 "won that sucker" fair and square by having a tremendous
camp, and the entire team knew JT had won it b/c they saw how well he was performing.
JT knows the system inside and out, and will manage a game better than any of
the others. He doesn't have a cannon arm, but is an accurate passer andcan make
"all the throws" he needs to make for us.
CMR has never put a young QB (or player) in a situation where he can blow his
confidence by making a game losing play early in his career, and he never will.
He said this to illustrate why none of the young QBs will be placed in that
position in Columbia, SC, two saturdays from now.
Next, CMR literally GUSHED about the incoming frosh class. I've been a TD club
member the entire time CMR has been our coach, and I've never heard him rave
about a group of incoming frosh like he did tonight. He did it early and often.
He said they ALL can "flat out run, hit, tackle and catch."
We might redshirt some GREAT (not good, but GREAT) players this season, which
speaks volumes about our depth (so sayeth CMR). He favors redshirting a kid
if possible to help them graduate and getthe most of their football careers
at UGA.
Frosh who will definitely play (no surprises): Geno Atkins, AsherAllen, Prince
Miller, Kris Durham, Darius Dewberry. Everyone else is iffy, and might play,
but might not play either.
Just because a kid doesn't play vs. WKU, doesn't mean he will necessarily redshirt.
If a kid hasn't played by the 4th or 5th game, he'll redshirt barring an injury
situation forcing him into action.
Mentioned that Geno Atkins has played his way into possibly taking PT from
Ricardo Crawford (in addition to Ricardo's injury). Seemed very impressed with
Atkins, and seemed to think Crawford might be a redshirt candidate now.
Said that Reshad Jones and Q. Banks might redshirt, and, "it says something
about our talent level when kids that talented redshirt."
Said with our young talent, we "should be pretty good for a while."That's
the closest you'll ever come to bold, brash comments from CMR about his team.
Steve Spurrier, he ain't. Reading between the lines: Guys, CMR thinks we're
loaded. Take it FWIW.
TB, KG and DW will all get carries. TB is gonna get the most, but there is
no predetermined plan. Most 2 back sets will be a FB and a RB. There will be
a few sets w/2 RBs.
Knowshon is an outstanding rusher, but "will get our QB killed" if
he plays right now (and Knowshon knows it). He runs routes when he should block
and vice versa. He's struggling w/assignments like any frosh RB.
Jason Johnson re-injured his ankle, which probably means he won't play vs.
WKU. Good news: Des Williams recovered from his knee scope earlier than expected,
and he probably will play. So, for the 1st time ever, we'll have Sutherland
and Des platooning, which should be the ideal situation for both.
CMR was very complimentary of our starting OL. He singled out Michael Turner
and Fernando Velasco for having "outstanding camps." Seth Watts has
really stepped up. Eventually, we should have a 3 OT rotation w/Turner, Shack
and Inman, and quite possibly a 3 guard rotation w/Velasco, Cheese and Watts.
He seemed encouragingly confident about our OL. Said if you wanna worry, worry
about NEXT year's OL. Damn . . .
Said our WRs had "the best camp he has seen in 6 years." I am VERY
encouraged to hear that. We COULD have a rotation of 6 WRs. He will rotate all
six early and often to keep 'em as fresh as possible. MoMass is our main target,
but he mentioned Mikey Henderson, Kenneth Harris, AJ Bryant, Kris Durham and
even Mike Moore (GHOST!) as guys that have been impressive in camp.
Said AU run blocks better than any team in our league, and they may pass block
the best, too. Hugh Nall does a tremendous job. Also mentioned that WKU handled
all that great blocking pretty darn well last season.
INTs. We're getting more picks because we've finally recruited defenders with
ball skillz, which is what CWM has been wanting. Said ALL of our young kids
on D can run AND catch the ball. They're seeing more picks in practice, and
we should expect to see more in games. For quite a while.
He spent a bunch of time on the new 25 second clock rule, which he HATES (obviously,
judging by the amount of time he spent on the subject). Game clock will begin
running immediately after the ball has been spotted, which, in effect will shorten
games. Average games will be shortened by EIGHT minutes of GAME clock!! Many
fewer plays.Will really hurt offenses, and help defenses. He expects some all
time low offensive numbers and all time high defensive numbers across college
football. CMR is an offensive coach, so he hates the rule. As such, I hate it
too.
That's about all I can recall. He asked everyone to be sure to show up at 10:45
a.m. for The Dawg Walk. So, BE THERE!!
If anyone else here attended the meeting, and would care to add anything I
left out (or elaborate on anything), please do so.
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