Reasons for Optimism

Only thing that’s tough with trying to sure up the tackle positions in the portal is that great OT’s don’t enter the portal, it’s usually just interior linemen. Gotta hope that next year Barber/Waites/George get in better shape and improve. I think they will. Outside of the UGA game, they haven’t been horrendous, they just give up sacks at the WORST time.

Hurts a bit too that Mertz is slow of foot in avoiding the blitz.

hoping both sides of the ball take a leap this offseason

 

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But we (and FSU and UM too) don't get the best kids from FL anymore. That's Bama, UGA and OSU. Yet another reason why I find myself caring less and less. It's losing that provincial quality (that, to be honest, favored us greatly) that made it so great.

 

Geez you’re such a downer

 

Classic reply for a person who looks at the final score and draws all conclusions from that alone, in ignorance of everything else

 

Well one thing was validated this week — the trolls who were nowhere to be found the past 2 weeks have slithered back as expected. Not only are you a sorry excuse for a fan (of whatever team you associate with), you’re too predictable to be any good at it.

 

we aren’t close to beating UGA this or next year. While we have the #3 class, they still are by far and away the #1 class in the 2024 recruiting….but that’s ok. Our true freshmen and the 2024 class are classes that will help us separate from the middle of the SEC pack.

That’s more important than catching UGA in an unrealistic time frame

 

When these 2024's are Juniors we will have hopefully closed the gap enough to make a run at them.

 

DL help is on the way!!!!

https://247sports.com/player/lj-mccray-46129669/

 

There have to be some highly-rated and really good underclassmen tackles that are tired of sitting behind really good upperclassmen tackles. Hopefully some of them enter the portal for immediate playing time and we are ready when they officially enter.

 

IMO George (and Mazzccua) have been pretty rough all season.

 

i was trying to not sound like a debby downer so i was trying to put lipstick on a pig lol. I think out S&C has to be reevaluated too. Too many injuries and not enough physicality as the season has gone on.

you know what though? What will help in the future if we can be in these games with the lead. Seems like we’re always tied or playing from behind.

 

Every year about 10 offensive tackles go in the first 100 picks of the NFL draft. I think that puts you in the category of pretty good. Sure Alabama, Georgia and Ohio State represent heavily, but here are the other schools in that list from the past few years:

Syracuse, North Dakota State, BYU, North Carolina State, Northern Iowa, Central Michigan, Virginia Tech, Stanford, Louisville, Houston, TCU, Northern Illinois, Troy, Bucknell, Indiana, Colorado State, Alabama State. A lot of them went top 50, the guy from Alabama State was a top-25 pick.

Right now, the NIL game is only starting up. As more money pours in, look for these picks to get a ton of money and exposure.

There's a OT from Arizona graded for the 2nd-round after this season. Allegedly, his NIL value was $150K and he stayed at Arizona. I cannot imagine them paying that, so the sales staff at a lot of schools did a bad job last year. How many years do we have to have poor OL play before one of our boosters starts getting into the procurement game?

 

Only thing younger than our players is the coaches

 

But they don't at Georgia. So, you'd better saddle up. They know they'll get their shot and when they do the NFL will come calling. Just like they did with all the ones before them. Those that do want to transfer, Kirby probably wants to transfer.

Maybe it will change when the playoffs go to 12 teams, but Georgia looks stacked to dominate the next decade. We'll see, but I don't see the Deion Plan (Transfers, transfers, transfers) beating what they have, which is a stable program whose coach isn't going anywhere and a fanbase ($$$$$) that doesn't give a shit about anything but Football.

 

Exactly what I meant in my comment.

 

Unfortunately if you look at the dominant college coaches of the last however long and what lead them to stop being dominant,

Spurrier: NFL, recruiting
Bobby Bowden: age
Butch Davis: NFL, NCAA, lack of $
Meyer: crazy
Carroll: NFL, NCAA
Saban: NFL, age
Swinney: entitlement

None of those downfalls seemingly fit Smart at all.

 

I have no expectations that we would match UGA's OL talent by going to the portal. However, we HAVE to use the portal to at least upgrade our OL. Look at next year's schedule. This place is going to melt down if we attempt to run through that schedule with the same OL next year.

 

If it's any consolation, Georgia doesn't have elite level coaching. They do on the defensive side of the ball, but the reason they're so dominant right now is because they have dudes. Kirby ain't an elite gameday coach.

 

i think it’s tough for a lot of fans to grasp how much we’ve fallen as a program on the field. We get EVERYONE’S best shot but don’t have the horse to get up each and every week