(Disclaimer: This is admittedly a flame post venting my feelings tonight on Kirby and his repeated mismangement of our QB position. And I've been on the vent long enough (20 years) to understand the reaction and comments that I'll get from other dawgs that don't share my opinion. They will name call, ...dismiss my criticism out of hand, ...say I'm not a real fan, ...that I don't understand football, .....I must have some personal axe to grind with Kirby, ....speculate that I probably didn't even go to school at UGA, .... yada yada yada. So let me preface my comments ahead of time to give yall and idea of who I am and where I'm coming from with this.
I'm a 42 year old life-long and die hard Georgia football fan, ...full stop. I'm a double UGA legacy (both my parents went to UGA) and a 2 time UGA graduate myself (BA in History '02, MBA '10). I grew up in Bham as a Bulldawg super fan surrounded by friends and family that were all either Bama or Aub fans at a time when those programs + UT and Florida were winning, ....while UGA was not. My dad has had the same 4 club level season tickets at Sanford since 1982 and I've been going to games there since my first home game vs. Duke in 1985. I've got pictures of me and my dad in those same seats that span 5 decades now. I've probably attended close to 100 UGA games in my life, and went to J-Ville to watch UGA lose to Florida a total of 7 times before I ever got to watch us a win a game down there. I watched us lose to Tennessee 9 straight times and helped tear down the goal posts when we finally beat them at home in 2000. My point is that even if you don't agree with my below comments on Kirby, ...just understand that these comments are coming from a life-long, loyal, die-hard UGA football fan who is at the end of his pitiful rope. I want to win it all. I was 3 months old in 1980 and my life will not be complete until I've seen it through.
Also, ... I have nothing but love and respect for Stetson Bennet and wish nothing but the best for him. My comments below are regarding Stetson Bennett the football player, and more importantly about CKS the coach. Stetson is an amazing story, an impressive human being and a DGD. He has also clearly maximized his abilities as a football player and turned into a pretty darn good one. But in terms of being a big-time college QB capable of winning big games against elite competition in the SEC, ... Stetson Bennett is/was and forever will be fatally flawed in that regard. And thats OKAY. Its not his fault. Its his coaches job to evaluate each position and play the best player at each. Its not Stetson's fault that Kirby has inexplicably and stubbornly planted hi flag in the middle of Stetson's back. Thats Kirby's call. So none of this personal to me with Stetson. That being said, ....flame away).
Just got back home to Signal Mt. after driving down to ATL with my dad for the SECCG tonight and I needed to share my thoughts. Earlier this week on a whim, I bought 2 tickets to the game for $1000. Going into tonight, I'd been to 4 SEC Championship games involving UGA and we were 1-3 in those games (saw us beat Arky in 2002). I wasn't originally planning to go tonight but bought tickets earlier this week after deciding that me and my pops had to be in the stands to witness it when UGA finally took down Bama and exercised our considerable demons over the big bad wolf. That is how confident I'd grown in this 2021 UGA team. Despite years and years of evidence to the contrary, ...I was convinced that we were going to win this time. I knew that. Looking back, I can admit now that all week leading up to the game, I did not once seriously entertain the thought that UGA could lose to Bama tonight. My only concern uncertainty about tonight was if we'd win in a blowout or if Bama would keep it close ...but make no mistake about it, ....I went into tonight expecting to witness a UGA coronation. Instead we got,... something else.
/The game sucked. Honestly, I feel we are lucky we didn't lose by 40. Stetson bennet is god awful at QB and always has been, ....and kirby's refusal to even try playing JT Daniels tonight (or even in garbage time in the games leading up to tonight) is inexplicable and infuriating. Its also extremely stupid and flat out bad coaching. I'm very confused at the moment and at a loss for what to do because based on postgame interviews, it actually sounds like Kirby is going to stick with Stetson in the playoffs moving forward. Not to be too dramatic about it, ...but if Kirby sticks with Stetson I'll likely find myself investing a lot less time, energy and emotion into Georgia football moving forward. I feel very betrayed by our coach right now and will point to this game as the worst coaching performance that I can ever remember being witness to.
Even putting aside the QB debacle for a moment, ....what Bama did to our Defense tonight was something that I didn't see coming and falls squarely on Kirby's shoulders. Stetson playing horribly did not surprise me AT ALL and is something we perhaps even could have overcome tonight if our defense had even decided to show up, ....but the defense performance tonight was abysmal and honestly, ... something that I didn't think was possible given what we saw the first 12 games. I knew going in that Bryce Young is/was an absolutely superstar (as I follow recruiting just as closely as the regular SEC season), .....but we are talking about a Bama Offensive line that gave up 36 sacks in twelve games this season, …..dead last in the conference. Hell Auburn sacked Bryce 7 times just last week so I expected that UGA would be able to get at least SOME pressure on him tonight. Maybe not all game, ...but at some point we'd start getting to him enough to slow them down and ultimately get the win. That,.....uh,...... didn't happen. UGA's defense tonight forced a grand total of 0 turnovers, and 0 sacks. All game. We barely even hurried Bryce to the point of affecting his throw that I can recall. He was effectively playing 7 on 7 all night and throwing whenever and where ever he wanted. Playing against air. Just nothing.
Even though our run Defense was still pretty good throughout the game, ….our secondary literally looked LOST in coverage for the final 3 quarters of the game. Thanks to some lucky early breaks (Bama dropped an early Bennett pick 6 chance + lots of Bama PI penalties that kept drives alive), …..we won the 1st quarter and it looked like UGA was actually 1 play away from possibly pulling away from Bama early in the 2nd quarter. We’d built another 10 point lead on them and had them pinned pretty deep and had them facing a 3rd and 10.
Then the 65 TD catch and run by Williams happened, ...on what looked to me like a very basic slant pattern, …. And we completely fell apart from there. Bama scored on their next 4 or 5 straight possessions. All through the air. Basically abandoned the run. And we looked absolutely pitful for most of that. For the first time that I can remember under Kirby, it looked like our Defensive secondary either didn't know or didn't understand their assignments and who was supposed to be covering who. Our secondary looked flat out LOST in coverage. Bamas receivers were repeatedly running uncovered, wide open down the middle of the field. We got beat deep over and over again despite having 2 deep safties. And it NEVER got better all game. I’ve not seen a UGA secondary look that confused since when Todd Grantham was our DC (confused players in coverage was a Grantham specialty). We didn’t seem to blitz at all early in the game, …and by the time we did, …. Bryce was in such a groove that easily recognized and punished us with checks to render the blitz completely ineffective.
Kirby and his entire defensive staff get a blanket F minus grade from me across the board for :
1. Pre-game preparedness: F- (we weren't prepared to play tonight )
2. Defensive game planning: F - (no QB pressure on bryce early, middle or late. If we had a defensive gameplan, ...it was indiscernible.)
3. In game adjustments: F - (even in the second half, ..we didn’t even sniff Bryce on a drop back one time. Secondary was lost and never found their way)
And again, ...those are just the grades for the Defense and don't even address our Offense or Stetson and how badly that was mismanaged .
I didn't expect that anything could ever happen that would make me less of a Georgia fan. Just never considered that was even a possiblity. This situation has made me less of a fan of my team.
Moving forward, if we stick with Stetson, .... we cannot and will not beat Bama. Period.
Tonight was no fluke. It was entirely predictable actually. But kirby thinks he knows better.
People might say UGA fans should keep the faith, … it was just one bad game, …UGA still has a chance in the playoffs, …. But at this point, ….I’m just not buying it anymore. We've upheld our side as fans. For 40 years now we’ve continued to keep the faith. And now that we have our best team in over 40 years, ....Kirby is stabbing us all right in the back with his chronic, continued, misguided, stubborn mismanagement of our QB position and he's asking us to smile as he slowly twists the knife more. He builds the greatest Defense in the history of our program, ….recruits the most talented roster in America including TWO five star QBs that are currently on the roster, ..... And then that same year decides that our best bet to beat bama and win the Natty is to go with a 2 star former walk at QB who lacks even an adequate amount of arm strength ,....makes poor decisions constantly and consistently .... can't recognize coverages or get through his progressions at a high level, ....and can't get us in the right play pre-snap. And he chooses this option over the former 5 Star, #1 overall recruit in the country (JT Daniels) who at the end of last year already proved to the whole world that our offense works infinitely better with JT at QB than it does with a severely limited and overmatched Stetson freaking bennet.
Even in the biggest game of the year vs. Bama, …in a game that Stetson played horribly in from start to finish, …even after we gave up 17 unanswered points and lost a 10 point lead, ….even after Stetson goes 3 and out three straight drives to end the first half, …..even after we go down 2 TDs to start the 3rd, …. And even after Stetson throws the most pitiful pick 6 in the history of college Football which puts BAMA up by a full 3 touchdowns, …. Even then Kirby continues to trot out Stetson Bennet at QB. By this point, it was clear to me through his play calling that even our own offensive coordinator (Todd Monken) had lost all faith in his Stetson because he just started calling conservative ball control plays so Stetson couldn’t make things any worse. A
Its truly the most bizarre thing I've ever witness in my entire lifetime watching sports.
I’m crushed to my soul. I’m so disappointed. I’m actually furious. And I feel incredibly betrayed by Kirby. All the good things he’s done for our program are POINTLESS if you repeatedly, horribly mismange your QB position (which he's done TWICE now)
Bottom Line: I am no longer satisfied at this point with the job that Kirby Smart has done as the head football coach of Georgia.
He got a pass for the Fromm/Fields debacle. He doesn’t get another one.
I’ll even take it a step farther:
If Kirby follows through with his postgame comments tonight and sticks with Stetson Bennet as our starting QB for the rest of this year, …then I am officially off of the Kirby bandwagon. If that happens, …and if I was the UGA president and it was up to me, …I would move on from Kirby and find a new head coach. Id fire him and take make chances with someone else.
I know that this won’t ever happen and Kirby will eventually wins National title(s) at UGA, … but that will only happen after Saban retires.
Never the less, if this plays out how I fear its playing out, I'd be in favor of finding a new coach.
I'm a 42 year old life-long and die hard Georgia football fan, ...full stop. I'm a double UGA legacy (both my parents went to UGA) and a 2 time UGA graduate myself (BA in History '02, MBA '10). I grew up in Bham as a Bulldawg super fan surrounded by friends and family that were all either Bama or Aub fans at a time when those programs + UT and Florida were winning, ....while UGA was not. My dad has had the same 4 club level season tickets at Sanford since 1982 and I've been going to games there since my first home game vs. Duke in 1985. I've got pictures of me and my dad in those same seats that span 5 decades now. I've probably attended close to 100 UGA games in my life, and went to J-Ville to watch UGA lose to Florida a total of 7 times before I ever got to watch us a win a game down there. I watched us lose to Tennessee 9 straight times and helped tear down the goal posts when we finally beat them at home in 2000. My point is that even if you don't agree with my below comments on Kirby, ...just understand that these comments are coming from a life-long, loyal, die-hard UGA football fan who is at the end of his pitiful rope. I want to win it all. I was 3 months old in 1980 and my life will not be complete until I've seen it through.
Also, ... I have nothing but love and respect for Stetson Bennet and wish nothing but the best for him. My comments below are regarding Stetson Bennett the football player, and more importantly about CKS the coach. Stetson is an amazing story, an impressive human being and a DGD. He has also clearly maximized his abilities as a football player and turned into a pretty darn good one. But in terms of being a big-time college QB capable of winning big games against elite competition in the SEC, ... Stetson Bennett is/was and forever will be fatally flawed in that regard. And thats OKAY. Its not his fault. Its his coaches job to evaluate each position and play the best player at each. Its not Stetson's fault that Kirby has inexplicably and stubbornly planted hi flag in the middle of Stetson's back. Thats Kirby's call. So none of this personal to me with Stetson. That being said, ....flame away).
Just got back home to Signal Mt. after driving down to ATL with my dad for the SECCG tonight and I needed to share my thoughts. Earlier this week on a whim, I bought 2 tickets to the game for $1000. Going into tonight, I'd been to 4 SEC Championship games involving UGA and we were 1-3 in those games (saw us beat Arky in 2002). I wasn't originally planning to go tonight but bought tickets earlier this week after deciding that me and my pops had to be in the stands to witness it when UGA finally took down Bama and exercised our considerable demons over the big bad wolf. That is how confident I'd grown in this 2021 UGA team. Despite years and years of evidence to the contrary, ...I was convinced that we were going to win this time. I knew that. Looking back, I can admit now that all week leading up to the game, I did not once seriously entertain the thought that UGA could lose to Bama tonight. My only concern uncertainty about tonight was if we'd win in a blowout or if Bama would keep it close ...but make no mistake about it, ....I went into tonight expecting to witness a UGA coronation. Instead we got,... something else.
/The game sucked. Honestly, I feel we are lucky we didn't lose by 40. Stetson bennet is god awful at QB and always has been, ....and kirby's refusal to even try playing JT Daniels tonight (or even in garbage time in the games leading up to tonight) is inexplicable and infuriating. Its also extremely stupid and flat out bad coaching. I'm very confused at the moment and at a loss for what to do because based on postgame interviews, it actually sounds like Kirby is going to stick with Stetson in the playoffs moving forward. Not to be too dramatic about it, ...but if Kirby sticks with Stetson I'll likely find myself investing a lot less time, energy and emotion into Georgia football moving forward. I feel very betrayed by our coach right now and will point to this game as the worst coaching performance that I can ever remember being witness to.
Even putting aside the QB debacle for a moment, ....what Bama did to our Defense tonight was something that I didn't see coming and falls squarely on Kirby's shoulders. Stetson playing horribly did not surprise me AT ALL and is something we perhaps even could have overcome tonight if our defense had even decided to show up, ....but the defense performance tonight was abysmal and honestly, ... something that I didn't think was possible given what we saw the first 12 games. I knew going in that Bryce Young is/was an absolutely superstar (as I follow recruiting just as closely as the regular SEC season), .....but we are talking about a Bama Offensive line that gave up 36 sacks in twelve games this season, …..dead last in the conference. Hell Auburn sacked Bryce 7 times just last week so I expected that UGA would be able to get at least SOME pressure on him tonight. Maybe not all game, ...but at some point we'd start getting to him enough to slow them down and ultimately get the win. That,.....uh,...... didn't happen. UGA's defense tonight forced a grand total of 0 turnovers, and 0 sacks. All game. We barely even hurried Bryce to the point of affecting his throw that I can recall. He was effectively playing 7 on 7 all night and throwing whenever and where ever he wanted. Playing against air. Just nothing.
Even though our run Defense was still pretty good throughout the game, ….our secondary literally looked LOST in coverage for the final 3 quarters of the game. Thanks to some lucky early breaks (Bama dropped an early Bennett pick 6 chance + lots of Bama PI penalties that kept drives alive), …..we won the 1st quarter and it looked like UGA was actually 1 play away from possibly pulling away from Bama early in the 2nd quarter. We’d built another 10 point lead on them and had them pinned pretty deep and had them facing a 3rd and 10.
Then the 65 TD catch and run by Williams happened, ...on what looked to me like a very basic slant pattern, …. And we completely fell apart from there. Bama scored on their next 4 or 5 straight possessions. All through the air. Basically abandoned the run. And we looked absolutely pitful for most of that. For the first time that I can remember under Kirby, it looked like our Defensive secondary either didn't know or didn't understand their assignments and who was supposed to be covering who. Our secondary looked flat out LOST in coverage. Bamas receivers were repeatedly running uncovered, wide open down the middle of the field. We got beat deep over and over again despite having 2 deep safties. And it NEVER got better all game. I’ve not seen a UGA secondary look that confused since when Todd Grantham was our DC (confused players in coverage was a Grantham specialty). We didn’t seem to blitz at all early in the game, …and by the time we did, …. Bryce was in such a groove that easily recognized and punished us with checks to render the blitz completely ineffective.
Kirby and his entire defensive staff get a blanket F minus grade from me across the board for :
1. Pre-game preparedness: F- (we weren't prepared to play tonight )
2. Defensive game planning: F - (no QB pressure on bryce early, middle or late. If we had a defensive gameplan, ...it was indiscernible.)
3. In game adjustments: F - (even in the second half, ..we didn’t even sniff Bryce on a drop back one time. Secondary was lost and never found their way)
And again, ...those are just the grades for the Defense and don't even address our Offense or Stetson and how badly that was mismanaged .
I didn't expect that anything could ever happen that would make me less of a Georgia fan. Just never considered that was even a possiblity. This situation has made me less of a fan of my team.
Moving forward, if we stick with Stetson, .... we cannot and will not beat Bama. Period.
Tonight was no fluke. It was entirely predictable actually. But kirby thinks he knows better.
People might say UGA fans should keep the faith, … it was just one bad game, …UGA still has a chance in the playoffs, …. But at this point, ….I’m just not buying it anymore. We've upheld our side as fans. For 40 years now we’ve continued to keep the faith. And now that we have our best team in over 40 years, ....Kirby is stabbing us all right in the back with his chronic, continued, misguided, stubborn mismanagement of our QB position and he's asking us to smile as he slowly twists the knife more. He builds the greatest Defense in the history of our program, ….recruits the most talented roster in America including TWO five star QBs that are currently on the roster, ..... And then that same year decides that our best bet to beat bama and win the Natty is to go with a 2 star former walk at QB who lacks even an adequate amount of arm strength ,....makes poor decisions constantly and consistently .... can't recognize coverages or get through his progressions at a high level, ....and can't get us in the right play pre-snap. And he chooses this option over the former 5 Star, #1 overall recruit in the country (JT Daniels) who at the end of last year already proved to the whole world that our offense works infinitely better with JT at QB than it does with a severely limited and overmatched Stetson freaking bennet.
Even in the biggest game of the year vs. Bama, …in a game that Stetson played horribly in from start to finish, …even after we gave up 17 unanswered points and lost a 10 point lead, ….even after Stetson goes 3 and out three straight drives to end the first half, …..even after we go down 2 TDs to start the 3rd, …. And even after Stetson throws the most pitiful pick 6 in the history of college Football which puts BAMA up by a full 3 touchdowns, …. Even then Kirby continues to trot out Stetson Bennet at QB. By this point, it was clear to me through his play calling that even our own offensive coordinator (Todd Monken) had lost all faith in his Stetson because he just started calling conservative ball control plays so Stetson couldn’t make things any worse. A
Its truly the most bizarre thing I've ever witness in my entire lifetime watching sports.
I’m crushed to my soul. I’m so disappointed. I’m actually furious. And I feel incredibly betrayed by Kirby. All the good things he’s done for our program are POINTLESS if you repeatedly, horribly mismange your QB position (which he's done TWICE now)
Bottom Line: I am no longer satisfied at this point with the job that Kirby Smart has done as the head football coach of Georgia.
He got a pass for the Fromm/Fields debacle. He doesn’t get another one.
I’ll even take it a step farther:
If Kirby follows through with his postgame comments tonight and sticks with Stetson Bennet as our starting QB for the rest of this year, …then I am officially off of the Kirby bandwagon. If that happens, …and if I was the UGA president and it was up to me, …I would move on from Kirby and find a new head coach. Id fire him and take make chances with someone else.
I know that this won’t ever happen and Kirby will eventually wins National title(s) at UGA, … but that will only happen after Saban retires.
Never the less, if this plays out how I fear its playing out, I'd be in favor of finding a new coach.
