DiderotsGhost
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Time for my (likely) only roundup for the spring.
Unfortunately, I didnt get to attend the spring game in person, as Im slammed with work right now, and a 7-hour round-trip drive from Atlanta wouldve been ill-advised, but I did watch on TV. First off, we should state for the record that a spring game can only tell us so much. Remember QD's great performance last season? It wasn't much of a predictor of the 2017 season. That said, this years less gimmicky game was probably more meaningful than last years spectacle. Here were the things I found interesting.
The Game
JG. JG is playing much better under pressure than last season. He made a lot of good throws. I continue to think that JG has the potential to develop into a top-notch QB with proper coaching. Pretty fun to finally get to see his wheels in the spring game, as well. He looked much faster, but I suspect he was always playing a little banged up last season and thats why he seemed so slow. JG looks better in a pro-style system IMO than he did in the spread. Overall, JG's performance was impressive, albeit with the caveat that this was just the spring game.
McBride. McBride's performance left a lot to be desired, but there were some positives, as well. He made a lot of bad passes early; overthrew what couldve been a TD on the first play. He then threw an INT on the next play. He had a very bad pass at beginning of the 2nd Half that was almost picked off. Then he let another pass sail for an INT under pressure late in the game. His throw on the TD was great, but I can really only think of maybe a few moments where he looked good. That said, there is the huge caveat that he played behind that awful 2nd team O-line and even a lot of great QBs wouldve looked bad behind it. So Im not sure that we learned much about McBride from the spring game, other than that JG seems world's ahead of him right now.
The Wide Receivers. This will be our most improved position group this season. Last season, it was a huge weakness. Brandon Johnson started emerging towards the end of the year and he continues to get better. Josh Palmer is looking better, as well. Marquez Callaway continues to play well and made a great TD catch on a pass from JG. Throw a hungry Jauan Jennings back into the mix, and I can see our WR corp going from a weakness last year to a strength this season. This is one big reason for optimism this season.
The RBs. Thought both Chandler and Jordan looked pretty good out there as, well. On paper, we really look a lot better right now at the skill positions than we did at the same time last season. Theres only one problem.
O-line looks real bad. Not unexpected, but even the 1st team O-line seemed to fall apart pretty quickly when the blitz came. And that 2nd team O-line was TURR-I-BLE. This could be like 2014 again where every O-line injury we have is going to be huge, because theres a huge drop-off from the starters to the reserves. The announcers downplayed it a bit (playing guys out of position), but even if we get Trey Smith back, I can see O-line being a huge problem. .
The overall synopsis on the offense. Were probably being very underrated in terms of skill players, but I dont see us having any chance to compete with the SEC elite (Alabama, Georgia, Auburn) unless the O-line sees major improvement quickly. And its tough to find quick fixes on OL. Against top-notch SEC defenses with strong blitzing D-lines, were going to struggle. That said, I think our offense will be much improved this season, but that 'improvement' may be going from #110 to #50.
Other Thoughts
Keller Chryst. Chryst won't be on campus for another couple of months. We dont know how good Chryst will be, but I don't think he's going to be anointed starter. JG is playing well and Chryst is not going to have an easy time beating him for the job. Regardless, Im pretty sure that, barring injuries, our starting QB come October is either Chryst or JG.
West Virginia. The weird thing is that I come away more optimistic about our odds against WVa. Teams like Bama and Georgia are going to use their D-line to eat us apart, but WVas weak defense isnt necessarily going to give our offense the same problems. If our offense can score a bunch of points, we might have a shot. Were still underdogs, and itll be tough to win Game #1 in the new regime, but its a more winnable game than many are giving us credit for. And if were going to have a successful season, were going to have to cobble together some tough wins against teams like WVa, Florida, Mizzou, and South Carolina.
Tyson Helton. It's early and I'm not one for grand predictions, but he's a much better OC than weve had in years. Certainly the best since Cheney, at least.
The staff. Im actually pretty happy with our staff overall and think this is the best staff weve probably had in at least 12 years. Not saying best staff in America or anything crazy --- but I dont look at anyone on the staff and say how did that guy get the job? David Johnson at WR coach particularly impresses me.
Guys that could start at Bama or UGA. Media people keep saying none of our guys would start at Bama or Georgia. This is a huge exaggeration IMO. Were not at the level of Bama or UGA, but guys like Marquez Callaway, Jauan Jennings, and Trey Smith would absolutely make a starting line-up at any school in America. Darrell Taylor and Nigel Warrior are in the discussion, as well. If fully healthy, Darrin Kirkland, Daniel Bituli, and Shy Tuttle are also in that conversation. The problem is that we dont have enough of those guys right now. Even our worst teams have had superstars, but you need at least 22 great players on offense and defense (starters + backups) to compete for national titles. Right now, were very short of that number.
Defense. I didnt get a great sense of where the defense was at in this game. I will say we're deeper on defense than offense as the 2nd team defense played much better than the 2nd team offense, but that doesn't necessarily mean we're 'deep' on defense; merely that the 2nd unit offense is pretty thin.
Growing Pains. We'll face some significant growing pains in the 1st year for multiple reasons. First off, shifting philosophies on defense is always difficult and normally takes more than 1 year. While we have reasonable personnel for the shift, it's still unlikely that our D comes out playing like Alabama on Game 1. Likewise, a shift in philosophy on offense could cause problems; I think our QBs can adjust; it's more the size issue. Pro-style offenses need bigger bodies; Pruitt has been trying to rapidly transform our offense through recruiting, but it's going to take some time. So even though I think we have more talent than people realize on the roster, the style changes will be difficult in Year 1.
The summation So what did learn overall from the spring game? Maybe not a ton, but we did learn a little. I am encouraged by improved WR play and the fact that JG continues to develop. Right now, I think well make a bowl game, but I also think were losing at least 4 games. A weak O-line and the growing pains associated with philosophy changes on both offense and defense will limit the ceiling in Y1. And in spite of all of that, I can't wait for the season to start!
GBO!
Unfortunately, I didnt get to attend the spring game in person, as Im slammed with work right now, and a 7-hour round-trip drive from Atlanta wouldve been ill-advised, but I did watch on TV. First off, we should state for the record that a spring game can only tell us so much. Remember QD's great performance last season? It wasn't much of a predictor of the 2017 season. That said, this years less gimmicky game was probably more meaningful than last years spectacle. Here were the things I found interesting.
The Game
JG. JG is playing much better under pressure than last season. He made a lot of good throws. I continue to think that JG has the potential to develop into a top-notch QB with proper coaching. Pretty fun to finally get to see his wheels in the spring game, as well. He looked much faster, but I suspect he was always playing a little banged up last season and thats why he seemed so slow. JG looks better in a pro-style system IMO than he did in the spread. Overall, JG's performance was impressive, albeit with the caveat that this was just the spring game.
McBride. McBride's performance left a lot to be desired, but there were some positives, as well. He made a lot of bad passes early; overthrew what couldve been a TD on the first play. He then threw an INT on the next play. He had a very bad pass at beginning of the 2nd Half that was almost picked off. Then he let another pass sail for an INT under pressure late in the game. His throw on the TD was great, but I can really only think of maybe a few moments where he looked good. That said, there is the huge caveat that he played behind that awful 2nd team O-line and even a lot of great QBs wouldve looked bad behind it. So Im not sure that we learned much about McBride from the spring game, other than that JG seems world's ahead of him right now.
The Wide Receivers. This will be our most improved position group this season. Last season, it was a huge weakness. Brandon Johnson started emerging towards the end of the year and he continues to get better. Josh Palmer is looking better, as well. Marquez Callaway continues to play well and made a great TD catch on a pass from JG. Throw a hungry Jauan Jennings back into the mix, and I can see our WR corp going from a weakness last year to a strength this season. This is one big reason for optimism this season.
The RBs. Thought both Chandler and Jordan looked pretty good out there as, well. On paper, we really look a lot better right now at the skill positions than we did at the same time last season. Theres only one problem.
O-line looks real bad. Not unexpected, but even the 1st team O-line seemed to fall apart pretty quickly when the blitz came. And that 2nd team O-line was TURR-I-BLE. This could be like 2014 again where every O-line injury we have is going to be huge, because theres a huge drop-off from the starters to the reserves. The announcers downplayed it a bit (playing guys out of position), but even if we get Trey Smith back, I can see O-line being a huge problem. .
The overall synopsis on the offense. Were probably being very underrated in terms of skill players, but I dont see us having any chance to compete with the SEC elite (Alabama, Georgia, Auburn) unless the O-line sees major improvement quickly. And its tough to find quick fixes on OL. Against top-notch SEC defenses with strong blitzing D-lines, were going to struggle. That said, I think our offense will be much improved this season, but that 'improvement' may be going from #110 to #50.
Other Thoughts
Keller Chryst. Chryst won't be on campus for another couple of months. We dont know how good Chryst will be, but I don't think he's going to be anointed starter. JG is playing well and Chryst is not going to have an easy time beating him for the job. Regardless, Im pretty sure that, barring injuries, our starting QB come October is either Chryst or JG.
West Virginia. The weird thing is that I come away more optimistic about our odds against WVa. Teams like Bama and Georgia are going to use their D-line to eat us apart, but WVas weak defense isnt necessarily going to give our offense the same problems. If our offense can score a bunch of points, we might have a shot. Were still underdogs, and itll be tough to win Game #1 in the new regime, but its a more winnable game than many are giving us credit for. And if were going to have a successful season, were going to have to cobble together some tough wins against teams like WVa, Florida, Mizzou, and South Carolina.
Tyson Helton. It's early and I'm not one for grand predictions, but he's a much better OC than weve had in years. Certainly the best since Cheney, at least.
The staff. Im actually pretty happy with our staff overall and think this is the best staff weve probably had in at least 12 years. Not saying best staff in America or anything crazy --- but I dont look at anyone on the staff and say how did that guy get the job? David Johnson at WR coach particularly impresses me.
Guys that could start at Bama or UGA. Media people keep saying none of our guys would start at Bama or Georgia. This is a huge exaggeration IMO. Were not at the level of Bama or UGA, but guys like Marquez Callaway, Jauan Jennings, and Trey Smith would absolutely make a starting line-up at any school in America. Darrell Taylor and Nigel Warrior are in the discussion, as well. If fully healthy, Darrin Kirkland, Daniel Bituli, and Shy Tuttle are also in that conversation. The problem is that we dont have enough of those guys right now. Even our worst teams have had superstars, but you need at least 22 great players on offense and defense (starters + backups) to compete for national titles. Right now, were very short of that number.
Defense. I didnt get a great sense of where the defense was at in this game. I will say we're deeper on defense than offense as the 2nd team defense played much better than the 2nd team offense, but that doesn't necessarily mean we're 'deep' on defense; merely that the 2nd unit offense is pretty thin.
Growing Pains. We'll face some significant growing pains in the 1st year for multiple reasons. First off, shifting philosophies on defense is always difficult and normally takes more than 1 year. While we have reasonable personnel for the shift, it's still unlikely that our D comes out playing like Alabama on Game 1. Likewise, a shift in philosophy on offense could cause problems; I think our QBs can adjust; it's more the size issue. Pro-style offenses need bigger bodies; Pruitt has been trying to rapidly transform our offense through recruiting, but it's going to take some time. So even though I think we have more talent than people realize on the roster, the style changes will be difficult in Year 1.
The summation So what did learn overall from the spring game? Maybe not a ton, but we did learn a little. I am encouraged by improved WR play and the fact that JG continues to develop. Right now, I think well make a bowl game, but I also think were losing at least 4 games. A weak O-line and the growing pains associated with philosophy changes on both offense and defense will limit the ceiling in Y1. And in spite of all of that, I can't wait for the season to start!
GBO!
