I was waiting to post this until after everybody calmed down after Saturday. I am slowly losing faith in the coaching staff. Last year Georgia did not cross the Tennessee 30-yard against us and this year we turn that mediocre Offensive coaching staff at Georgia into the best in the country with a freshman QB.
Put your anger towards Kiffin aside, last year's staff does not lose that game! Dooley seems over his head and I'm afraid we are in trouble people. I hope I'm wrong but seriously we have no reason to lose to Georgia like that who I think has one of the worst coaching staffs in the SEC (See 45-19 last year).
Too many or too few men on the field for 3 straight games (I bet that has never happened before)? UAB got drilled 42-7 by a mediocre UCF team and they took us to OT! Worst Neyland stadium loss! We are going to be 2-6 heading into October. Thought I would never see the day!
To make this argument stick you have to assume that none of the "star" players leave and that Kiffin would have filled the holes with similar recruits. Most likely we would have had a top 10, maybe even top 5 recruiting class, but would all of the holes be filled. Would we be better off at center, O tackle or D Line? Plus would we have some of our young stars like Hunter, Rogers, James and Stone, etc? Maybe, but I think we're still dealing with experience, talent and depth issues.
Does Kiffin and Ogeron develop the same O Line to even its current mediocre level? You would have had only one guy with experience but probably wouldn't have James or Stone or Gooch. Say what you want about Gooch, but he's the only choice at center right now. Maybe they are better but most likely they would be exactly the same or even worse.
Probably he starts Bray from the beginning and maybe he does well, but just as likely he's watching from his hospital bed after Oregon or Florida. Now you have Simms or Laimison struggling to hold things together just as we have now.
Maybe the QB is throwing to Moore and Jones and maybe they have that other star freshman that got away, but then again, maybe the QB doesn't have time to throw just like now.
Probably he starts B Brown over Poole and possibly by now Poole and Oku have left, meaning you have Brown, Neal and Williams in the rotation. Maybe Brown is having a heisman year, but with our O Line, that would be truly remarkable and unlikely.
Sure, another year under Monte's direction would have the defense doing fairly well, but you would still be down 2 DTs, because you have to assume the injuries would have still happened. Maybe we don't have the substitution penalty at LSU, but then again, well you can second guess that all day.
Finally, there is the issue of our players relations with KPD. Maybe, just maybe, Kiffin responds to the Bar Knox incident similar to CDD and we are able to move through the rest of the summer without anything else. But then again, maybe there is a difference in response that leads to continued problems and we have a run of incidents that keeps a number of players off the field.
In the end, regardless of who is coaching, we would still have the experience and depth issues that are killing us.
Then there is the opponent. Even if Kiffin and crew were here and we beat say Florida and LSU and came into the game at 4-1, Georgia still has a huge chance to win. They were desperate and they were hungry. They prepared better and were able to take advantage of our mistakes. Logically you could assume that this could have been our trap game, especially if we had an emotional win the week before. Maybe we have different turn overs and make different mistakes. Maybe it is possible to conceed that no one was stopping Georgia this past Saturday.
Maybe we can stop living in the past and start looking toward the future.
