Auburn/Georgia talent vs GT

[Sideways]

You don't think we were a better overall team in 2014 than UGAg? And Smelter and Waller would've started at WR for ugag that year.

Yep, we were the superior team in 2014. The combination of Smelter and Waller on the outside plus the perimeter blocking of the Abacks would have been a handful for any team much less a pretty ordinary UGA squad.

 

[Sideways]

Give credit where it is due. The mutts made a huge leap in their play from last year to this. They have had a great season and are on the verge of an epic one.

I just can't express how much I want the mutts to flame out in the playoffs. I do wonder one thing however. Will it take the mutts winning it all...to finally spur our administration to spend what is necessary to compete? I think the answer to that is yes sadly. I'm not even certain that would do it though.

UGA is very good and is a threat to go the distance but after watching Oklahoma and Clemson I think those are the two best in the country right now. To be honest, I think Ohio State would beat UGA. Of the four, all of whom have excellent teams, I would put UGA at the bottom. The other three are just better. IMHO

 

[dressedcheeseside]

Normally find your posts insightful, but Parker could start for any Line in the country.

I believe you could be right. Uga's starting LG goes 6'6", 305, Auburn's goes 6'4", 318. Not sure he'd beat out those two on those teams doing what they do. Parker is perfect for us doing what we do. He's so athletic, I bet he'd be good at just about any scheme.

Enteresting aside, both guys above are Atlanta natives and the Auburn kid is an Engineering student. Hmmm....

 

[dressedcheeseside]

We lost to three unranked uga teams in that window. The opportunity to face three unranked uga teams doesn’t come around very often and CPJ wasted it.

Broken record.

 

[Sideways]

We don’t. Not at this level anyways. The gap between the haves and have nots is as wide as it has ever been and will continue to grow. It isn’t just us. 95% of college football can’t compete at this level.

I have been given this a lot of thought. The gap between the truly elite of college football which I define as the top 8 or so and the rest of us is wide and getting wider. The reason is simple enough. The elite teams have depth and NFL ready linemen that the rest of us can only dream about. Also, the gap between the top 40 or so teams and the bottom feeders is also getting wider because there are so many teams and the talent is getting spread thinner.
Difference makers are a rare commodity after the top 50 or 60. Think back to when we played Tulane. Did anyone on that team scare you? Nope. Vanderbilt at least had a couple of very good linebackers and a good running back or two but teams like Tulane literally have no one that causes other players to pay them a moment's notice.

 

[dressedcheeseside]

Let's see: Shut down the interior? Check. Force us outside, where quick mutt LBs and DBs will *****-slap QB-option-keepers? Check. Force us into predictable throwing downs, where we stink because we have a terrible throwing QB? Check.

It's not difficult to shut us down if you've got decent personnel. We're pretty predictable. As has been said often here and elsewhere, we basically run the same set of plays over and over. It'd be nice to think that will change and that CPJ will add some wrinkles but it's year 11 now and there's no reason whatsoever to believe that will occur.

If we make our blocks and reads it doesn't matter how predictable we are. Problem this year is we didn't do those two critical things enough, especially against the better teams.

 

[Sideways]

Since the committee jumped OSU over PSU last year and put them in the playoffs, I am PRAYING that they jump Bama over the mutts this year.

I understand the sentiments but I don't think they will do that. UGA is in like Flint. They probably deserve to be and congrats to them.

 

[reckrider]

I’m confused by this whole thread. Was I dreaming when I read that AD Stan was going to make sure CPJ had equal staff/recruiting assets to all other programs before considering coaching changes. I would think that those changes would be the first step towards addressing AU/UGA(sic) talent vs GT. Jesus.

 

[Sideways]

Well, Cutcliffe has now whipped us 3 of 4. Bronco Mendenhall has us figured out. Miami has out-talented us and will now out-coach us (Richt owns CPJ). Dabo figured out to let his assistants do the heavy-lifting. And now Kirby Sharthead just put the clamps on us/

I don't think a defensive-minded coach would do any worse with the talent we have. We've had 2 of 3 losing seasons now and 2 of 3 seasons where we weren't one of the 80 teams that get a bowl invite. Not sure any coach can come in here and do much worse than that. If CPJ decided to retire tomorrow though, he's not leaving much behind for the next guy. No WRs, some A-backs, a converted RB at QB, no TE, no 300#ers on the DL, a bunch of ankle-diving fish floppers on the OL, a PK who can't make FGs. And a good punter.

Unfortunately, recruiting so often is destiny in college football and for reasons discussed in excruciating detail earlier we are effectively shut out of most of the elite talent in Georgia. Until that changes, there is little chance that we can appreciably close the talent gap in any meaningful way.

 

[dressedcheeseside]

I’m confused by this whole thread. Was I dreaming when I read that AD Stan was going to make sure CPJ had equal staff/recruiting assets to all other programs before considering coaching changes. I would think that those changes would be the first step towards addressing AU/UGA(sic) talent vs GT. Jesus.

This thread is just an observation while watching that game. Bigger, faster, stronger, quicker across the board, it's pretty easy to see.

 

[Sideways]

I’m confused by this whole thread. Was I dreaming when I read that AD Stan was going to make sure CPJ had equal staff/recruiting assets to all other programs before considering coaching changes. I would think that those changes would be the first step towards addressing AU/UGA(sic) talent vs GT. Jesus.

He did say that but I will believe it when I see it. Until recruiting is done in a professional way (no not with the bag men) with national recruiting for hard to find positions especially linemen this is all window dressing.

 

[GaTech4ever]

Who starts for uga last year? 2014? 2008?

We’re talking about our talent vs. teams with more talent than us. Picking a few years where we beat a few teams with more talent than us doesn’t disprove the point we are outmatched talent-wise. Can we still win games against more talented teams than us? Of course. But what’s our combined record vs. UGA, Clemson, VT, and FSU? It doesn’t have a zero in the win column, but it sure has more Ls than Ws - as it should with the talent discrepancy.

 

[Sideways]

The talent delta between UGA/AU and GT is the biggest since the early 80's. People can draw what ever conclusions they want from there.

I am not so sure about that. I understand the sentiments but if you will recall the early 80s were the absolute bottom with rumors flying that
Tech was going to dismantle its program etc. I don't think, even with all the current hyperbole, that we are anywhere close to that. UGA won a national title in 1980 and Pat Dye was well on the way to a near dynasty at Auburn. I agree its a pretty wide moat but we have faced these kinds of challenges before and Stanbury is acutely aware of those times. After all, he lived them.

 

[reckrider]

This thread is just an observation while watching that game. Bigger, faster, stronger, quicker across the board, it's pretty easy to see.

No it’s not. It’s the typical complaining about why we aren’t beating other teams. Live in the past or live in the future. I’ve got to take a break because the whining and lack of confidence is just too hard to stomach.

 

[Jacketman1]

We’re talking about our talent vs. teams with more talent than us. Picking a few years where we beat a few teams with more talent than us doesn’t disprove the point we are outmatched talent-wise. Can we still win games against more talented teams than us? Of course. But what’s our combined record vs. UGA, Clemson, VT, and FSU? It doesn’t have a zero in the win column, but it sure has more Ls than Ws - as it should with the talent discrepancy.

Well, you're right, but we've actually had success against FSU. We're 3-2 against them since CPJ got here.

 

[Supersizethatorder-mutt]

Let's see: Shut down the interior? Check. Force us outside, where quick mutt LBs and DBs will *****-slap QB-option-keepers? Check. Force us into predictable throwing downs, where we stink because we have a terrible throwing QB? Check.

It's not difficult to shut us down if you've got decent personnel. We're pretty predictable. As has been said often here and elsewhere, we basically run the same set of plays over and over. It'd be nice to think that will change and that CPJ will add some wrinkles but it's year 11 now and there's no reason whatsoever to believe that will occur.

Again I say it was as much the total inconsistency of our offense this year more than what Smart has "figured out." Other teams have done the same things the mutts did last week (including earlier mutt team), and we always found a way to recover from it, even in games that we lost (usually because of the defense). I don't think last year's team would have suffered the same fate against them that this year's team did. Not saying we would have won the game, but it would have at least been a representative showing.

 

[dressedcheeseside]

No it’s not. It’s the typical complaining about why we aren’t beating other teams. Live in the past or live in the future. I’ve got to take a break because the whining and lack of confidence is just too hard to stomach.

Oh Kay.

 

[CobbTech]

The whole premise of this post is false. We just competed and defeated those great Athletes over in Athens a year ago. We also beat Auburn pretty regularly when we played them in the recent past. We are a lot closer in personnel than the media would lead you to think. Football is about want to and our boys did not have enough of that in 2017.

Go Jackets!

This is a bunch of BS. The fact that you are using games that happened 14 and 12 years ago to say that we are close to Auburn in talent is just comical.

UGA was beating us soundly last season in the second half and we were able to get a terrible mistake by their QB to turn it around and win. We had the better QB last season and that was about it. The last time that we had comparable talent to UGA was in 2008 and 2009. 2014 we still didn’t have the roster that they did but we had Shaq Mason, Darren Waller and Justin Thomas. Our top guys stepped up and that’s what we need to beat UGA every now and then.

 

[dressedcheeseside]

Again I say it was as much the total inconsistency of our offense this year more than what Smart has "figured out." Other teams have done the same things the mutts did last week (including earlier mutt team), and we always found a way to recover from it, even in games that we lost (usually because of the defense). I don't think last year's team would have suffered the same fate against them that this year's team did. Not saying we would have won the game, but it would have at least been a representative showing.

This is true. This year's GT team was worse than last year's GT team. This year's mutt team is better than last year's mutt team. The question is how much in both directions. Last year we won in a squeaker that took a miracle finish, this year we lost in a blow out. Would last year's GT team beat this year's mutt team? I doubt it, but it would be a lot closer.

 

[Sideways]

might as well post this here...say OSU beats Whisky tonight. Who gets in..a B10 champion with 2 losses or the SEC West runnerup with only 1 loss but with no really impressive wins. tOSU has already received one gift when they got in despite not winning their conference. Who would you pick and why? Me, I pick OSU because of Bama's lack of impressive wins. Plus I hate the SEC which probably is not a legitimate reason but it's there so I have to own it. If I were to listen to my pastor I am supposed to pray for those I hate but surely he doesn't mean that to include SEC teams and their fans does he?

Alas, the ways of our Lord are sometimes beyond our comprehension. That said Ohio State has made an impressive statement with wins over Michigan and Wisconsin. I think they get in and shut Alabama out.