NICE! COACH RICHT GETS HIS MAN AND I GET ONE MORE REASON TO ROOT AGAINST THE COWBOYS

After almost a month and a half, Coach Richt and the Georgia Bulldogs have a new defensive coordinator…Todd Grantham. Fantastic. Grantham is currently the defensive line coach for the Dallas Cowboys. I have never cared for the Cowgirls…and I love the DAWGS and the University of Georgia…so nothing could please me more than to see the Vikings put yet another disappointing end to a season for Tony Romo and his merry band of mates in Jerry World, while at the same time freeing up Georgia’s new defensive coordinator to get to Athens and become immersed in all things DAWG.



We’ll get to what I think of the next era of defense in Athens town in a minute, but a quick recap of the process that got us here is in order first.

I have had and shared my confidence that Coach Richt would do his due diligence and find the man he trusts to direct the defense at Georgia, demanding maximum effort and execution from his players and helping them to play up to and beyond their potential in the pursuit of greatness and championships in the years to come. Although names that are well known by those that follow this game were absolutely involved in this process, I can’t help but think that Coach Richt was simply following through on his plan to cover all his bases before securing his choice. It is no secret that Coach Grantham has been on Richt’s radar from the early stages of this process. As for the others that were believed to have been involved…Bud Foster, John Chavis and Kirby Smart…well all I can offer are my thoughts on each coach.

**Bud Foster – When I first heard this name I had two thoughts…1) Wow, CMR really is aiming high. Foster is widely regarded as a good person and a very strong DC with a proven track record of success. 2) I never thought Foster would be at Georgia. Foster is just a company guy. He if ferociously loyal to Frank Beamer and has been the not-so-secret, though officially un-named head coach in waiting at Virginia Tech for years.

**John Chavis – I was never really high on Chavis coming to Georgia simply because I have never been overly impressed with what I have seen from his teams on the field. The numbers have been very respectable, but his teams have never really passed the eye-ball test for me. I was actually glad to hear that he did not want to come to Athens. Besides, I know it’s a business (as this off-season has rabidly shown thus far), but I know me and I would have a really hard time getting behind Chavis totally. He was just a Volunteer for too long for me to look on him too kindly.

**Kirby Smart – There is no denying that the production of the Alabama defensive unit under the guidance of the former Georgia Bulldog has been outstanding. However, the longer that dance went on between Georgia and Kirby, the more awkward and uncomfortable I felt. At the end, I actually thought that the very best case scenario if Kirby accepted the job would be that Smart would choose Georgia, the stars would align in his second year back in Athens and the DAWGS would win a conference championship (with the possibility of greater championships) and he would be off for good. Everything else would have been viewed as a failure in judgment on Richt’s part or a failure on Smart’s part to produce. To me, it just felt as though the fan’s wanted this hire to happen as much for how it would “feel” or how it would “look” to those not associated with the program as they did based on the on-field production. I actually felt that the program dodged a bullet when Kirby chose to stay in Tuscaloosa. Maybe I’m totally off base here, but that’s how I felt regardless. I did not like the idea that whatever success a Kirby-led DAWGS defensive squad and in turn a Mark Richt led Georgia team, might have would be perceived to be nothing more than some byproduct of the Nick Saban machine. I’ll admit that is an extreme thought process to some degree, but my pride in the University of Georgia is just so great that I would rather any successes achieved not be associated with anyone other than the young men, coaches and faculty members that directly earned them.

And here we are. Coach Richt finally has his guy and there is no doubt that changes will be evident almost immediately upon the arrival of Coach Grantham and the staff he chooses to bring with him. By definition, the 34 defense that Grantham has chosen to employ in the past is an attacking scheme. It demands tenacity and execution from the players and inherently opens up the opportunity for opposing offenses to make big plays. I am not an insider that stalks the halls of the football offices regularly and I do not know Todd Grantham personally. I do not need to. Statements like this one from Virginia Tech head coach Frank Beamer made during a telephone interview with Ugasports.com recently tell me all I really need to know at this point…

"I think he's outstanding. I think Todd Grantham is the whole package. He's a smart guy, he's tough; when he was here he was always in the office working, doing what he could to help make our defense better. He was always able to get his players to play good, smart, tough football and to play it well."

What's more, Georgia's new DC seems to get it as evidenced by his statements after accepting the position as the top defensive DAWG...

"I'm very excited about being part of a staff that will work tremendously hard to return Georgia football to one of the premier teams in the SEC. To the fans and boosters of the University of Georgia, I understand the passion and standard of excellence expected. I look forward to developing an aggressive, physical, attacking style defense that offenses will not look forward to playing against."

If you have visited us before you may have seen the attributes that I believe a great defense has to have as laid out in my DWO. Coupling the basic philosophies of the 34 defense with the traits that Beamer speaks of when talking about his former player, coach and current friend, well I am very interested and excited to see what type of defense the DAWGS can become in 2010 and beyond. Beyond being the key word in the previous sentence. I am hopeful that Grantham will fully embrace all things Georgia, will be successful and will want to be here for a long time to come. As we start a new decade, if this hire (which is Coach Richt’s most important since his hire of Brian Van Gorder years ago) turns out to be as strong as we all hope it will be, Georgia is poised to stake it’s claim as a premier player once again on the national stage that is big boy college football. Welcome Coach Grantham. Now, GATA! Glory, Glory.

I TRUST THIS GUY ABOUT AS MUCH AS ANYONE

As you can tell from my recent blog posts and comment threads, I have no idea who the next DC will be in Athens and the process overwhelms me and I'm not even involved. All I know is I trust Coach Richt to make the right moves here. With that said, when Tony Barnhart speaks SEC football I listen. It seems Kirby Smart might be available...for a price...and I guess if that's the guy you want as a Georgia fan you have to be somewhat hopeful. I was particularly interested in this line from Barnhart:

"Everybody in the college football community agrees that he is ready to move on."

You can find the rest of Tony's quick thoughts HERE.

GO DAWGS!

ME, KIRBY AND THE GATORS

Kirby Smart was a four year letterman for our DAWGS from 1995-1998. I’m pretty sure you already knew that part. What you probably didn’t know is Smart and I shared our time at Georgia until I graduated from Grady in the spring of 1998. Now while I shared an afternoon bus with Mike Bobo three days a week in 1997, I had no such (meaningless) relationship with a young Kirby. Why does any of this matter? Well, 1997 was a nice year for the Georgia football team. It was Jim Donnan’s best Bulldogs team and Kirby was a major contributor to that squad. What’s more, the DAWGS beat Florida and Steve Spurrier that year 37-17 after entering the game as 20 point underdogs. This is relevant because I was at that game, my first Georgia/Florida experience, and it is justifiably my first, greatest first person memory as a DAWGS fan and Kirby played a big role in the win. Therefore, according to my bourbon influenced connectivity chain, Mr. Smart and I are eternally linked.

In 1997 a group of fellow Georgia fans and I headed south to the World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party with more tickets to the game than we knew what to do with and no idea what we were in for. We spent the night before the game partying deep into the night and sleeping on the floor at a friend’s house in Valdosta only to wake early on game day feeling bouncy, bright-eyed and bushy tailed as if we knew it was going to be a great day. As soon as we got to Jacksonville and got parked for some alcohol-based tailgating we ran into some good ole boy strangers from south-Georgia and they readily offered up shot after shot of some libation I remember only as Hot Damn. Needless to say, by the time we wobbled our way to the stadium and found our seats, we were well oiled and wide open.

We cheered and body-surfed and talked trash to every Gator within shouting distance as Bobo threw to Hines and Corey Allen, Robert Edwards ran for touchdown after touchdown and…this is where Kirby comes in…the DAWGS picked three Gator quarterbacks off a total of four times in the game, of which, Kirby had two and should’ve had another. The Georgia defense was great that day coming up with big stop time and again and Mr. Smart played smart and was seemingly always around the action. Kirby would go on to lead the Bulldogs with six interceptions in 1997 and that was while sharing the same field as future NFL Hall-of-Famer Champ Bailey.

This is clearly the memory zenith of football fandom during my college daze and while it may not be the first thing I recall about that day, that game, that glorious victory over the HATED Gators or even that trip, Kirby’s contributions to the win absolutely rank as my favorite memory of the current Alabama defensive coordinator’s time as a DAWG.

That was then. This is now. Who knows? There may be a memory or two that have yet to be crafted by Smart at (for) the University of Georgia, just in a different role. I have no idea, but I will be keeping a keen eye on the goings-on in Athens in the coming days…just in case.