Nevada Dawg

I fully expect UGA will have some growing pains early on defense in 2022. The question is: Will the Ducks' offense be far enough along under a new staff to exploit them? Fair warning: I also expect UGA's offense to be better than last year's edition which averaged just under 40 points per game. Also, expect to see at least some 3 tight end sets if necessary, as the boys manning that room are huge, fast, have great hands, and are demons as blockers. So CDL's charges had better be good to stay in this one. Don't get me wrong. I am not dissing the Ducks--I actually expect them to be at least as good as last Year's edition if they can avoid the glitches that teams show early on under a new staff. Shoot, Georgia had its share of hiccups in Kirby's first season at the helm.

In replying to Drake's comment above, I am sure that I speak for the vast majority of Georgia fans in wishing Dan Lanning success wherever he might have landed, even at GA Tech or Auburn. The reaction to the successes at former assistants Sam Pittman (Arkansas) and Shane Beamer (South Carolina). have been very favorable. I root for both coaches except on the Saturdays in which they take on the Dawgs. Knowing what I know about Nick Saban, who was called Satan by some of the more volatile posters on the bulldawg blogs, I suspect that he takes great pride on the achievements of his many successful assistants, two of whom (Jimbo Fisher and Kirby Smart) have won their own Nattys. On September 3, Kirby will be rooting for a strong showing by your Ducks, even though he will be doing all he can to beat them while the teams are between the lines. Great coaches are wired like that.

As someone who has followed recruiting very closely since I retired, I can tell you that the recruiting agencies are really not anywhere near the gospel on a players likely success in football, at least. At Georgia, the staff pays far more attention to the staff's evaluation of players, which are often at wide variance with the agencies. Case in point: Bulldawgs defensive linemen Jordan Davis and Devonte Wyatt will be first-round picks in the NFL draft on April 28 after having entered Georgia as middle of the road 3-star recruits. Tray Scott, Georgia's defensive line coach, went to bat for both of them over much higher rated prospects because he thought sky was the limit for the each of them. Plus, the pay recruiting sites pull all sorts of crap like stealing a recruiting star from several 5-stars who were already committed to elevate uncomitted 4-stars to generate "clicks" from fans of the teams in the running for these newly arisen 5-stars. The ability to generate "clicks" is one primary means by which recruiting analysts are evaluated The top teams do indeed trust their own evaluations of players.

No quarrel with Riley's offensive credentials. I do question his defensive acumen and would bet that the Ducks will have the better defense next year and probably for years to come. Here is something to consider: For all the success that Riley has had, he has not won a playoff game, similar to Brian Kelly at Notre Dame (now LSU). So while both guys are darn good football coaches, I'd hesitate to place either of these 100 million+ coaches in the elite category.

I'll say it again: there is a lot to like about this guy!

In my opinion Nix has very good but not elite skills as a QB and something even more valuable for a winning season--EXPERIENCE in the toughest college conference there is. Your younger QBs may be super talented ( (I don't know) but I'd bet that new HC Lanning will strongly favor a very good, versatile, and experienced QB over relative novices. I doubt that Nix was promised a starting job to get him to come (the Georgia coaches have never made that promise to anyone I am told). Your younger guy is getting first team reps in the Spring to keep him engaged, and hopefully the coaches will play him in second halves of games that the Ducks have in hand so that he can develop. I too agree with the posters that Oregon undoubtedly have been more formidable last year had they had Nix rather than Brown at helm.

What a Freudian slip! I meant to say Bo Nix, not Jackson, in my above comment. Sorry.

Bo Jackson left Auburn largely because the new head coach created a dumpster fire there and the program no longer seemed to have a sense of direction.

One more point about Lanning and defense. At Georgia, competition was stressed in all position groups and I am told that practices were extremely physical. But so too was the TEAM ethic. Kirby and Lanning got the defense to always pull together and move to the ball in systematic ways. In fact a good friend, who is a big Alabama fan, paid Georgia's 2021 defense an immense compliment by saying that that unit played like a well-coordinated organism. Lanning was not the only brain child here. Kirby's defenses at Alabama played like that, and Georgia also had the good fortune to have Will Muschamp, a stellar defensive coordinator everywhere he ever was, as a planner and defensive analyst. So commentary in this article suggests to me that Lanning and Lupoi are working to install exactly that kind of climate in Eugene. He is a players coach and, if the if team leaders like Sewell and hopefully the alpha players on offense buy in, the rest will take care of itself.

I agree and will simply add that Bo was a proven QB in the SEC who can make all the throws, run the rock a little when necessary, and he loves to compete. I don't know what the QB room looks like in Eugene but whoever is the incumbent should have a battle on his hands. sec

Yeah Noah was coveted by Georgia and I think we would have landed him had it not been for the existing family connection in Eugene. I have watched a fair amount of Duck football over the past two years and followed along with Noah when the Ducks defense was out there. He is great when the play unfolds in front of him but a bit sluggish many times going side to side. Lanning will get him over that in a hurry, I suspect, and make him the pro prospect that he hopes to be (although he will never go as high as his brother).

My dawgs beat Bo and Auburn all three times they faced him. BUT it wasn't easy and Bo is a player who earned my respect. Tough guy. Oh and thanks for the helmet Mr. FishDuck.

Second reply (don't know where the first went) I am good friends with a big Ducks fan and we support each other's team. After the first Utah debacle this season past, I tried to bolster his sagging spirits by noting that ...if Mario is worth his salt as a coach, the staff will analyze this game, make adjustments, and the rematch in the Championship game should be better. Sad to say I was wrong and the rematch looked like a replay of the first. It looked to me as if the coaches' heads were elsewhere and that they had quit on their team. I am glad that my team's coaches did not do that in its rematch with Alabama. My Dawgs were in a defense they hadn't used much all year and got hammered in the SEC Championship game. It is a bit of an oversimplification, but they adjusted by going back to the attacking defense that they had used so successfully all year and pretty much handled the Crimson Tide. The good news here for the Ducks is that Dan Lanning had a lot to do with this adjustment, convincing other coaches to revert to what his guys do best.