I would say that the team is ahead of schedule, but we are still limited by our quarterback. Vandy studied film and knew to use the jet sweep against us for 10+ yards a pop. Vanderbilt had two explosive plays for touchdown because Jeremiah Moon and Vosean Joseph are undisciplined in gap coverage. Vanderbilt had two or three explosive pass plays for first down because of freshman Trey Dean alone. CeCe Jefferson should never cover a tight end in pass coverage. Ever.
UGA now has a bye week and a week of practice to plan their interceptions against Franks, who can only throw two types of pass: slant and seam. Any other pass is in danger of being intercepted.
Dan Mullen is probably working a scheme right now to conceal the shortcomings of Feleipe Franks while maximizing the things he does well. Against UGA I expect to see more two-back sets, more triple option concepts, more Air Raid seam routes, more up-tempo from time to time, and more slant passes. On defense I expect to see shuffling on the defensive line in the red zone, and some kind of safety help in the linebacker corps. If Grantham's attacking defense could work in the 3-3-5 Joker set, I would expect to see that, but I think we will just see the same defense with the linebackers spaced more closely (they never cover the edges well anyway), and the safety covering down on the edges during jet sweep plays.
Nicely broken down, as always.
On offense, well, "The O-line the O-line the O-LINE!!!"...and even our superbly wiley and creative Coach can do little but RECRUIT our way out of that one--nothing immediate, though if I'm wrong, he'll school us ALL, I'm sure...Yes , beyond that we are limited at QB--but the fact that our Head Coach settled on and continues to STAY with Franks says that as long as he keeps working hard, grasps the offense and what IS expected of him, stays "within" himself and continues to slowly improve, for now Franks IS "our best choice to "manage the offense" and "best chance to win" (as in, "not LOSE")...And let's not forget: He just pulled himself, and the young team around him, together to COME BACK--on the road, in the SEC, against a pretty good team who was FEELING IT...And THAT after a horrendous, mistake-filled most-of-a-half.
(At one point I said pessimistically, "You don't just flip the switch, turn it ON--not us"--but we DID JUST THAT...Wonder where one of those "theoretical percentage of likely win" side-stats so ubiquitous now would have put our chances at that point, when we were down 21-3 late in the 2nd qtr...of course, in the scoring sequence right at the END of that 1st half, one that set us up for the offense to complete the "comeback" and eventually take the lead for good in the 2nd half, the play just before the last-second 3-pointer included another demo of Franks' "limitations" when his effort to throw the TD on the receiver's "back shoulder" was several YARDS off that shoulder! Match that with the bad OVERthrow to an open WR streaking free down the sidelines moments earlier (bailed out by Perine's short catch/long run to inside-the10yd line), and later for eg that terrible UNDERthrow over the middle towards a WR otherwise wide-open behind everyone that instead of resulting in a TD (one that might well have then broken the game open) was knocked down and almost intercepted...taken together these neatly document how much of the time our QB alone turns the passing game from a potential weapon into said "limitation", even LIABILITY!
Gotta trust DM's judgment, at this point--and HE "trusts" Fillipe...for now--but not forEVER: Until the clear "upgrade" is there and on the shelf, ready to go, Franks starts, Trask backs him up, and Mullens & Co. continue to teach, create and adapt around Franks to give him and his offense its best chance to maximize points and game-control--giving us our our best chance to WIN each week.
Thanks in large part to Grantham, the D too (as you describe) continues to maximize its strengths (speed, athleticism) and hide its weaknesses (depth, mostly)--we've got really good players, just not ENOUGH of them; not so sure that once down Houston and Joseph--to bad calls and that STUPID "team-foul" rule that should be changed, btw--but if we get behind early, do we hold Georgia or FSU in place to come back, as we did there in the 2nd half, without those two starters in the middle? GOTTA avoid that situation in the FIRST place, obviously.
But without their star on offense, Vandy wasn't quite able to crack the determined play of Grantham's defense and the flexible scheme that, like our offense, simply "mostly got out of its own WAY" to frustrate and slow them WAY down in the 2nd half.
It was a hard, ugly way to get it done--but we DID, and learned a WHOLE lot in the process...about "external factors" AND internal ones: Don't read the headlines, boys! And, settle down, trust yourselves, each other and THE COACHES' PLANS, and you'll be OK. And so on--all the things you can TELL young athletes again and again, but they won't learn until it COSTS them somehow...Hopefully, this time they LEARNED, but didn't QUITE lose--THAT is good fortune, and potentially HUGE.
Now: Notice how "the media experts" (that has GOTTA be an oxymoron, a contradiction in terms, btw) are suddenly drooling over LSU after THEIR win Sat.; They never dropped them below us after we BEAT them, and now THEY have them back up at #5, while we are still back at #11...
I will thus say it AGAIN:
FORGET THE RANKINGS! I don't happen to believe we deserve a "Top 10 Ranking" at this point anyway--but more important, I DON'T WANT IT! Never mind fairness or logic--these "experts" are doing us a FAVOR in (for their own shallow and short-sighted reasons) spinning it all out the way they are: As we just saw (and were almost badly BURNED by ourselves), these kids HEAR all this stuff...and now it could well work FOR us: Let the rest hear and BELIEVE how "great" they are...I HOPE our guys really ARE learning not to listen to ANY of it in the first place, but at least getting angry and hunkering DOWN if not--No matter what, even failing that exagerated vetsion of our progress being fully true yet, the way it is playing out at WORST will more likely just put a chip on their shoulders. Either way, I don't think the Coaches will have any trouble getting their attention, or KEEPING IT, throughout the next 2 weeks. We'll be getting healthier, building a gameplan, and working in some classic "Mullens Wrinkles" along the way too.
UGA WILL be "angry", hyped up--but they sure as hell didn't need a loss to "GET UP" for this next one anyway...In fact, there's only so "up" you can get, for so long, before the stress of it all ITSELF begins to suck energy from your core. And that can show up as "tightness", or stamina-loss late in a long, grinding close one.
I'm not too worried about all the extraneous stuff: They'll be "up" for this one; so will we. This Coach and his staff will pace preparation. More important than how "UP", we will be READY.
And after that, who knows? We are "playing with house money" here, my brothers. I never thought we'd be this far, this soon, with these guys.
For the most part, everything I'm cheering for now goes mostly to what most benefits us in RECRUITING: Sure, I want us to WIN, finish well in every way--but it is in how all of it ultimately translates out on that recruiting trail, in terms of how many holes can be filled in our still lean (even threadbare) roster heading into next Spring, that will determine how long we will all have to wait before, well, before "quiet hope" turns to "quiet confidence"...
