Choking on the Kool-Aid

The number one reason to not believe that this year will be any different from last year is to look at the trend from 2007 until now. 2007 was an 11-2 season with a number 2 final ranking. Then 10-3 after starting 2008 #1. Then 2009 was 8-5. 2010 6-7. That my friends is a pattern. Each year there has been talk about how leadership will be better yet the record continued to decline. There is a lot of good talk and vibe going on around the program this off season but it is mostly rehashed versions of what we have all heard the past few years. It is time for the team to go out and prove it on the field and no amount of off season talk can change what we are for now which is a 6-7 team.

Production replacement - team

Now that I have gone through each position specific replacements for last year I want to try to tie it all together. In theory plugging in a new player and expecting a certain production should work. For example, looking at AJ Green and anyone who replaces you would assume a drop off in production. Looking at Dent and Ogletree at MLB and it might be easy to assume that with Ogletree's raw talent he should be more productive than Dent was. Looking at Murray and saying he has a year as a starter under his belt and you would expect him to be better this year.

That as we all know is not how sports work. Sometimes a team is greater than the sum of the parts and sometimes a team is less than the sum of its parts. Quarterbacks and receivers sometimes are just in tune with each other. Sometimes one safeties weakness (say coverage) is covered by the others strength and vice versa (run support). This year’s defense should be much better than last years as the parts that were lost are not as good as the parts that were gained. They have the advantage of being in the second year under Grantham and his switch to a 3-4. Plus when in doubt having 700 lbs to fill the gap at nose tackle that was filled by 300 will always tip the scales in favor of optimism. I believe the defense alone will be responsible for turning a 6-7 into at least 8-5 and possibly 9-4.

As for the offense Murray at quarterback and now experienced should give great cause for hope. Great young talent is coming in to help but it is just that, young. Outside of Murray, Charles and T. King there is little in the way of proven commodities on offense. How well the line and the unproven players play will determine how good the offense will be. If the line play is solid, Crowell is even just a bit better than Ealey was and someone steps up in the passing game the offense should be better than last years. That is a lot of ifs but all that falls into place and this team will be a 10 win team and possibly headed to Atlanta in early December.

update on receivers - Forgot to mention I think that Michael Bennett could provide good production at the WR spot as well.

Murray gets to the heart of the matter.

I read an article by Seth Emerson about the team chemistry being an issue last year and how supposedly the bad apples are gone and the new group will have better leaders. I would try to let this give me hope for a change of next years team except that I heard in 2009 with a slightly different tone, it was more well last year was about the stars, this year is more about the team. That what Joe Cox lacked in Stafford's ability he made up for in leadership. I heard it in 2010 that there were not enough leaders and how players were going to make more of an effort to lead the way. Now we are in 2011 and we are hearing about players that are gone that were cancers and how the new guys are brothers.
I am not writing this to dismiss that notion, it is possible that some guys were cancers and that this years bunch might be tighter, maybe playing for Richt's job has brought them closer, maybe a losing season that none of them want to face again has done it, maybe having the coaches go out and basically say we need more talent than what we have now by talking about the "dream team" has lit a fire under the teams butt. All of this is wonderful to hear but how much stock can we as fans put in it?
The most encouraging thing I have heard from the whole bunch comes from Aaron Murray. The starting quarterback is usually thrown into the position of leader of the team, for good or bad depending on the quarterback. This quote “Everything is great right now. You’re not playing any games, you’re just going out there and practicing and working out,” Murray said. “I mean when things get hard, you’ll see what a team’s really made of.”shows that Murray gets it and gives me some reassurance that at least one guy, and a pretty important one at that gets it. He realizes that they can say all the right things now but the only thing that will matter is how they act, and if that results in better play that leads to wins. I like that the team is talking about a better attitude but I will reserve my judgement of that attitude until the first time they face adversity, a quick score for the other team, being down a couple scores, a turnover when about to score, a turnover that leaves the defense backed up against the goalline. Will the "new leaders" and "attitude" show up then or will the "cancers" start to rear their heads again. I hope it is the former. With Boise and Carolina right out of the shoot, I expect we will find out early in the season.