I got a call Tuesday afternoon from a very good friend and avid reader of our blog. He had just read the a very well reasoned post about the Senator’s confusion regarding Caleb King starting this weekend over Washaun Ealey.
As always, the Senator delivered a well written, good point. There seems to be a lot of second guessing among the fan base of the coaches’ decisions this season, and rightfully so. More specifically, the fans have questioned some of the strange personnel decisions. We have done it here on TGT.
I must say, it is quite confusing why some players are receiving playing time over others. Not turning this post into player bashing, but a common thought for example would be why is Bacarri Rambo not playing ahead of Bryan Evans? I also agree with what Ucheedawg said on Tuesday: there needs to be a change at quarterback.
The reason Washaun is not starting (he will still receive a majority of the carries I feel certain) is because he missed a key block in pass protection. It is ironic because King got placed down the depth chart last season for the same reason: a missed block against Florida.
I think there has to be a sound reason as to why the coaching staff would play Rambo as infrequently as they have other than seniority. I don’t think the coaches are hell bent on playing people just based on seniority. If playing people just based on seniority was the MO, Demiko Goodman or Kenneth Harris would have started last season ahead of A.J. Green. Brannan Sutherland didn’t start last season when he returned from injury, although he played a lot. Shaun Chapas continued to get the starting nod. Kregg Lumpkin would have started ahead of Knowshon Moreno in 2007 just because he was the senior. This Saturday, freshman receivers Tavarres King and Rantavious Wooten are both starting ahead of senior Michael Moore.
But at the beginning of 2007, Knowshon didn’t start in favor of the upperclassman Thomas Brown, until Brown got hurt. Knowshon still played a good bit. There is just a lot of scrutiny this season; scrutiny over everything. Is it because the performance on the field, has for lack of a better word, sucked at times? That probably has a lot to do with it.
I don’t think, however, the mindset of the coaching staff has changed much since 2001. That may be part of the problem. There are two differences though from this year as there was a couple years ago.
One obvious reason is the wins/losses. The second, and I think the biggest reason, is the fact that fans have more access to information now than they did in 2001-2006.
I don’t care to go back and look at quotes from early in Richt’s career here at Georgia, but I can’t imagine there being a whole lot of differences in what he says now after a loss/win and what he said in 2002-2007 after a loss/win.
Today, in 2009, our fans have much more access to information than they ever have. We are blessed to have someone like David Hale to provide in-depth transcripts of news conferences, player interviews, etc… Sites such as Rivals give premium “inside” information and there are many blogs better than this one such as Get the Picture, Georgia Sports Blog and Dawgsports that give tons of analysis.
The reason fans get so mad at what Richt says or about player personnel decisions is because they are more informed now than they every have been. You don’t have to work hard to find up-to-date news, analysis and commentary. Fans can scrutinize because it is easier to do.
It is like that not only for UGA sports, but a variety of topics. This changing world where information can be found using a BlackBerry or iPhone in a matter of seconds keeps an informed public and ultimately leads to more opinions.
Corbindawg
Go Dawgs!
I totally agree. In fact, as I was reading David Hale’s blog before I linked to this post via his blog, I was reading the comments from Richt in another post. The questions that David asked or posted as a response to another reporter asking were the exact questions I had seen commenters on his blog and other blogs ask, e.g. Why isn’t Rambo playing instead of Evans? I thought about how unique sports reporting and sports is now that coverage really is a two-way conversation. Before writers would just write. Sure, they had a sense of what public opinion was, but now they know exactly what their readers are thinking.
Furthermore, on Matt Hinton’s blog, he is covering the biggest things to happen in the last decade of college football. One of his group of writers picked the obvious choice: the spread offense, but I believe Chris Brown of Smart Football, said the explosion of information on demand via the internet and other technologies. Right now, it would be a toss up between the spread and the instant media.