There is a question every Georgia fan is asking today, and I mean the one other than, “What is Bobby Petrino thinking?”
That question: Is this a game changer?
Great college athletic programs are not defined merely by great players, who emerge one season and leave shortly thereafter. If that’s what it was about, Georgia would be great because it has had its share of great football players.
Great programs are defined by a coaching staff’s ability to annually position their team to compete for — and periodically win — championships. Division titles. Conference titles. National titles. That’s something Georgia hasn’t done. The Bulldogs’ last SEC championship came in 2005. Their last national title came in 1980, the year Reagan beat Carter (Georgia loses the White House but gains something far more important).
Georgia hired defensive coordinator Jeremy Pruitt from Florida State on Tuesday. Pruitt’s defense is a big reason why the Seminoles won the BCS championship. The Seminoles allowed the fewest points of any team in the nation at 12.1 per game (Georgia: 29 per game, ranked 78th) and had the nation’s No. 1 pass defense (Georgia ranked 60th).
Even factoring in the contrasting degrees of difficulty in schedules, that’s similar to the difference between a closed door and a turnstile.
The hiring of Pruitt brings modest risk. He was a first-year coordinator. He’s only seven years removed from walking the sidelines at Hoover (Ala.) High School. It’s why FSU paid him the relatively modest amount of $500,000 per year, a salary Georgia was easily able and more than willing to top ($850,000 for three seasons). But how do the Seminoles not give the guy a significant raise to keep him in town?
If this season wasn’t an aberration — and if we safely assume Jimbo Fisher and Nick Saban don’t hire dumb assistants — Pruitt is a significant upgrade over Todd Grantham, something Petrino is about to find out at Louisville. He also is an upgrade over Grantham’s predecessor, Willie Martinez, who rode to the position on the Buddy Train as a pal of coach Mark Richt’s.
Fact is, Georgia hasn’t had a legitimate defensive coordinator since Brian VanGorder left Athens. That was nine years ago.
Grantham either was overmatched as a college defensive coordinator or just a bad fit. Either way, it didn’t work. He was handed an enormously talented group with seven future NFL draft picks in 2012. Georgia had national championship hopes. But the team’s defense was average. He was handed a young and talented group this past season, and the Dogs failed to sufficiently improve from the opening 38-35 loss at Clemson to the closing 24-19 loss to Nebraska in the Gator Bowl (a 99-yard touchdown pass on third-and-14 proved to be the difference).
Richt is the head coach. Ultimately, he is responsible for every success and failure. The pressure on him to turn Georgia into perennial title contenders increased with every BCS championship won by Florida, Alabama, LSU and Auburn.
But let’s not overstate the problems in 2013 as being the fault of the head coach. The Bulldogs finished 8-5 and lost conference games to Missouri, Vanderbilt and Auburn. Effort and resolve wasn’t the problem this season. Georgia’s offense suffered devastating injuries. At one point, the team lost its top two running backs and top three receivers, and they played their final two games without quarterback Aaron Murray.
The overriding problem was the defense. It wasn’t there to bail water when the falling bodies punched holes in the season. In Georgia’s five losses, the opponent scored 38, 41, 31, 43 and 24 points. That’s on Grantham.
Pruitt is similar in many ways to Alabama’s Kirby Smart, the favorite of the masses to return to Athens and run Georgia’s defense. He’s young (39). He can recruit. He has shown an ability to relate to players.
He has a background in coaching defensive backs, often the starting point for great coordinators come, especially in this era of spread formations and increased passing attacks. He was the defensive backs coach for three seasons under Nick Saban, who also rose from that position as a player and assistant.
Pruitt will help. How can he not help?
Richt said he was “ecstatic.”
Of course he is. To some degree, a case could be made that Pruitt is Richt’s lifeline.
Pruitt called this “an outstanding professional and personal opportunity.”
Of course it is. Georgia returns 10 starters to its defense next season. It returns almost every major weapon from the offense except for Murray. Running back Todd Gurley may be a Heisman Trophy candidate if he stays healthy (which, granted, assumes a lot).
If Pruitt can coach up the defense, the Dogs could be in title contention in the SEC East. That would put them in position for a conference title, which in turn would put them in position for a playoff berth.
One correct hire can do that.
Richt’s resume would get the boost that it’s never had. Pruitt would emerge as one of the rising head coaching prospects in college football. Offers would follow.
Is this getting way ahead of things? Yes. But these are things every Georgia fan has been wondering about. When will it happen? Maybe we’ll soon find out.
About the Author
