Collage 3
The Dawg-gone Blog
Official Sponsor of "Clean, Old-Fashioned Hate" Since 1981
Thursday, August 14, 2008
I've been bewildered before.  For example, I'm always bewildered that Coach Fabris always elects to have the kickoff team kick the ball directionally instead of out of the back of the end zone.  I never shared this with the blog, but a few weeks ago I was at Via in Atlanta and struck up a conversation while ordering a Jack and Coke with a guy who is a strength and conditioning coach. 

He had multiple clients, but those of note were Morten Anderson and Brandon Coutu.  I asked him about Brandon's leg strength, which was more of a statement of "holy crap he can kick the skin off the ball" than it was a question, and he said he never understood the reasoning behind the directional kicks since Brandon could kick it out of the end zone with no problem.

As much as I like Coach Fab, I still have NEVER understood that logic.  But whatever.

And since I'm not the kind of guy to ever say "so-and-so coach has it all wrong" I won't question Mark Richt and Tony Ball's idea of playing Knowshon Moreno and Logan Gray at punt returner. Well, let me take that back.  I lied.  I have to question that.

It's no secret that punt and kick returning is one of the most dangerous activities in football. You have grown men running full speed at each other in both directions trying to lay a lick.  I read an article years ago with Ike Reese (when he was with the Falcons) that asked him about special teams and the impact that it causes on those bodies.  The article likened it to hitting a brick wall in a car at 35 mph.

So why, why, why, OMG WHY1!!!!111!!!1ELEVEN!!11!!!1111!! would you put your starting tailback and your 3rd team QB out there regardless of how good they are??  If either one gets hurt, we're facing crazy thin depth at QB and/or losing our No. 1 running back with no clear No. 2 as of this moment.  I still stand by my statement that Caleb King will remain No. 2, but if Samuel is really pushing him that hard, are we just that deep or are we that inexperienced? 

Regardless, I think it's a crazy move when you have a host of other candidates back there. Granted, one of the 3 people named as "finalists" for the position is uber-sleeper Carlton Thomas (who may be as electric or more electric than Mikey Henderson in space), but still, to have 2 other guys who are as important to this team back there as those two just makes me cringe.  Maybe I'm missing something, but I just think there are better ways to go about it.

Any thoughts?  Am I crazy?


Until next time kids.

Be safe.

Labels: , ,

4 Comments:
Anonymous Anonymous said...
I have you on my RSS feed and always enjoy your blog, but buddy, I think you are 100% wrong on this one. This is not year to play it safe. We can't not play a guy who could help us win for fear of him getting injured. I think we get our best players on the field and go for broke.

That said, I can't imagine the coaches letting Knowshon or Logan return punts during the first 2 games when there's nothing to gain by putting key players 'in harm's way' - which means Carlton will (with any luck) get a ton of opportunities to practice returning punts and lock the spot down. Assuming he doesn't put the ball on the ground, I bet he ends up being the man for that reason.

Blogger Ludakit said...
Anon,

Thanks for the compliment!

I can understand your reasoning on why it's not a bad thing. I read some comments last night on the Dawgvent and also saw PWD's blog and it seems like I'm in the minority on this one.

I can see both sides, but my deal is if playing it safe means we have 3 QBs at our disposal instead of 2, then yeah, I'm playing it safe.

No offense to DeLaureal, but it's all fun and games until a 4th string QB take the field.

Blogger Ally said...
This comment has been removed by the author.

Blogger Stacy said...
You're not crazy....without sounding like a super PT nerd, let's just say that during the punt/kick return is not only when season ending injuries occur, but when career ending injuries occur. Besides, those boys need time to rest...they should save their energy for dancing in the end zone or doing the Superman...