Today is the first day the new coaches, Grantham & Lakatos, get to meet the current UGA players. It's not a day where position changes will be made (that will happen after film study and spring practice), but it's a day where the ball gets rolling. It's essentially the day to put the former complacency that surrounded our program on notice.

Now, earlier tonight I read a great and simple explanation of the 3-4 defense at the following URL: http://football.calsci.com/DefensiveLine3.html. Sorry I can't hyperlink, but I'm typing this on my phone. Also, a hat tip to David Hale (http://ugadogsblog.blogspot.com) who shared the link on his blog.

For those who don't have time to read the article, essentially, the 3-4 is a defense tradiyionally designed to go against running teams. However, the traditional 3-4 calls for the DTs to have 2-gap responsibility, meaning every gap on the offensive line is supposed to be plugged by a DT. It is my understanding, but only a guess, that in Grantham's 1-gap system, the LBs have their own gaps for which they are responsible. That means it's basically one person per gap, or three DTs and two LBs responsible for every hole in the O-line, with the rest of the LBs and DBs free to play zone, man, spy packages, blitz, etc.

In order for this defense to work, it relies on fundamentals (like everything else in football, but something we have ignored in recent years) to make it successful. Sure tackling, playing your assigments, hat-on-hat, DBs playing the ball and not face-guarding, are all important aspects to make the new D a good one. It'll start tomorrow with introductions, carry through spring practice, then position changes, then summer workouts, and then we'll finally see the best 11 players on the field.

So, don't expect this new regime to do anything more than feel like a new regime until sometime in August. In fact, I'd warn that G-day will probably be sloppy, but will give us a good look at seeing guys fly to the ball like we expect.

So, tomorrow the changes begin, but much like the actual search for a new DC, it is going to be a relatively slow process -- especially since we have a recruiting class to fill out and there won't be any actual "coaching" happening until spring practice in late March or early April.

Until then, let's just all remember that the true path to championships goes through Jacksonville, and until we stop wetting the bed below the state line, defensive changes won't matter.

I'm just sayin'.


Until next time kids.

Be safe.

Posted with LifeCast