Saban on Grantham as a coach

[dawgday166]

http://www.courier-journal.com/story/sports/college/louisville/2015/06/26/alabama-coach-nick-saban-high-former-pupil-coordinator-todd-grantham/29375553/

This impresses me somewhat. Saban don't pass out compliments willy-nilly.

Still refusing to budge off of being "cautiously optimistic" tho.

[Reason2succeed]

Definitely high praise from the Dark Lord himself.

In turn, Saban had said before that he thought Grantham "was one of the best coaches I've ever had on any staff."

However, not to nitpick one game and try to extrapolate too much out of it but it does concern me that even after coaching under Saban and knowing him intricately Saban won the 2012 SEC Championship by coming from behind and scoring two TDs in the fourth quarter. Typically that means that the defense lost the game.

If Grantham couldn't beat Bama with Georgia talent five years ago then he will need to have personally improved a lot to get us to that point. Or our offense is just going to have to make up the difference and we've never shown that ability against Bama.

[TUSK]

Grantham is legit. It was a terrific hire. His inability to help UGA beat Bammer in the SECCG, is irrelevant, in this application.

[Perpetual Underachiever]

Grantham is legit. It was a terrific hire. His inability to help UGA beat Bammer in the SECCG, is irrelevant, in this application.

^^^ What the Elephant said.

[dawgs]

There's a lot of head coaches and coordinators that are great coaches that haven't beaten bama. And yet freeze has twice because bama decides they are going to make a season's worth of mistakes against them each year.

[LC Dawg]

Who cares what Saban thinks. Someone ask Dabo what he thinks of Grantham.

[PassInterference]

A dominant defense is not critical for us. We are high on offense. This isn't Croom ball where we have to hold somebody to 10 points to win.

[Bubb Rubb]

If someone like Nick Saban says that Grantham has an "aggressive personality," then we should fasten our seatbelts.

[lastmajordog]

If he can get the boys to just ....T A C K L E!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! instead of waving at the runners as they fly by....it will be a HUGE improvement.......that alone would win some games.

[HSVDawg]

I've seen the term "Georgia talent" thrown around a lot over the last couple of days in regards to Grantham potentially underachieving there. Honest question, is "Georgia talent" on the defensive side of the ball that much better than MSU defensive talent? I know long term the answer is probably yes, but I'm thinking more in terms of the last 5 or 6 years. How do they stack up to us in terms of NFL draft picks over that time? I'm sure their recruiting rankings are higher, but that is not the end all be all.

My honest assessment without looking it up is that they may have had marginally more defensive talent than us, but they have never been elite defensively. Georgia talent does not equal Alabama talent or LSU talent defensively, so I'm not sure why folks keep propping them up as the perreniel 85 Bears.

[Cooterpoot]

GA has better talent. I believe prior to Grantham's last year there, they had 2 1st round guys on defense and maybe 4 in the first 3 rounds.

[Political Hack]

Definitely high praise from the Dark Lord himself.

In turn, Saban had said before that he thought Grantham "was one of the best coaches I've ever had on any staff."

However, not to nitpick one game and try to extrapolate too much out of it but it does concern me that even after coaching under Saban and knowing him intricately Saban won the 2012 SEC Championship by coming from behind and scoring two TDs in the fourth quarter. Typically that means that the defense lost the game.

If Grantham couldn't beat Bama with Georgia talent five years ago then he will need to have personally improved a lot to get us to that point. Or our offense is just going to have to make up the difference and we've never shown that ability against Bama.

"Georgia talent" isn't what it's cracked up to be. I think the ratings sometimes give their kids an extra bump because they're UGA commits, but I honestly don't see much difference between their kids and ours (outside of RB and DE).

[BrunswickDawg]

GA has better talent. I believe prior to Grantham's last year there, they had 2 1st round guys on defense and maybe 4 in the first 3 rounds.
That 2012 team definitely had some talent - Here are UGA's draft picks http://www.nfl.com/draft/history/fulldraft?abbr=G&collegeName=Georgia&abbrFlag=0&type=school


2013 Draft - 6th R DE, 5th R CB, 3rd R NT, 2 1st R LBs
2015 Draft- 4th R LB, 5th CB, 6th R LB


The 2012 MSU D had:

2013 Draft - 5th R DE, 2 2nd R CBs,
2015 Draft - 2nd R LB, 2nd R DE, 6th R LB

And that doesn't include UDFAs - like Denico Autry, Cam Lawrence, Deontae Skinner, Kaleb Eulls, Taveze Calhoun

So that tally would MSU 6 - UGA 8, - That isn't that far off all things considered.

[maroonmania]

Definitely high praise from the Dark Lord himself.

In turn, Saban had said before that he thought Grantham "was one of the best coaches I've ever had on any staff."

However, not to nitpick one game and try to extrapolate too much out of it but it does concern me that even after coaching under Saban and knowing him intricately Saban won the 2012 SEC Championship by coming from behind and scoring two TDs in the fourth quarter. Typically that means that the defense lost the game.

If Grantham couldn't beat Bama with Georgia talent five years ago then he will need to have personally improved a lot to get us to that point. Or our offense is just going to have to make up the difference and we've never shown that ability against Bama.

I don't know, does it now mean that Saban and Pruett are not a good defensive coaches because the Bama defense gave up 21 fourth quarter points to lose the NC this year? I think Saban should step down, the game has obviously passed him by.

[Bothrops]

Georgia defensive talent is better on average, over the last several years. But I would like our 2010 group against any of their defenses in the same time period.

[TrapGame]

A dominant defense is not critical for us. We are high on offense. This isn't Croom ball where we have to hold somebody to 10 points to win.

Yep. If Grantham fields a defense that holds most decent to good offenses to 20 or less we've got a shot to win some big games.

[dawgday166]

If someone like Nick Saban says that Grantham has an "aggressive personality," then we should fasten our seatbelts.

There might be some fireworks **

[SDDawg]

Is Grantham a HC in waiting? Is that part of how we sold him on the move?