Talent vs Coaching
By Editorial Staff
This debate raged on during the Willie Martinez era at UGA. Staunch Willie defenders argued that he was doing a masterful job considering the lack of talent. They suggested that David Pollack, Odell Thurman, and Thomas Davis were gone and would never return to UGA. Willie haters laughed at this argument. Sure, they acknowledged that their is only one David Pollack but that there was still plenty of talent at UGA on the defensive side of the football to field a competitive SEC defense. Which group was right? Where was the truth?
Honestly, the defensive talent was a little down from 2005-2009 and most of our premier players during that time period were on offense (Stafford, Knowshon, AJ Green, etc), but that doesn’t tell the whole story. During the 5 seasons that Willie Martinez roamed the sidelines every single other defense in the conference finished ahead of UGA in either total defense or scoring defense at least once. Did those teams have more talent? Was Vanderbilt more talented? Kentucky? Ole Miss? Arkansas? Mississippi State? South Carolina? It should be interesting to see how Demarcus Dobbs, Darryl Gamble, Akeem Dent, Christian Robinson, and Vance Cuff perform this year under Defensive Coordinator Todd Grantham. They were often targets of the “less talent” arguments in the past.