I agree about puppy defense, it will be really good. But newman is a downgrade from Fromm, and trying to spin as an upgrade is silly. His numbers were horrible against better teams and he actually got benched....and he didn't play for Bama.
Will there defense be that good? Will it really?
We saw this same thing with Muschamp. The offense designed to make the defense look good. Taking the air out of the ball to run clock and limit opponents possessions, playing very conservative to limit turnovers, working to pin the opponent deep on every possession.
This leads to a lot of close games. Georgia won 4 one score games last year. Then what happens, as we also know from Muschamp, is the turnover bites you. You get a new QB who throws more picks, or the Oline takes a step back and you struggle to run the ball. Suddenly you are losing the close games. That's when it all starts to fall apart. Remember, this is not me predicting, this is me recounting exactly what happened here under Muschamp.
Now, let's talk about offense a bit. Offenses today are designed around precision. Everybody on the same page and doing the right thing at the right time. Now, you can get by with a weak group. Let's say you have a new Oline this year. Well, they have been in the system for a while, so they know the calls, and an experienced QB behind them can help get them into the right protections. A new QB will have been in the system for a few years and so understand what's going on, just not have a lot of game experience. An experienced center can help the QB with the calls in that case. And on throws, WR's can help make certain the QB knows which way the routes will be run. In general, you can lean on the experienced guys.
But here's the issue with UGa. New OC, so new offense for everybody to learn. New Oline coach so Oline has to learn his ways. New Oline trying to get in sync with each other and the new position coach AND learn the new playbook. New QB trying to learn the new playbook and get in sync with the WR's. WR's that need to learn a new playbook and get in sync with a brand new QB.
The way I see it, there are too many avenues for error this year. Too many people with a learning curve. When I look at it this way, I doubt that Newman will start or even play that much. At least with Stetson Bennett, he's been working with the Oline and WR's for a couple of years, that will cut down on the potential mistakes.
But there is simply no way that offense, with all those uncertainties, is going to play anything close to efficient, error-free ball this year, and that's what you have to have to win with defense.
