A little Coach Grantham to get you ready for practice..

I seriously need to find out if our shared last name is a coincidence...because if it turns out I am actually related to this guy I'll probably turn into a full fledged stalker.

These are my favorite parts of the interview Coach Grantham did with ESPN's Chris Lowe last week...

Georgia was tied for next to last nationally last season with 12 forced turnovers. How do you turn that around?

TG: It starts with the quarterback. In pro football, we did a study, and the guy who
fumbles the ball the most is the quarterback. He’s also the guy throwing the ball, so the more you can do to disrupt him, the more you’re going to create turnovers. You can do that a lot of ways -- disguising what you do, by bringing pressure, four-man and six-man rush, and the biggest thing is the disruption of routes. You can’t allow free access. [emphasis added] If you disrupt them and jam them, they’re not always going to be in the spot they’re supposed to be. There’s no question that we need to create more turnovers. Again, going back to the NFL, the teams that were plus-1 in turnover margin over the last 11 years won 80 percent of their games.

What do you hope the Georgia fans see in this defense?

TG: What I want them to see is improvement and that we’re aggressive, fundamentally sound and relentless in our pursuit of the ball. I want them to see a defense that doesn’t give up explosive plays, a defense that plays with a swagger. I know this, that the Georgia fans have a passion for defense, the “Junkyard Dawg” defense that is so famous around here. I anticipate working toward giving them the things they have a passion for.

I was talking with my brother this morning...if this guy can coach anywhere close to as good as he can talk, then I am TREMENDOUSLY optimistic about our championship prospects in the very near future. As I have said before, I do anticipate some growing pains to manifest themselves this year in the form of blown coverages, guys out of position, etc...but, hey, it's not like we weren't seeing those problems on a regular basis anyway. What I am hoping for is that the new mentality goes a long way in this first year toward reversing our horrible turnover ratio from last season. Anything above that is just icing.

GATA, Dawgs! Time to put your game faces on...only FOUR weeks until game week!!

GO DAWGS!!!