Thursday, August 31, 2006

A Word For Joe Tizzle

There seems to be a backlash of frustration in some quarters that Joe T has been named starting QB and wunderkind Matt Stafford is listed as 3rd on the depth chart. Many seem to be dooming Joe T to miserable failure before a down has been played. These people needs to check themselves.


Joe Tizzle for rizzle.

Yes, Joe T wasn't a worldbeater at the Cocktail party last year, but he didn't play that bad either. It sure wasn't his fault that his receivers got the drops and his coach was calling run plays on 3rd and forever. Richt has even said that he is to blame for being waaay to vanilla in that game and not giving Joe T chances to throw and shine. Furthermore, last year the offense was designed around Shockley's set of skills, and there was no way they were going to be able to redesign the offense around Joe T's very different set of skills in one week, so it seems foolish to base all analysis on the fact that Joe T wasn't Zeier against Florida. Just remember how horribly bad Shockley played in the Georgia Tech finale 2 years ago in an offense designed around D Greene's set of skills. I was at that game and it was as ugly (and cold) a game as you will ever see, especially for Shock G. This year's offense will be designed and tailored with Joe T's set of skills in mind, so let's support him and give him a chance before deciding a priori that he is shit.


Joe Teezy fo sheezy.

Did people really think that Stafford was going to some in and be a hero as a true freshman? This is the real world of CFB, not Varsity Blues or any of the other cheesy, unrealistic hollywood football movies. That just doesn;t happen in the real world. Eric Zeier, Gerogia's greatest true freshman QB of the modern era, didn't even start until like the 5th or 6th game of the 1991 season. I think people got a little worked up by all the hype and youtube vids of Stafford. Not disrespect to his State championship HS team, but playing QB in bog time D1 football in the SEC is a pretty enormous leap forward. He should be great but he needs time to learn, grasp the system, and develop, and throwing him to the wolves before his is prepared will only hurt the kid in the long run.

Joe T is the older, wiser, albeit less naturally talented option. But let's give him a chance and see how he performs before deciding that he must be replaced by one of the young hotshots. He certainly should make less silly mistakes than Stafford or even Cox would. With our talent distribution this year being so heavy at RB, and with MM1 being fairly unstoppable when covered by 1 defender, the QB only needs to be able to minimize game altering fuckups and chuck it around enough to keep the defense honest and unable to just put 8-9 men in the box. Joe T seems like the logical choice.


With out talent at RB, this will be
a large part of the game plan this year.

Lastly, some of these people need to stop questioning Richt and whining about his decision, unless they have been at practice every single day and seen what he has seen. We pay that man a whole pile of money to make that decision, and he is better qualified with a more proven track record than any fan or talk show host, so let him do his job and support his decision. Identifying talent and choosing players is a historical strength of Richt, not a weakness, so there is no reason not to support his choice. Richt's weakness is game management, specifically clock mamagement, NOT personnel.


"All weee arre sayyyy-ying,
is give Joe T a chance."

Joe Tizzle has been given the keys to the car. Let's let him drive it and support him and see how he does in the first few weeks and then go from there. I think he gives us our best chance to win as long as Richt has confidence in him and doesn't handcuff him like he did against UF.

As the late, great Tupac once said:


"I ain't mad at cha.
Got nothing but love for ya.
Do your thing, Joe T."

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