Martinez: 'It Starts With Me'

It's hard to quantify what people have been the most angry about when it comes to Georgia defensive coordinator Willie Martinez (other than the losses, of course), but if I had to guess the complaint I've heard the most in the wake of Georgia's latest meltdown against Georgia Tech, it's that fans don't feel Martinez has taken enough responsibility for the defense's poor performance.

That probably wasn't an entirely fair portrayal, but Martinez hadn't come out and blamed himself in any interviews that I had heard, so it's easy to see where fans find fault. After talking with Martinez at length Wednesday, however, I think it's pretty clear that a.) he is taking a great deal of responsibility for the defense's failures and b.) he fully expects to be back next season.

Martinez said the defense has been average this season, which on the aggregate, it has. But rather than playing 12 average ballgames, the Dawgs have played 6 or 7 really good ones, and 5 or 6 really bad ones.

The biggest problem, Martinez said, is the defense's propensity toward giving up so many big plays, and that he blames on poor execution -- blown assignments, missed tackles, etc. He's not exactly laying all the blame for that at the players' feet though.

"It's part of your philosophy that you can't do, and I think leadership has a lot to do with it," Martinez said. "I mean that not just in the secondary, but defensively as a whole not allowing it to happen. And it starts with me. You have to feed that down to your players, and I take full responsibility for that. We've just got to get better. It's an integrity part of defense that just can't happen, and it's got to be coming from me down to them. It just can't happen."

The frustrating part for Martinez -- and likely for most fans -- is the incredible inconsistency from one game to the next, one half to the next and one play to the next.

"The most disappointing thing is that, you take the three losses, but in particular the last one, and we played outstanding in the first half," Martinez said. "You take the second half, and we played the complete opposite. It wasn't that they did anything different, it was just executing, tackling. But it wasn't the same intensity, it wasn't the same focus, and again, that comes down on me, and we've got to do a better job. We've got to play 60 minutes, and we didn't do that in big games."

That type of inconsistent mental approach to the game -- which players like Rennie Curran and Corvey Irvin have talked about repeatedly this season -- is a factor of leadership and maturity, Martinez said. Players simply aren't maintaining focus.

So when asked if he thought there was room for great improvement -- particularly in the secondary -- with so many players returning next year, Martinez wasn't exactly doing cartwheels about the future.

"Sometimes you get returners back, but it doesn't really give you success," he said. "You'd like to think that, you've got more experience, but how hungry are you coming back? Those are the things we're going to address we are addressing right now. We're not waiting until January. We're getting better right now. Our goal is to play our best ballgame this year on Jan. 1. We're treating these practices like fall camp, and that includes our young players, to create an edge and bring it to the ballgame. Then when you have that kind of experience coming back, hopefully it starts right now. We'll see what kind of leaders we have, what kind of group we have, what kind of experience is going to help us succeed."

So what do you think? Does any of this change your feelings on Willie's tenure at Georgia? Are you more or less willing to give him a second chance next year?

ALSO SEE: If things had played out differently five years ago, Willie Martinez could have been coaching in the Capital One Bowl this year from the other sideline.