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Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Willie's Words of Wisdom

Give Willie Martinez credit for this: He's not shying away from the criticism.

Martinez spent about 15 minutes with reporters Tuesday night and didn't duck any questions -- even if he didn't exactly give the most specific of responses to all of them. Here's a taste of what Martinez had to say about the team's recent defensive struggles.

On why his D can stop the run, but not follow through on slowing the pass...
“You go into a football game and you’re trying to make an offense be one-dimensional. The offenses are so good now, there’s different variations of spread, and they’re different than some others. But if you do a good job as far as trying to make them one-dimensional, now you’ve got to gear in and do a better job in pass coverage, putting more pressure on the quarterback in the passing game and execute and make plays.”

On why the team performed so badly against Arkansas' passing game...
“They threw the ball very well, and obviously he’s an outstanding quarterback. They caught the ball well. And as a defensive back, if they’re going to throw the ball deep and you’re there, you’ve got to make a play. They made the plays and we didn’t. They were in position to at times to do it, and we didn’t do it. Bottom line – they executed and we didn’t. Those are the kind of things – sometimes you want that. You want the ball to be thrown deep and just chunk it where it’s 50-50, and hopefully your kid is going to be in position to make a play. They made them and we didn’t. That’s the price you pay when you’re playing man coverage. We’ve got to get better pressure on the quarterback when those times do come. But there are some times, too, where even if you brought pressure, they’re just chunking it and throwing it and the timing is there and they made the plays and we didn’t.”

On how to improve the secondary...
“Everything is tied in together. You cannot have good pass coverage if you don’t have good pass rush and vice versa. You just have to concentrate on the total package of being more effective of pushing pressure on the quarterback with our front four and be more disciplined in coverage.”

On how to handle the play-action...
“We’ve just got to be more disciplined. I’ve got to do a better job as a coach and continue to coach it and put our guys in position to make plays, and we’ve got to execute better, when you go against a team that’s good. The good teams will make you pay, and we’ve got to clean it up. I’ve got to do a better job of coaching it, and we’ve got to do a better job of executing it. There’s no excuses other than to just play better.”

On whether he is frustrated with the poor fundamentals for the second straight year...
“We just have to keep working. At the end of the day, you’ve got to tackle better, you’ve got to make plays in space, and execute the defense and play better on a consistent basis.”

On whether he thinks this has the potential to be a championship-caliber defense…
“Again, we haven’t played our best. I can tell you that much. We are not even close. We’ve got to keep working, and that’s what we’re doing right now. We’re trying to get better in everything we’re doing. Get better fundamentally, and it’s got to be the whole group. You’ve got to have 11 guys on the same page and executing all at the same time. It doesn’t really matter if there are three or four guys doing it. The thing about it is, when it happens in the secondary, everybody knows. When you’re out in space, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out who messed up. So you just can’t do it. We’ve got to be more disciplined.”

On how he handles all the criticism…
“I don’t pay attention to it, but obviously it’s not fun playing the kind of defense that’s not what we’re accustomed to playing around here. I’m very happy that we won. Bottom line, that’s what it is. It doesn’t really matter if one side of the ball played well or this group played well, at the end of the day you want to win. You want to do whatever you can to help the team win, and we want to play better defense. So yeah, we’re not happy about it.”

22 comments:

Anonymous said...

Reminds me of how Goff sounded towards the end.

Anonymous said...

He should quit football and take a job as a politician. He didn't say anything at all. He never addressed a thing. CMR addressed more than he did!

Banard Black said...

Let me paraphrase. We are not executing the way we need to execute and we need to be more disciplined and not make as many mistakes when we have a good chance to execute. At the end of the day a win is a win but some wins feel better because of execution. But hey guys, I work for Mark Richt. I’m not going anywhere no matter how undisciplined my D is.

JoshG., said...

I would rather pound my face repeatedly with an aluminum bat than read or hear any more of Willie's comments. He needs to "coach better" and players need to "play better". He's "glad we won". Bobo has 2 defensive units to overcome every time he sits down in the booth: Willie's and the opponents. No more media for Willie. There is so much talent in the secondary that is just being wasted through inadequate coaching.

As we've pointed out time and time again. Since BVG left, the defense has gotten progressively worse every year. Amazingly, we're on pace to be even worse again this year. We're almost a third of the way through the season. After 4 years, does anyone have any confidence that this very nice man will right the ship? I hope he does, but I seriously doubt it, and every time he opens his mouth to the media I have even less faith.

Unknown said...

Clearly there's a piling-on, lunatic fringe element to some of the criticism of the defense. Just as clearly, there are real problems to be addressed, that Willie is ultimately responsible for addressing. But content-free answers to legitimate questions just reinforces the notion that Willie either a) has no idea what he's doing, b) would prefer that anyone who dares criticize him or his job performance just f*** off, or c) both.

sUGArdaddy said...

While I'm outraged at our defense, too...what else is he supposed to say, guys? He said it: I need to coach better and we need to play better.

I actually appreciate his attitude rather than the "we're not that far off" attitude that comes out of Athens a lot. He said what I feel: I'm really happy we won, but we've got a lot to fix. Willie hasn't done a great job coaching this year, but he pretty much says all he can say here. None of us want him calling out players or coaches in this space. His comments tell me that he's not blinded by the victory and wants to fix it. What more can you ask?

jferg said...

i disagree with you guys. i think willie is frustrated that he calls the right play, but a player makes a bonehead move or just messes up. the former will get better with experience...the latter will happen because sh*t happens.
Boykin will improve his ability to read the WR and find the ball.
B Smith will continue to improve every game and by UF will be a stud.
RJ is playing great--much improved from last year.
And B Evans...well, he's streaky and apparently he's been put on notice because new guys are going to play this week--interpretation, B Evans is on notice.
We're young and just acting like it.

the anonymous suckup said...

Wow. I've never seen so much meaningless drivel so deftly scattered across so many words in my life. That man uttered several hundred words and managed not to say a damn thing. He truly has a gift.

Unfortunately, that particular gift is not useful for coaching defense in the SEC.

Anonymous said...

Bring back the good ol Dooley days when, after 3 games, we'd be 2-1. Except we would have won one game 17-14 with a defensive touchdown in the 4th quarter and the other 13-10 with a field goal to end the game.

JoshG. said...

I would suggest he not say anything, because I have no confidence in his competence.

Again: Since the departure of BVG, the defense, by the numbers, has gotten worse every year. This year is on pace to be worse than the next just like every year he has been coaching.

He's just in over his head. He's a nice guy. I'm sure he is a great family man. He's just not an SEC caliber coordinator or a UGA caliber coordinator. Until he shows results on the field consistently, which season to season has never happened, he just needs to stop frustrating the fans with his mealy-mouthed ramblings.

MikeInValdosta said...

Hey, I am on the sidelines. My eligibility is all used up. I didn't miss a single tackle. I didn't get burned deep. They were in position, they just didn't execute.

Flip a coin, football is just a 50-50 crap shoot.

wow

Anonymous said...

As these are really the first "public" statements I have read FROM Willie, himself, I am willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. I wouldn't want to change anything right now, anyway, so he is going to be our DC for the rest of the year. We might as well get behind him now and take the good with the bad.
We can bitch and moan all we want, but we are not the DC, he is and since he acknowledges there are issues, and the players acknowledge their issues, let's see what happens.
It's not like I am going to jump off the UGA train anytime soon. They are "my" team, and he is "my" DC, so I will support him and the team.
At the end of the year, if it doesn't improve, we'll likely see a change. Until then, GO DAWGS!!

Anonymous said...

I wonder if he speaks the same way when he is coaching the defense. If so, I know what the problem is.

Anonymous said...

Totally agree. He didn't answer one single question. I really can't stand to read crap like that anymore. He sounds exactly like he belongs in D.C. (that doesn't stand for Defensive Coordinator)

the anonymous suckup said...

David:

If nothing else, this post shows you what you need to do to increase comment volume. A couple of times a week, you should just post two words: Willie Martinez. Then just step back and watch the comments fly.

More than any other, this is the one subject that turns us all into Pavlov's Dawgs...

PNWDawg said...

I think the only way Martinez is going to appease Dawg fans at this point is to show up for a voluntary stoning. Imagine if we had lost to Arkansas. Holy s#$& would he ever be catching some serious heat.

Anonymous said...

If you're Georgia and you're working hard to get it right I support you. Go Dawgs and to all coward haters that run their mouths about people behind a computer screen, all my fingers are tucked away except for the one in the middle. We had guys in position to make some big plays on defense this year and they failed to make it happen. Players have to make plays too. I support you CWM!!!

BillyD said...

Wow really? So we are hiding behind computer screens? I thought we were just answering a blog. Do we have to do it in person to be manly and not incur the wrath of your middle finger?

Where does the buck stop if not with the DC who has led us to giving up 30+ points like 20 times over the past 4 years?

Anonymous said...

Excuses, excuses, excuses. WHAT THE F#%K HAS HE BEEN DOING THE LAST 6 MONTHS??!!

PNWDawg said...

"...to all coward haters that run their mouths about people behind a computer screen, all my fingers are tucked away except for the one in the middle."

Hypocrite? Maybe?

Anonymous said...

CMR can approach this one of two ways:

1. Fire Willie right now, or

2. Allow him to fix his problems.

I'm not like most of you, who seem to prefer option 1, which will do absolutely no good for this team. These are Willie's players and will be crushed if he is shooed out the door.

I am not the biggest fan of CWM right now either. But firing him right now is a FAR worse decision than the alternate. If he cannot fix these problems soon then he needs to go at the end of the year.

The only good that will come out of option 1 is that it will allow most of you to rejoin the productive part of society.

JaxDawg said...

I've seen and heard this movie before. Unless we turn it around ala '07, he is gone.