re: Fields to Transfer per USA Today

I don’t think his intention behind this was to create a distraction. His intention is to find a place he will start in 2019.

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Lawyer is going to try to play the race card against UGA in hopes that UGA won’t fight it and potentially kick up a PR storm. It’s underhanded bullshite of the highest order but it would take the NCAA saying nice try but no dice to make it go away. What doesn’t make sense though is his sister just signed on to play softball at UGA so I didn’t know how an argument could be made about UGA being a racist environment while his sister is about to enroll and play here. As usual big pieces are missing

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Excellent points. I look at it two ways. If the University doesn’t fight this, the public perception would be UGA is a racist environment. Opposing coaches, I.e Saban, would negative recruit the shite out of this. Conversely, if UGA decides to fight the allegations, the media will eat them alive. The University is in a no-win situation. This could get very ugly.

UGA has to protect its brand. The Fields family would be enemy #1 in the State if they follow through with a hostile environment argument.

The Ohio State 247 mods indicated that Quincy Avery is the front runner for Ohio States QB coach position. He is Justin’s personal QB coach, who also worked with Cam, Deshaun Watson and JT Barrett.

What I find interesting is Avery’s name has been mentioned with Fields potential transfer plans, even being connected to the Fields family lawyer.

It’s very possible there was tampering involved. The media is saying Fields first choice is the Buckeyes. Most transfer QB’s take visits, and feel out the offense. Not a conspiracy guy, but it’s becoming obvious that Fields dad and Avery are leading the charge and pushing the Buckeyes.

Wouldn't something like this be against NCAA rules?

From DN's board:

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Sports talk radio here in Atlanta just had Wolken on for 15 mins . He said that UGA has until this evening for Fields name to be added to the intent to transfer list. Something to the effect that UGA has 48 hrs to add his name after notification. He says the only thing he knows for sure is that they have been notified. Which makes me think it’s well planned out for sabotage of recruiting class. They time it so his name must be added the night before ESD? GTFO, UGA won without you. Go get coddled somewhere else if that’s the case.

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Eh, that’s a bit of a rush to judgement. The transfer portal isn’t something the public has access to and unless an opposing coach is going to leak that info (a major faux pas) it’s something that stays between him, UGA, and anyone who might recruit him. Plus, requesting to be added to the portal doesn’t mean you’re gone, just that he wants to be able to speak to other staffs about his options.

The portal doesn’t matter so much as who leaked this. This was 100% an attack job but by the person whose leaked it to Wolken, not Fields

I thought last night that the timing and wording of this leak seemed orchestrated to give UGA a black eye going into ESD, after all the visits were done and contact was limited. Fields could've probably achieved his goals without doing this right now, but that's what happens when ego is involved. We'll see how effective the smear campaign is tomorrow.

As of early this afternoon, Justin Fields was not in the NCAA transfer portal, according to someone with direct knowledge, but freshman tight end Luke Ford is in the portal. Fields still expected to be in the portal sometime today.

More coming soon ...
- Seth Emerson tweet

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I did read it, and it was quite slanted with your Fromm bias.

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They were observations from the video and I was very specific. My statements could either be confirmed or rejected by pointing to the plays, themselves.

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You either make the plays or you dont. If pressure comes your way, try do something to avoid it. Spin, side step, move forward. Thats where the dual threat trait can make a big difference. Thats how Bama burned us the last 2 years with their QB's making those plays.

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It's easy to say "just make plays" but it's harder to actually make that happen against a good defense. Fromm was "making plays" with his arm until the defense took away the passing lanes, covered up the receivers, and brought more pressure. There wasn't much room to run with the ball for most of the game so "making plays" has to be put in context.

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The "7 in a row" 3rd down misses:

1. 3rd and 3 before the missed FG: Looked like he threw to the wrong spot. Ridley was open.

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There's a difference between being open and running a proper route. As I said in my previous breakdown of the play, it was hard to tell if Ridley ran a bad route or if Fromm was confused but it wasn't a bad throw. There was confusion somewhere there and neither of us can point the blame without knowing where the breakdown occurred. If Ridley ran a bad route, you can't blame Fromm for that. If Fromm was confused, you can certainly blame him for it.

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2. 3rd and 4 after the INT: He audibles into a run play that didnt work.

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I thought we were talking about plays where Fromm didn't execute to the level needed to have us succeed? The audible wasn't a bad one, it was just well defended. The same thing could be said about many of the passing plays. Regardless, that was just well played by Bama. The MLB forced Swift to go to the long side of the field which allowed the corner to come in and get a shot since it took a while to develop that run. A draw play on 3rd and 5 in an obvious passing down wasn't necessarily a bad call. That's why draw plays exist, after all. You're just not giving enough credit to the defense there.

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3. 3rd and 2 after the slide: He should have recognized the blitzter pre-snap and throw to a wide open Swift rather than the direct path of the pass rusher.

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The coverage was disguised until right before the snap. The corner creeps up to the line right after Fromm turns his head to the center. Before that, he was playing back off the line. Also, the clock was running down (ball snapped with 3 on the PC) so the ball needed to be snapped pretty quickly at that point. The play was there, but the blitzing corner made a good play on the ball. Even if Fromm recognized the blitz immediately, the defender was coming fast (unblocked) and Fromm had just over 1 second to do something before taking a sack. He didn't have enough time to recognize the blitz after the snap and turn his body to throw to an open Swift (Fromm would have to turn his head and recognize that Swift was not covered and then threw the ball). It's yard to blame Fromm for a well-designed blitz that gave no time to adjust.

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4. 3rd and 4 before the game tying Bama TD: Lots of pressure, but at least give your guy a 1 on 1 shot downfield. Instead, he threw it out of bounds.

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Fromm was throwing off his back foot with two defenders in his face. Fromm was trying to protect the ball. He had a touchdown lead and you don't risk an INT or a sack in that situation. Another great defensive play by Bama did its job and forced a punt.

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5. 3rd and 11: Throw on target, but broken up. Maybe it was late. Coverage was there.

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It could have been late. Fromm was looking left then to the middle and then finally threw to the left. Looked like coverage was just really good and he tried to make a play (like the one you were asking for in the previous play [#4]). Another good defensive play by Bama kept the field covered. Hardman could have come down with the ball but he caught it too close to his body and the defender was able to knock it away.

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6. 3rd and 2 final minute: He flat out missed an open Godwin out of bounds. He had protection.

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Yep, that was missed, but it was probably a good thing it was or else it likely would've been an INT as the defender undercut Godwin. I'll give you that one if you'd like even though a better throw could have been a TO.

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7. 3rd and 7: Nauta was wide open on the Bama 45 with the closest defender on the 32, but he throws into double coverage at the endzone.

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I'll agree with you there, too. Fromm could have hooked up with Nauta and likely picked up a 1st down and gotten us to maybe the 35 or 30 yard line with 10-12 seconds left on the clock. Fromm was looking for the home run and trusting his receiver on that one and it wasn't a good result. On the other hand, Ridley should have had a PI call for being hugged prior to the ball getting there. If the flag is called, we're within striking distance with a first down anyway. Tough luck.

After all of that, I'll concede that two of the 7 instances could have had better results if Fromm made a better decision or threw the ball better. The others are either inconclusive (the open Ridley play) or justifiable that Fromm did what he did based on Alabama playing very good defense at the end of the game compared to what they were doing previously.

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Whatever, I think the lesson learned is dont bring in two high profile guys in back to back years.

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Also: character counts. Avoid anyone who evens gives a whiff that they might try to hold your program hostage.