I have been doing some number crunching this morning and found out that our defense slowly has gotten worse every year since Martinez took over. Here are the defensive ranks for Georgia and points allowed since Martinez took over
Year P/G Y/G Rank
2005 16.4 313 yds 11th
2006 17.6 258 yds 9th
2007 20.2 323 yds 20th
2008 24.5 312 yds 28th
2009 34.0 406 yds 97th
If our defense keeps playing this year as it has those would be the final numbers (see above).
I looked at a lot of other numbers in regards to the defense. The number of sacks dropped by 18 since last year and we have slowly intercepted less and less passes every year since Martinez has taken over. Martinez runs a defense that is reactive to what the offense is doing, your best defensive coaches run a defense that make the offense adjust to what they are doing. You have to be aggressive and take it to the offense every time that they take the field. Martinez is more of a coach that wants to give up a small plays and sit back in zone, wait for the defense to make a play or the offense to make a mistake and let them try to pick you apart. This is exactly what has been happening in our last two games, luckily though we have been able to out score our opponents. I firmly believe that Martinez is just not smart enough to be a DC in the SEC. He is just being out coached in most of our games.
This is one of the biggest things that I do not understand about Martinez. If you are going to play a defense that is straight reactive than you need to make defensive adjustments at half time. I am pretty sure, he has not made one this season. In fact, if you ask me, this is just ridiculous! When you are getting embarrassed up and down the field you might want to change something for the second half.
Here is my solution, Martinez will not resign, he is going to have be fired or demoted to another position in the staff. Here are some candidates that we should go after:
Tommy Tuberville; currently unemployed as a coach
Dick Bumpas; DC, TCU
Norm Parker; DC, Iowa
Mark Banker; DC, Oregon State
Justin Wilcox; DC, Boise State
I would prefer us to go after Tuberville or Bumpas. Tuberville would be an expensive acquisition but well worth it.