Kaaya gone

[streetja]

Thinking of his first 20 minutes against WVA, his first halves against UVA and NCST, and I just re-watched our game against UNC, all I have to say is thank god Kaaya's gone.

 

[Angry Ibis]

I keep going back to the decisions from Leinart at USC and Andrew Luck at Stanford. Leinart actually was projected as the #1 pick and stayed. Also Luck stayed as well and apparently it didn't hurt his draft stock.

I am curious as to what went into his decision. He can't blame Rick for the slow start in the bowl he air mailed passes to wide open WRs to start that game. Then he settled down I would have loved to hear what Rick told him. We will never know but coaches have a way in keeping kids in school for the right reasons.

I dunno but I believe whoever said that kayaa had a problem with richt and richt yelling at him and richt blaming him for the way the offense struggled

I wish some of you would go back and watch the FAU game because I remember it clear as day. We started to open the playbook up and get into the passing game, then richt saw a QB who was showing signs of shell shock as he missed coley wide open.

Richt then went into a power I formation and jammed the ball down their throats with walton all game

I didn't know for sure if richt still had it in him after the va tech game, but my instincts told me and were going against what everyone was saying on the board. That there was nothing wrong with richt and that he was having to game plan around a below average quarterback with the IQ of ryan leaf

He was shell shocked and Walton ran like a machine, putting the team on his back.

 

[CanesAreAble]

His decision to leave actually is a pretty strong indication that he was either at odds with Richt or the offense philosophy. Otherwise, there's no reason for him to leave - we have a great team returning, he's not starved for money, etc. This shows me he knew he was ill suited to run this offense (and he was). He was also a very inconsistent decision maker out there - left tons of yards and points on the field. I'm sure Richt thinks very highly of the kid (he said as much before the season started), but I think he also knows Kayaa was not a good fit for what he was trying to do.

This is more of a general question:

What offense WAS Brad suited for?

He wasn't good under center, which limited the play-action game. He made bad reads on RPOs and we started going with more run/pass plays as called, which meant sometimes we were running into stacked boxes, or passing when we had favorable numbers to run.

Seems like the throws Brad was most comfortable with were bubbles, curls, and 4-verts. That's basically what our offense devolved into.

 

[prinmemo]

His decision to leave actually is a pretty strong indication that he was either at odds with Richt or the offense philosophy. Otherwise, there's no reason for him to leave - we have a great team returning, he's not starved for money, etc. This shows me he knew he was ill suited to run this offense (and he was). He was also a very inconsistent decision maker out there - left tons of yards and points on the field. I'm sure Richt thinks very highly of the kid (he said as much before the season started), but I think he also knows Kayaa was not a good fit for what he was trying to do.

This is more of a general question:

What offense WAS Brad suited for?

He wasn't good under center, which limited the play-action game. He made bad reads on RPOs and we started going with more run/pass plays as called, which meant sometimes we were running into stacked boxes, or passing when we had favorable numbers to run.

Seems like the throws Brad was most comfortable with were bubbles, curls, and 4-verts. That's basically what our offense devolved into.

And our offense put up a shiat ton of points when it "devolved" into bubbles, curls, and 4-verts.

Love Richt, but he (and any other coach) should play to his players' strengths. He did that at the end of the season and we scored a ton of points.

 

[CanesAreAble]

His decision to leave actually is a pretty strong indication that he was either at odds with Richt or the offense philosophy. Otherwise, there's no reason for him to leave - we have a great team returning, he's not starved for money, etc. This shows me he knew he was ill suited to run this offense (and he was). He was also a very inconsistent decision maker out there - left tons of yards and points on the field. I'm sure Richt thinks very highly of the kid (he said as much before the season started), but I think he also knows Kayaa was not a good fit for what he was trying to do.

This is more of a general question:

What offense WAS Brad suited for?

He wasn't good under center, which limited the play-action game. He made bad reads on RPOs and we started going with more run/pass plays as called, which meant sometimes we were running into stacked boxes, or passing when we had favorable numbers to run.

Seems like the throws Brad was most comfortable with were bubbles, curls, and 4-verts. That's basically what our offense devolved into.

And our offense put up a shiat ton of points when it "devolved" into bubbles, curls, and 4-verts.

Love Richt, but he (and any other coach) should play to his players' strengths. He did that at the end of the season and we scored a ton of points.

People complained about the playcalling ALL season.

 

[Cane47]

Rick was clearly frustrated with Kaaya during a few halftime interviews this year. He would say, "We just have to make the read and cut it loose." If a calm even-keel guy like Rick is showing frustration on national TV I can imagine he might have gotten pretty hot at Kaaya behind closed doors.

Yup - I'm sure that screenshot of Njoku wide open down the seem with Kaaya in a clean pocket on a play that somehow resulted in sack was 1 of many examples over the course of the year. Kaaya was a very good QB here but there's a certain moxy he doesn't quite have. He's a cerebral, logical, intelligent QB who can make all the throws but there's an it factor that's missing. His RZ INT against FSU was the turning point in the biggest game of his career. The decision to go pro as opposed to try to accomplishing something special here indicates he's more into making biz decisions than winning football games. That's his right, but it's our right as fans and observers to bake that into our opinions of him. He's got a ton of talent so a great coach may be able to find a way to win with him like Parcells did with Vinny Testaverde, and I would have loved to have him back, but upon final evaluation it's hard to ignore the fact that over his career he almost never came through in big games. Who knows what happens in the bowl game if AR15 doesn't take that 10 yard hitch the distance.

i agree with several, but not all of the things you have written. Regardless, I gotta say your post ... has some excellent points and observations.

 

[TP801]

Word from some people I know who are friends with him said he didn't have a great relationship with Richt. They said Richt was hard on him and blamed him for a lot of the offense's problems. One friend even told me Kaaya had allegedly stated, "I'd rather get drafted in the 7th round or sign as a free agent then play under Richt again". To top it off, Kaaya had given that friend his new cell phone number because he was getting a new phone for after the draft. This was like 3 or 4 days ago.

I don't know if that's true or not, but it would be the only viable explanation for this guy leaving early. He and Rick likely have a strained relationship at best, and Kaaya wants out of here so badly he's willing to be a 5th round pick and stand a more likely chance of being cut than making a team. Otherwise, it was a total no-brainer for him to stay.

I'm only about the program. The program is where my love is. I don't know this guy Kaaya personally, but I know and love the program intimately. If Rick can point to him in the future as a guy who didn't listen, left early, and got cut, and that benefits the program then I'm all for it.

I hope to one day have a program where marginal guys like this with major holes in his game that he could improve aren't on a rocket ship out of Coral Gables at the first sniff of eligibility for the draft. I see infinitely better players opting to stay at their programs this year.

Those programs may have better coaches than this Richt guy. Richt is supposed to be some qb guru yet we really didn't see any improvement from brad at all.

yeah, he coached heisman winners and basically every qb he coached at FSU and UGA was all conference but he coulnt get more out of an over hyped kid who none of the west coast schools recruiting hard so he sucks.

How may of his qbs in all his years at UGA have been drafted in the first three rounds of the nfl draft? Stafford the number one recruit n the country. How many years was this guy at UGA?

 

[JimmyJohnsonsHair]

I'll just leave this right here: https://twitter.com/SolidVerbal/status/817072222527430656

The Solid Verbal ‏@SolidVerbal 1h1 hour ago

Most Efficient QBs vs FBS Winning
(Power 5 QBs, min 8 gm)

1. Nate Peterman
2. Brad Kaaya
3. Trace McSorley
4. Jerod Evans
5. Deshaun Watson

I recognize Kaaya had his faults, but I think he is going to be more difficult to replace than some here would like to believe.

 

[armstead98]

Word from some people I know who are friends with him said he didn't have a great relationship with Richt. They said Richt was hard on him and blamed him for a lot of the offense's problems. One friend even told me Kaaya had allegedly stated, "I'd rather get drafted in the 7th round or sign as a free agent then play under Richt again". To top it off, Kaaya had given that friend his new cell phone number because he was getting a new phone for after the draft. This was like 3 or 4 days ago.

I don't know if that's true or not, but it would be the only viable explanation for this guy leaving early. He and Rick likely have a strained relationship at best, and Kaaya wants out of here so badly he's willing to be a 5th round pick and stand a more likely chance of being cut than making a team. Otherwise, it was a total no-brainer for him to stay.

I'm only about the program. The program is where my love is. I don't know this guy Kaaya personally, but I know and love the program intimately. If Rick can point to him in the future as a guy who didn't listen, left early, and got cut, and that benefits the program then I'm all for it.

I hope to one day have a program where marginal guys like this with major holes in his game that he could improve aren't on a rocket ship out of Coral Gables at the first sniff of eligibility for the draft. I see infinitely better players opting to stay at their programs this year.

Here's a quote from Richt's year end call (got it from an article Porter just posted):

Reflecting on Kaaya’s decision, Richt said he was “being real” with him, providing him all the good information he could, and Kaaya decided “what was most important in his life. That’s kind of what it came down to.”

I added the emphasis in there and didn't hear the quotes, but that sounds like a little shade from Richt.

 

[SA Cane]

I can't wait to watch Kaaya run the 40 at the Combine

 

[The Franchise]

I can't wait to watch Kaaya run the 40 at the Combine

Rich Eisen is gonna walk him down at 20 yards and pull away.