NEW ORLEANS _ Being an offensive coordinator on the college or pro level is a thankless job. Every play called has a 50-50 chance of working, and that's if it doesn't get changed at the line of scrimmage.
And then, of course, there is the human factor. That is, if everything works, the pass still has to be delivered on target and on time, and then it has to be caught; or, if the hole is there, the back has to see it and be able to accelerate through it.
If the outcome is good, the offensive coordinator and/or quarterback are feted. If not, they're vilified.
Georgia offensive coordinator James Coley knows this as well as anybody. While he's done the job for the Bulldogs only the last two years, and only this season solely, he also coordinated offenses at Florida State and Miami, to varying degrees of control.
Never, however, has he had to deal with the level of attrition he experienced this year at UGA. Nevertheless, the 46-year-old Miami native was careful to accept all the blame for Georgia's offensive struggles this season.
"I've got to do a better job, first and foremost," Coley said at the Sugar Bowl's offensive coaches and players news conference Sunday. "Starts with me, right? So I'm looking at myself hard and criticizing myself and busting my tail to get that end better. And then we have to put some pieces in place for a quarterback in the pass game. We've got to put some pieces in place up front for the running backs."
Those "pieces" are, of course, players. Georgia lost its leading receiver, Lawrence Cager, to a shoulder injury in the first quarter of the South Carolina game. He was able to play only in fits and starts after that, and then was finally lost for good the week of the Bulldogs' regular-season finale against Georgia Tech.
That was after the Bulldogs lost four of their top five receivers to the NFL and transfer. That represented 67% of Jake Fromm's receptions from the previous season and more than 70% of the yards.
Coley defended his junior signal-caller, who completed just 47% of his passes over the last five games, on that front. But he also took responsibility for developing the players available to him as well as designing ways to get the most out of what he's got.
"That's what we've been fighting all season long to get better at, working really hard at the bottom line _ got to score points," Coley said. "How do you score points with conditions or what you have or the injuries you're working with. It's been tough and ultimately it falls on me. It's our job to get it better."
Sunday's 15-minute Q&A session with reporters and television cameras was Coley's first since the early August. Following are some highlights from that exchange:
