WLOCP: keep the faith edition

Some random, quasi-psychological thoughts this morning:

• One strange thing about the WLOCP since Mark Richt became head coach is that it’s had little bearing on Georgia’s chances of achieving its primary goal at the start of each season – winning the SEC. Georgia lost to Florida in each of the three years it appeared in the SECCG under Richt, and didn’t go to Atlanta in 2004, the year of MR’s lone win against UF. 2001 was the exception to the rule, as both schools came into the game with only one conference loss. This game shapes up as another exception, if you believe that Georgia still has a pulse in terms of winning the East. How will the coaches and players react to that?
• Quite unexpectedly, it seems that the coaches are seriously entertaining the idea of lifting the redshirt off of Caleb King. I don’t know if that says more about the extent of Thomas Brown’s injury, or that the coaches seriously believe that King’s talent may make a difference in winning an important game, but as I read what Coach Ball had to say about the possibility of King playing, I admit that I lean towards the latter.

“We are trying to win games,” Ball said. “We have got five, maybe six, maybe seven games that we need to get ready to play in, and that is a whole season for a freshman.

“We are looking at it from the standpoint of can he help us win,” Ball said.

King is looking at it from that standpoint, too, and he would not be averse to waiting until the eighth game of his freshman season to see his first action, Ball said.

“We would never do anything against his will,” the coach said. “We have spoken with him, and he understands the magnitude of our situation, and he has understood that from day one. It is not like he hasn’t known the possibilities…”

• Against the backdrop of Coach Ball’s comments, I still confess to sharing a certain sense of Jimmy Carter-like malaise about this game with Paul Westerdawg. My concern, just like Paul’s, stems from the debacle in Knoxville, particularly in light of the way ‘Bama embarrassed the Vols last week (read Doug’s comments at hey jenny slater. to get a feel for what a train wreck that game made Georgia’s loss to UT seem). The Dawgs have shown a disturbing tendency this season of failing to show up for games at their start. Sometimes, as was the case with the Ole Miss and Vandy, they’ve been able to overcome that. Against South Carolina, they woke up, but didn’t quite have enough in the tank to pull things out. The Tennessee game was simply inexplicable. The tough thing right now is that no realistic observer of the Georgia program can say it won’t happen again. That being said, I wouldn’t put it past the coaches and players to put together their most complete effort in a conference game since Auburn last year, either – and, to be fair, under MR, there always seems to be one game every year like that when it all comes together. But I’m not gonna deny that I feel a little shaky about Saturday’s game.