Excuse me while I unclench my teeth.

I hope this quote is nothing more than BS coachspeak, because if Richt seriously believes that’s what has fans upset, he really doesn’t get it.

“I guess we’ve just got the bar raised so high that anything less than a championship is a disappointment. That’s not all bad. I want the Georgia people, the players and the coaches to expect championships. I want that to be our goal, but when you come up short of it, it hurts.”

“I guess you have to have a season like this here and there to really appreciate the other ones.”

Why does this year hurt more than the other seasons without championships?  There’s the real issue, coach.

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UPDATE: Travis hits the nail on the head with this post.  Money quote:

The wheel goes round and round. If it comes up winner next year, we’ll look at 2008 as a character builder. If not, it will have been a heart-aching waste of talent.

That’s a toss-up right now.

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Recipe for a lost offseason

Start with this post of mine from a couple of weeks ago.

Add in a dash of this thought from David Hale (whose live game blog from yesterday is a must read, by the way, even if you’re not a masochist):

It’s hard to fault fans for being upset. Every week, with the exception of Arizona State and to a lesser extent LSU, it has been the exact same story. This team has made zero marked improvement over the course of the season, and that has to fall onto the coaching staff. I’ve said all year I didn’t think any significant overhaul of the staff was in order at year’s end, and maybe it’s not. But I do think after this is all said and done, Richt needs to take a long look at this year and find out where things went wrong, and if he’s only pointing to the injuries and the “tough” schedule, he’s doing everyone involved with this team a big disservice.

Then finish with this quote from Mark Richt after the game:

“I think we had 18 season-ending injuries, last year we had one,” Richt said. “We played the toughest schedule according to the NCAA…”

Let sit unattended for several months.  Serves 9-10 wins.

Better late than never

I guess my mind was somewhere else yesterday, because I neglected to take note of the fact that GTP turned two years old.

I’ve averaged about four times the traffic in 2008 than I did in 2007, so to all of you who drop by, and especially to those of you who keep coming back, thanks very much.

Life outside of Athens

Believe it or not, there are things happening outside of the Classic City in the world of college football:

• The more I think about it, this is a damned good question.
• If this is true (h/t The Wiz of Odds), Charlie Weis ain’t going anywhere any time soon.  He and Notre Dame deserve each other.
• Say what you will about him, Mike Leach is never short on ideas.  He’s got a unique suggestion about how to cut the knot on the three-way tie in the Big XII South:  graduation rates (h/t The Wiz of Odds).  Of course, the fact that they favor Texas Tech never entered his mind when he thought it up, right?
• Georgia didn’t have the only epic fail on defense in the crunch yesterday.  And this one cost its school a helluva lot more.
• What coach in his right mind would take the Mississippi State job?  A retread, sure.  The Bulldog AD needs to think way outside the box on this hire, though – and realize that if he hits paydirt with a good pick, he’ll probably lose him within five years.
• OK, OK, one Georgia question:  what happens if the Capital One Bowl doesn’t pick the Dawgs?