It sounds like they’re getting all biblical out in Sooner land (h/t Oldgraydawg @ OnlineAthens.com) about what happened to Willie Martinez in Athens.
… Martinez, who turns 47 later this month, recently drew on the experience of those scratching, clawing and hanging on days as a player. His steady climb up the ladder to a head coaching position was detoured when he became the scapegoat for Georgia’s 8-5 record this past season.
The Bulldogs’ defensive coordinator the past five years and a member of the staff since 2001, Martinez was one of three defensive coaches Mark Richt fired Dec. 3 to appease angry Georgia supporters, many of which were calling for Richt to be sacked.
I dunno, but maybe we should all feel a little Jehovah-like after reading that. Even if lost recruits weren’t mentioned…
Get The Picture 
Nice job by that guy completely whitewashing Martinez’s tenure in Athens. No mention of the steady, then sharply declining returns of his defense every year. Nope, he was the “scapegoat.” He makes it sound like Richt put his assistants’ names on a dartboard and picked one.
“Don’t try to confuse me with the facts.” – Homer Simpson.
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Appease angry Georgia supporters…fix a broken defense…hey, whatever, same thing.
Idiot.
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Fair and balanced, Martinez was neither as good as we had hoped he would be, and not as close to incompetent as UGA fans made him out to be. Why do UGA fans have to continually kick dead dogs and be so spiteful toward coaches and players? Leave it be folks, a new day is here. I wish Willie well at Oklahoma and look forward to what CTG brings to Athens.
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Yeah, right.
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I’m just glad he’s at Oklahoma instead of Georgia, let them continue the experiment of whether or not he is “not as close to incompetent as UGA fans made him out to be”.
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love this website.
BUT, with all due respect, lets call a spade a spade.
I’m as happy as anyone we have won 90 games in 9 years and won 2 conference titles.
any rational football fan, however, can easily look at this body of work and conclude that our football program peaked under richt in the 2005 sec championship game. we’ve been steadily declining ever since then (yes, even including the glorious 2007 year, when we finished #2 in the country but also got our pants pulled down in knoxville).
Richt IS on the hot seat and should be. I predict after the 2011 season richt is gone and the bulldog nation will be furious when derek dooley turns us down. mark my words. Richt is on his way out – i just wish damon evans would do it sooner and save us the pain of experiencing the donnan and goff years again, which is clearly where we are now and will be for some time as long as richt is coach.
Most of you are in denial but it is reality
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Yes, we know. And we trace it back to a change in the defensive coordinator around the time of that peak. Now that defensive coordinator is gone, and most of us are willing to give the new guy a shot at helping to return the program to prominence. We so crazy!
The first peak is not necessarily the last. Programs have ups and downs, even (especially?) those that change head coaches in every valley.
Thanks for the remote diagnosis, though, doc.
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As I have asked others before just who do you think would accept a HC job from a school that fires the 4th winningest current coach in the NCAA FBS? You are not to sharp on this personnel thing are you? Maybe if he has a losing year we could maybe make like Auburn and fire him but to do it now would insure we would get another Donnan or Goof. We are not ND, USC, Texas, ALA or FL. We will not get that caliber of coach and our great and loyal fans have already written Kirby off because he didn’t come home for DC. You are either not a UGA fan or you are just fking joking about firing CMR now. Either way why don’t you just stop with the pot stirring.
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The glass is neither half full nor half empty to you…it’s just broken.
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Thomas Brown?? I feel more ignorant having read your post. That’s pretty hard to do.
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What does Thomas Brown have to do with this? Besides, I don’t think it’s that hard to make you more ignorant. ;<)
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Jim’s just the abridged version of Thomas Brown.
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There’s not much farther to drop
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Jim, I appreciate the kind words for the blog (and the traffic you generated with your comments), but if there’s one thing I’m absolutely sure you’re wrong about, it’s that Derek Dooley will be offered the head coaching position. That will happen over Michael Adams’ dead body.
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Whisky. Tango. Foxtrot.
These people cannot possibly be serious. I do wonder how they manage to breathe, considering it takes so many brain cells.
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Interesting.
Jim has revealed to Bulldog Nation what is going on in Knoxville. Volunteer coaches are telling any high school recruit that will listen that Mark Richt will be fired soon.
Wishful thinking.
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Oklahoma’s shiny new DB coach couldn’t possibly have ay flaws, so it must be the dastardly former employer’s fault. I especially like the ‘steady climb up the ladder’ spin.
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I wish Willie well, perhaps he learned some things from this experience, and will be a better coach in the future. I am just glad he will not be on the sidelines in Athens any longer!
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Jim, look at the w/l records of other active coaches in NCAA and tell me who is UGA going to get that is better than Richt? There are only a few with better records and I do not see them coming to Athens, Paterno, Myers, Saban,.. Richt has earned the right to turn the ship around. We all know he should have made a move sooner with D coaches but he is a man who is loyal to his coaches and his mentor taught him that. Loyalty is a two way street. It has also helped to keep some good coaches on staff. Richt is a man of integrity, had you rather have Urban Liar, or Kiffin a snake in the grass, who will sneak off in the middle of the night?
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Lets face it Willie was a perfect example of the Peter Principle. He was a good Dbacks coach but was unable to handle the demands of DC. He could not adjust his D on the fly (see Rollout v UT). CTG will be adjusting the D on every play. We will be dictating to the O not waiting to see what the O is going to do to take advantage of our too predictable D. I can’t wait to see our D against the only big time QB we’ll face, Arkansas’ Ryan Mallett. He’s good but not mobile our 3-4 should let the scouts know how he will do at the next level.
How does the 3-4 do against mobile QB’s? It seems we will be facing more of them than just pocket passers.
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Guys, i get all those points.
But the fact remains our team is woefully un-prepared for several games each year (in all aspects of the game, not just defense), we haven’t put together a complete 4 quarters of football since we beat hawaii, discipline is horrible on and off the field, turnovers, lack of fundamentals etc.
My infant child could coach our team to 8 wins a year with the in state talent, facilities, resources, etc that we have. I hate to admit it but in spite of the impressive resume he has put together in 9 years, we should win the award every year for underachieving and doing less with more…
Coach Richt has done wonders for our program since donnan and goff, but he has taken it as far as it is going to come with him at the helm. I don’t want meyer or saban. i want the next RICHT – a guy that will come in and take a program to the next level that the guy before him wasn’t able to reach.
The delusional/emotional fans that see only 90 wins will make this change take longer than it needs to. How many more times do we need to get blown out by a bad tennessee team or almost lose 2-3 games a year to the conference cellar dwellers for you people to wake up?
The problems are so much bigger than the defensive coordinator –
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Jim, I would propose that you’re the delusional/emotional fan for seeing a stretch of underachievement and announcing that Richt has peaked and should be replaced despite all of his efforts this off-season to right the ship.
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Ah, the lilting refrains of “we’ve peaked” and “you’re all in denial” that characterize the modern sports fan with ADD.
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Pure genius Jim. We peaked in 2005 and now are in a serious decline? Wow! You are exactly the type of fan that just may cause CMR to leave Athens (it will be his decision when he does, not people like you.) Unfortunately there are several thousand mouthy fans like you who espouse this crap and make internet fools think there really is a hot seat at UGA.
That 2007 team you dismiss because of one day’s let down beat the absolute crap out of Auburn and Florida that year, and except for three “Hail Mary” finishes for TN against SC, Vandy, and KY, Georgia would have won the SEC title against a wounded LSU. That would have put them in the BCS finale, something so many here hold as the Holy Graile. Finished #2, but not good enough for ol’ Jimmy.
And lets dismiss the 2008 team that finished in the Top 10 despite an offensive line that had to be reshuffled weekly. (For those that don’t see the significance of that feat, check what happened to Alabama when one key lineman was out for the Sugar Bowl.) We really sucked didn’t we? Get rid of the bum, clean house at BM!
But you are right, let’s get rid of the best coach in our school’s history because he doesn’t fit your warped expectations even though others salivate over someone who not only averages 10 wins a year playing in the toughest conference in the land, and represents us in a classy way. Travel around the country and interact with other CFB fans and see what they think of Mark Richt. Yep, I am really envious of TN having DD while we are stuck with CMR. Damn, just damn. Who helps you get dressed every day and provides you with a computer to play games on?
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Jim, it seems you are the infant child since you apparently can’t remember the state of our program for 20 years before Richt arrived in Athens 9 years ago. 8 win seasons certainly weren’t taken for granted and SEC championships and top 10 finishes were a rare exception, not the norm that they’ve been under Richt.
Yes, he waited a year or two too long to pull the trigger on Martinez, but his entire body of work speaks for itself.
As of the folks in Oklahoma, all they need to do is watch some youtube highlights of some of our rivals signature victories over UGA in the past few years and maybe look back at some box scores to see how consistently our defense underperformed…but it’s a whole lot easier to make sweeping generalizations to support what they want to believe.
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Poor Jim. He will be so dissapointed when we bounce back.
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You Disney Dawgs are runnin’ amok in here I tell ya’!
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“Disney Dawgs” — a familiar term, which explains all I need to know about the kinds of discussions to which Jim is accustomed.
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Jim, you say you want “the next Richt.” That’s exactly the problem — no matter how good this hypothetical next coach does, you’ll be calling for his head the minute something goes wrong, just like you did with Richt. And the guy after that. And the guy after that…
I mean, Derek Dooley hasn’t coached a single game in the SEC yet, and you’re already pronouncing him a more desirable option than Richt. If being a “Disney Dawg” means I’m smart enough not to leap at the first shiny thing someone dangles in front of my face, then I shall wear that label with pride.
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I am not A “disney dog”. I have been a knowledgeable Dawg fan for 60 years. I was a fan of and a supporter of both Butts and Dooley. CMR is the best coach we have had on my watch and your comments about CMR and the entire coaching staff are so wrong that i wonder if you are a Dawg fan. Our entire staff is now one of the nations very best and the next 4 years will prove it.
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As a Gamecock fan who grew up in GA, I have to laugh when I hear UGA fans talking about firing Richt. I guess the thing these fans don’t realize is that making a new hire doesn’t always result in a better coach. Sometimes (quite often, really) it results in a worse one. New coaches are a Chizik nickle a dozen. Fire Richt at your own peril, Jim, because you probably won’t be happy with who replaces him.
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Jim was a really good up-and-coming poster this morning, even earned a compliment from the Senator for his initial body of work. But by late morning, his posts had peaked, and in the afternoon it became clear we should bail and find another “Jim”. He’s just not getting it done.
Fans like this and we wonder why Paul Johnson wants to punch us in the face?
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+1, Ausdawg.
Jim: As I told your alter ego Thomas Brown earlier this week, please run immediately to Best Buy and purchase NCAA Football 2010. Play “Dynasty Mode” and create 22 players rated 100+ to populate your roster. Recruit only 5-star players every offseason. Win the BCS title every season.
Because that is the ONLY way a “fan” like you will ever be happy. As you lie in your perfect bed tonight next to your perfect Playmate of the Month wife in your perfect $5.6 million chalet, please consider these words.
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How Bout Those Saints And Their 3-4 Defense.
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I guess they spin what they got to spin, he sucked balls as a DC
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The Richt is on the hot seat thing amazes me. If he had 2 more years in a row like this year I’m still not sure I’d be ready to see him fired.
Stability is grossly underrated. The benefits are huge. The truly successful dynasties in pro and college sports have stability. That’s no coincidence.
Richt made a mistake with promoting Martinez to DC, and he held on to him too long. I think the retarded BCS system that gave us a Sugar Bowl vs. Hawaii exacerbated the problem as it made our 2007 team look better defensively than it was. That bought Marintez an extra year after the 2008 disaster. I believe and hope Richt learned from that mistake, and I don’t think he has any more college roommates or best men to promote anyway.
I hope Richt is our coach for the next 20 years.
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Speaking of bad offenses with quarterbacks who fumble throw interceptions get penalties and can’t win the big games.
Peyton Manning choked in high school in big games.
Peyton Manning choked in college in big games.
Peyton Manning choked in the Playoffs again last night. He threw a pass to a receiver out in front of the receiver who stretched out his arms as the ball flittered off his fingertips. Then, the camera went back to Peyton Manning where he was in the backfield shaking his head at the receiver.
On the sidelines thereafter, Peyton Manning had gathered his Offensive Linemen together on the bench and the camera again caught Peyton Manning acting like God lecturing his OL.
Peyton Manning plays on a team widely considered far better than the New Orleans Who dat Saints. The Colts were a prohibitive 6-point favorite in the game.
Not a winning record in playoffs, Peyton Manning has been and continues to be a choke artist of the highest order in big games.
It is what he does.
It was not until he left the vols, that the vols won the big games. In the big games in college, Peyton Manning choked. 3 times he played Florida, and lost all 3. How can you be any good at all in college if you always lose to the teams in not only your own conference, but even in your own division ?
Super Bowl MVP for throwing 1 touchdown pass ?
Super Bowl MVP for throwing an interception and losing a fumble ?
Super Bowl MVP for a QB rating of 81 ?
What the hell is that all about ?
Peyton Manning is a big-game choke artist.
10 Playoffs.
6 times Peyton Manning was bounced in the 1st game.
9 Playoff wins in 10 Playoff Series, that is what his record is in the big games in the NFL.
Hall of Fame Quarterback who has a Super Bowl MVP in the rain where 3 other Colts’ Offensive Players in fact had far better games than he.
This is the Baltimore Colts, Indianapolis Colts. That is supposed to be the best team in the NFL. Instead, Peyton Manning gets on everyone on his team like everything they were doing was all wrong when he was doing everything right, according to him.
Ahead 10-0 one might surmise that Peyton Manning would hand the football off to Joseph Addai.
He did anything but.
In 18 Playoff Games, Peyton Manning has only 9 wins.
Beating Rex Grossman hardly changes the fact that Peyton Manning is sports’ greatest choke artist.
9-9 in the Playoffs.
10 seasons in the Playoffs.
Peyton Williams Manning 3 weeks from now turns 34.
4-Time NFL MVP and 1-Time Super Bowl MVP he no where near deserved with an interception a lost fumble of his own and only 1 touchdown pass with a 81 Quarterback Rating. 3 point 8 yards per attempt. For that, he is Super Bowl MVP.
12-Time NFL Choke Artist.
Facts Are :
10 Years in the Playoffs.
10 Years Choke Artist.
10 to nothing lead and Joseph Addai gets a grand total of 13 carries in the game. Why did the Colts lose again ? Peyton Manning threw the football 45 times instead.
Drew Brees threw the football fewer times than Peyton Manning, but completed more passes than Peyton Manning, and Drew Brees threw 2 Touchdown Passes, while Peyton Manning threw 1 touchdown pass and 1 interception.
Peyton Manning’s QB Rating is 84 in Super Bowls.
Drew Brees’ QB Rating was 114.5 last night.
The Super Bowl was already over when Drew Brees threw the 2-Point Conversion to go ahead 24-17. Then, Choke Artist in the big games, Peyton Manning threw the Pick-6 to Tracy Porter covering 74-yards and it became 31-17 with 3 minutes and 12 seconds to go. Peyton Manning is a Choke Artist in big games. It is all he has ever been. And, all he will ever be. It is what he is.
Peyton Manning threw 33 touchdown passes to 16 interceptions 99 QB Rating
Drew Brees threw 34 touchdowns passes to 11 interceptions. 109 QB Rating
Peyton Manning, not Drew Brees NFL MVP.
Peyton Manning 7.9 yards per pass 68 percent complete
Drew Brees 8.5 yards per pass 70 percent complete
The media, 50 sportswriters, is who votes for the NFL MVP.
Peyton Manning despite playing on the best team in the NFL, has been sacked 215 times, has 17 rushing touchdowns to 19 fumbles, has 366 touchdown passes with 181 interceptions, and has 12 Chokes in the big games in 12 Years in the NFL.
Prolific Pablo Picasso of Choke Artists in big games.
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Um, thanks?
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Lulz. Thomas Brown = Blog Comment MVP.
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Bet you didn’t like Sharon Stone in Basic Instinct either, did you?
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Good one, Mac.
Who wants in on the “Next Thing Thomas Brown Will Say Sucks” pool? Cuddly kittens, homemade apple pie, Abraham Lincoln, and indoor plumbing are all still available.
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Reading this has led me to these conclusions:
– that OU writer is an idiot
– Jim is a moron
– I’m really craving waffles
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I think that the Saints 3-4 defense with all of the variations they showed is what did the colts in.
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Senator, you are welcome.
I wish nothing but the best for the Dawgs – my family has been going to UGA for about 100 years now (including me).
You are probably right about the Derek Dooley/Adams thing (unless Adams is off running the NCAA or something).
To the rest of you – your enthusiasm and support for the team is admirable. I sincerely hope you are right and i am wrong.
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