If it turns out at season’s end that the Tennessee game was the start of a significant turnaround for this Georgia team, Boss Bailey will deserve some sort of Most Valuable award from Dawgnation. Per Aron White:
247: Right before the Tennessee game, Orson Charles was interviewed and said everybody was “Pissed off.” Was that something you sensed too out of this team? You guys have seemed to play angry the last couple of weeks.
AW: “I think so. I think that everybody, we were so disappointed in ourselves and the way that we let down the Bulldog nation in those first five games. We’ve got to have an edge. Our honorary captain before the Tennessee game — Boss Bailey — man, he just stirred our team up so much. All the emotion we could see in him just made us realize we haven’t been upholding the ‘G’ like we should. They built a reputation around Georgia, and we haven’t been living up to it. I think the last two weeks, we definitely have. Guys have been coming out and playing with passion. That’s what we have to do.”
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247: What was Boss’ message to you guys?
AW: “He was just like, ‘I see the defense, and somebody knocks the ball out and there’s not 10 other guys right there swarming to the ball.’ He really just talked about the attitude they used to have when he was playing, and he said he doesn’t see it. He was almost on the verge of tears he was so emotional over how much he cared about Georgia. Seeing how much he cared and how much he’s still a part of this team even though players like that aren’t around anymore, I think it made people feel they were accountable to the whole Georgia nation and everything Georgia stands for. I know me personally it definitely got me going seeing him before the game. He came in and said something in the locker room right before we came out. It almost brought back that feeling, when we used to watch Georgia back in the day with the stingy defense and the big-play offense. That’s what we need to get back to, in my opinion, and I feel like we’re on the right track right now.”
Wonder if he told them to GATA.
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UPDATE: Richt promises more tough love.
Get The Picture 
Boss….Damn Good Dawg!
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Man… SOMEBODY out there has to have video of this speech. It makes my spine tingle just reading all of these different accounts of what Boss said, but with all of these damn G-Extra and UGA video staff people, SOMEBODY had to have been recording that. My kingdom to the first person who posts it somewhere we can all get at it.
Note: My kingdom is very small and probably not worth much effort.
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If there is a video, it’ll probably never see the light of day as Boss might have used some choice words that aren’t family friendly.
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Listen to some of the “Pulpwood” messages out there and you will get a good idea.
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Pulpwood’ll give ’em a good speech. Tell ’em all they been playing like a bunch of p*****s!
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At the risk of overstating the importance of pep talks, this really is an important move by Richt. At this point, he’s more than a generation of players removed from his last championship. No one on this team was around for ’05. Not many were around for ’07. If you want to bring that energy back into the program, you’re going to have to manually import it by bringing guys like Boss in.
If halftime at Auburn in ’02 is any indication, apparently Stinchcomb knows how to work a locker room. Maybe he should be on deck for our trip to the Plains.
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Get Stinchcomb to Jax, I don’t care what it costs or what mountains have to be moved. Murray beating Brantley in their first matchup could do wonders for our psyche down in the city too busy to bath.
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I also thought that Stinchcomb would be the perfect guy when I was wondering yesterday about what other UGA alums should come back and fire up the team. Unfortunately, the Saints are playing that weekend. But their bye week does happen to fall on the Georgia-Auburn weekend. I think Tommy’s idea to bring him back to the scene of his 2002 speech on the Plains is a great idea, and very much needed. That’s gonna be a game where the guys are going to need a LOT of passion.
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Just left Jon a message about coming to UGA-AU weekend.
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Wait… you’re connected? Leave him a message about coming to my birthday party in March…
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Did you remove your cap and stand before you wrote that headline?
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That makes me shiver, and all I’m hearing is a second-hand account. I wish there was audio of that speech… had to be epic.
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It’s this kinda crap that’s going to piss me off. Georgia was playing horribly to begin the year and everyone was saying they weren’t any good.
Now, about time for the AU/UGA game and you guys get it together. …and with a nice little QB/Receiver combination to boot.
If AU gets past LSU and loses to you guys, I’m going to kick every bulldog I see for the next year.
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Careful…..just ask Robert Baker what could happen if you do that!
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I love that picture – because it embodies all that is beautiful about college football.
(…excepting the pantload of cocaine later found in Robert Baker and Jordan Brumbaugh’s freezer)
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So he’s not trying to bite the crotch outa his ball pants….he’s sniffing for dope?
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He was a drug sniffing dog….
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Duh. Have you ever seen any of the other UGAs move on the sideline?
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I agree with a lot of the posts already made here.
Somehow we need to get video, or at least audio of this speech.
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GATA BOSS!
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Glad to see that Boss got through to these kids. Is it just me, or does it seem odd that there is not A SINGLE COACH on this staff that has the ability to do the same? And why wait until the team has dropped 4 straight? Was the 1st L not enough? How ’bout L’s 2 or 3? Leadership comes from the top. Apparently the Dawgs need to bring in outside inspiration and leadership.
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I agree with DDD. I keep forgetting that many of these players do not love UGA the way we do, and sometimes need some added inspiration. Across the country, players go to college to audition for the NFL, not because of their multi-generational ties to their respective universities. Players like Joe T. are the exception.
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In all fairness to today’s players, my appreciation for the University grew the farther removed I was/am from campus.
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Who knows if they haven’t been doing this for a while? And I’m pretty sure mark richt can motivate his team (see 2007). Also ctg seems to get his guys pretty fires up (see sideline rants and spring comments by games).
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I knew the “coaches are to blame” crowd would (again) jump on this subject. Players at this level lack pride? Have no clue about the heritage/legacy of this program? Need someone to tell them winning requires a full-out effort? If you want to say we need to make sure character and pride in recruits is an important factor, I buy it. If you think the staff at UGA doesn’t motivate, or get it, then I feel you are way off base. Guess they have forgotten this “often” overlooked piece of their job, huh? Right. Just like they forget to tell them they might need a driver’s license to operate a vehicle, or stop at red lights. Who is going to hold their wittle, bitty hands when they cross the street at age 25?
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One would hope/think that a HC is capable of grabbing the attention of his team. One would also think that opening conference play on the road would do it as well. As we have seen (for several years now) neither has worked for the Dawgs. The point of my original post was: I am sure that CMR and staff screamed/yelled the same message that Boss delivered (or at least something close). However, they tuned him/them out. What does that say to you?
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Pulling from the second article, “They told us exactly how it was and what they saw. It was definitely motivating.”
What that reads to me is, “They told us in a very emotional state that we have been playing terribly” and sometimes when that message comes from someone on the outside it has a bigger impact than from someone on the inside. It doesn’t mean Mark Richt and Co can’t motivate their players, I just think in this circumstance it has a better affect coming from a non-biased source aka not someone on the coaching staff. It’s one thing for a coach to yell at you and tell you you’re playing awful, but to hear someone who graduated from the program come back and tell you you’re playing terrible is probably a lot more eye opening.
And this quote from Kris Durham leads me to believe the coaches are pulling their weight, “They(the coaches) brought in a mentality where we needed to be physical. We were being, I guess, what people would call a soft team. And we watched the film and it was true. You can’t beat around the bush. I mean, you see what you see. Anyone can see that.
“So they showed us, ‘This is the way we won in the past. This is how it’s going to be, and if you don’t like it, you’re not going to play.’ Everybody had to develop a new mentality, and it seems to be working.”
Of course, if we’ve blown out two pasties so we’ll have to see this weekend if we’re actually a tougher team or if it’s just been the level of competition.
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That is where I am. Of course coaches had recognized the need for motivation, and said all the same things to the players. But Boss is more of a contemporary than CMR and the older coaches. No different than how children begin to ignore advice from the parents over the years but buy into the exact same message if one of their cool friends say it.
You would hope 18-22 year old athletes would be mature enough to get off their butts by themselves, but apparently not in some cases. That is why you hope one of the veteran players will assume that role, guess we are short on that measurement this year. Give credit to the coaches for bringing outside folks in and let’s hope someone emerges as a leader before next season. This outside speaker tactic will only work so long.
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Is it asking too much for our PAID coaches to get this team ready to play? I am not 100% certain, but I think that may be part of their core job responsibility. Guest speakers are not far removed from uniform gimmicks. Nice to see CMR still attempting to find some “juice” for this program. I guess he gets an A for effort!
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Dooms Dawg, maybe it’s time for you to hang up the hat and support another team. You’re obviously disconnected from reality and have no first hand knowledge of how football programs work.
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What exactly have I said that you believe to be untrue? Is it that this coaching staff has failed to get this team ready to play on a consistent basis (pick any recent blowout to the Vols)? Or is that CMR believes gimmicks give players added juice (nice uniform choice vs the gators)? Maybe it is that this staff is paid to get these kids up week in and week out (read above quote from Sanders Commings)? Which is a false statement?
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Every season has it’s own identity among players. How the players respond in large part is how it gets played out. The leadership on the team has been lacking the last several seasons…and again, that can change every year. Most coaches will go through rough stretches but Richt has been a rock to lean on for confidence. Look at what’s happening down at UF. How quickly the turn for the worse can happen without leadership and Meyer is quickly losing his team. Something Richt has managed to do, be consistent with his players. They have never quit on him.
Enough about the uniform stuff. It’s all in the heads of the fans. It’s just something out of the ordinary for fun. That’s it
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As someone already said – Boss Bailey: DGD.
One question/thought I’ve seen here and in other places re: Boss’ speech is “why haven’t we done this before?” or “why did it take 4 straight losses to do this?”. For all home games, the team has an honorary captain – a former player who speaks to the team. So this isn’t something new. As for the timing of it, remember that of the 4 losses, only 1 was at home and we entered the game 1-1. So while the SC loss certainly didn’t look good, it wasn’t a “hit the panic button” type deal where a former player would go ballistic prior to the Ark game. In fact, I don’t recall who the honorary capt was for that game. We lost that one, then went on the road and lost the 2 we shouldn’t have. Sitting at 1-4, it was time to hit the panic button and that’s why Boss’ speech was so impassioned and he kicked them collectively in the pants. Normally these speeches aren’t like that since 1-4 at UGA is pretty damn rare.
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It says a lot about Coach Richt that his former players are willing to come back and stump like this for him. They obviously think this is a player issue not a coaching issue.
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+ 1.
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I WANT TO BELIEVE!
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Didn’t we hear this same theme back under Willie’s tenure? CMR says we practiced soft to avoid injuries and then he changed it back to tackling all the way?
Don’t get me wrong, I like what I’ve seen. But why the hell can’t we do this in the first place? We should be developing depth and if people get hurt, people get hurt.
I’d rather have our team play at 100% and be at 80% depth then be guaranteed to play at 80% and hope we’re 100% healthy.
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