More cancer talk, this time from Aaron Murray:
“I think we have some great leaders and a bunch of guys who want to follow,” Murray said. “In years past, we’ve had some great leaders and some guys who wanted to follow, but also some guys who didn’t want to buy in and were pulling away. They were pulling those followers toward them instead of those guys really trying to lead the team in the right direction.
“I don’t think we have those guys this year. I can’t name one guy who’s trying to pull this team back. We don’t have that anymore. We have the leaders and the followers who are working their tails off to follow those leaders.”
Get The Picture 
I just don’t know what to think about these kinds of comments. It makes me a little uncomfortable. Perhaps it’s my Southern sensibilities, but it just seems to me that these things should be left unsaid.
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I tend to agree. If as a fan base we all promise to buy in and believe in these guys just the same as we always have, will they promise to stop trying to convince us?
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I agree, blaming the people that aren’t around anymore is akin to a political ploy usually used to reassure the populace they voted right and to give them fresh hope for the future. In this case, I read it as the players defending the current program and trying to differentiate this team from the team we’ve seen the past two seasons.
The cancer survivors I know don’t dwell on the disease and what they went through, they live in the now and the immediate future, making the most of this day forward (obviously, not making light of cancer, just using the analogy given). I’ll be happy when we don’t hear anymore about the past two seasons or former bad apples, bring on the fresh hope and new position battles!!
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Please kill the meme. It makes us look pathetic.
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Seconded.
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Let’s name some names. Anyone care to speculate? How bout Chapas!! That guy was always a troublemaker.
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I heard the same bs before 2009. We were going to be so much better without stafford and Moreno. The good thing about 2011 is that we’ll know by the second quarter of the Boise game whether or not things are really headed in the right direction or not. If it looks like 2005 all over again, things will be ok. Not only should we win, we need to embarass them again. Pounding Boise means that you are a top 4 team in the conference and thats where we need to be, or at least it’s a start.
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It’s not the same. Read what he said again.
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Here’s what is the same: Players coming out in the spring after a disappointing year and saying that there were negative influences in the locker room, but they are gone now so things will be different.
Here is what is different: In 2009 fans suggested, based on these statements, that the problem was Moreno and and Stafford and that we’d be so much better off without them. In 2011, I don’t know who will get labled as “the problem who is now gone.” So its different in that sense, but I’m equally skeptical about the cause/effect relationship.
The truth is, from a personnel perspective, we shouldn’t be any better. Losing AJ is taking away our most productive player and the main reason any other offensive player was productive. This is not to say we won’t be better. However, if we are its because we’ve gotten a whole lot mentally and physically tougher.
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The problem last season was the offensive line couldn’t block, the defensive line got pushed around and the team as a whole couldn’t finish games. All of those problems came about as a result of a failure of strength and conditioning. That problem has been identified and rectified. A big year is coming for the Dawgs in 2011. Take it to the bank.
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Not one player or coach EVER referred to Stafford or Moreno as a “negative influence,” directly, indirectly or otherwise. You’re trying to draw a comparison here that can’t be drawn.
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I think he is refering to the fans, most of whom don’t know much, so they speculate. I never heard players being critical of Staff or Knowshon.
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Correct. The players make these statements and the fans attribute it to a player(s). Unless someone is going call somebody out, then keep this stuff to yourselves.
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No matter the size of organization/team, there will always be a few Negative Nellies. Those Negative Nellies were not the sole reason the Dawgs lost more than they won last year. Just play a better brand of football. And is it not the coaches job to ensure everyone is on the same page? Where was the staff when these Negative Nellies popped up?
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Leaving unreturned answering machine message questions for Nick on how to quell an uprising and handle a mutiny?
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Let’s give #11 a chance to lead.
I don’t think he’s blowing smoke because I don’t think that’s really in his DNA. I think he’s like his head coach and is just…honest. I’ll tell you this, the last 3 years on Senior Day I’ve heard the names called out and thought..”Eeh, no wonder we’re underacheiving.” Much different feeling than in 2007 when names like Brown, Johnson, & Howard were called out.
I think Aaron’s just trying to convey that things are different. And, alas, this is his team for the forseeable future.
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Arron Murray’ll say…
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The ‘players who were pulling the team back’ didn’t call a FG on 3rd and inches against UCF.
But seriously, if somebody you didn’t like is gone, just be happy about it and look forward. Don’t point fingers, because there’s plenty of blame to go around for last year’s lousy season. That incudes plenty of the returning players.
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What’s it like, W Cobb Dawg, to be like that?
Did you not see us get 2 feet on 3rd and 1 the play before that? It’s not like it was 3rd and 6 and we got a 5 yard gain. We couldn’t make one stinkin’ yard, and Richt didn’t think we could make an inch either. He kicked the FG. Get over it. He demoted his best friend, brought in a strength guy designed to get us bigger up front, and signed the best RB we’ve signed since Garrison. He kicked a FG because that what he believed was the right thing to do. Sometimes it is, sometimes it isn’t. Let it go.
You gotta look who this is coming from. Murray played his guts out and is about as noble a young man and top notch person as we’ve ever had there. He’s not a point fingers guy. I just think he’s calling it as it is. I also think it points to some new attitudes from other players, too.
I’m amazed at how some fans can pull negatives out of positives. Here’s a kid trying to lead in the most important position on the field and giving an honest answer to a reporter’s question and we refuse to be encouraged my the young man.
That just baffles me. I just don’t understand how that’s fun as a fan. I’m not pollyanna. We had plenty of problems last year. But February-August I choose to believe the best about us until arrests or losses prove me otherwise. That just seems like a more fun way to be a fan, but to each his own. But let’s support this kid. We got us a good one in #11.
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+ 1.
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I can’t speak for W Cobb Dawg, but I think you’re failing to recognize the possibility that someone could both (a) think quite highly of Mark Richt as a coach, and yet still (b) think that settling for that early FG against UCF was a terrible, terrible decision. Richt has done a lot in the past couple years to be admired, and I wholeheartedly give him credit for all of it. But even the best coaches make bone-headed decisions from time to time, and settling for that FG was one of them. He may have believed it was the right thing to do. But he was wrong about that.
The rest of what you say (about Murray), I agree with.
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+1. I like CMR and very much want him to succeed but that does not mean we should ignore his f#ck-ups. The field goal call in that situation was a f#ck-up. He also (and the UGA staff as a whole) made more boneheaded calls last season than in the previous 9 seasons combined and it cost the team wins.
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I think Richt was thinking “ok we just drove almost length of the field with no sweat. Let’s go ahead and get on the board rather than let the underdog stuff us on 4th down and gain some momentum.” In hindsight, it was a bad decision. However, Richt wanted that game to be as vanilla as possible because he thought we had the better team. Little did he know his freshman QB would have his absolute worst game of the season BY FAR. I am not siding with Richt’s decision. I was disappointed at the time as well. But I wasn’t as distraught as some others around me at the time were and still are about the decision. I thought he made what he thought was a calculated decision which turned out looking really bad after we scored only 6 points. Who among you expected us to score 6 points fter the run we had been on?
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W Cobb Dawg is the fan version of what Murray was talking about. Instead of looking towards the future, they harp on the losses of the past. We all get it, Richt should have gone for it on 4th and inches. Get over it and support the team going forward. If we once again underachieve and Richt gets fired, well then you’ll have your way. Just give the man and the team the final shot they deserve.
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I simply said there’s plenty of blame to go around, and cited one failure that wasn’t the fault of an ‘unnamed player’. It’s just my (one person’s) opinion on a blog. If we’re looking back and criticizing, which AM was doing, then let’s be honest about it and spread the blame to the whole team, including the coaches. It’s a lie to blame a couple unnamed players for a 6-7 season. The comment has nothing to do with the upcoming season, one’s sunny outlook, or my support of AM.
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This is an interesting topic considering how much it has been brought up over the past few months.
I tend to put some stock in it considering that it has mostly come from the players, not the coaches. The coaches are the more political figures and tend to say what they think the fans want to hear, including excuses. The players, though, do not always do that and tend to give it to the fans straight. One example is Boykin saying that the UCF loss “still hurts” while, in a recent presser, Coach Richt said that the losses of last year were in the past, thought he acknowledges the 4th quarter troubles, and they are all looking ahead to the future. See the difference?
I just hope they play like they give a damn this year, I really do. Some of them really put it all out on the field last year but others loafed and didn’t have their heads 100% in the game. That needs to change if we even have a glimmer of hope to take the East this year.
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I agree for the last 2 years UGA played like they wish they were somewhere else on Saturday. I think a lot of this can come from guys that are not good enough to make it to the next level. These guys have to mentally be tough to keep grinding once they know this is all they are going to get. Some will play like Rudy cause they love the game some will just go through the motions. This is where Little Nicki has it on us he will kick the marginal guys to the curb if they quit on him.
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The $64,000 question is what are they going to do with those who don’t buy in (and you always have a few)?
Who besides Joe T. will be the bad guy?
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THAT is why the scholarship has to be for 1 year only. You run off the troublemakers, that’s what you do.
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The bad guys are gone is getting old.The only common factor in these past teams is coach Richt.Are these players trying to “call out” their coach ? either way is time to stfu and play.
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I don’t know why, but I feel compelled to put my $0.02 in here. I have no idea who these references are to, and I wonder if the so-called negativists are all really gone, or if they ever existed. I doubt there was ever a lot of active negativism, and suspect that to the extent it existed, it was more passive, an “I am doing my own thing” kind of attitude. In the long run, I don’t gara; show me a team that is reaching its full potential and I am a happy fan; how they get there is beyond my job description and my pay scale. I just hope that such comments don’t get someone thinking they are being talked about and creating new problems. Hopefully the whole team realizes the greatest chance for personal success is to pull together.
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Could be that some players were critical of the D losing the advantage that the O was giving them. Then the O caught the same virus in the UCF game. Who knows if it was a bad attitude on a RB’s part or complaints about the lack of holes attitude the line was producing.
I’m as curious as anyone since Robinson and Murray have said essentially the same thing, but the reality of it all is the more we dig, the bigger the hole gets. Let’s stop digging. I think Richt is the greatest thing since sliced bread, but I was personally disappointed when we didn’t go for it on the first series in a bowl game. I thought it sent a message that he didn’t believe in them (the O line). It was a sign of Richt’s human weakness after all-be careful and win the game in order that the season doesn’t end up a loser. So what? The players should have enough pride and self-esteem to win in spite of anything else. Been there, done that in my own life. Slings and arrows, folks, slings and arrows. Doesn’t do us any good to iterate the bad things in our lives , whether self-induced or promoted by the assholes we meet in life. But as a professional friend of mine said, “Don’t let the assholes win by getting you down.”. That applies to all of UGA fans as well. We need to holler louder and more often this coming year to demonstrate to our beloved Dawgs that we won’t let the asholes get them or the fans down.
Love’em or leave’em, but above all, love them. Sic’em Dawgs!!
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I’ll come right out and name names-
Uga VII
On game day that son of a bitch laid around inside the dawghouse when he should have been prowling the sidelines looking for even a fleeting chance to bite the balls off an opponet.
Long live the next Uga. I hope we get one that is right now dreaming of one day eating the furry gator mascot.
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Technically, we are all sons of b!tches and yes, there are some things even a dog won’t do.
Russ.
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My god, will our players shut up about this already
We heard this in ’08, ’09, and now ’10
When you say it 3 straight off-seasons, it gets old and sounds like a bad excuse
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Correct me if I’m wrong but I don’t remember hearing them use the word cancer. To me that’s a lot stronger than “everyone is really buying in and working hard this year!”
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Where where the coaches when all this “cancerous behavior” was going on?
It is a legitimate question. Because what is to prevent it from happening again?
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3 off seasons in a row we have heard some variation of this.
After Stafford/Moreno, there was all sorts of talk about “real leaders” stepping up. People actually started to think we’d be BETTER with the Ginger Failboat Captain vs. Stafford.
The next season, it was dissent and people not buying in, and all that crap. Very similar to this “cancer” talk.
Now its cancerous players ruining the otherwise feel-good vibe of the team.
I’m not saying AM is wrong. I’m definitely not saying he’s lying. I’m just saying this is 3 years in a row we’ve heard a similar sort of thing, and its pretty damn old when you note our declining record the last 3 years.
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