Somehow, I don’t think this is going to endear Washaun Ealey to the Dawgnation as he leaves Athens.
“I’m a person where I want to be a premier back,” Ealey said. “If I was to play here, I would have had to share the backfield with Caleb and Carlton also. Then they were going to try to give the freshman, Isaiah, his chance. He probably was going to get some carries at the beginning of the year, too. I just felt like I didn’t want to be in that mix of things anymore.”
Vaya con Dios, bro.
Get The Picture 
I’m really trying not to kick the guy while he’s down, but premier backs generally pick up blocks and don’t fumble in key moments. They also generally dress out for each game when they aren’t hurt. Just saying.
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He certainly has the wrong initials for his name.
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I hope this guy never hosted any recruits. Jeez.
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I do think that WE could have been a very good SEC back however his overall attitude is awful. I’m just glad his buddy Moody didn’t ever get the chance to set foot on campus seeing how it was rumored that his attitude was a whole lot worse than Ealey’s. I not sure if WE has the million$ body but he certainly has the $2 brain.
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If you want to start you have to earn it. Learn the playbook, study film, hit the weights, be a leader at practice, stay out of trouble, and make your grades. None of these are easy and none can be done by athletic ability alone. We are talking a lot of hard work here. A player must keep this fact in the back of his mind. There is a new guy coming in next year and he wants your job. If you let the new guy outwork you he just might get it.
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Don’t fret Dawg fans – This guy’s chosen profession will be bagging groceries at Twin City’s IGA – no need for a college diploma there
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I’ll translate: I’m too damn lazy to compete for the job. I’ll carry my talent to Georgia Southern where I’ll be the HMFIC.
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or not…
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Yeah…wow. If there was any part of me that was sorry to see him go, that’s gone now.
Of course, given some of the coaching staff’s personnel decisions over the past few seasons, it kind of makes sense that he’d develop an “I was the leading rusher last year, therefore I’m entitled to the starting job” attitude. All the better that Richt appears to have thrown that out the window. Still don’t wish Washaun failure just out of spite, but I won’t be losing any sleep tonight that he’s gone.
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At least he didn’t call it a “business decision”.
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That was a amazingly douchey statement there. Ealey had every chance in the world to be a premier back; lack of depth at RB, King’s injury issues, etc. He had his shot and he didn’t earn the right to keep it.
I hope Crowell is paying attention to this. You aren’t given the right to start in the SEC; you want to be the man, act like a man.
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Well now I see why Richt kicked him off the team.
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All I can say is don’t let the door hit you in the ass on the way out. I suspect that MR knew this was coming for a while, he was just turning up the pressure on him to see how he would handle it. He knew how he would react. Having to overtake Carlton Thomas & Caleb King with his injuries & off the field issues was just too much for him to become the “premiere” back. He sure the hell wasn’t going to take charge and put in the work to be the #1 with Boo & Crowell in the mix now. He would have been gone after the parking deck incident if we had any quality depth.
The kid had a terrible attitude and a big mouth. The quotes just show his total sense of entitlement & lack of accountability/responsibility. It will be interesting to see where he goes & if he has learned anything.
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If there was any lingering question among Dawg fans about Ealey’s attitude… there aren’t any now.
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I just hope that his attitude is isolated and not a lingering problem in the locker room with some of his (former) teammates. Something has been very wrong with this team the last couple of years, and it hasn’t been a lack of talent.
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On one hand, it couldn’t have been easy to listen to everything that was going on surrounding Crowell, knowing that he and Caleb weren’t getting it done. But Ealey made it easy for the coaches to go that route with his crap on and off the field. Talking of being a premier back, when he’s shown only glimpses of being worthy of such a title. Ultimately, it sounds as if he’s content to blame everyone else but himself for his problems… and for that I can only say – don’t let the door hit your ass on the way out.
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I don’t want to kick the kid as he is going out the door. Sometimes you have to learn your lesson the hard way. Hopefully he learned from his experience in Athens and will be better for it at his new school.
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Remember he is just a kid -I hope he lands on his feet and learns from this-There is no reason for any of us to not wish him well -it just didn’t work out
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He is 22 years old. Not a kid by any definition of the word.
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Don’t let the door hit you on the @$$ on the way out, Ealey.
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I Run My Mouth in this State
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To me Ealy’s comments sound more dejected than defiant. His statements seem like a thinly veiled admission that he doesn’t feel he can beat out his competition at UGA. If you go somewhere with less RB talent, then you will become the feature back by default. Mr. Ealy: AU had Cadillac Williams and Ronnie Brown in the same backfield. If you are an excellent RB, you will play. He is talented. He just needs to back it up with discipline.
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I reread what Ealey said after reading your post and I agree with you. I now do not interpret those parting comments by Ealey to be arrogance. Rather, they appear to be the somewhat distraught observations of someone who feels that his chance has passed him by at UGA, someone who feels that he needs a fresh start somewhere else without the baggage he would be carrying at Georgia. I hope he learned from this and will be better for it wherever he ends up. Maybe this experience will knock some of the snotnose out of him and he will turn out OK. He certainly has the physical tools.
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We’ve certainly had our share of elite backs yet more recently we’ve seen quite a few can’t-miss-kids miss big-time. Every school has an Ealey on their roster and I can’t blame Richt for being patient with a young man and allowing him to make mistakes and learn. Problem is that Ealey never seemed to appreciate the patience and the second chances. I’d be surprised if most of the guys posting on here have not had an episode in their professional career where they just didn’t like their situation, no matter how great it may have seemed to others. What works for one person doesn’t work for the next, so here’s to Ealey getting better the second time around.
Now coaches, put this crap behind you and move on NOW.
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Great post… particularly about second chances. He may be a kid, but its not like he didn’t get a chance to grow and become more mature.
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“I’m the type of person where I want to be GIVEN THE ROLE of a premiere back”
/fixed
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JaxDawg- The coaches HAVE put this behind them. It’s the fans you have to worry about when they second guess coaches’s decisions and question the plays they call WITHOUT BEING IN THE ARENA. These statements have already been made concerning Ealey, but a few numbnuts have tried to lay Ealey’s high school attitude on Richt’s back. No way can you wish Ealey well when he never became a Bulldog in his heart and cost us all games this last year, not because of lack of talent, but rather because of a pissy attitude.
Senor, not “Vaya con Dios”, just “Vaya”.
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Sad. Not making excuses for him and he may have had Danny Thomas as a father growing up. However, with a lot of these kids it is lack of maturity, limited life skills and lack of good parenting (strong male leader) bumping up against the harsh realities of adulthood and personal set backs. Unfortunately, the lack of preparation and someone back home encouraging them to THINK and persevere results in bad outcomes. In the more depressing cases, it is just the beginning of a downward spiral of bad outcomes as the limited support system that athletics provides goes away. Hopefully, that is not the case here.
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He’s going to be the cockiest mechanic on the planet.
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+1. Hopefully he won’t have to share his hydraulic lift with a brake tech …
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Tenn_Dawg, I think you valued brain too high by $1.95. I just spoke to Andy Stone, and he’s going to tell Ace that maybe he should quit.
RG
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Casino reference. Strong.
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Sometimes you’ve got to burn the barn down to kill the rats. It’s about time we got back to a TEAM/me mentality.
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A flash in the pan who fumbled too much. Oh well..
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Not to mention, couldn’t block a wet towel.
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See Ingram and Richardson. We need a back that wont try to bounce everything that has pass pro ability and play with some HEART. In the CMR era my top 3 backs are. #3 ok no number three #2 Musa Smith #1 Moreno. I think Ware and Brown were above avg backs in the SEC.
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Glad he’s gone, especially after reading that statement after all the disappointments he has contributed to. Kid needs to grow up and be accountable. Wish him well at turning his life around but he acts like a spoiled punk that doesn’t realize it is time to be a man. I always hate to see talented athletes waste the precious opportunity they have been given. Sand is slipping out of the hour glass on WE.
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I agree with the “good riddance” vibe here re: a kid who has turned out to be more of a Sanks than a Moreno, but there’s a practical aspect to his comment. He probably does have a better chance of starting at, say, a Ga Southern than at an SEC school, simply because of the different levels of competition. But if he thinks that means a free ride, he may be in for a rude awakening. At any level, coaches are reluctant to let a “ME first, TEAM second” attitude bring down the whole team, and no one’s going to just step aside for him. One other thought: some young people just can’t deal with coming to the “big college city,” esp when they were BMOC in high school. Ealey’s glory days may truly be behind him.
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I would have carried a football all the way from Washington County to Athens for a chance to wear the siver breeches and play in Sanford…some guys just don’t realize the privilege..and the responsibility..of playing for the Red and Black. If a guy is better than you then work harder..know that the team comes first and support your teammate. WE showing up at any other school will have the baggage of “not making it at Georgia”…he’ll find out that they tackle just as hard and run just as fast at Georgia Southern…don’t make it sound like that’s a given dropback position. Go Dawgs…go Eagles…it’s all about teamwork…nobody is “premier”!
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