Reading Year2’s early assessment of this year’s Florida team, I’m struck by how similar the problems he sees the Gators facing to what we’re fretting over in Athens. Take this passage, for example:
… Chris Rainey earned rave reviews at running back in the spring, but every other guy at the position was either hurt or running track. The offensive line is talented but not deep, and it only has two guys with any real starting experience. Perhaps the biggest reclamation project is at receiver, where there are just nine scholarship guys for the fall. Of them one has a bad case of the drops (Deonte Thompson), one can’t stay healthy (Andre Debose), one is a true freshman (Ja’Juan Story), and most of the rest have played sparingly.
Sound familiar, Dawg fans? There’s more where that came from. Basically, you can swap a few weaknesses around here and there, but the song remains pretty much the same for both teams. Except for one thing: Aaron Murray vs. John Brantley. What a difference a year makes, eh?
Get The Picture 
I look forward to losing to them again, anyway.
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“Except for one thing: Aaron Murray vs. John Brantley. ”
Well, maybe two things. The defense might be a bit different.
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Maybe, but on paper I’m not sure about that, especially with Jenkins’ departure.
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I think Florida’s DL will be pretty good. The LB play will be OK as long as they stay healthy. You comment about Jenkins is well taken.
Overall, I do not see where the UGA defense is as potentially good as the one that should be fielded by Florida.
But it IS preseason and therefore a lot of fun to speculate,
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Until UF pulls a Marshal, I won’t be fretting how thin they are at certain positions.
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Not that i’m wishing that on anyone BTW
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Good clarification.
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BS. UGA’s way better than FLA position by position.
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Agreed, But, as you have said; The game is played in the Gator Bowl. That is a lot more than just home field advantage. Being the better team and / or having the better coaches may still not be enough.
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Usually we don’t have one of the two… I don’t put that much stock I’m the location, other than that’s where we stink up the place every year with soiled underwair.
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We will find a way to gag on the Gators.
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The SECeast looks pretty evenly matched – none of the top 3 or 4 has an advantage in talent. It all comes down to who can prepare a team and coach, doesn’t it?
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You guys need to grow a backbone (mayor excluded) and stop thinking that the past determines future performance. We ain’t tech and they ain’t the fucking ’85 Bears so enough with the chickenshit “we’re gonna lose again” crap. I can guarantee-fuckingtee you that Todd Grantham and his beasts aren’t intimidated and neither is A Murray so let go of the past and stop the negativity.
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Amen.
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say it, brother!!!!!!!
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How many consecutive years have you been saying that?
Expecting the Dogs to wet the bed in Gainesville is no longer “negativity” these days; it’s accepting a law of science.
I pray they prove me wrong, but until further notice the Red and Black will find a way to lose that game at a rate of roughly 8.5/10.
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Nothing lasts forever. Ask a Florida fan how they felt about this series pre-Spurrier.
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Indeed. As far as this series goes, Richt has not shown himself to be the equal of Spurrier.
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I used to be as angry as you. I’ve come to accept that we begin each season 0-1.
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Apathy will get you nowhere in life son.
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That’s all well and good Jax but it’s not about growing a backbone. It’s about being honest with yourself. When it comes to UF, we ARE Tech. They immediately mark our game down as a win as soon as the old season is over no matter how good we may be.
I’m sure no UGA player is intimidated going into the UF game this year. That has never been the problem. The problem is our mental and physical break-downs year after year when we play them. Last year if Murray doesn’t piss himself during the first half then we win. If our D actually FALLS ON THE GOT DAMN BALL then we have a much better chance to win.
And those are just 2 examples from last year. You can find examples of us doing this every year we play them for the past 3 decades. Occasionally we’ll break through and win, but that is the exception and not the rule.
When you watch things like this happen for 3 decades you tend to expect more of the same. Until we prove otherwise, I will continue marking this game down as a loss.
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Zdub everything you described is in the past. There is nothing we can do about that. The future is what we can control. Win this year and the record against FLA is 2-3 over the past 5 years which is pretty close to parity. Win this year and next year we are at 3-3 for the last 6, on a two game streak and there will be wailing like you will not believe coming from Gainesville. Think positive. GO DAWGS!
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In my case, it’s gallows humor, Jax. I’ve got the most unjustified optimism in our fanbase when it comes to Florida week.
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And let me also add a compliment to the South Carolina baseball team who dug deep, never quit, didn’t fucking lie down and just say “we’re gonna lose again”, and beat Florida in spectacular fashion last night.
Go ‘Cocks!
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well, now, I dont know if I can go THAT far. But your point about not lying down and just taking it is well made, as was your earlier point about the psychology of the Jacksonville game pre-Spurrier.
History, to an 18 or 19 or 20 year old kid, is what happened when he was in high school. Most of them dont know or care about the Spurrier era at Florida, or even the Zook era. What’s the old saying? If you think you can, or you think you can’t, you’re probably right either way. Quit boohooing about the past. It’s a new season, new players, a new chance to win. We aren’t Vanderbilt, playing with lesser talent. We aren’t playing with 8 guys on the field. Sack up and just play the friggin’ game. Tim Tebow isnt beating us. Danny Wuerfel isnt beating us. Quit crying about last year, or the last 10 years.
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+1.
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90% of the above is why UGA fans are the worst in the SEC and deserve the disappointments they often get; you reap what you sow. Not the worst behaved fans, Florida and Bama wins that award hands down. But in terms of running the program in the ground, and expressing negativity, UGA always seems to lead. You can listen to fans of any other perennial Top 20 program and you won’t hear the constant grinding. Some negative fans? Sure, but they will quickly be put to the back. Not at UGA. Listen to any sports talk show when UGA fans call in, or read the message boards, or the newspapers, etc. No other fanbase piles it on their players or coaches like ours do….and that includes programs that never win anything. Arkansas, Kentucky, SC, Ole Miss and MSU have more positive fans than we do.
You can attempt to rationalize it anyway you want, but the portion of our fanbase that kicks the team and coaches in the nuts on EVERY little detail, and concedes a game, or whines about where it is played, are not being “realists”, they are simply hurting our program. While many will not like this, I listen to their opinions daily, this is mine.
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+1. Mac, I agree with everything you said (except for the venue of the WLOCP, which I think should be changed for multiple reasons some of which are economic–I won’t get into that here). But the negativity of some, not all, members of the fanbase is not helping, that’s for sure.
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I think it depends on the Bob Davies geographical factor of wherever the fan happens to be located. My thought is that we’re easygoing and diplomatic bunch compared to FSU fans as Bobby’s era wound down starting when Richt was hired away by UGA and UF fans after Nick’s spankings of Irvin. Of course, for those lucky enough to be confined to the great State of Alabama, the bitching by and moaning of UGA, UF and FSU
fans is Class A rookie ball compared to the times the University of Auburn
and UAT don’t have undefeated seasons.
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I gotta disagree with you on this one, Mac. The SEC is filled with FANatics. Every school has them, and the bigger schhols with bigger fan bases have more of them. The fans of Florida, Alabama, Tennessee, LSU, and Auburn can lose their minds and spout negativity with the best of them (or should I say “us”?). You just notice it more when UGA fans do it for obvious reasons.
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That is why I acknowledged that every fanbase has some Negative Nellies, no question about it. My point is UGA has so damned many vocal ones, extremely vocal, on every single outlet for CFB. And they have contaminated some who might be in the middle.
The WLOCP is a part of this, but now we have the “underachievers” crowd which is led by the FBomb-type media nerds. Who determines over, or under, achieving? Some 19 year old frosh who has yet to attend his first game? Someone in Bristol, Connecticut? A guy in Montana? Do pre-mature polls from March set the tone? If so, we have found paart of the issue. Who even knows who will be eligible, or healthy for the season, or specific games?
When is the last time UGA over-achieved? I would say 2007 exceeded my expectations, 2005 did as well, and so did 2002. But if I had expected some “off the chart” ending each of those years, they would have fallen short. I love Phil Steele, and read him above all other magazines and pre-season sources, but UGA has several critical question marks going into this season. Would we be underachievers if we don’t win the East? At this point I don’t think so. I am cautiously optimistic that we should be competitive, and perhaps win, or tie for the East. But give me 1-2 injuries to our OL at critial times, and I think it would be a significant over achievement for us to win the East. Bottomline is I don’t buy into the “underachiever” label….but I am disappointed every time we lose.
And I NEVER started a season thinking we are 0-1, regardless of who is on the schedule. Shame on any of you that do. Our players and coaches deserve more respect and support than that.
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Our fans aren’t stupid, they understand that we have underachieved for 15 or so of the last 20 years. They see the recruits, they see how many D-1 prospects are annually produced in Georgia, and they clearly understand that talent has never been an issue at Georgia. Never. The University of Georgia has arguably more potential as a football program than all the programs you listed above, yes, combined. And it hurts like hell to know you have the talent, resources, facilities, fanbase enthusiasm and desire to win, and still see the program (as a whole) underperform. For christ’s sakes why do we continue to have issues on Defense and the OL when an NFL fanchise could field a team loaded on both sides of the ball from the talent produced in and recruited by Georgia.
When is the last time the UGA football team OVERachieved? 2005? Before that – ’78, ’83? I was keenly aware of those teams and all the ones in between and yes, the ’92 team underachieved as did the ’00 squad which was stupid talented.
So intelligent and passionate UGA fans have a right to be cynical/critical/negative regarding this program. Not that it’s right to be that way, but it’s certainly understandable.
Basically we are what FL fans were 22 years ago. They had it all and never could pull it together, and they knew it. Plenty of money, talent, support, etc and it drove them nuts and it drove the coaches to do stupid shit like cheat and lie and get caught and make dumb ass calls like fourth and dumb. Then enter Foley and enter Spurrier and the rest is history. We have the right AD folks and we may or may not have the right HC and staff, but our fans will stop the negavity when they see this program live up to its potential – that you can be assured of.
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Good post here.
This fan base is dying for something to be proud of. We haven’t really had much to cheer for since the offseason after 2007, before the injury plague and arrests began.
That’s too long at a program like Georgia to not drive some of the fanbase a bit crazy. We lose 6 or seven games a season, or routinely get blown out by peer programs, and generally underachieve … this is what you get.
Give a place like Tuscaloosa three seasons like that and you better hope the Saban Statue is well insured.
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Correctomundo on the right AD. If we don’t have the right coach and staff now the AD will be sure we do in the future.
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UGA fans are just used to the team being bad mouthed. Heck Dooley made an art of it. Never in my 40 years following the team have I heard a coach say hey we are going to kick XYZ’s butt. The closest to it was Donnan’s “I’ve waited 50 years to coach a team this good” and see what that got him, fired. We fans have just become Dooley, Goff, Donnan and Larry, we see the glass half empty all the time.
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Dooley got upper-level training as a Little Sisters of the Poor artist from Shug and Bear. What “Dooley, Goff, Donnan and Larry” really meant was the other way
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69Dawg, Mayor and Mac, I agree with you guys on that. By the way, I’m not excluding myself from the negativity problem. It’s justsomething we’ve all been raised to do by Dooley, Larry and Loran. Sanford Stadium can be a great place to play, but it can also be pretty quiet for such a large venue. When there’s a bad series, it seems that fans can get more quiet than they can get loud, if that makes any sense.
Don’t get me wrong, I wouldn’t trade it for anything. Still, we’ve been raised on 40-plus years of “that team has the best long snapper…Man, they came FLYING down the field…it was a good victory, but can you talk a little about the cramping we saw out there?” Eventually it just dictates how we are, and we’re probably a lot more Dooley when we’d love to be more Erk.
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EDBS Redneck Quotient rankings
http://www.everydayshouldbesaturday.com/2011/6/28/2248670/jawga-boyz-place-uga-atop-the-secs-online-redneck-quotient-rankings
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I’ve lived most of my life in Georgia, but in the two years I spent in North Central Florida I saw more rednecks than you could cram into 79 Georgia counties.
Drive 10 miles out of Gainesville in any direction, and the saturation/degree of redneckedness is frightening. And every damn one of ’em has a Gator flag/sticker/t-shirt/tattoo.
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Down here our rednecks are crackers and they aren’t the only thing adding fun to Florida. For example, “The 44-page report documents organized bigotry and extremism, including white supremacy, Holocaust denial, Islamic extremism, “radical” animal-rights organizations, tax protesters, militias and anti-government and sovereign-citizen movements.”
http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/2011-06-14/news/os-hate-groups-florida-report-20110614_1_southern-poverty-law-center-orlando-man-report
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Tats and camo overalls. Yep, I have lived in the state of Georgia for over 10 years and that about sums up many UGA fans
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