I’m shocked, shocked to learn of this:
… Isaiah Crowell was one of the nation’s highest profile recruits to announce his decision on signing day in February.
The nation’s No.1 tailback recruit picked the Bulldogs even after hearing for weeks from recruiters that Georgia was a program on the slide.
“I heard a lot from a lot of people,” Crowell said. “I just didn’t let it get to me. I was still going to go where I wanted to go.”
It wasn’t just one or two schools that used negative recruiting, according to Crowell.
“I think everybody does it,” Crowell said.
Get The Picture 
Sometimes that stuff backfires. A recruit and/or his parents sometimes question why are you spending so much time bad mouthing others instead of telling me what is great about your program.
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Let me guess…………Saban.
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Tennessee, Alabama, South Carolina, Auburn, FSU, etc all rely on recruiting quality players from Georgia to some degree and they know that the home state school is going to have the advantage in many cases. The great equalizer occurs when the home state school happens to suck. Why anyone would think a rival school wouldn’t attempt to use that to their advantage is beyond me. Good thing for us that there are still some players in Georgia who “look past wins and losses”.
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Our fans can be the worst enemy for this program at times. And I’m not talking about win/loss complaints or who should be coach. Its the booing, the leaving early type crowd. Not to mention many of the country club type fans who look like they wish you’d shut up and watch the game and give hand shake congratulations. If you go to the game and your not cheering your heart out for four quarters, don’t say shit about our guys taking plays off and not playing four quarters
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Call em the Ralph Lauren polo crowd. They look and act like they are at a polo event with their pinky finger out on a beer.
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This.
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Yeah ok. The worthless coaching and pitiful performance on the field came before any booing, so you’ve got your cause and effect relationship backwards. A key difference between us and the players is that we work 40 hours a week so we can PAY to see them, while they work roughly 20 hours a week and GET REWARDED WITH SCHOLARSHIPS to play. Without the fan and donor support there would be no football program or scholarships. So yeah, I can stop watching when it gets pathetic. Your analogy is like saying the cable company doesn’t have to give you good service all the time because you turn the TV off when you don’t like the programming that’s on. You’re ignoring the fact that we, as fans and donors, provide the financial means necessary for all of this to happen. This gives us the right to be disappointed and not watch when it’s not worthy of our time.
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While i agree with part of your statement, my love for UGA goes beyond wins/losses on the field. Being pragmatic about the program and making financial decisions to support the program and the staff is one thing, turning your back and walking out/booing is just chicken shit fair weatherness. While I’m disappointed in where we are at and I agree, changes may need to be made, you’ll NEVER find me not doing my part to SHOW my support.
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“changes may need to be made”- Please be specific with the changes. Name who goes and who comes in. I know, you just half-assed agreed with Dawg, but this is no time to put a foot in any camp that wants to get rid of coaches. Looking over their shoulder waiting for something negative to happen is rather like a vulture wait, don’t you think?
There is every reason to believe in our coaches and you should be able to see through the negative comments instead of partially joining them. You give more fencesitters more reason to feel wanted in the negative camp. It has already hurt our recruiting and the more people rant for what they will not get this or next year, the more other positive fans should speak up and throw cold water on their rant. Jus’ saying.
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My love for UGA goes beyond wins and losses as well, and I’m proud to be a Bulldog even though I’m not proud of our football team. It’s possible you know; they aren’t mutually exclusive traits. I too disagree with booing the football team, and can honestly say that I have NEVER booed the team and have even scorned others for doing so. I’ve even sat until the end through numerous atrocious performances, including both embarrassing UF debacles in Jacksonville where we were crushed 49-10 and 41-17. In fact, I don’t think I’ve left more than a minute early in a single game we were losing. Ever.
That doesn’t mean I can’t be disappointed with the team’s performance over the last few years, especially given the plentiful resources at the team’s disposal. Voicing my dissatisfaction of the program doesn’t make me any less of a fan than you. In fact, I’m a bit surprised that anybody can look at the recent turn of events for UGA football the past few years and NOT wonder what’s going on.
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+100
The fans who sit on their hands the entire game are terrible.
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And the fans who sit on their hands during this blog are worse. Speak up, Dawgs. Plow the naysayers into the ground!
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By the way, I’m not so sure I see how the fans behavior has any impact on the success/failure of the program unless you’re talking about recruiting, an area we’ve done exceptionally well in over the past 10 years with little results on the field to show for it. You also can’t blame failure of the team on the fans who leave early because common sense tells us that they probably didn’t leave until well after the game was decided in the first place, therefore there is no way they influenced the morale of the team in a manner that would have caused us to play poorly and lose the game. Oh, and in case you didn’t notice, there are dozens of other division 1 sports where the athletes play their hearts out without even 10% of the fan support our football team gets, so no excuses there either.
Bottom line: Great fan support comes AFTER the fans see great performances on the field. Look at ANY major program and you’ll see that.
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Boy, you have that wrong!! Fan support doesn’t have crap to do with what you have posted. But I’m afraid it’s indicative of other negative fan’s attitudes and that’s where I begin to question whether you know what a fan is. I don’t believe an alum would make such a statement.
Your observations concerning other fans as a part of your reasoning is not only false , but seriously calls to question whether you are an interloper who wears a false label in order to divide the fan base. Your statements makes you against this team and it’s staff. That is not a Dawg fan.
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It should read “Fans should be proud to be DAWGS” all of the time. Not just when they are winning. Anyway, 2011 will turn out to be a very good year with wins because of the entire Coaching Staff that is now in place, GO DAWGS.
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I am very proud to be a Bulldawg, I’m just not proud of our football team or the coaching staff the past few years. Big difference.
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And the staff will be there through the 2012 season as well. SIC’EM DAWGS!!
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You must enjoy being irrelevant.
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Sorta like the pirate’s reply to the smug Brit,”Yes, but you have heard of me, right?”
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if you think Div I athletes work 20 hours a week you are insane.
Other than that, you are correct, it is certainly a fan’s perogative to leave when he would like, cheer when he would like, and boo when he would like.
Other fans don’t have to like it or agree, but the bottom line is if you have the tickets you can do what you wish…
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20 hours a week was a very liberal estimate. I would be surprised if it were more than 15 hours a week including game days. Were you thinking more or less?
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Dude, you have no idea
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That is the epitome of fair weather fandom. The bottomline is, if you cant show up and be a positive influence in the game, we’re all better off if you just don’t go to the game. And as a former scholarship player (baseball) I can assure you we’re putting in over 60 hours a week 30-40 practice/training/lifting etc plus school/studying another 30. Every dime of the scholarship money is earned. The football players and coaches probably work even harder
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Keese- Some of the buttheads are just poor attitude game-watchers and are not involved personally with players or the team. Some are not fans at all and are detractors with another agenda. Their complaints aren’t aimed at correcting anything, just pounding sand and trying to convince others to cheer against the team. That makes them interlopers on our blogs. It certainly doesn’t qualify them as fans that should be listened to.
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Name calling. How mature Cojones. Just because someone looks at the body of work that is UGA football from the past several years and doesn’t like the results doesn’t mean they are less of a UGA fan than you. Come off of your high horse and stop being ridiculous. I can love my Georgia Bulldogs and still be unhappy with their performance. I can also love UGA and still be disappointed with the football team.
And as for your other comments… Can you explain to me the purpose of blogs if they aren’t an avenue to voice our educated opinions and feelings on the topic of choice? Just because my opinions differ from yours doesn’t mean they’re less valid.
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Cojones not once did I say I do not support our coaches. I will cheer on CMR and company to reach new levels of success. But if there does come a time when you have to make a business decision about moving the program in a different direction then that can be made at the appropriate time. But not now. Do I think CMR is capable and may be the best out there? Yes. But seriously cojones, you need to respect other opinions that may not match ours. Even tho I appreciate and agree with you on being a die hard Dawg fan thru thick and thin, your opinion and my opinion is just that. Quit acting like your position is the only one that matters.
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The point of my opinion is that a loud vocal minority continues to try to degrade the majority’s pleasure with our team. The stats that are used to prop up their arguments can be twisted such that no compelling reason or logic is available to attack staff, team and fans while the season is on. We had covered that ground during the summer. I’m sorry you guys must have missed the give and take on that subject at that time. To continue into the season just to be stubborn about what has already been reasoned doesn’t produce anything but vinegar from the soured brew. I’ve asked several times what you are trying to prove or produce with the negative takes on material that can be viewed positive as well, but no reasoning comes back and comments continue to undermine the team. The president on two occasions and the AD on more than one occasion have both stated that the subject of staff will be reviewed at year’s end and not until. So why the ongoing negative rants? Those of you that propose plays or dig up some inane artifact of data aren’t impressing anyone with your football on-field knowledge, especially when you compare your after-the-fact plan to that of a SEC O coach and Head Coach of our team. You can do that to any D-1 team and it still adds up to bull.
Even after we have had a recruit to select another school and having given his reason as fan’s rants against the staff making him unsure of playing for the coach he trusts and wants to play for, several of you persist that you are not producing this negative vibe out there. If your reasoning(?) after the season is still there then go to it, but when the season is ongoing you are only hurting the team you claim to love critically. If recruits then want to go wherever their coach goes(or stays), then let him. As long as the issue is in doubt,and it is, what can you possibly gain with such public comments?
If the coaches aren’t here in Jan, I’ll be the first Dawg to go with anyone to hoist a beer to our new coach. Until then, dissing this group doesn’t serve any good purpose and most of the Bulldog Nation has already reached that conclusion, not from loyalty, but from logic.
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30 hours a week studying? What school were you going to lol. I graduated with a bachelors and masters in accounting (easily the hardest business major), and never even came CLOSE to having to study 30 hours a week except maybe once or twice a semester for midterms and finals. Most weeks it would be the usual 5-10 hours outside of class. Either way, the amount you spend studying has NOTHING to do with earning your scholarship. You study to earn your degree, you PLAY AND PERFORM to earn your scholarship. Every student at the university has to study, not just athletes. Your obvious and blatant exaggeration of how much studying is required leads me to believe you’ve also exaggerated how much time you had to commit to your specific sport.
By the way, I lived with a football player for a year and he NEVER spent that much time practicing/lifting/etc.
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The question is not whether you can do what you please when making noise, rather, the question is whether you are a fan of the Georgia Bulldogs when you diss them publicly. I’m glad I’m not in combat with some of your attitudes because you would turn and run when the going gets tough.
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Great logic there. Because I voice my opinion in the comments section of a BLOG, I must be a quitter who can’t be counted on lol.
I think voicing my opinions in this environment is drastically different from voicing them “publicly” anyway. While this blog is open to the public, I doubt anyone is going to come here and read the blog and comments unless they are interested in the opinion’s of other people about UGA football. That’s pretty much the impression I got as to the purpose of this and other blogs. (It’s a GREAT blog, btw, Senator!)
I can assure you that members of the team and coaching staff don’t read the comments section of blogs and sulk with their box of tissues when someone says something negative anyway.
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opinions* Hard to proof read on a phone
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Just my .02: I love the Dawgs. I love being a Dawgs fan. I live in South Carolina, surrounded on all sides by Gamecocks, Tigers, Gators, TigerEaglePlainsmen, Vols, Bammers, etc. I don’t care how badly we may get beaten by any of them, I can look at those fans and genuinely feel proud that I am a Dawg and not whatever they are. I don’t like losses, but I’ll pull for the Dawgs with all I have whenever and wherever they play. I’ll pay for my tix next year regardless of the coach, and any of these players that come to play for my team will not be booed by me. Sure, I get disappointed, but I don’t boo. Again, just my .02.
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Well this is a good thing. Based on this statement, talent should NEVER be an excuse for not winning. If recruits will come to GA regardless of how well the team or program is performing, is there any reason for us to not be relevant in the conference and nationally? No, there isn’t.
So why are we irrelevant now?
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Where do you get the,”If recruits wil come to (U)GA regardless of how well the team or program is performing…..”, from those who state that they always wanted to be a Dawg? There goes your fuzzy and bassackwards twist again. You are now using that kind of reasoning for your undermining remarks which don’t lend anything to being a fan.
Man, talking about being filled with yourself….wow!
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