That is the question. Actually, I’m not sure why spiking is such a slam dunk decision in minds of many people today. If you read Weiszer’s post on the play, you get a valid rationale for what they called…
“We were moving the ball effectively. By the time we got down to the red zone we didn’t really want to spike the ball. We wanted to keep the personnel they had in the game. We decided to hurry up and get to the line and get another play off. There was a little bit of confusion.”
… and you get an explanation for why it didn’t work out.
Mark Richt on spiking the ball: “Well, spiking the ball takes time. We had plenty of time to call play, so we called the play and we were taking ‑‑ the goal was to take a shot at their back right end of the end zone and the ball got batted, the ball got tipped and it landed to a receiver that was running a speed out.”
And more: “We had the play we wanted. We had a good play. The ball got tipped at the line of scrimmage and it fell in the arms of a guy in play. The ball was going to the back end of the end zone, either a catch or out of the end zone. Because if you have, I don’t know how many seconds there were, 15 or whatever it was, if you spike the ball, you might only have two plays after that. If you throw the ball in the end zone, you probably get three plays out of it. So once you spike it, it does take a little time to spike it, and you reduce the chance of having the third play, basically. So the goal was to throw it in the end zone. That’s what Murray was attempting to do. Once again, the ball got batted, and landed in the arms of our guy in play.”
Plus, they thought they had what they wanted.
“I wasn’t calling the plays,” quarterback Aaron Murray said when asked if he thought of spiking the ball. “We thought we would have time for two more plays. Obviously they were running down the field. They wouldn’t get set up real quick. I actually think I had Malcolm (Mitchell) on the fade. When I threw it, he said he had him. I thought he beat him too. If it was an incomplete pass we still would have had one more play to go.”
I’m not saying you can’t make a case for spiking the play there, because you can. But what Richt decided then is certainly defensible in my mind (unlike, say, the idiocy of what happened in the overtime of last year’s bowl game loss). The momentum running Georgia’s way at that moment was palpable. I can’t blame him for wanting to capitalize on it. Besides, who’s to say that a pass play after spiking wouldn’t have been tipped? Or that in all the confusion and excitement of the moment, Georgia has a problem getting a play called and executed in time?
Besides, that call isn’t where Georgia lost the game. Georgia lost because its run defense got owned for better than two quarters of play and because its offense couldn’t convert a couple of third-and-ones that would have helped keep the defense off the field a little longer to regroup perhaps. If you’re a Dawg fan and you’re angry – and I’m not sure why you should be given the level of effort those kids gave yesterday – that’s where your attention should go.
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UPDATE: Chris Brown adds his thoughts on the decision here.
Get The Picture 
Agree. 100%. Tremendous game by Georgia’s players and coaches.
Bama was just tremendouser.
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For all the Dawg fans, alums visiting this site, please take a second to inhale and relax, then shout your longs out with GO DAWGS.
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longs = lungs.
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The insinuation by some people is that because CMR isn’t an obnoxious asshole that this team has no heart. What a crock. This team might not have won, but they played their ass off.
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I agree 100% with the call. We had them on their heels. We didn’t want them to be able to change personnel. We had probably two plays. It just didn’t work out that way. Great aggressive call, great decision. It just didn’t work.
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Exactly. It’s like the punt fake earlier in the game. If it failed, Richt is branded an idiot for the call. This team played to win. I just can’t find any justification for blame. I just feel bad for the players that gave so much, and had the ability to get there, and it didn’t break the right way when it mattered. What a great team.
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I just can’t be angry, as the host of our party said last night “Hey, turns out Alabama is pretty good at football”. This is exactly what Alabama tries to do to you, wear you down physically. That’s how they got 300+ yards of rising offense, because Lacy and Yeldon and mort importantly that offensive line are beasts. You could tell on Alabama’s next possession after the Ogletree blocked FG TD that our defense was gassed and Alabam knew it. Hence the continued body blows up the middle.
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It’s like I’m reading my own thoughts in print and stated much more eloquently. God bless you senator.
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Walking out of the dome I was miserable thinking that not only did they not spike it but they threw it short of the goal line. From my perspective that’s what it looked like. Once I heard that it was tipped and just fell to Conley, I felt much much better. Obviously, bama was much better than us on the line of scrimmage, not that it was unexpected from the OL. I did not expect kwame and Jenkins to be pushed around that badly. However, they bowed up in fourth and gave us a chance to win.
Nothing but proud today. Well maybe also still a bit stunned. We can be disappointed but we can’t but be proud of the trajectory of the program since 2008. A lot of holes to fill on d, but the whole offense will be back and we’ll get a lot better on the OL.
We stood toe to toe with a program that has over signed, yanked schollys on kids, ran guys off, medically redshirted others, and apparently has no walk on contribution whatsoever. You can do this thing the right way and compete with anyone. That’s the lesson I hope we take from this.
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Here, here. + one million
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Actually going back to the replay in my uneducated football view, yeah Murray had Mitchell on the fade. Also looking at the replay if the rusher doesn’t make a hell of a play we’re a lot closer to Richt and Bobo looking like geniuses and Murray and Mitchell replacing Greene to Johnson in Georgia football lore. Yeah there’s bad coaching decisions, but this looks a lot more like football just being a game of inches.
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+1 And FWIW, Murray and Mitchell agree with you about the fade.
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everything I’ve read from here UP, is plus ten thousand million!
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It wasn’t that Kwame and Jenkins got pushed around that badly; it was that they blocked the hell out of the LBs. They had both TEs in and blocked Jones, Ogletree, Gilliard, Jenkins, etc. That enabled seams just big enough to get through. And then on that crucial 3rd & 5 it’s Shawn Williams who has to come up and try to make the tackle on Yeldon, and he can’t do it alone.
I thought this was more on the linebackers not being able to get off blocks, myself. Grantham noted that “filling the gaps” was the issue. Correct me if I’m wrong, but that sounds like the same problem worded a different way.
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It also didn’t help that when the LBs and safeties showed up five yards past the LOS they often seemed to have not known how or even wanted to tackle. Pretty sure I saw Mr. Early Week Trash Talker Rambo not want any part of getting hit by those RBs on several plays.
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I’m pretty sure that you don’t know what you saw.
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You’re right. I must have imagined the number of times I saw Yeldon and Lacy running thru arm tackles or being attempted to be shouldered out of bounds by Rambo et al.
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You might have noticed that Yeldon has had that affect on other teams and some of our other players due to the power he has with his weight. I must have been delusional to have seen him dragging 3 big men on his back for 5-7 yat yds. Rambo wasn’t one of them and I’m not about to single any player out for how the hell anyone finally got him to the ground. Selectively picking your plays means you have a hardon for the player, unless of course you want to review his body of work. He wasn’t top Dawg on some plays. Happens to every player on the field. You might get more agreement if you went after Jarvis, but to question whether anyone has a shot at Yeldon’s legs instead of working with all they have presented ain’t cool. He persisted until Yeldon finally stepped out.
So you didn’t like it because Yeldon is a top player. So what? I didn’t like what their line and Yeldon did to our whole damn D, but don’t think that singling out a player does anything for this discussion.
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Mathematically, you can get two plays off without a spike, assuming nothing flukey happens on the first play (you know, like what happened; or a crazy scramble/sack etc). If Conley had batted that down, Georgia would have run another play.
Also, Alabama’s rushing attack shredded us for *more* than 2 quarters. Bama took over after a 3-and-out with 11:16 in the 2Q; this is the “wow that reminds me of Tennessee” Rambo play drive (which was similar to UT insofar as he appeared to be in position to at least defense a pass, though there he should have had an Int and I don’t think an Int was an easy get here). Bama ran the ball with ease on the rest of the drive. It’s just Commings bailed us out with a superb play in the end zone to kill the drive.
That Bama drive was bookended by 3-and-outs by UGA, which is obviously not helpful. But Bama got the ball back and again marched down the field with ease. People were bitching about time of possession but Bama’s OL gained the upper hand well before that was a factor. The UGA D did well to get a couple of 4Q stops, but it was mostly Bama having their way with our D. Commings int and the blocked FG put us in the game, to be sure, but it could have been uglier sans those plays.
I have very mixed feelings as a result of that. UGA probably shouldn’t have been in a position to win at the end. It deserves a ton of credit because it was. I just wish Conley had been more heads up and we had gotten one more shot.
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That’s a big reason why you spike the ball right there. To huddle up and say to your 19 year old kids among other things: “We are out of timeouts. If you are not in the endzone do NOT catch the ball. Bat it down.” Don’t blame a kid for a strategy misfire. That’s a coaching decision, not a player decision. Conley did what he was trained to do–catch a ball thrown in his direction.
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I agree, but liking the defensive personnel is also a good reason not to spike.
There’s a good argument either way and it’s not a clear call. I think the argument that “you don’t know the value of the down you are wasting” is irrelevant; barring fluke/disaster you’re getting 2 plays either way.
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Devil’s advocate here, but it could have been that the coaches assumed our WRs knew the strategy in that situation because we rep it so much in practice.
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That was exactly what CMR said after the game. He said we had the play we wanted, the match-up we wanted, and there was nothing to talk about and the time difference wouldn’t change much. Given that Bama was staggering, and we were getting no rush, I think the call was right…but I could support a spike too. I really don’t understand all the conversation among UGA fans who know we were throwing deep. I get it that the average fan around the country thinks we were throwing short and made a huge mistake, they have an excuse but this is a pretty enlightened group on this blog. It wasn’t a mistake, it was a conscious choice with solid rationale. You may not like the weird way it went, but the decision was sound.
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Mayor,
You are going to have to give up on this one. If we spiked the ball, Bama had time to reset and they blitzed and sacked Murray, then we all would be second guessing our coaches saying we should have gone for the jugular while they were disorganized. It was a perfectly defendable coaching decision. The game was much bigger than one play. It was a close one. It didn’t go our way. We have to move on.
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And who is to say after calling the same play after the spike that the same resultant(tipped at the line) wouldn’t have happened?
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This is over. The best call was made and Alabama made a good defensive play to foil it…football is that-a-way. Dawgs looked very keen. Those expecting perfection are way off base. Georgia is a very good football team and we have a lot to be proud of and celebrate.
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You bet.
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As always, you have said it extremely well. I saw where someone said ‘A blowout would have been better’. If that’s true, (and I don’t think it is) it’s only because it’s easier to be angry than sad. I’m sad we lost, but there is nothing to be angry about in this loss. I hurt for the players and coaches who played their hearts out. There is no dishonor in this loss, only the ‘Agony of Defeat’. There is no shame, only anguish.
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+1
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Well said, Fitz and Senator.
It’s nice to hear some reason in an insane world….if you can bear it , take a look at this drivel from BR’s “lead SEC writer”:
http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1429302-sec-championship-2012-mark-richts-poor-clock-management-costs-georgia
Can’t believe I clicked that link….never again.
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Don’t read anything from Bleacher Report. Absolute drivel and indefensible crap.
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Sorta like some of the crap I’ve read from a few posters on here. For two years.
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It was a far better move than how the “Mad Hatter” has managed in just a few big games. And if Saban’s heart was “jumping out of his chest,” you probably caught Bama in the right situation.
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“it’s easier to be angry than sad”
Oh, the explanatory value of this single sentence.
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I am proud as hell of our Dawgs. The defense was gassed bc we don’t have the depth an unethical team such as Alabama has. Is Saban such a good coach if he has to stretch the rules to barely win? I don’t know but I wish those whore sports journalists would ask him some real questions and do some real investigation. If they didn’t oversign and have extra paid “analysts” this game isn’t close.
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I’m sure you didn’t mean it this way, but if by “stretch the rules” you mean “intimidate the officials so much they won’t call penalties on my team even when they happen 2 feet in front of them”, you would be 100% correct. That was the most one sided officiated major game I have ever seen in my life!
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+1.
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For the “best coach in the game” his 1st half clock management skills were terrible
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Exactly.
For the people screaming about coaching errors, think about the questions that Saban would have to answer today if our last pass was complete instead of tipped.
Nick, how could you completely botch the end of half clock management?
Nick, where was Eddie Lacy when you needed one more first down to cement the game?
Nick, why did you go into a prevent defense and give up huge chunks of yardage during their 85-yd game-winning TD drive?
The line between “undisputed best coach in CFB” and “bum we should fire” is razor thin.
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Add to that “Nick your team lost three second half leads….”. (if the ball wasn’t tipped)
It was an outstanding effort by both sides, fun to watch, and just sick the ball didn’t bounce our way that last play.
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What about if they hadn’t gotten the two-point conversion and we win the game with a field goal down there?
The second-guessing these kind of decisions in a game like that is ridiculous. Most of the time Richt is “too conservative” and “not aggressive enough.” Well, if you want aggressive then you play like we did yesterday, gambling on a fake punt and trying to win the game with the defense they had on the field.
See how this works? Damned if you do and damned if you don’t?
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Hey leave reason and logic out of this. Clearly Richt is a terrible coach, cause he never does what I would have done after I see a bad play occur.
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gastri, Merck beat me to it below your posting. I can remember these same words and/or meanings of words being espoused here before, but with time differences. Both of your posts are spot on. Careful, you both are entering my nut zone.
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Six of one, half a dozen of the other… The real killer wasn’t even the tip, but the ball falling so perfectly into Conley’s arms….
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Yep. I don’t think I’ve ever felt worse for a player than I did for Conley after I clamed down last night. By all accounts, he’s taking it pretty hard. Wish things could have turned out differently for him. And for the rest of us.
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It’s not Conley’s fault. He did what he was trained to do–catch the ball. It is the fault of the guy who didn’t clock the ball and tell Conley and everybody else on O: “Do not catch the ball if you are not in the endzone.”
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Guess you would be bitching about a win today if it worked?
Seriously dude, there is no 100% choice there. As they say, you cant please everyone.
Run a play where you are slightly less composed and they are also less composed (prob more so b/c you just completed 3 passes on them). Or you can take a quick break and both sides gain composure.
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It didn’t work dude. Quit rationalizing away a mistake as if it had worked. The O has to be on the same page. The D only has to screw up the O. Confusion by both always favors the D. Read what Conley said post game. He didn’t know what to do. The outcome was virtually guaranteed the instant CMR, Bobo or whomever (I think it was Bobo) decided not to clock the ball. It would have been luck if the play resulted in a TD, not the other way around.
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Mayor, spikin the ball is not a timeout. It is doubtful the coaches would have had time to collect the players on the field a go over the details of the situation like “don’t catch anything ESP tipped balls if you are not in the endzone”
Shit happens. Was a frenzied finish where we went 80 yards in 70 seconds and the tip didn’t go our way
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Sorry about the spelling errors. iPhone not letting me look at early portion of post
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This is correct. And, maybe Conley doesn’t slip and gets it in the end zone on his own. Or if he leaves it in the air, how does he know the Bama player on his shoulder won’t intercept.
Absolute foolishness to insist there was a coaching error to not spike it. Richt made a decision…no error. Bama player made a play…no error. A better block on the Bama end so he can’t tip it could have helped. Thousands of intangibles every play. Singling this one out, and blaming the coaches, is just a waste of time.
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+850million. The real cause of loss is Bama D made a play.
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+850 million and 1.
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Yeaa!! Dead on it. Something tells me there is a new Dawg in town- one fandom that understands the game and the play. Blogging will be better and more meaningful in the future with these guys around. The numbers of rational bloggers have grown such that they can drown out others, not the opposite way it used to be. Yeaa!!
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First, let me congratulate Georgia on a fine season. I was of the opinion that Alabama would have its way with UGA. And I guess from a rushing standpoint they did. That said, the UGA players comported themselves with a lot of effort and heart the whole game. I think Richt’s quote at the end of the the game was appropriate; “I am disappointed with the results, but I am not disappointed in any of the players.” Exactly so, Mark. Your team lost the game, but they and the UGA coaching staff won some respect.
Now, did the lack of a spike cost UGA the game? I do not think so, as the good Senator and others write. It is a potAto, potatO kind of thing. In my mind, what lost UGA the game was the inability to stop Bama’s rushing game. Specifically on the two point conversion. That was a straight dive play that was easily converted. If Bama does not convert, UGA wins the game on a FG.
Anyway, good season. I will send you guys a postcard from Irene’s.
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Thanks Mike for the kind words and enjoy Irene’s. Hopefully someday your Gators will get back to playing for championships. 😉
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Thanks. We were playing for one this year, until Georgia derailed us! 🙂 Much like Alabama derailed UGA.
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Nice comments, Mike. Enjoy the Big Easy.
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Good and accurate words, Mike. In a nutshell, that was exactly the reason for the loss. It’s very hard to write the word “loss” when, in your heart, you know that Aaron has this game with just a few seconds left. He can move this team this far in the final 59 secs, why not the clencher? Mosely’s block was the game clencher. When you are drilled in the heart, gasping your last on the 5 yd line as the waning moments of your future possibilities leak out in red and black rivulets, it is similar to death. How can one use the word “loss” to describe it?
Thanks for joining in with us. A friend from FU called during the game and expressed that he and other alums were cheering for the Dawgs to win it for the SEC East. Maybe you guys do have redeeming qualities.
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I was one screaming about the spike. And after reading Richts comments about the sequence last night on Emerson, I am at peace with the decisions at the end. I wonder how many others screaming about it have read Richts comments. We lost the game because we couldn’t get a couple of third downs to rest the D. And for the “if only” – if only we make the FG earlier, it is a spike and a kick for the win.
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More like…if we stop the 2-point dive conversion we’re kicking the winning FG at the end.
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The field goal was a 51 yard attempt so it’s not like he missed a gimme kick.
My son and I argued before the last play. I was screaming for the spike and he shouted back at me not to let Bama sub in their red zone defense.
The tip was a great play by the Bama player. Stuff happens.
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Well said, as I said last night, I am proud as hell of these young men and these coaches. If someone absolutely must get their panties in wad I’d start by looking at the 350 yards rushing and 512 yards of total offense allowed by the defense, if the offense had played like it did last night in the Florida game that game would have been a blowout, and vice versa, if the defense had played like it did in the Florida game last night, this game would have been a blowout. I’m not blaming the defense though, Bama is a great team and they have done pretty much what they did to us last night to most if not all teams, its just if you must complain, if you don’t start there you are not credible.
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I can’t say anything bad about our players or Alabama’s team. I was afraid of how our defense would perform and was therefore not terribly surprised that they ran the ball the way they did but I am happy with our effort and believe that there are some really great days ahead for our Dawgs. Go Dawgs!
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Really can’t argue with the effort and heart displayed by this team. By God, they are all damn good dawgs!
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I just have to say, I hope the team is getting this positive feedback from the fan base ( and I think they mostly are) The commenters on this blog are the best on the Internet, and half the reason I come here. I’m sure it’s a tough day for them all, and I want them to see what we see. It just seems uncommon in CFB, but maybe I’m missing something. I’m a proud alumni today.. Of our team, our coaches and our fans. It’s a great day to be a Dawg.
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More than anything I think the fans have come the longest way.
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I don’t think it will ever be definitive on the “spike, or not to spike” decision. Since it didn’t work out I could cheat and say it was a bad decision, but honestly I have to come down on the “put’em away and don’t let them get time to adjust” side. We had time for 2 plays, which was all we would have been guaranteed by spiking, but I would have been more concerned about Little Nicky or Smart making a player change, or giving them some non-instinctive coaching. It was just an unfortunate result to have the tip, and then particularly unfortunate that one actually went to a UGA guy for a change. Love close games but it makes you put every single play/decision under the microscope in the post mortem. Helluva game, hurts to lose, but we got gashed by a strong OL and two exceptional RBs who made great cuts. We may need to revisit the 3-4’s effctiveness against the power run after this. If was my biggest concern early on, and I saw the nightmare of it last night. We had no answer. Felt helpless beginning in the 3rd Qtr.
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+1 proud to be a Georgia Bulldog
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I’m piling on here, but I was okay with the call when it happened. It was a reasonable, calculated risk not to spike the ball. Unfortunately, the fates (once again) conspired to torment UGA. As Fitzdawg said, there is no shame, only anguish. I take issue with bloviation to the contrary.
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Listen, for all the expert analysts such as Chuck Oliver, Jeff Schultz, etc – This was the heat of the moment. There were two choices – 1) Spike the ball and have 2 potential plays or 2) line up quick and throw the fade and have likely one more play. The UGA coaching staff chose #2. The ball got tipped and Connelly caught it – it just happened that way. None of the expert analysts have ever had themselves in such a pressure packed situation so just shut up about it (although I know they won’t because they have to write a couple of more columns and have something to talk about on talk radio next week).
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I love my team, I love my coach and I love this blog. And that’s that
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I was yelling at my TV for Murray to clock it – along with many of you. After hearing Richt explain he was hoping for 3 plays, I understood his reasoning. Clocking it may have run 2-3 seconds off and left us with 11-12 seconds. No guarantee of three plays there. A ball going out of the back of the endzone with 8-10 seconds left probably gets us two more plays (and a chance for Mitchell to make a catch on the first play). As Richt said post-game, they’ve been running this no huddle for over a year. He was confident they could get three plays off. They had Bama reeling. They had the personnel match-up they wanted. It was rotten luck that ball was tipped and caught. But there is no guarantee that clocking the ball would have led to a successful subsequent play. The next play could have been a tipped ball, INT, fumble, critical penalty, etc. I accept Richt’s reasoning and move on. Rotten luck on tip and catch (I think most receivers would have instinctively caught that ball rather than bat it down, especially if lights made Conley lose ball as he stated post-game). I accept Richt knows better than me about how to manage the last fifteen seconds in that situation. Some here seem to feel differently, and that’s puzzling to me. I had no idea there were so many brilliant coaches-in-waiting out there slogging through their day jobs.
Richt isn’t perfect, but I can accept his reasoning on this one and appreciate that hard fought game.
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Question. I was at the game in the upper level end zone where AL go the pass interference call that led to a TD. From where I sat it looked like a Playing While Georgia call. Was I wrong?
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High pass but defender had him pretty wrapped up. I could see it being called.
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At first I thought it might have been uncatchable but the replay showed why….we were hanging onto him and kept him from havinh a chance tyo make the catch. I thought he would have been a step or two deeper and had a chance to make a full leap. I thought the call was the right one, I would have complained if that had been a UGA receiver.
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Yep, right hand was grabbing under the receivers sleeve.
The one I want to see again is the no-call PA on Bama with 43 seconds left, when they almost got the INT. Seemed like the DB hit (King?) way early, hence the ricochet and near interception. That call would have given us yards, a stopped clock, and more time at the very end. Just BS officiating all night.
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Yes, helped along by Danielson’s incessant effort to find something wrong about any play we had. He went from excitement for having seen a chop block (a blocked UGA player fell at the feet of a Bama player being blocked) to never stopping the “1-10 with ranked teams” such that he was unable to compliment when we were playing well. He is the one stating “clock the ball” over and over and never coming back to analyse correctly later. He was following up on the number that ESPN had done on us all week.
Friends from Az called before the game and at halftime and, without prompting, said to the effect,” It looks like ESPN has something against you guys.”. Those bastards have been wrong about this team and for 5 yds more would have been proven so without even a flimsy excuse to hide behind.
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This is a disappointing loss. No doubt. BUT, to all the naysayers…Is there one other team in this country who could have beaten UGA last night? I think not. I am on board with the players, coaches, and support. Love them Dawgs. Damn Good Team!
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Let me be the contrarian to the meme on this blog today. If this were the first time a misfire happened at the end of a close game that caused the Dawgs to lose that would be one thing. But it is not. Go back and look at the old schedules and results. Think about how all those close losses by UGA the past several years happened. LSU 2009. Kentucky 2009. Arkansas 2010. Colorado 2010. Florida 2010. South Carolina 2010. Michigan State in the Outback bowl last year. Even some of the games that were thought to be put away ended up with end-of-game-screw-ups that almost cost the Dawgs a victory. Vandy 2011 is an example. It’s the pattern that bothers me. Is not spiking the ball last night defensible? Yes, since the coach has to make a quick decision without time to reflect on it. But when the end of game decision blows up in your face time after time after time , then it is reasonable to ask why is this happening and what can we do to stop it from happening in the future?
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*South Carolina 2011.
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If you are conceding that a decision to run a play at the end there is defensible, your complaint makes no sense.
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In isolation I would agree with you. When it is a series of end of game blunders then one has to wonder about the thought process that keeps on making these mistakes. If a doctor nicks a vein during an operation and the patient dies, that’s a risk of surgery. If a doctor does it 6 times in a 2 year period you have to ask: “Is this doctor competent to do this type of surgery?”
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Mayor, one more time: if it’s defensible, it’s not a blunder, by definition.
Sometimes the other guy just makes a better play. Move on, brother.
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Senator, one more time: if someone keeps making the same or similar mistakes time after time, it’s a series of blunders by definition, which then is not defensible. While I’m at it, is it appropriate to mention the complete flip-flop you made since the aftermath of the South Carolina game when you wanted to fire CMR after 1 loss? I seem to remember a whole bunch of snarky posts you made about the competence of the UGA coaching staff after Columbia. Maybe everybody else has forgotten but I haven’t.
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So are you saying it’s defensible or not? If it’s the latter, then at least you’re being logically consistent. I can respect that, even if I’m not sure I agree.
If it’s the former, though, I stand by what I said. You don’t make sense.
As for what I posted after the SC game, it’s not like I’ve hidden from it. I linked to it just a few days ago.
I’ve never called for Richt’s head, BTW. Never. Here’s what I said after the game in Columbia:
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I’m not calling for Richt’s head either. I’m asking that this end of game problem that rears its ugly head at the worst possible time be fixed–that’s what I want. Denying that there is a problem doesn’t help–it hurts because the problem never gets fixed that way. You are the one who isn’t making sense if you treat a series of mistakes the same as an isolated mistake. And don’t deny that you have flip-flopped on CMR. You have–twice. Once when you abandoned ship after the USCe game and the second when you climbed back on after the Florida game.
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What if I don’t think there was a mistake?
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What about all the others? Do you not think they were mistakes?
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Mayor, not all close losses are due to coaching mistakes. No question Richt screwed the pooch in the bowl game against MSU. But I don’t think what happened last night was anything like that.
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This is tedious. First, spiking or not spiking is a decision, and they made one. Just because you don’t like the outcome does not make it an error. The error would be if the coaches failed to signal to Murray what to do, and he was left to wing it on his own. But worse, to bring–up a decade’s worth of isolated late game errors, and TOTALLY IGNORE late game heroics under the same coach (ummm…hobnail boot anyone?) is disingenuous at best.
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The Hobnail Boot game makes my point. UGA didn’t have this problem under CMR before. This string of end-of-game screw-ups started, as best as I am able to tell, when Bobo became the OC. This is not to say that Bobo is not an excellent Xs and Os guy–he is. But his end of game decisions….well, the results of the last few close encounters speak for themselves.
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Seriously? Auburn 2001 ring a bell? How ’bout the decision to punt late in the Music City Bowl?
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You know Senator, I had forgotten about that. Maybe it is CMR after all. Maybe, as you yourself said in a post several months ago, the price of having CMR as our HC is having to put up with a few boneheaded calls once in awhile. You make your value judgments and I’ll make mine.
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Mayor, you are one hard-headed sucker. Use the same “math” on every FBS team and see what you come up with through the years of play. And use of the word “calamitous” gives more hyperbole to your ongoing nonpoint.
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I understand your frustration over the past games you referenced, but it seems you are lumping last night’s game in with them without justification. There is no way to know if not clocking the ball was an “end-of-game screw-up,” as you say. It is not clear cut. Spiking the ball may have led to something worse on the other side of it that actually reduced our chance of winning. If you can play endless “what if?” games with someone else’s decision, that means two things: 1. The decision was not clearly right or clearly wrong. 2. It is impossible to argue another decision would have been superior.
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Exactly right OKDawg, he has his head stuck up his butt about this. Certainly it MIGHT have been the better option, few are arguing otherwise. The evidence seems to say if you had the play called you wanted against/with the personnel you preferred, and it wasn’t a “one and done”, it was the right decision. I would support doing it again under the same circumstances because I think Bama would have been more prepared. The fact an oddity made it fail and become a game ending completion doesn’t make it wrong. A very high percentage of the time it would have resulted in either a TD, or another shot at the win. Nothing is to say the result would have been any different. We need to move on from this, the team did so much more right on that drive and looked well prepared. Not all 85 yard drives, with no timeouts, against the top ranked defense, will succeed. Most would not have done nearly as well, it just didn’t end up with the right result. Sorry for the players and coaches, not the Monday Morning QBs who have the blessing of hindsight. This decision was made at full speed, and they thought through the options logically from all I have heard.
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Yeah, Mac. Lets move on–and keep on making the same type of end of game mistakes that lose games…over and over and over……”Those who refuse to learn from history are bound to repeat it.”
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Mayor, this is where your logic is flawed. Any football game that is close..the margin of the final score less than 8, came down to a late game “mistake” by the losing team. So you need to go back to the beginning of CMR’s tenure at UGA and consider every game that UGA won by less than 8 as a gift…a “mistake” made by the other coach.
It’s called competition. The game is four whole quarters. What happens in the first quarter counts just as much as what happens near the end. Go read all of the entries above your’s on this thread and you’ll see that you are in a very small minority in your opinion on this. Most of these people know football and feel the Dawgs are on the upswing and CMR is a fine coach. I personally think we’re going to be amazed at what this team accomplishes in the next few seasons. But sometimes, we’re going to lose. It really isn’t the end of the world.
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That’s really nasty. Using logic when the Mayor desires none. You could just ask him how he would solved the invented “problem”. Every coach in the FBS is waiting with baited breath.
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I’m really proud of the team (players and coaches), thought it was a great game and really don’t have much at all to be critical about.
However, I don’t agree with Richt’s analysis of the timing. It took several seconds longer to get lined up and ready for our play than it would have taken to get lined up and ready for a spike. With a spike, we could have stopped the clock with 12 or 13 seconds left. That’s enough time to run 3 plays when you’re that close to the end zone (b/c the pass routes are so short). As it was, we snapped the ball as the clock was going to :09, ensuring that we only had enough time for 2 plays.
I’m not going to get too worked up over this and jump all over Richt for it or anything…but I’m also not going to let him or anybody else tell me that this isn’t correct.
Anyway, great game and Go Dawgs!
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+1.
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How about “There is more than one way to skin an elephant.”? Can you accept that?
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Play calls. People get caught up “spiking the ball” and “clock management”.
Last drive. Other than the outside route to Lynch the calls were right down between the has marks with a very short clock to play with. Lynch’s catch and effort to get out of bounds was huge. The following pass plays were awesome. Bama could not stop them. No damn need to spike the ball it did not matter what their personnel package they could not stop the passes. They could not get to Murray on that drive. The O line put a wall around him and Murray put the ball on the needle head. Just damn great plays. The only thing that saved Bama’s ass was the clock. Okay, the ball being tipped. Not a fade playcaller down close because the angles close quickly and everybody is tight. But I do not question the brain trust on this drive and calls.
If you do not think this team is not a top 3 team, well you are one dumb son of a bitch about football. On Bama’s winning pass play they are just a second from not getting that pass off. Inside our twenty and we do not get the short yard on 3rd was a big moment. But the sideline pass not being complete hurt. And I understand that because the Dawgs brain trust wants to pocket those TO’s Every play they ran after Bama went up was great time management calls. If some little blogger who has never walked on a field and had a hit should be out there and let someone lay the wood to them.
think Will Friend is building very good O lines. He can damn sure coach an O line. Let’s wait and see how many All American he pushes out of Sanford Stadium. Stacy Searels left the offense devasted on the O line. Go back to that Bowl game in Memphis. If there was a blow-out that was it. In all my years of watching the Dawgs we have had some losses. That bowl game for me was it. Last night was a loss, but that was as good of coaching and playing as you will ever see. you can be disappointed in the loss, but you have to praise those teams, players, anc coaches. That was football at an elite level.
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I felt that we were about to see P44 Haynes part 2. Unfortunately we didn’t.
Something tells me we might very well see them again next year in ATL – depends on what happens in Jacksonville.
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Red Blackman has never been more proud to be a Georgia Bulldog.
In my experience, winning and losing pale in comparison to the feeling of giving it all.
This game will turn out to be one of those games that serve as a building block for future success. The underclassmen have seen the bar set. Jordan Jenkins, Damien Swann, Garrison Smith, Amarlo Herrera and few others will carry this game with them for the rest of their time wearing the red and black. They now know what it means to wear the “G”.
Great game. Great effort.
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Good sportsmanship, Red. Unfortunately it reminds me of what my HS coach used to say on that subject: “A good loser is a frequent loser.”
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I didn’t infer that losing is good. I stated specifically that it will serve a purpose. The proof of that will be in the pudding.
Believe it or not, Mr. Mayor, the Georgia football program exorcised the demons from a previous encounter with the giant crimson heffalumps.
Respect is earned.
Now I’m gonna just leave this right here………….
ROSTER MANAGEMENT………………………we did more with less.
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Red, you seem like a good fan and I don’t want to get into an argument with you or anything but please don’t bring up roster management when we’re so far under the 85 limit.
But I’m with you man – let’s hope this game serves the team and program well going forward. Use it as a building block and motivation in the offseason.
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“please don’t bring up roster management when we’re so far under the 85 limit.”
You hit the nail on the head, Mr. Cube. With that said, we built some quality depth this year.
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Sorry, I think I misinterpreted your original statement. But yeah, we need to stop with the undersigning. We’ll see if that happens this offseason.
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We are singing 34-36 kids this year, we are going to have to hope that the natural attrition and early NFL defections happen or we are going to be a couple of kids over the 85. Depth shouldn’t be a problem.
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And don’t forget the WRs and RBs coming back with the O, Red. Isn’t Gilliard returning?
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Great summation, Senator. This is going to go down as one of my all-time favorite Dawg teams, something I could not say about some of the recent teams b/c of the dirtbaggery of the players. Lots of heart, sad to lose, but not nearly the feeling of the South Carolina game.
I appreciate what the Mayor is saying, and maybe we ought to work on our playcalling and clock management toward the end of games a little more, but there are only so many hours to work on things, and you never quite know what you should have spent more time on. The call to keep going at the end could have gone either way.
This may seem crazy, but the coaching decision I would change is the one where we punted on 4th and a foot with 5 minutes left in the game. I know we were on our own 30 yard line, but Gurley had success running all game, and I thought we had a better chance gambling on our offense at that point than our defense. I did NOT want to let Lacey see the ball again.
If we failed to make the foot, then worst-case scenario is our D lets Alabama score, *which I thought was going to happen no matter what*, given the way they were running on us – but starting from our 30 they at least would score quickly, and maybe give us a little bit of time to respond.
Again, I know that seems crazy to suggest we should not have punted, being on our own 30, but even though it was a gamble, I thought it was a gamble with better odds than giving them the football back. And interestingly, this is also about clock management.
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Not playcalling last night, was thinking of Michigan State last year, btw.
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We weren’t on our 30 on that 4th down, we were at our own 18. I think if we’d been a little farther out I’d agree with you about going for it, but not there.
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I felt the same way at the time, CD. I also wasn’t too unnerved by the bomb to Cooper for the TD. I felt that gave our offense a chance to drive and score for the win. It seemed preferable to watching their OL and RBs grind out yards and the clock to end it. I wanted to see UGA have the ball with a chance to win it. In the end, just a few yards short.
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I thought that bomb to Cooper was a gift, right? I couldn’t believe they weren’t going to just keep running it up the gut and let the clock wind down.
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My wife was cursing at the TV and I told her to calm down, this gave us a chance with time to respond and go ahead for the win. I guess that says something about our offense this year, because I don’t know that I would have felt that confident the last few years.
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Didn’t we get stuffed on the previous play?
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Yeah, but that was an anomaly, and if you want to use that for a reason for caution, Gurley got a yard on 3rd down, which means he was likely to get the foot we needed. Look at your shoe – that’s about how much we needed to get. I appreciate the coach’s caution, I really do, but with all the marbles on the line I think you just say eff it and go for it.
Put differently, the percentages that our offense could gain a foot were greater than the percentages our defense could keep them from scoring, I think.
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What an incredible game. This team/staff proved to the world last night that they are indeed a national contender. Richt and Bobo were aggressive when they needed to be and took what the defense game them at other times. Very well played and called game. As many have already stated, the game was decided by Bama’s o-line. As a side note: Skeptic Dawg is officially retired. Last night was simply too much fun to be apart of. There were mistakes for certain, but this team fought all night. I am looking forward to going to whatever bowl game these guys end up in. GATA.
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May the force be with you, my son. 🙂
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🙂 You’ll have to tell us what your new handle is, though, so we’ll know it’s you.
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Chicken. Just when there is something to legitimately bitch about you turn tail and run.
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LOL
You are a man of principle, Mayor, as a good Mayor should be. Not sure I agree with your principle, but you are a man of it, to be sure! “Mayor of Dogtown…What can one say, but Mayor of Dogtown.” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BkpjB3brjqw
(I keed, I keed!)
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There is certainly no running on my part. I merely enjoyed every last second of last night’s game. I also had the privilege of viewing the game through the eyes of a 7 year (I was lucky enough to take my son with me). We were both decked out head to toe in our Georgia gear. I did not notice anyone with a Richt, Bobo, or Grantham shirt and/or hat on. I pull for the Dawgs. I do not root for or against whoever happens to be the HC. Watching a 7 year old pull for the Dawgs with all of his heart reminded me of what being a Dawg fan means. We all grew with a passion for this program, the traditions of Georgia football, and the glory of the SEC. Sure, there were coaching mistakes last night (both sides would agree with that). But to purely enjoy the experience and opportunity that last night offered was incredible. I will be the first (and have been many many times) to voice my opinion about Richt. I have made no bones about that in the past. But last night’s experience reminded me of how much fun it is to just enjoy the excitement of Georgia football, and to experience the joy and disappointment that comes with that privilege. I was, and still am, disappointed in the final outcome last night. But for today, I am simply proud to represent this university and team that gave my son and I so much fun and a ton of memories. I only hope there are many more nights like last night to come. Regardless of who the coach is. GATA.
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Skeptic, sorry your son’s introduction to University of Georgia football has to be what has now become the legacy at UGA: Losing the big game.
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As I stated earlier, I am just as disappointed as you or any other Dawg fan today. And so is my little guy. He would not sit and watch the replay today. As for the legacy issues, I am not certain it is all that bad. Yes, Richt drove this program to Donnan like levels from 2006-2011. I wanted the guy gone, having lost complete faith in the dude. Is the program “back” and will Richt and co. maintain this current pace? I have no clue. 2013 will go along way in answering that question. Like I posted earlier, my fan gear has either Georgia, Dawgs, or G’s on it, not an R or Richt. After the experience we had last night, I am not going to hammer anyone. I appreciate your view point and it is a real issue. If we do not see a change, I will lead the charge to toss the guy. But I honestly believe this team left it all on the field. What more can we as fans ask for?
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Oh, good grief. Mayor, I do not remember you being this cynical, I recall you being a pretty staunch supporter of CMR and the team. Skeptic has found some joy in the program where before he had not – I am critical as the next guy when we mail it in, but for crying out loud, the kids and coaches did the absolute very best they knew how to do last night. It may be that Alabama just had a much better team and we played above our heads to keep up with them. Listen, I am going to post this just for you, I want you to watch it over and over until you come back to us:
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I’d also like to take this opportunity to point out how happy the entire Georgia fanbase is right now despite the fact that we lost the game and haven’t won a conference championship in 7 years. It kind of shoots down the theory that some have that our fans are unrealistic and our expectations are too high. Hopefully we won’t have to hear that nonsense anymore.
Go Dawgs!
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Check out the post-game comments. Some unhappy folks to be found there. But yeah, by and large, I think our folks recognize a heroic effort when they see one. Even if it’s in a losing cause.
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That was a fantastic college football game and both teams played their hearts out. I feel for you guys, but I’ll spare you the words of consolation because don’t want to hear it from a Bama fan.
From my perspective, we were on our heels and I was about 100% sure Aaron Murray was about to haunt my dreams for years. IMO, running a play was the right thing to do and two freak things happened: an All-American linebacker made a valiant effort to tip the pass and a receiver just happened to catch the ball in the wrong spot at the wrong time. I just don’t think you can blame that on Bobo, Richt or Murray.
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Agreed. Mosley could have watched the play. He could have drifted into the flat and jumped to swat at a ball 5 feet over his hands. He could have done 100 different things.
He took the ONE option that had a shot at affecting the play. He got into the throwing lane as close to the QB as he could, got as high as he could, and got a hand on the ball. You can see him timing his jump, watching Murray’s wind up.
I love watching Mosley play. Kid just has that sense for where to be and when to be there. Unfortunately.
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Great comment BD, agree with everything you said and how you said it. I would love to see our offense behind that OL, it is a model for where we want to get. Kick ND’s butts in Miami….do it SEC style.
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After Bama went up by 4, Saban is going to run the ball and play the clock. They were not going to pass. You can not question any of Richt’s clock management here. It is a none issue. If it is then explain those passes down the hashes in the middle. what hurt was not keeping the pass lane clean on the last play. That happens. If you listen to Saban post game interview he was not happy with his secondary. Secondary is Saban’s sacred turf. And Murray scorched them on that last drive. Only the not keeping the pass lane open, they probably go in. . The timing on the route seemed off,but the receivers had trouble getting lined up. There was an issue there.
KIcking game. No doubt Barber is as good as there is. He made Bama consume clock and go the distance. But we have an issue on field goals. A lot of ifs. Make that one earlier, then that last play is not an issue.
But the Dawgs have to get a FG kicker…talking about someone who put them almost 95% of the time inside the 50. I’d burn through some scholarships until I get one.
Bama did a good job on covering their weakness. Defense. You can talk Smart and Saban, but the coach who made Bama and their title is their O line coach. Next to Bama is A&M and Florida. Dawgs are closing that gap in a rush. Dawgs D line needs to get better. Personnel, depth, and coaching. Tech ran 86 plays on them. Even Southern ran a lot. Then look at the number Bama did. You saw CMR concern going in to the game. Their center. when you can create lanes like they did it is hard to stop. Ran a twin TE….that is a lot, a dam lot of lanes to close with those two backs. We saw this last year against LSU. Listen to Saban post game interview. He is very high on his O line. They are very, very good. A&M have the two best tackles on the same line in D1. Always the LOS, LOS< LOS.
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Morgan misses a 50-yarder and you want a new kicker? The guy will be fine, I daresay he’ll even be great. Hellacious leg on that kid. He has gotten more consistent over the season. Give him a chance.
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Agreed. He’s a friggin’ freshman. He will get better and better. He missed slightly right but got the distance from 51 yds. I thought the punter’s game had improved considerably last night . These guys have already made strides this year.
Thanks go to all the fans who met the plane last night. You stood for many of us who couldn’t be there.
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Completely agree with your post senator. If the ball wasn’t tipped by the defender, I would likely have a champaign hangover right now. We knew Bama had an elite Oline and they rode it in the second half. It was a close one. Great effort and inches away from a huge win against the class program of CFB. Go dawgs!!!
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The way I feel has been said by many on here today so I will be brief. I can see both sides of the spike or not spike debate and doubt have a problem with the strategy we took there. I chalk it up to the way the ball bounces sometimes on the outcome.
I am damn proud of this team and our coaches. I was just as excited to put on my Georgia colors today as I was yesterday. Disappointed but can’t blame the effort by the players or coaches.
Go Dogs! Let’s go tear somebody up in the bowl game and finish the season with a win.
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Well, let me be the sole fly in the punchbowl at this party of happy losers. Yes, I’m proud of the kids, at least the ones that deserve it. Todd Gurley was once again a man amongst boys and the o-line actually played pretty well. Why we seemed to do our “ya gotta have balance” thing yet again and stopped running on first down on a few key drives…idk.
I’m not proud of guys like Rambo that talked shit all week and then literally wanted no part of Lacy or Yeldon on a few plays. I’m not proud of all the arm tackles or Grantham and his towel boy having zero adjustments to getting absolutely gashed all game.
Murray wasn’t horrible OR great. Which I guess is an improvement over most big games. Last drive was nice til the end but shit happens. It just always seems to happen to us more than other teams. Why the fuck does Bama need another title? Couldn’t the gods have smiled on US for once?
I just sadly can’t buy into the “this is a game to build on” crowd and we’ll do great once the playoff comes around. Or the we lost by a few points to a great team so lets celebrate crowd.
Lets face it, we were damn lucky to even have a shot at winning this game. You can NOT give up 350 yards on the ground and expect to win a game. If that doesn’t change then we won’t be finding ourselves right back in the mix as some have said. And 7 of our points came off a blocked FG that Bama actually shouldn’t have had to try since the ball on the play before was not tipped. Like seemingly every big game where we have a lead we just can’t seem to close it out, while teams like Bama do.
Not saying there weren’t parts of the game to be proud of, and I’m not putting down the coaches or players en masse. I just can’t ever seem to be the type of fan that’s happy with a loss. Maybe that makes me an asshole but even with the explanations, mea culpas, and post game analysis, I just can’t get over that we lost the most important game in around 30 years.
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There are losses and there are losses. I actually think our guys played over their heads just a bit last night, so Ivan live with this one. I hope our D just got beat instead of shrinking from Lacey as you suggest.
If you can’t see anything honorable about playing your head off and coming up short, I am not being snarky when I say I really don’t know what to tell you. I believe it is better to play 100% and get beat by Jamal than play 80% and crush Auburn. The victory, if you can think of it this way, becomes about the effort, and will possibly make you enjoy the games more. For me, USC game was the pits.
(My phone corrected “Bama” to read “Jamal” above – which sounds like somebody we could best in a game of football, so I’m not gonna change it.)
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EVERYBODY who may be DAWG alums or fan should take a long deep breath today and shout their lungs out with GO DAWGS. You will be happy and still be a DAWG after,
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I’m not saying losing is dishonorable at all. For the most part i think the guys played their asses off, though I’m not sure about some on the defense though if their coaches can’t find any adjustments then maybe it’s not their fault. I’m just saying I’m sick about this loss, and I’m sure the players and coaches are 1000 times more so. And for whatever reason it doesn’t give me the optimism that it seems to some.
That Jamal guy doesn’t play defense does he? Maybe a JC transfer we should look at? 😛
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A game like this is not a place to point fingers at individual players. They lost together just like they win together. If your optimism can’t come out to see the sun shining you can continue to watch in the rain. Meh.
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Actually I was picking on Rambo because he was the one mouthing off in the press this week.
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Okay, so maybe think of it this way – I’m guessing you think Bama is a hard-playing, well-coached team. You surely think, like I do, that their fans would have been crazy to be angry at the Bama team or coaches if they’d lost at the very end, there.
So why not give your own team the same benefit of the doubt?
It is possible we lost by fingertips – the Bama lineman just reached up and grazed that football. If you respect Bama, then the margin of victory last night ought to convince you that, removing yourself from the emotional side of it, you have to respect your Dawgs, too.
Now let’s get out there and find Jamal!!
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So happy to be a Dawg today! It’s so liberating to not expect success, to not be disappointed by losing big games. Its a happy, happy, happy day! Championships are so overated! Who needs ’em? Not UGA, no sir! We love our Dawgs regardless of the outcome. Our coach is a fine man, he loves Jesus just like us! That’s way more important than winning!
I’m going to get me one of those “Eastern Division Champs” t-shirts and wear it proudly. We’re not SEC championship game losers, we’re second winners! Trophies for all the players!
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“We love our Dawgs regardless of the outcome.”
Are you suggesting fans should hate the team because they came up a few yards short of playing in the NCG?
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No, I’m flat out saying a TRUE fan never criticizes any aspect of the program, regardless of on-the-field results.
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What does loving your team have to do with being able to criticize aspects of the program? You introduced these thoughts in your sarcastic post, so which is it? Should fans ditch their team if the results aren’t favorable?
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You’re pretty dense, but at least your sarcasm detector isn’t broken. So congrats on that! I think you should get a trophy too! Yay you!
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You’re the one who stated in sarcasm:
“We love our Dawgs regardless of the outcome.”
I’m still waiting to hear you explain that as a purported UGA fan. I’ll admit I’m too dense to reconcile that paradox, so please enlighten poor ole me. 😉 I’d love to see you attempt to argue that one away.
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Ok, I’ll play once. Many other posters on here haved stated, either explicitly or implicitly, that if one loves UGA, one doesn’t criticize UGA. Clear now?
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We’re clear,and I understand what you were tryingto say. However, you were attacking fans who love the Dawgs “regardles of outcome,”not referencing criticisms (whether deserved or not). I hopeall fans love our team regardless of outcome. Criticismis another issue.
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And I’ll give you the nice shiny trophy if you can make your previous sarcastic statement sound like you’re anything other than a fair weather fan of the highest order.
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Based on your post and logic, why are you bothering to post now about UGA? Shouldn’t you be searching for the next team to support since the result wasn’t favorable last night?
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So “he loves Jesus” is a problem? I just don’t see why you’ve got to bring that into this. The man’s a good coach and he’s getting better. What do you want…fire him after such a great season with a super recruiting class about to come on board? It was a great season with a good bowl game coming too. Ever heard of counting your blessings? It beats bitching.
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I didn’t “bring” Jesus into this. The legion of non-discerning lemmings who blindly praise Richt regardless of what he does love to bring up how much they admire his religious beliefs. They brought that issue into the discussion a long time ago.
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Carolinadawg needs to become CarolinaElephant or CarolinaTide, that seems to be the only way you are going to be happy.
Let me guess you are undefeated on XBOX with UGA for the 17th year in a row and have won the MNC and SEC every year along with the Heisman and every other individual award, all the while allowing 0 yards on defense every game. IT’S SO DAMN EASY WHY CAN’T RICHT, BOBO , AND GRANTHAM DO IT!!!!!!
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Yawn…..
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Yeah, but you brought it into the conversation tonight. There is not one post from the last few days on this blog that says anything about Richt’s faith. You obviously have an axe to grind against Christians, and so you are killing two birds with one stone when you mock a coach and a religion you don’t like.
There is nothing wrong with fans who are Christians liking the fact that CMR is a Christian who apparently walks the walk. I’m a Christian, but if he was a Hindu who poured a lot of time and money into the good causes he does, and who tried to represent our university well, and stuck to his principles in how he deals with these kids, then I might not be able to relate to him in the same way, but you can bet I’d still be more proud of him than, say, a professed Christian who embarrassed us with his public behavior.
You don’t get that a lot of people use the word “Christian” as a quasi-synonym for “Christian living”. There is a faith component, without question, but Christians know a lot of other Christians they aren’t very fond of – being of the faith doesn’t guarantee you popularity. CMR is popular among Christians and others because the values CMR represents are indeed Christian values, but they are also universal values, values even atheists have borrowed from the world’s religions and tried to shoehorn into some patchwork morality based on dubious claims of “herd instincts” or “socialization” or whatever.
So whether your are a Christian or not, the values Christians try to live up to are the social norm. If you don’t like those values, or if you think they have no place in the college experience, you are the deviant. If you want to take a shot at convincing the rest of us that the opposite values – say, cowardice, freeloading, hate, greed, and self-indulgence – are preferable to these hopelessly provincial Christian virtues CMR seems to be trying to instill in our boys, fire away.
I have seen you make some decent posts on here before. Few people on this blog believe the team or coaches are beyond criticism – I am often one of the most critical. But after yesterday, it really comes down to two questions – one, is there really so much more to criticize about last night’s game than to celebrate? I do not think so, and whatever frustrations you may have, this team certainly has not earned your nasty, snarky, schoolboy sarcasm. Two, the appropriateness of the occasion – you are wearing jorts to a wedding if you think now is the correct time to pick at this team when they have just bled all over the field for you and represented our university so very, very well.
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Good go, Bluto. Nice post, but do you get the feeling after reading the replies that the election is about to be held again?
Like participants in a fun religious wake (I.e., Sen Barry Goldwater’s funeral comments) we emerge into the sunshine to see the bright light of hope shining through to us while trying to figure out what we drank that left that taste in our mouth.
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I have a seven month old daughter and I’m trying to get her to say “Goldwater” as her first word. 😉
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