Bad luck aside, what’s the worst thing you worry about coming out of the Gator Bowl?
Me, I think it will make for a tough offseason if Mason comes out and plays poorly. Mind you, I’m not expecting him to, but having a real question mark at the quarterback position going into next season isn’t something Georgia needs.
Your thoughts?
Get The Picture 
Given Richt and Bobo’s track record developing quality QB’s, I’d have more faith (even if Mason comes out like a dumpster fire). However, If the defense still doesn not show up for looooong straetches, I’d have my anxiety increase exponentialy headed into next year. Just my 2 cents.
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Wow, I really butchered the English language there.
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get the sanford and son meme ready…. UGA HAD ME LIKE…..
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You bite your tongue.
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The offense also disappears for long stretches. You don’t fall being 20-0 at the half without a total team failure.
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My #1 worry is somebody getting hurt. If we get through the Gator Bowl without any major injuries, win or lose, I will rest easy.
I’m not really worried about Mason. Even if he has a rough outing, I remember the Tech game in ’04 when Greene hurt his hand and Shockley struggled so badly that #14 had to come back in to win it. (As an aside, I love how those two lifted each other time and time again). DJ came back and won a SEC title in ’05 and it’s hard to think we’d have lost in Jax if he’d been under center, but as we know too well those are the breaks.
I think we’re going to get buttah on defense and still be hell-on-wheels on offense. I’m not saying we won’t miss a beat, but we’ll be pretty good.
I will give Nebraska this game if it means the fire in the team gets a little hotter. I really want to see us hammer the hell outta Clemson.
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+1
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#1- Injuries
#2- Agree with Mason laying an egg. He does that and it goes into an echo chamber all off season. I’d rather it be happy talk in the echo chamber.
#3- I’m not ‘worried’ about it per se, but I’m a bit concerned that we can’t force turnovers.UGA was third in the state at forcing turnovers this season. (let that sink in…ok, good). I’ll be worried all offseason that we can’t find our mojo if we don’t get 2+ takeaways.
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If high pre-season rankings are important for the quality of your life, Hudson better light up the Cornsuckers.
If you just want to win the game, all he has to do is be decent.
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It will be a tough offseason if we play poorly on defense because people will be questioning the decision to stand pat with the staff.
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No matter what happens in that game I’m pretty sure a part of our fan base will find something to be disgruntled with. I’d like to see us roll over the Cornhuskers and give us Disney Dawgs something to bark about.
Woof!
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+1
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Yep – I agree
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My biggest worry for 2014 is our OLine. Lots of inexperience and no history of overachieving in that area. Not sure I answered the question.
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The Bucs fired Schiano, which means that Bob Bostad, the guy who engineered those awesome Wisconsin offensive lines, is unemployed.
We should cut a Friend loose and go get him.
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Injuries. I am terrified that one of our remaining stud players will tear an ACL in this game and be out until August at the earliest (and that is pushing it).
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Strangely, the thing that would probably make for the happiest offseason is an Auburn loss to Florida State. Otherwise, all we’re going to hear from our own fans and theirs is how far behind Georgia is and how Mark Richt doesn’t have what it takes (one of the dumbest arguments ever) to get Georgia over the hump and win it all.
Unless we come out and completely lay an egg, I’m not sure outside of major injuries that it matters what we do on Wednesday. Yeah, Mason struggling would be annoying, but he’s clearly the guy anyway. Whether he’s DJ Shockley or Joe Cox won’t be changed by how he performs in an uninspiring exhibition game. This one is just slightly above April’s G-Day game on the “does it matter?” scale.
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+1,000 on the Auburn loss.
It isn’t as clear cut as it is in many years…people wonder why we can’t put a fence around Georgia…well the two schools in the national championship game are closer in proximity to many of the kids who play HS football in south and west Georgia for one…But Auburn losing would be better because I can’t stand Auburn.
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Why is it such a dumb argument? Wasn’t the last time UGA found itself in a BCS bowl in 2005? That’s going on 9 years isn’t it? How many times since 2005 have Bama, AU, LSU and UF been BCS bowling? Doesn’t seem too dumb to me.
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Georgia landed in the 2008 Sugar Bowl. But don’t let me stop you. 😉
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I stand corrected.
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First…I sincerely thank you for your 30 years of service to this country so that we may freely enjoy conversations like this. So I’m not trying to antagonize you and I accept that there is a very legitimate line of reasoning that Mark Richt may not be capable of getting UGA through the new playoff system much less the MNC. However, let’s explore the frustration in your recent comments. You did omit the 2008 Sugar Bowl, but would you have preferred to lose the SEC east tie-breaker last year to Florida, let them play in the SECCG, and if they too had lost to Bama, we would have gone to the Sugar Bowl? Or would you have faulted Richt for failing to get to the SECCG?
It’s not being a Disney Dawg to point-out that you can’t always blame Mark Richt for this stuff. Especially when he did a hell of a job last year, and arguably this year given everything that went wrong beyond his control.
Richt put us back on the map the first half of his career here at UGA. The fall-off after the ’08 Sugar Bowl was distressing…but he’s the one that has righted the ship. Unless you can name the guy that can improve UGA faster, then why risk the change? Do you really think we are regressing? If so, why? If your only measuring stick is what bowl we went to last year, I got some bad news for you…you’re never going to be happy. And yes, there are Bama fans that claim Saban failed them this year…!? If you agree with them, then we don’t really need to even have a dialogue.
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To further your fine points… Had there been a 4 team playoff system during the past 13 years, Mark Richt’s Dawgs would have been in it 3 times most likely: 2002, 2007, 2012. That is, of course, assuming that ESPN didn’t lobby extremely hard to keep Georgia out.
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I’m not so sure about 2012 with 2 losses. But I agree with you on 2002 and 2007. And I think we likely win it in 2007–that Dawg team was the best team in the country at the end of the season.
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No doubt about it. And like somebody else said, ESPN likely took it away from us by lobbying so hard against us.
~~~
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Time will be the final arbiter for Richt. I stand by my opinion. We will see what will happen. I wish him no ill luck but I do not see him leading UGA “over the hump”. I simply do not think he has what it takes, and, if I am wrong, I will be the first to admit it.
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Well, there were actual 3 AP voters in 2007-08 that thought not only could Mark Richt get over the hump, but that he actually did get them over the hump and they voted Georgia #1 in the final AP poll.
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Three things. In order, one is continued 3d and long gifting (yes, even w/o JHC). Two: another slow start. Three: John Theus having a shaky game. All would indicate to me failure to improve on critical pieces of the game that will be important for ’14. Leaving out “injuries” ’cause I think that’s covered under “bad luck.” Leaving out possible addition to the ST chamber of horrors because I just can’t bear to think about it.
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No injuries, other than that, meh…
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That sums it up for me.
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Two things: Losing due to lack of motivation. That sticks out as the most consistent theme to me. We know the O-line can be dominant, but they play half-hearted some of the time. Even in the same game! To me that’s motivation. Stop the “we didn’t realize they were that good” comments and play every team as if you expect them to be the top team in the nation. The O-line is easiest to spot, but I think overall the whole team plays better when they are motivated. Second: The defensive secondary looking as lost as they did at the beginning of the year. I know it’s been a carousel back there, but it’s been a full season and a month long bowl practice. Seeing some competence back there sure would ease my fears for next year.
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Call me a Disney Dawg (I’m clearly not) for saying this but it is actually amazing that this team is in a New Year’s Day bowl given the adversity that it had to go through this season. Is the Gator Bowl an important game for UGA? Absolutely! It’s the first game of the 2014 season in my book and it is vital to win it, both for the 2013 team record and to give the 2014 team something to build on.
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+1 – I was thinking about the springboard for 2014 this morning. With a win, we probably start the year in the 8-12 range. A loss probably has us around 18.
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This is truly 1,000th on the list of things I’m looking for, but are they breaking out the new silver pants for this game or will that be for the opener against Clemson?
[Honestly, I hope the opener is at 8pm, we wear the blacks and do the same thing to them in terms of atmosphere that they did to us this year.]
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DEFENSE and OLINE!! 2 areas Mark Richt has been deficient and never improves over his 13 years. Someone in Athens has to see that “Staff Continuity” is code word for “average 8-10 wins annually and keep your job”
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If we win 45-0 and have 2 false start penalties we’ll talk no discipline all off season. That’s what we do.
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Our QB does not “nut up” in a tight game.
Our OL needs to play more physical at the point of attack, too many failed attempts in short yardage situations.
Develop some depth at inside linebacker.
Special teams bounceback in punting and return teams.
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gurley getting hurt should be your number 1 concern.
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Just throwing it out there that Shockley was terrible against Georgia Tech in 2004 and was 0-3 on passing in the Outback Bowl and that didn’t really weigh on 2005.
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DJ was a lot more battle tested than Mason is.
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DJ got at least one series in every game for about 2 years.
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He helped win the Clemson game in Athens.
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But that was back when Richt didn’t know how to coach QB’s and was dumb for rotating DJ into the game…so it’s irrelevant.
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With that, I agree, all except the luck part. I’d change that to “any manner of solid football”, that is, being fundamentally sound and not making so many mistakes that you give the games away.
Because that’s how we lost all four. And it doesn’t seem like such a big deal to many, because that’s been par for the course for so long.
I bring this up because this guy is the first sportswriter I’ve seen who has a clue about Georgia’s 2013 season. He thinks we lacked a little luck, but at least he sees we should have won all four of those games.
Maybe we’ll be lucky enough to be well-coached, and well-prepared, in every detail, every week, someday soon. Because that leads to solid play. And when Georgia doesn’t beat themselves, they are a very difficult team to beat.
About this game, just no more serious injuries. Nothing that will keep anybody from full winter/spring participation.
~~~
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I worry about how I will manage the long grey winter and long hot summer with no football.
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