Here’s a nice tall glass of Kool-Aid to chug:
Last year, with all the injury problems and all the bad luck, four of Georgia’s five losses came by five points or less, and the other came without Gurley. That 8-5 record is misleading. Despite the loss of a quarterback who didn’t get enough credit for keeping the team afloat in its close wins, a young team is about to become a veteran one, and an injured one a healthy one. And that’s how close games can suddenly become convincing wins, and how a team that’s always coming up short regains a foothold as a championship contender.
Ahhh.
(h/t Ben)
Get The Picture 
XXX Dawg Porn..
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Well, we won some games that easily could have been losses, too. See UT for example.
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And UF, and Tech, and LSU… UGA seemed unwillingly to not play close games last year. They kept it interesting.
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So injuries didn’t play a part in the close wins?
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This is finally going to be our year.
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Well played.
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2012 is calling. I can still hear it in the fading past….”our year….our year…our year…” That really was supposed to be our year.
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Is this Black Cherry Kool-Aid??? I think I like it..
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Everyone is buying in. The guys are all giving 110%. Every position is open for competition. The energy is a lot higher than in past years.
There must be a few more i’m forgetting.
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Something about getting rid of the energy vampires (you probably got that covered though)
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The upside of this team depends on how well Hutson Mason plays. I keep reading “he’s not Joe Cox.” Well, everyone forgets that Joe Cox put up big numbers. It was his excessive turnovers that rued his performance.I don’t think the sample size proves accurately what Hutson will do over a season. I like this team a lot but I’m in the wait and see camp for the quarterback production.
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Don’t forget Joe Cox replaced an ineffective Stafford and basically put the team on his shoulders and beat Colorado. He didn’t have the running game or receivers that Mason will have. If the offense stays healthy, they’ll be as good as anyone. If the defense is average and healthy, the team will be in Atlanta….it’s that simple.
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Joe Cox didn’t have Todd Gurley (and Keith Marshall, Malcolm Mitch, Chris Conley, Michael Bennett, JSW, etc). In fact, I had to check the 2009 roster because I couldn’t even remember who the running backs were then. Good ol’ Washaun Ealy. I would think Gurley would have helped the Ginger Ninja exponentially.
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And Joe could throw a better deep ball than Hutson
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I’m glad there is finally some love on this blog for Joe Cox, a DGD. Whatever failures there were that season they were not the fault of the QB. It was the fault of a D that was so bad that the DC and 2 assistants got fired, not to mention non-existent STs. Joe Cox won at least 3 close games with superior passing, particularly at/near the end of those games. Remember the ’09 Arky, ASU and USCe games. Not to mention Georgia had LSU beat on a TD pass from Cox to AJ Green until the Zebras stole the game with a made up call. Remember, the guy was 10-5 (including the ’06 Colorado game where he came off the bench to win) with a terrible D.
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Oops, 9-5.
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This +100
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Amen!!!
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Georgia had some strokes of good luck last year, too, that kept it from being even worse. I’m thinking of a fumbled Tennessee touchdown that would have extended a game against a very scrappy team that was taking advantage as our boys melted down. I love the view that Georgia wasn’t so far away last year despite the horrible defense… but we always tend to forget the narrow victories.
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I get all the good/bad luck scenarios; but the bottom line was injuries last year. A healthy offense last year blows nearly every opponent out. We weren’t even healthy for the Clemson game! Injuries are part of the game and hopefully the Dawgs had their share last year. I’m sure UF is thinking the same thing.
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I’m enough of a sunshine and moonbeam guy to believe that a healthy offense wins most of the games we lost, but we weren’t going to be blowing many teams out. The defense was letting in just as many points as we were scoring.
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The game everyone says we got lucky is the Tennessee one, but let’s not forget we were handling UT pretty well until everyone started getting hurt and the ST melted down. The injuries were clearly affecting the team mentally, and it’s not surprising it affected their performance.
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+1
We were reaching deep into our pockets and struggling to find some loose change against the Hillbillies. Butch had his team up and they were ready to rock our world. They were looking to pick a fight. If we would have stayed healthy we wouldn’t have struggled. But struggle we did. At the end of it all Bobo proved to be adept with his “I-Pad” and what a performance from some of our young Dawgs! Yes and “Ole Lady Luck looked down and laughed out loud” and we laughed right along with her.
=========================================================But then she had that chuckle with the Barners– but later she would grin at Saban. Perhaps to ease our pain and make up.
Point being, sometimes the football just bounces funny.
Geometrically, it is a prolate spheroid.
“How bout them Dawgs!”
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I read the subtext of this piece as “Georgia should be doing better than it has,” and can only agree. Inferior to middling coaching and inconsistent recruiting got us there in the 90’s–that and the fact that some other teams (UF and UT) got better. In this century, it seems more and more as if we got a good bump for 5-7 years and then middling coaching, inconsistent recruiting (and constant attrition) and bad luck pulled us back again–not all the way back, but far enough to make it feel as if we’re somehow consigned long term to “close but no cigar.” Now the coaching seems much better and the talent is there. As for ol’ Lady Luck? 4 knuckleheads getting arrested doesn’t make me optimistic.
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It’s spring.
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Let me be the first on this blog to congratulate Mark Fox and the University of Georgia basketball team on a great win tonight in the NIT. This gives the Georgia team a 20 win season for the first time in over 10 years. Also, Charles Mann had a monster second half–29 points–for the Dawgs. The announcers were talking about how all the team members except one return for next year and that Georgia has to be one of the favorites to win the SEC title next season.
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Wish we could get a largebody bruiser for the middle, maybe from a JC. Fox did a pretty good job. Hope he takes us to the next level in 2014-2015.
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The team’s not perfect–more than 20 turnovers in that game. But Mann is a potential beast and if this team can get better ball handling from the guards and find a big man with hands in the off season, next year they could have the best Georgia team since Tubby was there.
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“Georgia has to be one of the favorites to win the SEC title next season.”
That was silly wasn’t it? Am sure we are going to walk all over Kentucky, Florida and Auburn next year with the way we thumped Vermont. Don’t know where the NIT gets its announcers from. At least the Vermont vs. Georgia announcers were better than those in the following LSU vs. San Francisco game in which Bill Walton’s primary focus was how great Pistol Pete Maravich was. I wish he would have talked more about the Louisiana Purchase.
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