You think Georgia has issues? Troy blew not one, but two fourteen-point leads and lost at home to a Football Championship Subdivision team.
“Certainly, now is not the time to start pointing fingers and looking at external factors.”
Filed under It's Not Easy Being A Mid-Major
Get The Picture 
I hate it that all of us get put in the same basket because of a few. I keep hearing from all the media heads how the Georgia people responded to the game with “fire Richt, fire Bobo”, etc., when that doesn’t represent the Georgia people at all.
I just hate that guilt by association, because most of us aren’t morons. Certainly not here, and I suspect this Blog is more representative of the Georgia fan base than anywhere in the Dawgosphere. But even the guys here who think Richt will never get it done, and thought so in preseason, aren’t calling for him to be fired.
Not to say most of us are happy, most of us are certainly not. We’re tired of losing games we should win, and want it to stop. I couldn’t help but notice that Gurley seems to be feeling that way as well. That’s the impression he seemed to give after the game.
That’s a good sign, IMO. Maybe it will help get the coaches attention. I hope so. While we all want Richt to succeed, and understand the shortcomings of this year’s team, we’re tired of this. If we give it our best shot, and it’s just not good enough – no problem.
But this has got to stop. And Mark Richt is the only one who can stop it. He has to refuse to make excuses and has to demand more – of his coaches, players, and staff. But most of all, himself.
Pardon the rant. But I just hate losing critical games we should win.
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Really interesting thought about Richt. Looking at recent BCS Championship coaches, is Jimbo Fisher “better” or more demanding? (I’d say no). Saban is. Miles? (Maybe). Can you even fairly compare Auburn to anybody? Corch? Not Mack Brown.
So other than Saban, who do we compare Richt to as an example of “how it should be done”? I agree with you Ivey that Richt is responsible for pushing the team culture further towards excellence. I don’t know that he’s not and I don’t know if the forces outside of his control will match it even if he does.
His record for wins in the SEC is 2nd only to LSU (which is a combination of Saban and Miles). There are times I feel like we are the perennial 2nd best team in the SEC vs a rotating cast of #1 teams. We seem to be our own toughest competition every year. We’ve got to at least break that cycle.
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Somehow this game, and specifically that blown play on first-and-goal at the 4, bothered me a lot more than the failure-to-spike against ‘Bama two years ago. At that point, I considered it an aberration — the fact that our coaches tried to catch the defense off guard (though we obviously didn’t) by lining up quickly and not stopping the clock so we could gather ourselves and get off maybe two plays. A call that could have been brilliant, but just didn’t work, I thought at the time. Now, I’m starting to see a pattern. I like Richt, like Bobo, but my God, call the obvious football play in what is realistically UGA’s only real chance to win that game. I don’t want anybody fired. They’re good coaches, but there is definitely brain-freeze at work in big-time games.
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Good post.
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IDK. It’s an interesting thought. I like who Richt is, I mean I love the guy. Don’t want him to be anybody else. But I wonder if sometimes that interferes with his better judgment as a coach, in terms of there are times when you have to lay the hammer down to protect the best interest of the team.
Should Richt have overruled Bobo’s call on 1st-&-goal? I think so. And I have no way of knowing, but I suspect he knows he should have. It wouldn’t surprise me if he thought it at the time. Yet he didn’t act.
How many times should he have used the hammer on Grantham? Martinez? No telling.
I wouldn’t say Jimbo is more demanding. But I would say he is ‘less tolerant’ than Richt. Maybe that’s the best way to express it. His tolerance level, as a HC, isn’t as high as it should be.
BTW, Richt could have had a NC with some luck. Maybe even two. To me, he’s not accountable for that. It’s losing games we have no business losing that bothers me. Eliminate that problem, and all the other stuff takes care of itself.
IDK that he’s not either. He’s been trying for several years. My gut feeling all year has been he finally took that step. Maybe this is just a bump in the road and not a continuation … IDK.
That’s it. One way or another, we’ve got to bust out of this thing. And we just missed a great opportunity to put a substantial crack in the lid of it.
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I would love to know the inside scoop on play calling during the game. I like Bobo, but think Richt is much better. I understand why he had to give that up yet I think CMB has been a step backwards (from Richt himself). Bobo’s success has taught me to stay silent with any complaints (his O scores over 30+ points bro!), but my memory is Richt was a more instinctive play caller. Throw in the mix an experienced QB like Murray in his senior year and I suspect CMR was even more passive about play calling while the offense was on the field leaving it to AM and Bobo. Spurrier is still sending in select plays and very active with play calls…Richt should probably get back to this (because I’m assuming he’s not, which could be dead wrong). If Bobo is hired away, I hope he does get more involved and hire another young OC instead of a veteran.
On D, however, I really get a sense that Richt almost has no feel for this. While certainly very untrue, he appears most passive when the D is on the field. I’ve never believed in the HC as CEO. Dictator may be better. He’s got to be more engaged and less noble about his role. Is he reading Spurriers’ mind and telling Pruitt to make a switch, or just observing and critiquing afterwards (if at all)? Maybe he and BVG were so young they fed off each other, but when he responded to criticism that he needed to manage more and give up play calling, things really have not progressed, at least on D.
I don’t know about coaching, but if there is no chemistry on a management team, the results are not going to be effective in the long run. Even though Willie, Bobo and Richt were all friends, not sure the chemistry was right. Clearly it wasn’t with Grantham. Too early to tell with Pruitt, but I would just love to have the clear impression that during the game, good or bad, the calls are what Mark Richt wants (like you perceive with Saban, Spurrier, Mikes, Corch, Malzahn, etc.) and not what he delegates.
And then we’d ultimately know if he’s the guy that can win the SEC again or not.
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The question that all Dawg fans ask is “Can Richt push this program over the top?” Given what we have seen over his 14 year tenure, the answer is no. The same problems arise year in and year out, and the team is always lacking in one phase of the game or another. We all know that Richt is not getting fired any time soon. So we wish and hope year in and year out that this is the year that he finally puts it all together. That is why the first (2nd, 3rd…) loss of the season is always the most painful. It is the annual reminder that our program excels in talent yet lacks in coaching. That’s why Saturday was so painful. Carolina is not a better team talent wise compared to Georgia. They were the better coached and more prepared team. The talent that has passed through this program the past 14 years is ridiculous. It has been, and is, an embarrassment of riches. Which is yet another reason for fan frustration. When the coaching and scheme match the talent on hand, well, that will be a glorious year.
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I wonder what “over the top” means. There are 125 FBS teams and all of them, save one, will not win a national championship this year. Is it that Richt has to win a natty to prove himself to us? We aren’t satisfied with results, with planning, play calling, recruiting strategy, but we also acknowledge the riches that our program has that are matched by few others. I guess that means that we want parity between our capability and our results. But even then, what is enough?
What if we were Oregon? Innovative, balanced and prepared enough on both sides of the ball, with the advantages of an (arguably) easier conference than the SEC. Also with no national championship. Also with seemingly inexplicable losses at the most baffling times. If we were Oregon, would those of you who are demanding satisfaction be satisfied? In thinking about the best of the last decade, Oregon has to be up there. Top 3? Top 5, certainly. Would that be enough?
I am not posing these questions to be a jerk. Last Saturday sucked. And what sucked more is that it was a familiar feeling. I just don’t know what we are demanding when we say we’ve had enough. Because, as a Georgia fan, I look at a program like Oregon and think, damn, they seem to have it all together. Facilities, players, scheme, schedule. But they don’t have a national championship either. They did play for one, so maybe that’s it. But maybe not.
What do y’all think?
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During Richt’s tenure, Oregon ranks 7th in winng %, UGA 8th. Boise St is #1, the others in between (OK, tOSU, LSU, Texas, USC) all have a Natty. Good luck finding the common denominator in that…other than good luck maybe.
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IMHO you are not being a jerk, you are right on target. It’s the journey not the destination.
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Was that the same call that Jay Rome scored on?
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If it wasn’t it was very close. TE was covered but Hicks was open and would have been 1 on 1 with a safety to beat. It was an excellent call that didn’t work, and had a strange ending. If everyone in America thinks Gurley should have gotten the ball (and that would have been an OK call too) then an OC was right to fake it to Gurley and let him draw the defense to him. I will say the fake pitch to Gurley wasn’t very deceptive. As usual, it is the result we didn’t like, if it had worked it would have been Hobnail boot time all over again. We had two good options, this one didn’t work but should have left us three more plays inside the 5. Goo doverall game by Mason, this play wasn’t his finest moment. But 70% completion and a 175 QB rating isn’t a problem area.
Pruitt has to be loving this, all the bitching about an offensive failure when the defense is the reason it even mattered.
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The Jay Rome touchdown was not the same play.
Gurley stayed in to block and got enough of the DE to allow the pass to be thrown to Rome, who released from the right side of the formation.
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I thought the pass completion to Rome was a tight lane. It was good execution by Rome. He has good hands and playing basketball has helped him getting and holding the ball on tight passes and close coverage. When Mason released it I was afraid it was going to be intercepted. It was a close call.
Play to Hicks was bad from the beginning. You are going to run Gurley to the short side of the field. Boundary is a defender. Easier to get a hat on him and push to the boundary. Stop the clock possibly. From watching the play it comes across to me Carolina had the play covered from the get go. 73 sold no one on the play. Line splits did not matter. It simply looks like a bad play to make when you have other sets and players who could have put the ball. It is not about Gurley. It is about a wasted chance to put a TD on the board and force Carolina to drive the field [75+] on the D. Provided 15, Green, does not lose containment on his lane of the kickoff and allow the returner to get past the 40 [special teams failure]
This was a close game. But my complaint about Bobo started in the first half. That situation on the 4 yard line was the kicker. Goes back to A&M and ECU putting points on Carolina. We get 35…hell we should have had as much as A&M. That is the complaint here. Hell, we had 2 damn weeks of prep time. And Bobo runs a play like that. Why not run the same play they had on the 2 point coversion. But go back and look at how close Carolina played that.
After watching the game I thought Carolina simply outcoached us, had a better game plan, executed better, managed the game better. all in one week of prep.
And if people do not like the critique…well I understand. Some people can get their damn panies in a wad.
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The fire Bobo and Richt were all over the internet during the game and only now is it safe to read. Our lunatic fringe is loud. I guess all of them married Miss Americas. Because they have to have a trophy to consider life a success.
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