Y’all can debate what won-loss record will be satisfying, but I’m not gauging Smart’s performance in 2016 on that. I’ve got a much simpler criteria.
I just want this not to be bullshit.
On whether he will be more hands on with the defense, not leaving it to assistants…
“Oh, no, I’m hands on with the whole program. I’m going to be involved with everything. I mean, for me, that’s one of the biggest strengths I think I have as a coach is managing the whole thing, being involved in special teams, being involved in the offensive and defensive sides and being involved with coaches. The big thing is making sure everybody’s on the same page. Demand excellence out of everybody and make sure you get that. If you don’t, you’ve got to make a change.“That’s what being a head coach is about, and those are the hard, tough decisions you’ve got to make, and that’s what I’m ready to do.”
Give me a head coach who knows the difference between delegating and not paying attention. Give me a head coach who, in the process of fixing one problem, manages not to disregard another. Give me a head coach who’s capable of getting both the offense and defense to contribute to the team’s success.
Give me all that next season, and I won’t care if the team misses a bowl game. Because I’ll know things are heading in the right direction.
Get The Picture 
And he mentioned special teams!!!
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We have special teams?
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What’s special teams?
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No, you won’t, but you will be able to convince yourself that you do for another year, which I suppose is the essence of being a fan.
All that matters is wins and losses. A good coach can lose too many games in the short run, but ultimately that is all they should be evaluated on.
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Actually, I will. I’m more patient than you give me credit for.
In reality, if Smart really is good with detail management, I don’t think I’ll have to worry about Georgia not going to a bowl game.
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This is essentially what I was thinking. If Smart actually delivers what he’s selling, then the rest will take care of itself. Sweat the small stuff and the big stuff follows.
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Sorry, I should have included a quote. I do think you will patient for at least two years, I was asserting that you are mistaken that you will ‘know things are headed in the right direction’.
No one, including Smart himself, will know that until we are at the destination. But it will be defined by wins and losses, and if we really don’t make a bowl game (sonething that never happened in 15 years under Richt), we are a good way towards a destination that should result in his swift termination. Having one 6 win season in 15 chances is light years better than having a 5 win season in 1 chance.
10 wins a year as a long term average is not good enough. That is who we are until we have fired McGarity from what will surely be his last AD position. It takes 5 eleven win seasons to make up for a single 5 win season.
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We should never have to worry about a bowl game when we play three cupcakes OOC, Vandy, Kentucky and GT for starters. Yes, UNC isn’t a cupcake (at least this year), but bowl eligibility isn’t the bar it used to be.
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I agre, but you’d think Tennessee, Auburn and Florida would never have to worry about bowl eligibility, right? They have all stayed home very recently. The Bulldog nation may be about to get a powerful dose of reality.
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And if it happens, I’m sure you’ll be there to say, “I told you so.” In the meantime, you’ll just post angry bullshit about how impatient everyone is and how it was all a big mistake.
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Sorry for all the ‘bullshit’.
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UT historically is a program like UGA. It’s not, and should never again be a good comparison to UGA…and not because they fired Fullmer. UGA’s recruiting advantages are too great. And if you Kirby doesn’t compare well to Muschamp’s first year at UF – or particularly the arc of the program – then he’s a bad hire. And not making a bowl with the talent UGA will have (clearly best in the SEC East) would be a horrible sign.
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Agreed. I’d actually say that if it’s a 4-win team and deservedly so (i.e. matching rankings statistically, in F/+ and Sagarin), then we should move on to the next option immediately. The only way to reliably get a coach superior than Richt is to burn through several inferior options along the way. We could get very lucky with Smart, but otherwise time’s a wastin’.
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Here I agree with the Senator in that if the signs point to the program moving in the right direction I wouldn’t want to move on after one year. For example, if we have a bad coordinator again I don’t want it to take a year or two long to pull the trigger (i.e. Martinez, Grantham until Louisville grabbed him, etc). I don’t want to see the program undersigning again (and end up with 175# tailbacks as a result).
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This is why I said that we should certainly look at statistics to see if the record is deserved. This 9 or 10 win 2015 team is god awful compared to the 8 win 2013 team, and the stats bear that out.
Any other ‘signs’ are, IMO, just the same Kool-Aid drinking I’ve seen a dozen times when other schools get a new coach.
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Now you’re thinking like an athletic director. I mean, sure, Bama and Florida’s defenses looked like grown men playing a boys game. But neither of those schools have hedges! Obviously, our athletes will always be superior to the non-hedges schools, so there’s no excuse for not winning immediately.
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Why is it that UT has more SEC Titles than UGA? They are our equal…like it or not.
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Not this millenium they weren’t, it wasn’t even close.
Going forward, though, it’s hard to disagree.
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Like it or not, living in the past is not a good way to evaluate programs. If it was, Army and Navy would be premier programs.
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What if CKS does about as well as Saban did his first year at Bama?
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I’d give him another year, even though CKS is walking into a much better situation in terms of talent and schedule. Less than 9 wins in 2017, though, and you have to can him.
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He is also going to have a lot of help(staff) to manage the whole thing. Hope he gets all that he needs. Otherwise, he may discover that managing the whole thing is beyond time consuming and leaves him totally burnt out.
I hope beyond belief he succeeds and does not give himself a heart attack in the process.
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How will you tell without the accompanying wins?
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How you win or lose is a big, big deal. Take this years 9-3 team, which is absolutely the worst 9-3 team I’ve ever experienced. Heck, it just feels like a 5-7 or 6-6 team, but thanks to an absurdly easy schedule (we beat exactly zero P5 teams with a winning record) and a few close, ugly wins, we have an opportunity to win 10 games against…shocker…yet another mediocre at best opponent with more flaws and less talent than we have.
If we lose several or more games next year but, as SB pointed out, its clear that we’re heading in the right direction with myriad past mistakes being corrected, I’ll be far, far happier than if next year’s team ends up mirroring this years one, yet has a few additional wins.
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And you think 2015 schedule was easy….look at 2016. 8 wins should occur in our sleep (not including bowl).
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Maybe. Some of the teams we expect to be average or worse will probably turn out to be pretty good. I mean, nobody saw Florida coming this year. Auburn, Vandy, South Carolina, Kentucky, Missouri and Tech will all likely see some level of improvement. Not that they should beat Georgia, but they won’t be as easy as this season. Not that many of those games were easy this season.
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Why is tech better next year? Their recruiting classes?
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They went 3-9. It’s by far the worst year of Johnson’s tenure, and I consider it highly unlikely he’ll repeat it.
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It didn’t get much publicity, but they had an incredible rash of injuries. At one point this year, their top 6 (yes SIX) running backs were out due to injury. The odds of that happening again aren’t good. I expect them to have a pretty good bounce back year next year.
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Really? I see five possible losses on that schedule, particularly for a rookie head coach who loses three starting offensive linemen, the entire starting defensive line and one prominent backup, three starting linebackers, and the team’s leading receiver (to say nothing of the possibility of starting either a true freshman or a severely limited senior at quarterback).
UNC will be a very difficult career opener for Smart, and Tennessee, Florida, Auburn, and Tech are all widely expected to be better next year than they were this year. Add games at Ole Miss, South Carolina, and Missouri, and I don’t believe for a minute that there are eight automatic wins on the schedule.
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This really has been a very unsatisfying 9-3 season. It feels like we saw the shinny new Porsche in the driveway only to jump in and find out it did not have an engine in it. It still looks pretty, but it ain’t going anywhere.
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I don’t see how we can play the same absurdly easy SEC schedule, except trading Alabama for a very good, but weaker SEC team, same weak Tech team and 2 cupcakes and win fewer games essentially a no better schedule and it be a positive sign.
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We know he will have a staff that recruits. Aside from his OC, what I’m most curious about is how he’ll handle adversity as a HC as well as in-game decisions. Those are things you can’t really prepare for so much as you just have to go through them.
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+1, Senator. That’ll be the biggest sign of improvement to me, too.
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“Give me all that next season, and I won’t care if the team misses a bowl game.”
If you get all that, there’s no way to miss a bowl game, imo. Almost no way to miss the SEC title game.
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With all the sub 500 teams going to bowls this year, not making a bowl should be in the contract as reason for dismissal w/o any buyout
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I just want some assurance that what Kirby said about OL and OL coaching was not lip service.
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At this stage, no more beat-down routs (Bama 2015; Florida 2015, 2014 etc; USCe 2012, and so on) or their functional equivalents (losses to Vandy, Kentucky, or teams like UCF) would mean the world to me.
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This all day. Those types of losses are what ultimately knocked me off Richt’s bandwagon. Looking totally unprepared and lost for entire games — important ones, at that.
The occasional washout is excusable. But under Richt our football program because known for the blowout loss. He trademarked it.
In addition to what the Senator said, I’d love to put an end to Richt’s annual nap game tradition.
GATA, Kirby. Rebuilding that offense and replenishing our roster with upgraded talent is no small task.
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Let’s say Georgia loses five games in 2016 (say, to UNC, Florida, Ole Miss, and Tennessee), but each of those losses is by a touchdown or less.
Would that be an improvement over the last several years, in your view?
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Sorry, make that “loses four games.” Same question.
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Yeah, 6-2 in the conference is an improvement over 5-3. I think you were pointing to a different metric. My answer to that is “not really.” Losing at UM by 7 or fewer is a big improvement over losing to Alabama the way we did. Losing by 7 to UT is a little worse since would be at home. Losing to UF sucks just as bad by 7 as any other score.
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It could go either way but I agree judging Smart’s first year on wins and losses will likely disappoint us at some point. He could win 10 and then we would expect 15 in 2017.
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Yeah, believing things are headed in the right direction is key. In this sense, CKS needs buy in from everyone: players, coaches, administration AND fans. We can, for instance, aren’t surprised when a kick returner has two colossal muffs, but we are shocked and in disbelief when he continues to return kicks…..
CKS’s Year One Team will be allowed to make many mistakes and not completely have their act together, for sure. He won’t be judged crap happening, he’ll be judged on how he reacts to crap happening.
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As long as we’re creating a wish list, I’d like a HC who appears to care as much about the outcome of the game as I do. Richt seem to chalk everything up to God’s will. As much as I love UGA football, I don’t think God wants to get involved.
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You don’t think CMR cared about the outcome of games more than you? Did you watch his press conference after the Alabama game in 2012? Did you see him almost break down at the end of the LSU game in 2013? Say what you want, but the man wouldn’t have lasted 15 years in the pressure cooker that is UGA football if he just chalked it up to God’s will.
Find another reason to talk about CMR’s faults as a head coach, but this is a red herring.
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Let’s stick with the 2015 season—I watched all his PC’s after the losses to Bama, UF, and UT, and definitely seemed worn out and quite apathetic after each of these. His one quote after the UF game really made me howl, as he said something like, “well, I told the team we really got our butts whupped today, no doubt about that.” He said it so nonchalantly with no emotion, it was astounding to me.
Mind you, I’m not saying he didn’t care…but he certainly didn’t (or doesn’t) seem to care as much about wins and losses as other SEC coaches. And his absurd statement about friendships lasting forever while rings collect dust was beyond ridiculous. Even Champ Bailey publicly admonished him for such an absurd way of thinking.
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His rings comment was made to his team after he got fired. I’m going to give the guy a pass for that statement to his team as he is walking out the door to head to Miami. Honestly, Champ Bailey for all of his talent has zero rings as well from his college and pro days, but I wouldn’t say he’s a failure just as I would say CMR isn’t a failure.
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And to kids who had won no rings. His statement is true though relationships are more important than rings. Trophies and rings will not be there to support you in times of trouble. I bet Tony Dungy would agree and he has won the big one.
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Sure they do i you if ya sell em on ebay!
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can’t type nevermind
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Well Hell if that’s the case maybe they’ll all go out and recruit 85 Jameis Winstons, Chris Raineys, Aaron Hernandez, Maurice Claretts etc, etc… That would be a ring we could ALL be proud of!
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I am with ee and Debby. He was telling the team he had been fired. I imagine some players were expressing regret at not winning a championship for him. I understand the 3rd and Grantham approved response would have been, “Nick Saban loves his players more than I love you,” but I prefer his comment.
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Eh, I m not a CMR hater, but I am a little more with Chicago on this. Yeah, he’s upset when the loss happens, but has seemed disconnected during the game too often, imo. I didn’t want him to be going all Will on folks, but look a little more hands on. It sometimes seemed like Mark was waiting for the Red Sea to part, so he lead us to the promised land.
Now, I am as much a believer as anyone, but sometimes believers don’t see what God reveals. There’s story of the man in an area where flooding was predicted. Sheriff comes and warns him to evacuate. He responds “I have faith God will provide”. Flooding starts and officials send vehicles to get the stragglers. He still refuses saying the same thing. Then they send a boat as the waters rise, and he still refuses saying the same thing. Then they send a helicopter with him on top of his rooftop. Still he refuses. Then he drowns and goes to heaven, and asks God “I had faith, why didn’t you save me?”
God responds “Well, my child, I tried. I sent you a Sheriff, a vehicle, a boat and a helicopter.”
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That’s a fault and it has zero to do with his faith. Any fan who says they care more about a team’s performance than the coach has no idea what they are talking about. Yes, that’s an “in the arena” type of comment. Those players and coaches want to win more than any of us can comprehend.
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If Smart doesn’t work out, can we hire Musa Smith to lead our next search committee? No Christians need apply.
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That’s funny, Napoleon!
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On a crusade here lately, eh?
Stay sensitive, Napoleon.
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Congrats to you. All of your herping and derping has won me over to your way of thinking. Christianity is a handicap for succeeding in football. Indeed, in life in general.
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You seem to be confusing me with someone else with whom you’ve had a Christianity debate. But, unlike you, I don’t debate religion on college football blogs. So feel free to enjoy that without me.
In the meantime, stay sensitive, Napoleon. I trust you will obey that command with unwavering dedication.
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Sigh. Look, if you want to be a jackass, that’s fine with me. Just own it. Don’t be a jackass and then act all butthurt when someone responds.
In the meantime, I will continue to suggest, ironically, that you stay classy.
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I started this by saying I was “creating a wish list” which does include a HC who appears to have more passion than CMR seemed to illustrate in the last few years. Sorry if that offends you in some way.
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I can accept that. What you wrote is you wanted someone who cared about wins and losses more than you do. I was reacting to the words in a comment section.
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Well, Spurrier is on the market. And Boom was. I guess we missed our chance. Smart’s sideline demeanor has always seemed fairly even-keeled to me.
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Richt is gone..let it go. The move was made.
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Agree time to move on. Let UM deal with Richt. Let UGA deal with Smart. I do believe though it will be about W and L. That is the fan and board’s base of the current era Win big or be gone. Even Saban said he would be wondering about his job if he had 3 loss seasons.
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I realize he could just be saying that managing the whole team is one of his greatest strengths, but it sure was exciting and encouraging to hear. What I really liked about it is that if managing the whole thing is truly one of his greatest strengths, then he has experience managing the whole thing. I mean, that sounds like Smart has been at least somewhat in charge of game-planning, if not more.
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Saban didn’t get to where he is by not listening to those he trusts and the record shows Smart may be the only one of those that ever existed, so Smart is likely ready for the big picture.
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I want to see a team that gets up off the mat the first time it gets knocked down and punches back harder. That’s what happened in all 3 losses this year – we got punched and couldn’t (or didn’t) punch back. We saw that at the end of 2012 when we stood toe to toe with the Tide and showed them we could match them punch for punch in the middle of the ring. We saw that in 2013 before the MAS*H unit showed up in Knoxville (we even saw it on the Plains in what may have been Aaron Murray’s finest hour).
If we get that plus a minimum of 8 wins, I’ll think things may be trending in the right direction.
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Totally agree. It was this fact that swung my opinion on CMR. Too often it only took one shot to knock this team out.
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Let’s look at the ability (or lack thereof) to get off the mat. Those teams that did it:
’01 and ’02 – David Greene makes big plays in Knoxville and Auburn to win games late
’05 – Shockley wills his team to beat LSU in Atlanta
’07 – Stafford (and Moreno) puts the team on his shoulders for the great final run
’12 – Murray wills the team to win out after the USCe debacle
’13 – Murray puts the team on his shoulders until there’s nowhere to turn against Missouri
In all of those cases, you had a QB who either through ability, leadership or both could push the team over the line. We haven’t had that the last two years and especially this year.
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To me, there’s one common denominator in all of those…Aaron Murrary. He doesn’t have the rings but he put the team on his back more than any QB I can remember. DGD.
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You took the words right off my keyboard.
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I expect at least nine regular season wins if Richt could do it he should be able to.
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Winning in the SEC – even in the East – is a lot harder and more complicated than it looks. If Smart puts together a 9+ win season it will be a testament to how good he is, not how mediocre CMR was.
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Correct. Vince Dooley averaged just over 8 wins per season. Even adjusting for the shorter regular season during Dooley’s era, Richt averaged more wins per season.
8 wins a year, at UGA, is just above the all-time historical average. If Smart wins 9 in his rookie season, it will be a truly impressive feat.
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I agree with your thoughts, Senator, but I have a floor of expectations given the talent on hand, the recruits in the pipeline, and the schedule.
Of course, it all hinges on finding a quarterback.
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“The big thing is making sure everybody’s on the same page. Demand excellence out of everybody and make sure you get that. If you don’t, you’ve got to make a change.”
This is what stuck out for me. I love the idea that if you’re not on the same page as CKS (I assume he means players and coaches) you’re gone.
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Funny how some posts damn Richt without even meaning to damn Richt.
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There is no way missing a bowl next year is acceptable. There is no way losing more than 3 is acceptable.
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I think losing 4 or more games next year would be acceptable (and even likely). I could easily see us losing these four games next year:
North Carolina (Georgia Dome)
at Ole Miss
Florida (Jacksonville)
Auburn Tigers
Any of those losses would be acceptable to me in CKS’s first year. I could also see us losing the following games, but don’t know how “acceptable” they would be:
at Mizzou
at South Carolina
Georgia Tech
I keep seeing/hearing where people say our schedule next year is “easy” or “light”. Yeah. Keep telling yourself that.
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Ole Miss loses a ton of talent next season.
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Common sense would tell me that would make them an easy target next year, but……
Maybe I’m jaded when it comes to using “common sense” to predict our W-L ratio.
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I’m not predicting a win, just that I wouldn’t call a loss a slam dunk.
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Just taking expectations a few steps at a time.
Hiring two (possibly three) qualified coordinators and a visit with every pre-committed member of the current class is a good start.
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If he doesn’t win – people will select one or more of those criteria you listed as an area(s) of failure- in fact, others not listed will surely be created.
My point being- if he doesn’t win “big,” people will complain.
So it is that simple (unfortunately)- behavior by UGA fans is primarily driven by one thing- wins and losses.
Straw man arguments are not valid.
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@TAMU. absolutely. Nothing else matters in this day and age. W and L. Some of the fan base will expect 15-0 next year. If not then time to go get someone else.
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After Donnan, Richt was a welcome breath of fresh air. Right now, KS is a welcome breath of competitive fire. Can’t wait.
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People demanding more than 9 wins in 2016 are just whiny, bitter Richt apologists trying to set themselves up for a cathartic “I told you so.”
As far as 2016 is concerned, I’m looking only for those signs of improvement that don’t necessarily show up in the W-L record.
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Good for you. However will agree to disagree on the whiny Richt apologist. I am not on of those. However, it is about W and L. IF the fan base is truly interested in improvement that does not show up in the W-L, then the fan base is a lot more evolved than I give them credit for. And that goes for any fan base of a school making a change. You would never hear me say I told you so. see how it works out–time will tell.
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You’ve been all about the wins and losses. I’ll measure him against Richt’s first 5 and last 5 seasons. The common denominator is multiple appearances in Atlanta with a championship on the line.
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Considering how soft our schedule is in 2016 (the word “marshmallowy” comes to mind), if the signs of improvement you are looking for show and we don’t win at least 9 games, something went very wrong.
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LOL @ our schedule being soft.
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Turd, sitting through losses isn’t worth writing “I told you so” to some anonymous person on a blog. I am hoping we never lose a game for the rest of my life.
That said, the only way UGA can win a championship is to win games. There is no extra credit for pluck. Since we play 9 lousy teams how, pray tell, can we lose to at least 1 while showing “signs of improvement that don’t show up in won-loss records? “
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I don’t really agree. The most common argument given by the “fire Richt” crowd was that a trained chimp could win 9 games at UGA. We play 2 cupcakes a year, plus Tech, Vandy, etc.. And, we have hedges.
So, if a new, presumably better, coach comes to UGA and wins LESS than Richt, wouldn’t that be a refutation of the “it’s so easy to win at UGA” crowd?
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Couldn’t agree more with the Senator on this one.
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So what are people’s predictions (not expectations) for the Kirby era? I’ll propose a few scenarios (feel free to add your own, not that any of you needed an invitation):
Scenario #1: Stays 15-20 years, wins titles and leaves as our greatest coach (if he sticks around for that many years, he’ll need to have won at a very high level, given expectations).
Scenario #2: Stays 8-10 years, wins a title, but a down cycle hits, misses on replacing some key assistants, fan base gets fatigued and end resembles the late days of Richt, just on a shorter time horizon (essentially doesn’t survive his equivalent of 09-10 seasons).
Scenario #3: Has a great 7-8 years, wins a national title, gets tired of recruiting grind and gets offered a truck load of money to coach in the NFL.
Scenario #4: UGA has just found its Muschamp, never gets the offense going, fired in a few years, Butts-Mehre gets cleaned out and our Tennessee-esque decade in the woods begins.
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Either #2 or #3 feel the most likely to me.
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I think it’s #2. He gets tired of people questioning everything he does especially in the Atlanta media. He decides that I’ve made $30m, so why worry?
I wouldn’t be surprised for option #5 – has immediate success and Bama backs up a Brinks truck of money after Nick retires
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Unfortunately, I think #5 gets my vote. Kirby stays 3-4 years…. get’s to two SEC Championships (but loses both) – Georgia fans whine…… And he jumps ship to Bama when Nick retires. But I’m a pessimist/Eeyore, so there’s that.
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All odds point towards #4. New head coach who will make new head coach moves when they become his call. Coach Smart absolutely will crap the bed on more than one time out/ clock management/extra point situation because he’ll be focused on the next call not the clock. He will let the defense regress from this season’s unbelievable success and unless he gets Mike Bobo back as the OC (yes ,I know that will not happen)than we might improve on offense but it will not be enough to compensate for the regression on defense. Richt could have gotten 9 or 10 wins next year( I understand that is just not acceptable ) but Smart will not . I plan on bitching at the very first delay of game penalty . If we lose to any of the weak sisters of the poor (i.e. USC,Vandy,Kentucky,Mizzou or GT) I plan on pointing out that Richt didn’t do that very often. Every screw up will be followed by my ,”Hell ,Richt couda done that”. I was going to let my season ticket renewal lapse after the firing of Coach Richt but now that I think about it the pay back to the anti-Richt/Bobo crowd that occupied the seats around me maybe worth the cost of admission.
The only good thing I see coming out of this track we’re on is that hopefully Greg McGarity will not out last Smart ….Senator Blutarsky for AD. I’m not kidding
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I have no idea how Smart will fare as a head coach. Will he be great or another Will Muschamp? I cannot predict. I can hope, but any prediction would be just a coin toss.
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What is going to be interesting for me is whether Smart will do similar things to what Saban did in this respect: Saban built a program and an identity, got the best players and said: “this is who we are, good luck beating us.” They don’t really modify their approach from week to week. He started off .500 because it took time for the “process” to pay off. By the next year they came up a game short against UF in Atlanta and by year 3 they were a monster. While Urban may have been shown that the “process” wins in the end in both 2009 and 2010, in both 2008 and 2014 Urban out coached Saban on game day.
Hell CMR and co. out coached Alabama in the SECCG in 2012. If you get 8.3 yards per carry before any opponent touches you and you nearly lose, you’ve fucked up.
Will Smart follow Saban’s approach? Will he be able to recruit well enough to permit it to work? While Saban has no doubt made his “process” work, its dependent upon having the best players on the field when the whistle blows.
Saban’s greatest strength is also his greatest weakness: inflexibility. Will it follow Smart to Athens? That’s what I look forward to watching.
Saban builds programs.
Meyer wins football games. Program management is questionable at best.
Spurrier scored points. He also needed a great DC to succeed.
These are the three best coaches of the last 20 years in this conference. Very different approaches to winning football games.
The first time we line up against a top notch qb and two top notch receivers and we leave the our corners on a island all day long and give up 40, we’ll have our answer. If we back off, play cover 2 and try to limit the other team to a score we can top, we’ll know Kirby has his own ideas about winning football games.
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This is exactly what folks need to comprehend. The opponent is irrelevant. Kirby is going to assemble a team, prepare the team to play Georgia football. Whoever the opponent is, doesn’t matter.
Thinking like “can we beat Florida.” Is totally against the flow. Any opponent is just anyone other than Georgia.
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10-2 SEC East Champs..if that shitty UF team can do it, we can too.
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I like your spirit. If Smart and staff are better than 2015’s, and I hope they are, then why not expect better results? I do not understand why a better coach is held to a lower expectation than a poorer coach.
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I just want to watch a game and feel like the coaches are in control and the players are all on the same page. I want to feel that we’re moving forward. For the past several years, UGA football seems to have been running in circles. Good enough on some days, but really bad on a few days — and unfortunately, pretty bad in many of the “big” games. I want to feel like we’re “ready to play,” even if we’re out-manned. That hasn’t been the case on many weekends of late. I wish Richt the best — he brought something important (respectability) back to UGA. Now I’m hoping Smart will finish the mission. With a tougher schedule, I’d be very happy with 9-3 next season, but I don’t really care, just so long as it looks like we’re building. I remember when Coach K built his program at Duke, his team had an awful record in year 1, still poor in year 2, then started to move up swiftly by year three. I’d like to see that kind of progress at UGA in another sport..
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This guy –
http://www.dawgsports.com/2015/12/6/9857818/how-long-will-kirby-smarts-honeymoon-last
– predicted 6-6 to 8-4 and thought UGA fans should be happy with that. My thought was, couldn’t we have gotten that with Coach Richt? He mentioned Saban goiing 7-6 at Bama his first year, but Smart’s inheriting a much better situation at Georgia. The team’s on track for 10 wins this season, their recruiting class was ranked 3rd in the country at the time of Smart’s announcement and they return a respectable amount of starters. The cupboard’s far from bare. I’d also be happy with 9-3 next year, but I expect no less.
To be fair, I think Kirby needs at least 3 seasons before we give him a definitive evaluation. I buttonholed a BOR member on the way out of Sunday school class this week and told him I’d forgive him for firing Richt if Kirby wins 30 games his first three years and manages one appearance in the SECCG. That’s the rate Richt managed and Kirby should meet or exceed that.
BTW, after I spouted all the facts and figures showing why Richt should be retained (the same ones I cited here – win %, wins, bowl wins conference division championships, both vs. former UGA coaches and vs. all D1 coaches the past 15 years) the BOR guy just shrugged his shoulders, smiled and said “It’s been 15 years – it was just his time to go.” Logic didn’t matter – only power.
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Spot on! CKS is inheriting a much much much better situation than Saban had at ‘Bama. When has a first-time head coach inherited a better team at such a storied/successful/Power5 program? Can anyone think of one?
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Agreed. From the game management standpoint, I’ll be particularly pleased to see fewer timeouts to pull special teams units back to the sideline to remind them to be ready for the fake, pooch or block. Before special teams can produce big plays they need to simply follow the Hippocratic oath.
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CMR is the coach at Miami.
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I think we as fans and people in general expect instant gratification. We can give lip service to wanting to see improvement regardless of the record but when it comes down to it we will make a decision based on what we think the record should be based on our fan’s opinion of the talent and the opposition. As a long time observer of UGA I have always found that we fans always think we have the best talent in the East and that all of our East opponents are inferior. These assumptions leave us with but one excuse when UGA
loses, it is the lousy coaching. The fact is we don’t always have the best talent and our opponents are trying just as hard as we are to win. My point I guess is we will always have an over estimate of UGA’s potential. We are and have always been, with the exception of 1980-1982, a good football team not a great team. We are not nor have we ever been in the same class as Alabama, Michigan, Ohio State, USC, etc. Have we beat those teams yes, but not on a consistent basis. Get over it. We are not Alabama and hiring Kirby ain’t going to make us Alabama East. Can we be better, I hope so. Know what I really hope is that Kirby has good luck as a coach. I miss the Dooley days when the ball bounced our way. Goff, Donnan and Mark all went down when Ole Lady Luck stopped smiling on UGA. This loss of luck was the beginning of the end of Mark in the 2012 SECC. I’d rather be lucky than good any day.
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Florida might have said the same thing about being outclassed by the Bama’s of the world before some guy name Spurrier got there. Georgia can be the next superpower team. Kirby is taking us to the promised land!
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To me it all comes down to preparation. If we recruit well, assemble a staff of good coaches – and hold staff members accountable, CKS will have set himself up for success.
Sorry to keep harping on Pruitt, but he was a sea change for UGA. We went from poor roster management to arguably the best. We recruited with the best of em AND picked up players like Ganus, Lambert and Jurkovic to fill vacancies. There’s also a part of Pruitt that holds people accountable – hense his troubles with UGA.
We have a semi-disfunctional athletic program. If CKS intends to change that he’s gonna run into the same type of obstructionism and whisper campaign Pruitt is dealing with. All the powers-that-be need is an excuse, like the fallout we had with Richt and Pruitt after the Jax ass-kicking.
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The overly sensitive wine and cheese crowd in the B-M complex will decide if KS gets the W-I-N going.
KS hits the road recruiting to the west coast QB commit. That is good but McGarity put KS behind the eight ball with that stupid vindictive elite call to make CMR pay for his trip out there a few days ago.
Now tell me what message did that send to recruits and in particular Eason.
If I am the parent, I tell my son to contact Florida.
That is exactly what happened.
Now does KS have control of his program or is GM still sticking his nose in the tent?
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I’d rather Eason go to Miami or some other non-SEC school than Florida. I think I’d rather seem him go to ANY team other than Florida. Unless he goes to Florida and sucks. That’d be okay.
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he didn’t make CMR pay for the trip, he just made him fly commercial instead of using the UGA plane or chartering a jet.
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Nail=Head. Agree 100%
Richt was a good, not great, coach at UGA. You just highlighted why…
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I feel a lot better about Kirby’s next three years than I felt about the three years some were lobbying for Richt on here a few months ago. Anybody remember that?
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great comparison… delegating vs. not paying attention. Pretty much sums up the last few years. I’m not sure where stubborn fits in but I’m sure there is a great analogy somewhere.
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I’m giving CKS no less than 10 years for a SEC title.:)
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