Eat.
- There may be a difference between compliant and committed, but some preseason happy talk in Athens always sounds familiar.
- In Columbia, too. They’re buying in!
- Where have you gone, Georgia transfers? (Sad to hear about Tramel Terry’s latest setback.)
- Just because most SEC coaches participated in satellite camps doesn’t mean they have to like it.
- Seth Emerson ranks Georgia’s 2016 opponents in order of importance.
- Larry Fedora is an advanced stats advocate.
- You can take Kirby Smart out of Tuscaloosa, but you can’t take Tuscaloosa out of Kirby Smart.
- Commitment announcements just keep getting sillier.
- Junior’s gonna Junior.
- Andy Staples sets the bar: “Unlike former co-worker Jim McElwain, who didn’t face high expectations when he took over at Florida, first-year Bulldogs coach Kirby Smart is expected to compete for championships immediately. Otherwise, why did Georgia fire Mark Richt? “
Get The Picture 
RE: Kiffen. I know he is a douche of the first order, but what did UT ever do to him other than give him a great job?
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Burned him in effigy?
Not that he didn’t deserve it.
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“You can take Kirby Smart out of Tuscaloosa, but you can’t take Tuscaloosa out of Kirby Smart.”
Are we gonna have a Running of the Gumps?
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The Tramel Terry story should be a lesson to a lot of these guys that these post-season high school all-star games are not in the player’s best interest especially if you’ve already made your decision and plan to enroll early. That kickoff return in the Shrine Game pretty much ended his dream before it started. I think he was South Carolina’s Mr. Football in 2012 and was a 4-star prospect. He didn’t need to play in that game …
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I don’t think Staples has it quite right. No on in their right mind expects to fire Richt in 2015 and compete for championships in 2016.
In 2018 and on, however?
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You don’t fire a good recruiter and 9.7 game avg winning coach and expect to lose that next year.
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We haven’t made the conference championship game the last 3 seasons and have made it only twice in the last 10 seasons. And we didn’t win the conference either time.
I know the Richt lovers are pretending that championships are the bar…but that’s not even close to being accurate.
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If they aren’t the bar, why did we fire him? Also, he made it twice in his last 5 years to the SECC. Why not just let him go and worry about what we are going to do this year?
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Kriby gets a pass from me for 2016. 2017 and beyond, the honeymoon is over.
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That’s nice of you but I honestly don’t think he will need a pass. He has talented players, experienced coaches (on the field and in the weight room), more assistants than ever before and a favorable schedule (as far as SEC goes). We will win right away. Kirby is new to HC but he is so detailed oriented, I can’t see him making new-coach mistakes. The championship may not come just yet but 9 wins is the bottom…for this year. The areas that are weak (if there are any) will be overcome by the honeymoon excitement. I think the kids are ready to play hard for this new regime.
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The “new coach” mistakes are going to come … whether that directly results in a loss (see Auburn 2001) remains to be seen. There’s no level of preparation that can prepare Kirby for the decisions that a head coach has to make in the heat of the moment on the sideline. That truly is trial by fire, but everyone has to go through it.
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Hopefully Kirby won’t make many ‘new coach’ mistakes. But our previous HC was making new coach mistakes all the way through his 15 year stay.
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While I don’t expect a December appearance in Atlanta (9-3 is what I expect, but I would LOVE for us to be 10-2 or better), I expect to see the team compete for an opportunity to appear in Atlanta (no face plant or brain cramp losses). Sorry, but this isn’t 1989, 1996 or 2001. 4 seasons ago, this program was 5 yards away from an opportunity to bring a national championship to UGA. Recruiting, facilities, fan support and expectations have only been raised from there. With the exception of Florida, we have turned the tables on our other traditional annual rivals. It’s time for this program to take the next step …
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Considering where we started with UF and where the series is now, I think you could argue that we have at least reset that series.
Same thing with championships. 5 trips in 15 years is definitely resetting the expectation when it was 20 years with zero championships before that.
And what we have done with UT, Auburn, and GT is pretty amazing.
CMR owns nearly half of all UGA wins against UT. 10 of the 21 total wins against UT came with CMR at the controls. Win the stupid game last year and UGA swings that whole series in their favor and CMR has 11 of the 22 wins.
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DawgPhan, I would agree with your comment about Florida, but our performances in Jacksonville the last 2 years have been dismal.
Totally agree with you on the championship expectation … 20 years is a long time, and CMR reset and raised expectations there.
Kirby needs to build on our success against UT, Auburn & tech. You’re never going to win every game every year, but a step back against the rivals clearly make championships less probable.
We’ll see what happens starting September 3 …
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The Florida games the last 2 years are bad, made worse by the 3 wins they compare to, but if you drop those games in the mid 90’s those look like close games.
CKS is going to be great. This team is ready to be great.
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+1
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The 5-10 record vs UF is the reason CMR is not in Athens, IMHO.
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I would suggest the 0-2 record is the reason Richt isn’t in Athens anymore.
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You are probably right, but if we jump in the time machine and CMR wins
2003,2005,2010 and his series record is 8-7 against UF. That would be a 3 games streak and a 4 games streak and I would bet that he still gets fired.
Winning those 3 games wouldnt change the Sugar bowl, national titles or even sec east titles.
Winning 3 more games against UF doesnt really change anything about the program in 2016, unless those last 3 loses all become wins and CMR is sitting on a six game win streak against UF.
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I’ve said so in this space several times. I believe Staples is correctly gauging the average fan’s mindset. Kirby and the Dawgs cannot afford a Boise State type performance against UNC. The honeymoon will be over the first weekend of the season. We fired the winningest coach in Georgia history. Our recruiting is regarded as very good. Maybe not Alabama good but very good. I think large swaths of Georgia fans really do expect us to improve immediately. Most of us realize that’s an unrealistic expectation but I think it’s an expectation that’s fairly common.
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Has any new coach ever lamented about his team not buying in?
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Has any new OR existing coach ever said the team wasn’t buying in? The clichés they left out were:
Everyone participated in the off season workouts.
The seniors are really showing a lot of leadership.
There’s a real sense of purpose and focus.
We’re going to make sure a season like last season doesn’t happen again.
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That list of transfers… wow. Lots of talent.
I’m sure most of them would have gone pro by now if they had stayed (and not gotten themselves kicked off the team), but it’d be nice to have Jon Taylor, Shaq Wiggins, Trey Matthews, and Josh Harvey-Clemons on D.
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I understand why people want to make a big deal out of the UNC game, but there’s no way it should really be more important than any SEC games. Yet Emerson saw fit to rank it above four of them.
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Ouch those transfers.
Looks Like CMR will get a good look at AJTurmnonSeptember10.
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I don’t think he will. Turman has to sit a year.
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The absurdity of ranking FOUR conference games as being lesser in importance than beating Georgia Tech makes the Emerson article laughable. I get the fact of where GT is located, realize the neighbor/colleague may run his mouth or fly his flag, and recall when they were justified as being the number one game every season, but that ship sailed when they bolted from the conference, over four decades ago! There is a warped sense of values when a conference opponent is rated as less significant than beating a GT or UNC and fans have lost their sense of direction lost sight of the goal if they feel that way.
The goal, according to nearly 100% of the fans, is championships. You cannot win ANY title if you don’t get to Atlanta in early December and winning any one of the Vandy, Kentucky, Mizzou, and SC games has to be expected to be critical to that. Set emotions and personal feelings aside; beating GT and UNC is totally irrelevant to that primary goal of winning the East, or the SEC. They only matter if do win the East, the SEC, and want one of the limited spots into the playoff….but you still have to get to Atlanta first. Is beating a GT or UNC may important than title? Seriously? I want to win them all as well but this is totally illogical.
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Yes, I was willing to give him a pass on the Tech ranking because it’s a huge rivalry game, but the same is true there as well. Speaking for myself, I’d rather lose to Tech than any SEC team.
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Beating tech may not be job #1, but losing to them is very dangerous to a coach’s long-term job security. For me, it goes in this order:
1) Jort Nation
2) The Barn
3) The Hillbillies
4) Nerds
5) Everyone else
Hate tech early and often …
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Yea, EE, avoid the rush.
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the first 3 are much more important to win. Number 4 is most important not to lose.
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Of course, our fans give us zero credit for beating tech. 51-7 and 42-10 were 2 of the most gratifying days I’ve ever spent between the hedges. The original “We Run This State” was one of the most enjoyable nights I’ve had watching a Georgia team win.
I agree with you wholeheartedly. I can take losses to the other 3, but a loss to tech pretty much sours me on the entire season.
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I expect us to beat Vandy and KY….hell yes, GT is a bigger game than those two. Just my humble opinion.
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I guess it all depends on how you define “big game”. I imagine you’d be rather miffed if they lose to Vandy or KY. That plays into my definition.
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And mine, one conference loss for us can very well be the difference in getting to ATL for the title game, and that is why I feel this way. I would rather beat GT than the other three non-conference teams, except maybe for some bowl opponents.
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If we can’t beat tech any year, we aren’t going to Atlanta. I could never see a season when we went 11-1 with the 1 being the Trade School.
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That first story on strength and conditioning has been written every season for as long as anyone can remember. They just have to tweak it a little bit and it’s the same article.
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Yep, every school too…
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Have you seen the New Coach Madlibs that Andy Staples put together? http://www.campusrush.com/college-football-preseason-feature-mad-libs-1915736475.html
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2016 is the grace period, but that’s it. Look at what Saban did the second year at Bama and Meyer did his second year at FU. If we don’t get to Atlanta in 2017 and at least compete with the West champ, there will be plenty of bitching. Not saying I would agree with the bitching but I wouldn’t completely disagree either.
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Look at what CMR did his 2nd year
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Good point.
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On Seth’s ranking of games: I’d have Ole Miss a lot lower. In fact, I’d have it behind Mizzou and maybe even Kentucky. It’s definitely a big game and they’re a good team, but to me it’s just not as important as sweeping the east teams and beating tech and auburn. Do that, and you’re in ATL.
And I’m in agreement with the Tech ranking. It’s an important game for Kirby. You just can’t lose to Tech. It’s a rule.
I definitely agree with #1 and #2. UT and UF are the most important games on the schedule, no question. The only argument is which is which. If Kirby can beat UF in year 1 that’s tremendous given the history of the series. But losing to UT at home… it’s a tough call.
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Here’s my view of first year coaches and honeymoons: I think Kirby has talent enough to win this year, so I kind of expect 9 or more wins. But at the same time, it is his first rodeo. So I won’t be surprised if he has a few hiccups that hurt, maybe even losing a game we should have won. But it will surprise me if after being head coach for a dozen years his team gets smoked or he has to take a time out to set up a play, and then take another time out because there’s 12 men on the field, etc. Stuff happens, and you have to take some risks and some backfire. But you don’t have to shoot yourself in the foot from being disorganized. I’m hoping I won’t see much of that.
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