Any way you want to spin it, this isn’t a good look for Kirby Smart.
Georgia beat Nicholls State by just two points on Saturday, 26-24. This is a confusing result for plenty of obvious reasons — Georgia was ranked ninth in the country, Nicholls State hasn’t had a winning season since 2007, etc…
Other programs have struggled and/or fallen victim to FCS teams, but in 17 games against non-FBS programs since 1953, the Dawgs had never won by fewer than 20 points. And the only team to stay within 30 was Georgia Southern (45-21 in 2008, 48-28 in 2004, 29-7 in 2000, 34-7 in 1992), now a Sun Belt power.
That 1953 game, by the way: a 14-0 loss to Southern Miss. You have to go back to 1943 to find such a poor result against a team that isn’t currently in FBS (Daniel Field 14, UGA 0).
No, I don’t know if Daniel Field is a person, a program or a place… but I digress. What I do know is when you’re a Georgia coach who in epic fashion has exceeded the low point of sixty-plus years of your predecessors’ work in any way, shape or form, that’s not a place you want to be for any length of time. Maybe folks are a little justified in feeling uneasy about Saturday’s narrow escape after all.
They — and by that I mean, of course, the players and coaches — need to wash the bad taste out of everyone’s mouths this Saturday night in Columbia. The only thing worse than a dismal win is a dismal loss.
Get The Picture 
I think Daniel Field is an airport in Augusta and that they had a large contingent of military personnel there during the war and fielded a football team.
I know that because it’s recent it is an issue but I’m betting that in 9 years Saturday’s game will be about as relevant as the 2007 La. Monroe game is to bammers as in not at all.
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You are correct Derek, Daniel Field is in Augusta. Those players would have been from Camp Gordon, the same men that tended the gallery during The Masters Golf Tournament that turned into the famous Arnie’s Army. Enough about history…IMO, the fresher the memory of Saturday’s game stays in the minds of our players, the better off we will be. A great coach would constantly remind his team how they got punched in the mouth by a “no name” university. As I stated earlier this week, Nicholls was playing for a greater cause as it was quite evident in their 60 minute effort. The Dawgs better find their own cause, and soon…
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If nothing else the Nicholls game was just confusing. I really don’t know what to make of it especially after such a solid performance in the opener.
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Furthermore, I wouldn’t be surprised if the players and coaches don’t feel the exact same way. It’s almost rattling. I think we would all feel a little better if Nicholls won their conference and had a decent if not exceptional playoff showing this year.
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Daniel Field is a small private air field in Augusta. During WW II Naval Aviators, the Doolittle Raiders etc…trained there. During that time they had a football team and they played UGA due to the shortage of colleges fielding teams.
Yes…the narrow win is extremely perplexing and quite frankly defies the laws of physics. Had we not beat a quality opponent week one where the team fought and scratched every second of that game to win…I guess it wouldn’t be but they had already proven they could beat a ranked quality opponent. I think Saturday night can’t come fast enough for some players. We need to Kirb stomp Mizzou…see what I did there?
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Yeah Daniel Field is a small private airport in Augusta. Fort Gordon outside of the city limits was a huge training base in WW2. I’m sure a lot of generals etc flew in and out of it. Nowadays it’s probably where a lot of masters bigwigs fly in and out of.
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The refs totally screwed us in that Daniels Field game. We should have won by 20.
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It was Penn Wagers’ 1st game
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Well, well played!
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The thing about perplexing games like Nicholls is I worry that the team spazzes over it as much as we do. You know, that don’t lose it twice thing. Oh, we didn’t lose.
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Made the mistake of listening to EDSBS’s Shutdown Fullcast podcast last night, and heard these Florida fans laughingly comparing Kirby to Boom. I honestly hadn’t thought of that yet. Hope I don’t in the future.
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Jacob Eason is not Jeff Driskel. Jake Fromm is not Jeff Driskel.
That’s the end of that comparison.
What did Will in was no QB. Kirby has that handled for the foreseeable future.
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Florida did recruit a lot of blue-chip QBs under Boom, but none of them worked out. Point taken, though. I feel a bit better.
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Corch Meyers recruited Driskel to Florida to run his spread offense. I actually think Jeff would’ve excelled under Corch. But Weis came in with Boom and we all know how good of an OC he turned out to be.
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The same Jeff Driskel who is now in the NFL? (Bengals)
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According to Rivals Jeff Driskel was the no. 1 pro style QB in the nation the year he signed with FU.
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Then he had 4 OC’s in 4 years. Kid had/has talent. But he got rooked in college.
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I don’t know. We hired the hot defensive mind as our coach. He hired a somewhat rotund OC that was supposed to work wonders with QBs and OLs. Instead we’ve gotten an “impose our will” offense and as much Grayson Lambert as we have Jacob Eason. Starting to look a little scary to me.
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I knew Smart and Muschamp both back in college. This is not a concern that I have. Our problems are a shitty offensive line, young defensive line, and no quarterback. By the end of this season I expect to have a decent quarterback.
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How does you knowing them translate to how they coach?
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Yep. Pig in a poke. We thought we were getting one thing and got another.
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Silver lining, though: my wife and I are going to Columbia next weekend with some church friends out here in Cali who are Mizzou fans. (They are heading to Athens with us in 2017 so they can see what a real SEC stadium is like.) There’s certainly more dramatic tension about the game than there was a week ago. I had thought rating BBQ joints in KC was going to be the most suspenseful part of the trip.
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Ha. Glad for your sake the game is of seemingly greater consequence now. =P
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“When you little scamps get together, you’re worse than a sewing circle”.
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So why did Marsellus throw Tony out of that fourth-story window?
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I don’t know, but since then he’s developed a bit of a speech impediment.
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Truth is, nobody knows why Marsellus threw Tony out that window…except Marsellus and Tony.
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Exactly my thoughts – we may have struggled in the past with UAB, Marshall, Sun Belt GSU, or Central Florida, but those games were nothing like this past Saturday.
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You missed Buffalo.
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Buffalo wasn’t bad. Gurley scored three times. The defense was meh, but the Dawgs had some guys suspended. Game was never in doubt.
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They had a future 1st rounder at LB in Khalil Mack that was a damn wrecking ball in that game and the next season against Ohio State as well.
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As I remembered, Buffalo ran it on the ground for an embarrassment of yards against what we thought was a lights-out D at the start of the season. Sound familiar? I remember Buffalo mostly for always being #1 in the Bottom 10 poll for years before we played them.
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I witnessed such games in person as the ’94 Vandy, ’99 AU and others that were complete disasters. Yes, even UF last year. But last weekend was the absolute worst UGA game I’ve ever seen given the opponent.
In a matter of 4 hours, I went from unabashed sunshine pumper to the season will be a hot mess.
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’94 Vandy. Homecoming. There was rumor of player slowdown because there were no black women in the Homecoming Court. Didn’t we turn the ball over at the 4 on the opening kickoff?
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That was no rumor.
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I think Jt expressed it best above when he said the Nicholls game defied the laws of physics. It just makes no sense. You may play down to App State, Ga Southern or Kentucky. You don’t “play down” to a Nicholls State. It’s just against the physical laws which govern our universe.
The only thing I can come up with is:
1. The players were deliberately trying to throw the game. or
2. The players have zero respect for Smart and just did not give a shit about the game or Coach Smart.
I wonder if Smart is still letting the players call him Kirby. I’m thinking probably not this week.
I don’t really believe the above, but can’t think of a more reasonable explanation for that “game” we saw Sat.
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Kirby may be emphasizing technique and physicality while neglecting the mental and emotional aspects of preparing a team right now. That may be part of being a first time head coach.
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Good point.
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Where can I get a job with a $4 Mil salary where I can get “on the job training?” I sure want one.
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Okay, okay, I guess I better ‘fess up. After we ended that awful 4 game skid in 2010, I came here and admitted I’d broken with many years of personal tradition (no weekend bourbon until 4th Quarter of an apparent UGA win at the earliest) and had been imbibing my favorite bourbon the Friday night preceding each Saturday loss. Suspecting what was up, I swore off the High School FB night swig, and sure enough, we started winning again. I promised publicly NEVER to do that again. Well, last Friday night, figuring there was no harm, given the opponent, I’m afraid I shared some good stuff with my brother-in-law, and I don’t mean just a little sip, either.
The good news is I absolutely will NOT make that mistake again, no matter who the Hell we’re playing, which should restore order to the Dawg-o-verse.
My apologies to everyone for all the angst. It won’t happen again.
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Accountability.
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It’s just such a vicious cycle, SD. Many of us here understand fully the term “Driven to Drink.” and it’s no shame to fall off the wagon. I also have cut back on my tequila intake and for the correct reason, as yours is also. Mine was at the plea of the lifelong companion I have linked my being to going forward, until tears ran unashamedly down my face. We shared our relief together that I would cut down on the amount of tequila just as she had stopped squeezing my balls until tears streamed down my face and warned that next time I might not be so lucky.
I’m limping towards my cookies.
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This past weekend changes nothing in my expectations. Kirby needs to LEARN from his mistakes. Winning less than 10 games will be a total failure after the UNC win. The schedule is way easier. Missouri has a new coach, a campus and team in some disarray and a general lack of talent. Ole Miss can’t compare to Bama and after getting bludgeoned by FSU and Bama Ole Miss will be wiped out for us. UT is better, but we lost to them last year. The clucks are terrible. (V)Candy lost to the clucks. UF is another loss from last year. UK sucks worse than Nichols and All barn is no better and at home. Then U LaLa and tech. We don’t win 10 and it tells me that Kirby and Chaney continue to not maximize the talent we do have. Trying to man over teams with the mature talent we have is ridiculous. Use your playmakers like Godwin and McKenzie. Spread out so Chubb can get some space and not face 10 in the box. Throw to the tight ends. The secondary was #1 last year and Mauger can’t get on the field? This reeks of stubbornness, the very thing I hated about Richt. A great coach adapts to the talent strengths he has, rather than trying to make the team something they aren’t. Let’s see our game plan Saturday.
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Again, I’m just so thankful we got rid of CMR so we would never have to witness a game like Nocholls again! Finally we have a dedicated, full time special teams coach and that has made all the difference. It’s just so awesome to have the The Process in Athens paying attention to all the details! I mean, the details are what matters and it’s really starting to show! What’s that? I can’t understand some of you because of King Kirby’s dick in your mouths.
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You are a most unpleasant fellow. Someone pee in your cornflakes today?and yesterday? The day before?
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If not I volunteer.
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I see we’ve replaced vulgar, repetitive, anti-Richt trolls with vulgar, repetitive, pro-Richt trolls.
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Nothing vulgar about this post I see …sorry, just an observation 😀
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True, the haters last season were the worst ever, and some haven’t gotten over it yet. Sad group, much more about the coach, and gettig their way than the team/program.
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The guy on the real hot seat should be McGarity – it was just a month and a half ago that he promised a ballroom full of people in Buckhead that we wouldn’t be sweating the end of games anymore!
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I was there. It was Brookhaven, not Buckhead, at CCC. Greg McGarity didn’t say shit. He never does unless Mark Bradley calls him and orders him to give him an interview, in which case he’s too fucking stupid to keep his mouth shut. He hid in the back of the room red-faced as a fucking tomato while King Kirby told all of us how he can’t out facility other schools and that despite UGA having $60MM of unallocated cash, “we” needed to raise more $. McFuckup doesn’t have a clue what to do with Kirby, cause the little prince is running around telling all the big donors what all the problems are. CMR never did it because he thought it was against what a Christian should do. Greggy will be out before the end of 2017…mark it down. Heard it here first.
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Yes, but not here, and not from you. There have been rumors of McG’s retirement in 2017 for months now all over the bulldog web.
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You really are a parody. I’m pretty sure I know whether I was in Buckhead, at the Westin, or whether I was at the Capital City Club in Brookhaven. I’m also pretty sure I know whether I heard McGarity speak or not… Your assumption game and name match up perfectly though!
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Have we (not just GA, but the entire major conferences) reached “PEAK CUPCAKE”? Just a question. Have all of those millions and millions of dollars the P5 programs funneled finally narrowed the gap between upper and lower caliber schools? I don’t know but I think it’s worth a study?
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Tipping Point by Malcom Gladwell
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No. If someone were to conduct a study, they’d find that blowouts happen at roughly the same rate as they always have. Georgia played as bad as a team can play Saturday and still won. If not for the Eason’s pick, they’d have won by three to four touchdowns.
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“If Only”, the battle cry of the Bulldog nation. I’ve been hearing for 35 years how Georgia would have won a national championship “if only”. I really hoped we had moved past that when we got rid of Richt.
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Nope, because there are some of us that is still bitter about Coach Richt being fired. Was not justified and Saturday’s game proves that point.
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It doesn’t appear, at least in the short run, that the replacement of CMR has yielded better results. That said, the sample size is small. If CMR was going to be fired I was in favor of hiring a big name HC from another successful program. Kirby may still turn out OK but right now he is Mark Richt redux. Seems like a wasted opportunity to me.
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Do you think the Nicolls game shortened the honeymoon period for Kirby?
For what it’s worth, Saban finished 7-6 in his first season with a home loss to Louisiana Monroe. Year 1 of a coaching change is a difficult one, especially when the coach is trying to change the the culture as well as the schemes.
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With some GTP commenters? Apparently.
With the people who write the checks? Nah.
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