It dawned on me leaving the stadium Saturday that one thing is really missing from Georgia football — it’s not fun to watch. By that, I don’t mean losing sucks. It does, of course.
What I mean is that watching a Georgia game feels like more of a chore these days than entertainment.
That’s hardly a 2016 development, to be fair. Last season was a slog for fans, even if Georgia managed ten wins. The games at their best tended to be grinders (South Carolina excepted, although that turned out to be little more than a mirage) and at their worst were embarrassments.
When’s the last season Georgia football was fun for fans? Honestly, I’d have to go back to 2013. Even though the Dawgs finished with a pedestrian 8-5 record and Grantham made himself unwanted by the fan base, games against South Carolina and LSU were among the best times I’ve ever had in Sanford Stadium.
Apparently, what I’m supposed to take comfort in now is program rebuilding. Now there’s a sexy concept. As a fan, I’m not there to be entertained. G-Day gave me the sense that my presence was primarily as a prop for Georgia recruiting. I’m a means to an end — and, by the way, keep those contributions coming, thank you very much.
Believe it or not, this isn’t a slap at Kirby Smart. To me, it’s clear he has a strong concept for where he wants to take the program and he’s going to stand by his guns, no matter what that means in the short run. I may not like what I’m seeing from his approach so far, but I have to respect that level of commitment.
I wish I could say the same thing about the people who hired him, though. I’ve said before that I have little doubt Greg McGarity is already rehearsing his speech for the coming offseason. Better things are coming. Trust the process. Alabama 2007.
You get the idea. A joyless explanation for a joyless season, from a guy who really had no clue what he was signing us up for when he made the coaching change.
In essence, Georgia’s marketing plan to its fan base is to put up with the present in the hope of a glorious future. Generally speaking, selling the ends to justify the means is a tough nut to swallow when you watch games like Vanderbilt. It’s especially tough when you raise ticket costs well before you get there.
I’m not threatening to quit on this team. For better or worse, I’m a Georgia fan. But would it be too much to ask to expect a little more in return right now?
Get The Picture 
Amen. UGA football hasn’t been fun in a long, long time.
When it’s such a death march to score, no game is ever put away.
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I hear ya. I missed last weekend’s game. Sure, I went to the Grand Canyon and it was fun, but just a few years ago I would have nudged the wife to schedule it for this weekend. Now, I’m less attached. McGarity has to worry about losing people like me at times like these. I bleed red and black because I grew up in Georgia and most of my wife’s and my extended family went there. His reserve fund needs me!!!!
Anyway, I think you are letting Kirby Smart off a bit easy here. The guy has done very little to engage me and make me part of the process outside of my role as a recruiting tool. We don’t need any more subterfuge about whose is starting or healthy, and we don’t need to read anymore updates from the press that say “we watched 5 mins, and there is nothing worth shit to report”. As a fan I need to be able to follow along and feel like I know where the team is at and why. Otherwise I’m just a wallet.
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btw, The Braves lost me in 1994-1995. I grew up watching a lot of crappy Braves teams, but I was always watching. After the canceled season I realized what my role was to the owners and players, and I started only following the team when they were good. Right now feels awfully similar.
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MLB lost this lifelong, daily box score reader with the first strike. I watch the Cards in the playoffs/series, but even then I won’t go out of my way. I couldn’t tell you the last time I watched a Braves game. The last Braves game I attended was in the very early 90s.
We have a lot of decent minor league ball in NC, so we get to a few of those games each year. Especially at the older, less refined ballparks (which are few and far between these days).
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“The guy has done very little to engage me and make me part of the process outside of my role as a recruiting tool. We don’t need any more subterfuge about whose is starting or healthy, and we don’t need to read anymore updates from the press that say “we watched 5 mins, and there is nothing worth shit to report”.”
This isn’t intended as unkind, but a segment of the fan base wanted to be Alabama football and this is what Alabama football looks like these days.
Also, Grand Canyon is nice. I hope you made some great memories.
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There’s an old addage, “treat me like a customer and I’ll start to act like one”.
Honesty I think we’re seeing the result of two things, the well publicized implosion of the ’13 & ’14 recruiting classes and a complete change in player expectations. There is no more I love you because you’re here, no moor coddling and frankly we were all tired of that. So I think between youth and upper class buy-in, we’re a year or two away.
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I do not see a team that wants to win for each other.
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I don’t know about that. I don’t think they’ve quit.
I think they’re playing hard, I just don’t think they’re very good.
We’re on our third OC in 3 years, our third DC in 4 years, third S&C program in 3 years, starting an 18 year old QB, a transfer from RI at LT. We have one upperclassman on the 2 deep at DL. WRs are average at best.
None of this is an excuse for Saturday. But none of it is factually incorrect.
You cannot have the noise and turnover we’ve had in the program over the past 3 years and not have the bill come due eventually.
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All good points. Nice post.
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Agreed. I don’t think anyone is making excuses, but recognizing the reality of why we are where we are is key. I don’t know if Kirby is really the guy to get us there, but for now he gets the benefit of the doubt.
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So when does McGarity get canned? While I believe the change was welcome, I’d truly love to have it out in the open how much he sabotaged Richt from the get-go that has helped feed this culture.
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Idk. My intuition tells me that McG and Richt didn’t really jive, but I don’t know that I’d use the word “sabotage”.
I think McG is as out of his depth as anyone, but the structural shortcomings Richt had (roster management, OL recruiting, coordinator selection, shitting the bed in Jax., etc.) were his and his alone.
My best bet is that if you want McG gone, you need to root against Kirby. If you want Kirby to succeed, realize that you’re probably going to have to learn to live with Greg.
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I’m not going to root against Kirby because that’s not my style. I seriously know people will doubt it because I’ve made it patently clear that I think Smart is Will Muschamp 2.0 until proven otherwise (which I felt like he was trending towards proving me wrong after Tenn, but then went big dumb Will Muschamp again against Vandy), but I’d love nothing more for him to prove me wrong and succeed.
I also don’t disagree with your 2nd paragraph about self-inflicted wounds. I also believe that McGarity came on board after being in Florida during the Urban years not thinking too highly of Richt and was looking for an excuse to get his own guy. When he didn’t do it after 2010 (when he probably had the best leverage to do so), he was stuck with the guy. He broke the axiom of his mentor in Gainesville by not doing now what must be done in the future. I just think that he took the lazy way out and didn’t make his stand after 2010 and then didn’t exactly go out of his way to help Richt. As during the last two seasons, he probably hoped Richt would fall apart in 2011 to make that decision easier and it never happened. McGarity is the principle of lazy leadership. He just wants the hard decision to be made easy for him so he doesn’t have to own it because it’s the obvious decision.
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Can’t argue with any of that.
Right now, I’m more worried about a fractured fanbase than anything else. We seemingly can’t agree on anything, so how the entire program gets rowing in the right direction is beyond me.
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That’s where I’ve been since about 2009. The fan base is fractured, and winning heals a lot of that. The problem is the wins haven’t come and the staff doesn’t seem to care much about the record this year. Therefore, the old wound has been reopened. I shudder to think about what happens if we go to Jacksonville and play poor, uninspired football.
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The part of me that enjoys chaos is curious what would happen if we lost every game but ULL or Kentucky on the way out.
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I enjoy watching chaos, too, but that may be too much for this middle aged guy to handle. I lived through 4-7 in 1990 as a grad student. In two words, I can describe it — It sucked.
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Exactly
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Our game against Tennessee was fun to watch. It seemed like we had opened up the playbook, put guys in positions they felt comfortable, and there were a lot of big plays on both sides of the ball. Even in the loss, it gave me the most hope as a fan that the team could become dynamic. It looks like it was this season’s mirage. Otherwise I agree with you.
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You can only get kicked in the nuts so many times before you decide you don’t want to get kicked in the nuts anymore.
That being said, I’ve maintained since the hire that I won’t judge Kirby based on this year, I won’t start judging him until 2017. I never had high expectations for this season, even after the UNC game. However I’m definitely one that it won’t take too many kicks to the groin next year for me to disengage again. But for now I’m willing to give “The Process” a year to start working.
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I ponder the locker room too, because they don’t look like they’re having fun either.
I imagine that the team grew up and reality hit them harder than is ideal in normal circumstance. Mcgoofy yanked a “players coach” and didn’t even allow the coach and the players to talk. In my mind, a young 18-22 year old who lives a life of coaches being a very personal influence in all things, severing the relationship that had evolved over several years and deep emotional moments creates a hardening. These kids learned that they really are just cogs in gears manipulated by people well insulated from them. Usually, the kids getting drafted in their 3rd year learn this quickly from external sources. Our kids got hit by a hammer. I think it will take a while for trust and playing for the gipper to return.
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If you listened to the post-game call in show, you may have gotten the impression we’ve got kids who haven’t bought in to the new system. He didn’t out and out say we have that problem but Kevin Butler did say that this year you tolerate the kids who haven’t bought in but, next year, you recruit and just play the kids who have. Makes me think there’s a problem.
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I picked up on that too. KB knows football and knows what’s going on. I wish they would cut him loose and let him tell the truth a lot more.
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Hopefully he is sober the day he is cut loose, cause half the time he has been tailgating to hard.
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KB got what he wanted when CMR got canned.
He’s Baghdad Bobbing it along with Dantzler these days
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Your first comment I believe is correct. I do not think KB cared too much for Richt.
The second part, I’m not so sure about. Obviously he and JD know more about what’s going on then they’re going to say. But I don’t think they’re sugarcoating too much: the roster is a mess, and there are a lot of guys being pushed more they ever have been before.
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I can’t listen to that smug jerk, Dantzler, anymore.
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If we held Dantzler and KB’s radio show to the same standards we (they) hold our coaches too, they would both be gone.
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They are going down so hard on Kirby and McGarity ever show, because they know that’s their meal ticket – it is unlistenable…
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Butler knows kicking and special teams, but the guy is marginally more knowledgeable than the average fan when it comes to Xs and Os. If I want to hear someone talk Xs and Os, give me Eric Zeier or David Greene every time.
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Culture change is hard, apparently… And that seems to be a problem that no one really thought would be an issue
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Heyberto, have you watched UT at all since they canned Fulmer? I was saying long before CMR was cut loose that we could easily turn into UT if we let him go. Remember five years ago when everyone wanted us to can CMR and hire Muschamp? Those are the same people last year who wanted us to can Richt and hire Kirby. I hope it works out, but the UT route is certainly a possibility and the risk you take when you let a 10 wins a season coach go. We are all being reminded how hard 10 wins in the SEC really is. Saban’s first year at Bama was tough too. Next season is very important, though.
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Hell, I said that right after they fired Richt. The down side is huge, and hiring a coordinator who’s never been a head coach is a huge risk. If you’re going to take advantage of the fact that Richt moved the prestige factor of the job up a notch, why not go after an established head coach?! I’m with you, I want Kirby to succeed and be the guy. I’m not one that thinks the sky is falling, but I definitely think Kirby’s got some work to do to get better. More good news is I think he’d agree with that statement. Hope he can do it fast enough.
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I’m just waiting for a senior with no shot of going pro to come out and blast these coaches.
I certainly wouldn’t appreciate the staff’s focus on the future and recruiting to the detriment of winning now.
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Yeah, unfortunately there are only about 5 seniors from that 2013 class still around.
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I hear you. But they sure seemed to be having fun after wins like North Carolina and Missouri.
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I remember those many years ago when I arrived at Georgia and our then main squeeze at RB was a good guy named Don Soberdash who spoke to me saying: “Do you love football?”..to which I said something like: ‘Hell, yes..it’s the main thing in my life.” To which he said: “Then don’t play for Georgia because you’ll lose that love.” I didn’t know what he meant until I encountered most of the Georgia coaching staff. Trippi, Lumpkin, Mrvos were decent guys but the others did ruin Dawg football for me. I hope the guys who are playing for a new staff don’t feel that way. The game’s the thing..not some staff who push you in the wrong direction. Play for your teammates..not B-M…win for UGA!!
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While I won’t quit on my team it is entirely possible that I will cut tix from 8 to 4. Based on what I’ve seen my kids can easily get tickets for much less than the investment(and no, not on stub hub) at the stadium. Empty seats have become the fashion. Will Butts Mehre change? Only if the athletic board and Morehead get tired of hearing it and see donations drop.
Senator, this article is right on. I won’t stop coming yet, but the tipping point gets closer everyday. I’ve dropped all road games except Jax. What’s next for you guys?
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I dropped mine from 4 to two this past off season. Seriously considering dropping them altogether since living in Central Florida makes attending games challenging and with all the noon kickoffs, there isn’t much draw anyway as tailgating is so limited. The increase in ticket prices and donation requirements makes StubHub a significantly cheaper alternative for the games I can attend.
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Agree with both Ala and Murph. I’m definitely going from 8 tickets to 4 and contemplating even dropping to 2. I was amazed at all of the empty seats near me in the club level for the Vandy game. The early start wasn’t an issue because people never showed up to use the seats for our HC game. The crappy home schedules combined with rising donation and ticket dollars are pushing me towards the secondary markets as a much better alternatives. The time with friends is fun, the actual game experience not so much any more.
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The other thing that really struck my friends, family and I as we walked to the stadium was how empty it was on the North campus. The tailgating and partying festivities that made gameday such a great experience were completely empty and except for a smattering of families, the entire north campus was empty as people paraded towards the stadium.
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South campus was similar. It’s a culmination of things, but actually it is one thing: McGoofy, Figure(More)head and the Athletic Board don’t care about the experience for the fans.
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I’ll push back a little bit on this. The fans also needed to care a little bit more about the university and campus itself. I was in school during the previous decade when North Campus was at its peak of tailgating and it was awesome. Spent nearly every pre-game there. But the aftermath was insane. Completely trashed, piss everywhere, nearby bathrooms in buildings destroyed and grass was killed for the entire fall.
At the end of the day, it’s still a university and was disappointing that fans (including many many students) treated their school like frat house. I think there is certainly room to ease those restrictions and let the people who follow the rules come in and enjoy the space, but I don’t think we can go all the way back to the old days where North Campus was a zoo.
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North Campus wasn’t a zoo until the UGAPD and the ACCPD with the enabling of Michael Adams took away parking on the sidewalks on game days and forced people away from campus or into decks unless you had an UGAAA issued parking permit.
In the 80s and 90s, no one tailgated on North Campus. They literally ate fried chicken and drank adult beverages from the trunk or set up a table CLOSE to their cars as opposed to a football field or 2 away from their cars.
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We already let the season tickets go. We no longer spend thousands of dollars on tailgating. We don’t fight traffic. We don’t miss an entire quarter of the game waiting to pee in a bathroom that makes most truck stops look like the Ritz. We can get a coke from the kitchen instead of from some volunteer that has never worked behind a counter or used a cash register in their life. And we can keep up with all the other games simply by changing the channel. There’s never anyone sitting in my seats when I arrive and no one asks if we mind if they just squeeze in. We don’t have to listen to loud annoying music unless we want to. If anyone becomes drunk and belligerent I can make them leave. When stupid people say stupid things I can tell them they’re stupid. It’s my house. We’re liking the new normal. We still make one or two games a year and we enjoy those experiences. But we do not regret our decision to disengage.
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But why would you kick yourself out of your own house? 🙂
All joking aside – this post strikes a chord with me. I drive up from Marietta every Saturday and it just feels like a damn chore getting up to Athens (especially for a noon kick-off) and that drive back always feels SOOOO long because there are just pressure points within any of the major arteries on the way back to Atlanta that inevitably get clogged up with traffic. I’m really considering just dropping the season tickets and going up for the one or two games I care about via secondary market. I’ll still root for the Dawgs as they’re my alma mater, but the experience of being in Athens for homes games sure doesn’t feel worth the effort lately.
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Sold all my season tickets before the season started. I love the Dawgs. It still effects me for days after a loss. But I have NO faith in ADGM and the powers that control UGA. Will I contribute another year and buy tickets to that awful home schedule next year?? Probably, but it gets harder by the day.
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Well said
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The schedule next year will do a great deal to solve this problem. It does seem like that turned the damn volume down and moved Teenage Wasted (Baba O’Rielly) to a time out. What I can’t figure out is how much the Florida tickets have plunged. Even if we suck an’t they have a shot? I’m $20 below face on stub hub and they are gong nowhere.
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I guess more than I thought have reached the tipping point.
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Well, you’re selling your tickets, so you don’t seem to think they’ve got a shot. Here’s an idea, why don’t you go to the game and cheer them on?
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Because I’m going to the beach. It’s the only time we can afford to go and they actually have television there.
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OH, you mean the Florida game? Shit, I didn’t go down there when I drank, I never had considered it for the last 23 years. WLCP indeed.
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The best medicine for me was to define a Georgia game as entertainment. We simply lost too many games that ruined my weekend. History repeats itself so I finally decided to just give up. It’s not going to happen because we’re Georgia. Consider making your fall Saturday more about entertainment and you’ll be much happier.
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And then the rain ruined the post game tailgate. Brutal day.
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Chasing Alabama. We’ve become Auburn. I was mostly happy being Georgia.
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Post of the day. I didn’t realize how many of our fans were okay with being Auburn – suck 3 out of every 4 years, but that 4th year….
I’m more detached. It’s probably a defense mechanism. I don’t want losing to ruin my day, and by extension, my family’s day.
Not sure Kirby, Chaney et al are the answer, but we have to give them time. We’ve had flashes of good (UNC, Tennessee), and some really bad. However, I worry if Kirby starts throwing out coordinators, he’s on the fast track to Boomville. We have to stay the course for at least a few years. It’s a huge gamble, but BM alreadyr oiled the dice last fall.
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Chasing Bama? I just want to beat Florida when we should.
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But according to the experts, that means you enjoy and wallow in mediocrity … I feel your pain. We didn’t have to try to become Alabama to compete with Alabama.
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What you’re saying, though you deny it, is that winning is fun. If we knock down that Hail Mary I bet you would’ve thought Tennessee was a lot of fun.
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But they didn’t. I’m not into moral victories.
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Obviously winning is more fun than losing. But if we’d won that game I would probably have just felt more “relieved” than thinking, “Oh man that was a lot of fun.”
I tell you what would’ve been fun: beating Tennessee (at UT!!!) 49-10 like Bama did.
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Beating Saban and LSU senseless in 2004 was fun. Losing to Tennessee the next week? Not so much.
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I didn’t have very much fun watching Georgia play ball last year. Other than the South Carolina outlier, there was not a single memorable thing that comes to mind other than the scores of games. Winning at Auburn and at Tech were even yawns.
I’m sorry, though, I had fun during the North Carolina game this year. That was a fun experience, and a memorable game. I had fun during the Tennessee game. It didn’t break our way, but that was a fun three hours between the hedges, despite the kick in the groin that was the last play.
You’re right that we’re still trending towards the “meh,” but this team has already given me more fun than they did last year, despite two afternoons I wish I could have back in the Nicholls and Vanderbilt affairs.
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If you didn’t enjoy beating Auburn or Tech, I guess you wont have to worry about yawning this year.
Me? I enjoy winning. I don’t enjoy losing. I would enjoy beating Auburn or Tech if neither had won a game all year. Or for years.
I’m sure this will identify me as Not A Demander of Excellence, and part of the problem with UGA sports, but the “If you ain’t first, you’re last” mentality some of our more bravado filled spectators seems to be full of is about as funny to me now as it was the first time I saw Talledega Nights. Maybe Kirby needs to start driving around in that Ford truck with a cougar riding shotgun.
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Kirby Smart may one day become UGA’s all-time winningest football coach.I hope he does because I, like most of you, bleed red and black. However, this year, I’m not sure he has a clue. What some see as energy in our head coach on the sideline, I see as being almost spastic. He seems to have to dominate every sideline huddle: offense, defense & special teams. Does he not trust his coordinators to do their job, or is this just a typical first year head coach? Or perhaps it’s just his personality. In the business world he would be labeled a micro-manager. But he might have to control that to better vocus on things like clock management. For all the talk about talent in Athens, or the lack of it, I promise you there is enough talent at UGA to defeat a Vanderbilt football team. Whatever is supposed to be taking hold with CKS and The Process, it isn’t taking hold yet. I’m not jumping ship on the Dawgs, nor Kirby, but I did think there would be at least some visible improvement from North Carolina to this point after game 7. There is obviously a lot “broke that needs fixin”.
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Good post.
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Freshman coach…senior coaches making freshman calls, freshman, sophomore players, senior players making freshman errors. This is 2016 football season, the Charlie Brown version…. it is what it is. We have seen it through a thousand eyes. Seeing is believing, until that Thanksgiving day feast, this is it! GO DAWGS!
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Two comments about that inexcusable game Saturday, as we took over ball for final drive of game right in front of us were the D-line group having a big laugh and good time about something not even looking at the offense on field trying to mount a winning drive, some coach needed to kick their butts, and 2nd thing was an old alumni band member and family not happy about the culture change not allowing them to do halftime show. Their reasoning was that why we lost game. Change can be a bitch at times.
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I was wondering about the alumni band not performing at halftime. Personally, I think that’s a terrible decision by whoever made it. I can watch the redcoats anytime, so its refreshing to see the old timers out there and they love doing it. It’s yet another example of alienating your alumni/fans instead of engaging them. It maybe a small thing, but when you add it up with no more picture day, etc. it can quickly lead to apathy among the fans when the team isn’t playing for championships.
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+100
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They would have been out there if McGarity could have figured out a way to monetize it, but they needed the time for more commercial endeavors. New Mercedes Benzes and trips to exotic meeting locales don’t just pay for themselves, you know.
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Haven’t you heard? It’s a BUSINESS now. No time for tradition or pleasing the fans. We’re here to ante up
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I’m not sure what you mean about alumni band. They’ve been doing the pregame show since I was marching in the Donnan years, and we did it Saturday, too. One year, the Redcoat 100th anniversary, the alumni joined in for halftime, but that was a special occasion.
Now this year, there were some changes to where the tickets were and the process to get into the game that were challenging.
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That’s what I thought as well.
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I saw the alumni band perform before the game, but I seem to recall seeing them perform at halftime in other years. If that’s not the case, then my bad.
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(I was not at the game) and not to jump on the bandwagon, but alumni band is pregame every year. My wife’s been going to homecoming games for years for the band reunion and they always do the pregame show, walk out, line up, play a few songs, then off to their seats for the remainder of the game.
have at it with the rest of the critiques.
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I have no other hobbies and I’m too emotionally invested to quit but I have to admit going to the games now feels more like a habit than anything else. It’s more than entertainment because of the emotional attachment. Yes, that’s a strange psychological phenomenon that I can’t explain.
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Johnny Majors was fired for lots of reasons, but at least some of them were that Phil Fulmer wanted his job. So, an “influential” bunch of alumni got behind Phil, and Phil got Johnny’s job. (Much to Johnny’s serious chagrin.)
Both Johnny, and Phil (In case you don’t know, were favored sons of the UT Program.
Phil recruits like a mad scientist…all over the known world, wins a national championship the year after Peyton graduates to big binness.
Ten years later some of the same “influential” alumni get behind the movement to fire Phil and Phil is fired.
Thus begins the Vols’ eleven-year wanderings in the college football wilderness…which are not over, at all.
If Tennessee is a banana republic, Georgia is …well, not a banana republic…at least not yet.
But the symptoms I see at Tennessee I am beginning to see in Athens.
A group of “influential” alumni are displeased with Mark Richt for various reasons, some of which involve beating Tennessee and Florida and some of which have little or nothing to do with what happens on the field.
And Mark Richt is fired, then replaced with somebody’s favorite son who is now in the middle of his first year as a head coach.
And, while the favorite son is not left with an empty cupboard, not a lot of the players he gets to take to battle his first year are players who have the physical talent he is used to working with at the place he has been working as an assistant for almost a decade.
Son brings in a whole new staff, many of whom have never seen Athens or Clarke County except from airplanes. This necessitates some adjustment by both staff and players.
Then, the stupid mother-fucking experts decide Georgia is a top-10 team in the making.
Which adds to the seriously unrealistic expectations by many fans Son is going to have to live with.
As the season progresses, it becomes increasingly obvious that changing coaching staffs is a complicated process that only time and hard work can implement.
Its a process.
Enjoy a good time when we have one, deal with it when we don’t have a good time.
It does take more than half a season to turn the boat, let’s all just hope we don’t turn into a banana boat.
When you get down and confused, just look at Tennessee, and realize how bad things could get.
And Hope, of course.
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This exact thing is my greatest fear for Georgia football.
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Fulmer was fired eight years ago in 2008, not 2005. Their wandering began before he left, but certainly some lessons and concerns from Tennessee’s long journey in the woods.
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This was exactly what I was saying with the family as we watched this past Saturday. This last yr & a half has been such a chore and so boring (with a few moments, exceptions thrown in here and there…)! Even my dad said “If this wasn’t Georgia I’d turn it (out of boredom)”. And let me tell you – that’s like Popeye saying he’s tired of spinach…been a rough stretch and I’m growing weary…
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I have very little desire to watch a program rebuild. I saw that in the 1990s, and I put a lot of energy and money for someone fresh out of college into that. The program is rapidly sucking my desire to support it with parking, traffic, increased giving levels, increased ticket prices, more TV timeouts, and worse home schedules. I’m not ready to throw in the towel yet, but that day is coming (and I don’t like it one bit). I didn’t even watch another game this weekend, so this malaise is bleeding into my college football fandom.
Watching Keith Marshall and the rest of our team go down on the cow pasture in Knoxville in 2013 was the turning point for me in hindsight. Sure, we won the battle but lost the war that day and it hasn’t been the same since. Have there been other fun moments since then? Sure … Clemson, Auburn and Louisville 2014 and South Carolina 2015 come to mind.
Kirby has two weeks to right the battleship after a torpedo attack. Do he and his staff have what it takes to prepare the ship for the biggest game of the year? Do the sailors have a desire to follow the staff into that battle? We shall see.
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+1
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2014 UF was the breaking point for me.
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I can totally understand that …
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I get that as the point you threw up your hands and said it’s time to try something else. While I still cheer like crazy for the Dawgs, the reality of the curse hit me that day while I watched that game in Knoxville. With a healthy Gurley, Marshall, JSW, Conley and Bennett, does anyone not believe we would have headed to the Plains undefeated?
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Well, we’d already lost a game by that point, but I know what you’re saying. That 2013 offense before the injuries was relentless. Unfortunately, that defense was atrocious. In retrospect, that year with all those underclass men on defense should have been the canary in the coal mine about what was coming due to the roster management. Hell, Pruitt all but said as much the day he arrived. Ditto Kirby.
There just are no quick fixes to the talent part of the program. The game management on the other hand…..
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Good point – middle age moment 🙂
Let’s change it to undefeated in the SEC …
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Spoiler alert: temper your expectations for the Florida game. Just sayin’, while hoping for better.
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Oh, I have no expectation of a win. I wouldn’t be surprised if we won … I also wouldn’t be surprised to see a 90s style woodshed job.
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You don’t have to reach back to the 90s for those. See the last 2 years.
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Ouch but true
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93000 at the last spring game will be an attendance record that will stand for a while.
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I knew I had reached zero emotional attachment to Richt at some point in 2014 when the South Carolina loss happened. It was just “meh” for me. I confirmed I have zero emotional attachment to Kirby after Saturday when the loss just felt like a blip on my weekend. I literally left the stadium, went to Creature Comforts with the wife, and had a great rest of my day.
I’m with you, Senator. It’s been very unenjoyable to be a Georgia fan for awhile now. Part of that is certainly the product, but a larger part of it for me has certainly been the damn insufferableness of the fanbase. Donations going up next year with a cake home schedule – I’m seriously contemplating giving up season tickets all together. I’ve reached a stage of apathy towards the program in general (regardless of how they perform on Saturdays) and that should scare the shit out of McGarity. I don’t think he knows any better than to point to the Big Azz fans though to show how he’s engaging me as an alum and season ticket holder.
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Good post, AD.
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The Process is not just a gimmick or euphemism. It is a different way of thinking. We are conditioned to be results oriented. What matters? Wins and losses. Nobody remembers who had the most yards or which penalty was called or not called, the only thing people remember is the outcome. Did you win? If not, then you failed. The idea behind the process, though, is that you focus on the responsibility you have in the moment and do it to the best of your ability. The thinking is that when 85 talented guys are focusing on doing the thing they are supposed to do, the results will come. Did you do your job? If not, then you failed whether the rest of the team succeeded or not, whether the outcome was good or bad, whether it resulted in a W or L.
This prevents you from getting too high and mighty and resting on your laurels when a goal is achieved. It keeps you from being despondent when a goal is out of reach. Two of the greatest coaches of our generation use this philosophy (Belichik and Saban), and Kirby is trying to emulate it to the best of his ability. I think it is a welcome change philosophically. You’re only as good as your next play, not your last game.
I think we have been too results oriented at UGA. Just get to 10 wins. It doesn’t matter the quality of the wins or how bad the losses are, just get to that magic number because then the season is a success. I don’t know about you, but 2014 didn’t feel all that successful. 2015 didn’t either. Neither did 2008 or 2004. All of those were 10-win seasons that amounted to a hill of beans and featured some major ass beatings and/or inexplicable losses.
I think UGA fans and coaches and administrators began to realize that just winning 10 games felt really hollow, so we wanted to change. That’s when Richt started to introduce a little ‘Bama into our culture. But, we didn’t want the process; we wanted the results. We brought in coordinators, and we changed the conditioning program, and we brought everything over but the results.
Now, with a new head man, he’s trying to bring the actual process… the change in mindset that is really behind the success at Alabama. Changing the way people think or feel or coach or play is not something that can be done in ten months. It’s not something that will take hold in 7 games or even 12 games, probably. Brainwashing people into thinking a way completely opposite of instinct and completely opposite of what has gotten them those 5* ratings takes time. Maybe Kirby will succeed. Maybe Kirby will fail. But, at the end UGA will still be here, and I’ll still root for UGA. I hope this focus on the process eventually brings results, because if it doesn’t, there will be more change. But, I feel good that we are at least trying the philosophy (really, really trying instead of half-assed copying like we had been doing) of the two most dominant coaches in the game (college and professional).
It’s tough when you live and die by the numbers on the scoreboard, but perhaps disengagement is best for all involved. Patience, old grasshoppers.
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So how long will the process take before we learn how to field rugby style punts, cover kickoffs, not get stupid penalties over and over or stop poor clock management? I didn’t expect us to play for the MNF or even win the SEC East, but after 7 games I had hoped to see us show improvements in the areas not impacted by talent issues. Maybe my expectations of the process are unrealistic.
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Special teams are the last to be fixed. The initial focus is offense and defense, and the workloads just for those two things are severely ramped up from the previous administration. Unlearning bad special teams (and Richt had nothing BUT bad special teams for the last how many years?) and learning quality special teams is not the foremost priority when you are having to scheme around no DL depth and one of the three worst OLs in the SEC, and the players’ heads are collectively spinning because they are working harder than they ever have in their lives. The Holy One didn’t learn clock management in 15 years, so that might take a while, if ever.
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That’s BS about special teams. The only linemen on special teams are the guys who protect for FG/PAT attempts. Kick coverage and return teams typically are fully equipped with skill players on offense and defense.
Special teams should be the easiest thing to fix. Look at Richt’s early special teams – they were a field position weapon. Punt block and punt return were huge for us.
If we have other problems to scheme around (by the way, tight end isn’t one of them), what in the world is our special teams coordinator doing during the week?
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CPA Trey, please don’t take this the wrong way, but that the biggest load of shit I think I’ve ever heard.
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I am absolutely certain the the fire Richt crowd was as clear as any human could be that Richt’s failure to hire a special teams coach was a sign of both stupidity and stubbornness and that any idiot knew that we just needed a dedicated special teams coach and that problem would be rectified. We got Beamerball and despite Trey’s alluding to how bad Richt’s special teams were this is worse….stepping out at the 3 ….really .We got the change the nattering nabobs wanted ….it just wasn’t a good change. KIrby and McGarity turning a 10-3 battleship around and into a 5-8 battleship. Maybe ….just maybe the battleship just needed a minor course adjustment
Why can’t we have nice things because the administration chose to not keep our nice things in order to hope for the best things…..how is this working out for us? We have quite literally chosen to become Tennessee…WTF were we thinking . Our AD and liquor distributors were afraid we might miss out on Boom 2.0 (aka Kirby) panic buying if I’ve ever seen it. I tried to let my tickets go this year but my wife and son went behind my back and re-upped them. anyway. So now I blame McGarity,the athletic board, the fans who think the Georgia is something it is not, and my family for making me endure this decline……all of which could have been avoided..In the middle of this rant it crosses my mind could Morehead have stopped this train wreck? If he could have stopped this firing and he didn’t ,if so,hell I blame Jere too.. I told you so…and stay off my lawn
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Plenty of other programs need fans.
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I didn’t graduate from those other schools so just put up with this know it all just like I had to put up with ya’ll (the fire a 10-3 Coach know-it all’s) for the last few years. What goes around comes around. Deal with it.
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If you think CMR or anyone else was going 10-3 with this team, your are fucking delusional.
Kirby might be a total bust, but right now he’s sleeping in the bed the previous guy made.
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I find your certitude regarding my mental health amusing. In my delusional world (CMR still HC)we are 6-1 right now ,having not lost to to the entire State of F…ing Tennessee . Which would make us at least in charge our own destiny. If you think me thinking that a CMR team could have kept UT from scoring in 10 seconds and finding a way for our offense to score more than 16 against Vandy makes me delusional than you need to get an updated copy of the DMS V…….start with the definitions section. And just for your consideration did a CMR team ever lose to Ole Miss? I don’t think so but that might have been a delusion too.
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I’m sorry, did they play Ole Miss every year? This is an asinine argument. Richt never faced an Ole Miss team as good as the one we played this year.
However, I’m pretty sure Richt managed to lose to Vandy with a 5th year Sr. QB and lost a game very similarly to UT less than 2 years ago.
Either you’ve forgotten how thorough the Bama and Florida ass kickings were last year and why people thought a change was needed, or you just loved CMR’s brand so much that you didn’t care. That’s fine either way.
But Richt lost to Vandy before. He lost games after taking the lead with under 20 seconds before. He got his brakes beat off by an SEC West team before. And he’s the person most singularly responsible for an OL that can’t blow Vandy off the ball.
Again, my point isn’t that Kirby is setting the world on fire–it’s that this year was coming regardless of who the coach is.
Richt is gone and is never coming back.
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Actually, that opinion was not my own, but one I echoed from anonymous former players interviewed by Dean Legge as seen in this article.
You can believe what you want. Stew in your own misery and think about how right you are and when UGA wins the SEC East next year you can be on here talking about how smart you are and how you knew all along. That’s what blogs and message boards are for. Congratulations on fulfilling the stereotype.
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You actually didn’t answer my response. Special teams are easy to fix with our current roster. It doesn’t require the linemen to be successful. Anonymous player interviews … that’s a reliable source.
Does this team have deficiencies along the line of scrimmage? Yes but that’s still zero excuse for what happened on Saturday.
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Then… go fix them.
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Intelligent comment there – I thought Kirby hired someone to do that.
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He did. Why are you complaining to me about it?
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Because you seem that think they can’t fix the special teams now because of other things. I dared suggest to you that the line of scrimmage talent issue and the special teams issue aren’t linked.
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I’m just messing with you.
I’m on record as saying the special teams are abysmal, catastrophic, the weakest link, and just plain ugly. I don’t know how easy it is to fix the special teams, but I know I want it fixed. If a former Richt player says special teams don’t get the attention they deserve right now because of other pressing issues, then I choose to believe that. It gives me hope that they will get fixed. Maybe that is my own personal delusion, but it is one I accept.
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I would suggest Kirby raise special teams on his radar screen. We could have lost the UNC game due to special teams (missed FG and the kick return). We misplayed two kicks against Nicholls. We missed a chip shot FG against Missouri that could have been a difference maker. We screwed up on kick coverage to give Tennessee the shot at the Hail Mary and gave up 10 points to Vandy due to coverage issues.
I would suggest this issue is just as important as any other right now and with a coach who is supposed to focus on that … anything said by a coach, player or anonymous former player is just an excuse. As many have said, this team doesn’t have the margin of error to win games with the crap we’ve seen in the kicking game. If one of the best 2 head Corches in the game considers himself the ST coordinator, an inexperienced guy who is trying to find his way better have it on his priority list.
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This article is 100% what I believe.
The program was soft before because they weren’t pushed past the point of being uncomfortable.
The OL is just bad. No way around that.
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you sleep in the cape or just get up early and put it on first thing.
Smart is not Saban. He likely wont be Saban in the next 5 years. Smart isnt bringing the process to athens mostly because he isnt Saban.
Saban is a master and an expert. It took him a long time to become the master that he is. Smart simply hasnt put in the work to reach that level. It is unlikely that he will reach that level at UGA.
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Nice hedge. Say what you mean. You think Kirby is a bust. You’re ready for the next head coach already. Who is on your short list?
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He means that as long as Saban is at Alabama he will get the best players for his scheme. So that leaves us with his culls. There is a reason not one of Saban’s ex-assistants have been able to beat him, he is the master of the Process. If he hangs it up in a few years we might get a shot but barring that the best we can hope for is to win the East.
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If that’s what he means, then he has no reason to criticize Kirby until the recruits are recruited. I think UGA will be more competitive in February than they will be in November this year, and I think that is the point.
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What I mean is that Saban is the process. The process is saban. if you think you can have the process without saban, you are wrong.
Saban built the process through 25 years of professional coaching experience. Some of that time spent with Belichick. The other great coach in football right now.
That experience is important.
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A bust would imply that I had expectations for Smart greater than what he is delivering. I didnt. Smart is exactly what i thought he would be and has shown no signs of being anything better or different.
I will never understand how college football fans are so dismissive of experience and hard work. Like everyone that coaches or plays was simply born that way and there is nothing that can change that.
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So, who is the homerun hire?
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I gotta respect the hustle. You out here fighting the good fight on several fronts.
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Somebody’s got to wear the cape.
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So, shorter Trey. The Process is about results. That’s all that matters. And that’s good.
But Richt cared too much about results and averaged 10 wins. And that’s bad.
So we brought in Smart, who isn’t worried about results right now. And that’s good.
Our offensive coaches running Chubb head first into 9-man fronts is Richt’s fault. Once Smart has a chance to recruit 5 star offensive linemen, running into 9-man fronts will work. Because 5 star offensive linemen can defy the laws of physics and block two or three defenders at a time. And that’s good.
Hard to argue with any of that.
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I honestly don’t know how you could misinterpret what I said about the process NOT being results oriented.
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“I think we have been too results oriented at UGA.”
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Yes… prior to installing the process… as in prior regimes…. as in the mindset of fans spilling over into the players and coaches. THAT is what Kirby was brought here to change.
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So, UGA used to be too focused on results, so we got Smart to install The Process, which is all about results, so that we’ll be less focused on results, or more focused on results, or something?
Dude. Do you know what kind of logic I can respect? “Smart spent a lot of time with Saban and must have picked up all of Saban’s tricks for winning championships.” I don’t necessarily agree with that. And Smart’s miscues this season don’t really support that premise. But at least it’s coherent.
The argument that all of Smart’s miscues are Richt’s fault and even Smart’s mistakes are really just the beginning stages of awesomeness is too twisted and incredible to hold any water.
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Old saying in sports you are what your record says you are. Results matter and Saban knows it. You lose and your gone.
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That is an old saying. You have to win to keep your job. My point was that focusing on the result, like say 10 wins, makes you “OK with being OK.” It’s not that wins don’t matter, it’s that wins are the byproduct of doing your job every play for 60 minutes. That’s the theory behind the process. Buy in or don’t.
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UGAA and Micheal Adams sucked the fun out of tailgating many years ago when they started making everyone park in decks. We tolerated that for a few years, schleping our stuff from the Carlton deck over to campus and back before kickoff. Then we virtually stopped having night/late afternoon games except for the 1-2 times we were on CBS so it became “screech into Athens an hour and a half before noon kickoff, eat quickly in town or at Snelling, race to the stadium, hurry back to the car to try and beat traffic out of town”. I gave up my tickets after a couple of seasons of that.
My FB post last year after the Tax Slayer Bowl ended said something to the effect of “I am glad this season is finally over, can’t believe I am saying that about a UGA football season”. Now I can’t wait for this season to be over. The team has made no improvement since the UNC game ( I would argue that they have actually regressed), we have seen uninspired and ill prepared/ill conceived game plans in every game with the exception of UT, and I am not at all convinced that this team will even make a bowl which is completely unacceptable.
Chaney and Beamer have to go at the end of the season. Chaney has shown zero creativity in getting the ball to his best players (Sony, Chubb) in non traditional ways. He insists on running into 8 and 9 man fronts on 1st and 2nd down which put our Freshman QB in 3rd and long almost every drive. I don’t think I need to even recap how awful special teams have been this year. Boneheaded plays and a lack of discipline gave Vandy 10 of their 17 points and lost the game.
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Beamer is dead to me. He needs to go this week.
Chaney sucks, but I’m really scared of Kirby getting into the Muschamp mode. Star DC gets his first HC job, hires an overweight genius that coached a great QB in his distant past. Overweight genius lays an egg, HC fires him, rinse and repeat. I’m for giving Chaney at least one more year, but boy it’s going to be painful I’m afraid.
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This. 4 OCs in 4 years cannot happen.
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+1000 Said it yesterday the beginning of the end for Muschamp was the rotating door of OC’s.
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Chaney is running the offense that Smart wants…
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This is the part that’s murky for me. Is Chaney designing a game plan based on Smart’s direction or is Chaney doing it largely on his own and making recommendations to Smart? Obviously, the answer has clear implications around where to assign blame and maybe Chaney is receiving an unfair portion.
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Sadly, Smart is the only guy talking to the media. And he’s the one insisting that UGA is a power running, I formation, smack you in the mouth, go ahead and stack 9 guys in the box and we’ll run it anyway team. So I guess we have to take him at his word.
My completely uninformed guess is that Smart is calling the shots and refusing to adjust the game plan. Against Mizzou and UT, he expected stout defenses, so he allowed Chaney to open it up. Against other teams, like Nichols and Vandy, he expected weaker fronts so he demanded that we run the ball, no matter what.
If that’s true, it’s good news and bad news. Florida has a very good defense, so he may allow the offense to take what the defense gives. But the other teams on our schedule are weaker, so we may be right back to bashing our heads into 9 man fronts and see who’s man enough to win. If so, we could beat Florida and lose to Kentucky. Nothing would surprise me.
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Really haven’t felt upbeat about UGA’ football outlook since the 2014 season, exception being last year after the SC game and that went away quickly. That aligns with Bobo’s departure when I felt we could move the ball on anyone. It really is different these days, I remember last season being numbed by our performances, and that is where I am in 2016. I didn’t get mad last Saturday, game just as I expected except I felt we would pull it out. Didn’t occur to me they could drive the field in the 4th quarter, we truly gave that one away from opening kick to our last play. More depressing than maddening. Fortunately, I love CFB enough that the games following ours provided some joy. It is a great sport, I look forward to us participating again.
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It’s no fun because the UGA coaches and even B-M are finding stuff to make it difficult for their team to score and win games.
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I am disappointed after the Vandy game because the whereas the coaches in the past are playing not to lose, this current staff seem to be playing to make it harder to win. I wonder how Trevor Lawrence now feel about his genius comment on Chaney.
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It’s not fun to watch. It likely wont be fun to watch for a while.
Really thinking about not going to the rest of the home games and maybe focusing on going to some games at other stadiums. Maybe go watch that LSU/Florida game on the 19th instead of the ULL game…
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I am making the trek to Kentucky in three weeks. However, I’m more looking forward to spending time on the bourbon trail and celebrating the wife’s birthday than I am going to the actual football game. The game itself is a side attraction to the rest of the weekend. Never thought I’d say that about Georgia football as recently as five years ago.
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Dont go to the game. Just dont. You know what that game is going to look like. Even if we win it will just be another big dumb slow step towards Boom Ball. Hell we arent even going to get the 11-1 season out of our episode of boom ball.
Bourbon trail is fun. They get different beer distro than we get so lots of new beer to pick up and bring back.
lots of fun things to do that arent watch 2 bad teams play bad football.
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I’m doing the same trip, Audit. My feelings about the game are exactly the same as yours. Maybe we’ll run into each other on the trail. My group will be doing 8 distilleries Thurs & Fri so we can get the lousy t-shirt.
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If you couldn’t have fun in 2014, college football may not be for you. Pruitt had a bad game against florida, but other than that it was blowouts and a couple nail biter losses. If Gurley’s TD isn’t called back against USC and we don’t fumble at the 1 twice against tech, that team is in the playoffs.
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Thanks, Rick. I’ll keep that in mind when I shut the blog down.
Umm… nothing I can add to that.
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Except for that pesky “getting housed by Boom” and “then having to beat Bama in the dome” thing.
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No need to be so sensitive. If you didn’t enjoy 2014, that’s fine, I just don’t get it. That team was every bit as good as 2002, 2007 and 2012. If every Richt team was as good as that one, he would have multiple natties.
The fact that teams like that one weren’t considered good enough to be enjoyable is the reason we have turned our program into a cautionary tale.
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You’re confusing amusement with sensitivity. 😉
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My mistake, then.
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Oh and everyone should listen to the shutdown fullcast from yesterday. They talk a decent bit about the Vandy game.
it is wonderful.
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The biggest problem, of the many we have, has been pointed out before, we have guys on this team that could have gone to Alabama but they choose UGA. Now they find themselves at Alabama Lite and it’s not what they signed on for. The only problem I forsee for the future is that we are still going to recruit the same players as Alabama but we are only gong to get the culls. Why would the guys that are good enough to play for Alabama and Saban come to Little Alabama and not compete for NC’s because the real Alabama is going to beat whomever they play in the SECC. As said above we have become Auburn II. At least Auburn opted to get an offensive guy that could make it hard on Alabama once in a while. Hell we are putting together an Alabama practice squad and trust me there is a reason no Saban assistant coach has ever beaten the master. I’m 69 and barring Saban retiring, I doubt if I ever see us beat Alabama again.
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Agree. We have some terrific players like Chubb, Michel & Thompson. And we’ve had great players like Gurley. But they suffer because of fuckups like Reggie Davis or our offensive linemen. Seems to me we rarely scheme to our strengths and frequently have screw-ups dictate our outcomes.
And Kirby simply isn’t holding his assistants accountable like saban does. Saban would never tollerate the performances we’ve seen from Beamer’s special teams.
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I watched the game at our local cigar shop. By halftime, Clemson-NCS was a much better game and I chose to watch it and keep an eye on UGA.
We are discerning consumers with limited time and little patience for mediocre content. Presently, Georgia is mediocre content. If this 58 year old has a limited attention span, what about someone 30? Doesn’t bode well for McGarity’s reserve fund…
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Auburn East….wow. I hadn’t thought of it that way before.
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Maybe we all should’ve paid more attention to this Justin Hubbard piece you posted before the start of the season.
He asserted that our expectations were to high and we should be satisfied with an 8-4 …. Maybe even a 7-5 season.
Maybe he was right.
http://dawnofthedawg.com/2016/06/20/why-georgia-football-will-not-win-more-than-eight-games-in-2016/
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guess we will find out if 7-5 is good enough for UGA fans…
I am guessing that a lot of folks will not be to thrilled heading back to work after thanksgiving if they know their Tech Co-workers are likely to be buzzing around their desk when they get in.
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LOL. There definitely are advantages to living far outside of SEC country sometimes. It’s sad not being around many SEC fans, but it also means that I’m not close to any rivals either. Ha.
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I have been going to UGA games since 1972, my freshman year. I will continue to go until I die. Never take it for granted. I go for the footgall. I go for the fellowship I have with friends I have known for almost 40 years now. I go for the music we play going, coming, and at the tailgate. I go for fried chicken. I go for the traditional rivalries. I may disagree with our coaches from time to time, but I am for them and want them to be successful. It never gets old beating The North Avenue Trade School and Auburn. I am an optimist fo rsure. As bad as we have played, we have the potential to win every remaining game. Remember Stafford’s freshman year. Going to Auburn i told my friends that we could beat them- that we had -layed a good game yet. and we beat them – a 7th ranked team easily. We can do that in two weeks in Jax. Not saying we will, but we can. Clearly this coaching change is going to take time. I am hoping for the best. We are a young team, for sure. Bodes well for the future. Go DAWGS everybody.
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Had not played a good game yet. Damn computer
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Tailgating has been on the decline since O’Malley’s closed.
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I agree with the Senator. I watch the games But win or lose , I just
do not enjoy watching this Dawg Team. I often take time out to do
something out during the Game. Basically It Is Boring.
When can We get Bobo back as Assistant Head Coach,
QB Coach, & OC. His teams were fun to watch even If No
Championships were involved. I enjoyed those Games.
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Starting over is difficult. Especially when there is little-to-no senior leadership to “enforce” the level of player focus and intensity needed to gain the upper-hand in games, regardless of the start time.
A key part of delegation is identifying the leaders on the roster and developing them to handle these issues on and off the field.
Until this is developed, the head coach has to set the example. In my experience working with young adults of this age, those who come in with a “first-name-basis” peer approach never get the best effort out of the team. Young adults sense it and they cut corners whenever they can.
Coach Smart should evaluate his approach and determine if it best serves the leadership needs of this team for the upcoming season.
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He could just be “Kirby” when Coach Saban was around to be the enforcer.
He won’t be successful doing that here.
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I agree it hasn’t been fun since 2013. The games at home against SC, LSU, the cocktail party, and even the Kentucky game before Murray got hurt was fun and had a great atmosphere. Even the Prayer at Jordan-Haire was fun up until that point because of the balls to the wall comeback that Murray led the team to before 4th and Grantham took us down one more time. And who could forget the nerds feeling all confident they were going to squeak out a win at home against our backup Jr. QB. only to be smacked back into reality. That was fun. 2014 had a few moments (Clemson, Mizzou come to mind), but overall the team took a turn once the Gurley suspension happened and it quit being fun.
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I will admit kicking Spurrier’s ass last year was fun.
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Crazy how few still miss the Senator’s point (which may include me!). The question about whether Richt was close to fixing our problems and had the necessary experience needed to deal with Saban and the rising fortunes of UT and UF was answered with a resounding “no” by the powers in charge. But as the Senator pointed-out, that decision was not made with deep insight, analysis, understanding and research of how to deal with Saban, but instead a knee-jerk response to a “miserable” 9 win season and the availability of some’s choice for our favorite son. That is NO WAY to run a program. Our big money backers, Morehead and McGarity all have to own the problem (they don’t BTW).
The small but mean-spirited crowd that was so anti-Richt on this blog are no more endearing now trying to defend their “Hell’s Yeah!” BFF Kirby. We did not hire the Bama Way. The best we can hope for in the next 3 – 4 years is Auburn East…a flash in the pan season in a relatively weak SEC East and a few star players who will come and go.
UGA has not ever been a long term dominant program. We had a run for a few good years with #34 and a couple of seasons thereafter. Richt showed us how to win the SEC again after too long of a drought. We are not Bama. We have done nothing to become Bama. We could have, and now should, seek a long term solution with a proven HC who can build a program and is fully supported by the administration and key boosters.
I’ll enjoy UGA football every Saturday. Every win is enjoyable. But I’ll only have hope when I see a change at the very top…and I’ve not seen one damn thing to show me that is happening. Kirby is not change. He’s proof that we still don’t have leadership where it counts.
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