… from last week’s opponent:
Fitzgerald said the team didn’t have a great week of practice before the Georgia game and needs to get back to its demeanor before the LSU game, when the team was hungry and feeling disrespected after being picked to finish near the bottom of the league.
“Maybe we thought we were a little bit better than we were,” Fitzgerald said. “Maybe we got lackadaisical at times. I felt we weren’t really mentally locked in at practice. That’s going to change.”
If the conference’s second-best coach couldn’t get his team mentally prepared for its first SEC road game, is there any hope Kirby Smart can? #sarcasm
Get The Picture 
We need to prepare for Tennessee’s best effort.
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So you’re saying to expect Tennessee’s best shot? Why, I’ve never heard that type of language around these parts. 🙂
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It’s hard to exactly quantify , but this team just doesn’t “feel” like a Richt team. It feels like a “Process” team. I’m not worried about a lack of focus. Additionally, if even an nth of the rumors swirling around Knoxville are true, the wheels are coming off and Butch has already lost the team. Honestly I see us beating them by 35,and that’s conservative.
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I’m sure they’ll play flat eventually. Everyone does, but I don’t think it will be in this game. And if this team isn’t flat, there isn’t an offense on the schedule that will move the ball much. Maybe Tech just because of their weird system.
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Possibly Tech but I like the discipline on this D and defending the option is discipline.
Cautiously optimistic this is a process team not emotion team. The team can win every remaining game barring injuries. However, the team can get beat in many games, this weekend included. Given what I have witnessed thus far in the season Auburn might…might… be the only game UGA isn’t favored.
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I agree, Tech is the least concern I have on the remaining schedule. We have never had a Front 7 that looks more capable of stopping that offense. From the DL, to the LBs, to the tackling and coverage skills of our DBs. We will stick it up FishFrys tight little AHole.
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That’s my feel as well. Maybe it’s just the dominant defense, but whatever it is, this team feels different. I could see us losing 13-7 or 9-6 to an Auburn or (maybe) Tech, if our offense is completely shut down. But I don’t see this defense getting rolled by anyone on our schedule. I don’t think Tennessee has the horses to overcome this defense, and if our offense is at least half as effective as last week, I see us winning handily.
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Hope you are correct…believe you are, but even ‘Bama has had a few flats.
I’m betting the Dawgs come out on fire.
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Flatness is something that, if things go well, happens in the second quarter or so. At least that’s what we learned from Samford. That was the game where you expected flat. And it eventually came–after we got up by a few scores. You really can’t ask much more than that from human nature.
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Hope you’re right SemperFi. I hope Kirby has the last 6 seconds of the 16′ game on a loop in the weight room. ooh ahh.
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I have to work in east Tennessee ( sales territory) and all of my customers know I’m a Dawg, and all of them wear that awful color to work daily. Last year was bad seeing those customers the following months.
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I predict a better winter season for you. Lived there for 12 years and know how obnoxious they can be, but also remember the quiet times. 🙂 Also good they got a taste of having one stolen from on the last second desperation fluke. Best ending to a game I was torn as to who got the W and who got the L…I couldn’t have dreamed up a better finish than UT/FU two weeks ago.
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Treat this quote as the “Conan the Barbarian” motivation. “Crush your enemies, see them driven before you. Hear the lamentations of their women.” Make sure every player hears what happened to MsSt because of lack of focus, that way no one hears our lamentations next week.
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Second best? Dan Mullen is the greatest football coach in history! Didn’t you see the LSU game? And Florida without Mullen went only 13-1. They went from winning a national title to a mere 13-1 because Mullen was going an impressive 5-7 in Starkville in 2009. Since that incredible 2009 season, Mullen has had a winning record in SEC play once. TWICE they were .500 and only one time did he fail to win 3 entire SEC games. Incredible. All this while paying not quite as much as Ole Miss for players. You tell me a coach who could have accomplished so much with one hand firmly in his pocket?
The guy is a legend and the record speaks for itself. Bob Kraft would do well to fire Bill and send a plane to Starkville.
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When he was hired Miss St had a smaller budget than Vandy.
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Mullen’s not infallible. He got outbid for Cam Newton.
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Georgia just had better overall talent and were ready. Would not have mattered if MSU played their best game. Feeling more and more confident in this team and Smart keeping them focused…..certainly better than a year ago. Thninks Fromm has been a big part of this…and believe the staff and team recognize this.
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Semper has it right…I think.
At a certain point, the power of habit and routine is more significant than the emotions that seem to ebb and flow in college football. Kirby is about good work habits, which is not to say he ignores the risk of complacency. It just means that focus is a built in feature of he process.
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Exactly this ^^^^
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Check out this video on YouTube:
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We’re talking about a team that is 3-1 and whose only loss came on a Hail Mary. Plus UT has beaten the Dawgs the last two time they’ve played–and the game is at their place. I would certainly hope that the team would not get complacent under the circumstances.
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ND may have been a Hobnail type game for Kirby where the team buys in, MS St was one of those once a season all things click kinda games. This game is now the true test – can a team handle expectations better than MSU did? Can they tune out all the media love they are getting? I’ve been cautiously sipping the kool-aid each week. If we beat UT, I’m diving head first into the ocean.
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Why not pump the breaks. I hope everyone realizes that we have basically played two cupcake teams and two that were sub 500 last year. I bet that fact has not escaped CKS. All I’m saying every team we play has been working ,some will improve and some will not. But to think we al all Championship caliber I for one don’t think so and if the players think the way that a lot of hat post on here then you can without a lot of thought see where teams come out flat. And if people aren’t worried why keep bring up CMR he is gone get over it. Just one old mans thoughts.
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Some truth there, on the flip side the East is a dumpster fire. UK should have beat UF who has 9 players including the returning rushing and receiving leaders facing felonies and they beat UT without them who barely beat UMass. S. Car. has to come back late to beat La Tech.
The goal more so than ever is to win the SEC East.
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This game tests the reason for the change, really. If they come out and beat Tennessee like they’re capable of doing, then I don’t see why anyone needs to pump the brakes. Georgia’s the most talented team in the East by as wide a margin as possible in major college football, and so far, the defense has played like it. If the offensive performance against MSU wasn’t a one-off, this team could be very nearly championship caliber.
As for players thinking the way posters do, every good team in the country would come out flat damn near every week if there was anything to it.
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“This game tests the reason for the change, really. ” If you mean what I think you mean, I agree with a bullet.
I am not as convinced about your second premise (talent), I still think we are a year away, maybe two, but you are certainly right about the defense.
This here thing, in Knoxville, there, is the biggest game in the history of Georgia football.
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To clarify: Not laying eggs in big games against quality, but still lesser opponents. And not believing your own hype and so on.
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So it is the biggest game in the history of Georgia football?
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At least since Yale in 1929.
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What difference does it make what the records were last year?
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True. All different teams this season, and we were a bad 7-5 ourselves. Same with ND, that 4-8 last year will be a 9-3 team this year, and it is the 2017 team we played.
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Reeks of excuse making. Much like Dan Mullen saying “we just didn’t execute,” Fitzgerald looks back after the loss and reasons that it was a poor week of practice that got them beat – a misdirection from the real reason: Georgia is just a much better team.
Is there any reason to believe that missed assignments, dropped balls, etc, were the reason behind that ass whipping? The lead up to that beat down started long before last week, it started in the recruitment process, then continued during off season strength programs and spring practice. A week of practice before a game doesn’t take the place of the work you put in during the off season. Ask UGA fans how we know.
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Isn’t a team that doesn’t practice well expected miss assignments, drop balls, etc, all of which lead to an ass whipping?
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But it wasn’t dropped balls or missed assignments that got them beat. They got manhandled everywhere on the field. Did they blow the coverage on the TD passes to Godwin and Nauta? Sure, but was that because of poor practice or because they were selling out to stop the run and still couldn’t?
Just like the loss we suffered to Alabama in 2008, there was way more of a difference in that score line than a bad week of practice could explain.
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’08 UGA was coming back late in that game before a PI call ended any hopes. Miss St made no such come back. It more reminded me off multiple Richt teams in Jax going in ready to step in to being the challenger from the East only to fall on their face.
UGA was the better team. Was UGA as good as it looked and is MSU as bad as they looked? Likely but no on both fronts and likely the same for LSU/MSU. A bad week’s practice can lead to many break downs. Yes the blame ultimately goes to Mullen as the HC but they building job he has done at Miss St. is still quite good, and I’d like to see what he could do with more resources just not at one of our rivals.
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My name is Kirby Smart, loyal Dawg, Commander of the Dawg Legion and loyal servant to the True Emperor. Coach of a stolen game, father to a broken-hearted team and I will have my vengence.
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+1
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Bravo.
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In this life, or the next.
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No, Saturday, in Knoxville hell is coming and Kirby is coming with it.
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If this defense continues to improve and play to its potential, the Viles have no chance unless our offense spits the bit. If every offensive possession ends in a kick, Tennessee doesn’t have the players to drive the ball consistently 75-80 yards against our defense.
This game will be tight for a while as the Georgia defense squeezes the life out of the Tennessee offense. Eventually, the brick wall breaks under pressure, and the Dawgs win by 13-17 points.
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Chubb should be able to lolli-gag his way to the end zone saturday.
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It’s going to be a tough start for Eason.
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uh, Aus, uh…ah…
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Where was the smiley face? I would like to see him get a couple of series though, if it isn’t too risky for his knee at this point.
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I am less concerned about this type of mentality because of the group of seniors on this team. Chubb, Michel, Wynn, Carter, Bellamy, Parrish, Sanders, just to name a few. Not to mention some great juniors like Smith, Godwin, and Thompson. I know we are playing a lot of young guys too, but when was the last time we had such a high quality group of upper classmen? The 2013 class seems to have been exorcised, and I think all that senior experience is far more valuable in prepping for a game like this than anything a coach can do.
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Amazing what a few wins and objective evidence of good coaching will do for a blog’s tone.
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Are you saying we sho are easy to please? 😀
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Excuse making after an ass-whipping…hmm, hmm, hmmm…tastes so good.
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UT–17 UMass–13
Is our D 10 pts better than UMass? Yes. Is our O 10 pts better than UMass? Yes. Will UT be “up” for us more than UMass? Yes.
Ergo, UGA–23 UT–10, at a minimum.
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It has been a long time since I trusted Georgia Coaches.
I trust Kirby Smart and his staff to have this team ready to play on every Saturday
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I hope you are right. If so, 11-1 looks like a lock. But you can never be surprised when athletes at this age take a week off, for whatever reasons they let get in the way of their mission. Let’s hope it isn’t against an East opponent. Rumble young men, rumble!
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