From The Athletic’s Florida preview ($$) comes this somewhat startling gem:
Feleipe Franks became the first quarterback at Florida to start in every game in a season since Tim Tebow in 2009.
Holy crap. How did Georgia lose three games in a row to that?
Get The Picture 
The answer to your question is obvious, even though the truth of it won’t make certain apologists living in a constant state of denial happy:
Mark. Richt.
That’s how we lost three in a row to the ‘turds. And more than that, to be sure, but those are other questions.
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Smart was the coach in 2016.
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Throwaway season! Throwaway season!
’16 doesn’t count…..
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Thanks, Jeff. 😉
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It doesn’t count.
I don’t blame Richt for losing to the Gators in 2001. I blame Donnan. I do blame Richt for losing 2002 and 2003.
Kirby was in the process of changing culture and not everyone bought-in. It’s difficult to win games when that happens. Richt’s terrible recruiting on the o-line and d-line has far more to do with the 2016 loss than anything Kirby could or couldn’t have done.
Sorry, but that’s logic.
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Don’t you think the decision to replace the starting QB with the third string running QB (but not put in any new running plays for the QB) in the 2015 WLOCP had something to do with that loss? Just sayin.’
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That’s 2015, not 2016.
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Richt’s poor recruiting and roster management in the lines had far more to do with the 2016 loss than any other factor. You know it and I know it.
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Sure.
That’s why Chubb and Michel had their Come to Jesus meeting with Jim Chaney over his game plan after the loss.
You are just as guilty of denial as the people you rail against.
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I said it was the biggest factor, the factor that had the most to do with the loss. Not the only factor. Yes, Jim Chaney sucks, too.
Doesn’t discount that Richt’s poor recruiting and roster management had more to do with most of the losses we had in 2016 than any other factor.
The exception to that rule is the Vandy game, which was about 90% on Chaney sucking.
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You keep using that word “rail.”
Given my countenance, I don’t think it means what you thinks it means. 😂
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“…rail against..” thought that could only mean what Bluto expressed. You have another use of “rail” when used in that context?
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himself w/o a QB that started every game
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Smart was indeed the head coach in 2016. But the team still had a Mark Richt offensive line and Mark Richt depth.
Also, to be fair to Mark Richt, he had an illustrious 5-10 record against the Gators during his time at Georgia.
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It was too hot in Jax for Richt….so he said.
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I’m thankful for that.
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Yep. In his 1st year trying to clean up the shit burger that Richt left behind. I don’t want to hear anything about administrative support and this, that and the other either. No excuse for not beating them more often. Richt’s roster management was sub par.
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Look, I get the “throwaway season” argument … It totally makes sense because NOBODY was going to fire Kirby Smart after his first year unless he was caught red-handed doing something illegal. He and the coaching staff had the ability to preach their version of toughness and how to win without cow-towing to any bad attitudes on the team or worrying about the lack of quality depth that year.
As part of the argument … I present to you our starting QB in 2016. Chaney was limited in what he could have this young man execute. It was a factor in certain games. Does anyone remember how COMPLETELY INSANE our offensive game plan was against UF that year.
No one in BM will say they tried to lose … But they didn’t cut corners or mortgage the next year to win 9 or 10 games. It was … a process. 🙂
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That ’14 loss was one of the biggest embarrassments in recent history.
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Hard to be more embarrassing than the 2015 loss.
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’14 was more embarrassing that ’15. ’14 was when Florida ran the ball down our throats with literally the same three plays over and over and over. ’15 was expected the minute that poor Faton Bauta was asked to execute Grayson Lambert’s game plan.
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Have you guys been smoking? If you remember who the D Coach is for FU, and then remember when he was at UGA – that’s all a good reason to assess where we are against them this coming year. He’s still there!
Pissing on Richt without giving full acknowledgement of responsibilities in that game is shitty sport. The other one is at Tenn.
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Grantham was 3-1 versus UF when he was at UGA, and the 1 was in overtime when we had the ball first and didn’t score.
Not a Grantham fan but he was 3-1 versus Florida, 4-0 versus UT, 2-2 against Auburn and 4-0 versus Tech. That’s 13-3 against our top 4 rivals.
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I’m not pissing on Richt here. It took a lot more than him to put that shitshow together.
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Yep. I’m as big a CMR fan as they come but that loss was baffling and maddening.
Getting the rug pulled out after we expected TGIII to come back (Thanks again, Greg!!) explains some, but not nearly enough
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Florida has fallen behind in recruiting and facilities and the o-line seems to be the biggest area of concern on an otherwise reasonably-talented squad. So, they have become 2006-2016 Georgia?
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2015 starting Faton Bauta was an off the rails decision. Exit CMR stage right. 2016… sometimes you have to suck before you get good.
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Richt threw the 2015 game to make sure he was fired and got his $4 million buyout and could go to Miami. A win against Florida would have won the East that year and Richt knew he wouldn’t get fired if he won the East no matter what else happened. Playing Bauta and not changing the offense to suit Bauta’s talents made it obvious Richt was trying to throw the game.
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I really get tired of this bullshit being peddled. If you’ve got proof, provide it. Otherwise, I’m going to start blocking this. It’s borderline slander.
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Thank you
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Directed to the Senator
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Yes because Richt knew in the middle of the season the Miami job would be open.
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He did know the job would be open in the middle of the season because Al Golden was fired on 25 October after Clemson beat them 58-0. Miami’s AD called to offer him the job that day. He took the call but politely declined. Richt normally declined to take calls inquiring as to his interest in other jobs. He took the call because it was his alma mater (source: Mark Richt said this himself). Also, my understanding is that the Liquor Barons were livid that he took the call and was part of the impetus for his firing. That said, yeah, the idea of him tanking to make sure he got fired is beyond stupid.
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It’s your site, you can do as you like. The circumstantial evidence supports it more than any evidence to the contrary refutes it. Richt was offered the Miami job before that game and he claims he turned them down. Of course, he claimed that AFTER he took the Miami job. I don’t think he took the job when they offered or told them to wait and he would make sure he was fired, but I wouldn’t be surprised if the offer didn’t start him thinking about taking the Miami job.
I think the team beat Georgia Southern, Auburn and tech on talent and the players wanting to win the games. Once Richt was gone, the team beat Penn State fairly easily
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Richt never took the $4 million. How do you explain that?
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Yes he did.
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You do not know the meaning of the term, “circumstantial evidence. “
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See above. Going after Richt without assessing all people coaching in those games is shitty sport.
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As crazy as this theory seems, what is even more crazy is the idea that Richt was so inept at that point as to put in a 3rd string running QB with no change to the offensive game plan…at all. This is not rocket science people. The guy had two weeks to put in some wrinkles here and there. McGarity should have fired his ass in the locker room at the end of the game over that train wreck.
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Well said.
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That is… insane. That is literally insane… like, Alex Jones Pizzagate-level conspiracy theory insane.
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Dammit you beat me to it lol
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Richt didn’t throw anything. I think playing Bauta was as much an act of desperation as anything. It’s been said here before but that was the worst 10 win team in history and IMO spiraling down, which does give some explanation to ’16. Maybe someone here can answer these:
Who made the call to start Bauta? CMR or BS?
When was the decision made?
Not that it matters and I don’t remember. Maybe there wasn’t time to work anything in. Maybe CMR told BS to do it and BS took studs with him. Forcing Bauta into the existing scheme out of spite. Pruitt running around in the background raising hell wasn’t helping. FWIW I think negotiations with Kirby were already in the works and CMR and company got wind of it. I also think it happened in the middle of prep for Florida and that would explain some of the inexplicable decisions. They were throwing stuff at the wall to see what stuck because the staff lost focus when the should have been preparing. It might have been just a rumor at the time, but it also might have had enough weight to screw up the staff. Anyone who’s been in charge of a team of people knows how hard it is to get them refocused once they think the axe is gonna fall.
That’s my theory, anyway. I don’t think Richt quit, gave up, threw a game. or any other of that shit. I think he got caught in a difficult management position and the UF fiasco was fallout. If you want to be really conspiratorial: Was it leaked in house or did someone from another staff get word to one of the assistants, maybe?
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This is pizza-gate level stuff, right here.
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If Richt was trying to make sure he got fired, why did we win at Tech that year?
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Right, Dawg19. Or at Auburn.
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Dumbass of the day award goes to this guy…. right here.
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You’re one of those dumbasses that thinks the earth is flat, 9/11 didn’t happen, we didn’t land on the moon and the Holocaust is a myth. Jesse fucking Ventura over here.
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Not sure about all three, but Leonard Floyd just refused to set the edge in ’14
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Yep, the worst game Floyd played in a Georgia uniform and Pruitt let him keep doing it.
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The 2014 loss was the most frustrating to me. 2015 was maddening but I thought UF was no worse than our equal in 2015. I understood what happened in 2016.
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Mark. Richt.
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Going in to 2014 I was 0-5 at Jacksonville. So I went and I think 2014 was the worst because I had vowed to not go back to Jax until we won two in a row and were favored. We had won 3 in a row and were 3 point favorites and crapped all over ourselves. I left after they scored to start the second half and I wasn’t wrong. I walked out of that place and swore I would never go back and I won’t. #ftmf
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That sucks.
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More like a “holy shitoid” than a factoid…just sayin’
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Hey! We’re drankin’ heah! Who turned the asylum loose?
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