The Georgia Way’s never ending commitment to excellence

The whispers about this have been swirling about for a while.

Georgia is about to lose the best track coach it has ever had.

Petros Kyprianou, who led the Bulldogs to both men’s and women’s national championships in the past three years, is leaving UGA after the conclusion of the NCAA Championships next month, several people with knowledge of the situation confirmed to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution this week.

And this, Georgia fans, is why we can’t have nice things:

At issue is facilities. Kyprianou would like UGA to invest more significantly in track and field. The Bulldogs do not have an indoor track facility, as most of the major powers do, and they have to share the Spec Towns Track and Field facility with the university.

If that sounds familiar, it’s why Georgia no longer hosts tennis championships after a long period of neglect of its once stellar tennis facilities by Greg McGarity.  It’s what you get when you don’t believe in a facilities master plan and commit to a policy of building things only after a significant donor pool is established to pay for it.

Meanwhile, Josh Brooks is Greg McGarity now.

Georgia athletic director Josh Brooks declined to discuss the situation.

“Our primary focus is supporting our coaches and student-athletes as they prepare for the NCAA regionals and nationals,” Brooks said via a text message.

At Butts-Mehre, it’s football or bust.  And my bet is that’s just fine with a majority of the fan base (not to mention the boosters).

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The most bittersweet moment of the 2020 season

This play.

Inside, @dayneyoung and @PFF_Brent take a look at two non-quarterbacks who will help determine Georgia’s 2021 ceiling https://t.co/uMHNRdXpp7 pic.twitter.com/UEVj5uMcpi

— Anthony Dasher (@AnthonyDasher1) May 21, 2021

I have no illusions that Florida’s offense would have been held in check all day.  Georgia’s defense was too beat up and Trask had too many receiving weapons for that to happen.  But Georgia’s offense had flat out ripped up Grantham’s defense to that point and could have kept it up without the two injuries suffered on that play.

But what really makes that moment so bittersweet is that it was one of the times when Stetson played it perfectly — stood in the pocket, made the correct read and delivered a perfect pass.  Nobody gets hurt then and I would have honestly taken the Dawgs’ chances in a shootout.

Damn.

A measure of respect

Athlon has posted its 2021 All-SEC preseason teams (four in all).  Here’s how it breaks down by school:

There are quibbles — quite a few, as a matter of fact — I could make with some of their individual projections, but as a overall assessment of talent, it’s fair to say there are two teams and then there’s the rest of the SEC.