Marc Weiszer does a good job assembling a few pundits who don’t buy into the “Georgia, if not now, then when?” narrative. As AP’s Ralph Russo says,
“All you can ask for from your coach and your team is to put yourself in position to be in that discussion every year,” Russo said. “Where Georgia is, they’re in that discussion every year. At some point, they’re going to have to beat Bama and it’s going to be very hard, or LSU. They are where they are. The idea it’s championship or bust this year, why? Why would it be championship or bust this year? They have two five-star quarterbacks that are coming after Daniels. The machine is rolling here.”
True dat. The only negative comment that sort of leaves a mark comes from LSU beat writer Glenn Guilbeau, who makes this point:
Offensively, Georgia has the talent “to be as good as anyone in the SEC,” Guilbeau said but he wonders if Smart is all-in on opening up the offense. “He’s had some quarterbacks in the past, but Kirby’s philosophy has not been to join the rest of the league from a modern-sense. Maybe he’s ready to do that. …They definitely have the weapons to make a mark this season.”
His pessimism isn’t misplaced, admittedly. If he’s right about it continuing, I sure have overestimated the impact the 2019 SECCG had on Smart. Call me a naive optimist, but I don’t think he is.
Get The Picture 
Once you’ve had a severe ass-whipping, you don’t forget it and most important, it never happens again…
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Kirby has never entered a season with an offense built to throw the ball 30+ times per game as a plus. It’s totally unfair to include the 2020 season as a comparison for many reasons.
If JT stays healthy we’ll all see if Monken has the keys to a new car or we are still riding in Mudcat’s car.
I’m in the Kirby learned his lesson later than Saban camp. 2019 proved to him offense not defense would dominate the CFB landscape in the near future.
The win now or never talk is a joke. Recruiting has Georgia in the best place it’s ever been. There are no signs to expect Kirby will allow recruiting to slip. He seems more driven than ever to assemble the best talent in the land.
No wonder writers for other schools want to crank up the win now or never talk. I’m told the mouth of the south Pawwl has made it a daily feature on his show. He more than anyone in the media fears what Kirby is capable of.
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Pawwwl actually is a Kirby fan. considers Athens best college town in America. He has said it is a matter of time. He is not part of the we have to win it this year crowd.
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As scuba said above, the “win now or else” narrative seems to come from the national media or those affiliated with other programs. Why? Because they all know that because of the recruiting “home field advantage” the Senator discusses today, Georgia under Kirby could be on the top of the mountain for a long time given his age. We are now what the Bear said about Florida, we now have our collective $#!+ together, and everyone else may be playing for 2nd place.
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If Kirby can’t win it all with this team running this offense, it’s more than fair to ask will he ever. We’re approaching 2019 LSU levels of talent on both sides of the ball here.
Does he finally understand that there’s no such thing as “enough” points? I don’t know.
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We’ll see, but I’m not going to hang a “Fire Kirby” banner on my front porch if we don’t win it in 2021. If we aren’t in Atlanta in a de facto quarterfinal in December, my!opinion of Kirby will take a major hit.
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This year getting to Atlanta isn’t enough. We need to win the SEC. We need to get over the Bama hump. Kirby needs to get over the Bama hump. If we lose in the first round of the playoff, so be it, but just winning the East with this team is not a successful season to me.
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Crochet,
I remember LSU being very lucky to win their 2019 season opener.
Every National Championship team needs a little luck and key players to stay healthy when needed.
Is it fair to assume those two are in Kirby’s control?
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Sorry about the Corchet typo Corch.
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LOL, I mean, no worries man. It’s not like Corch is my name. 😉
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A great team makes their own luck. What you call luck, I call seizing the moment based on preparation and talent.
We Georgia fans as a whole have a real bad habit whining about the “good luck” of other teams.
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Like the “luck” of having an offsides call on what would have been the biggest play of the biggest game in the previous 35 years … no one should throw the “false start” on Bama out there because that was only recognizable under super slow motion.
We seized the moment based on preparation and talent (and a little reminder from the 2005 SEC championship game of what a great punt block scheme that is) and had it taken away by the bad luck of an incorrect call.
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We had a 10 point lead with 10 minutes remaining after all that, and Kirby turtled the offense and we almost lost the game in regulation of Bama’s kicker could make a 30 yard FG.
Where is the bad luck or good luck in there? What I see is a coach making some terrible decisions re: his offense, which he would do again the following season against the same team showing me he didn’t learn his lesson that there’s no such thing as “enough” points.
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We get it … you hate Kirby’s philosophy on offense.
If we’re going to talk about luck on field goals, Bama got the good break the next year when the eventual Groza Award winner missed a kick to put us up by 3 scores. That miss completely changed the game. There is no fake punt at the end of the game. Bama has to drive the length of the field to kick a field goal to send the game to overtime or a TD to win.
Admit it … luck plays a role in the game, and we’ve had our fair share of bad luck especially in the 2 games in 2018 against the Crimson Tide.
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I still believe you make your own luck, good and bad, through the decisions you make, good and bad, combined with your talent and preparation level.
The ultimate question remains: Has Kirby learned that there’s no such thing as enough points? If he keeps his foot on the gas we have one ring and another trip to the playoffs in the bag, and he doesn’t have to worry about Rod missing or making a FG or not. Him playing for FGs is part of the problem. You settle for FGs, you don’t play for a FG, not with that much time still on the clock.
When you do stupid shit like purposefully stop trying to score as many points as possible by not allowing your offense to run as normal in the fourth quarter, then you are well in the process of making your own bad luck.
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I’m not sure I agree with that… it’s more than fair to ask if we don’t when it all this year, will we ever? In don’t think so.
Gees man, we have two five star QBs (Vandergriff and Stockton) behind Daniels, and that don’t even count ol Beck, who was a measily 4 star and top 10 QB in HS. I personally think Milton is a better RB than White or Cook, and anybody that don’t believe that now will after this season. And if we get this Branson Robinson kid, they are saying he’s a clone of Nick Chubb. KS has stockpiled the talent on the OL and DL, we have a slew of 5 star kids at LB and WR and our TE depth is young and second to NONE!
So, no…I don’t think we’re gonna pull an LSU after ol Burrows left and be a “one-and-done”. Not with the roster we have. In the words of the “Carpenters”, We’ve Only Just Begun!
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If Kirby can’t win with this assembled talent, in a similar way that Coach O got out of his OC’s way and let him run the offense and stopped shutting down their offense when they scored “enough,” then I’m sorry, I feel much worse that he could win with the talent coming up behind this year’s team.
This team is built to win a title. This year. Can Kirby get out of the offense’s way to allow them to do it? We’ll see.
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@ eethomaswfnc – “everyone else may be playing for second place”…maybe in the SEC East. Bama, LSU ..and add TAMU to the list, are recruiting as well as UGA. Clemson is brilliant in finding QB’s and recruiting around talent around that position. THE Ohio State is also recruiting off the hook and Ryan Day, like Kirby, is getting more experience each year. Oklahoma continues to position like UGA and could be on the cusp of winning it all.
It seems the rest of the nation hates that the same handful of teams have separated from the pack over these last few years and want to legislate parity or find ways to punish excellence. Funny, never heard the media be concerned about the runs at DUKE, UNC, KY, Kansas, etc. in basketball.
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I was only using Bear Bryant’s words about Florida in the SEC – remember when he was coaching Florida had never won an SEC championship, but he recognized the potential.
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With Kirby, the problem isn’t “opening up the offense.” He did that when he hired Monken.
The problem with Kirby going back to the last ten minutes of the National Championship Game is KEEPING HIS FOOT ON THE GAS with respect to the offense.
Has he changed enough that he will get out of his OC’s way and let him continue to run the offense no matter the score in the fourth quarter, or will he continue to force his OC to turtle the offense if Kirby thinks they’ve scored “enough” points with “enough” time left on the clock.
Does Kirby understand that there is no such thing as “enough” points? That is the question he must answer.
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Gas Pedals and Tight Ends: A Georgia Fan’s Guide To Offensive Football.
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For all of you in the “keep your foot on the gas pedal” crowd, I presume you’re not professional football fans. I saw the Atlanta Falcons blow a Super Bowl by doing the opposite of what Kirby did. It goes both ways, and you have to watch the game, the flow of the game, and where your players are physically and energy level. There’s no one-size-fits-all recipe, so let’s cool the anti-Kirby talk. Somewhere there’s a group of Auburn, Florida and Georgia tech fans loving the chance to say we are the worst fan base and can’t even appreciate what Kirby has done.
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Comparing all the coaches that have recently won national titles and their ages compared to Kirby Smart at the time of their titles is an interesting exercise.
Most were head coaches for the better part of a decade before breaking through. It’s not an exact science and there is also the lightning in a bottle factor (lookin at you Chizik), but Kirby headed into year 6 seems to be right on schedule, if not ahead.
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Funny how pundits never apply this exercise to Mullen, who has been a HC for longer than Kirby without ever making it to the Natty. He sure can develop talent though.
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It’s so painful to have an LSU writer (of all places) talk about how old-school our offense is. Man, we’ve got to make the leap this year on offense. Way too much passing talent not to. Narrative-wise, we’ve got a big window and Kirby won’t let it close anytime soon. Everything else is just talking season crap.
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Damn right…let’s just head to NC and play Clemson already…enough typing and prognosticating…release the Dawgs
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And beat the crap out of the gaters….No lifting off the gas pedal in that one. We need to bury them. Kirby knows it. crush them #FTMF’S
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Two words, “Offensive Line”.
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