UGA's mind boggling stats compared to rivals

Let me be clear and say that I'm not sure I want a new coach. I hope we go
10-2 and don't need one. I think, maybe, 9-3 will do it. This summer I
thought 8-4 could do it w/ wins over the Gators and Jackets, but now I'm not
so sure. Here's the bottom line, and the goal that is still out there for
Richt and probably my biggest pet peeve of mine over the years. Something
he's NEVER done and something I want done immediately or I'm simply ready to
cut bait and go fishing again...I think. I want to beat rivals. I am tired
of losing to rivals. Now, I do not expect to beat all our rivals every
year. No coach does this. But I want to beat all of them some years. And
we NEVER do it.

Bulldog Trivia. And for the most part I'm going to leave Tech out of this
because they're OOC. For the most part, I'm talking about conference
rivals. Do you know when is the last time we beat Tennessee, Florida, and
Auburn in the same season? 1982. 19 freaking 82. Do you know why 2007 was
so fun? We ended the year beating rivals. It was the first time since '82
that we'd beaten Florida and Auburn in the same season. Are you kidding me?
We can't beat our 2 oldest conference rivals in the same season in 25 years.
Are. You. Kidding. Me? Man, the more I think about what Ray Goff did to our
program, the madder I get.

Anyway, before you start thinking, I wonder about other teams? I'll kindly
oblige. The last time for comparable teams?
In 2010, South Carolina beat Georgia, Florida, and Tennessee in the same
season, along with #1 Alabama, and throw in a victory over Clemson for good
measure.
In 2010, Auburn beat Georgia, LSU, and Alabama in the same season. They
also did this in 2004. So, they've had 2 different coaches do it in the
last 7 years.
In 2009, Alabama beat LSU, Tennessee, and Auburn, plus Florida in the SEC
champ. Game, but I'm mostly concerned about the regular season games.
In 2008, Alabama beat LSU, Tennessee, and Auburn, and had a pretty good
showing between the hedges from what I hear.
In 2008 and 2009, Florida beat Tennessee, LSU, and Georgia (along with FSU),
and beat Bama in the SECCG in 2008.
In 2006, Florida also beat Tennessee, LSU, and Georgia.
In 2007, LSU beat Bama, Florida, and Auburn. LSU also accomplished this in
2005.
In 2004, Tennessee beat UGA, Florida, and Bama. They also did this in 1998.

Every team basically has 3 big time conference rivals that they play every
year. The other 2 of the big 6 in their division and their every year foe
from the other division. If you're a school like Arkansas or South
Carolina, you're basically looking at the big 3 in your division as your big
rivals. So, in Richt's tenure, South Carolina and Tennessee have done it
once, Auburn, LSU, and Bama have done it twice, and Florida has done it 3
times. You know what beating rivals does? It makes fans happy. I feel
immeasurably worse after a loss to those 3 guys then I do after a loss to
Arkansas, South Carolina or Kentucky. I don't like those teams, but I don't
hate them like I do those 3. And all this has happened for these other
schools in the last 7 years. We haven't done it in TWENTY-FIVE YEARS. I
want a coach that can get it done and will get it done. So that's where I
stand on September 12. My decision can get an extension on Oct. 8, another
on Oct. 29, and the final stamp of fan approval on Nov. 12. Beat those 3
teams, and then finish it off with a victory on the Flats, and it'll be hard
for me to complain because beating those guys makes me happy and gives our
team tremendous momentum. It's hard for me to fathom beating those guys and
going 8-4 or 7-5. Beat them, and I think you're 9-3 at worse. Beat those
guys with a loss to MSU or UK or something fluky like that, and I think I
can still live with that and go 9-3. However, 9-3 with a loss to Tech and
we probably win the East, but that's another conversation for another day.
If we can't beat those 3 teams, I think I'm willing to say 11 years was
plenty of chances and lets give someone else a shot at this thing. Thanks
for the great memories, most of the greatest in my life. I faintly remember
seeing Walker play, but the greatest teams I saw were Richt's Dawgs. But I
believe we can be greater. We have better everything than Auburn, better
everything but tradition than Tennessee and our recruiting advantage over
them far outweighs their slight tradition advantage. We have every
advantage over LSU except MAYBE recruiting base. Florida and Bama are the
only teams that have multiple advantages over us, but we're not that far
behind in natural advantages bent toward success. We are simply are one of
the plum jobs in America and can do better. So, if we had to have a new
coach, I began thinking about what I want.

New coach
-Beat our rivals.
-Oversign. No excuse for not signing 25/year
-A Mean s.o.b. I want a mean and nasty team that scares people on defense.
-Smart, disciplined play and 'mental mistake free football'
-Deploying young talent early and often. You think Ray Drew has played yet
in Gainesville? What do you think Clowney's role would be for us? If
you're noticing, he made the play of the game for the Cocks Saturday night.
In his 2nd game, Spurrier gave Lattimore 37 carries against us. We gave
Crowell 18 Saturday night in his second, on a night he averaged 7.3/carry.
-Hiring the guys in Atlanta for S&C
-Beat Florida
-Pro style offense
-Someone who makes o-line recruiting our first priority
-Better use of personnel and decisions. Richard's a LB, Prince Miller's a
WR, Brandon Miller's a LB. It's not that hard to figure out, people.
-Better game management

I hope it doesn't come to it, but my call list would be, in order:
1. Chris Petersen
2. Gary Patterson (and he might be 1A)
3. John Gruden (just for kicks...you never know)
4. Randy Edsall
5. Kirby Smart

I interview all of those that will. I want to see all of their plans. And
I start at $4 million, and I'm willing to go to 5 or 5.5 for the right guy.
I want them to know we mean business and we expect results.

The problem is that there are no guarantees. I think Brian Kelly is a good
coach, and he's 0-2 in year 2 in South Bend. But, we might be forced to
take a chance.

I want to say we've lost only a few battles, but I'm worried we've lost the
war.

What will make you madder on Saturday afternoon?

A) Looking like we've looked the last season and a half. Totally unprepared, sloppy, and weak.

-OR-

B) Looking sharp, running power football out of the I, blitzing like a crazy man and not jumping off-sides and wondering why that was so difficult to do 1 week earlier.

It's a legitimate question. That's kind of the point I'm at. I'm not sure anything can make me happy on Saturday. Don’t get me wrong, I want to win, but why would it take that handling to figure all that out? I'll be happy if it's B, especially if that's a harbinger of what's to come, but I'll be peaved that we didn’t figure that out in the last 8 months first.

And, are we really going to become one of those teams looking to the sideline for the play call? I'm sorry, but right now I feel better about AM getting us in the right play rather than MB. It's not like Malzahn or Petrino are over there calling the plays.

I really, really hope we're walking back on Saturday thinking: "Boise would beat Oklahoma's britches off, 'cause we're pretty doggone good."

It was bad, but we need to hold off judgement...a few more days

So, it took me a while to decompress from that handling we got on Saturday…and it was a handling. The truth is, it will take me a while to get over it. I've had to do a lot of soul searching. I mean, even after a 30-point victory over the Cocks, I still don't think I'll be over it. This is for 2 reasons:

1. I really thought they were a bit of a paper tiger. I knew they were good and had beat some good teams. But they were far better than I imagined. I was very impressed. Could they compete week in and week out in the SEC? I don't know, but they could sure compete in the East this year and they'd hold their own. If they had our schedule, I'd predict them to go 12-0 or 11-1.

2. We were far less prepared than I imagined. Everything. There's too many things to name. We weren't prepared for the first drive, weren't prepared for the short passing game, weren't prepared to have to replace Ogletree, weren't prepared to protect Murray. Heck, it was a million things. It disgusted me. With a $3 million dollar job on the line, I think I'd be prepared for everything, because I think I'd like making $3 million. Sometimes I wonder if Richt does. I really, really expected us to win by double digits on Saturday. Not because I'm a homer. I thought we were just that much better than them. This is why I'm not a prognosticator.

Now, my shock aside…

Saturday is HUUUUUUUUGE for Georgia and Mark Richt. It's the most important game of his career. We have not beaten a really good team since Tech '09. That's a long time. At some point, we've got to beat a good team. At the beginning of the year, we thought these were the best 2 teams we'd play. If you go 10-2 and lost do the 2 best teams you played…is that really a great year? At some point, you've just got to do it when all eyes are watching. Everybody's watching on Saturday. Win, and we start to think that maybe we can make something out of this. If we lose, I'm not sure we can recover. I think the fan base will turn, the team will begin to slip and Richt will lose the team. We're just losing too many games.

Don't give me victories. Those things don't matter as much as losses. In 12 game seasons, losses are the only things we can compare to previous years. In '91 and '92, we had 2 really great years. We lost 3 in '91, and won our bowl game. We beat a really good Clemson team, LSU, Auburn, and Tech, and Tech was good. In '92, we lost 2 by a gnats hair, beat South Carolina in Columbia handily (the last time that happened), beat Auburn and Tech. We won a New Year's day bowl and our tailback finished 3rd in New York. We followed that up w/ a 6 loss season in '93. It was a tough year with an absolutely brutal loss in Jax. We then lost only 4 in '94 against one of the hardest schedules in UGA history. We played @ South Carolina, Alabama, Florida, & Auburn. We hosted Tennessee, Clemson, and Tech…and only lost 4! We didn't make a bowl, and Coach Dooley wanted to give Goff another year with the reverse of that schedule. In '95, we experienced the worst string of injuries in school history, literally losing our 1st & 2nd string QBs and TBs and our All-American LB for the season. We lost 6 games, including the bowl. We fired Ray before he lost the 6, though. 3 straight seasons of 6 losses, 4 losses and 5 losses was enough.

Mark Richt has lost 5, then 7. We're 0-1 now. Ray Goff lost 14 in 3 seasons and we fired him. Mark Richt has lost 13 in 2 seasons and 1 game. I'm not saying…I'm just saying.

The caveat to all that is that we have been no friend of Richt when it comes to scheduling. We've simply scheduled in a way that is too difficult, and it makes judging our performance hard to figure. It's very difficult to judge what we're doing vs. other schools because it's apples to oranges. In the last 5 years (+ Saturday's opener), Florida is 4-1 vs. FSU. They are undefeated in the rest of their non-conference games, excluding bowl games. This is because they have scheduled guaranteed home wins in those games. In 5 years, we are also 5-1 vs. GT, which has been a much better program than FSU for most of those 5 years. However, we have lost 3 non-conference games. Would we feel different if our record in '09 was 9-4 and in '10 it was 7-6? And the proverbial "Would we have lost to the 'Cocks in '07 had we not played the Pokes?" and "Would we have lost to 'Bama had we not traveled to Tempe the week before?"

I hope we can recover from this game. It was fun to play in it, but at the end of the day…it was useless. It taught us something, but it got us an L. We don't need to play in that kind of game. We just don't. We're already playing at a disadvantage because we don't over sign, there's no need to make it worse by over-scheduling. I'm not crying. This is just simply a fact. I don't know if we'd have a false sense of hope if we'd have played Lafayette on Saturday, I just know we'd be 1-0 and feel a whole lot better getting ready to play the Cocks in the games that really matter. Of course, it'd be great to beat Boise, and that's no excuse for the performance we saw, just an observation on the overall state of things.

What does it all mean? I have no idea. I can only imagine Oregon and VT fans felt the same way the last 2 years. They both went on win their conference, and I wonder what they felt in Pasadena and South Beach thinking back on that opening game. I'll bet they thought, "We ain't worth a flip and we just got beat by a 3rd world country. USC/FSU is going to kill us." Is is possible? Yes. We have a boatload to fix. A boatload, I tells ya. But it can happen. I'm hoping it happens.

I just want Mark Richt to look really P.O.'d. Is that too much to ask? Just be angry. I think we all have to wait to reserve judgment till about 8 p.m. on Saturday night. I'm hoping I'm walking back on the railroad tracks saying to some stranger, "Man, Boise must be really good."

CAN'T WAIT!

Gotta tell you, I'm about ready to run through a brick wall. I'm certain that I say this every year, but I don't think I've been this excited about a season in a long time. I've drank the Dream Team Kool-Aid. I know that all are not in agreement, but I think we are going to destroy Boise. I mean it. I think we're going to punish them. I don't know that it will look like the Hawaii Sugar Bowl, but it might be close. I really believe that #29 and #9 are going to unleash on some people. #2 is just too good and may run a kickoff back every game.

I've got some theories. I think we're going to see #1 and #2 both back at the same time for KO and punt returns. I think we're going to make people put it in our play-makers hands. I think Boykin tipped his hand a little bit with his tweet. I don't think he was just talking about KO's, because I think he's smart enough to understand the goal is for them to KO once. Richt said a few weeks ago when asked about whether we'd have 1 or 2 guys deep on KO returns: "That's top secret information." And, we listed Boykin or Smith as the punt returners. I think we're going to see a new attitude.

You know what I've said for 3 years. I just want to see #2 take one toss sweep and I can die happy. Just one. I think he'd look a lot like ol' #47, another former corner who turned into a pretty good tailback.

The bottom line is that I believe our defense is going to be loads better. We traded in some much better players than what we played in that Liberty Bowl with. Perhaps that day will be the death nail for Mark Richt, but I believe that sad day in Memphis was the best thing to ever happen to him in the last 3 years. It showed him that we needed a major attitude adjustment. I believe we got one. This team seems really ticked off. I'm calling it. We boatrace them on Peachtree. My hope is that we have enough in the tank to beat the Chickens 7 days later.

Interesting Boise / Gamecock Thought

We posted this earlier in the Summer. Now that we're a little over a week away, how do you feel?

I began thinking something kind of strange today. Obviously, I want to come out of the gate 2-0. We do that and we're set. But I begin thinking about who I'd rather lose to if we go 1-1. It's kind of strange, and you have to think about what your ultimate goal is.

This may sound odd, but if you're goal is first and foremost win the National Title, then you have to say that it's more important to beat Boise. Boise will be higher ranked. Plus, if you beat Boise and lose to the 'Cocks, you could recover and go 11-1 and beat a bunch of good teams. Moreover, it's hard to imagine going 11-1, w/ the 1 loss being to Boise and going to the MNC game OVER an undefeated Boise. Heck, it would even be hard to put us in the game over a 11-1 Boise. I mean, if our records are equal and they won head to head, it's hard to say we deserve to go over them.

HOWEVAH…

If our goal is first and foremost to win the SEC, then obviously beating the Cock's is more important. In fact, the best route to the MNC game is winning the SEC, and it would be very hard to win the East without a win over FakeUSC.

It's just an interesting thought. For the record, I think we win both of them. We have so much on the line. I think we're going to come out swinging like we never have before. And I think our QB is going to be better than we remember. He's going to be a lot better this Fall. And #7 ain't bad.

Couple of tidbits on the secondary, the Cocks and uniforms

-The fact that we lost Jakar Hamilton for the season and Richt doesn't seem that worried is a good thing, not for Jakar, but for that position. The other thing that hits me is as VERY positive is the comments about who's running with the first team secondary. Looks like Rambo is a decided 2nd teamer. I really like the idea of our starting 4 being Williams, Commings, Smith and Boykin. I really, really like that. If Rambo's loafing last year won't be tolerated this year, that's a very, very good sign about our coaching staff. I mean, we're talking about benching a guy that started EVERY game. I still think he was recovering from that Auburn hit all year. He looks like he's lost about 10-15 lbs, so hopefully that's good on Bacarri.

-Speaking of lbs…Got my SI preview yesterday with, get this, Alshon Jeffrey of the Cocks on the cover, along w/ some Richardson and some other national guys. Jeffrey's got a belly. More than that, he just doesn't look fit. Here's to hoping that Garcia has really influenced the culture in Columbia. They guy does not look good, man. Might not make a lick of difference on the field, but I'm going to go out on a limb and predict a decrease in production from Jeffrey because he's not fit. He does not look like AJ or Julio or, for that matter, Orson. He should really lay off the spandex.

-And speaking of the Cocks, their new unis are terrible. While their old unis had that Under Armour look, they were crisp and sharp. Their new ones have a TERRIBLE number font. They had a really good looking thick block font on the old unis, and this one is just skinny and has too many curves. Number fonts simply make a football uniform.

-And speaking of uniforms…Did you know that that Penn St. is getting new jerseys. GASP! They dropped the trim collar and cuffs. They're the same color as their jersey now. That's the way they were back when JoePa started. And did you know that the Mountain West, thank goodness, has prohibited Boise from wearing all blue at home. I don't know if that means orange jerseys or simply white or orange pants, but they can't wear all blue. I'm glad for it. It was just hard to watch and it was clearly a ploy to make film review difficult, especially when they changed their number color from white to gray, which made it even more difficult to read jersey numbers on the screen.

Oh, and Alec Ogletree is going to DO-MI-NATE. We wanted our Rolando McClain…I think we got him.

The world will be better when Swiper Boy is off the mic

I'm sure you have all seen Renaldo Woolridge's song about Eric Berry....now he's got one about their beloved precious, Derek Dooley.

Enjoy!

Precious