An Open Letter to the Whiny Media

I am as avid a Bulldog Fan as there is – we all are – and there is not one piece of information for which they are fishing that I care about.  I do not care about how much we spent on a recruiting trip or a helicopter.  I do not care that we don’t get to talk to Jacob Eason.

 

There is an entitlement with sports press these days that is kind of disgusting.  How about do your job.  Call Jacob Eason’s dad and high school coach.  Call his high school teammates.  Ask Matthew Stafford what he thinks about UGA’s true freshman QB if you want to do a story on him.  You know, like, work.

 

How about ask hard questions in the Monday press conference that UGA wants to know about:

 

·       It seemed like there were less tackles for loss and better offensive movement with Wynn at LT.  Can we expect to see him play there the rest of the season, especially since that’s where it seems he’ll play next year?

·       Why haven’t we seen more of Holyfield?

·       It seems the offense is moving better with Sony in there now…why is that?

·       Has there been any thought to running 2-minute type hurry-up in the middle of games from time to time as Jacob seems to excel at that?

·       Why does Reggie Carter play on first down so much when it seems clear Patrick and Smith are the starting LBs?

·       When will we see more of Mecole Hardman?  Why haven’t we tried him on offense?

·       Why have we struggled in kickoff coverage so much throughout the season?

·       We obviously want to build a physical down-hill game, but even Alabama has operated w/ more spread elements this year to match their talent, what’s his take on utilizing what you’ve got?

·       Jim Chaney’s offenses in the past haven’t really scored a lot of points, and UGA isn’t this year.  In an era in which points scored are rapidly increasing, does Chaney’s track record and this season’s results give you pause for what you’re trying to do offensively?

·       For years fans screamed for a special teams coach.  Now we have one and there’s a weekly special teams gaffe that costs or nearly costs the team the game.  What’s the explanation there?  Davis is a senior and McKenzie is a Junior. It’s not youth.

 

There you go.  I just wrote you 5 articles guys!  I don’t want to know about helicopters or salaries.  I want to know about THAT.  But those questions will get you a stern eye from the Kirbs, and it won’t be easy and comfortable.  Welcome to the real world.  Life ain’t easy.

Where We Are

You know, I update my lock screen on my computer to really the player of the game or defining play from a win.  I’m sort of tired of looking at Sony vs. South Carolina.

 

How in the world did we get to 4-4?  How in the world do we get out of this hole?  After a few days, a few things are clear.

 

·       A performance like this always brings out the yahoos.  This morning Steak Shapiro had the yahoo come out in him, suggesting that he’s disappointed in Eason and that he hasn’t developed.  What in the world is he watching?  It felt like a comment bashing Bobo back in the day.  A caller blasted him on it.  Jake is the least of our problems.  The Florida coach knows it, too.  Speaking of Bobo, remember when we’d all complain about this play call or that play call after we’d scored 35 points?  Fun times.

·       This is life with a true freshman QB.  It just is, unless you are supremely loaded in other areas.  I’ve seen us start a few of them, and I’ve learned my lesson.  We were 6-7 with Aaron Murray, and he had a junior AJ Green to throw to the last 2/3 of the season.  We still lost to an awful Colorado team.  We still lost to Central Florida and did not score a TD in the game.  I saw us start Matt Stafford in a season and lost to Vandy and Kentucky in 1 season.  And we darn near lost to that same terrible Colorado team, too.  In 2001, we Greenie had Terrance Edwards, Fred Gibson and Reggie Brown in his 3 WR set, and George Foster and Jon Stinchcomb at tackles, and Boss Bailey and Tony Gilbert at LB, Charles Grant at DE.  We didn’t need David to do much, but he did enough.  We still lost 4 games.  Bottom line is that even Richt and Bobo, the QB whisperers, struggled with Freshmen QBs (and even first year starters, to some extent). 

·       I’m incredibly frustrated by Chaney.  I listened to Kirby’s presser today, and I sense he is, too.  But, I keep coming back to Kyle Shanahan.  He was awful with the Falcons last year, and they couldn’t score.  1 center (Alex Mack) and 1 year later, and they’re the best offense in the league, and Matt Ryan might win the MVP.  An offensive lineman and a season can go a long way.  Kirby doesn’t do much w/ the O.  He’s going to let an OC run the show.  That means if we bring in a new guy, we’re going to have seniors learning new terminology for the 4^th time in 4 years.  I really, really, really, really don’t want to have to fire him.  I also don’t know who we’d get.  Randy Sanders at FSU, maybe?  BTW, it’s clear that Richt made the mistake that cost him his job with Schotty.  Clemson lost Chad Morris put replaced him with insiders and kept the same system. 

·       I’m not sure the ADs care because they’re counting their money from the city of Jax, but we need to rethink that thing.  There were a lot of empty seats on both sides.  We had probably 6 next to us and others around us that never filled.  I think, culturally, every year it has become a grind.  I contend that jax-athens-jax-gainesville would be great.  Every senior would get a home game, a road game and get to play in jax twice.

 

We are in a terrible predicament, and frankly have been.  It’s so easy for fans outside the program or even fringe UGA fans to scoff now because we fired a coach that had won 10 games.  It was, painfully, time.  We wouldn’t have signed Ridley or Simmons at WR.  We wouldn’t have signed Herrien or David Marshall.  We wouldn’t have Mo Smith.  We’d have Bailey Hockman committed at QB and not Jake Fromm.

 

My immediate concern is that we’re no fun at all right now.  We’ve been a hard team to watch for a season and a half.  The last time we all felt really, really good was vs. South Carolina last year.  We felt good vs. UNC this year, but it was so short lived.  It’s just a painful bunch to watch.  We desperately need something fun to happen with the team.  That goes without saying.  A great showing in a victory vs. what will be a top-10 Auburn team would go a long way for the team.

 

My longer term concern is that it’s going to take a while to fix our O-line, like at least till 2018.  I’m wondering if we’re going to go after a JUCO tackle.  As bad as it is, one great tackle would make a world of difference.  An offensive line is like a basketball team.  You don’t need 5 stars.  You need 2 stars (that can handle one on one and dominate), and 3 guys to play their roles.

 

I’m also wondering if we’re going to see some transfers after the season.  It’s just a bad spot to be.  We had to make a change.  I think we made the right change.  There is no magic bullet.  Herman looks like he’s still learning on the job and would have completely overhauled our system and has no experience in Southern culture.  But this was just going to happen.  Donnan went 5-6 then went 10-2 the next year.  Richt went 8-4 then 13-1.  

 

Donnan had Auburn ’96.  Richt had Tennessee and Tech ’01.  Kirby could sure use Auburn and Tech ’16.

Thursday Feeling

For some reason, I’m feeling a little loosey goosey about this thing.  Aaron Murray turned it around, but they were all nail-biters.  Holding them in 2011 after we scored, the fumble and running out the clock in 2012, running out the clock in 2013.  Even 2004 we had to hold on at the end.  2007 was more demonstrative, but it never felt like a 2 score game until very, very late.

 

Saban’s first year, that 7-6 team showed up and absolutely stoned Tennessee, a team that went 9-3 and beat our 2007 Dawgs.  Tennessee walloped us in Knoxville, we beat Bama in OT, but Bama routed UT.  Previous games just aren’t harbingers of things to come until you have a much more clear identity, like, I know Chad Kelly is going to turn it over and I know Bama’s D is going to knock you silly.  Those are identities.  We just don’t have one, good or bad, yet.

 

Something smells like a route to me, like we are just going to play lights out and expose them, get after Del Rio (hello, Mr. Ledbetter) and shut them down.  Eason grows up and we get an identity.  I have no basis for this whatsoever.  But, it would set a tone for Kirby’s tenure. 

 

Tennessee was better than Bama that year, but it set a tone in a bitter rivalry, and UT has never beaten them.  Can you believe that?  Since Saban got there, UGA has beaten them, LSU, Florida, Ole Miss, Auburn, aTm, and South Carolina have all beaten them.  But not UT.

 

BTW, funny how things change so fast.  Just a couple years ago we had lost to the Cocks 4 out of 5 seasons.  Now we’ve beat them 3 out of 4.  We are 2-2 vs. Vandy in the last four.  Chew on that.  We’ve lost 2 in a row to the Gators, but find a way to win Saturday and we’ve won 4 of 6.

 

Go Dawgs!

Beat Florida!

What Happens Saturday?

Well, it’s Florida week.  We have 3 losses, but Ole Miss has 4.  We are a crazy mess.  I’m convinced that UNC is the best team we’ve beat since at least Louisville in the Belk Bowl and probably Auburn from that season, but UNC is probably better than them.  They’re probably the best team we’ve beat since beating Clemson earlier that year, a team that went 10-3.  And Nichols is perhaps the worst game we’ve ever played.  And we lost to Vandy.

 

If there’s any room for encouragement, it’s that we almost alternate:

 

UNC – play great

Nicholls – play awful

Mizzou – play good, pull out a clutch win

Ole Miss – play awful

UT – play really good in gut-wrenching loss

South Carolina – play pretty good in win

Vandy – head scratcher sleep walking loss

 

So, we’re due for a good one.  We’re almost good/bad week to week.  What I do know is that Penn St. beat Ohio St. and only completed 8 passes.  That really happened.  Florida’s defense is nasty, but so is there offense, and not in the same way.  There are no keys, because we have no way to know how in the world it works out.  Just find a way to win the game.

 

The week of the Bama game in 2007, a friend asked me what I thought about the game.  Remember, we had come off an encouraging performance vs. Okie St. followed by another face-plant against South Carolina.  I said that I thought we’d win because we had to.  Our staff needed that game badly.  The same is true here.  That doesn’t mean we’ll win, but I’ll be shocked if we play poorly.  Maybe our team truly hasn’t bought in, but I have a hard time believing that’s true of the core.

 

I also believe that Jacob is going to keep getting better.  He’s one of the top 3-4 most talented QBs in the nation.  It’s clicking more and more.  He’s not scared. 

 

We’ve never played Florida with Nick and Sony.  Not once.  Sony was out in 2014 and Nick was out in 2015.  They will show up ready to play. 

 

Speaking of Ohio St.  I think I’m in w/ the 4-team playoff, but it truly has changed the sport.  In essence, that loss to Penn State almost meant nothing.  Fans in Clemson and Seattle weren’t huddled around their TVs to watch it because they know that they win and they’re in.  That’s a good thing, because the beauty contest is over and if you go undefeated in your power 5 league, you’re in.  But still, it’s taken some shine off those upsets like that.

 

And, boy, I cannot wait for Clemson to live in the post Deshaun era.  I actually think they go down in Tallahassee on Saturday night.

 

Go Dawgs!

Beat Florida!

Gator Hater!

A Yearly Existential Dawg Thought

It’s not exactly where we expected to be.  But it’s where we are…and it’s probably where we have to be, for now.

 

Probably every Dawg wondered at some point on Saturday afternoon on the walk back to the car or the ride back home or after clicking off the TV…did we make a mistake?  Should we not have fired Richt?  Surely he’d have beaten Vandy.  BTW, the last time he played them w/ a true freshman QB at home – he didn’t.  He also lost up at Vandy with a 4 year starter at QB and the most prolific passer in SEC history.  But I digress.  Every dawg fan had to ask it.

 

Should we have hired Herman or Fuente?  Should we have gone hard after a proven winner like Dantonio or Shaw?  Then I watch Houston (coming off a loss to Navy) come within an inch of losing to Tulsa. Syracuse (who is probably worse than Vandy) beat Fuente and VT, Sparty is an abject disaster, and Stanford is off the rails (with one of the best players in America on their team).  We’d be awful right now with Herman and Eason would be starting in Gainesville. 

 

I’m thinking of Nebraska, who looked like they had made a mistake with Riley.  I’m thinking of Washington, who looked like they’d had a bust with Petersen.  I’m thinking of A&M, who couldn’t get to 6-0 before this year w/ some of the best players in the league and a Heisman winner.  I’m thinking it takes time.  Painful, dreadful time.

 

I am as frustrated as heck at Cheney.  I do not like the 3^rd or 4^th down call.  I do not like the tendency toward getting cute.  I do not like his stubbornness to the gameplan even when it seems it’s not working.  I also do not want 4 OCs in 4 years.  Like, seriously.  I do not want that.  I know Saban changed Applewhite after the first year in 2007, but I’m not sure a McElwain is out there.  Who do we get?  Who even runs pro style besides us, Bama, Stanford, Arkansas and FSU, USC, Florida (sort of) and Colorado St.?  I just don’t think you make a change unless by some miracle you can convince Mike Bobo that head coaching is not for him. It’s not a recipe for success.  I think I feel the same way about Beamer.  We’ve got to let the coaches coach.  I’m fairly positive he didn’t tell Reggie Davis to step out at the 3.  Now, the fact that 2 different staffs continue to put #81 in those positions is remarkable.  I mean, is he THAT fast?  Beamer was Spurrier’s recruiting coordinator from 2009-2011.  Stephon Gilmore, Alshon Jeffrey, DJ Swearinger, AJ Cann, Connor Shaw, Ace Sanders, Kelsey Quarles, Lattimore, Clowney.  Those are some of the guys they signed in those 3 years.  He’s part of the recruiting package that Kirby assembled.  He was Spurrier’s Special Teams Coordinator.  He knows what he’s doing, and he needs more than 7 games.

 

2 Quick thoughts:

·       We’re playing too many freshmen, but it’s out of necessity.  Bama has 6 SR starters on defense.  SIX!  They start 2 freshmen:  Hurts and an OT, Jonah Williams who was the #17 player in America, #2 OT and an early enrollee.  Over the years, if you watch those guys, they don’t play a lot of freshmen.  We’re having to, and we have had to in the past.  But this has to stop.  We are filling in the gaps for the horrific 2013 recruiting class.

·       Kirby, in many ways is sticking to his guns, and he probably has to.  If I got sent to a church that was not growing and had only a traditional service (and maybe they did that well), I’m faced with a conundrum.  Though we could tweak some things, do some better marketing and paint a few walls, fundamentally, I don’t believe you can grow a church and reach new people with traditional worship long term.  And delaying starting a contemporary service is kind of delaying the inevitable.  It’s going to be painful and some people are going to leave or get mad.  Some preachers even say you’ve got grow down before you grow up.  Or do I bite the bullet and try to get a choir director and pianist to play contemporary even though they’re not best at it because I’m trying to start the process or moving the church in the direction that I believe will give us the most long-term success?  I know what I’d do.  I’d do what I believed in, and what I thought was the best for us over the long haul. 

 

What I hope is that Kirby and the team can deliver some fun.  UGA football has become the most un-fun thing ever.  2014 was fun.  We lost an a stinker to Tech and didn’t show up at Florida.  We were constipated in Columbia and those were awful.  But we won fun.  We rolled Clemson and Todd is still running.  We showed up in Mizzou and Arky and just stoned them in every way.  We had a magical night vs. Auburn.  We scored 100 points vs. Kentucky.  I know.  We had Mike Bobo.  We had the same record, 9-3, but we were a fun team to watch.  For the last year and a half, we are anything but fun.  Dawg Nation desperately needs some fun to close out this season.

Columbia, SC

You know, as bad as that South Carolina team is, I got to thinking about our trips there for about the last 20 years.  We should never sneeze at a 14 point win there, or a win of any kind.

 

2014 – loss.  With Todd Gurley to a team that went 7-6

2012 – loss. With Todd Gurley to a darn good team, but we got blown out, and it was one of Richt’s best 3-4 teams.

2010 – loss.  No offense to the worst East champion ever and a team that eventually ended up 9-5.

2008 – won 14-7 with Moreno, Stafford and Green to a team that went 7-6.  We were preseason #1.

2006 – won 18-0 to an 8-5 team, the most bizarre outcome of the last 20 years.

2004 – trailed 16-0 and won 20-16 to a Holtz team that went 6-5.  It was Pollack and Greene’s senior season.

2002 – Richt’s best team needed a miracle, did not score an offensive TD and hung on getting a fumble inside our five yd line.

2000 – paging Quincy Carter. An 8-4 South Carolina team owned us.

1998 – We won 17-3 against a team that went 1-10.  Yes, you’re reading that right.  It was a team coached by Brad Scott.

1996 – We lost to a team that went 6-5

 

We were 5-5 in our last 10 trips there before Saturday.  We don’t play well there for whatever reason.  We won.  Jacob was off, but think about some offensive clunkers we’ve put up in that stadium over the last 20 years.  We couldn’t score with Murray, King, Gurley and Marshall in 2012!

 

Survive and advance.

Dooms Day Playoffs

Just thinking today…you want your doomsday playoff scenario.  

·       OU wins the big 12 with at least 2, maybe 3 losses.  Remember, they can go 8-1 in the league and have 3 losses.

·       A 2-loss team wins the Pac 12.  Entirely possible, perhaps likely.

·       OSU or Mich win Big 10

·       UNC drops a game, but wins their division.

·       UT loses to bama, twice, going 11-2

·       UGA wins out

·       Ole Miss wins out

·       FSU wins out

·       Louisville wins out, beating Houston

·       UNC beats 11-1 Clemson in ACCCG

Your locks:

-Bama and Big 10 champ are in

-Houston is out

Then you’d have:

-2-3 loss Big 12 champ

-2 loss Pac-12 champ

-11-2 UNC – ACC champ (who lost to UGA)

-10-2 UGA (who lost to Ole Miss and UT)

-10-2 Ole Miss (Who lost to Bama a FSU)

-10-2 FSU (Who lost to Louisville and UNC)

-11-1 Louisville (Who lost to Clemson)

-11-2 Clemson (Who lost to FSU and UNC on the last day of the season)

-11-2 UT (who lost to Bama, and on the last day of the season)

THAT would be utterly nuts.  No way we get in there, but it sure would make it interesting.  This is what I do when I’m coping with a loss.