Image: Augusta Chronicle
Saturday is everything to the men in big blue. Kentucky is 4-4 with games remaining against:
- Georgia (Lexington)
Vanderbilt (Lexington)
UL-Monroe (Lexington)
Tennessee (Knoxville)
to a bowl since 1999.
They have only been to three bowls in the past 22 years and five bowls in the past 30 years. In the 55 year period since winning their only legit SEC Championship in 1950 under Bear Bryant, Kentucky has only attended six bowl games.
This Saturday is huge for the Wildcats. Rich Brooks would lock in his job security, and Andre Woodson would become the conquering hero. It would also be the opportunity to finally tear those goal posts down. Something they've been DYING to do for years.
It darn well better mean everything to us, or we are in for a long day. A Georgia team that struggles to beat a 1-8 Colorado team, a 2-7 Ole Miss squad and a 2-7 Mississippi State team can't walk into Lexington feeling sorry for itself, or it will get beat. That's just a fact.
We better get it together and shake the Cocktail Party Hangover because the Bowl Picture looks like a steaming pile of poo if we lose on Saturday.
PWD
14 comments:
This game has nightmare written all over it. We are low-hanging fruit for UK.
I am increasingly of the opinion that our woes have as much to do with lack of preparation (schematic and motivational) as with the general decline in talent from last year.
The UK game will be a lot like the Vandy game. I do not accept the notion we are less talented than Vanderbilt. Vanderbilt wanted it worse than we did and played harder. I expect UK to want it worse than we do Saturday.
Unfortunately, I expect us to take the field with a disappointingly common, half-assed, lackluster, self-pitying weak mental approach.
shut up dawgnoxious... if i'm a UGA player reading this page, and see dumb ass fans like you making comments like that, i wont play hard...
show support... never negativity....
these guys arnt getting paid, so they actually care about what the fans say.
Our players need to focus on playing the games and not reading message boards and blogs.
Dawgnoxious and I are some of the people telling other folks to stop booing and behaving like asses during games.
I saw one of our offensive linemen looking at the crowd with a baffled look as they started filing out of the stadium with 1 minute left.
I'm like...DUDE...don't get indignant with the fans for leaving early when you're taking plays off during games for LONG stretches.
Get serious. We most certainly DO have motivation problems on this team. This was the closest thing to a full effort we've seen since South Carolina. And we still haven't seen 4 quarters of effort from the Dawgs like we have grown accustomed to under Richt.
PWD
I'm not willing to say UK will be a nightmare just yet, but I agree with Dawgnoxious that our woes are more a matter of lack of preparation than anything else, and the evidence of that, imo, is that we play really well in spurts. Flat as Kansas in the CO game, and then got it together and pulled out a win. Same thing with UM. Came out ready for UT, but decided to coast a little early, then panicked when adversity came. This isn't about talent; consistency issues are about preparation. Probably that means mental prep as much as anything. Our O line is a disaster because of numbers - we just don't have enough healthy qualified lineman and that lack might be a lack of preparation during recruiting. It's hard to rationally look at the situation any other way.
Guys correct me if I am wrong but I am reading into this that you consider our problems to be coaching problems. If our problems are coaching problems then it seems that you have to lay all of those at the feet of Mark Richt.
What happened between last year and this year that has made Mark Richt an ineffective head coach?
Or am I reading this all wrong?
I don't necessarily buy into preparation being our biggest issue but it's easy to see how coaching can catch up with Richt. Richt has never dealt with this low a talent pool before at Georgia. Taking talented players and getting them to win the games they're supposed to win and taking them to championships is one thing. Taking teams of lesser talent and getting them to perform at that same level is quite another. Richt for the most part has no problem with the former but so far I question his ability to do the latter.
It's leadership.
Some of that is coaching. Particularly at certain positions. Some of it is Seniors. Particularly at certain positions.
When you watch UGA on offense. Who do you think is this year's DJ Shockley? Who is the guy that the rest of the team seems to turn to for leadership? How many teams have you ever seen who's starting center is their most vocal leader on offense?
I've never seen that from a successful team.
On defense, we've Tony Taylor and who else? I'm not in the lockerroom. I don't know the answer to that, but when I watch them on the sidelines it's nothing like the old days.
This is a SMALL senior class of starters. On offense it's:
Inman
Jones
Shack
Only one of those guys ACTS like a leader.
On defense our starting seniors are:
Moses - a quiet guy
Taylor - a great leader
Verdun - ?
Jarvis - ?
Battle - ?
And we have certain positions (namely Offensive Line) that have always struggle to put forth a consistently high level of play from one week to the next.
Richt is a GREAT coach, but the things that made him great in prior years have really failed us this year. We aren't as tough, fast, violent, well condition, deep, talented or motivated to play ball each week as we have been the past 5 years.
For whatever reason.
Sometimes a shitty season can prove to be a great motivator. It has been a while since we have had one.
But it is nice to be able to consider 9-3 or 8-4 a shitty season.
Heck if UK is bowl ilegible then its the OUTBACK since the owner is a UK grad.
ops I meant eligible.
Speaking back to the leadership call out... If you pay attention to our fellow SEC competitors that are ranked within the top ten. When the offense is within the red zone the quarterback never stops talking out of huddle and in huddle to his offense.
This is something that I feel Stafford has struggled with this season. Please Don't misunderstand my support and love of the Dawgs.
I am a firm supporter of Staffod and believe in his talent. I feel that he has not had to opportunity to witness great QB leadership at the college level and is trying to find his place.
I am excited to see how he will develop over the next few years.
Stafford sucks. Your team sucks. And having gone to UGA for the past 3 times, I can say with certainty that your fans are ignorant and beligerant. Take a page out of UT's playbook...get pissed and come back next year pissed.
"I can say with certainty that your fans are ignorant and beligerant."
Do you think most are too ignorant to correctly spell "belligerent"
OK my turn. I have to agree with the folks on lack of preparation. I have said this before here and I will say it again. When I sit up there in those stands ever Saturday and watch our team playing so crappy I have to wonder why there is ZERO coaching going on, on the sidelines. I never really watched this until the MSU game. But as I sat in Tate that morning waiting on my wife to get through the line at the bathroom I listened to two old timers. I did not know them, but they looked to be 65+. They were talking about the lack of coaching on the sidelines during the game. One of them said, "Hell if Richt just wants to watch a football game, I'll get him some damn tickets!" So I have since then watched. I watch an awful lot of football and played in high school. When the defense comes off the field, one expects at least some assistant coach to be knelled down talking to the WHOLE defensive unit, telling them what he sees, what he thinks, and what the plan will be the next time out. Same goes for the offensive unit. But, keep an eye on the sidelines at UGA. None of that. I saw Stafford on the phone a couple of times, but that's it!! I tried the whole hour last night to get Larry and Richt on the phone during their radio show. I was going to ask about it. i also think Richt really needs to consider getting us an offensive coordinator. I know the OL is a HUGE problem. But it's so hard to sit up there and watch the team we've become accustomed to watching since Richt arrived play as crappy as we have played. I mean, Vandy guys, Vandy? The school that almost gave up football a few years back. And now we are a little worried about UK! I will be there in Lexington Saturday. I am leaving Thursday. And I am real worried that the best part of the trip will be the distilleries and the horse races. Let's hope we get some preparation and some coaching this week and I turn out to be wrong!!
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