I'm really getting tired of the relentless moaning on here. All this woe is me stuff in the comments is tiring to read. How many damn times are some of you going to post "MSU is going to kill us. Ringer will have a field day." At this point, I think I could write about the equestrian team, and someone would post "Ringer will kill our defense."
Dawg Up.
We finished 9-3 despite 24 season ending injuries, yet we finished 3rd overall in the SEC. It wasn't the season we wanted. It wasn't the season the players wanted. But the petty, whiny Georgia Techish sounding comments over and over and over. It's just beneath most of you. Particularly, the "so and so sucks" comments over and over. About our players? I don't get it.
Maybe I've fostered that tone here. Maybe it's all my fault for letting it happen. Hell, if it is then I'm sorry.
Florida went 9-4 last season with a defense that looked like complete ass, and they are now in the national title game. And they didn't fire their defensive coordinator either.
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59 comments:
How many of these people who are posting "MSU will kill us" are people who are regulars? How many are MSU fans? Gator Fans? Etc?
While I would not put it past MSU winning--it is a game after all and their coaches are paid and their players have scholarships as well.
amen brother!!!!
According to Tim Tucker in the AJC there were 24 season ending injuries.
http://www.ajc.com/blogs/content/shared-blogs/ajc/uga/entries/2008/12/18/you_asked_for_i.html#postcomment
Amen, PWD. Despite everything that has disappointed us this year, it is still GREAT to be a Georgia Bulldawg.
It could be MUCH worse. We could be Auburn.
I'm looking for the Dawgs to come out and lay a '98 Outback Bowl vs. Wisconsin type whoopin' on the Spartans and then spend this entire offseason being PISSED OFF and ready for 2009.
Anon - I just updated the article with that link. Thanks!
wow Paul, that was fast. Talk about top of your game!
I saw the link on DawgRun at the same time you were posting it. So I had an advantage.
I don't recall us beating Florida 49-10 last year.
As I'm sure you know, PWD, a large part of the sour feeling relates to the way the team "played" in big games.
As far as beating this horse over and over, for me it is in response to the people who still seem to think that we have a good team--one of the posters claimed that we were going to stomp MSU like we did Hawaii (!), when we have not soundly beaten anyone all year. In my opinion it was about as weak of a 9-3 as I can remember; I actually felt better about the 2006 team because of its obvious youth and the way they turned the season around at the the end. This team has kind of quit, and that's hard to take, in my opinion.
I'll get off it so the Pollyannas can go back to their happy little world. For me, I'll get over this by the time next season comes around, or if we really do paste MSU. But I can't watch the likes of the Georgia Tech game and forget about it easily. I hope the players and coaches can't either. Sometimes you really do have to remember what an ass you made of yourself.
so quick question for anyone since I don't feel like looking it up. How many players can be on scholarships or in the program? I'm just wondering what % the 24 players make out of our whole program. The number alone seems tremendous high.
rbubp,
You're #1 on the relentless non-stop, UGA sucks post-a-thon.
Give it a rest. We get it. You're pissed. It's not pollyanna to wait til the game is played before you surrender.
PWD
I don't see much woe is me. UGA should certainly beat MSU badly on paper, but that could have been said about Ufk, AU, Gtu, Vandy, Uk, Arizona St and Central Michigan. That never really happened.
Certainly, the losses to Stephen Braue, Justin Fields, Chris Little, Richard Lowe, John Potts, Josh Sailors, the well-dressed Craig Sager, Brandon Wheeling and Micky White put a huge crimp in this team, but you come off a lot more like a Gtu fan blaming our season on losing 9 walk-ons for the season than those who simply look at the facts: this was the most poorly coached UGA team since Ray Goff left.
Mistakes never got fixed. Players in the wrong place never got moved. Schemes were never adjusted. 9-3 is nice, but we only played two legitimate teams all year and got BLASTED by both of them.
We also lost to an inferior opponent who completed 1 pass and happens to be our in-state, much more poorly funded and much less dedicated to football rival.
Woe-is-me is much different that realistic perspective. Whining about losing 9 walk-ons to season ending injury is a lot worse than asking reasonable questions about poor coaching, discipline and talent evaluation. The idea is that the team is motivated to make up for their failures in 2009.
You who are going to lean on the crutch that "we went 9-3 and lost 9 walk-ons to season-ending injuries" are much worse for the future health of the program than those who take a realistic evaluation of this year's failures.
ok so we lost 9 walk ons, what about the 15 starters and back ups? Are losing them not supposed to hurt this team either? I for one think that losing so many bodies hurt the way we were able to practice. Being so thin at many positions made the practices "softer" than past years to help make sure we didn't lose more. Not saying there were not other issues, but I feel there was a host of things, like a perfect storm, that contibuted to the way this year turned out.
Paul, This is the best point you have made all year. Well, this and the one about the playoffs aren't going happen. Here, Here
Most of these people don't realize that Erk Russell was critized for having an outdated scheme (split-60) at one time and the Junkyard Dawgs were born out of having an off year. Hell after Erk left We still had a great defense with Bill Lewis but does anybody remember the final defensive play in the 82 Sugar Bowl against Pitt? (Answer, No most of you weren't born) Everyone was up in arms when we blitzed and I've seen Marino say it was a dumb move. There is always going to be whiners and something to whine about but latelty it's over the top.
I couldn't have said it better. Dawg up! Like you said, we still have a great team and staff. People need to remember the pre-Richt era and appreciate.
PWD-I am glad you have finally said something. I have reduced the amount I have read the blog because of all negative attitudes.
Terrence Moore is generally an idiot, but he was wrote some pretty insightful columns the last few weeks. One was to lay of Willie Martinez and another was saying how in todays climate, Dooley and Erk wouldn't have lasted as long has they did.
We should be thankful for Mark Richt and our coaching staff that has stayed in tact (that is saying something. We should be thankful that we are disappointed in playing in the Citrus Bowl (fifth or sixth best bowl possible). Most importantly, we should be thankful to be Dawgs!
What happened to Daryl Gamble -- and when?
As I said in a previous post, God help the Dawg Nation if we actually have a year like Auburn or Michigan or Tennessee or Notre Dame or...Seriously folks, 9-3 is still 9-3. UT and Auburn both played in the same conference. What were their records???? What were Bama's and Florida's record last year?
Anon 10:47, only focusing on the walk-ons? Yes, losing 24 players of starters and walk-ons hurts a team. You see, starters, like Owens and Sturdivant, are, um, starters. The walk-ons are also important in practice, at a minimum they are extra bodies for tackling drills, etc.
I too am disappointed about the season, but too many UGA fans live in a world that is all or nothing. To them anything less than #1 is a complete failure. I like to live in a world where there is sliding scale between rock bottom and national champion. The tone of most posts I've read lately all sound as if we've hit rock bottom. 9-3 in the SEC with all the injuries, is not rock bottom. In fact, it is far from rock bottom. Heaven help us all if we ever went 5-7...
Go Dawgs.
Great post PWD, and overdue. I hate this new culture of whining in our Country. The Banking industry whines and gets $70 billion, the Auto industry whines and gets $17 billion. The Pussification (TM)of America. Man up. Things don't always go the way you want, it's called life. This whole idea that everything should be fair is a joke. And now I have to listen to it on the board where I try to escape it. The expectations placed on this team weren't met, end of story. We now concentrate on the future and move on. Wash the sand out of your collective vag's and get back in the game. We have a bowl game to win and a 10 win season that we can still attain. I can name a handful of "Top Tier" programs that would absolutely kill for 10 wins this season.
Though not a whiner, and certainly not one calling for firing CWM, I am of the camp that this is not a good team and fans who say otherwise are blind and/or stupid.
Losing players sucks, but this has happened before (03 or 04 I believe). Previously under Richt, we didn't looked so Ole Miss-ish (though Ole Miss would probably have beat us this year). This team went 9-3 in a year when 2 of our chief rivals were at historic low points. And we didn't even take advantage by kickin em when they're down. Prior to Tech, countless fans (and CMR for that matter) gave the lame excuse of "we got handled by 2 of the finest team on the planet". After Tech, I guess we got handled by "2 of the finest teams on the planet AND the 2nd best team in the ACC's Coastal Division". Wow. That's something I can share with my grandkids 50 years from now.
The disturbing difference this year is the lack of talent of many guys on D (after they were billed so highly) and the stubborn insistence by Richt that his special teams "strategy" is sound. The good thing is that these can be fixed. The bad thing is that Richt has been loathe to change in the past (Neil Callaway and CMR as OC come to mind).
Why don't we have a dedicated Special Teams coach? It's not offensive or irrational to demand this. Our program makes enough cheese to pay some hotshot to come to Athens and make it his sole duty to make our ST's outstanding.
Why are we putting our chips on guys who don't pan out? Do we need to hire more low-level assistants to scout high school players? I believe that Blue, Odell and Thomas Davis all signed the same year and none were highly coveted. Tim Jennings was totally unknown and Jarvis Jackson was not a "can't miss" either. Were we lucky or good at getting these guys? I thought it was good. Maybe it was luck.
Will CMR hold his staff and himself accountable? Let's hope.
If we actually beat a team worth a crap this year i would feel a little better. But our best win this year is LSU, lol. We are lucky our schedule wasnt as hard as it seemed. And until we find a way to beat florida we wont be playing in the NC game anytime soon.
True, true! Preach on, Brother Westerdawg. Since I went to UGA during the Donnan years, I more than appreciate a 9 win regular season with wins over Tennessee & Auburn. That's not "accepting mediocrity" that's "living in reality." The moping just shows how far the program has come, but while it is good to have high expectations, we cannot lose sight of the overall picture.
True story: I live in New Orleans, and the week after the Tech game, some LSU fan bucked up like he was about to say something to me - the man in the Georgia hat with the Dawg magnets all over the back of the truck. I'm sure "Tiger Bait" was on his lips. Before he could get a word out, though, his feline brain remembered mighty LSU's 2008 season, the thundering whup the Dawgs called down in Baton Rouge, and that the Tigers had just lost to Arkansas. I've never seen a look so defeated as that realization set in.
If this "not good team" played in the ACC or Big Ten, we'd be in a BCS bowl for the holidays. But we play in the SEC, and sometimes we're going to run into the 2X4-to-the-face that is an ascendant Alabama, and the big orange monkey on our back in Jacksonville. Two or three times every decade, Tech will play with their hair on fire and score a few more points on us than we do on them. It happens. That's why when we cut through all of them in the same season, thsoe seasons are that much more special.
Yeah, there were some bad moments, but it was a joy to see Knowshon run this year, AJ Green was amazing, and I'll never forget Massoquoi's most brilliant day - even if that did end in a loss.
I was talking with a buddy of mine the other day, and we're real pessimists about people.
It's like Seinfeld said - "they're the worst."
But we decided we weren't pessimistic enough. As bad as we think people are, they are actually worse.
Well Said Paul...Let's also remember the hard work that the football team and Seniors put into this season. Just because the season did not turn out like we expected does not mean that the team did not work their ass off on and off the field. These players love uga and uga football and we should always have their backs. GO DAWGS!!!!!!
Preach on Paul! It is my opinion that if you are going to trash talk your team and coaches for a 9-3 season and 3rd in the SEC your maybe you aren't Georgia at heart. The bandwagon exits to the left.
Right on Paul.
Greenville_Dawg here. Amen Paul - Dawg up! Hunker Down! ... and while we're at it, tackle that pitch man! The world is black and white. People are either positive by nature or negative; Victims or Survivors. Your posters need to ask themselves which bucket they fall in! By they way, in Jacksonville, as well as during the entire off-season, I told every Gator I talked to that UF was, by far, the best 4 loss team in the country in '07. I'd be honored if my Gator friends would reciprocate by offering up that the Dawgs are indeed the best 3 loss team in the country. Think LSU would take our slot in Orlando so we could get another whack at the dweebs in ATL on New Year's Eve. Boomer Sooner baby!
I agree with you PWD, 100%. The people moaning right now remind me of Nebraska right before Frank Solich was fired and Bill Callahan took over. That team was 9-3 also, and we all know how that story turned out (VERY badly).
Stay positive, and GO DAWGS!!
yes FLA didnt fire their coordinator but has anyone forgotten that the gayturd DC was Charlie Strong, NOT Wille Martinez!
Auburn in Interviewing Stacy
http://ugadogsblog.blogspot.com/2008/12/friday-practice-notes-1219.html
Auburn was touted for the national title in '03 but proceeded to do a face-plant straight out of the gate, scored all of 3 points in their first two games, and sputtered to an 8-5 finish. They bounced back and went 13-0 the next season.
Tennessee was touted for the national title in '05 but was pummeled with injuries, rotated QBs like a carousel operator on crystal meth, and finished 5-6 and bowl-less for the first time in 17 years. They bounced back and nearly doubled their win total in '06.
Think of how much better off Georgia is right now than those two teams were. Yeah, this team was disappointing, but there's varying levels of disappointing, so let's try and keep some perspective on what kind this one was. You can gripe about our failings from '08 and demand changes without holding up a sign reading "The End Is Near" and predicting apocalypse.
Thanks PWD!
And hey Hob - we may not have a great team but they are our team. They suit up on Saturday wearing red and black and I cheer for them.
Dawg up! All you dawg bashers can shut up and go put your orange and blue t shirts on.
HVL Dawg
"It's one thing to get your ass handed to you by the #1 and #2 teams in America. It sucks, but it's part of football. The Gators and Tide are most certainly more talented than Georgia. Georgia Tech most certainly is not more talented. Our players should not be giving up 45 points to a program with Tech's personnel. Ever.
In my opinion, the underlying problem appears to be that the Georgia Bulldog coaching staff is clearly settling for this level of play. That starts with Mark Richt.
He has settled for the penalty situation. He has settled for our keystone cops kickoff coverage. He has settled for the off field discipline issues. He has settled for the erosion of quality in the defense. He had settled for half-assed offensive line recruiting until UAB mercifully took our problem in that area out of town.
You get what you settle for in life. And Richt’s problem with apparently settling for this level of play is bigger than Brian Van Gorder versus Willie Martinez. Why? Because it’s a problem across the board.
The defense is broken. I have no idea how to fix it, but I’m not paid $2-3 million a year to figure that out. If it were as simple as firing Willie Martinez, I’d say “do that.” But the bigger issue is Mark Richt needs to decide that playing this style of football is as much fun, personally rewarding, or successful as playing the style of football that he initial brought to Athens. The style of football we all fell in love with.
In early 2006, I posted a note about Why I Believe in Mark Richt Football (link fixed). Unfortunately, Georgia didn’t play with the violence, mental toughness or aggression in 2008 that I described back then.
The problem is bigger than just the defense. Heaven knows the special teams are a wreck and penalties are killing us. But it’s the defense where our problems showcase every wart of the program.
It’s up to Richt. Is he going to settle for this? Because this isn’t about Wins and Losses. This is about an erosion of a style of play that will be his undoing over time if he doesn’t reel it in now.
This off season will be interesting to watch."
--PWD, November 2008
Well said, DAWG UP or get off the bus.
rbubp
I don't think PWD is in denial regarding the lack of intensity regarding the defense. I also do not think that he is 100% satisfied with the program's performance this year. In fact, you have pointed out otherwise. Of course, I am speaking on behalf of PWD, and he may disagree with my assessment of his opinion.
It's one thing to be frustrated a few days after a bad loss to GT. We ALL needed to vent after that one. But to keep at for week after week after week is a bit draining, especially when UGA, while disappointing this year, is facing Michigan State, not USC.
Yes. UGA has problems on defense. But PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE explain to me why our OFFENSE can't outscore MSU's even if Ringer runs for 200 and 3 TDs???? Ringer, last time I checked, only plays on one side of the ball. UGA scored 42 points against the nations 22nd best defense(and this INCLUDES the UGA game)in that horrible loss to GT . Where's Sparty? In the mid-40s...
The point is, that MSU is not clearly superior to UGA. They have to play defense too...
rbubp,
I never called for a National Day of Sunshine Pumping.
I said that reading the redundant negativity almost every day. It simply gets old.
And it's not even funny negativity. It's just wussy.
Amen Paul. Absolutely right. I am sick of the negativism as well. I spent 9 months in Iraq in 2003. All these whiners here need to get a life and understand that there are lots of things in life worse than being 9-3. Constructive criticism is justified....whining whimpism is pathetic. Spend a day at Hartsfield Jackson Airport and meet and greet those Soldiers and Marines on their way back to Iraq and Afghanistan. No whining there and they have a hell of lot more reason to whine than some of these spoiled Georgia "bandwagon" fans.
"In other words, Mark Richt has to get our defensive woes figured out at a DNA-level pretty quickly because things don't get easier next year."
Yes we are 9-3 but we are lucky arizona state, tennessee, auburn, LSU all sucked this year or we would of had 4 or 5 loses.
You all seem to think that I think Georgia won't win or that our team is horrifically terrible or that I claimed we should fire them all. I never said any of those things. I said there is no reason to expect we will stop Ringer nor that we will play a complete game against what should be a mediocre team.
I have only tried to beat back the very strange people, a minority I'll admit, who seem to have forgotten just how mediocre this team is.
And some who wanted Martinez gone, not for just this year but for a very mixed track record that includes an annual beatdown, seem to have backed off of that. What changed? You've changed your positions on the staff and the outlook for next year because of...what? What am I missing about the future prospects?
Do you now think Dennis Felton should get a contract extension because we beat Virginia Tech by one point?
"Results without review" is the definition of bureaucratic ineptitude.
Everyone needs to lay off the insults and take a deep breath. Rbubp, I understand what you're saying, but I remember how Georgia was in the 90s, and people would KILL for this season. It all depends on where your expectations were at the beginning of the season.
Now, I know a lot of people had very high expectations, but you can't expect what people did without a dominant pass rusher and with so many injuries. PWD's point in the below story about the lack of senior leadership is important to note too.
Now let's get back to rational discussion and away from cheap insult.
Go Dawgs, and kick Sparty's ass back to East Lansing!
Ringer is going to embarrass you and your fragile, undisciplined team.
Deny it all you want, but your fans already know what's coming.
See you in Orlando.
Sticking with the original theme, is your coach named Bill Stewart? No? Has your coach made references to lubricating the world? No? Well shit, everything is going to be OK! Promise!
We are going to lose.
and i hope it is the nail in Willie's coffin.
FIRE WILLIE MARTINEZ! THE NUMBERS DONT LIE!
Westerdude, you're a victim of your success.
Much like a smaller version of EDSBS, with the popularity of your blog, the comments will eventually go downhill.
It is the way of the interwebs.
Football is a zero-sum game.
I don't see a glass as half full or half empty. It's just half.
Let’s say in your given line of work you performed your duties reasonably well for 4 years and at times you even did quite well. But 15% of the time you went in to work and totally melted down in a biblically epic manner. Would it be fair to say that you should be called on the carpet and be held accountable?
Anon 10:47
"...this was the most poorly coached UGA team since Ray Goff left."
Did you miss the 2000 season?
I really hate when people say UGA only played "2 legitimate teams."
What, a team has to make a BCS bowl to be considered "legitimate"?
Almost every game in the SEC is at least "legitimate." Ask Florida. Not every team is great every year, but every team is legitimate.
ASU underperformed, but that is a "legitimate" team.
UGA's strength of schedule is still very highly ranked, and would have been even higher if a few teams hadn't all had mediocre years in the same season.
NCAA Teams are only allowed a certain number of coaches. So, unless you're going to reassign/reshuffle coaching duties, we can't have a 'dedicated' ST's coach.
It's not a money issue...it's a rules issue. Complaining about this just shows your ignorance.
"if a few teams hadn't all had mediocre years in the same season."
I love when someone tries to argue a point and then completely cancels that argument with the last sentence of his/her post.
fire.willie.martinez.
This whiners around here just lack perspective. As much as they annoy me, I understand where they're coming from. I guess the difference between folks like me and the cry babies is that I don't invest my self worth in what ESPN says about the school, and don't particularly care about how much those gel heads gush over Florida, USC, and whoever the flavor of the week is.
By contrast, I like how Richt is not at all flashy, and just prepares the team to be successful. It may not always fit YOUR standards, being perfectionists at all, but the product on the field is better than it's ever been in the history of the program. I challenge y'all to find an 8-year stretch where it's been better.
College football is ebb and flow. Programs change. This creates a lot of interest and disappointment. Who ever thought in 2004, after having 5 first round draft picks and a perfect season, Auburn would be in the can? Hell, Fulmer just got canned, Michigan is hopelessly mediocre. Remember guys, Nick Saban has taken some ass beatings in the past... no matter how much time he's slept on his pile of uncashed paychecks in his office. All programs have highs and lows.
I have a lot of pride in this school. But I will never expect perfection from 18 to 23 year olds, and the men who coach them. Excellence? Yeah, sure. But never perfection. Anyone who expects more is a churlish asshole, and will never be satisfied.
Having said that, I was disappointed with our effort this season. Living in Birmingham, the Alabama game was particularly painful. I'm also supremely disappointed that we laid down against UF. That was a very, very high stakes game. It would have thrust us back in the MNC picture, put us in the driver's seat in the east, put a rival back in the corner... and we crapped the bed. Yes, I'm disappointed. But, I'm also confident Richt will fix it. He's earned a lot of credibility, and I'm confident he'll take the steps to remedy these problems.
> I love when someone
> tries to argue a
> point and then
> completely cancels
> that argument with
> the last sentence of
> his/her post.
I love when someone thinks they made a point but they utterly failed to even approach a cogent argument.
My point was UGA played more than 2 "legitimate teams." The SEC was a big down this year, and a few teams on the schedule had worse seasons than expected, but they are still "legitimate teams."
UK, Vandy, LSU, and S.Car were all "legitimate teams."
Auburn and Tenn had very disappointing seasons, but also had many games where they played people hard.
Furthermore, as I noted, UGA's strength of schedule is still very highly ranked. Thus, we did not play only 2 "legitimate teams."
Now, "26ppg", perhaps after you actually read my 2 posts in this thread you'll see that I didn't "cancel out" my argument whatsoever.
big down = bit down (I hate how you can't edit posts on blogs :( ).
From the AJC on 12/19:
"Eleven current Georgia players received degrees at graduation ceremonies Friday: Benjamin Boyd, Ramarcus Brown, CJ Byrd, Dannell Ellerbe, Demiko Goodman, Kenneth Harris, Corvey Irvin, Wes Jacobs, Mohamed Massaquoi, Brian Mimbs and Southerland. Former players Thad Parker and Darrius Swain also graduated."
I want to congratulate these players for reaching high both athletically and academically. Getting a college degree is never easy, as I can attest to in light of the 35% 6-year graduation rate of the college that employs me (for all students, not athletes). I can not even begin to imagine how difficult it would be to graduate on time from a top university while meeting the expectations of a top athletic program too.
Congratulations to the players and the entire program for this. Academic success more attention that it gets, and I am increasingly proud of our school's academic reputation as well as the integrity of its athletes and coaches.
I deleted most of the name calling on the thread a minute ago. First time I had logged on in a while.
BTW -- My dad and I were at the Wofford game. Dad said, "If we lose this game, you should just post 'so and so sucks.'"
PWD
How about Dennis Felton needs to go? I mean, seriously, that's a lot clearer reality than anyone on the football staff.
I guess you can't really let him go mid-year, but the basketball team is an ongoing problem. There just never seems to be any progress.
There never seems to be progress in hoops because we're a stepping-stone in basketball - at best.
rbubp: it's not being pessimism that has Paul's panties in a twist; it's the repitition. Everyone knows how you feel at this point so there's no need to belabour the point.
http://georgiasports.blogspot.com/2008/11/defense-is-broken.html
I know, I really wasn't trying to. Basketball is a whole 'nother thing. I can't watch it anymore, really.
I will be watching the bowl game, though, and I do actually think we will win (52-45).
Ringer will run for 200 yards and 3 TDs. And MSU will lose soundly, 42-21. Stafford throws for 360yds, Moreno rushes for 150, MoMass and AJ both have over 100 yards receiving. And the defense will limit the Spartans to 275 yard total offense.
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