My only beef with the season preview is Loran's puff piece on Coach Fabris. It's true that our punt return teams are consistently at the top of the SEC. But he's responsible for the kickoff coverage debacle, too. Anyway, I'm just grinding my axe I guess.
Regardless, if you missed it, the ABH did a good job of consolidating all their links in one place. Did the
PWD
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Actually, Coach Fabris was not responsible for the "kickoff coverage debacle" last year - that was Coach Ball. Fabris is now in charge of kickoff coverage again this year.
The line that got my attention in Ching's column:
"Cox and the other seniors will not allow the complacency that has occasionally infected Georgia's locker room in the last few years . . ."
Why does UGA suffer from recurring bouts of complacency?
Down here yesterday, we got to read in the Florida Times Union about this question:
"Will Tebow Become the Greatest College Football Player Of All Time?" I had a big breakfast and did not wish to immediately lose it, so I refused to read it. Keep hyping Tebow and Meyer, please keep hyping them. After they beat Charleston Southern by 70 points, let the coronation begin.
I think David hit the nail right on its head with his article. Star power only gets you so far; at the end of the day, the guy who wants it the most is going to have the most success. That's not to say that having a strong desire to win automatically translates into victories. Let's be honest, this Georgia team will probably not run the table. But if they play with as much fire and passion as they are capable, than this team will never enter a game without a chance. I hate to go back to the 2005 analogy again, but it fits perfectly. That team wasn't the most talented in the SEC, but the passion that guys like D.J., T. Brown, Greg Blue, and Quentin Moses played with gave them a chance to win every game. And even when they came short those three games, you could never be ashamed of the effort they gave.
That's what I'm hoping for with the 2009 team. As long as they give everything they have, they will compete in every game. GATA dawgs!
AJC had a preview yesterday. It was horrible. It looked like they threw the whole thing together in about 20 minutes. The front page of the section was about UGA and tech being "under construction." The "players" had jackhammers and construction helmets cheaper than by son's Bob the Builder helmet. The tech player was wearing one of those jerseys with the "C" logo. The UGA player was wearing a Nike 24 jersey fresh off the clearance rack at Dicks. The UGA player was also wearing solid white pants. They are not even trying at the ajc.
Was Fabis responseible when teams pulled fake punts on us when our team was busy trying to return the ball rather than waiting to see if they actually punted the ball.
"Cox and the other seniors will not allow the complacency that has occasionally infected Georgia's locker room in the last few years to ruin their last season between the hedges."
I still can't figure out how this idea continues to grow. I understand there is a lot of evidence we had issues of let down last season. I can also understand the frustration that we didn't pull out a SEC championship out of the Matthew Stafford window. But seriously...don't mix 2007 and 2006 into that statement. Last time I checked, the 2007 team finished with the highest ranking this program has seen since 1980 while beating down Florida, Auburn, Tech and winning the Sugar bowl. The 2006 team played its rear end off to overcome the losses from 2005 and a Freshman QB to win games against a top-10 Auburn team, a ranked Tech team, and a ranked VT team in the CFA bowl.
I think the point is well made...last year's team didn't seem to have the senior leaders like Cox, Thomas Brown, Tra Battle, etc...and there is a strong possibility that that lack of senior leadership prevented us from maintaining composure in tough situations like against Bama, Florida, and Tech. But don't throw the baby out with the bath water. Those were good players, good teams, and damn good dawgs.
I'm pretty sure that the 2008, 2007, 2006, etc. version of the Georgia Bulldogs gave a lot of sweat, blood, and effort to building a great football team. We shouldn't beat last year's team up for not having a leader that had learned the lessons of going through the fire and we shouldn't set an expectation that leadership without wins is acceptable.
I think Joe and the rest of the players would agree...the goal is an SEC championship, not to be the Bad News Bears.
"Will Tebow Become the Greatest College Football Player Of All Time?"
No.
I'm not saying they WILL allow the complacency, etc. But wouldn't every team say this every year? It's not like the guys came out publicly last year and said 'We're No. 1, so we're going to rest on our laurels a bit.'
It just seems like you see this every year from every team that fails to live up to expectations the year before. A little bit of throwing the guys who've left under the bus, and a lot of 'We're not going to let that happen again.'
The 2007 team also had the debacle at Knoxville, I would have to believe that 1st half would fall under the complancency headline.
And Florida had the debacle in the Swamp last year. Unless you go unbeaten, you have had a debacle sometime along the way.
Great Post Irwin
What happened to Bruce Figgins? I don't see him listed as a tight end...What did I miss?
Figgins was suspended for 6 games. You missed a good bit
OT - does anyone know if Uga will be traveling to the Arkansas game? I'll be there and I'd love to take my 7 year old by the team hotel for a photo op.
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