Looking at the quotes from guys about the team bus after the Mississippi State game, it isn't hard to read between the lines about the actual tenor the discussions in the locker room and on the bus.
"We were just in a bad place."Yeah. No doubt. I do have to wonder, is guys leaving because they realize there isn't playing time for them a sign that you will have to compete now, instead of getting deeded playing time due to longevity?
It is hard to say this, but I'm not disappointed with guys leaving the team. Oh, I'm disappointed on an individual level for each player not finding what they want at Georgia, but looking at who has left and their reasons for leaving on whole, I'm not disappointed. I felt the same way about Nate Hybl (I realize it was a different situation): If you don't want to play here, work to beat out someone, and help the team if you don't, leave. Especially if you are creating team chemistry issues. Hey, I get it if you want to go somewhere else that you might have more playing time. I understand that. But it is also a sign of ME-team thinking, regardless of how it is couched.
One final thought, I am ok with the level of secrecy the coaches have about guys playing or not playing. I'm hoping it is part of the trade off: Play your asses off, work as a team and compete; we as coaches will do whatever we can to protect you and your reputation in the press and blogosphere. I applaud that.
TD
6 comments:
I will say it's probably very difficult to pull yourself out of the hole that is losing multiple games to inferior teams. Confidence at a time like that must very very hard to gain. However, I feel like this whole "team cancers" meme is a little overstated and doesn't have as much to do with our record as coaching, conditioning and personnel does. It will be interesting though to look at our record at the end of the season and look at leadership and attitude as compared to recent years. There's no way to quantify that though so we're really just going off of what we're hearing from the players and coaches. This is like a straight psyche experiment.
Knowing Nate personally, his situation was completely different. It is not a fair comparing a guy like Nate to Ealy.
Dawgfan,
I realize it is unfair. That was a presence sense impression of that situation then, not now.
TD
Ginny, you have hit on why I haven't really published anything on this until now. It is hard to quantify these things. We got snippets of comments through the spring, but a player openly discussing, even vaguely, guys finger pointing after Miss State was enough for me to write something. I knew last season was a lost cause when there was no team only meeting, and no word of a senior or other team leader breaking bad on someone, anyone.
That was verified when a former player, one that didn't take the most team oriented approach to staying on the field during his time in Athens, went on the record to make comments that hurt the team and school, with no apparent reason to do so other than he could. I don't imagine that started when he declared for the draft.
Boo is gone.
Fair enough
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