It’s hate week in the AuditDawg household

I believe I’ve mentioned previously that my current roommate happens to be a graduate of that college that we are playing this weekend.  Therefore this week has devolved into a hate week within our domicile in which neither one wants to be the last person home, due to the potential atrocities the other may have committed.  I’ve decided to compile a list of reasons why I hate Auburn and post it here.

• 2005
• 2004
• 1999
• Terry Bowden
• You take pride in defacing your own campus with toilet paper.
• These guys below

We can haz recruitz?

 

• Robert Baker
• Their insistance that Auburn is as nice as Athens.
• Their football players during the Pat Dye era couldn’t read.
• They remind me too much of Georgia Tech with their little brother/penis envy syndrome for the better program in their own state.
• Pat Dye claims that Georgia is not man enough.
• Because they wish they were Georgia.

Feel free to add anything to this list in the comments.  I just thought I’d get it started with a brief list.

Mumme Poll, Week 10

Here’s my Mumme Poll ballot for Week 10.  This previous weekend in football cleared up a lot of things for me:

Top Five (alphabetical order):

• Alabama
• Cincinnati
• Florida
• Texas
• TCU

Remaining Seven (alphabetical order):

• Boise State
• Georgia Tech
• Iowa
• LSU
• Ohio State
• Oregon
• Pittsburgh

A few thoughts:

• Penn State had been in my top twelve, but Ohio State takes their place now.  Who would have thought after the Purdue loss that Ohio State would control its own destiny in the Big Televen now?
• LSU showed me a lot against Alabama.  I still have my concerns about that offense and that non-call on the interception was atrocious.  Did anyone seriously think Jarrett Lee was going to throw a TD pass to the right team in that situation though?
• Georgia Tech ho-hums along.  I think this is a pretty good team, but unfortunately the voters seems to have doubts because frankly who have they played?  I get the feeling they might go 11-1 and have never rise higher than 7th in the BCS going into championship Saturday.
• Clemson almost made my ballot this week.  If they run the regular season table and beat Georgia Tech in an ACC rematch, how good does the Tommy Bowden swap for Dabo Swinney look?

Those are my thoughts.  As always, feel free to agree or disagree.  It took me about 10 minutes to put my ballot together as nothing changed except for dropping Penn State and adding Ohio State.

Some clarification

I received an email from a Florida State fan in regards to this comment I made the other day:

Obviously, there are changes that are likely to happen this year.  It does no good to make a fire sale right now.  I know many people want Willie Martinez’s head on a stick, but what good does firing him now?  It’s not like the defense is going to turn into a bunch of world-beaters overnight.  I do believe that this prediction made by some guy is going to turn out very untrue now:

Willie Martinez will still be the defensive coordinator come opening day in 2010 .

One disturbing thought has crossed my mind about this today.  I fear that if that prediction does come true, it may be time to make another prediction:

Mark Richt will not be the head coach at the University of Georgia come opening day in 2011.

The Florida State fan seemed struck by my comment and I wanted to clarify that I am in no way endorsing the firing of Mark Richt.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  The point of my comment was that I believe that right or wrong, if Willie Martinez is still manning the DC position of the Georgia Bulldogs in 2010, things probably aren’t looking too good for Mark Richt at that point.

I want Mark Richt to stay in Athens as long as he wants.  Frankly, I’d like for Willie Martinez to be able to stay in Athens as long as he wants.  I’ve met Coach Martinez and he seems like a wonderful guy.  Obviously, it’s never easy to fire someone, nevertheless someone that is a good friend of yours that you’ve known for 20+ years.  The point of my comment was not that I hope Mark Richt is gone in 2011.  The point is that should he hitch his job security to the performance of Willie Martinez in 2010, I don’t think his job security looks very good.  That’s all I meant by it.

On another topic, those of you that are flaming our players via Twitter, Red & Black, blogs, or whatever need to get a life.  Mike and Bernie have excellent posts up regarding this and I hope that this silliness stops.  These are still 18-22 year old college kids playing a game for free.  If you want to criticize someone, throw it at the coaches who get paid large amounts of money to endure that criticism.  Joe Cox shouldn’t have to hide his face because he wants to go out and eat a pizza and is afraid that someone might come up to take a verbal jab at him.  Grow up, people.  Whether this team is 8-0 or 4-4, it’s still great to be a Georgia Bulldog and these kids work their tails off to provide you a few hours of entertainment every Saturday.  The least you can do is lay off.

Why the Brandon Spikes situation is a big deal

By now everyone knows the story.  Brandon Spikes was caught by the CBS cameras attempting to get his fingers into the helmet of Washaun Ealey for an alleged eye-gouging.  As expected, many Dawg fans are going insane (myself included earlier) and calling for year-long suspensions or being kicked off team.  On the flip side, Gator fans are rationalizing this through some of the comments I’ve seen over at Team Speed Kills and Alligator Army today.  It is frankly disappointing because I generally hold Year 2 over at TSK and mimiintampa over at Alligator Army in high regards as rational voices from the Gator nation.

The incident has been rationalized as stuff that happens at the bottom of the pile.  That is entirely true.  The problem is that Spikes was caught.  Coach Meyer has come out and suspended Spikes for the first half of the Gators upcoming game with Vanderbilt and released the following statement:

“I don’t condone that,” Meyer said. “I understand what goes on the football [field], but there’s no place for that. We’re going to suspend Brandon for the first half of the Vanderbilt game. I spoke with him. That’s not who he is. That’s not who we are. He got caught up in emotion.”

To his credit Spikes did release the following statement although for some strange reason I doubt his sincerity:

“I accept responsibility for my actions and I accept the consequences of my actions,” he said. “I would like to apologize to my team and the coaching staff and Washaun Ealey. Football is a very physical and emotional game, but there is no excuse for my actions.”

Spikes’ actions have even been rationalized by the most perfect human being in history, Tim Tebow himself:

“I don’t think that we did anything in that game that they didn’t do,” Tebow said Monday. “If you go back and look at it and study it, you can see it in the film, too. It was an intense game, both teams were very passionate about it.”

The problem is this complete denial from the Florida faithful and players who assume this backlash is part of the hater agenda or that because Ealey wasn’t injured that this doesn’t matter and it’s just a part of football.  I don’t doubt that dirty things go on in the pile.  I don’t doubt that the Georgia players did things to provoke Spikes.  I’ve heard rumors that Ealey spat in his face earlier in the game, which is just reprehensible if true.  The bottom line is that Spikes was caught doing something that could have seriously injured another person and he’s basically being slapped on the wrist.  I don’t think for a minute that Spikes is a bad person, but a football coach is almost like a parent in that he has to teach his players lessons when they do wrong.  By suspending Spikes for one half of a game that he likely wouldn’t have played in the second half is basically sending a message that there is nothing wrong with this type of behavior and it won’t impact your status with this team as long as you’re my best player on defense.

For all the fun that Florida fans have had at the expense of the light disciplinary actions of Bobby Bowden and Mark Richt, how is this any different?  I already realize that some Florida fans may read this and laugh at me because I think this, but despite the loss Saturday I’ve never been more proud to not be a Florida Gator today.  If this is the type of thing that the leader of my program will condone in the name of wins, then I don’t want that guy leading my program.  Incidents like this are just plain embarassing and Urban Meyer has embarassed the Univeristy of Florida with his half-assed punishment.  There’s a reason all the national writers are busy skewering him today.  I believe that if Rennie Curran had done this to Tim Tebow, the Gator fans’ would be singing a different tune and I know that I would agree with them.  This is a big deal and to completely pass it off as “just football” is plain BS and a cop-out.

Florida Gators – 41, Team wearing Grambling unis – 17

My title for this post is pretty much how I feel about this Georgia team this year.  This isn’t the Georgia team that I’ve come to know under Mark Richt so they may have well as been Grambling on Saturday.  Seeing as how it’s Monday, I don’t know what I can add to the discussion that hasn’t already been said by other Georgia or Florida bloggers.  However, leave it to T. Kyle King to perfectly sum up the current state of affairs a lot better than I did a few weeks ago:

During Steve Spurrier’s tenure in Gainesville, Georgia simply was outclassed by Florida, and the results showed up in the record book: 38-7, 45-13, 52-14, 52-17, 47-7, 38-7. Between 2002 and 2007, though, the ‘Dawgs claimed a pair of victories in Jacksonville and never lost to the Sunshine State Saurians by more than a touchdown. There was reason to believe the two programs were on more or less equal footing.

 After back-to-back blowouts by 49-10 and 41-17 scores, though, no such cause for confidence exists. Every gain the Georgia program has made since 2001 has been lost. We are now where we were in the 1990s. The glory run is over and we are back to square one.

It hurts, but that is the harsh reality of the disparity between the Gators and the Dawgs respective programs right now.  I don’t get this coaching staff anymore.  I realize that motivation is a huge part of the job as a college coach, but maybe we can motivate ourselves during the two weeks by studying Florida film and convincing ourselves that we have a solid defensive plan to stop them rather than making wardrobe decisions.  Paul Westerdawg puts it perfectly in perspective with this quote:

Therefore my question is simply this….

If the entire defensive coaching staff had gone to Bermuda for two weeks and simply met the team at the stadium, what would have been different about our game plan or execution? Seriously.

I can’t argue with his logic.

I don’t know what has to be done to right this ship or even give myself hope for the foreseeable future.  All I know is that Georgia has now been outcoached in every game it’s played this season.  I don’t think that could be made any clearer than by this quote from Florida LB Brandon Spikes (more on him in a post to come):

Having said that, here’s what Brandon Spikes had to say about his fourth-quarter interception that effectively ended the game: “I knew what that play was before the ball was snapped, so I was able to make the play. The coaching staff put us in great position to make plays, so I was able to step in front of the ball.”

Vanderbilt only got ugly because of the talent disparity.  I’m frankly starting to believe that this current coaching staff is Jim Tressel of the South.  He basically dominates the Big 10 because only Michigan and Penn State typically have comparable talent.  However, when he gets on the big stage against other schools with similar talent he is being outcoached.

Obviously, there are changes that are likely to happen this year.  It does no good to make a fire sale right now.  I know many people want Willie Martinez’s head on a stick, but what good does firing him now?  It’s not like the defense is going to turn into a bunch of world-beaters overnight.  I do believe that this prediction made by some guy is going to turn out very untrue now:

Willie Martinez will still be the defensive coordinator come opening day in 2010 .

One disturbing thought has crossed my mind about this today.  I fear that if that prediction does come true, it may be time to make another prediction:

Mark Richt will not be the head coach at the University of Georgia come opening day in 2011.

I want Mark Richt to be the head coach at the University of Georgia for as long as he wants to be there.  I want Mark Richt to be the man to lead us to the promised land.  I want  Mark Richt’s grandchildren to grow up in Athens and for him and the water girl to remain staples of the Athens community like Vince and Barbara Dooley.  Right now this program is at a crossroads without any easy answers.  Richt has announced today that Joe Cox will remain the starter because the overwhelming consensus on the coaching staff is that he gives the Dawgs the best chance to win.  What if it’s the current coaching staff that gives the Dawgs the best chance to lose, though?  But hey, what do I know?  I’ve never been in the arena.

Mumme Poll, Week 10

Top 5 (in alphabetical order):

• Alabama
• Cincinatti
• Florida
• Iowa
• Texas

Remaining Seven (in alphabetical order):

• Boise State
• Georgia Tech
• LSU
• Oregon
• Penn State
• Pittsburgh
• TCU

Amount of time to compile ballot: 15 minutes

Games I saw at least one quarter of action this weekend:

• Georgia/Florida
• Virginia Tech/UNC
• USC/Oregon

Fleeting Thoughts:

• I was out of town so I didn’t get to see much this weekend other than the Dawgs game.
• Georgia will not be considered for a Mumme Poll the rest of the year even if they run the table as a four loss team is not one of the best 12 in the country.
• I truly believe Oregon is better than Boise State right now and almost put them in the top five.  I think we’re going to look back at the end of this season and see that loss at Boise as one of the flukiest games of all year.
• TCU will pass Boise for mid-major BCS glory if both run the table.
• Oregon is probably the best team in the country.  I don’t care how good Florida looked against Georgia.  Georgia has made every team is has played this season look like world-beaters.  Florida beat Georgia by the same margin as Tennessee.  That doesn’t equal best team in the country to me.
• Penn State is a filler.  They aren’t that great, but honestly who else goes in the top twelve?
• Pitt and Cincy get to play each other soon and one of those two will exit the poll after that.

As always, comments are welcome.  More to come later on the Florida/Georgia fallout.

Some Georgia/Florida thoughts from the Heartland

I’m live and coming at you from Kansas this week; which is where I’ve spent the last two weeks on business travel and hence the lack of posts over that time.  The people here are nice, but it’s always unsettling to be removed from God’s country for too terribly long.  Anyways, I can sympathize with this guy now even though he’s stuck in Big 10 country.  At least I’ve got the Big 12 folks to talk to.

Anyways, I don’t know what much can be said about this week.  The Dawgs start the week off as 16 point underdogs to the defending SEC and national champs that pantsed the Dawgs by 39 points last year when the Dawgs still had two 1st round draft picks in its backfield.  The defending champs return 21 of the 22 on their defensive two deep and still have the Jesus Child running things behind center. 

I honestly have no clue what to expect this week.  Certainly history over the last two decades suggests that the bye week in this series goes a long way towards determining the winner of the game.  I don’t know if I buy that this year because frankly I just don’t think Georgia is good enough to beat Florida.  Talented enough, yes.  Good enough, not so much.  As I left Sanford Stadium following the South Carolina game this year I turned to my buddy and said “This is the most pure talent I’ve ever seen in Athens.  This team could win 10 games or it could lose 6 and neither would surprise me.”  That still holds true for me right now, although obviously we’re much more likely to lose 6 than to win 10 at this juncture in the season.  I realized early on this season that despite all the talent this team had it was awfully young and was likely to take some lumps along the way.  This team reminds me of the 2007 Florida team in that respect, but Joe Cox is certainly no Tim Tebow.

I suppose the keys to this game will be whether the team can put it all together for one week.  The closest its come was the game against Vanderbilt two weekends ago which reminded me that Georgia remembered how to play against an inferior opponent for the first time in more than a year.  It was comforting to see them take a clearly overmatched team and never allow the game to be in doubt despite some offensive struggles early on.  IF (emphasized on purpose) this team can get all three phases of the game to be competent I think it has a punchers chance against the Gators.

Clearly the Gators have struggled on offense once they started playing real competition this year and Tebow is being asked to shoulder much of the burden.  He’s carried the ball nearly 50 times in the last two games against Arkansas and Mississippi State.  The Gators have no clear deep threat and right now their most successful plays are the HB dive/Tebow Smash/throw it underneath to Hernandez or Cooper.  LSU showed that if you can’t stop the HB dive, Florida is content with pounding you on the ground and riding their defense to a low scoring victory.  Arkansas and Mississippi State showed what everyone knows.  To beat Florida you have to hit Tebow early and often.  Arkansas missed too many opportunities to put the game away and Mississippi State has no semblance of an offense.  Either of those games could have and maybe should have been losses for the mighty Gators.

To win this game Georgia has to not play scared.  I know it sounds lame, but I’ve seen some ridiculous things happen in Jacksonville over the past decade that leads me to believe that there’s a lot more at work between our players ears than just playing the game of football down there.  For whatever reason they have become like the fans, just waiting for that other shoe to drop against the Gators.  I truly thought the Celebration in 2007 was the catalyst that proved that Georgia was done playing scared in Jacksonville and in a weird way I still believe it was.  Last year was one of the strangest feelings I’ve ever had after a Georgia loss.  I remember in 2003 exiting the Georgia Dome thinking “We just got our asses kicked by LSU”.  In 2008 I remember leaving Sanford Stadium thinking “Boy, Alabama handed us our asses”.  After the Florida game last year I was left wondering “Florida didn’t really seem to outplay us, how the heck did they beat us so bad?”.  It was just so strange because I’d never experienced a loss where I truly felt like we just imploded, but that was the case last year.  Anyhow, I digress.

If Georgia is going to beat the Gators this year, it must do the following on defense:

• Stop the HB dive.
• Get penetration up the middle on the obvious Tebow Smash downs.
• Cover the TE for crying out loud.

That basically means that the defensive tackles and linebacking corps are going to have to play their best games of the year.  Will the bye week provide them the rest and preparation to handle this Gator attack?  We’ll find out on Saturday.

If Georgia is to beat the Gators, it must do the following on offense:

• Stop with the silly notion that a balanced offense means the run should set up the pass.  The pass can also be used to set up the run.  Therefore, when Florida decides to line up 9 in the box and challenge Joe Cox to beat them, quit running into a wall on 1st and 2nd down and then try to pass on 3rd and long.  Take what the defense is giving and throw the damn ball up to AJ 10 times in a row to start the game if need be to spread that defense out.  Then we can start running the ball.
• Keep Joe Cox’s jersey clean.
• Avoid turning the ball over and creating easy scoring opportunities for the struggling Gator offense.  The last thing it needs is easy confidence.

There they are.  Three keys on each side of the ball that I think will determine this game.  As stated earlier, if Georgia can do those six things effectively they have a puncher’s chance.  Right now, I wouldn’t bet a case of Natty Light that Georgia is going to win this game, but it sure would be sweet to derail the Gators perfect season.  If you need optimism for this weekend, feel free to venture over to DawgsBUI.  He’s all about the positives.  I, on the other hand, just expect bad things to happen in this game.  Maybe it’s the fact that of my 25 years on this Earth, 18 have included a loss to the Gators.  I expect the Dawgs to keep it close, but never able to get past that Florida defense.  I think this game will be pretty similar to the LSU game where the Gators don’t blow the other team out, but the outcome is never really in doubt.  I certainly wouldn’t mind being wrong though.  If nothing else, I’d love for this guy to show up again.

Will Evil Richt ever return?

Mumme Poll, Week 8

Hello all, I’m still amongst the living.  I’ve been residing in the Midwest for work for the last two weeks and haven’t had much time to keep up with the ole blog.  Let’s try to change that this week and we’ll kick it off with my Mumme Poll ballot for this week.  For all the info you need on the Mumme Poll, please visit the site here.  My ballot as follows:

Top Five (no particular order):

• Cincinnati
• Florida
• Alabama
• Texas
• Iowa

Remaining Seven (no particular order):

• Boise State
• TCU
• Southern California
• Georgia Tech
• Oregon
• Pittsburgh
• LSU

Games I watched at least one full quarter this weekend:

• Georgia Tech/Virginia
• Texas/Missouri
• Florida/Mississippi State
• Alabama/Tennessee
• South Carolina/Vanderbilt
• Penn State/Michigan
• Ohio State/Minnesota
• Miami/Clemson

Amount of time I spent compiling my ballot: approximately 35 minutes

Close, but not this week:

• Miami
• Virginia Tech

Never considered:

• Any Big East team outside of Cincinnati or Pittsburgh
• Any Pac 10 team outside of Southern Cal or Oregon
• Oklahoma
• Ohio State

Comments on the teams that did make the ballot:

• Cincinnati says they don’t need no stinking Heisman contender at QB.  Brian Kelly just keeps plugging them in and producing.  How has one of the big schools not dropped a Brinks truck on his front lawn yet?  Methinks there’s going to be a vacant spot in Champaign next season after the Zooker is fired this year.  Illinois would be wise to go after this guy.
• Has there ever been a less impressive guy that will likely win the Heisman than the 2009 version of Tim Tebow?  I realize that he’s the best player on that team, but come on voters.  You gave it to him in 2007 despite playing on a four loss team, and rightfully so, because he put up numbers that had never been seen before.  Now you’re going to give it to him in 2009 because of his “leadership” intangibles despite the fact that there are easily ten other QBs in the country more deserving if we’re going on the “stats” argument that was used in 2007.  Granted, he has five more games to turn it around so we shall see.  Anyways, Florida looks very beatable although I suspect for whatever reason the ghosts of Jacksonville past will show up this weekend and it will get ugly for the Dawgs.  Todd Blackledge was dead on Saturday night pointing out that the Tebow Smash play is very ineffective if you get penetration like Mississippi State did on that goal line stop.  Georgia is going to need a huge game out of the defensive tackles to shut down the dive and Tebow Smash.  Were you watching the game Saturday night; Kade/Geno/Jeff?  We need you to step up big time this weekend.
• Alabama says they don’t need no stinking special teams, they just need Mount Cody.  That guy is just a great football player.  Although is there anything more disturbing than just seeing the sweat waterfalling down his jersey every time he takes the field?  Anyways, Alabama survives and advances.  McElroy is going to have to start playing better or this team is not going to make it to Atlanta unscathed.  Good to see they finally remembered that Julio Jones plays for them this weekend.  Just an added note, AJ is still the best receiver in the conference this year, Bama fans, not necessarily the most talented.  I felt I needed to slip that one in.
• Texas ho-hum obliterates Missouri.  That’s the offense we’ve been waiting to see all year.  Texas wins out and they’re in the title game in Pasadena. The only thing standing between them and a shot is Oklahoma State.  If they get past the Pokes, does anyone really believe that Kansas State (that’s right, Kansas State is leading the Big 12 North) is going to put up a fight?
• My toughest choice this week was including Iowa over TCU in the top five.  Iowa is 8-0 for the first time in school history.  That’s got to mean something, right?  Championship teams don’t need time expiring TDs to beat Michigan State though.  We’ll see how good these guys are when they play a more talented team at Ohio State in three weeks.  Win that and I’m very impressed with this team although I suspect an undefated Iowa team is destined for the Rose Bowl because the voters have already ordained a Texas/SEC national title matchup.
• Boise keeps in the limelight three weeks in a row after two Wednesday night games and by playing at Hawaii this past weekend where nobody saw the game.  That Oregon win just keeps looking better, however TCU’s wins are better and is why TCU will make the BCS over Boise if both go undefeated.
• TCU almost made the top five, but I’m holding out to see what Iowa continues to do.  It’s hard to dispute them beating Virginia/Clemson/BYU on the road as arguably the three most impressive road wins of any team in college football this year.  This team looks destined for the Fiesta Bowl.
• Southern California wins, but gives up a lot of points and yards to their nemesis from last year, Oregon State.  Maybe it’s my own bias, but I just don’t think this team deserves a top five spot.  I’m frankly tired of hearing Carroll over the last four years lose to a very bottom tier Pac 10 team early, get hot during the stretch run, and complain about why they aren’t being considered for the championship games.  When does this team stop getting a pass for a hiccup to a team they have no business losing to.  Their loss to Stanford in ‘07 and to Washington this year are analagous to an SEC team losing to Vanderbilt.  Here’s a more poignant question: Would an SEC champion with a loss to Vandy get into the national title discussion?
• Georgia Tech continues its streak-busting ways under Paul Johnson and just gives the nerds more ammunition about their “new sheriff”.  I’m sorry nerds, but the fact that Paul Johnson has been busting all these streaks is more evidence of how bad your program has been throughout the 2000s.  There’s no reason you shouldn’t have beaten Virginia at Charlottesville since 1990.  How many good Virginia teams have there really been this decade?  Ditto that for Florida State at Tallahassee?  When’s the last time Florida State truly was a good team?  Anyways, they still get mad props for beating Virginia Tech pretty soundly two weeks ago, however that face plant against Miami is going to come back to haunt them should they run the table and win the ACC.
• Oregon destroys another Pac 10 team.  They play Southern Cal this weekend with the opportunity to pretty much wrap up nothing less than Rose Bowl bid and potentially something bigger.  How much did that awful performance against Boise really hurt this team?  We’ll find out if they can run the table the rest of the way.
• I’m a believer in the Wann-stache this year.  Pittsburgh might have the most balanced offense this side of Oregon.  They still have games to go against West Virginia and Cincinatti and I’ll reserve complete judgment until those games happen.
• Who was that and what did they do with the real LSU offense?  Wait, LSU has an offense?  Impressive showing.  If that offense had showed up against Florida the game might have appeared a little more competitive.  Then again, that might be a function of how good Florida’s D is compared to Auburn’s D.  This is the one team that everyone is forgetting about when preparing for the Alabama/Floridapocalypse in Atlanta.  LSU still controls its own fate and goes to Tuscaloosa in two weeks with the West title likely on the line.

Anyways, those are my thoughts.  Feel free to agree or disagree.  Comments are always welcome.

This makes it more bearable

Anyone that knows me personally knows that I have a slightly unhealthy love for the Simpsons.  Last night after work Idecided to unwind by watching a few episodes from one of the DVDs I own.  I was half paying attention while working on some stuff for today and I heard Marge make the quote “It’s moments like this where all you can do is laugh”.  She then faints a laugh and makes her famous groan.

I’d say that summed up pretty well how I’m feeling about the Bulldogs right now.  I’m trying to just laugh about it, but it’s hard to find anything funny.  Thanks to the Simpsons for putting it all in perspective for me.

Where we are and where we’re going

After a three day cooldown period I think I’m finally able to discuss the current state of Bulldog affairs without being childish and irrational, so here goes.  Unlike many unfortunate souls in the Bulldog nation I did not see any of the game on Saturday other than the first offensive series’ for both teams before I went with the family to Taste of Atlanta.  I was able to keep up by checking the updates on my iPhone, but other than that I don’t have a perspective on how the game ebbed and flowed other than reading others comments.  These are the basic ideas I’ve come away with about what went wrong with the game:

• Jonathan Crompton morphed into a competent passer
• Willie Martinez is incapable of adjusting to what the offense is doing
• Joe Cox made some poor decisions
• We can’t run the football
• Mike Bobo’s playcalling is suspect
• Directional kicking still sucks

Does that pretty much cover them?

Right now, this program is facing a situation it hasn’t experienced in more than a decade.  The team is sitting at 3-3 with realistically two games that should be Georgia W’s in Vanderbilt and Tennessee Tech.  The rest of the games certainly look losable.  Should we acquiesce to the vocal fringe part of the fanbase (which is gradually becoming inclusive of the rational fans) and start cutting head count now ?  I don’t think so.  First off, what would that accomplish?  The defense is not going to magically start producing at the level that the fanbase expects because Willie goes away.  For the last time let me channel my inner Rick Pitino and put this in caps so hopefully people will quit making the comparison: BRIAN VAN GORDER AIN’T WALKING THROUGH THAT DOOR FOLKS!! 

People are frustrated with Coach Richt’s comments regarding looking forward, but what else can he do?  He and his staff can’t dwell on what’s happened the past two weeks.  They’ve got to prepare the team for Vanderbilt this weekend.  I will give credit to Richt though.  He did come out on his radio show and certainly sounded like a man that isn’t afraid to fire somebody with this doozy:

“I think a lot of people expect blood,” Richt said of the reaction following a 45-19 loss Saturday to Tennessee that dropped Georgia to 3-3 for the first time since 1996. “They want somebody to be let go or fired or that kind of thing, and maybe that’s what needs to be done, but at this point right now, we’re going to do what we know is the best thing to do and that’s to focus on this game this week.”

He also added this in response to another caller which makes me glad to see:

Richt assured another caller who asked if he would look at the program from top to bottom that “I promise you I will do that. I will promise you this, too. We are not bailing out on the season. I think a lot of the fans want this season to end. I don’t think that’s the way we need to function at Georgia.

Everything is not good in Athens, but it’s not the end of the world folks.  College football and particularly Georgia football is very important to me and has been a part of my family’s tradition for a long time (My grandparents are both from Athens and my great grandfather helped build the foundation for what is now Stegeman Coliseum).  It sucks to lose and it sucks to see the program, players, and coaches you love struggle.  This team still has six games remaining and these seniors don’t want to go out on a sour note so you know they’re going to fight like hell to prevent that.

Right now I trust Mark Richt to do what is necessary to correct things, but the knee-jerk reactions that people want aren’t going to happen.  I think some fans would be well-served to follow Richt’s even-keel approach to the season.  I trust that Coach Richt will assess things at year end and make the changes he sees fit no matter if we go 0-6 or 6-0 the rest of the season.  I agree with Mark Schlabach that every coach should be allowed at least one bad season before running him out of town.  Gene Chizik may turn out to be a pretty good coach, but I still think the people at Auburn were dumb as hell for basically running off the best coach they’ve ever had because of one dysfunctional season.

If at the end of the season, Coach Richt decides its time to make a change at DC or OC I will support him fully.  If at the end of the season, he decides that no change is necessary I will also support him fully.  The man has earned at least that much from us.  As fans we all need to just step back from the ledge and let the man that we’ve given the keys to our program drive the damn thing and quit being backseat drivers.

Update: Doug sums up everything I’ve been thinking with the Journalism degree to back him.