Perusing the interwebs today, I caught this little diddy at the Georgia Tech SB Nation website. It focused on each coach in the SEC and what it would take for each coach to be removed from his current position ultimately leading to the downfall of the SEC stranglehold on college football. Here’s what the author had to say about Mark Richt:
Mark Richt, georgie — In my honest, completely unbiased college football fan opinion, I think it’s only a matter of time before Richt is out in Athens. The amount of talent that they pull in is really not far from that of Alabama, and the inconsistent success they’ve had there, to me, is a reflection of very poor coaching. Last year most georgie fans would tell you that we were the best team they beat, which is less than impressive considering I will readily admit that they’re at a solid talent advantage. All it will take to unseat Mark Richt will be one or two “down” recruiting years, a couple losses to Tech(emphasis added), and a few 2nd- and 3rd-place finishes in the division before he will be out of Athens.
Grammar issues aside, which one of those potential downfalls do you see as as least likely to happen? I swear, you couldn’t make this stuff up if you tried.
I realize it’s been awhile since I’ve posted here, but things have been pretty out of control the last month or so in both my personal and professional lives. Let’s just say that I was ready to hop on a plane, fly to Hong Kong, and punch a colleague in the face after what I’ve been through at work the last month (damned stat audits..).
Obviously, the big news today was the announcement that Willie Martinez, Jon Jancek, and Jon Fabris will not have their contracts renewed for 2010. I wish these men the best of luck and hold no ill will towards them. They did their best, but their best just wasn’t cutting it anymore in Athens.
I’d also like to add one more thing for my favorite AJC commenter:
I’ve decided to follow up last week’s post on some of my general thoughts about this year’s edition of the Georgia Bulldogs with how I think the Bulldogs are going to fare in their regular season games this year. Keep in mind that I’ll be adding a more detailed preview of each game during game week and that my thoughts here are very high-level. Each game below with some brief explanation:
(1) Saturday, September 5th, Oklahoma State @ Stillwater, OK: Win
I’m just not buying it. We heard this same talk two years ago about how Oklahoma State was such a great offense with a questionable defense that was going to give the Dawgs all they could handle. The score, 35-14, was closer than the actual game. Georgia dominated from the first snap and never looked back. Give me the Georgia defense that showed up in the Capital One Bowl and I call this one a snoozer. Georgia grinds the clock with the ground game and wins a low-scoring affair in Stillwater.
(2) Saturday, September 12th, South Carolina @ Athens, GA: Win
Even the most diehard South Carolina fans know the ebb and flow of this series as summed up by cocknfire over at Team Speed Kills:
Go ahead and pencil it into the record book: Georgia will once again win one of the most closely-fought games of the season. There’s more reason at this point to believe the Dawgs will have a stronger defensive effort, a better offensive line and a more productive rushing attack. No matter how interesting South Carolina makes it, Georgia almost always gets away.
Sadly for Carolina fans, this is what Georgia does. They let the ‘Cocks sit around and play terribly against what should be an inferior opponent only to pull off some game-saving defensive play or a late score to win the game. No doubt in my mind that this game is a W.
(3) Saturday, September 19th, Arkansas @ Fayetteville, AR: Win
This is being penciled as a trap game for the Dawgs and rightly so. After a tough trip to Stillwater with a likely slobber-knocker at home against the Gamecocks, Georgia must once again travel west to face Arkansas. Arkansas will be coming off a bye week and a week 1 exhibition game against an FCS foe. While I’m a believer in Bobby Petrino and his offense (despite my raging hatred for the crap he pulled in Atlanta for which I hope he never gets another job), the defense for Arkansas was absolutely atrocious last year and I don’t see it getting any better this year. This one may come down to whether the Dawgs have some gas left in the tank after two long travels out west.
(4) Saturday, September 26th, Arizona State @ Athens, GA: Win
This is not the same Arizona State team from last year. In fact, this team may be worse than the team the Dawgs faced out in the desert last year. Mark this one down, it won’t be close. Arizona State will struggle to keep its QB upright and with no real defensive punch to speak of, this won’t be pretty.
(5) Saturday, October 3rd, LSU @ Athens, GA: Win
And the gauntlet marches on with LSU and their army of crazy cajuns invading the Classic City. If there was a team in the SEC with a defense less impressive then Georgia, it was the 5-loss LSU squad. While I think this will be a close game, I believe it will come down to the better conditioned team as Georgia will have already played two conference games and made two trips of 1,000 miles. LSU will have played one conference game with a trip to the West Coast and to Starkville to boot. The Dawgs hold on to dear life as LSU makes a push at the end of the game and win a close one.
(6) Saturday, October 10th, Tennessee @ Knoxville, TN: Win
When your former coach is making these kinds of comments (H/T: Blutarsky) regarding the quarterbacking situation, it doesn’t bode well.
We kind of screwed it up last year, honestly. We should have won eight or nine. Eight at least. They’re going to have to get great quarterback play or a lot better quarterback play.
The quarterback situation at Tennessee is bad and I see the first season of Lane Kiffin being very bumpy including a loss to the Dawgs.
(7) Saturday, October 17th, Vanderbilt @ Nashville, TN: Win
A second straight Saturday in the Volunteer State lends itself to a second straight win for Georgia and a much needed break the next week. Come on, you didn’t honestly believe I’d pick Vandy to be the 1st loss, did ya?
(8) Saturday, October 24th, Bye Week: Win
After the opening gauntlet, the Dawgs need a big break to get ready for the annual showdown in Jacksonville. A break before the Gators is always a win in my book.
(9) Saturday, October 31st, Florida @ Jacksonville, FL: Loss
On Halloween Saturday ghoulish things will happen as the Dawgs invade Jacksonville to face the top-ranked Gators with a chance to make a major move in the SEC East and the national title discussion only to see their hopes and dreams dashed once again by the Gators. Tim Tebow plays all 22 positions, wins 52-0, and ascends to Heaven as he is needed for further circumcisions in 3rd world countries. This causes Urban Meyer to write a book stating that Tebow’s ascension was a big deal and one that Meyer will not forget. Meyer then doesn’t know how to handle this without using timeouts and is seen going Ronnie “AK-47” Wilson-style by firing a weapon aimlessly into the air.
(10) Saturday, November 7th, Tennessee Tech @ Athens, GA: Win
Snore….
(11) Saturday, November 14th, Auburn @Athens, GA: Loss
The dreaded 1st year Auburn coach playing in Athens syndrome strikes again and Auburn wins between the Hedges. This serves as Gene Chizik’s only memorable victory of the year as Auburn is on its way to another 5-7 season.
(12) Saturday, November 21st, Kentucky @ Athens, GA: Win
Same explanation as Tennessee Tech above. This Kentucky team is bad. Phil Steele picks them to finish last in the SEC East behind Vandy. If the computers at Skynet, as Orson Swindle would say, believe this; ’nuff said.
(13) Saturday, November 28th, Georgia Tech @ Atlanta, GA: Win
During the 25 games of my lifetime between the two, Georgia leads the overall series 17-8. During that time Georgia has a 9-3 record in Atlanta for a .750 winning clip. During that same time period Georgia has had two seven game winning streaks with the longest that Tech could muster was three from 1998-2000 (all games that didn’t count due to ineligible players). Paul Johnson is a damn good coach, but so is Mark Richt. So I say to my Tech friends, enjoy it while it lasts. Enjoy all the “45-42 Bwahahah” and “No-Show Moreno” comments. You earned it for this one year. I still find it sad and pathetic that as an overall fanbase you would rather see Georgia fail than Tech succeed, but I digress. Revenge is a dish best served cold and on a cold Saturday in Atlanta this November, Mark Richt will pull out the Evil Richt we came to know and love in the autumn of 2007 and lay the wood to this team. This one won’t even be close as Georgia rolls to put little brother back in its place. I’ll leave this for the Tech fans to chew on.
Anyways, those are my fearless predictions for the regular season. 10-2 with both losses coming in-conference. More later this week on the Oklahoma State game.
Update: Well, apparently Youtube decided to pull the video down. Anyways, it was Massqaoui’s TD and 2-point conversion from Stafford to beat GA Tech in 2006 with Larry Munson’s call.
For all the Georgia fans that are tired of the typical retort your Tech friends give you (“Rednecks!”) when you rib them about being on the nerdy side or the lack of attractive females on campus, I give you this:
That's one mean ponytail
This was the scene at Turner Field on Saturday as I attempted to enter the gates, but was thwarted by the rarest of animals, the redneck Tech fan. Please notice the ponytail as it perfectly coils out of the back of his Tech hat and the grizzly man beard sporting in the front. This rare beast tops off the ensemble with a Wal Mart bought Tech jersey.
To top off the appearance, this gentleman was being denied entrance to Turner Field because he “forgawt I had mah knife on mah”. So here’s to you, Tech fans everywhere. It’s true, Tech rednecks exist, and now I have visual evidence of this beast. The funniest part of all this was the other person in this man’s group was just as ‘neck as him, but got away before I was able to catch a picture of a group of ‘neck Tech fans.
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