Happy Easter

Not much to blog about today, unless you want to discuss the T day game-how appropriate the Tech spring game is the T game, considering their uniform color resembles the color of urine (as a kid my Mom used to say do you need to Tee Tee)!! Speaking of GTU, notice they had Charlie Sheen to visit the baseball team yesterday. Now, I think the guy is HILARIOUS to listen to as he is a train wreck waiting to happen but NOT exactly the type guy I want hanging with my players-still, not like he could rub off on any of those guys spending 3 hours with them so I don't really see the big deal in it all. I did think it funny that during Sheen's show last night at the Fox, he put on a Matt Ryan jersery, a Brave jersey and the put on a GT shirt/jersey and got BOOO's from the crowd. VERY NICE, even in the ATL GT gets boo'd, gee, I wonder why that is-I will not go there because it is Easter weekend and I want to be nice as this is Good Friday after all.

Our baseball team takes on the ugly orange this weekend, let's hope they can win 2 of 3 against the Vols, a team that has struggled in conference this year. You have to like our chances in the first two games, those two starters have done very well so far this year. The Sunday starter, well, he has been like a yo yo so considering he had a bad performance last Sunday against the Gators, he should be due for a good one this week. Speaking of the baseball team, I am starting to feel the same way about Coach Perno as I do about Coach Richt. Great guy, has had great success-really in both cases have been the most successful coaches we have ever had at our school. But, both are now at a crossroads-Perno lead us to within a game of winning a title two years ago, last year was HORRIBLE, this year is yet to be determined. Richt, well, everyone that reads this blog knows the great job he has done, until the past two years-and actually, I still don't think 2009 was a bad year considering the number of turnovers we had vs how many we forced, the loss of our starting OT in game one of the season, AJ Green missing a couple games, we were 8-5 that year and easily could have won a game or two we lost, that even with having the much maligned Joe Cox at QB-I mean the Okie State game that year was there for the taking but Cox played with the flu and we could not score-and of course that was about the only game Dez Bryant played that year for OSU-that would have REALLY helped our cause if he didn't play considered he killed us that day. Against UK, we had a TWO TD lead but managed to turn the ball over time and time again in the second half. The LSU game, that HORRIBLE call on AJ cost us that game.  Obviously UT and UF killed us that year but I still don't consider that a horrible year-last year WAS a horrible year because with or without AJ we had no business losing to Miss State (I know they were much improved but the Ealey fumble was the play of that game), Colorado, or UCF. We had way too much talent to lose those games and if we had won them, we go 9-4. I still say the Arkansas game was another we should have won, tie game and we have the ball at midfield with under 2 minutes to play, a GREAT kicker waiting to get a try to win the game and we can't make a first down after our first down play picks up 8 yards!!

My point is, both our baseball and football programs have outstanding coaches BUT how long can you stay with them and allow them to turn the program around. The fact remains, we lost 7 games in football last year and had no business doing that. Our baseball team was dreadful last year, and with as much baseball talent as this state produces, our team should always be good-if GT baseball can stay consistently good year in and year out, despite the talent they lose every year to MLB, NO EXCUSE why UGA shouldn't be just as consistently good. So, I think McGarity has some tough decisions ahead of him IF both Perno and Richt don't turn things around. I think Perno is on the clock right now. If this team fails to make the NCAA tourney this year, I think he is fired. UF fired their baseball coach while McGarity was there for missing the NCAA tourney ONE year. I remember when that happened and thought, WOW, they have high expectations there-we should have them at UGA as well for baseball. As for football, I think it is well documented that Richt is coaching for his job this year. I have stated numerous times, I think he MUST win 9 games during the regular season to save his job. It is possible he can save it going 8-4 but if you look at our schedule, I find it hard to believe there are 4 teams that should beat us. Are there 4 teams that can beat us, without a doubt yes. The first two games are huge because of this. An 0-2 start to me almost assures Richt loses 4 games because you have to figure we will lose to UF again-just based on the percentages, we can't beat them. You then have to figure someone else finds a way to beat us, the trip to Knoxville has not been pleasant the last two visits. Lexington can be dangerous, Oxford-you never know there, even GT has a shot at us because not like we are blowing them out these days and rarely do we ever blow them out. We win the game about 80% of the time but the games are always close. I personally believe that if we start the season 0-2, it will get ugly fast. The negative folks will double or triple in numbers and then every decision/play will become nitpicked. Recruiting will suffer, the program will suffer as well. Still, the way our schedule sets up this year, if we can win both those early games, our ranking will climb quickly as those games give us a chance for immediate respect. No doubt that kick off classic is going to have huge ratings across the SE, UGA faithful of course but our SEC neighbors will be watching in full force-seeing if UGA is back or if we are down for the count. I think it will be interesting to get the pulse of our SEC foes on that game-do they cheer for UGA because of the conference and not wanting the mighty SEC to go down to Boise, or do they hope UGA loses to further bring the demise of Richt and company-there is no doubt our home state is LOADED with talent. UGA in turmoil does a lot of our neighbors good.

Well, hope everyone has a wonderful Easter weekend. I can't believe it is almost May, the football preseason magazines are just around the corner. Take care and I will blog again next week. If you have any questions or comments, please let me know.