Yes, that was an UGLY performance in Columbia, SC last Saturday. It reminded me of many of our recent MELTDOWN games to be honest. When Richt was hired, the last impression that most of us had, Jim Donnan's team getting whipped by perhaps one of the most nerdy looking QB's and players I have EVER seen in my life-George Godsey of GT. I will never forget Godsey, I am pretty sure the slowest non OL on the field sprinting about 30 yards untouched for a TD in what was a dreadful day inside Sanford Stadium. Richt in the early years NEVER had a loss where we just looked horrible, looked ill prepared to play, even the SEC championship loss back in 2003 was not a total blowout until LSU scored 10 unanswered points in the 4th quarter to win 34-13. That would be a 21 point loss, two years later we had an 18 point loss to what ended up being the SEC champ AU. Course in 2005 in the Sugar Bowl, we started out 21-0 to WV, but battled back to only lose that game 35-28. So, between the years 2001 and 2005, our biggest margin of defeat was 21 points in the SEC title game to eventual national champ LSU.
Starting with 2006, here is where things start to go downhill-
Against UT that year, we led the Vols at half 24-14 only to lose 51-33, getting outscored 37-9 in the second half-yes, we gave up THIRTY SEVEN points in one half of football at home. We also lost to Vandy that year at home and at Kentucky.
2007
Perhaps the team that finished the season playing the best football in the country, how can we forget that trip to Knoxville. 7-0 after one qtr, 28-0 at the half. 35-14 final score. That was a game that I felt MUCH the same as I did watching the game this past Saturday in Columbia. I felt like the players were not prepared and once down, just didn't seem to give much effort at all.
2008
The famous blackout game against Alabama, down 31-0 at the half, did manage to make it 41-30 at the end but that was only because Bama let us. Later in 2008, UF EMBARRASSED us 49-10, in the Urban Meyer get even for the celebration game. 14-3 game at the half, UF outscored us 35-7 in the second half.
2009
At UT, down 21-12 at the half, UT outscores us 24-7 in the second half to win 45-19. Against UF, down 24-10 at the half, UF outscores us 17-7 in the second half for an easy 41-17 win. Oh yeah, Kentucky beats us in Athens this year as well.
2010
No specific loss was by a large margin but we managed to lose SEVEN games this year, including horrible losses to Miss State, Colorado and Central Florida.
2011
Boise beat us by 14 points, they were up by 21 late until Malcolm Mitchell scored his first career TD with a 51 yard catch and run. This game was very disappointing since we had all summer to prepare. Finally, LSU in SEC title game, 10-7 at the half only to get destroyed in the second half 35-0. Also Michigan State in the bowl game, up 16-0 at the half only to lose in OT by being outscored in the second half 27-11.
2012
Of course that brings us to last week, down 21-0 at half, 35-0 until the last two minutes of play. I think what gets me the most upset is losing by these big margins-because I honestly don't think UGA should EVER get blown out of football games. Every now and again, I can see it happening-the perfect storm so to speak, but it has been happening at least ONCE every year now since 2005.
I have been one that has supported Richt and company through thick and thin, why, because he is a class act and a pretty darn good football coach. He averages about 10 wins a season, which is better than Vince Dooley, who has a statue on campus. Thing about Richt, he wants to do things the RIGHT way and our university requires that we do things the right way. This means, our kids have to qualify at higher standards than every SEC program save Vandy for the most part, More than that, our school requires the kids GO TO CLASS, very strictly monitored. Also in place is the toughest drug/alcohol policies in the SEC, we also have a police department that doesn't play, they don't care if you are a star athlete or not, you break the law, you get the punishment. Also, UGA has to deal with media that tells it like it is-as much as the local Athens paper might try to paint a positive picture, the AJC covers the UGA progam exactly like they cover a pro sports team-the good, the bad and the ugly. Most SEC schools don't have to deal with ANY of that stuff and if they do, their coaches will speak up and get things changed-see Saban and Spurrier in dealing with media members, Spurrier dealing with the admissions office at South Carolina. I think so many UGA faithful that complain about Richt simply are the younger folks in the fanbase, they came along with Donnan and then Richt, those guys were 8-9-10 wins a year. Course it also doesn't help that Bama, LSU, AU, and UF have been winning national titles lately either. We all want what they got, that is the way of our society today.
Here is the thing though, you get rid of Richt, who is going to come to Athens, GA. YES, it is a great job but with it comes the issues I mentioned above, do you think a Saban would come to a place where he has the issues Richt has-where he can't run his COLLEGE football team like a pro team. I think not.
In summary, I am sick and tired of the lopsided losses and Richt is NOT doing a good job of getting this team prepared, the players are not doing their part either, and this needs to be fixed sooner than later. It has been an issue now for years, you can count on UGA wetting the bed at least once a year. We are not beating teams equal or greater than us, only those we SHOULD beat. This has to change or else but assuming it doesn't change, those that think we can and will get a guy in Athens that will do better, well, I will just have to wait and see. Based on our track record of hiring coaches, you have to be skeptical of the results. Back to the hear and now, a few things I see that need to change-
First of all, something is wrong with this defense. We all blamed missing players for teams moving the ball on us early. Against Vandy, we looked pretty stout again, then got out last two back against UT and had a 27-10 lead, things looked great. THEN the offense did their part to help UT but the point remains, this defense has for years had problems HOLDING teams to FG's instead of TD's, that game against UT was no different. Last week, the DL got no pressure, the LB's were so content about stopping Lattimore they seemed to ignore Connor Shaw-the secondary again was in stop the run game mode, and did a HORRIBLE job in coverage. This defense has a LOT of NFL talent, but have these guys checked out and now are just concerned with staying healthy for the upcoming draft? I am not sure but hopefully this week off, everyone being healthy again, we will see what we thought our defense would be all season down the stretch.
Second, our weakness coming into the season was thought to be the OL, RB's and kickers. The OL got exposed on Saturday, they just got flat out destroyed. I read this week where the players say they learned a lot playing those talented SCarolina defenders. Yeah, they learned they are not good enough and need to get better. We have one more very good defense to go against this year in UF, let's see if those guys did indeed learn anything.
Our coaches have to do a better job of making adjustments. This goes for both offense and defense. It was pretty obvious early on that SCarolina was going to use our aggressiveness to stop Lattimore against us, why not try something else to see what might happen-course I still say if Rambo makes that INT early, the game completely changes. On offense, it was OBVIOUS Gates and Theus could not block the DE's why not go to a ball control quick passing game, or try some tosses outside, let the DE's crash but attack the edges of the defense, essentially use their aggressiveness against them which is what Spurrier did with Jarvis Jones and Shaw running the read option. Let Murray scramble a little bit, the kid HAS wheels, in fact I bet he is every bit as fast as Connor Shaw-as a RS FR, Murray used to scramble quite a bit but now any longer. We have got to do a better job of making in game adjustments, not waiting until the half, or not waiting until that game is over and saying, well I guess we could have done that.
This leads us to the coaches, it is pretty evident to me that we have some pretty talented players-we win recruiting battles with all the big boys for pretty much EVERY player on our roster. Now, how is it that our talented players can play against a group that recruiting wise is considered less talented and get our butts beat. COACHING, that is the reason. Our coaches are not dumb and I am not saying they can't coach, but what I am saying is they are getting outcoached by the opposition, Steve Spurrier REALLY is outcoaching Mark Richt, three years running beating us. He has won 4 of his last 5 against Richt. Hmmmmm......
I hope our team and coaches use this off week to rest up, study up and come back with an attitude of that 2007. There is still plenty to play for this year, we have one really quality opponent left on our schedule, win that game, go 11-1 and potentially get back to Atlanta with some help. I think anything less than 11-1 this year, Richt will indeed be squarely back on the hot seat, and next year doesn't look as promising as this year.
Update on the 8 year old Grayson Rams, back to our winning ways last week 30-6 over Duluth. Now, let me explain what happened here. We led 30-0 at the half and the Gwinnett Football League, or GFL for short, has a rule in place that you can't beat a team by more than 32 points or the head coach has to pay a $500 fine. SO, we decided we would allow Duluth to score so that we could run more plays and be free to score again. Little did we know that it would take Duluth nearly two full quarters to score on us, with all our backups in and with our LB's dropped 10 to 20 yards off the ball. Our offense got the ball back with less than 2 minutes to play and got down to about the 5 yard line before the clock ran out. This week is a HUGE game for us, divisional title at stake in our last regular season game before the playoffs start next week. We play Peachtree Ridge, coached by former UGA star and Dallas Cowboy Randall Godfrey. He also has on his staff Rodney Harrison the former NFL player with the Patriots and now works on NBC's Sunday night football studio show. Both those men have pretty solid 8 year old boys with a lot of speed. Godfrey's son has scored a bunch of TD's this year, has returned about 3-4 kickoffs for TD's, he is a very good player. Ridge enters the game 5-2, both losses coming to teams that have not lost this season. They beat the team that recently beat us, so needless to say this game will be tight and tough. All that being said, I have to go with Grayson this week. We have more overall talent and we are due for that breakout game and our boys are fired up for this game. My prediction is for Grayson to whin this game 13-6.
Hope you all have a great weekend and as always GO Dogs and Rams!
You said what I think but you said it much better than I could have.
ReplyDeleteRicht fell victim to some "false positives" early in his Georgia tenure. The team was very successful. Richt thought what he was doing was right. During that stretch, Georgia didn't have coaching turnover. That must have meant that coaching stability leads to winning. Double down on that after you see Tuberville at AU going thru coordinators like fries and going from bad to worse. So Richt clung to Martinez, Jancek and Fabris way too long.
I was afraid he had lost all the goodwill those early years had built up, but for all the complaining out of our fanbase folks are still sending donations to the AA, buying tickets, and going to games. But I totally agree with you and everyone who says he has to start winning against the top teams. This is what everybody wants who bleeds red and black. If he cannot do this, fans will speak with their wallets and that will be impossible to dismiss.
Class of 83 here. Go Dawgs.
Good points, thanks for sharing. The issue of Mark Richt's tenure at UGA is very interesting. Because to me he is NOT a guy that lives, breathes, consumes his job at every turn, it is not out of the question that he just simply walks away in another year or two. He might just get tired of doing it, tired of the expectations, tired of the stress and realize there is more he wants to do with his life than coach college football. That being said, it is becoming clearly obvious that when we play teams with comparable talent, where coaching truly does matter, we lose the game. Sure some of that can be attributed to players not executing but the pattern that has developed leads any person with average intelligence to believe that we are getting OUTCOACHED in the big games-talent very equal, what is the reason we lose, team not prepared and ready to play-which is all on the coaching.
ReplyDeleteSo what you are saying is in another year or two, Georgia gets a new coach either because Richt walks away on his own or he's let go.....I don't disagree.
ReplyDeleteI think UGA could get a new coach as early as 2013. Expectations were huge and still are huge for THIS year. Lose big to UF, lose another game down the stretch, I think UGA makes the move this year, I honestly do. The team is very fragile right now, how Mark handles the team the rest of the year could have a big impact on his future and of course the future of the football program in Athens.
ReplyDeleteThanks so much for reading my blog, I hope you enjoy my opinions as much as I enjoy sharing them.