It's a shame.
Georgia is 5-2, a record that's really not bad.
It's better than Texas, whose implosion in 2010 was worse than Georgia's.
It's better than defending national champ Auburn. It's equal to Texas A&M, that jewel that's really going to raise the SEC's stature, and to West Virginia, which put only 13 fewer yards on LSU than Oregon and Florida combined (548-533).
And it's better than Florida.
But God, it clearly sucks to be a Georgia fan.
One can feel the pain of supporting a program that is scraping the dregs of the barrel, that has fallen from, um, where was it again?
In reality, the 14-12 record of 2010-2011 in the toughest conference in America isn't all that embarrassing. Sure, could be better, probably should.
It also isn't uncommon for Georgia:13-10-1 in 73-74, 10-10-1 in 69-70, 13-7-1 in 64-65, all under Vince Dooley; 10-13 in 89-90, 11-10-1 in 93-94 and 12-10-1 in 94-95, under Ray Goff.
That the current SEC is almost unfathomably tougher than the SEC of 30 years ago and 20 years ago remains irrelevant when dealing with reality and the big picture.
The history lesson - and man, people need a history lesson on a lot of things right now - serves a hint of reality. It's not that bad.
Since Mark Richt took over at Georgia, Alabama under Nick Saban lost to Louisiana-Monroe.
Tennessee lost to Wyoming on homecoming. Florida lost at Mississippi State and Ole Miss twice each, and Urban Meyer was 2-2 against those two.
Auburn and LSU have avoided the bad losses.
Auburn lost to Vandy (finished 7-6) in 2008, and South Florida (finished 9-4) in overtime in 2007, so that's.
LSU lost to rival Ole Miss, but even then, the Rebels had good seasons, so it wasn't much of an upset. Not that that mattered to LSU folks.
Fan site bleacherreport.com has updated its top 50 upsets in college football history.
Ohio State is in there. LSU is there, more than once. Notre Dame is in there, more than once. Nebraska is in there, more than once. Oklahoma is in there, more than once. Alabama is in there, more than once. Florida State is in there. Florida is in there (with Tebow and Meyer, no less).
Lotta teams in there, none named Georgia.
In the Richt Era, I-AA/FCS teams have beaten Ole Miss, Virginia Tech, Michigan, Mississippi State, Rutgers, Minnesota, among others.
Southern Cal was a 41-point favorite in 2007 when it lost to Stanford. Why, Texas Tech was a 28-point dog to Oklahoma just last week and won.
Richt's bad losses: Central Florida in a bowl game, at Colorado in 2010. and, well, really, that's about it, and that's not really that bad.
Contrary to popular misbelief, Georgia has handled pretty regularly the guarantee games: 55-7 over La. Lafayette, 55-7 over Idaho State, 38-0 over Tennessee Tech, 56-17 over Central Michigan, 45-21 over Georgia Southern, 45-16 over Western Carolina, 34-0 over UAB, 48-12 over Western Kentucky, and so on.
Sure, there have been some games closer than they should have been (although I got different arguments at the time about the relevance): 13-3 over Marshall, 16-13 over UAB.
Here's a question: how many have been to a team that finished the season with a losing record?
Go ahead and research it. It'll take awhile.
OK, since nobody does research, here's your info. Of Richt's 34 losses entering this season, all of two have been to teams that finished with a losing record: to 4-8 Vandy in 2006 - and I think UGA rebounded a little bit after that - and 5-7 Colorado in 2010.
OK, none of that worked. The paranoid handwringing continues with Georgia, which currently has three fan bases, and two are extremists.
Extremism isn't good. Or wise. But they have plenty of energy and lung capacity.
Some of the bellyaching equals the sun rising in its redundancy.
We should all execute as well as we expect others in every single task, as well as have the power to make people do every time what they're supposed to. Accepting criticism is a whole 'nother chucklefest.
Nevertheless, in five weeks, there's at least an even chance that Georgia can be in the SEC championship game representing a remarkably number of "fans" who don't want to be in that game.
Yeah, that's what being a "fan" is: in dire need of a lobotomy, of perspective, of maturity, of adulthood.
"We're in the title game of the toughest conference in America the past decade or so, and I'm pissed. That means we keep the head coach who deserves better than this fan base, who isn't a douchebag or an embarrassment and makes our program look better to outsiders than it really is."
Pause for the rising voices of grousing that haven't heard yours truly's quasi-agreement with them, or forget it, or just refuse to acknowledge any big-picture analysis.
Georgia's issues aren't new, so move on until it's time not to move on. That everybody has issues is irrelevant. Georgia isn't just everybody (despite really just being a 7-4 program that hasn't exactly been a power outside of one three-year period).
*Sigh*.
Georgia can only play who is on the schedule, and don't blame the Dogs for the quality of the opposition. Would these lugnuts rather Georgia lose to inferior competition? Good grief, Charlie Brown.
You know that answer. There are scores of nincomtwits who would then blow their blood pressure whining about losing.
So winning isn't good enough, and some aren't sure if it's better than losing.
Enough of that trying to fix the unfixable as a lead-in to why Georgia will beat Florida, and how even then, people will grumble.
All that said - and it's been said before - yes, this is a huge game for Richt. Huge. And deservedly so.
Defense of the big picture stuff aside, Richt does indeed need to prove himself, that he can get Georgia back to the level of the early 2000s, that he can do more than just hang with programs doing better, that he can put Georgia legitimately into the national title hunt, even if just on the second level of contenders.
If he still can't learn to step on an opponent's throat when on top, and he'll be on top today, then he can't complain about criticism. God will still love him if he beats somebody by 40 and lets more kids play and makes more people happy.
God understands football. He doesn't care who wins, but he understands that, and most likely would like to see such an example do well and succeed and prove one needn't be a d-bag to be a successful major-college head coach.
A poor Dog performance, win or lose, starts the clock. If Georgia loses because it got screwed at the end by a call, we'll be close after the game to where we were before the game. If it's a rerun of recent years, yeah, we'll all hear that ticking clock.
Well, it's hard to say if Richt has heard it. But he'll damn sure start hearing something. And it'll be too late to start listening, which is his fault. He should have done so before this slide began.
As for the game - "yes, finally, you long-winded yahoo" - Georgia needs to, as it does every friggin' Saturday, use more of the playbook, use more weapons. Not having Malcolm Mitchell means more of those wideouts everybody has waited on to step up will have to step up.
I see some expanded use of tight ends, maybe spreading the field more running and throwing, and a mix of liberal conservatism and maybe some new stuff. "Somebody else" will end up having a clutch game.
And I see Florida struggling on offense. John Brantley hasn't played in a month, and the offense was in transition anyway. Now, it's in transition again, and against a quality defense that still has to be reminded each play to be smart and fundamental. Timing should be an issue early on, which is when the UGA defense should be trying to smother him and pray that the 2010 defense doesn't show up.
Maybe we'll see the first fake punt or field goal in Mark Richt's history. Wow, that's astounding to ponder that it hasn't happened yet (and it doesn't help his cause).
Georgia 31-20.
PEACH STATERS
It wasn't hard to go 2-0 last week (Miami over Tech 24-7, pick was 31-21; GaSouthern over Presbyterian 48-14, pick was 60-14.)
It won't be much harder to go 3-0 this week.
Clemson (-4) at Georgia Tech: Tech will play better than it has the past two weeks.]
Problem: Clemson is substantially better than Virginia and Miami. Neither defense is awesome, but the Tigers have the balance on offense to make up for it.
This will be a good game for a long time, and Tech hasn't lost three straight under Paul Johnson. But Clemson will have a huge road crowd that helps.
Clemson 41-27.
Georgia Southern at Appalachian State: People miss out when they scoff at I-AA, and if they were in Boone, N.C. today, they'd become believers.
App State might technically be hungrier because the Mountaineers need the win more, but Southern has that old Southern confidence and swagger. And App State has those three straight national titles.
But the Eagles haven't been on this level for a decade, and are hungry.
It'll be a friggin' war. For awhile.
GSU 34-20.
KICKIN' IT OFF
Last week's CTB games (Call The Bookie) made the bookie happy: 0-3.
Va. Tech was getting 21.5, I picked 42-17. Final: 30-14. OK.
Temple was getting 12.5 against Bowling Green. I picked 35-14. Aaaand Bowling Green won 13-10. Ouch.
Navy was giving 12 to East Carolina, the pick was Navy 44-20. Final: ECU 38-35.
Nobody knows. They think they know, and alas, they don't.
This week's CTB games:
Louisville giving 4 vs. Syracuse: The Orange have momentum for the first time in years, pounding West Virginia last week.
The Cardinals don't have a good win to their credit, and survived Rutgers last week to break a three-game losing streak that included Marshall.
Syracuse, blessed by that blown PAT call against Toledo, has some charmed-life going for it this season, finally.
The Orange 31-17.
Texas A&M giving 10.5-ish to Missouri: Not that defense is a premium here. Oklahoma State put 30 on A&M and 45 last week on Missouri.
The Aggies are closing out better, and have lost four of the last five in the series. They're still in the Big 12 hunt, Missouri isn't.
A&M 40-21.
West Virginia giving 7 to Rutgers: The Mountaineers were shocked by Syracuse, and Rutgers slipped by Louisville.
WVU head coach Dana Holgorsen is a wild man, and will have the Mountaineers slobbering.
West Virgina 47-14.
Avoid Tulane getting 16 from East Carolina: ECU got a nice win over Navy last week, surviving the option, and the Green Wave got a little bluer with their fifth straight loss.
Pick ECU because the Pirates are looking for momentum with a game next week against Southern Miss in a CUSA showdown. Pick Tulane because ECU is overlooking the struggling Wave, which lost by four to the Pirates last year (getting 11).
LOUGHDMOUTHINGS
Based on what they gave us the last week, I'm kind of sad that baseball is over.
Texas and St. Louis, two likable organizations, turned in a roller coaster of a World Series.
Texas had superb pitching in 2-1, 4-0 and 4-2 wins, St. Louis the offense in wins of 16-7, and 10-9. A game after putting up 16, the Cards get shut out.
The average score: 5.4-4.3, St. Louis. Texas outhit St. Loo .254-.243, but the Cards had a better ERA (3.86-4.65) and K-BB ratio (51-26 to 47-41).
And on behalf of the populace, a thank-you to the Cards and Rangers for game six. Thank you, thank you, thank you. ...
The insanity continues with West Virginia to the Big 12 and Missouri to the Big East and some other team from far away in a conference far away.
Makes me sad. And happy I don't have to travel 1,500 miles for the closest conference game. ...
Random Unrelated Thought: Among the teases on the Gainesville Sun is this "Stories you might be interested in: 3 young women found naked, arrested."
Well, yeah. Just what I'm looking for, but "arresting" rather than "arrested." ...
As most know, I wear no colors. But I want to see Georgia run the table just to piss off Georgia fans. …
Good gawd, the most annoying "storyline" of the week is Will Muschamp and Georgia.
It's just stupid, and people hit on such "topics" with depressingly regularity.
"Connections" are remarkably overrated. Some people grow up and out of such things, or maintain a balance.
Muschamp played somewhere. Could've played somewhere else. Has worked in several places.
What's the story? "I went there, I work here. My life does not revolve around where I went to college, or around any one thing. I hope to be more substantive than that."
Folks have to get over this belief that it matters.
Note, for the love of God, that the last national championship head coach who won at his alma mater was Phil Fulmer at Tennessee in 1998.
Urban Meyer, Pete Carroll, Nick Saban, Bob Stoops, Les Miles, Mack Brown, et al: No previous employment or playing at the school they won national titles at.
Jim Tressell was an assistant at Ohio State, then head coach at Youngstown State before returning to OSU.
Where it ended badly.
Larry Coker was the offensive coordinator at Miami before being promoted. That didn't end well.
Tom Osborne, a Hastings College alum, is the rarity, a coach who spent his entire career at one school.
And, uh, he was 12-13 in bowls.
So stop. It doesn't really matter. Muschamp won't take a trip down memory lane. It's absurd to think otherwise. ...
Apparently, Reggie Wayne of the Fort Wayne (Ind.) News-Sentinel had to watch the Colts-Saints:
The Indianapolis Colts' 62-7 loss to the New Orleans Saints was so bad...
Saints fans switched from chanting “Who Dat?” to “Hey, can we change dat scoreboard screen to the World Series?”
Saints coach Sean Payton briefly turned play calling over to a waiter from the press-box catering service and no one noticed.
Stanford quarterback Andrew Luck considered asking the NCAA for another year of eligibility.
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