College Football 101........

Well now, things sure seem and feel much different with a quality win under your belt! I've been lurking, both here and on other dawg boards, resisting the urge to post, due largely to the drumbelt of dispare that descended across the Dawg Nation. However, this morning I read a post from one of my favorite dawg writers and his words were so pointed and poignant that it deserved posting here..........

Fans, Coaches & Other Things.......

By: Middle Dawg


Before you start reading this little epic, if you're so inclined, do the link and read what the Mighty Vol fans are telling one another after getting their proverbial sun dials plowed by Darrin McFadden & Supporting Cast last night.

Shorthand Version
- Fulmer has lost it
- The assistant coaches stink and need to be fired
- Chavis is an idiot
- Recruiting is terrible
- Stupid play calls (if only Cutcliffe hadn't called that stupid QB draw that got Ainge hurt)
- Poor QB play sunk us
- We may split with Vandy and KY!

Sound familiar? It should. Substitute our players' and coaches' names for theirs and you couldn't tell the difference from any number of threads on any Dawg board last week. Try it -- where you see Ainge, mentally put in "Stafford." Where you see Crompton, put in "Tereshinski or "Cox." See what I mean?

Enough about the Viles. Let 'em plug the leaks in their boat; let's worry about ours.

What that suggested exercise was about was to make a simple point -- We college football fans, particularly of the SEC variety, care too much and we consistently overreact.

This morning, all us Dawg fans are giddy. We're smiling large again. A dismal year has been partially rescued. We destroyed the #5 team in the nation, one of our most bitter rivals, the one that has ruined more parties for us than any other school we play; we stomped 'em into a little puddle in the middle of their field and ruined THEIR season. They're still so numb they haven't receovered enough to start whining and complaining. Auburn fans are still in the denial stage of grief. "I must have gone to the wrong stadium. You're sure we were tuned to the right channel to watch our beloved War Eagle Tiger Plainsmen?"

All their head coach, he of the famous ears, could muster to explain it after the game was a variation of... "We done got run over by a Mack truck, maybe a whole fleet of 'em."

Watching our guys yesterday, you could swear that...

- We had signed Lynn Swann, Jerry Rice and all their cousins to play WR for us, and they used liberal amounts of Super Glue on their gloves for "traction."
- John Elway? One day Elway might THINK of being as good as Stafford is.
- Darrin McFadden needs to call Kregg Lumpkin for tips on how to run the football.
- Ray Gant was the Two Towers in one player
- Charles Johnson would be a professional assassin if he wasn't a football player
- Tra Battle is a master thief
- Paul Oliver makes Wansley look slow
- Eason is a genius
- Jancek's game plan for his linebackers was up there with Einstein's Theory of Relativity
- Mark Richt's offense does too work
- Callaway kept his charges locked in a cage all week and fed them raw meat and it worked

On and on.

Let's talk truth a moment. It wasn't that good. It wasn't that bad before it.

Oh, the Dawgs beat the Tomfool, Beckyfool and JimBobCooterfool out of Auburn all right. When you start taking a knee on the other guy's 10 with three minutes left in the game because you don't have the heart to hit 'em with another arrow out of pity, that is what is properly termed a beatdown.

But, let's be honest

1. Auburn wasn't THAT good. Oh, the War Plainsmen Tiger Eagles are a fine team and all that. But their defense and offense are nowhere near what they were in 2004. They belong in the Top 10-15, but not in the Top 5.
2. Auburn encountered a perfect storm. They happened to catch a Georgia team that was beat up, embarrassed, embattled, vengeful and red-eye mad yesterday. Auburn was playing for a BCS bowl berth. The Dawgs were playing for blood.
3. Our receivers didn't drop a ball yesterday. Not one. The anomaly or the norm? The anomaly, I'm afraid unless Eason really did .
4. The OL opened gaping holes in the Auburn defense. I haven't seen holes like that opened by a UGA line in years. I could have gained a few yards running through those holes. The routine? No. I loved it, but it is the exception this year, not the norm.
5. Well, what about that imprenetrable defense? Well, it was there for a while, got lost for a bit, and then showed back up.
6. Stafford looked every bit as good as we expected him to coming into the season. What we failed to account for, all of us, is the pain it would take to get to that point. (i.e. Vandy, KY).

In August, we thought we knew several things...
1. That we had a young wunderkind coming in at QB, but were worried about the dependable warrior without an arm who would start.
2. We knew the numbers on the OL were scary thin
3. We knew that 3 members of last year's pretty good starting secondary were gone.
4. We knew we had lost our two starting DT's, who had been staples in the middle for several years. Outstanding? No, but more than capable. To replace them, we were relying on a senior who's better suited to be a DE and probably a RFr with talent and no experience.
5. We thought we had the best RB trio in the country.
6. We KNEW we were young at WR.
7. We expected an 8-4/9-3 type rebuilding year, but secretly hoped for more. If all the pieces of the puzzle fall into place...

Well, guess what? That durned puzzle is as hard to put together as ever.

The loyal, dependable warrior at QB got hurt early and faltered when he came back. The DE masquerading as a DT developed shoulder problems and could only play sporadically. The MLB spent the season with a painful foot injury that slowed him down. The #1 RB in the trio inexplicably played badly. His numbers were awful; then, he started showing signs
of coming out of his funk and tore up his knee and that was it for him for the year. The thin OL kept getting thinner and thinner as the year wore on. Did you notice how many were running around with braces and extra pads and all that yesterday? The WRs were just as young and butterfingered as we feared. We had that one solid corner we expected. The other? Well, he was playing like Bruce Thornton a la 2001 versus Bruce Thornton in 2003. The talent is there, you could see it, but kid, you just ran the wrong way and let him fake you out and he caught a ball on you!

When we finally went to the young gunslinger QB -- which we all expected -- he played like a, a, a... FRESHMAN. He of immense talent tried to force the ball into double coverage... a lot. He tried to play in the SEC fast and loose like he did in Texas high school ball. Like all athletes with superior ability, he had developed an unshakeable belief in his talents. Nothing wrong with that. But, as Clint said, "A man has got to know his limitations." Stafford discovered his limitations -- they're called fast as lightning SEC defensive backs who are sneaky as hell. Richt saying he was proudest of Stafford for throwing that ball in the stands says volumes -- it says where the kid was and where he is going. He's getting there, but the carnage is there behind him for us and him to see --
losses to Vandy, KY, and what have you. The best is ahead of Stafford. The worst? -- well look back at the past 5-6 games.

Coaches. This is pretty much the same staff that thrilled everybody for five years. You don't develop Coacheimer's. There is no such disease. You know, you guys that suspect there are some bad apples on the staff -- you may be right. You could be dead on in your assessment.

But to end this long epic, we just don't know what makes things go right and what makes them go wrong. We're not there every day. We're not there watching the coaches prepare glame plans, going to the meetings, going to practice. all that. It sounds damned pedestrian to say -- but we just guessing. Sometimes it's the player, sometimes it's the coach, sometimes it's recruiting, sometimgs it's the Athens Police Department that's the root cause of things going wrong.

When you jump to conclusions -- and I do it too -- you're more likely to be wrong than right. What's obvious usually isn't as obvious as you or I imagine.

The same Georgia team that let Kentucky run up and down the field on them in the second half shut #5 Auburn down cold yesterday. There is no explanation that holds water outside of the common ward in a looney bin. But that is what they did.

How to make sense of it?

Middle's Rules for Figuring Out Football

1. Coaches don't get dumb overnight; they don't become Einsteins that quickly either.
2. Frosh aren't nearly as good as they will be as seniors.
3. If you secretly hope that a supposed preseason weakness will turn out to be a strength, I own this bridge in Brooklyn..
4. Throw out the book for rivalry games. Really, do. What will happen has no relation to what the charts and pundits say will happen. If you bet, stay away from these games unless you're fabulously wealthy. Never, ever bet on Georgia.
5. You will lose to Vandy and/or KY once every 12 years or so. In the same year? Well, maybe once every 33 years or so.
6. The ranked team you're playing Saturday is not as good as you fear. Your team will not perform as well as you hope.
7. These are college kids; emotion still matters and impacts how they play. There is no way to tell which direction that emotion will flow.
8. Coaches do not teach receivers how to drop passes.
9. What is a team weakness this year due to inexperience will be a team strength next season. (See WR's early then @ Auburn for predictor)
10. Rebuilding means rebuilding. You're going to lose some games. You're going to lose some you think you shouldn't. It's your attitude that needs adjusting, not the employee roster at Butts Mehre.

Dawg 88, I saw, asked for my opinion on 2007. In short: It all depends on those JUCO OT's Richt is after at GMC. If he signs at least 2, and they turn out to be okay as players, then UGA will contend for the East next season. It should be enough to help UGA improve on this year. If Richt whiffs on signing them, or they turn out to be less than competent
players once they suit up in silver britches, we're in for 2003 again. Also, watch and see whether the youngsters will be worked into the early sisters of the poor practice games all along the OL. If they are, then that bodes well. If they aren't playing, uh oh.

Other than the ? at OL, UGA will field a solid team next year. Stafford will be backed up by Cox with Barnes still here in the "break in case of emergency" glass case. Grey will be here redshirting. The receivers will improve as much as Tennessee's did this season versus 2005. Despite losing Moses and probably Johnson, the DL will, overall, be as good as this season, probably a little better. The kids growing up a bit in the middle will be huge for us. Linebacker will be the inexperienced position, but the speed and athleticism will improve. The secondary will be better than this season. On offense, Ward will be a pleasant "surprise" at TE. What can you say about Southerland other than he's terrific? I'm
hearing great things about Moreno. We may lose one of our RB's to the NFL. Thomas Brown could redshirt next year - we all know how it goes with those ACL injuries -- but nobody knows. Richt is telling us the truth -- the difference between Stafford in 2007 and Stafford 2006 will be night and day. You got a glimpse of the future yesterday. Stafford left the field with a 50 watt bulb glowing over his head. Wait until he exchanges that one for a 250 watt bulb - - and he will.

Overall, we should be improved. Tennessee will be the primary competition in the East. The Vols are suffering normal grad losses. Florida loses just about everybody. The fans yelling for Tebow now will be pining for Leak next year. It's the Gators' turn to go 7-5/8-4 in 07. South Carolina is the dark horse. Kentucky and Vandy are better than they were -- that's a fact. They're still the doormats in the division, but every now and then one of the big boys is going to slip when they try to stomp on those mats. There is no league as competitive as the SEC. We eat our own.

That's more than enough ..............


Mash Here: mb18.scout.com/fgridscapefrm1.showMessage?topicID=70467.topic


GO DAWGS !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Excellent post and I appreciate the time that it must have taken you.
I agree with most of what you said. I agree that the Dawgs should win the East next year.
Also, you are correct that the Gator Nation expcets next year to be our rebuilding year. As you said, we loose most of our lineman and everyone knows that games are won and lost at the line of scrimage.

Excellent post NC Dawg. Well said.

Excellent post. It sounds like this guy obsesses the way I do over the Dawgs.

The inconsistency we have experienced can still be laid at the feet of the coaching staff. After the Vandy game Gant made some comments that made it sound like the team took it for granted that it would be easy and by the time they realized it was a fight the game was over. That is a coaching problem. We won a great game. The boys were focused. They were not focused against UK and Vandy. No amount of rationalizing will take away from the fact the we have had some let downs in the coaching staff the last few years. They are only human as well, but a lack of intensity and focus is unacceptable from any player.

Also, we are Dawgs. To compare ourselves to Vol fans is unfair to them. They envy our taste, our style, our dentistry and our marriages to non-cousins.

Forgot to mention our loss at FG kicker position (who should be back next year) and had to settle for ...... Thank God for Ely-Kelso.

Great post, NC Dawg.....Good to see you back after a brief hiatus.