Crossroads,.......

......This is where we are!..I purposely placed myself on a posting hiatus before the UF game, fearful that the winning streak was more aberration than reality. I wanted to believe! I wanted to trust that CMR found the correct assignments, had created an awesome gameplan and that the team would emerge and sound coaching would win the day...Yet deep down, the worry, angst, the knowledge that there was NO credible reason to think that a transformation would occur!...Then came that the first snap, forever signaling, at least to me, where we are today. Throughout the game, Vern made it abundantly clear that this was a "must win" between teams mired in their own mediocrity. This is a team filled with talent, during a period in the SECE perfect for a youthful run to the Dome. And we find ourselves hovering around .500???

This morning I found an interesting thread comparing Coaches Donnan and Richt, as well as a well written albeit rather late analysis of CMR by Mark Bradley....

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Coach Mark Richt -v- Coach Jim Donnan

THREAD BY: Stevemob
from a rival site.

Richt has an extra game each season. He will likely beat Idaho State
and GT to get to 35 wins.

Donnan final four years: 35-13 (.729)

8-4 (5-3)
8-4 (5-3)
9-3 (6-2)
10-2 (6-2)

Mark Richt final fours years projected on going 2-1 last 3 games: 35-
16 (.686)

6-6 (3-5) assuming loss to Auburn
8-5 (4-4)
10-3 (6-2)
11-2 (6-2)

CMR will be 19-13 (.594) in the SEC vs. Donnan's 22-10 (.687) in the
SEC

Donnan had to deal with Peyton Manning folloed by the MNC UT year,
along with Steve Spurrier and a dominant UF program.

Richt has had a dominant UF program under Meyer, but an impotent UT
program in the SECE. There was also no season for Donnan where UTK,
UF, and UGA were all unranked in the same season. Auburn has also
just come out of a pretty bad time period for them the past few
seasons.

Donnan was fired, while CMR is praised. Its great that CMR helped us
temporarily over the hump when he first arrived, but the SECE wasn't
as strong during CMR's first 4-5 years. Now the SECE is incredibly
weak, and CMR can't take advantage like he did last time.

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Alas, Georgia’s coaching is no longer championship-caliber

On Oct. 27, 2007, Knowshon Moreno scored to give Georgia a 7-0 lead against Florida, prompting the Bulldogs’ semi-planned and twice-penalized on-field celebration. What you knew: Georgia won that day 42-30, marking the only time Mark Richt’s team has beaten Urban Meyer’s.

What you didn’t know: The day of the Gator Stomp marked the first and last time — in six tries, mind you — a Richt team has taken a lead on Meyer’s.

As disheartening as Richt being 1-5 against Meyer is, the repeated failure to nose ahead even 3-0 is more alarming. It’s a direct reflection of coaching, or the lack thereof. Rule 1 in the Coaching Manual: Get your team ready to play. Sad to say, the Bulldogs under Richt are rarely ready.

Say what you will about Meyer, but the man can coach. His work against Ohio State in Glendale, Ariz., in January 2007 was the greatest coaching performance the BCS title game has ever seen, and his work against Georgia on Saturday was no less inspired. In Jacksonville he took the demonstrably lesser team — anybody see an A.J. Green or a Justin Houston or even an Aaron Murray or an Orson Charles among Gators? — and wrung 450 yards and 34 points from it. Meyer tried everything. Richt’s team tried running the ball on second-and-10 in overtime.

The best you can say about Richt’s coaching is that his players didn’t quit when they fell behind. That’s surely because they’ve had so much practice: Georgia hasn’t led in any of its four SEC losses. South Carolina and Arkansas took the ball first and drove to touchdowns. Georgia took the ball against Mississippi State and went three-and0ut; on Saturday Murray threw an interception on the first snap.

We once considered Richt a splendid gameday coach, but that time is gone. Georgia was 52-13 in Richt’s first five season, reaching the SEC title game three times and winning it twice. It’s 42-19 since. Not coincidentally, Richt’s decline dovetails with Meyer’s rise. (Although it must be noted that Richt has a losing record against three Florida coaches: He was 0-1 against Steve Spurrier, 1-2 against Ron Zook.)

There’s still great talent at Georgia — the old Spurrier knock on Ray Goff now attaches itself to this coach: “Georgia gets all these players; I don’t know what happens to them” — but the coaching has fallen below SEC standards. If we’re looking for the sea-change game, we need underscore Sept. 27, 2008, the night Nick Saban and Alabama came to Athens and not only jumped ahead but led by 31 points after 30 minutes.

Back to Saturday: The Bulldogs got the ball to start overtime, which means the worst they should have done was gain no yards and let Blair Walsh try a 42-yard field goal to put them ahead. Instead Murray threw the ball into stacked coverage and saw the Gators nearly end the game without having to play offense. Murray has had a terrific freshman season and had a fabulous second half, but in the season’s biggest moment he made the one play a quarterback cannot make.

That’s what Georgia under Richt has come to do: It makes the one play to lose a game, as opposed to David Greene throwing to Verron Haynes in Knoxville or to Michael Johnson in Auburn. (Or even Matthew Stafford throwing to Mikey Henderson in Tuscaloosa.) Georgia under Richt has become the toothless tiger — the team everyone respects but nobody fears.

Richt’s 10-year body of work stands as a mighty argument for administrative patience. More current events suggest the Richt of 2010 isn’t the Richt of yesteryear. It took four full seasons under this coach and defensive coordinator Brian VanGorder for Georgia to lose 10 games. The Bulldogs lost five times last year, changed defensive coordinators and have already lost five times this.

And now Richt’s gifted Bulldogs have fallen to the worst Florida team Meyer has fielded. In a year where the SEC East was ripe for a young team to rise up and march to the Georgia Dome, that team will not be Mark Richt’s. He’s no longer a championship coach. Dating back to Nov. 29, 2008, his Bulldogs are 13-11, which means he’s barely even a winning coach.



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A quick trip around these internets have the sunshine pumpers and the naysayers all busy cranking out the spin faster than the Lipton nutz about to be elected!...Seriously, I've read posts claiming Saturday's game as a moral victory and a sign improving?!?!...Moral victories???...we are sounding more like those perennial wannabe's in Columbia! Then we are treated to more postgame good old boy analysis from CMR. Further validating the acceptance of mediocrity...So, as a Nation, if we are willing to forever change the pathway of this free republic, only after 2 years, is it not wayyyyyyyyyyyyy past time to seek a leadership change 'tween the hedges?...I'll never accept mediocrity....So for me, it's past time to demand more.

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

NC Dawg, I to have not posted on this site much lately, but you are correct in every statement you made. I have been saying for the past 5 years that this program is going down hill. We have to many CMR lovers on this site to see the real truth. I know that sure we bring in another head coach and we may not win right off the bat. But look and what Miles did at LSU in a short time, look at what Myer did in a short time, look at Miss State, with their new coach. CMR has been blessed with talent and those first 5 years the players carried our team. I have always stated that CMR can not movitate players. This team Saturday, was no different than the teams that lose to Ark,SC,COL,& Miss State. We can not play with the big boys, we beat up on 4 teams that have not won another games since we beat them. But oh my to some on this site, we have turned the corner and going to beat UF by 40 points.

I know everyone on here lover UGA, but you have to take off those rose colored glasses sometimes and see the real light. The problem is CMR and if you want this program to say just the way it is now, then we keep CMR. I will go on record right now, that if no changes are made next year, we will be excally where we are now or worse. I do not beieve we can beat Louiville, Old Miss, Miss State, much less South Carolina, or Tenn.

I don't get much respect from most posters on here, but I don't care, I call it like it is,not saying I know more than anyone else, but I have played all levels of football except NFl, and I think I do know how to judge the lack of coaching and lack of player developement and that goes for CTG also, I have not been empressed with him either.


Dawgs forever

Duck

LOL, you could say the same about alot of programs. I bet ole cum had to look at himself in the mirror and say wow Dan Mullen just out coached me and whipped my team with a much lesser talented Miss state team. And now that tebow is gone how will I ever get back to where I thought I was. Just like when newton leaves au what will we do? Soon SS will come, and bring a lesser talented cock team and whip cum also, LOL!!! cum team will never be where it once was. after all he dosent have mullen or tebow. Because in life all things change, what goes up comes down. No one stays on top, just check History.