Thoughts Pro/Con

Wanted to move these two articles because they are long, but fall in line with what has been the "hot subject" on this board for a couple of days.

This article comes from Benjamin Dukes' Blog. Played defensive tackle for JD and UGA back in the day. Long read . . . . interesting views.


Wednesday, September 14, 2011
A friend texted me this morning, "Leather Helmet Blog is calling you out."


My response: "I Don't Care."


And in actuality, that's true. I don't. I don't care, because I generally respect the opinion of ecdawg, and I don't know him to be a malicious sort. So, I was certain that whatever challenge was being tossed out was benign, and meant purely for conversation. So, I checked out the blog. He seems to suggest that I don't believe in critical opinions of coaching.


This is not true. If you are a reader of my blog, you know that I go to extreme lengths to examine the performance of our team and its coaches. I've done statistical analysis of YEARS worth of coaching, I've done play-by-play analysis of player performance and playcalls. I am a big fan of true critical discussion.


What I am NOT a fan of is the ridiculous and asinine nature of the growing Anti-Richt population which is, naturally, the most vocal of the fans on these boards and blogs. I keep reading things like "Bobo Draw, Bobo Screen, Bobo Draw, Punt." I implore people who write that kind of sensationalist garbage to go back through my breakdown of the last two games, and show me where anything resembling that playcalling series exists on a consistent basis. It doesn't.


And THAT is what this blog fights against. I don't just sit and say "Coach Richt doesn't win, but I don't care, I think he has a great haircut and a nice tan, and he should be our coach." That's idiotic. I'm not here to be the Champion of the "Save Richt's Job" cause. However, when I see that so many people are piling on a movement against him, and that it can cause a negative air to exist around our team, I have to speak out against that. My biggest issue with this is that it's GAME FRIKKING TWO, and the crowd isn't into the game in the first half....and then, they're leaving with four minutes to go, and us getting the ball down only by ten. That is NOT fan support. It's childish. It's "I'm not getting my way, so I'm taking my ball and going home."


That's what I can't stand. I remember fans leaving my last game in Sanford Stadium early. Yeah, we got our asses handed to us by Georgia Tech, and the fans bolted on us. It was a cold, rainy day, and they didn't want to watch it. The last time I left that field as a player, it was to a 2/3 empty stadium. I don't want any of the players on the team to experience that garbage, and when Richt came in and started winning titles, I never thought I'd see it again. But fans have a short memory, are a fickle bunch, and believe they are somehow "entitled" to more than a good day's entertainment.


So, no, I don't mind contrary opinions to my own. I don't mind people being critical of Bobo, or Grantham, or Richt or anyone. But I do ask that you at least educate yourself on the facts before you run around attacking them loudly and crying out for peoples' jobs.


We're 0-2, and that's not the way any of us want to start a football season. But, here's what we know:


We came out with the wrong game-plan against Boise. We looked a bit timid to pressure Kellen Moore, and when an injury forced us to play a less-experienced and less-talented player at a key position, this compounded the ease at which Moore would be able to slice us up in the air.


Our Rushing D came out better than most people thought they would. In the fourth quarter against USC, there were holes which didn't exist earlier in the game. People jumped on this saying conditioning was poor. This is a fallacy. Our line wasn't suddenly getting run over - but we did miss a couple of key assignments allowing for big holes.


Against USC in 2010, we scored 6 points. In 2011, 42 points. I'd say that's a healthy amount of improvement.


See, what bothers me isn't that people are upset with losing. I hate losing. There is honestly nothing on this planet that I hate more than losing. Show me someone who is ok with losing, and I'll show you someone who's done far too much of it. What bothers me is the outcry of "the sky is falling" over a loss in which we show 1) Significant improvement over a year prior and 2) Significant improvement over a week prior.


You want to be critical of the staff? Fine. Be Critical....but before you go crying for a retooling of the staff, see what these coaches do with this season. Why? Because no coach is going to come in and make this year better than Richt will make this year. You won't find an interim coach who is going to come in and suddenly turn this season on its ear. You won't find an interim coach who is going to come in and suddenly make us 2-0. We're 0-2. You have to deal with that, and move on. Be a FAN. Go out and be FANATICALLY SUPPORTIVE of your team. Give them a REASON to play for YOU. Right now, they're playing for themselves, and their coach. Those players love these coaches. That's why they devote themselves to the coaches for their careers. They trust them. They believe in them. And many of them, right now, don't care too much for alot of you.


Now, this is NOT to say that players don't care about fans. And this is not to say that ALL FANS are bad fans. I know that some people will read this and think "F&*! this guy. I cheer hard! I love this team. I stay till the last second of the game." Well, genius, I'm not talking to you. I'm talking to those who show up late, leave early, bitch about Bobo the whole game (while he's busy putting 42 points on Carolina) and then call the post-game show saying Richt should be fired. Players appreciate the true fans...it's the fair-weather know-nothings they get tired of. The problem is, again, those fans are the most vocal.


I don't ask people to blindly support everything our coaches say and do. Hell, I don't do that. Why would I expect you to? What I do ask, is that you actually support your team. Show them that you are with them, and their coaches. Some people believe that the following is supportive:


"I love Coach Richt, and I want him to do well, but (insert one or more of the following): we've lost too many games for me to believe he can do it anymore. We just don't seem to recruit the right athletes. Our program has fallen apart in the past four years. Everyone else wins titles, we beat Vandy. Elite players go to Bama, thugs and "projects" come to Georgia. He's just doesn't have it any more. He cares more about mission work than winning football games."


That's not supportive. Just because you say "Honey, I love you" doesn't mean "but your butt is the size of a houseboat" is supportive.


And some fans will say, "But Dukes, we've just been through so much, we've lost too many close games, we haven't won a title, it's been so hard to be a fan...I just don't know how much I have left in me." You're not a player, you're a fan. Your job is to be as LOUD as possible IN SUPPORT of YOUR TEAM at ALL TIMES. That's your job. You want the players and the coaches to do their jobs? Do yours.


GO DAWGS.


Posted by Ben Dukes at 9:22 AM




Submitted by MikeInValdosta on Wed, 09/14/2011 - 15:32 In all honesty, I showed my ass Saturday. I still believe we were beaten by an inferior football team. Still, I must admit I was way over the top.

Playing fast and loose with the football is something great teams rarely get away with. Young teams stand little chance. I feel it is the coaching staff's job to recognize and develop a strategy that gives us the best chance to win given the personnel we have and what same personnel is capable of consistently executing.

Throwing the football all over the stadium is exciting and may give a team its best chance of winning. The hurry up may also give a team its best chance of winning. Sometimes, slowing the game down with ball control and making an effort to cover up for one's lack of depth or any other identified weakness gives a team the best shot to win. Coaches are to make these decisions. I hope the coaches make these decisions on a game by game, if not series by series basis. To make those decisions in the off season and refuse to take game and personnel circumstances into account appears unsound and flawed to me.

For example, if a player has gotten beat in a one on one situation all year, or all game, or even all half, perhaps we should attempt to cover up for that short coming. This is the root of my criticism. I believe it to be legitimate. Crowell's fumble, or bad QB exchange, did happen on a running play. Stuff happens. Stuff happens more frequently when the ball is put in the air or a quarterback is retreating with hopes of putting the ball in the air. Perhaps Paul Bryant was an amateur, too.

To be sure there was improvement from week one to week two. Based upon that progression, we should be able to expect we will be a better football team in October and November than we were today. By New Year's eve we should be world beaters, right?

Is that what the past few years tell us?

Saturday we lost a close football team where our offense and special teams basically gave away 28 points and settled for field goal attempts too often. Many are pointing out that we are only 0 - 2. Some would have you believe the early departure of some fans was a contributing factor. Some may even blame the verbal commitment of an in-state star to Stanford as a result of poor fans.
However, when I see that so many people are piling on a movement against him, and that it can cause a negative air to exist around our team, I have to speak out against that. My biggest issue with this is that it's GAME FRIKKING TWO, and the crowd isn't into the game in the first half....and then, they're leaving with four minutes to go, and us getting the ball down only by ten. That is NOT fan support. It's childish. It's "I'm not getting my way, so I'm taking my ball and going home."

That's what I can't stand. I remember fans leaving my last game in Sanford Stadium early. Yeah, we got our asses handed to us by Georgia Tech, and the fans bolted on us. It was a cold, rainy day, and they didn't want to watch it. The last time I left that field as a player, it was to a 2/3 empty stadium.

...

You want to be critical of the staff? Fine. Be Critical....but before you go crying for a retooling of the staff, see what these coaches do with this season. Why? Because no coach is going to come in and make this year better than Richt will make this year. You won't find an interim coach who is going to come in and suddenly turn this season on its ear. You won't find an interim coach who is going to come in and suddenly make us 2-0. We're 0-2. You have to deal with that, and move on. Be a FAN. Go out and be FANATICALLY SUPPORTIVE of your team. Give them a REASON to play for YOU.

...

And some fans will say, "But Dukes, we've just been through so much, we've lost too many close games, we haven't won a title, it's been so hard to be a fan...I just don't know how much I have left in me." You're not a player, you're a fan. Your job is to be as LOUD as possible IN SUPPORT of YOUR TEAM at ALL TIMES. That's your job. You want the players and the coaches to do their jobs? Do yours.

That is one opinion, and one way of looking at it. True we are 0 -2. We are also 14 - 14 in our last 28. It is no longer an aberration. It is a trend. I am not even going to touch our conference record over the last 2 seasons. I will say this, and I am admit it is tongue in cheek, if a few thousand fans leaving early to beat traffic and get back to their lives is so instrumental, and our players need the fans to give them a "reason to play," do we stand a chance at winning a road game? Has it gotten to the point where we must point fingers at the fans in order to be supportive of the coaching staff, to project responsibility for the program's success or failure on those "outside those arena?"

The kid didn't sign with Stanford due to the fans, he certainly did that give that as his reason. Furthermore, it is Coach Richt's job to prepare and motivate the team to play for HIM and THEMSELVES.

The fans are not getting paid, no are they receiving anything free from the school. Quite the contrary.

One last thing, it was quite impressive the fans had enough optimism and support to show up on that cold an rainy day mentioned above. Back then, things were as Kelin Johnson says they are now:

It was the team leadership through the last few years that most concerned Kelin Johnson, the defensive captain and vocal leader of the 2007 squad.

"One of the hardest things is walking around this city and to be around these players and to see some of them taking things for granted, some of the guys who are just happy to put the 'G' on or to wear a Georgia football shirt downtown to pick up women," Johnson said. "They want to put a 'G' on so people will recognize them. So what? The 'G' doesn't make you. As soon as these players realize the 'G' doesn't make the person, the person makes the 'G,' that's how they know Georgia's so much better than everybody else."

Are the fans really responsible? Calling players out and acting like an overall ass is wrong. No dispute there. Laying the success of a coach getting paid $3 million on the fans is nearly abetting larceny.

It is just another blow hard trying to go against what the majority seem to believe for publicity.

If the author wants to throw out Bozo's predictable play calling and Richts mild demeanor..ok but it is still about the bottom line.

Then fine the team is 14-14 in its last 28 games and a losing record in the SEC over that time.

That is the bottom line and what every fan should be concerned about. If my wife gets fat, yes I still love her but to continue to enable her and buying her cake and ice cream is not gonna happen. I am gonna strongly suggest healthy food and exercise. Just like we are strongly suggesting change is needed in the UGA football program.

He also does not know the definition of a fair weather fan, a fair weather fan folds up their tent, hides their UGA clothes and hats and says nothing. A REAL fan does not and wants what is best for the team.

I said it after the Boise game and no one commented on it but Richt said that all along our goal has been to win the SEC East. That is bullcrap, the goal should be to win the National Championship period. Talking about setting low expectations !

I am just so frickin tired of these bloggers/reporters saying the fans are wrong, cause Richt is a good man blah blah...... he needs to win games and the ones that UGA doesn't the other team should leave feeling lucky they survived.

A coaches job is recruit, teach and win. So far he has shown he can recruit, I have seen very little teaching or winning lately.

So Dukes go ahead and put your fuzzy goggles back on and see what you want.

bulldawg36869, want to tip my cap to you Brother. A lot of times folks on boards/blogs won't read anything longer than 100 characters. Thank you. You care about UGA and where you want this team to go.

I copied a link to 680 radio again and if I could have shook hands with Mike Cavan, would have made my day. He is the only one of the three talking that really wanted to say some things that some don't want to hear . . . the what if. He really did not get the chance to finish. The BS had to start somewhere. Hope that OSD will listen. If you get the chance to listen, know that you will pay close attention and maybe come away with some of the same feelings that I did. Bobo Gotta GoGo.... and that is not the theme of the show. On the right side go to Mike Cavan.


www.stationcaster.com/player_skinned.php?s=87&c=921&f=129881

Good read buc. Definitely proves that there are not only multiple sides on this site. Blaming the fans is a bunch of crap. We're not in the arena. Bottom line is that efforts have been confused with results for three too many years at UGA in football. Deliver results or face the consequences. Simple principle no matter what arena you are in.

Wins will be the only thing to lessen the clammoring amongst us all.

It's sad when the fanbase at a game (happened at Boise and a couple times last year) booed the terrible playcalling by Bobo. If that is not a sign, I don't know what is.

DawgnLA wrote: Good read buc. Definitely proves that there are not only multiple sides on this site. Blaming the fans is a bunch of crap. We're not in the arena. Bottom line is that efforts have been confused with results for three too many years at UGA in football. Deliver results or face the consequences. Simple principle no matter what arena you are in.

Wins will be the only thing to lessen the clammoring amongst us all.

DawgnLA, you sure as heck are cut from the same cloth as your Dad.

All anyone is asking for is POSITIVE results. Our team is robbing Peter to pay Paul right now. Meaning positions that have no backup with experience. I will be one happy camper when we finally realize that the games are won with line play. Both sides.

I think that Grantam might pull this together, or . . . . . take Bobo out behind the shed.

Like southernlover said in another thread, Bobo is one of those tough guys when he has those 300 pounders standing near. Don't like, don't want my university to have a simple simon running the show.

Better wake up Richt, you have a Brother-in-Law that can turn this program around on the offensive side of the ball.