From Athens- Game Day Friday #9

Good Morning All,

Well here we are awaiting the WBCP in JAX.

This time last year we were at 5-2 after running off five straight wins thinking we had found our groove again.

2012 we sit at 6-1 and after last week’s game and we question if we could beat a good high school team.

Our vaulted defense has played the year with very few exceptions like we are taking massive doses of
Valium before the game starts. “Fog City”

JJ spoke earlier about not wanting anyone taking food off his table and it looks to me like he is gift wrapping it for them.

IMO with little fanfare KG is out playing him at NT.

How the “D” plays this week is anyone’s guess.

If it is a repeat of the USC game we would likely have been better off if those players went ahead and turned pro last year except of #“29”.

It would be real sweet if CTG and the defense shows up in JAX with a supper size can of good ole Georgia whoopass.

It seems to be the majority thinking that there is not a snowball’s chance in hell of that happening.

Truth hurts that is if you give a damn about your actions or in some cases lack thereof.

Those who have followed my Friday rants know I have spoken here often about having a passion for what you do in life. Without there is very little chance that you will excel or enjoy what you are doing.

IMO we have played but two inspired games this year- Mizzo and Vandy both were candy cane teams.
That had a great deal to do with the level of play we played with in those two games.

Without question there has been a major cooling of passion to coach and win football games that have meaning for the UGA football program. We have become an also ran program and not look good doing it.

A win in JAX is not impossible however it is more improbable than most Dawg fans wish to admit.
Roll the dice! Show Time once again - a ranked team on the big stage and bright light.

Our Team-Our Time – No Regrets – we know the edge has been knocked off that statement- nothing but regrets for the USC folly.

As it has always been, you want to change the conversation show up and win.

Pause and give thanks

Have great weekend and a safe week – Thank a vet if you have the opportunity

As always “Go Dawgs” !!

I don't know about you guys but I'm just not very excited about the game this w/e.

On a typical "Cocktail Party" week, I'm all jacked up and can't sleep the entire week prior to the game and the consumption of adult beverages start around Tuesday or Wednesday. Coolers, grills, luggage, tailgating necessities, etc. are packed up in strict orderly fashion. Flags and magnets placed very strategically on the SUV. The convoy to Amelia Island on Wednesday with family and friends seems to take 2 1/2 minutes from Augusta due to all of the excitement. Golf with the buddies is just something to fill in the gap between Thursday and gameday.

Not so this year. It just feels like a formality this year. I'm just going through the motions with no emotion somewhat like our beloved Dawgs have been. The round of golf seems to be more on my mind than the game tomorrow. The cocktails just aren't going down as well as they should and the cigar just doesn't seem to burn very well.

Call me negative or whatever you want to call it. I guess the lack of enthusiasm from our Dawgs is rubbing off on me. However, I will be doing my part. I'll be there pulling for my Dawgs with what enthusiasm I have left whether they show up or not. My guess is we'll see another a55 shellacking like we saw in Columbia.

gillette wrote: I don't know about you guys but I'm just not very excited about the game this w/e.

On a typical "Cocktail Party" week, I'm all jacked up and can't sleep the entire week prior to the game and the consumption of adult beverages start around Tuesday or Wednesday. Coolers, grills, luggage, tailgating necessities, etc. are packed up in strict orderly fashion. Flags and magnets placed very strategically on the SUV. The convoy to Amelia Island on Wednesday with family and friends seems to take 2 1/2 minutes from Augusta due to all of the excitement. Golf with the buddies is just something to fill in the gap between Thursday and gameday.

Not so this year. It just feels like a formality this year. I'm just going through the motions with no emotion somewhat like our beloved Dawgs have been. The round of golf seems to be more on my mind than the game tomorrow. The cocktails just aren't going down as well as they should and the cigar just doesn't seem to burn very well.

Call me negative or whatever you want to call it. I guess the lack of enthusiasm from our Dawgs is rubbing off on me. However, I will be doing my part. I'll be there pulling for my Dawgs with what enthusiasm I have left whether they show up or not. My guess is we'll see another a55 shellacking like we saw in Columbia.

gillette, that might be the perfect post. I think you summed up all of my feelings in a concise, coherent statement. It's NOT negativity, because we love and will ALWAYS love our DAWGS. A DAWG is not what you become, it's what you are BORN. Apparently that's not the case with those who we feel are privileged enough to play the game. This team seems not to give a you-know-what. Shawn Williams cares. Others do not. Malcolm Mitchell cares - sometimes makes the stupidest plays in the history of the game, but by golly, he CARES! And I'll cut slack to ANYONE who makes a mistake in the interest of trying to MAKE THE PLAY!!!! I was catatonic over that one punt return against Missouri - for a few seconds - but he was trying to break open a game that was going nowhere at the time, so I cut him some slack. Unfortunately, there aren't many Malcolm Mitchells on our team.

This team is filled with apathy. And that has made itself into a disease that is HIGHLY contagious. I'm infected with it. Do you know what I'm doing Saturday afternoon? I'm going to go on a date with my new wife. We've got a relative who is going to keep the kids, and she and I are going to have some fun. Sometime around game time, we will be at a shooting range. I'll be using .357 mags and she'll be using light loaded .38s. And we are going to have FUN. And all the apathy on earth won't ruin it.

Thank you Mark Richt, because your acceptance of losing has translated into an afternoon that will bring me and my wife a little closer. She doesn't care about football, and neither do you, so while you are getting your BUTT handed to you in Jacksonville, my wife and I will be unloading some rounds into some pieces of paper and hanging out together, having fun. Then we'll go to a restaurant and enjoy a quiet dinner. Who knows after that. But one thing is FOR SURE. I won't be sitting on pins and needles sweating whether one of the best high school kickers in the nation, with one of the strongest legs on earth can hit a 20 yard extra point (assuming you score a TD to begin with).

I'm sad to lose an entire season that was so filled with promise. But for every loss in life we have the opportunity to produce a gain. My "DAWGS" loss will be my relationship gain. Both last a life time. One means a WHOLE LOT MORE. It would just have been so much MORE fun if my "DAWGS" would have showed up to play this year.

Oh well. There's always next year.

Prove us all wrong, Richt. But you have a LOT to prove now.

Acceptance of losing... yep.. that about sums it up.

MR is all about teaching our young men that winning isn't everything, and how to accept losing gracefully.

Meanwhile the coaches of the top tier SEC schools are all about teaching their kids that
losing isn't an option.

Wartdawg wrote: Acceptance of losing... yep.. that about sums it up.

MR is all about teaching our young men that winning isn't everything, and how to accept losing gracefully.

Meanwhile the coaches of the top tier SEC schools are all about teaching their kids that
losing isn't an option.

And therein lies our woe.

Compare us and Florida.

Talent? At LEAST equal. We should have a slight edge, and that's not because I'm a Dawg, but because I know college football. I can see talent, just like everyone here. We are AT LEAST their equal.

But unfortunately, you have to include this:

Coaching? . . . . . . . . . . read the posts on this forum if you haven't been here before. We are so inferior to Florida in that regard . . . . . . . . . My stomach hurts.

FIRE? Oh please. Did anyone watch the Buffalo game? FAU for the first quarter? Tennessee? Our Pop Warner League team that showed up to "play" South Carolina? Kentucky (for goodness sakes - KENTUCKY!)? Our team couldn't light a fire if they were smacking flint and steel together, soaked in JP-8, sitting on chairs made of C-4, in an atmosphere with a perfect fuel/air mix with their pants held up with det-cord belts. That's because Mark Richt, Mike Bobo, the Great Todd Grantham, and others, have watered down their enthusiasm with a desire to accept losing as "a part of the game". But I'm sure the players have "grown" from the experience. I read where AM wants to be an HR director for a large corporation. Richt seems to be the right coach to prepare him for that career, because he sure won't make it in the NFL based on "competitive nature". Richt has probably taught the talented kid to see my last statement as a COMPLIMENT!

<sigh>

gillette, thriller, you two have probably come closer to the actual feelings most on this and other boards feel. This time the wound is deep.

When I left the service in the 60's, came home and felt some of the deepest depression that I have ever felt. That same empty feeling that I tried over the years to rid myself of never went away totally. You guys have probably read some of the things I have posted about honoring service men and women, it is very important to me and many that have served.

When I say harsh things on this board, and I know that I am guilty of that, it is because I think back to some things I have seen and it really pulls at my heart strings.

I see young coaches and players that have every opportunity in the world to better themselves, their families, their friends and their university. Much of that comes from the fact that there are and were Veterans that laid it out there enabling these folks to better themselves.

Seems I am at the point where I am wondering if I should allow something like football bother me this much. Guess it is the overall attitude that seems to exist this day and time, not seeing a lot of reason for optimism.

Football is like what many Veterans have faced, it requires team play, difference in the two is football is not life and death at some point. Service people might not like each other, comes sometimes from wearing different uniforms cause a squabble or two. There though is where the major difference lies. When the action starts, all come together for a common cause. I find that missing with the way this team is coached and many of the players play.

Allow me this . . . . sometimes I get a belly full of Mel Kiper and some of his rants. I do understand that is "show business". This morning Kiper said . . . . there is no reason for UGA not to win in JAX, although the spread seems to be 6.5 points. Kiper said that there are 7 or so players on this team that will play NFL football. What was his formula for Georgia winning . . . . coaching. Mel Kiper, you see the same thing that has dominated this board all season. Coaching. (lack of) . . . .

Young players there is a reason that we have problems within the team, a loss in JAX will compound the problem, and all of us will go back to the film room and work on things . . . . it is the Richt system.

I will stop after this. yankeedawg1 it has been said before, I appreciate many of your endings to your Friday morning threads. Means a lot to many, and many are posters on this board.