Monday Thoughts - Why Kirby Smart will be a Success: Culture

Yes... 2 more times we lost against a team that finished in the top 25 to go with all the other ones.

I'm not trying to be ugly, but I'm tired of seeing Richt's admittedly great record against weak teams used as a defense while other less flattering facts about his record over the past few years are just ignored.

Well, I saw the talk about how tough the SEC was and thought id throw the 15 year record out there again. You know, repetition is the key to all learning...

It was surprising to me how close the record of UGA, FL, LSU, and Bama were over 15 years. That is not on any one website, you got to jump around sites and add them up. For my analysis, I only included regular season games. It was hard to keep bama's record straight with all the asterisks due to probation. I tried to just go with the record on the field.

Hey, im glad you guys got the coach you wanted and he looks like a good choice to me. Im looking forward to seeing how things turn out. Looking forward to seeing how things turn out in Miami, Gainesville, Knoxville, and Columbia SC to. I am not sold completely on the FL coach. They won all the close games this year and that usually evens out over time. They only beat Vandy 9-7 for gosh sakes. I look for Tennessee to be tough going forward.

Scooby, you can't make that comment about how CLOSE UGA;s record was to UF, LSU, Bama over 15 years without mentioning one important difference, and I hope you already know where I'm going:

National Titles:

Bama-4
LSU-2
UF-1 or 2? (sorry, not sure on this one).


Besides the gun shot, Mrs. Lincoln enjoyed the play.

Sadlerdawg, good to hear you use the word excitement again. Been a while my friend. Been a while for many on this board and others.

Going back in my mind and pulling up some of your many posts of the past. From where I sit, the majority of the posts dating back years were about organizational skills. Seldom if ever was there an issue about player talent.

The business you are in, you know the importance of organization. I suspect some or much of that came from the Marine Corps.

Just how much “break'em down and build'em up” we will see starting in the Spring of 2016, my bet it will be for those that are committed to a new way of preparing for the SEC. Those that were allowed to play on Saturday for Pruitt . . . . they prepared hard during the week.

I believe that many young men came to Georgia with an understanding that they would play football. They (not all) also understood that our program was “flexible”. Not talking about drugs, flexible under those that were in charge of “football”.

Out of the Navy now for many years. One thing that is still a constant in the Navy is the Blue Jacket Manuel. Not one word has changed as far as I know.

Takes me back to that word often used . . . . Leadership, or lack of.

Kirby Smart not only brings a Masters Degree in D1 Football coaching and organizational skills from the Nick Saban School, he also has fire in his belly. No way we will see Kirby Smart stand in one spot on the sideline fiddling with his headset. Not the Saban way. Not the Smart way.

Kirby Smart will not have to be told to run on the field with his players when getting ready for the opening whistle. Just little things that when put together, become much bigger things. Referred to as problems.

Yeppers, I am excited, can't tell from this post, eh?

scooby wrote: Hey, I enjoy reading about uga football here!

It was time for Mark Richt to move on. Yins got thumped hard by bama and Florida this year. Those were bad losses.

Still can't understand the disdain I see for the old coach. I read here and agree the sec is the toughest football conference period. Uga was 83-37 over the last 15 years in conference games. Bama, Lsu, and Florida virtually the same conference record over those years. Nobody much better than uga over 15 years.

Dawgs were 30-10 in sec play the last five years. What do you predict the next five. Honest question.

Scooby,

I'm teetering hard on my promise not to go on a rant about our previous coach, and I intend to stick to it. If you read my previous posts on him, I make it very clear that I have no personal disdain for him, nor do I wish him anything but the best.

Your post insinuates that you are trying to catch me (and those of my mindset) in a contradiction. If the SEC is so tough and Mark Richt's record was so good, then how can we have such disdain? There is no contradiction here. Two things kept the previous coach in his job in the winning record you brought up: Great recruits who won on talent alone with a very soft SEC east and non-conference schedule. He was very good at racking up W's against teams with vastly inferior talent to UGA.

Since you're apparently a stats guy, let's look at the stats. It takes the mask off this brilliant win/loss record that everyone loves to tout. Let's look at the reality of why his time was up and why so many of us are relieved that it was:

Since 2007, 14-22 against Top 25 teams with an average margin of defeat of 13 points in those games. 4-13 against Top 10 teams with an average margin of defeat of 17 points in those games. 9 losses to unranked opponents. What makes things even worse is the number of times Georgia was favored in those top 10 and top 25 matchups.

The apologists for the previous coach like to tout that we made it to the SEC Championship Game and nearly beat Alabama in 2013. Yep, that's the claim to fame since 2007. That was also the game where our previous coach took a hiatus from coaching in the two minute drill, called a play, lost track of the game clock and let time expire on the 5 yard line. The coach said it was on him. His comments reflect the nature of how he felt about the game:

It's typical of my personality, when stuff like that happens, I usually stuff it pretty good and just move on," Richt said. "And sometimes you just gotta move on. You got a ballgame. You got to recruit. You got this. You got that. You got Christmas. Life goes on. You can't sit there and cry about it."

Speaking of recruits, we've all seen the talent come and go here only to be pro bowlers at the next level. Steve Spurrier once said: "Athens is the place where 5 stars go to become 3 stars." Most schools watch their best football players leave school, enter the NFL, and never pan out. The cycle makes sense considering the enhanced level of play in the NFL. Well, at Georgia under the previous coach it was exactly the opposite. Year-in and year-out Georgia fans watched in dismay as former players who experienced ok/mediocre careers at UGA, develop into stars in the NFL. Geno Atkins, Darnell Ellerbe, Marlon Brown, Justin Houston, and Reshad Jones are just a few examples.

I have often said that there was an institutionalized mediocrity at UGA. I don't care what the win/loss stats show us, it was time for a divorce. And the reason why so many of us are disgusted with the previous coach has nothing to do with him and everything to do with what he didn't accomplish with everything he had in his fifteen years at the helm.

What do I predict? I predict success. I predict a culture change. I predict a national championship within the next 3 to 5 seasons.

All good points guys. I think it was time for a coaching change too. Never have said otherwise. Only point ive ever made about this is UGA was not terrible.

Jerry Richardson made a vow to win a Super bowl in ten years when he got the Panther franchise in the early 90s. Nothing wrong with being optimistic. You can do everything right and it still doesn't work out. There are 15-20 other programs that want to win it just as much.