From Athens- Friday Thoughts 04-01-19

Good Morning All,

Collection of random thoughts……

Most of us and the heads called for us to win the SEC East…. We did..

Same group also forecasted we would lose to the Tide again in the SECG….. We did…..

Many here forecasted that Justin would transfer ….. lack of meaningful playing time…. Signs continue to point in that direction…. Imho this was a distraction one of three…. Coach Mel’s departing prior to our bowl game and Bakers decision to sit out being the other two….

Rolling all this poop up together add key injuries and the lack of interest to play the game along with Texas feeling pissed after losing to Sooners and wanting to show the world it could take down the SEC East Champion…… results were not a surprise….

Most of us who post here come from a different mindset than what was displayed by our coaches and players….. so all this is new to us… we beat ourselves before ever getting on the plane to leave Athens….

Maybe not to the degree we saw in our game but I watched other bowl games that were poorly attended that featured teams going through the motions …..and lacking in effort….

Is this a result of the CFP…. If you are not one of the final four teams…..

Your season is looked upon as being a failure… and players lose all motivation….

Looking at college basketball… the season is practice to make it to March Madness…. You can a at large bid even if you don’t win your conference…..An invitation to the NIT ….. doesn’t get nearly the effort or excitement that it once did….. St. Johns in the Garden for the final….. SRO ……. Ancient history….

Does it make it …. Right …. We find ourselves in a different place?

No …… we can voice our protest….. and choose not to watch or buy tickets…..

No easy answers …. Just difficult questions…..

The past is just that ….. I for one feel we are in a better place than when we were losing to UF..UT… Vandy and Tech…. or the cluster in the 2010 Liberty Bowl losing to UCF ……

Buc… has strongly maintained that 2019 will be a real key season for were our program is heading and how well our HC is making year to year to year improvements….. I agree totally…

Lastly …. Our HC is learning on the job…. Everything is a first….. good and bad…. [Insert fake FG’s and punts here]…..

I am not ready to toss the baby out with the bath water…

I do like the fact we again have a large number of our quality recruits enrolling early….. getting ready to be the next man up… this season the Tide proved they value of quality depth…… again!!!

Kirby won’t waste the next eight months….. process will get tweaked…

How we react and play ND at home in the seasons 3rd game will go a long way in telling who we are in 2019…

Pause and give thanks

Have a great weekend and a safe week

As always “Go Dawgs”

Unfortunately, the CFP and maybe even Conference Championship games have probably devalued the bowls, even the prestigious ones.

I think that College Basketball has pretty much rendered the regular season meaningless. I hardly even pay attention to it anymore. Given the number of teams that would be competitive for a National Championship expanding to 6 or even 8 is probably in the cards. If they jump all the way to 16 it will dilute the importance of the regular season. Think about it. If it was 16 this year the 'dawgs probably could have gotten in even with losses to GT and in the SECCG. At 16 both SEC division champs get in most years.

Not pretending like I have the answer, but things are changing and that's not always good.

DFD..... you’re not alone...can’t say anyone has the answers...

opinion yes ..... many moving parts ..... regular season games

Are the money makers .... TV ..... fans in the seats....don’t see

That going away... number of teams in the playoffs increasing

Just a matter of time as that’s a cash cow also....

Number of bowl games will decrease when revenue loss makes it

No longer practical to play the games.....

As to keeping players motivated for meaningless bowl games

That are not part of the CFP ..... challenge that I do not have

A clue... stay well and warm. Go Dawgs

I hate to say it but, the events leading up to the Sugar Bowl, Mel Tucker leaving, Justin Fields standing on the sidelines while saying he's looking elsewhere, Baker dressing out and putting on an "I care for the team enough to stand on the sidelines", the HC allowing those two to pull off that shenanigan, led us to take a Giant leap backwards in my opinion. Sorry if I'm being negative,but thats the way I see it, maybe CKS has learned enough to figure it out.

sorry i repeated you YD1, I'm going to have to get better at remembering what I read before I post. My bad!!!!!!!!!!!!!

No worries Chief..... pretty much apparent...

Do believe Kirby like the fake kicks had it to do over...

He would take a different direction.....

Go Dawgs .....