I've had a night to mull things over, and with an FU loss last night, maybe it eased the sting a tad bit. But regardless, here we are at 5-1, losing to an unranked SC team that surely will pull us out of the top 10 and bring SC into the top 25. What angers me is that I said all week to just about everyone that saw me at work wearing UGA gear or saw my flag hanging in my office that we absolutely had better not take Muschamp for granted. I've said for ages (and look back on here if there's doubt) that Muschamp is a very able coach and a formidable defensive mind. He's matured into a very stable, consistent, and competitive coach, despite his record. This win yesterday earned him several more years to come as a thorn in our side.
Let me address something that has set the Twits and the comment threads ablaze - "FIRE KIRBY SMART!!"
Count me out of this choir. Am I pissed off and dismayed at this loss? Yeah. But it's going to take a whole lot more for me to abandon ship and pull the plug. Ya'll may disagree and that's fine, but I am far from there yet. Kirby has amassed a hell of a body of work in 3 seasons, is recruiting at the highest level (specifically on the lines), and up until yesterday's meltdown, had us in prime position to head to Atlanta. On paper, we still have that chance even though I think the chances are definitely outside at best and I see us losing another game before it's all said & done. I'm far more concerned with the play calling I saw out of Coley yesterday and the resultant confusion of the offense. The offense has looked out of sync since the ND game with missed routes, mixed up assignments, illegal motions, etc. The offense was going all day against a stacked box and had one-on-one with the defenders. Other than Cager, why weren't the receivers eating up these mismatches? Why was Fromm being forced to throw into tight windows when the receivers should have easily gotten separation and burned the defender for points? But furthermore - why - when these plays weren't working, did we see Coley calling exactly the same plays, returning to a well that was known to be bone dry?
They better figure this out and damned fast, because until we prove our ability to break the effectivity of it, we're going to see every team we play stack 6 to 8 in the box and play man on our receivers.
This was the first game that I can remember that absolutely no adjustments were made at the half, and if they were made, they were the wrong adjustments. I expected that crap out of a Richt coaching squad, as the "this-is-our-game-plan-and-come-hell-or-high-water-we're-sticking-to-it" motto had become standard operating procedure from 2000-2015. But to see a regression in the 2nd half led me by the start of the 4th to say "you know, we're gonna lose this friggin game." That's the first time I've felt that in the last 3 years. I can't remember a game where I was dead certain that by the 4th quarter, we were going to lose, but yesterday it happened. May it never happen again.