My team will never be great as long as Chan Gailey is the head coach. Too often in his stay on the Flats I have been tricked into thinking that we have a chance at greatness. Every time I'm disappointed. I planned on writing a longer post about how Gailey is 0-6 against UGA, or that after starting 9-2 last year, we lost our final three games by a combined total of nine points. Or that this year, with what looked like our best team overall since the Joe Hamilton era, we've started 0-3 in a crappy ACC with losses to Virginia and Maryland. But I'm not. We are probably going to beat Miami this week. And possibly Virginia Tech as well (VT always stumbles late in the season). But we'll lose to Georgia and lose in that pointless bowl game in Boise to Hawaii. So all I'll say is Go Jackets and to hell with Georgia.
Ok. I lied when I said this would be short and sweet. Why shouldn't we expect greatness from our football team. We've won a National Title more recently than UGA. But do you think that Mark Richt would be around if he had lost six straight to his biggest rival. Gailey supporters always bring up the fact that we have gone to five straight bowl games since he became coach. So what. Every one of those bowl games were meaningless. The Gator Bowl was the best bowl game we've gone to and that is the bowl game UGA goes to when they have bad years (or it's SEC non-union equivalent). We've gone to one ACC championship game and we lost 9-6 to Wake Forest. And Chan. I'm sick of the terrible offensive play calling. You had the best player in the country last year in Calvin Johnson and you did nothing with him. And this year is no different. You can't run the ball 40 times a game and expect to win against the big boys. We aren't Nebraska in 1995. Take a page from our defense and take some risks. Shotgun draw may be a way of life but it ain't mine.
7 comments:
you can't reasonably complain about only going to one acc championship game- it has been the only one ever held.
Actually two. But I was complaining more about the fact that we're never contending for the ACC title
oh yeah, there was one the year before. FSU beat Va Tech when vick the younger threw a zillion picks. i write these comments when i am on the internet, you would think i would check this stuff out before i rant. oh, well.
I do think Richt would be around if he had lost 6 straight to his biggest rival. With all due respect to Tennessee, Auburn, and GA Tech, the Florida game is at least as important as any other game of the season. Richt is 1-5 there and he keeps getting extensions and raises.
This brings me to point out that Richt has faced remarkably little criticism. The squeaker against Vandy was the first win against the SEC East since beating USC on September 9, 2006. They nearly lost two consecutive games to a school that scrapped its athletic department! With games remaining against Florida and Kentucky, a combined 2-8 record in the division in 2006 and 2007 is possible, if not likely.
Further, in case you didn't notice, the graduation rate for UGA football players who entered school between '97 and '00 (recruited by Donnan, but should have graduated during the Richt era) is the lowest in the SEC. Worst in the SEC is quite a feat. I'll be happy to trade academic rigor for happy Saturdays, but I can't tolerate failure in both areas.
I apologize for hijacking your post for my Richt rant.
the reason that both gailey and richt still have their jobs is that uga/uf and tech/uga are barely rivalries. when one team stomps the other regularly and always expects to win, only the losing side considers it a rivalry. a tech coach isn't really expected to beat uga, and a uga coach isn't expected to beat uf. they would be lauded if they did, but they won't get fired if they don't.
as for richt, in 6 years he's won 2 conference titles in by far the toughest football conference. that's pretty good. plus he's so handsome and god-fearing.
Here are the all-time records in both games
UGA-TECH - 58-38-5 in favor of UGA
UGA-UF - 45-37-2 in favor of UGA
While neither are 50-50 splits they are close enough to classify both games as rivalries. UGA loses 4 out of 10 times to Tech and UGA loses 4.5 times out of 10
And we won 3 out of 4 when I was there
the tech-uga and uga-uf numbers you listed are misleading at best, kevin. o'leary's 3-1 run notwithstanding, the days when those games are truly competitive are ancient history. florida has beaten georgia 15 of 17, and georgia has beaten tech 13 of 16.
i remember sports guy having a similar take on the red sox-yankees rivalry back in '03. keene is right, a rivalry is not really a rivalry unless its outcome is usually uncertain.
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