No, this isn’t the Playpen. Rather, it’s a public service reminder that we’ve become spoiled. I can remember a time, not too long ago, and you can, too, where Saturday’s game would’ve been the reason to fire a coach, because we would’ve lost it.
I can remember a time where I was sitting in Sanford in 2006 and watched Georgia lose to Kentucky. The whole game, I sat there thinking the inevitable was about to occur…we would lose.
In the past years, I’ve come to lose my jadedness. Watching the game from the porch of our Shores of Panama Condo on day one of our family vacation, there wasn’t a moment where I thought we were going to lose. I was curious about what creative way we were going to find a rhythm and beat Kentucky.
My friends came to know me as the guy to not invite over to watch a game. Forever bred as a pessimist, I, like Munson, had anxiety and fear over every game, every opponent. I was a miserable houseguest during Georgia games. I thought about the unique and creative ways our team was going to lose the day’s game. You might have been thinking that way, too.
That was then, this is now. Especially during the Monken years, I’ve come to be more relaxed on game days that don’t include Alabama or a CFP game. It’s a charmed life we’re living, even if Saturday didn’t live to the “Georgia Standard”.
To be clear, it wasn’t, especially on the offensive side of the ball. Lost in all of this is that we were without a full defensive line, but our defense, which like it or not, is our bread and butter and always will be, rose to the occasion and played four quarters of hard nosed football. Our secondary is filled with Greg Blues, and I remember telling my wife after Julian Humphrey literally killed a man on a crucial stop…we’re fine.
As long as we have that defense, we have a chance. Offense is an ever-changing nuance of the game, and as much as we would’ve liked to covered the spread and felt comfortable, it can’t be emphasized enough the Kentucky was well informed of tendencies and formations from two former players, and we can’t fault Stoops for looking to that as an advantage and we can’t fault the players, either, I mean we can, but advantages are what they are. And I also can’t fault our coaches for seeing what unfolded against South Carolina and thinking, like everyone’s favorite band performing at the 40 Watt, “hey, no new stuff. Just go with what got you here”. And so it goes. It’s what all teams do, and we do it, too.
There was an off the field incident on September 12th. People were distracted. Kirby Smart is still orchestrating excellence with 20 year olds with access to insane amounts of money and cars that were unheard of when Kirby was an athlete. There was a fight at the beginning of the game, and his mantra of “composure” unraveled before his eyes. It was a sloppy game, but we won. And so it goes,
Despite the moral victory of coming within a hair of beating the number 1 team in the country, Kentucky fans and media pundits alike are questioning Stoops’ play calling before the end of the half. It’s the kind of stuff we used to do not so long ago, when we lost games like this instead of winning them. It’s a weird place to be when you’re competitive in a game you’re not supposed to be then get questioned for not being competitive enough to win something you didn’t have a chance to. It’s a dog-eat-dog world, and it’s a cat-eat-cat world, as it turns out. And so it goes.
The choral, deep-throated “Fire Bobo” calls were in full effect during and after the game. I likewise was critical, but I could see they were trying everything. They finally started showing some different formations and movements in the third and fourth quarters to throw the defense off the scent. The head play caller was in the cross-hairs, but there’s some solace to take from it all. Beck to Young might be the automatic as Fromm to Wims or Holloway was back in the day. Bell was clutch when he needed to be, as was Lovett. Robinson scored when it was easy to write him off two weeks ago, Frazier hit a hole so fast I didn’t even know he was handed the ball. There’s chemistry, and this is a chemical reaction playing out before our eyes. Yurosek is clearly discovering this isn’t the PAC anymore, and people are growing in the most unusual and somewhat terrifying of ways, and it all had to happen before September 28th. It’s productive struggle, but it has to happen. So it goes.
If you think for one second that Smart was happy with Saturday’s result, you’re right. Georgia won. That’s all that matters. But content? Not at all. I’d love to be a fly on the wall with coaches meetings this week, and film room sessions. It won’t be a pleasant two weeks in Athens, you can bet your ass on that. Kirby will demand and sculpture excellence, and whatever we just saw Saturday won’t be seen again in two weeks. It’ll be different, though the result isn’t guaranteed, and one thing is for certain: Alabama hasn’t seen a defense like this all season, and won’t again, So it goes.
That’s Kirby’s way, and I’m not one to question it. Kentucky was a hostile environment, as Kentucky standards go. It was a dry run in the performance lab to see what people were made of. Our defensive leaders were everywhere. Our secondary, true to Smart’s DNA, proved to be the glue that held the defense together. They are plentiful and they are healthy, and our defensive line will look different in two weeks. Something tells me our offense will, too. So it goes.
As we like to say around here: Kirby’s on the mother. Texas just entered the Arch Manning era. Tennessee showed an onsides kick against Kent State, up by thirty, Ole Miss continues to do Kiffin things. Smart just threw his team into the fire, expecting them to emerge as men, to learn from mistakes, and get ready for the next game as better versions of their previous selves.
Specifically, to “win the next one”.
That’s all we can ask, and that’s all we have come to expect we will do. It’s happened 42 times in a row during the regular season now, and there’s no reason to expect it to stop just because it’s the Crimson Tide. Georgia opened the season favored in every game, but will likely enter the contest with the Tide as an underdog now. There will be bulletin board material abounding that this team isn’t what people expected them to be. They will question the culture that has been created and call out certain members of the coaching staff and team.
In other words, it’s exactly what Kirby Smart feasts on, and it’ll be served up in spades in the coming days. It’s right where Kirby wants to be, and what has served him well in the past. He will stir and poke the bear so much in these next two weeks that coaches and players alike will be ready to run through a titanium wall to prove their worth.
They will be pissed.
They will be called out.
They will likely have two of the bloodiest Tuesdays ever.
They will be challenged to return to form, to the standard that brought them to Athens in the first place.
It’s the difference between being the hunted and the hunter, and these Dawgs are going to hunt. Bet on that.
Kirby’s on the mother, and that should be concerning for any team to come for the rest of the season.
Go Dawgs.
Like all Dawgs fans I was cussing Bobo during the 1st half for reverting to type with his play calling. He runs his favorite bread & butter plays: the sweeps and end arounds and short passes behind the line that get eaten up. If he doesn’t get better and it puts us in danger down the road then I foresee a very bitter breakup between Kirby and Bobo at some point.
Guess I’m not a Dawg fan then, despite following them since Dooley’s first season.
I could not have expressed my feelings more accurately had I written this article myself. We made the road trip, 3 grizzled veterans and a young pup. Not once did I think we were going to lose. I was thinking how Munson would have called the game. UGA did not bring any of the Redcoats, not even the pep band. Methinks the team and the fans would have found more rhythm had it not been all Kentucky band and hip hop blasted at 120 db.
Not sure how it was in the stadium, but on TV the screeching (I won’t call it music) coming from the PA was God-awful. I assumed they were trying to smoke out Noriega or perform some other method of torture.
Damn. War and Peace. Good stuff though. I never was worried that we were going to lose Saturday night. I cussed every time I saw a dawg laying on the ground grabbing some body part or other and wanted to exact revenge on that jackass Stoops for it but I never thought we were going to lose that game. It is a nice place to be for sure.
Back over at GTP I used to try to talk people out of their paranoia and angst but when we got over here I decided to do less of that. If you can’t just enjoy this that’s too bad for you. I will shoot down a few narratives I see taking shape. Chaz Chambliss is the favorite stress pillow for some Georgia fans and the object of their ire. Weird because through three games he is the highest grading defensive player on the team. A lot of people say a lot of stuff but they usually don’t know what they’re talking about. And you can yell about Bobo but he’s doing what Kirby wants him to do. I like Nate Frazier too but some of those runs that went nowhere were because he hasn’t quite learned yet that at this level he’s not gonna just outrun everybody and instead of getting north and south as soon as possible he tended to want to try to bounce things. He’ll figure it out.
We are going to beat Alabama. Go Dawgs.
I was relatively comfortable until there was about 3 minutes left. Their kicker was a bit too automatic not to fret over a 1 pt. lead.
All the bobo nonsense is just that.
Monken posted 14 and 16 points in Lexington and is a gd genius while posting 13 is a fireable offense.
Why isn’t anyone comparing Monken’s 3 pt explosion vs Clemson in Charlotte to Bobo’s comparatively pedestrian 34 point offensive embarrassment in Atlanta?
Derek you know the answer to that. Histrionics and blanket statements based in emotion are easy. Perspective is hard. People have decided Bobo is an idiot because of something or a few something’s that happened over a decade ago or because somebody told them he was or because he has a weird last name or because he’s from down here in South Georgia and his accent is thicker than they like or some such. Who knows?
I have questioned a couple of Bobo’s decisions (the naked boot with Hutson vs. USC; the blind reverse pitch vs. bama in the seccg) and I’ve questioned some of Kirby’s (the fake fg at lsu; the fake punt vs bama in the seccg), but to sit on your ass and act like you know offensive football and you just know that a play call is bad for no other reason than it didn’t work is just plain idiocy. If any of us could plug into the headsets and listen in or be present during prep sessions we would be lost. And not have a single intelligent thing to offer. I don’t think these “couch coordinators” have the faintest idea of the intricacies of the chess match that is being played out there. And I blame these media idiots that get paid millions of dollars doing the same fucking thing. Paul Finebaum knows as much about why UF is losing as I know about nuclear fission. All he knows is the record and, if it ain’t good, that’s all he needs to run his sewer like he’s some damn subject matter expert. (Some) (Too many) Fans are no different.
The one correlation I’ve noticed is this:
Coaches with really good players are thought to be highly intelligent.
Coaches with bad players are dumb.
But keep in mind, its not about the Jimmies and Joes its all x’s and o’s. Sure it is and Vandy is the right coach away from a dynasty.
Facts. I asked a guy Saturday night who was raising hell about Bobo and talking about how bad he sucks, “What would you do different? On the plays that didn’t work, given the down and distance, where the ball was at the time, and Kentucky’s defensive personnel and what they were trying to do, what would you have done that would have worked?” Of course he just shut up because he didn’t know. Look I’m just a fan my damn self. But I realize Kirby knows a little something. He has proven that. And Bobo is who he wants. That’s really all I need to know given what I know about Kirby and what I know about how limited my understanding is of what’s going on.
I really wish the people who just yell about Bobo or this or that thing like they understand it had to watch a couple episodes of Film Dont Lie. After watching just a little of it I quickly learned two things; a lot of the time we as fans didn’t see exactly what we thought we saw. And the other thing is I really don’t know a whole lot about football at this level, I just like it. So many little things come to light watching it presented like that. Supposed terrible play calls end up looking a lot better but one person got beat and negated it. And on a lot of good plays that looked genius it is often due to a mistake by the other team.
A good example from the other night was on third down when Jalon Walker got to BVG. They had a mesh pattern going that was wide open down field and would have won the game for them. An out of this world play by Walker was the difference. I wish the social media football experts had to watch shows like that but most of those types aren’t interested in things like that.
Yep. Brooks Austin is doing the Lord’s work. If you want to better understand what you are watching he is the go to guy.
Yessir. Brooks is a go to for me too. I watch the “local hour” every night.
Bingo. Ask Bobo-haters why they hate him and it’s starts with not running Gurley in the South Cackalacky game over a decade ago. It’s so tiring. I know NOTHING about football stra-juh-tey, but it seems like Bobo spend the first quarter scripting so he can figure out the defense for the rest of the game. It just so happens that we missed some key blocks and we lost yardage, then it steamrolled. Fans may have panicked, but you know who didn’t? Kriby.
What I remember about Bobo V.1 back in the day is we had the stones to fair catch at the 4 yard line, pull out our nutz, and say “watch me go 96 yards”. Bobo scored a lot of points with less talented teams.
JPMcd, I always like reading your writings, but I scrolled down and said to myself, self, I’m not reading all that.
“Dammit Bobo!” is more of a meme than anything – well to most people. Does anyone really believe that they know 1% of what Kirby and Bobo do? I was concerned about how our OL was ineffective, and despite an overall good performance (12 points, no TD’s!), our D wasn’t making the tackles they normally seem to. Maybe 2 weeks ago against USCjr was the fluke for UK, and they regressed to the mean?
But also remember, up until about 6 minutes left against USF(!) 2 weeks ago, the Tide was in the same place as we are now.
Kirby got the W and an excellent motivational tool.
It seems like it takes several games to get things figured out on the offensive line most seasons. Still don’t know the severity of Tate’s injury but that will obviously affect it. It was annoying the other night but some of it had to do with what Kentucky was trying to do and Deion Walker is a damn good defensive tackle. I was hoping we would go after him in the portal.
To me the defensive line’s problems to the extent that they had them had to do with so many people being out.
I agree with what is written here. But I also acknowledge we are fans and games are emotional. These games are offered to us as entertainment we pay for the privilege to consume (tickets, donations, streaming costs, etc.). So, yes, we are going to say stupid things. We will complain. My wife loves me but she complains about me. It comes with the territory. In the heat of the game we may make bourbon fueled comments. During the off season who knows what we might say. We just want to talk football and there isn’t much you can say when nothing is happening. So, we often revert to complaining. It’s just human nature. I complain even when I know I shouldn’t. I often make comments about things I know nothing about. I’m old and I’m getting cranky with age. I was never a genius and I managed to kill quite a few of the small number of functioning brain cells I started with. Many of them died while I was sitting on the tracks watching the Dawgs. That’s okay. It was worth it to me. At the end of the day, it’s just a game. A game we are often overly obsessed with but just a game none the less. People my age waited 40 years between National Championships. For me, even last year was a tremendous success compared to quite a few of the seasons I lived through. Though I can’t remember what they were today, I’m sure I found things to complain about though.
P. Paul, I know it’s just a game, but this time of year there are thousands of animated Dawg fans in their living rooms, Dens or mancaves trying to help get that “W”.
I don’t want proof of this firsthand, but my suspicion is that Coach Smart sought medical attention exactly four hours after we got jumped by Tejas in the polls.
LOL! I see what you did there.
I told my buddy Mary Beth was gonna catch hell tonight.
Great write up! Question is Bama ready for us?