Thought this would be good fodder for the comments section today.
Thoughts? All glory is fleeting? What have you done for me lately? Personally, I’m not miserable…honestly a lot of regular season games had become almost gimmes, now the anticipation grows and I haven’t yet abandoned hope that this team can’t be a better version of itself.
Then again I went to UGA during the Goff/Donnan years, so anything is better than that.
I trust Kirby to fix the issues. I have no idea if that will happen this year.
Who knows? I think some people just prefer misery.
I have always said that the downside of being on top is that only one thing of any significance can happen on Saturday and its bad…. The climb comes with more excitement than arrival.
Staying on top is harder than getting there.
But as a fan, what more could we possibly want than to be where we are? We’ve been a major player for the big trophy in 5 of the first 8 seasons and likely it will be 6 of 9 in 2024.
Does anyone know how many coaches since WWI broke out carries a winning percentage over 85% and all at a major college football program?
1.
Some people aren’t happy unless they’re miserable. And they can’t stand the thought that other people aren’t miserable, so they devote all their efforts to making sure the rest of us are miserable, too. A football team is a machine with a lot of moving parts, and since they’re all living, human organisms, it isn’t always a smooth operation.
Since 2017, Kirby has run our machine better than anyone in the lifetime of any current UGA fan. Is he perfect? No. Will there be games or seasons the program doesn’t meet the standard? Yes. Does that mean the shy is falling? Our opponents would like us to believe that, and unfortunately, so would some of our alleged fans.
Me, I’m enjoying the ride. Partly because Kirby has earned my trust; I know he is smart, focused, and relentless, and I’d there’s a problem, to, he’ll solve it. Partly because I wasn’t smart enough in the Herschel era to realize the ride always ends at some point. No matter how good you are, everyone is always at your heels. Some of them are also pretty good. Some of them can get lucky. Every year, every game is a challenge.
If you want to be miserable because UGA didn’t win in an impressive enough way this week, Dawg bless you. If you want to be the first one to predict impending doom, sooner or later you’ll be right. But you won’t ever convince me you’re smarter about strategy, personnel, or organization than the guy we have in charge. He won’t be right every time. Even Saban wasn’t that good. Sulk if you want to. I’m putting my faith in the guy who got us here. If this isn’t a NC year, and I am not willing to concede that at all right now. he’s going to have us right back in the mix next year. Quit whining and be glad. These are the good old days.
We all have a little Munson in us and it’s hard to get rid of that knee-jerk reaction after decades of “misery”. I’ll usually grouse during the game but wake up the next day and realize that 99% of college fans would kill to be us.
Yeah, I think this is where I am. I gripe during the game but usually feel fine the next day. I have been making a concerted effort to enjoy the game in the moment and not get carried away with bad plays.
As Jules said, “I’m tryin’, Ringo. I’m tryin’ real hard.”
“The path of the righteous man is beset on all sides by the inequities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men”
Great reference Russ!!!!
Exactly this……
We have a minority segment of our fan base who is vocal and miserable, and they do anything they can to make everyone else miserable.
I attended UGA in the late 80s. 1990 was my last season as a student. We won nothing of consequence, and 1990 was awful. The worst season since the Johnny Griffith and late Wally Butts era – full stop.
I appreciate what we have now, and I appreciated what we had most years between 2001-15. Living through a 4-7 season where your in-state rival splits a national championship will do that to you. It doesn’t mean I don’t see the warts our team has, but those problems are Jeff Bezos type of problems.
’91-’95 here. The Goff era was brutal.
Ray Goff is a DGD as a player. He should never have been given the reins of head football coach of a program that had become stagnant. He was Dabo Swinney (but Dabo at least had a reasonably full cupboard to start).
Georgia should have at least interviewed this former Heisman winner who had played some pro ball, done some professional coaching and was making waves in the ACC with his passing offense. We should have given Steve Spurrier a look over Dick Sheridan.
We should have said:
“Erk. You are our next head coach. What do you want?
(Plug in any answer)
Done. Sign here.”
I firmly believe that what Tom Osbourne built in the 1990’s would have been done in Athens by Erk and that Spurrier’s career, along with that of Phat Phil, Gene and all three Bowdens would have gone much, much differently.
Of all the possible regrets as a Georgia fan, not welcoming Erk with open arms in 1989 will be the big one, and not only because it would have intersected with my matriculation. I don’t know what all the dynamics were at play when Dooley was stepping down and why and how he lost the power and clout to make that call alone, he was AD after all, is not in my purview, but to all those who prevented that obvious transition: gfy.
When Dooley announced his retirement, it was to enter politics. He was planning to step down as AD as well.
He took the AD job back after it was apparent his next role was not going to be in politics.
Well he was still the AD and he did make a recommendation to a committee and it was Erk. Whether that “intention” was the reason for the designation of a committee or not I don’t know. Maybe Vince didn’t realize the committee would fuck it up. Maybe he found their mishandling of it surprising. Again, I don’t know.
Erk retired in 1989 himself at age 63. The timing wasn’t right. He was only 2-3 years younger than Coach Dooley.
Actually Erk was 6 years older than Vince who was about my age (😭) when he stepped down. He was 56 during that last season.
I get that the timing wasn’t great. Erk’s version was that the committee would not accommodate his desire to sign a shorter than typical contract. My version is that the committee knew they had to be able to say they offered it to him, but let it be known to Erk that they really weren’t interested by offering him something different than what he wanted.
(My personal belief is that President Knapp did not want to be a distant second in importance on that campus at a time when he was trying to lead the university out of the Kemp saga.)
I often wonder if Erk thought he was getting the job and that Vince was headed to Auburn in early 1981 and that when Vince stayed put, Erk went to Statesboro. Who knows?
My point is merely this:
Vince recommended Erk. Erk clearly wanted the job but under his terms and those terms should have been greedily accepted by whatever asshats were on that committee.
As an aside, how many “bimbo eruptions” was Vince threatened with before giving up on the idea og being a Senator? I’ve always wondered…. I’ve also wondered how he could have been naïve enough to know that politics was dirty as fuck. Talk about timing…. Today, it wouldn’t matter if they were of age, consenting, female and not employed by the school.
Verily.
We beat Bama! And Southern Miss because they hit the upright on what would have been the game winner! Both victories by a single point! And then we dominated East Carolina by 4!! It kinda went downhill after that….
It took Garrison a bit longer than expected to make an impact, that’s for sure.
The opener down in Baton Rouge was a lot of fun, tho we lost on a late TD by Harvey Williams. First time in NOLA or at Death Valley. (When I found a case of Budweiser for $10.99 across the street from the LSU campus I thought I’d found Heaven.)
Point is this: its great to be a Georgia Bulldog! And that aphorism will never be at the whim of a w-l record.
Ride or die: 50-0 or 0-50. I’ll be watching the next week. And if its 0-50 I’ll likely be there because the tickets, unlike now, will be dirt cheap! Hell, you might even find affordable lodgings.
My only gripe is the constant losing to Bama. Those assholes have cost us multiple SEC titles and at least one Natty. That said, they kicked everyone else’s ass too, so I guess I should take a number, shutup, and sit down with the UF and LSU fans. Otherwise, we can’t really complain about losing our 1st regular season game in years and having warts on a team that could still put it all together in time for a run.
It was one thing losing to them when they were better than us which was pretty much the case in every match up from 2008-2022 and we won 1.
The past two years that hasn’t been the case, but its been the same result. Now its like they are what South Carolina is vs. us: play out their minds against us and then mediocre against the balance of the schedule. And bama’s talent is a bit better than USCe.
It’s frustrating that they dodged us in 2022 because I think we roll them. I also think we would have had a huge win in the first natty if they don’t call Simmons offsides. A real beatdown can really change the dynamics of a series and we haven’t gotten that done.
Hard to consider any program in America our equal right now. We’re a notch above because of recent titles and continuity at HC. The team we’re playing Saturday wants to be tho.
It’s impossible (but fun) to play the “what if” game, but it’s very interesting to think how things may have changed if the ref hadn’t blown the call against Tyler Simmons. Like you said, we block the punt there and to up by 3 scores, it would be fun to see how Kirby’s career played out.
I know I would have suffered a few less “Kirby doesn’t get it”s from Corch.
I think it certainly delayed things for Kirby. 2018-2020 probably goes a little better. Saban may have exited a bit sooner. Maybe our qb situation is a bit more settled after Fromm, but I wouldn’t trade the two Stetson years for anything.
Don’t forget the missed offsides on the far left Bama receiver on the TD to tie the game. He took two steps downfield before the ball was snapped.
Enjoy the ride…GO DAWGS!
If we had gone to Lexington interested.
If we had played a 60 minutes against Bama.
If we had put on a show for the Homecoming crowd.
If we don’t let a freshman QB surrounded by mediocrity score 3 TDs in the 2nd half in our house.
Then there’s very little bitching and more excitement, especially for this Saturday night’s showdown.
But they didn’t so we do and that’s how it goes.
I’m not happy as this remnds me of the Richt years except with a full roster and a good DC. It will take something magical for this team to win it all.
It takes something magical from any team to win it all.
“Lady luck” has to look down on ya…GO DAWGS!!
Clean Old Fshion Hate moving to Megatron’s sphincter (the Benz) for 2025
Miserable was most of 1994-98, other than beating Auburn in 4 OTs in 1996 and Florida in 1997. Miserable is after the 2012 SECCG, 2017 natty and 2018 SECCG. I just don’t get miserable anymore. I hope this emotional cushion from the back-to-back years lasts a long time. I know it won’t. But I haven’t felt miserable about UGA in 6 years. Also, this is still a really good team that could make a run, even if I have my doubts. Doubts don’t equal feeling miserable though.