SB Nation User Blog: thefirstgenesis

Predictions for opener

thefirstgenesis — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 02:10:45 -0000

Wow! Another year has come and gone and where has all the time went to? It's another year of GA football, and we have a toughy to start off the season. Georgia will be good this year, but I'm not too sure if they will survive every single game if they played the way they did last season.

But a few thing's for sure.

1. Georgia has to score points, and I don't want an offense who doesn't know how to score. Isn't that part of winning a football game, to score touchdowns? Of course we are not playing a tough SEC defense, so I predict they will score more than 21 points. That is a given. If they don't, we have an offensive problem.

2. There will be true freshman playing. It is hard to dismiss the talent we have from our previous recruiting class. If I don't see Branden Smith on the field, then I don't know when we will use him. He has tremendous speed.

3. Defense should play better. OkST WILL score points. That is a given, but if we are the defense that we should be, we should eliminate any mistakes on defense that have plagued us last year (pass interferences, offsides, etc) and be more disciplined by tackling properly. I don't predict UGA will have more than 8 penalties in the game. If we do, we are pretty much allowing OkST to win the game.

If UGA plays UGA football, a win is likely, but I would be cautiously optimistic for a Georgia win if a field goal decides the outcome. It will be a tough slugfest because of OkST offense and our new inexperienced and questionable offense so far. In the end, turnovers will decide who will win, and I predict UGA will come out on top but just barely.

My final score: 34 UGA, 31 OkST.

What are your thoughts and predictions?

I support Richt

thefirstgenesis — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 19:50:44 -0000

For those of you who said Richt should be fired, look at the big picture and focus on what he has done during his time!

Richt has guided us to two SEC championships in his first five years. No other UGA coach in the past has done that.

Richt has given us consistent 10 win seasons. If it weren't for bad defensive plays from Vanderbilt and Kentucky in 06, we could have gone 11-2 and made it 6 consecutive seasons with 10 or more wins.

Richt has given us three Sugar Bowl appearances and consistent rankings in the polls, 2 seasons in the top 3, 5 seasons in the top 10. Make that 4 consecutive seasons in the top 10 from 2002-2005. Not even Florida can do that despite what their team has accomplished.

There are many more successes that Richt has given us in the football program, but which coach can you think of who can replace Richt? Yes, Richt still has a lot to improve on especially after this season, but he has accomplished tremendously during his tenure here.

This is the first season where a combination of injuries, bad plays, numerous penalties, bad discipline issues, lack of focus, and inaccountability has come together all at once, and Richt will address it accordingly. However, some of the coaches should be held accountable especially for how many points or yardage on special teams we have given up and instilling discipline in the team. We may give Ole Willie another chance next year as an indication if he could turn things around, but in the long term, his PASSIVE defense WILL NOT work at Georgia. If he does not turn things around for the 09 season, he may be out. Coach Searels is doing a great job on the offensive line and has kept us alive in spite of our defense, and Bobo, despite the occassional bad calls, is still learning in the process. We have great players, we have the potential for great coaches a good defense and an unstoppable offense in the future. It's that somehow many positives has not worked in our favor this year.

To make a comparision, our team this year is somewhat similar to what Texas (a team that has been successful throughout the years) had to go through last year in 2007. Texas had a good offense, but the defense gave up many points, and it led to a change in the defense coordinator. They lost at home to Kansas State giving up 41 points AND yes, they lost to their in-state rival Texas A&M 38-30, not once but twice in a row. I'm not saying that we may lose to GT next year, but as good as the Texas Longhorns were, they lost some football games. I don't know if they had many discipline or penalties as we had this year, but even the best fall down sometimes. That is college football. The thing that defines a football team that wins championships and a team that is mediocre at best is that a championship team treats each game for a purpose as if it is their last football game they will ever play (as many people on this blog pointed out) and a mediocre team that wins just to get by.

High expectations is what kills us (on the football field, at work, or as a student) because we may or may not REALISTICALLY achieve those goals given the circumstances. The preseason polls are foolish and stupid ranking us #1 in the beginning, and I would've ranked the UGA football team #12 at best in August. As for Richt, he is the best coach we have had for our Georgia program in a long time and things will get better for the good once he addresses what needs to be done. It will take some time (maybe a new offensive scheme here or there, and definitely, better defensive strategies, and some players who never say quit), but he will guide us to where UGA football needs to be, and that is to championships. For those who want Richt to be fired, who do you want to be the next UGA coach?

Not the way Georgia football is supposed to be played

thefirstgenesis — Sat, 29 Nov 2008 23:35:24 -0000

Post-Thanksgiving shopping has kept me from watching this game which was a blessing despite the fact that my alma mater lost pitifully. 45-42, a Georgia loss. Wow! We loss to the techies who lost to a bad Virginia team and a mediocre North Carolina team (although I have great respect for the UNC as a whole). What an embarrassment! This is the first time I've seen UGA loss while scoring more than 40 points! We knew that GT was going to run their pansies off and we can't stop the run? This defense has been the worst I've seen since I entered UGA from 2002 to 2005, and I thought those few years were the Golden years for the Georgia football team. This is a defense nightmare! Someone has to be accountable. For all of us who wanted Willie to be fired including myself, I'm afraid he's not going anywhere. Coach Mark Richt most likely would not let that happen for now. Ole Willie will be back next season for us to potentially see Georgia lose more games when we score 30 or more points.

This year by far has been one of the worst years I've experienced, and we're not just talking football. Bad economy, rising unemployment, high energy and food prices, and now, Georgia loss to its little brother. Looks like everything is coming together! Thus, the fact that we loss to our biggest rival was no surprise. To make matters worse, I'm not looking forward to the 09 season for three reasons.
1. You think our schedule was tough this year. Our schedule next year will be even tougher. We have OK State to start out the season followed by a resurging SC team, LSU, and a bitter Auburn team for our home games. Don't forget we have to play Florida as well as GT again. Realistically, if we don't fix our problems, more chances for UGA to lose AT HOME which in my opinion is a big embarassment and for us to lose more games! Optimistically, I see a 8-4 season next year, but if we play as childishly as we played today, I see a 5-7 season and no bowl game.

2. We might have another quarterback controversy, and I'm not surprised if we see another true freshman at the helms again. However, I do have some optimism that the next guy, I think his name is Aaron Murray, will achieve more success than what Stafford did when he was a true freshman.

3. Our team next season may be as unfocused and undisciplined as this year's. Clearly, discipline is one of the big reasons for our embarrassing losses this year. Erratic plays, unfocused mentality, too many personal fouls, can I go on any further? When BVG ran the defense, the only time I saw the defense gave up more than 30 points and we lost was during the 03 SEC championship game. Now, its almost like an every week occurrence. As far as special teams, we clearly have one of the worst special teams in the SEC right now. Somehow, we haven't allowed any touchbacks or forced any opponent behind their own 20 yard line this season.

What can we do to solve the problem? 3 possible ideas.
1. DON'T BE AFRAID TO SCORE. I don't know why but somehow, we just can't score enough points. After we scored 28 points at the half, we were shutout during the third quarter. Yes, we did put up a good offensive performance overall, but we need to put the game away by continuously scoring. I'm not asking that Georgia should convert to the spread offense and rack up 100 points by halftime like Florida's offense does, but we need to keep scoring to make up mistakes down the road (botched punt, interception, fumble). To extend this further, we have not scored a single touchdown in many times during the first half during the past three years. (Ex. Mississippi 06', SC 07', Florida 08', Alabama 08' to name a few). The offense has to find ways to move the ball, and I don't care if we throw in trick plays or have an A11 offense for a play or two. We need to CONTINUOUSLY score points.

2. Have better DISCIPLINED defense. The defense has not been spectacular at all since I left UGA in 05. In fact, I didn't think UGA's defense in 05 was that superb even though we won an SEC championship. We have been digressing, not progressing, and it will cost us. Ole Willie has had good games defensively, but he can't do it every single game like BVG did. The fact that we lost games during the 2001-2004 era was that we couldn't score points, not that the defense played badly. Sadly, I predict Ole Willie to be the defensive coordinator next year. If we lose more than 5 games, he may as well be fired.

3. Play each game as if it matters. Look at Florida and Alabama right now! I hate to mention The "F" word and the "A" word on this blog but that is the way we should play football. Don't put all the blame on Florida or Alabama when they hanged 49 points and 31 points at the half respectively on us this year. Don't blame them when we couldn't even score a frikkin' touchdown against them. Give them all the credit in the world but Florida and Alabama was ready to play and they made the most out of our mistakes when we couldn't execute properly or come up with a better scheme. You can't argue with a Florida team that scores more than 46 points and only gives up an average of no more than 12 points a game or an Alabama team that will go undefeated at home this year and play in the SEC championship game. The difference between a championship caliber team and an average Joe is that one plays the game as if it means something or it is their last and the other team that plays just to get by and wipe their butts off. I would let you decide but what type of team is UGA's this year?

It was a hard fought battle and GT beat us when we didn't see it coming. We were too focused on trying to get to 11-2 and forgot how we should play sound football. In the end, there's always a next time to make amends, but the next time may not be what we expect it to come out to.

Patrick L.
UGA alum class '06