The "Not Ready for Prime Time" football Dawgs

The season was summed up in one half of football. 30 minutes of 1st half satisfaction was abruptly replaced with 30 minutes of disgust as the Dawgs allowed a 20-6 halftime lead evaporate on the way to a bitter 34-27 defeat at the hands of the Kentucky Wildcats. Really....???? Kentucky....??? Yeah, really.

This loss cannot be attributed to the defense, which (to its defense...in defense of the defense) has shown improvement over the past 3 weeks. Not that 3 weeks makes up for 2 plus years worth of solid disappointment, but the defense has played a little better. The loss Saturday can be chalked up to youth and inexperience. The youth is in the forms of supremely talented freshmen Branden Smith and Washaun Ealey and inexperience in the form of 5th year senior Joe Cox. The former can be more easily rationalized and even excused than the latter. The fact is that Joe has, in more than one game this year, melted down when the team needed him the most. Joe was just not ready for prime time this year, plain and simple.

As I sat in believable disbelief watching the Dawgs fumble and stumble their way to one of the worst losses I have seen in quite some time, I was reminded that this was supposed to be a year of rebuilding. Would I have imagined a 7-5 or 6-6 season, even after losing almost all of the prior year’s offensive weaponry? Nope. The fact is that even though the team has recruited very well over the past few years, the coaching and the ability to “coach up” those recruits has declined. Truth be told, after last year Coach Richt should have dismissed a couple of assistants, but stuck with his friends and we have seen the end result of that decision. If the head coach lacks the fire and desire to make tough decisions and continue to compete with the likes of Urban Meyer, Nick Saban, Houston Nutt and even Lane Kiffin, then perhaps he’s not the right man for the job. I say give him one more year to prove himself.

Having taken myself off “the ledge” of rabid fandom a few weeks ago (if you’ll recall from a prior post), I have been able to sit back and make decisions based more on logic than emotion. I still love the Dawgs and will follow them until the day I die, but I can now remove the emotion and gain some objectivity that I was “blind” to before. Richt’s even keel served the Dawgs and their fans well in the first few years, but his loyalty to his assistants and his seeming lack of fire have made me realize that, unless he can get the fire back next year UGA may need to seek another head coach. UGA is one of those “cream of the crop” jobs that deserves a coach who can act as the CEO and make the tough decisions if it helps the team compete every year. This team/coaching staff has not been competitive when and with whom it needs to be for 2 years, now and when we can’t slam the door on a Kentucky team that was all but left for dead at halftime, the issues abound.

I believe Richt will right the ship and make the decisions he needs to make, or Damon Evans and the boosters will make the decision for and without him. He is a great man, a very good coach but loyal to a fault. He has earned the right to get things turned around and the future looks very bright with all of the young talent they have coming back. We’ll see if they are able to do anything with them. He has earned that chance, in my opinion.