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Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Wednesday Links (10/14)

A couple quick things I wanted to address:

First, I appreciate all the kind words from my post yesterday, but it really wasn't necessary. I didn't post that hoping to defend myself or fish for compliments. I was just hoping we could maybe all be a bit more reasoned in our approach to discussing the team. I don't expect many positive reviews of the Bulldogs right now, and that's completely fair. But I think we can all be honest without being ridiculous. Besides, no one is going to get thrown under the bus this week or probably this season, so let's have a little patience and see how things play out.

Second, I want to give a bit of a hat tip to Georgia's players and coaches. The bottom line is they stunk last week, but not a single one of them ducked interviews this week. Mike Bobo answered every question posed to him. Willie Martinez stood in front of a contingent of reporters for what has to seem like the 1,000th time and did his best to look optimistic. Every player -- despite the rampant criticism -- showed up and answered questions that, I'm quite certain, weren't easy to answer. That's saying a lot for guys who are 18, 19, and 20 years old.

That's not to say we all need to give them a free pass. I certainly won't when posing those tough questions. But for all the talk of a lack of accountability, I think their continued ability to discuss the team's problems ad nauseam is commendable. I can honestly say I sure wouldn't be looking forward to dealing with reporters after I screwed up at my job.

Anyway, that's my ray of sunshine for the day. Now back to the ugliness...

-- Tyler Estep writes that Georgia's secondary has few answers for the poor play that has resulted in three 300-yard passers so far this season.

-- Hey Jenny Slater manages to find a lot of bright spots that sort of underscore what a disaster the season has been.

-- ESPN's John D Lukas has a great story tracing the history of Georgia's famed hedges.

-- Chip Towers looks at the recruiting rankings for Georgia's current crop of defenders and says that the talent should be there but the performance is not.

-- Georgia won't be the only team with a player suspended for the Vanderbilt game.

-- Team Speed Kills gives Willie Martinez the backhanded compliment treatment.

-- The Tennessean doesn't have its facts straight, but they don't like Willie either.

-- Doctor Saturday has a pretty fair breakdown of Georgia's problems this season.

-- Tim Tucker has Georgia's mid-season report card.

-- David Ching has some wise insight: Georgia doesn't just need a change in coaches. It needs a change in culture.

-- Bernie parses my post from yesterday, and since flattery will get you everywhere, I'll definitely endorse reading his thoughts.

-- The first Mumme Poll results of the season are in, and there are few surprises. Still, it looks like the poll has worked splendidly in its first week and things will only get more interesting with a bunch of big games on the docket this weekend.

-- The NCAA isn't a big fan of how Alabama does business.

-- Speaking of Alabama, Kevin Scarbinsky says Kirby Smart would be none too smart to leave 'Bama and come back to Georgia as D coordinator. The most damning part is this line: "Georgia's a sinking ship."

-- Here's a cool list for all my 2nd Amendment-supporting readers: The 15 most famous movie guns.

-- And finally, here's a list of famous women who would look better with mustaches. I think Kelly Osbourne ends up looking just like the bassist from Spinal Tap.

8 comments:

UGA69Dwag said...

I think the whole coaching staff is shell shocked. After the loss to LSU and the total beatdown at UT, combat fatigue has got to be sitting in. They are now on the famous auto answer mode. Use every football cliche ever said to just get through the interview. One can only hope we can escape Nashville with a win and take the off week for R&R. CMR should look at the way UT & LSU played UF and try not helping UF destroy whats left of this team. A blow out loss to UF (I'm already assuming a loss) would end all hope for a winning season as the demoralized coaches and players would likely just phone it in for the rest of the season.

Eddie Unger said...

David,
I wonder if things turned for the worse when Richt began using gimmicks (black outs & end zone celebrations) to win games. It is almost like telling your players that we can't win solely on talent, coaching and execution, and we need an extra boost. It seems like, of the few big games in the past couple of years that UGA has actually won, only a couple of those victories came without a gimmick. Hopefully, the program hasn't devolved into one that relies on these types of counterfeit ploys to win.

Ozzie said...

David,
Of the 12 SEC offensive coaching staffs, how many would you say would have an advantage over UGA's defensive staff? For example, I am pretty confident in Bobby Petrino's ability to outcoach Willie Martinez. Same for Spurrier, Kiffen, Malzan, etc...
Thanks, I enjoy the blog.

Long Duck Dawg said...

David - I agree with you, and I tip my hat to them as well.

Imagine if you're doing everything you can to right the ship (studying hard in the film room, practicing your guts out on the football field, trying to not get pulled over on your scooter by the po-po), and then you have to go sit in front of a bunch of scoop-hungry reporters and answer questions about how sorry you played in the last game, how bad your coach is, how uncommitted the team seems, etc.

I commend the coaches and the team for toughing it out, and for not making any comments sounding anything remotely like they're giving up.

I also commend you for pointing out such a positive aspect of our team. They're showing us that it's not the dog in the fight, but rather the fight in the DAWG.

GO DAWGS!!!!

JRL said...

Eddie Unger I feel the same way about the trick plays Bobo seems to love (Fabris too. I think it sends the same negative message to the players.

Anonymous said...

The comparison Hey Jenny Slater makes with Richt and Tubs is scary! I never thought about that one....Fulmers kept coming to mind as the being loyal to a fault problem. Love the Blog!

Anonymous said...

"The NCAA isn't a big fan of how Alabama does business" That's funny because they never penalize them for anything...they represent big time $$$ for the NCAA. Most programs would have been given the death penalty with the type of S#@! that goes on at BAMA.

bnwdog said...

Alot of the bloggers on Hale's posts must have found their way over from the AJC. Things were so much more rational and productive around here such a short time ago. Now I feel like I'm reading posts at the end of a Bradley, Barnhart or King Article.