One of my favorite exchanges in the movie Young Frankenstein begins with Gene Wilder complaining about how awful it is to be in a cemetery in the dead of night, stealing a corpse from a fresh grave. His accomplice Marty Feldman replies, “I don’t know…it could be worse.” “How?” “Could be raining…” mere seconds before a torrential downpour floods the grave.
Given a choice between serving as an administrator with two other people on a social media forum with a little over twenty-thousand (alleged) fans of Georgia Bulldog football and trying to herd twenty-thousand cats, I’ll take the cats every time. Why? Both have equally bad attitudes most of the time, but cats can only howl and hiss. If cats could write and verbalize idiotic thoughts like humans, the decision would be much tougher.
Earlier this morning I began reviewing the most recent posts in this “fan” forum and couldn’t help but notice the negative attitudes that pop up like mushrooms in a cow pasture after a hard rain, and like mushrooms, some were poisonous and others seemed to be hallucinating. People who demonstrate no real knowledge of the game feel compelled to express their opinions anyway.
It never fails–if Georgia loses a football game, some people are going to start losing their minds, and that’s okay as long as you keep it to yourself. But when you start talking crazy in front of an audience of twenty-thousand people, you’re setting a really bad example and somebody will need to intervene. Barney Fife only had the only bullet for his pistol and kept it in his pocket, but I can nip it in the bud with my ban hammer that has an unlimited number of uses. Be forewarned.
Yes, Georgia has lost two football games this season and won’t be contending for an SEC title or national championship this year. That does not mean Kirby Smart doesn’t know how to win a football game and will never win a national championship at Georgia. It doesn’t mean that the Bulldogs suck as a team because they lost two games to highly ranked teams from the SEC in the same season. When a sportswriter puts out some nonsense about “tearing up the program and starting over” because of two losses in the regular season, please remember it’s click bait. Sensational (as in, exaggerated) headlines attract more eyeballs.
While I have zero interest in making excuses for a good team that lost a football game, I have to wonder if these disgruntled fans of the team are cognizant of the injuries that forced major contributors to miss the Florida game in addition to the players we lost during the game. Perhaps they also need to be reminded that our starting QB and most of our offensive line from last year were drafted into the NFL and have begun their professional careers, and a couple of potential first rounders in next year’s draft were missing from our defense for the last game. In other words, shit happens.
Am I the only fan who remembers that only four years ago we were only one play away from a national championship? We had them beaten on the field, but the zebras helped them sneak into overtime and snatch away a victory with a great play. The following year we blow a second half lead in the SEC championship game and lose to Alabama again, then lost focus before playing Texas in the Sugar Bowl. The loss to Texas was disappointing because it’s one of the few times in recent memory the team didn’t appear to be ready to play when the whistle blew for the opening kickoff, and didn’t look like they wanted to be there. There was no shame in losing to Alabama or LSU during their championship seasons. Those teams looked like they could have beaten the Falcons if they’d played them instead.
Georgia’s record in football since Kirby Smart became coach: 8-5 (2016), followed by 13-2 (2017), 11-3 (2018), and 12-2 (2019). Some people don’t realize how good they have it until things get much worse than they are.
This season will be the first in four years that the Bulldogs have not won the SEC East and will not contend for the SEC Championship. Some of our fans must be too young to remember the sub .500 seasons we’ve suffered in the past and only see the glass as half empty. Ask yourself–would you rather be a fan of a team like Tennessee or South Carolina right now? Tennessee thought they were on the cusp of returning to relevance when they led us at halftime, but reality taught them a cruel lesson since that brief moment of euphoria. Most recently they were humiliated by Arkansas.
The only thing Gamecock fans have had reason to be happy about over the past two seasons has been their shocking upset in Sanford stadium last year. This year South Carolina already has a terrible record and they still have to play UGA, who will be seeking revenge for last year’s upset.
There’s this interesting concept that I vaguely remember from the days when I played sports, this idea of being a “good sport” when we lose. You might remember me saying this before: We (UGA fans) win with integrity and lose with dignity. Grumbling about a few bad calls that didn’t go our way is okay until it turns into whining. Hoping JT Daniels will have a good game if he finally gets an opportunity is all well and good until you feel the need to rip the guy who separated his shoulder on a TD throw after taking a free shot from a safety coming on a blitz. The guy gets injured playing for your team and the best you’ve got is to say you’re glad he’s out of there so somebody else can get an opportunity.
Nobody likes to lose. Nobody. The great Vince Lombardi once said, “Show me a good loser, and I’ll show you a loser.”
Unfortunately, what Vince didn’t also say but should have added was, “Show me a bad loser, and I’ll show you a poor sport (a.k.a. whiny little bitches).”
Georgia Bulldog fans are not allowed to act like whiny little bitches. Too many other fan bases are competing to claim (Clemson? Florida?) that title. It isn’t realistic to expect Todd Monken to completely transform our offense into championship caliber with no spring practice and only a few regular season games with his new players before visiting Alabama. Let’s give the man time and let’s see what he can do. And let’s give Kirby Smart a lot of credit for hiring him. We’ve seen some flashes of brilliance from the offense and creative play-calling under Monken that should only improve with time and experience. If you have any doubts about whether or not Kirby Smart can fire up his players as Georgia’s head coach, this short but extremely profane video should erase them forever. The man is very passionate about his desire to win. He gave James Coley an opportunity when offensive coordinator Jim Chaney left for Tennessee because of his abilities as a recruiter, but the experiment only lasted a year because Coley inherited a lot and underachieved. Monken inherited a lot less on offense and has shown significant improvement with play calling.
Remember, it could always be worse. It could be raining.
Thank you for that! I have been sitting in Sanford Stadium since the late 1970s..i have followed my Dawgs to multiple Sugar Bowls, a Rose Bowl, a Cotton Bowl & to Jacksonville so many times I’ve threatend to buy a condo. My only complaints are these: the “visitor ” stands at GaTech are NOT something that makes me think highly of their engineering prowess & could we get a couple of more Ladies restrooms at Sanford Stadium. Our Dawgs, I feel, give all they have to give every game–sometimes our opponents play better. To defeat the Georgia Bulldogs isn’t easy, requires our opponents to give everything & doesn’t happen often. I’m proud to be a member of Dawg Nation always GO DAWGS!