Does your blood run Red and Black?

Each college football season, the first blog I write is almost exactly the same, because each year, fans have to start with perspective.

Sure, pundits in the media can say stupid things like, “this team should be in the hunt for a national championship every year,” but that isn’t realistic.

Now, you want to point out Alabama. Ok, for the past six years, Alabama has been in the hunt each year. But what about before that? Maybe look at Alabama football from 1993 to 2007. Despite what Bama fans might tell you, the Crimson Tide did field a team during those years, and they weren’t competing for a championship each year.

Perspective is the key to enjoying any season, and Georgia fans completely lost perspective on the 2015 season.

As Georgia enters their bye week, the Bulldog Nation has become disenchanted with this season, this team, and of course, this coach.

If you thought this team should have contended for a National Title this season, then you are the problem, not this team.

Sure, once Georgia was 4-0 and hosting Alabama, who had already lost a game, you could start thinking that things might fall Georgia’s way. But go back to August, and remember that this team was going to be young at receiver, incredibly young in the secondary, and they didn’t have a quarterback.

Here we are on October 18^th, and what is the state of this team?

We just played about a million freshmen mostly at receiver and in the secondary, we still don’t have a quarterback, and our best player is out for the year with a knee injury.

If you are a Georgia fan, please stop rooting for a team that doesn’t exist, and root for the team we have. This team isn’t going to change before they get to Jacksonville in 13 days.

So you have about two weeks, as a Georgia fan to decide if you want to be a Georgia fan or not. This team is 5-2, will probably get back in the Top 25 before the Cocktail Party, and controls its own destiny in the SEC East.

Are you in or are you out? You have to decide now. Because I am sick of hearing people complain or cheer after the game.

Georgia fans aren’t alone in this, but we have become a terrible fan base that is ready to burn down Sanford Stadium after every loss. We want to fire a great coach and a better man because Nick Saban has gone on an historical run at Alabama, and now we have decided that it is our birth right to win every college football game we play.

There are five games left in this season, and I’m going to choose to be a fan. If we lose in Jacksonville, I’m going to watch the Kentucky game. If we lose to Auburn, I’m going to watch the Tech game. If we lose to Tech, I’m going to vomit, and then I’m going to watch the bowl game.

After the season, we can assess the season and the program, but instantly reacting to every third down play and trying to judge the entire program on a game or two is annoying.

Georgia is going to be underdogs in Jacksonville in two weeks, but in a rivalry game you never know what might happen. The Dawgs were a far better team last year, but didn’t show up and play at their best, and they lost the game. Florida isn’t the greatest team in college football, and Georgia can beat them.

Win or lose, the program is heading in the right direction. The recruiting job that this staff has done over the past two seasons is excellent and the incoming class might be the best of all. We see Georgia’s depth at linebacker with the injuries and ejections this season, so I’m convinced we will be strong there again next season, the young secondary is really talented and they are going to be really good maybe even by the end of this season, and next year we will have a quarterback that has the ability to make all the throws.

Is anything guaranteed?

Of course not.

As a fan I’m excited about watching these young Dawgs grow over the rest of this season, and I’m very excited about the future.

Perspective is something that we aren’t good at in this country any more. We want  what we want and we want it yesterday. For Georgia fans, the best example of this is that just two years ago these same “fans” that want Richt fired were calling Aaron Murray a bum and wanted Hutson Mason or Bryce Ramsey to play quarterback, because they were obviously a better option than Murray.

I hate to break it to you “fans” but you aren’t nearly as smart as you think you are. You might watch a lot of football, and you might have even played in high school, but you don’t know more about the game that Mark Richt and his coaching staff. You thought Murray was terrible, and he was the best quarterback we have had at Georgia in a very long time. Reading a message board doesn’t make you qualified to coach the team any more than writing a blog does.

The media is part of the problem. Whether it is sports, politics, the economy, or social issues, we are influenced by what we read or hear from so called experts, but they get ratings and readers by telling you who to blame. They sit in the cheap seats and criticize the man in the arena who does the hard job of actually competing or making decisions. If these people were truly experts, they would be on the field either playing or coaching. Mark Richt makes a lot more money coaching than anyone at the AJC makes writing about how bad Mark Richt is as a coach. That should tell you something. 

Fans need to be fans, support the team in good times and bad, or just find another team to support. The term fair-weather fan applies to the Bulldog Nation more than I ever thought it could. Character is revealed through adversity, and true loyalty is shown in the hard times.

At the beginning of the season, from my perspective, 10-2 would have been a success for this team, and I’m sticking to that, but win or lose, I’m all in.

The rest of you Georgia fans need to decide where you stand.

Does your blood run Red and Black or not?