Another Disappointing Season

It's been a busy couple of weeks, and a lot of things have happened. The optimistic feeling surrounding Georgia to start the season has faded. There is an all too familiar sense of doom and despair that has taken over the Bulldog Nation. The people still on the bandwagon, are left looking at each other, and wondering what is going on.

Ok, so we got blown out by Ole Miss. The Tennessee play was a complete fluke, but it's the kind of thing you learn from. Then we lose. At Home. On Homecoming. To Vanderbilt.

All of a sudden I'm hearing people opine for Mark Richt. I see people questioning Kirby Smart as Georgia's head coach. Even more people questioning Jacob Eason.

Here we are leading up to the biggest game of the season, the biggest game of any season, and I think most people aren't just giving up on this season, but I think a lot of fans are starting to wonder if Georgia will ever turn it around.

Let's start with reality. At the beginning of the season I said the bar should be set at 10-2 and playing for the SEC title in Atlanta. I still believe that goal was realistic, but obviously, Georgia isn't going 10-2 this season. I would consider this season to be a disappointment, which means this is the fourth straight season where Georgia has underachieved.

When you really look at it, Georgia won at home against Nicholls by only two points, and needed a last minute drive against Missouri to win that game, so 4-3 could easily be 2-5.

The offense has been inconsistent. The defense, while solid, has seemingly had one or two lapses each game that has allowed big plays that have come back to haunt Georgia. I would call the special teams a crap filled dumpster that has been lit on fire, but that would be an insult to crap filled dumpsters that have been lit on fire. Even writing this now, you can kind of start feeling like there really isn't anything to be positive about.

Then you look at the rest of the schedule.

Georgia will probably lose to Florida. Then we go on the road to Kentucky, who beat Vanderbilt, so you never know. We host Auburn, who seems to have turned their season around. I feel good about ULL on November 19th. Then we host Tech. With the way this team has played, you can't tell me you feel good about any of those games, other than ULL.

This season could get really ugly. At this point, I think 7-5 is about the best we can do, with loses coming to Florida and Auburn.

Ok, enough with the bad. Here is the good.

I am still 100% confident that Georgia will not only be okay under Kirby Smart, I am 100% confident that Kirby Smart will win a National Title at Georgia.

Smart has never been a head coach before, but he is as prepared to be a head coach as any person could be. He coached for Saban for 8 years. He coached at Georgia with Richt for 1 year. He played at Georgia. He has a great relationship with Coach Dooley and Coach Donnon. He won 4 National Titles as a defensive coordinator on teams where defense was the strength of the team. He is a fantastic recruiter.

Kirby Smart, and Georgia, are going to be fine. Just not this year.

The people who want to think Mark Richt would have done better with this team, I disagree whole heartedly. The offensive line issues that we have would have been the same for Richt as it is for Smart. You could argue that the reason the line is where it is this season is because of Richt's misses in recruiting. I think Richt's team would have beaten Vandy, so maybe they could have gone 8-4, but is that so much better than 7-5? Richt would have been fired if he went 8-4, and Kirby would probably have been unavailable because he would have just taken over at South Carolina.

I will have more on the Florida game later this week, but please, in the mean time, just remember, we are starting over with Kirby, and while this season has been both disappointing and frustrating, brighter days are ahead for Georgia.