It's time to change the way we think

I’m not sure why I haven’t posted anything since the SEC Championship Game. This season has been absolutely amazing, the best season in my lifetime for sure, and it’s not over yet!

There is plenty of time to talk about the Rose Bowl matchup, but I wanted to take just a minute to address a narrative that I have heard in a couple of places over the past week.

It goes something like this:

“Georgia has had a great season, and even if the Dawgs come up short in the Rose Bowl, the program is looking up. Georgia is going to be good for a long time.”

Now, you may have had these thoughts too, or maybe you have even said something like this to a friend. I want you to know that I completely understand this type of thinking, but I need you to do me a small favor.

Shut up.

That is a loser’s mentality. There are four teams that can win the National Championship and Georgia is one of them. Why in the world would we be thinking about how great of a season this has been when it’s not over? Why would we think we can’t win it all?

I know the reason, it’s because we haven’t. Winning it all doesn’t happen at Georgia. We have been conditioned for many years to find the positive in a season with a certain level of disappointment.

There is another reason that this thinking is flawed; we were all saying the exact same thing 15 years ago.

In 2002, Mark Richt was in his second season, Georgia had won the SEC title, and heading into the bowl season, Georgia was ranked 3^rd nationally. Sound familiar?

Georgia beat FSU in the Sugar Bowl, and the program was on the rise. You would not have been able to convince me or any other Georgia fan that was going to be the high water mark for the program under Richt.

2003 and 2004 were disappointing seasons because a team that should have been primed to win big found a way to lose games to lesser teams to keep them out of the conversation. In 2003 it was Florida and in 2004 it was Tennessee.

2005 was an SEC title season, but Shockley got hurt late in the game against Arkansas and didn’t play against Florida. Georgia lost. Shockley returned against Auburn, but the Dawgs fell 31-30 in a heartbreaker. Even though Georgia upset LSU for the SEC title, they were never really in contention because of those two losses.

2006 was a rebuild year.

2007 could be thrown in there as a time when Georgia was in the conversation, but early season losses to South Carolina and Tennessee kept Georgia from having the chance to win the SEC title and ultimately left the Dawgs out of the title picture.

2008-2010 were complete and total disappointments at different levels.

2011 was a bad team that beat other bad teams. They went 10-4, but lost to every decent team they played that season.

2012 was the outlier in the second half of the Richt Era. The team was very good, but suffered a humiliating loss at the hands of South Carolina on the road. Of course, we all remember how close Georgia was to beating Alabama in the SEC title game, but close doesn’t count. So it was another year of saying “wait til next year.”

2013 through 2015 were also terribly disappointing on different levels and those seasons are ultimately what cost Richt his job in Athens.

So from 2002, when Georgia seemed to be ready to ascend to the upper levels of college football’s
elite, until 2015 when the coaching change was made, we had 3 seasons that could be called successful, but they were all followed up by abject disappointments the very next year.

My point is this: in sports, as in life, you have to take your chances when you have them. The first one is always going to be the hardest to get. We need to get it this year.

Yes Kirby seems to have Georgia headed to places we haven’t been in nearly 40 years. The recruiting is at all-time high. The Athletic Department is investing in ways they never have before. The energy around the program has never been higher.

And for all of those reasons, this needs to be our year. From the coaches, to the players, and to the fans, we need to be bought in 100% that this is a now or maybe never proposition for Georgia.

We are one win away from playing for the National Title in our home state. When will that ever happen again? This is our year. This is our time. I don’t care who else is in the playoff. It is title or bust for Georgia.

No more talk of where we might be going, let’s take advantage of where we are.

Go Dawgs!

A New Twist to the Deep South's Oldest Rivalry

For two teams playing for the 122^nd time, you wouldn’t think it would be possible for something to be happening for the first time, but that is exactly the case on Saturday when Georgia takes on Auburn for the SEC Championship.

There are a few firsts for this game. It will be the first time the SEC Championship is played in the brand new Mercedes-Benz Stadium. It will be the first time cross-divisional rivals have ever squared off for the SEC Championship. It will also be the first time in the college football playoff era that the SEC Championship Game will serve as a sort of National Quarterfinal.

Georgia leads the all-time series 57-56-8, but it was just three weeks ago that Auburn throttled Georgia on the Plaines 40-17.

There are four things that will be different on Saturday from the first meeting and I think they all favor Georgia.

First, the home field advantage that Auburn enjoyed three weeks ago will not be present in Mercedes-Benz. I think it will probably be 60-40 Georgia-Auburn, but even if it is 50/50, the Auburn defense won’t have nearly the advantage that it did at Jordan-Hare.

Second is the health of Kerryon Johnson. It has been announced that Johnson could be a game-time decision on Saturday. I fully expect Johnson to play, but how effective he will be will go a long way in deciding who wins the game. As well as the Auburn offense is playing, it relies on Johnson running the ball to keep the defense honest and open up the passing game. A one-dimensional offense against Georgia’s defense is a recipe for failure.

Third is that the coaching staffs for each team have seen what the other team has, and now can make adjustments. I’ll take Kirby Smart 1000 times over Gus Malzahn. No offense to Malzahn, but we have seen his teams be inept many, many times over the years. He is a good coach with a great system that is nearly unstoppable when it is working, but I haven’t seen him be able to come up with a plan B in all his time at Auburn.

Fourth are the stakes. As I said before, the winner of this game goes to the playoff, while the loser will have to dream of what might have been. I can honestly say that this season has been an overwhelming success for Georgia, no matter what happens on Saturday. For a team that lost 5 games a year ago, two of those games being against Vanderbilt and Tech at home, this year has been a great turn around. Georgia won at Notre Dame for the first time in school history. They defeated three of their biggest rivals, Tennessee, Florida, and Tech by a combined score of 121-14. They won the SEC East for the first time in 5 years, by going undefeated in the division for the first time ever.

Auburn has to win on Saturday to make this a successful season. Think about that. In the past three weeks, the Tigers have defeated the number one team in the country twice, but none of it will matter without another victory. Auburn’s two early season losses make it where the Tigers’ are in a unique position. Win and it could be the greatest 4 week span in the history of college football. Lose and this team will be 10-3, and largely forgotten. That’s amazing.

When you look at what Auburn is as a program, you realize that their reputation is better than the teams they put on the field. Since 2007, the Tigers have averaged 4.8 losses per season! In that time, they have lost less than 4 games only twice. So why do we perceive them as a national power? Because the two times they lost less than four games they either played for or won the National Championship. Auburn is the best team in the nation at cashing in on limited opportunities. Meanwhile, the Mark Richt era at Georgia was defined completely by not cashing in. 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2007, 2012. All seasons where Georgia was in the hunt for a championship and talented enough to win it all, but they always managed to lose that one game that put them out of the title race. The one aspect of this game that favors opportunistic Auburn is that this is the exact type of season where they cash in.

There is one more factor about this game that can’t be ignored. Multiple media outlets are reporting that if Auburn loses this game, Gus Malzahn will be resigning and taking the Arkansas job. I had a friend ask me last weekend what I thought about those rumors and I dismissed them completely because it makes no sense to me. However, this seems to be real. Can you imagine a situation where by Monday, a team that has had the success the Tigers have had over the past month could be out of the playoff and looking for a new coach?

So on the field, what has to change for Georgia to win the SEC and make the playoff?

If I were numbering these, 1-100 would be that the offensive line has to, what do they call it these days…. BLOCK!!!!

Georgia couldn’t run the ball in the first game. Georgia couldn’t throw the ball in the first game. If you can’t run the ball, and you can’t throw the ball, there is no chance that you can score. If you can’t score, you can’t win. See, it’s really not that complicated.

Georgia has moved Ben Cleveland to right guard which has made the offensive line look better the past two weeks against Kentucky and Tech, but the real test for this line will be whether or not they can be effective against the Tigers.

Georgia also needs to eliminate the stupid mistakes. Georgia has struggled with penalties this season at times, but the mental mistakes made against Auburn were totally out of character for this team. Dropped punts. Kung Fu kicks when trying to rush the punter. Personal fouls on late hits out of bounds. All of these things extended drives and led to points for Auburn in the first game. Despite the fact that Auburn scored 40 points in the first meeting, Georgia’s defense played fairly well in the first game, but any defense that is sent back on the field two times after what should have been 3 and outs, is going to get demoralized and eventually break.

The one aspect of Georgia’s defense that will need to improve from the first game is tackling. There were far too many yards after contact for Kerryon Johnson. However, the worst part was terrible tackling by the Georgia secondary that allowed too many extra yards on Auburn passing plays. If Georgia tackles better against Auburn, the defense can dominate this game.

Georgia can’t be bland on offense. Too many times in the first game, Georgia ran the ball unsuccessfully on first and second down only to have either an incompletion or more often a sack on third down leading to a punt. Georgia has absolutely nothing to lose in this game and I want to see an offensive attack that understands this fact. Throw it on running downs. Run some draws. There are these pass plays called screens, they work some times. If you call a trick play, make sure you block the defensive line.

Georgia has, in my opinion, five players who are threats to score every time they touch the ball. Chubb, Michel, Swift, Hardman, and Wims. Those guys need to have the ball in their hands on nearly every offensive play. They need to all be on the field together and Georgia needs to attack this Auburn defense, rather than try to out-muscle them the way they did on the Plaines.

Can Georgia really make all these adjustments in just a few short weeks? Can they put a stop to Auburn’s dream run? I honestly don’t know. But I know one thing. I am excited to be in the position to find out.

This time last year, we were getting ready to not watch a crappy Florida team get destroyed by Alabama. This season, we are one win against a team that we have dominated for a decade away from the College Football Playoff.

Get used to this Georgia fans. This isn’t just our present, this is our future.

Go Dawgs!

Time to Bounce Back

It has taken an entire week to be able to muster up the desire to talk about Georgia football. Let's just go ahead and say it, last week was terrible. I honestly don't think there is one thing to come out of that game that could be seen as a positive. Everything this team has done all year melted away, and what was left was a blunder-filled catastrophe.

Ok, now let's move on.

Georgia is 9-1. Ranked 7th in the nation. We have won the SEC East and we still control our own destiny to make the College Football Playoff.

I'm sure you have heard a similar stat at some point in the last few days, but since 2006, do you know how many National Champions finished the season without a loss?

2

Alabama in 2009 and Auburn in 2010.

In every year of the college football playoff the eventual national champion has lost a game, and every year that loss has been not only to a mediocre team, but it has been at home.

So, it is with a little perspective that we turn our attention away from last week's embarrassment and we look towards making a little history.

Since the SEC split into divisions in 1992, Georgia has never gone undefeated in the SEC East. A win against Kentucky tomorrow would break that streak.

And despite Georgia being a big favorite, tomorrow's game is going to be a real test for the Dawgs. The biggest reason Georgia lost to Auburn was their inability to stop the run. Kentucky is going to want to run the ball. Now the Cats don't have the offensive line that Auburn does, but it will still be a test for a Georgia defense that was completely terrible stopping the run a week ago.

Offensively, this week provides another opportunity for growth. The running game struggled against Auburn and the pass protection completely broke down. Georgia needs to prove that it has figured some things out in practice this week.

I think the biggest disappointment last week was the lack of discipline. Too many penalties, mental mistakes, and turnovers. Georgia needs to come out tomorrow and play like the team they have been all year, and not like the team that wet the bed last week.

There is no reason to think this is going to be a close game, but if for whatever reason Georgia hasn't put the game away before the fourth quarter, Sanford Stadium is going to be insanely tense tomorrow evening.

I think the seniors pull us through on Senior night, but it's going to be closer than the betting line.

Georgia 34  Kentucky 20

Go Dawgs!

Deepest Rivalry, Biggest Stakes

In all my years of watching Georgia football, I can't remember a bigger game that could have little to no meaning. As Georgia travels down I-85 to take on Auburn tomorrow afternoon, the top-ranked Dawgs will find themselves matched up with another Top 10 team in November. That is supposed to mean it's the biggest game of the season.

In reality, tomorrow is a very big game, but not as big as it might seem. I'm not really a fan of the "What If" game when it comes to college football. There are just too many teams involved and too many variables to be able to really figure out what any win or loss will mean by the end of the month.

Because of their amazing start to the season, Georgia has already clinched the SEC East. They are the number one team in the nation, and that won't change if the Dawgs keep winning.

So what is on the line tomorrow?

Both everything, and nothing.

Everything because this team is perfect so far this season, so their perfect season is on the line. The number one ranking is on the line. The ability to control their own destiny is on the line. Just like any rivalry game, pride is also on the line.

Nothing is on the line though when it comes to the college football playoff. The reality of tomorrow's game is that Georgia will still be in the SEC title game on December 2nd, and if they win that game, they will be in the playoff. Period.

Now there has been a lot of talk about Georgia losing a close game to Alabama and still making the playoff. Again, this is where my head starts to hurt because who knows if Georgia would still get in at this point, but one thing is for sure. A loss at Auburn would mean that Georgia would have to win the SEC title to make the playoff, there would be no back-door route.

Now, as far as the game itself, Auburn is the best team Georgia has faced this season by far. Their front 7 on defense is one of the best in the nation, and their up-tempo offense can get rolling and put a lot of points on the board.

We have watched Georgia dominate teams this season, but I wouldn't bank on this game being that easy. Auburn is good enough to play four quarters with Georgia, and the reason that so many people are unsure about what that might look like for Georgia. The Dawgs have done nothing this season to make me think they would fold under pressure, but outside of the Notre Dame game, the Dawgs haven't really been put under pressure.

I think this game is going to come down to Auburn's offense and Georgia's defense. I think Georgia can score on Auburn's defense, because they have given up points to teams that are far less talented than Georgia. Each of the last four teams Auburn has played has scored in the 20's. Georgia has only given up 20 points once this season, and that was Missouri. The game will come down to whether or not Auburn can score enough to be in this game in the fourth quarter.

I'm not a cocky fan at all, but when Georgia took a 21-0 lead on Florida a couple of weeks ago, I relaxed because I knew the game was over. Georgia has an elite defense, and Florida's offense could have stayed on that field for a month and they wouldn't have scored 21 points. Auburn is better than Florida, but I don't think they are good enough.

Georgia 31   Auburn 20

Glory, Glory

For the Seniors

 On Sunday,  at a team meeting, Kirby Smart asked for any player in the room who had beaten Florida to stand up. No one did.

That is how you set the tone for the week. Yes, Georgia is undefeated and the third ranked team in the country, but on the field in Jacksonville, they have to prove they can get the job done.

For the past three years, Georgia has come up short against the Gators after winning three straight from 2011-2013.

For any fan, we have to remind ourselves that fan is short for fanatic, but as much as we care about the team's results, the players and coaches care more.

I want this season to keep heading down the magical road we have been on. I want it for the me, and for the rest of the Bulldog Nation. But more than anyone else, I want it for our 5 seniors who came back this year to do something special.

Lorenzo Carter, Davin Bellamy, Dominick Sanders, Sony Michel, and Nick Chubb.

Carter and Bellamy have led a defense that is the backbone of the team. Sanders has been a constant at safety since his freshman season. He is a ball-hawk. Sony Michel may end up being a better pro than a college player, but Sony has been a rock for this team and he is the vocal leader that this team needs.

Then there is Chubb. I'm going to be honest and tell you that I get a little emotional when I think about Nick Chubb.

When Chubb committed, I watched a few of his high school videos online and I immediately fell in love. I remember showing my brother those videos and telling him that this was going to be a guy we were going to love. He never went down from just one tackler and he kept his legs moving.

Little did I know that his play on the field would be the second most lovable thing about Nick Chubb. In 2014, when Todd Gurley was suspended, the quite freshman stepped up. After an amazing performance on the road at Missouri, they interviewed Chubb on the field. He was soft spoken, unassuming, and seemingly ego-less. He credited the offensive line, and his entire team around him.

I loved Gurley, but with Todd out because he signed autographs for money, here was a 19 year old kid, putting his teammates first.

After the horrific injury that Chubb suffered in Knoxville in 2015, he returned in 2016 with a solid, but not Chubb-like season. There was no reason for him to come back this season. No, he wouldn't have been a first round pick, but even still, the life of a running back is shorter than any other position in football. Chubb probably cost himself at least 1/2 million dollars returning to Georgia for his senior season.

So why did he do it? Why did any of these guys come back?

For today. For week 2 against Notre Dame. For what could happen over the next 5 weeks. These five seniors believed in this team, believed in this coaching staff, and delayed their own dreams of playing in the NFL for one more shot to bring Glory to Georgia.

Today isn't "win one for the Gipper." It should be win one for the seniors. They believed first. A top 5 recruiting class believed second, and now we are all believers.

Georgia wins big today. I hope each of those 5 seniors gets a special moment this afternoon on the banks of the St. Johns river. They deserve this moment, and our unending gratitude for restoring not only our hope, but more importantly our pride in the Red and Black.

Georgia 48.  Florida 13

Go Dawgs

Enough is enough, and it's time for a change

It’s that time of the year again. Time for the Cocktail Party. Time for Georgia/Florida.

This season, it is undoubtedly a tale of two teams, as Georgia and Florida seem to be heading in opposite directions. Georgia, is 7-0 and ranked #3 in the nation. Florida is 3-3, and unranked.

In any season, there are games that could go either way. I have always been a believer that your record is the best indicator of what kind of team you are, but we can look and hypothesize a little as to what could have been.

For Georgia, we are living our best case scenario every week of 2017. You can’t really do any better than undefeated. When you look back at the first 7 games of the season, there was really only one game that Georgia was at risk of losing, and that would have been on the road to Notre Dame, who is currently ranked in the Top 10.

Again, the situation in Gainesville is much different. It is not an exaggeration to say that Florida is lucky to be 3-3. If it weren’t for Butch Jones and Tennessee finding a way to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory, Florida would have lost to the Vols. Kentucky had Florida beat as well, but they failed to guard a wide receiver on two separate plays in the fourth quarter that directly lead to touchdowns in what turned out to be a one point loss for the Wildcats. So, if you look at the worst case scenario for Florida, you see that the Gators are three plays away from being 1-5.

I say all of this to make the most obvious point anyone could make heading into the game this weekend:

Georgia is a far better team than Florida.

Alright! This is the fun blog! This is where we get to talk about how Georgia is going to dominate the Gators.

Wrong. This is the blog where we talk about how being the better team hasn’t worked out so well for Georgia in Jacksonville.

Now, the premise of this idea is that Georgia had to be the superior team, so we are throwing out all of the Spurrier era. From 1990-2001, Florida was a much better program and fielded much better teams than Georgia. Even though Georgia upset Florida in 1997, they weren’t the better team.

Hold on, here we go down bad memory lane.

2002: Georgia is undefeated coming into Jacksonville. Georgia fails to convert on 3^rd down throughout the entire game, going something like 0-13 on third down. Even still, Georgia has a chance to win the game, but Terrence Edwards, one of the greatest receievers in the school’s history, drops a critical pass towards the end of the game that sealed Georgia’s fate. The Dawgs end up 13-1, win the SEC title, and the Sugar Bowl, but couldn’t beat Florida.

2003: Georgia is again the better team, and again the Dawgs would fall to Florida. This time, the Gators kick a field goal late to win. Georgia goes 12-3 and loses to eventual national champion LSU twice that season, once in Baton Rouge and once in Atlanta in the SEC title game.

2005: Georgia limps into Jacksonville with starting quarterback DJ Shockley injured. Joe T 3 was average at best for the Dawgs as Florida scored on their first two offensive possessions and held on two win 14-10. Georgia again wins the SEC title, but fails to beat Florida.

2008: I’m not sure this game quite fits in this category because the 2008 Dawgs lost four games overall and the 2008 Gators won the National Championship. However, it makes the list because Georgia was the preseason #1 team in the nation and featured Stafford, Moreno, and AJ Greene. Florida embarrassed Georgia, 49-10 to get their season back on track and send the Dawgs into a tail spin that lasted the better part of 4 seasons.

2014: This is the game that will be referenced time and time again over the next few days. Georgia enters the game as big favorites (10 points). Florida was reeling, and it was a foregone conclusion that Will Muschamp would be fired at the end of the season. Georgia scored early with Nick Chubb to take a 7-0 lead, then Florida scored the next 31 points en route to a mind-blowing 38-20 win. Florida ran all over Georgia. By the end of the afternoon, Kelvin Taylor and Matt Jones combined to rush for 389 yards and four touchdowns. As a team Florida ran for 436 yards. To illustrate just how one dimensional Florida was, the Gators completed only 3 passes on the day for 27 total yards.  

2015: Jacksonville will always be Mark Richt’s Waterloo, but the 2015 game got him fired. Georgia was limping through the month of October, with quarterbacks Bryce Ramsey and Grayson Lambert both showing they sucked. So Richt went with Faton Bauta against the Gators to bring a running dynamic to the game. However, rather than have Bauta run, Georgia ran their normal offense with a quarterback that was worse at throwing the ball than their normal sucky quarterbacks. Bauta, the running quarterback threw the ball 33 inexplicable times and Georgia lost to Florida 27-3. How do I know that this was the game that cost Richt his job? Georgia won the rest of the games in 2015 to finish the season 9-3, so the loss in Jacksonville must have been the breaking point.

That brings us to 2017. Once again, Georgia is the better team, but will it matter? Georgia is 5-11 against Florida since 2001. In at least 5 of those 11 losses, Georgia was the better team. If we are being honest, Florida is a program that is living off the Spurrier error, along with about 4 really good years (the Tebow years) under Urban Meyer. Florida hasn’t been great in a long time, but Georgia still can’t manage to get the job done.

Everything about this season feels different, but the biggest test to see how much has changed may come Saturday afternoon at 3:30. Georgia will probably go to the SEC title game, win or lose, but a loss will mean that the more things change for Georgia, the more things in Jacksonville stay the same.

Take Nothing for Granted

In college football, humility is just a week away.

Last night, two more Top 10 teams fell to un-ranked opponents. While I never thought much of Washington State, I felt, and still feel, that Clemson is one of the best teams in the country, so seeing them lose to Syracuse is shocking.

Two big things for Georgia fans to remember as you start your college football Saturday, first, a one loss ACC Champion, Clemson will still make the playoff. Second, we don't have to root for other teams to lose. We control our destiny.

If the last two weeks have thought us anything it should be that it is way too early to be talking about playoffs, rankings, or even SEC titles. We need to be talking about one thing, Missouri.

Four top ten teams have lost to un ranked teams since last Saturday, that should be all the motivation we need to keep our focus on the Tigers.

On paper, this game should be as intriguing as the Samford game. Missouri is 98th in the country in rush defense, lady in the SEC in turnover margin, and winless in the conference.

Georgia is ranked 4th in the nation, they have the number one defense in points per game allowed, and are blowing out their conference opponents by an average of 30 points per game.

On paper, this game is pointless. On paper this isn't a game worth attending or watching. On paper, Georgia is favored by 30 points.

Problem is, the game isn't played on paper.

What is required from Georgia tonight is something that far too often plagues teams. Respect for their opponents. Too often, in different sports, a team knows they are better than their opponent so they go through the motions of preparation, but mentally they aren't on their game, because they expect to win. Just this past week, the US Men's National Team failed to qualify for the 2018 World Cup because they couldn't be bothered to show up and give a respectable performance. In sports, anyone team can win one game.

Georgia is far better than Missouri, but if Georgia doesn't come out, grasp the Tigers by the neck, and choke the hope out of them early, you never know what could happen.

Kirby won't miss the opportunity to remind his team about Michigan, Oklahoma, Clemson, or Washington State, but these guys are 18-22 year old kids, so telling them might not get the job done. If it were me, I would spend the next 13 hours making the team watch Oklahoma's embarrassing performance last week, over and over.

I think this is a special team, so I think they will keep their focus where it should be, on their opponent, and get the job done tonight. I would never lay 30 points, but it will be a blowout.

Georgia 42.  Missouri 17

Go Dawgs!

Keep Chopping Wood

Another week, another solid performance, and another week of rising expectations. Georgia's victory over Vanderbilt was not the most impressive win of the season, but that alone is pretty impressive. While the Dawgs weren't at their best, the B game or C game was more than enough to win a SEC road game. I don't think anyone needs to be reminded, but Georgia lost to Vanderbilt last year at home. I think we can all agree, this year is much more fun.

Now the Dawgs get ready to host lowly Missouri between the hedges for Homecoming . You might be thinking this game is nearly pointless, but all I have to do is point you towards Norman, Oklahoma  to show that no game is a guaranteed win. The Sooners lost at home to an Iowa State team who had their backup quarterback starting the game.

While there is no logical reason Missouri should be within 4 touchdowns of Georgia, some times sports can be illogical.

I would be fine if the team skipped watching the tape of the Vanderbilt game and watched the entire Oklahoma game instead.

With the Oklahoma loss, I saw a lot of social media posts about Georgia deserving to be #3 in the polls instead of #4. While that is a perfectly fine argument to make, the reality is that it doesn't matter one bit where Georgia is ranked right now. The focus for this team should be the next game on the schedule, and I'm sure that is exactly where Kirby will have their focus this week.

If Georgia keeps winning, the polls will take care of themselves.

One of the best things about this week was that Florida managed to lose at home, to LSU, who was coming off a home loss to Troy last week. The Gators now have one loss in the SEC, and will be considered underdogs this week as they head to Texas A&M. Unless something dramatic happens, Florida will pick up their second SEC loss against the Aggies, which means Georgia will be in position to all but clinch the East in Jacksonville.

While Jacksonville has been a house of horrors for the Dawgs for a quarter of a century, this could end up being one of the most important games Georgia has played there in a very long time. The last time Georgia was undefeated heading into the Cocktail Party was 2002, in Richt's second season. Georgia found a way to lose that game when they were much better than Florida for the only loss of the 2002 season.

Even if Missouri turns out to be a cupcake next week, the memories of 2002 should be plenty to keep Georgia fans uncomfortable for two weeks until the big game arrives.

One last thought for the week and it's about expectations. While the first half of the season has been a lot of fun, Georgia fans are notorious about letting themselves get carried away with expectations too early in the season. I was guilty if it in 2013 after Georgia beat LSU at home, and I put the Dawgs in the SEC title game. But this year is different. First, the team is playing with a consistency that I don't remember ever seeing before from Georgia, bust most importantly Georgia doesn't have that much competition left on their schedule.

Here we are, half way through the season and Georgia only has one game left against a ranked team. They only have two true road games left, and one of those is in Atlanta, where Georgia hasn't lost since 1999. The SEC is down again this year, and the East is down even by the East's ridiculously low standards. So Georgia's accent into the upper echelon on the college football world is equal parts Georgia's improvement and their opponents' mediocrity.

But don't worry, if the Dawgs take care of business over the next few weeks, they will get their chance to see where they measure up against the Tide in Atlanta.

Until then, keep enjoying the ride as the Dawgs keep chopping that wood.

Glory, Glory

Go Dawgs!

Georgia/Vandy Preview

It has been a fun few weeks in Athens as the Dawgs are on a roll. The good times kept going today as five-star quarterback Justin Fields, FROM GEORGIA, decided he was staying home and committed to the Dawgs. This is the first time that a school has managed to get a five-star quarterback in three consecutive recruiting cycles.

I don't usually get this excited about recruiting during the season, but this is a big get for Georgia. I don't know if Fields will turn out to be a huge star or a huge bust, but either way, Kirby and the Georgia coaching staff are continuing to keep the best players from the state at home, and that is a recipe that will produce success.

As far as this week's game against Vanderbilt goes, Georgia should coast. Vanderbilt beat Georgia last year in Athens, so I don't think there is any chance the players will underestimate the Commies. The Dawgs have been one of the best teams in the country so far this season, while Vandy has had trouble against top-level opponents.

Alabama dominated Vanderbilt two weeks ago in amazing fashion, and last week, Vandy made Florida look like a viable team, with a viable offense.

Ralph Webb is the best offensive threat Vandy has. He is the school's all-time leading rusher, but he hasn't had a great senior season so far, and there is no reason to think his luck is going to change against Georgia's defense.

Even without Reggie Carter, Trent Thompson, and Natrez Patrick (who got popped for weed Thursday night), Georgia should be more than capable of stopping Vanderbilt's offense.

For Georgia's offense, it is all about getting better. The Dawgs have been incredibly effecient so far this season, but as the season goes on, and the competition level rises, Georgia's offense is going to need to rise to the level of the defense if this is going to be a special season.

The running game is so good, but I would expect to see a lot of D'Andre Swift in this game, saving Chubb and Michele for the stretch run.

For Jake Fromm, the next two weeks are all about getting better. There is a big difference in being good and being great. Fromm is good, there is no doubt about that, and I'm not sure he has to be great for Georgia to have a great season, but I do know that anyone who watched the Tennessee game saw Jake look like a freshman for the first time this season. Fromm was far from perfect in the first half, and as much as it pains me to say it, Gary Danielson was right about Fromm deciding where he is going to throw the ball before he takes the snap. Aaron Murray was guilty of that same sin, and it cost Georgia multiple times in big games.

The last two seasons have been defined by terrible Octobers.

In 2015, after starting the season 4-0, Georgia went 1-3 in October and got Mark Richt fired.

Last season Georgia was 3-1 heading into October. The Dawgs were again 1-3 with an inexplicable loss at home to Vanderbilt tucked between the heart breaking loss to Tennessee and yet another disappointment against Florida.

This year will be much different.

Georgia will take care of Vanderbilt and Missouri, but I expect one of those two games to be a little closer than you might think.

But this year, the entire month of October will boil down to one afternoon in Jacksonville.

Enjoy tomorrow, Dawgs win big, 44-6.

Glory, Glory

Raising Expectations

41-0.

That was fun.

Despite what Gary Danielson tried to say on the broadcast, the game was never in question. From start tonfinish Georgia dominated a Tennessee team that just got their coach fired, if not today, then by a he end of the season. Tennessee isn't great. Mississippi State isn't great. But that doesn't take away from the two performances that Georgia has given us the past two weeks.

Heading into October, Georgia is 5-0, with games against Vanderbilt and Missouri coming up next. Those should be easy wins, which should set up a defacto SEC East title game in Jacksonville. The Gators lost their starting QB yesterday for the remainder of the season, so they will turn back to Filepe Franks, who has already been benched this season.

Georgia will now be favored in 6 of their last 7 games, with the only exception being when the Dawgs travel to Auburn. Georgia should win the East, and anything less than 11-1 would be a huge disappointment.

So now we will see how Georgia handles expectations.

The Dawgs are going to be double digit favorites the next two weeks, and even the most conservative Georgia fan has to recognize that the expectations have changed for this team this year.

Now I know how you are feeling. You aren't quite ready to let yourself be vulnerable again. We have been hurt too many times in the past. Let's be honest, it's only been 8 months since most of us had our hearts ripped out in the Super Bowl. But here is the advice I have for Georgia fans.

Embrace the expectations.

This is what we wanted. We wanted Kirby to come in and make us contenders. Here we are, in year 2, and we are contenders.

At the beginning of the season, I said the minimum expectations for this season was 10-2 with losses to Florida and Auburn. Now those expectations have changed. The new minimum is 11-1 with the lose coming on the road at Auburn. Even with a loss to the Tigers, which isn't to say that Georgia can't win that game, Georgia would be playing in Atlanta against Alabama for the SEC title. A win against the best program in the nation would put Georgia in the playoff.

Guys, this is a great thing.

I don't believe Georgia is quite ready to take that last step this season, but it could happen. One thing I do know is that if the Dawgs can get to Atlanta I am really excited to see how this team stacks up against the standard of the SEC.

This isn't 2012. This isn't a one-off peak season with a ton of seniors that will lead to a rebuild. This is only the beginning. Kirby has changed this program in just 20 months. He has brought in elite talent at every position to provide depth, but most importantly, he has developed the talent that was already here so guys don't have their best seasons as freshman and sophomores.

Don't be nervous to be excited. Don't be hesitant to be confident. Embrace the expectations.

Georgia is the favorite in the SEC East.

Georgia is a Top 5 team.

Georgia is one great Saturday afternoon in December from playing in the College Football Playoff.

Raise the bar and attack the day!

Glory, glory!

Something to Prove on Rocky Top

The hype surrounding Georgia this week has been both exhilarating and nerve-racking. After their great performance against Mississippi State last Saturday, Georgia moved up to  #7 in the AP Poll, and there have been a lot of questions about whether or not Georgia is a legitimate CFP contender. At the same time, there is just a little too much Georgia in me not to think that this is exactly when our entire season comes crumbling to the ground.

As Georgia heads north to take on Tennessee, you couldn't have a more stark contrast between two programs.

While Georgia is riding high, seemingly with all the talent in the world, and a coach who has his players ready to go each and every week, Tennessee fans are just looking for a reason to get rid of Butch Jones.

Ignore for just a minute how bad this guy is at talking to the media. (He famously called last year's Tennessee team Champions of Life even though they had a disappointing season, and just last week accused Tennessee beat writers of buying into Fake News when reporting that there was a locker room fight between two of his players). Jones had a chance to put away Florida a few weeks ago, but managed the end of the game so poorly that it gave Florida the only chance it needed to throw the game winning Hail Mary as time expired.

Jones took over after a terrible three-year run from Derek Dooley, and he immediately got Tennessee's recruiting heading in the right direction. However, despite solid recruiting classes, Jones hasn't been able to make a big change on the field. Jones is 33-22 in 4+ seasons in Knoxville. He has never beaten Alabama, Tennessee's biggest rival. He has never won the SEC East. He lost to Vanderbilt last year.

If Tennessee loses tomorrow, it is likely that Jones will be fired at the end of the season.

While the two teams seem like they are heading in different directions, the reality is that there isn't much separating them. Tennessee is incredibly talented, and with their backs against the wall, Georgia is going to get their best shot on Saturday. If Georgia has been reading the headlines instead of preparing for a SEC showdown, the Dawgs are going to fall flat on their face tomorrow afternoon.

However, that isn't going to happen.

As fun as last week was, and man, it was fun. Tomorrow is going to be better.

Throughout the past five seasons, Georgia has had some really high moments. Beating South Carolina and LSU in 2013 to get back on track after a close loss at Clemson to open the season is one example. But after barely beating Tennessee a week later, Georgia came home and got beat by Missouri, then lost on the road to Vanderbilt and the season was over.

What will be fun about tomorrow is that we are going to see just how far Kirby Smart has brought this program. Georgia is going to take care of business by giving a solid overall performance that might lack the glitz and glamour of last week's win, but it will show just how good this team is.

Georgia is going to play great defense like they have all year, and they are going to run the ball all over this Tennessee defense.

Georgia 27    Tennessee 13

Go Dawgs!

Georgia makes a statement against Mississippi State

It has been a while since the Classic City rocked the way it did on Saturday night. Just off the top of my head, I would say this was the biggest win and the most electric night in Sanford Stadium since Georgia beat LSU in September of 2013. From start to finish, Georgia dominated a solid Mississippi State team who came in with all the hype after their big win against LSU last weekend.

It has been a while since we have seen Georgia play like they have in the first month of this season. Georgia started the 2015 season 4-0, but that year quickly spiraled out of control when Georgia was crushed by Alabama in Sanford Stadium. This 4-0 feels much different, but the season will still have to play itself out.

There are a few things that I think we can feel comfortable with as we head into the meat of the 2017 schedule.

First, this is the best defense Georgia has had since at least the early 2000’s. I know people like to admire the 2011 and 2012 defenses, and they were good, but those teams played more of a bend but don’t break style. The best term I can think of to describe this defense is “Controlled Fury.” They are aggressive on every single play. The snap of the ball seem unleashes an energy that explodes from all 11 players. On television, it just looks like there are 20 guys out there going crazy. But the most amazing part of this defense is the fact that they are always where they are supposed to be. When the opposing offense makes a play, like Mississippi State did a couple of times on Saturday night, they defense is there to limit the damage. There don’t seem to be any big plays to be made against the Georgia defense right now. Offenses will get first downs, they will complete some passes, but you are going to have to march down the field on a 10 play drive if you want to score a touchdown, and to this point, that isn’t happening very often.

Georgia won the game 31-3 last night and threw the ball 12 times. The game was over as soon as Georgia scored a touchdown on the first drive of the second half, because there was no way Mississippi State was going to score multiple touchdowns on our defense. Georgia ran the ball almost exclusively in the second half because they could. My confidence in this team moving forward is much higher than I am comfortable with, but it is all because I don’t see teams having the chance to score a lot on our defense.

The next thing we know might be a little bit controversial, but here it goes: there is no quarterback controversy at Georgia. Jake Fromm is Georgia’s starting quarterback and it would be a huge mistake by Kirby Smart if that changes as long as Fromm is healthy. I have changed my mind about this, but I don’t see any reason to take Fromm out. My thought process was based on the fact that Eason won the job over the course of the spring and fall, so the coaches obviously believed he was the best of the two quarterbacks. The problem is that from the moment Fromm came in the game against App State, he has looked better than Eason has at any point in his career. Fromm is in control of the offense, he is calling audibles at the line of scrimmage, and he is talking with his receivers after plays. Fromm is the leader of this offense, and the other players on the field seem comfortable with that.

By comparison, Eason has always seemed robotic and uncomfortable. I chalked it up to him being a freshman and the offensive line being so bad last year that he could never get comfortable. Eason has all the arm talent in the world, and Georgia fans have been told for years that he was going to be the next great quarterback in Athens, and I do think he will get a chance to be a great quarterback, but it won’t be at Georgia. My guess is that Eason will be the backup this season, and then transfer to a school with a shotgun based spread offense where he will thrive.

The final conclusion that is safe to draw after the first four games of this season is that Georgia is the best team in the SEC East. Now, that isn’t saying much. Florida did manage to beat Kentucky by a point last night, but their offense is offensive. Tennessee is still coached by Butch Jones, so while they may be champions of life, they are not good enough to be champions of the SEC. Vanderbilt got cocky over the past week leading up to their game against Alabama, so the Tide had to remind them that they are indeed Vanderbilt and they have nothing to be cocky about on a football field. Missouri is quickly becoming the worst program in the SEC. I was genuinely worried about South Carolina, but after the past two weeks, I think they are still a good bit behind Georgia. Kentucky is a team to keep an eye on. They are much more talented than any Kentucky team I can remember, and they are going to win some games, but they showed last night that they aren’t quite ready to truly contend in the East.

Now comes the tricky part. After last night, Georgia will move into the Top 10, and we will have the entire college football world singing our praises, just like they sang the praises of Mississippi State last week. If this team is truly as good as I think they are, they will go to Knoxville next weekend and prove just how good they are. A win in Knoxville would set this season up to be a special one, but the ghost of Georgia teams past has to make us a little nervous. Just when we think we are heading for greatness, soul crushing disappointment has followed.

Over the first four weeks of this season, Kirby Smart has proven that his team can win the big game. For the next three weeks, his team has to prove they have the ability to beat the teams they should beat. 

The Dawgs Visit South Bend

What an opening weekend of college football. From Texas A&M snatching defeat from the jaws of victory, to the nerds of the North Avenue Trade School finding a way to lose to Tennessee, to Alabama proving that year in and year out, there is no other program like them in America, it was a great weekend of college football.

Would you believe me if I told you that week two could be better?

Auburn takes on Clemson. USC hosts Stanford. Ohio State versus Oklahoma.

And of course, the most important game from our point of view, Georgia travels to South Bend to take on the Irish for only the second time in school history. Georgia is 1-0 all time against Notre Dame, with that sweet victory in the 1981 Sugar Bowl that clinched the 1980 National Championship.

This is one of the most anticipated games of the last few years, just because it is unique. One of the greatest venues in college football will host the Dawgs for the first time ever. Notre Dame Stadium only seats about 80,000 and from the way things sound, there could be a lot of Georgia fans in the stands on Saturday night.

According to the word counter on this document, I have managed to write 200 words of this blog without mentioning the quarterback situation at Georgia, which should entitle me to some type of award.

It is all anyone wants to talk about, so here is my take. Jacob Eason is Georgia’s starting quarterback and he won that job through spring practice and fall practice. I wasn’t at practice, but from media reports, the quarterback competition was decided very early on during fall practice, indicating that Eason was, in the coaches’ minds, far ahead of Fromm. So Eason is Georgia’s starting quarterback, but he is injured and the backup is Jake Fromm. At this point, there is no reason for anyone to go any farther than that. There are a ton of if’s and but’s that you could begin to throw out there, but none of them carry any real weight and can be dismissed immediately with a simple counter argument. Let me give you one example:

What if Fromm comes in, starts the next four games (ND, Samford, Miss. St., and Tennessee) and Georgia wins all of those games, is Eason going to just go right back into the starting lineup?

That’s  a great question, but there is no way of knowing that answer. There are too many variables. Think back to Richt’s last season. Georgia was 4-0 in November. Now that sounds really good. But they weren’t playing well. It took overtime to beat Georgia Southern at home, so just saying Georgia wins or loses and then trying to decide how that will affect the quarterback situation is fun, but pointless.

Let’s look at what we know. Eason is the starter. Fromm played really well against App State. Fromm is the starting quarterback until Eason is healthy. We don’t know when Eason will be back.

That is it. That is what we know. We might think a lot of things, but that is all we know. So let’s just let it play out.

One thing I do trust completely is that if Fromm gives Georgia the best chance to win, he will play. This is a huge year for Kirby and he’s not going to let the best quarterback on the roster sit on the bench while the team goes 7-5 again. The coaches know a lot more about each of these guys than we do, and they have a lot more on the line than we do. Let the coaches do their job based on how the players are doing their job. As fans, we have only one job, support the guys on the field, and Saturday night, that means supporting Fromm.

Now, on to the game itself. Georgia is the more talented team, but the Irish are at home and they looked good against Temple last Saturday. It will be a match up of strength versus strength when ND’s offense squares off with Georgia’s defense. The Irish have a mobile quarterback and a solid offensive line, but Georgia played well against the mobile quarterback against App State. Any time you play against one of these guys that can get out of the pocket and run, you are going to give up a few plays in a game, the key is limiting how often and how big those runs are.

Fromm will most likely have a freshman moment or two on Saturday. A delay of game. A bad interception. Something that reminds us that he is making his first career start. But I’m sure the game plan will be to rely on the running game and let Fromm throw off play-action, which he did really well against App State. Chubb, Michel, and Swift are going to have a big night against a defense that ranked 70^th last year against the run.

I don’t think Georgia will go in there and blow out Notre Dame, but I do think they will win comfortably. I like Georgia, 34-21.

Typically I would end the blog with my score prediction, but this week I wanted to give a warning to Georgia fans watching the game on Saturday night. For years, I have heard fans say that it feels like the announcers are rooting against Georgia. Most of the time, I don’t feel like that has happened, but this week it absolutely will happen. Georgia/Notre Dame will be broadcast on NBC, and NBC is the exclusive home of Notre Dame football. If you tune in early, there will be a pregame show, but the announcers for this game follow the Irish and broadcast all of their home games, so there will be a slant towards Notre Dame. Mike Turico and Doug Flute are the announce team for the Irish this year, so they are pretty good. Turico used to do Monday Night Football, so the quality of the announce team will be strong, but just be ready for some Notre Dame bias as the broadcast goes on. Either way, there is no way the broadcast will be as bad as what ESPN offered us last week with Tommy Tubberville on color commentary. He was awful.

Anyway, enjoy the game and Go Dawgs!

No Middle Ground in 2017

Expectations. They are the curse of college football. For the past few seasons, one of my first blogs each year is about how expectations can ruin a great college football season.

If you are a Vanderbilt fan, and you expect to win the SEC, then you are setting yourself up for disappointment.

This is not that blog. Unfortunately, for Georgia fans, this season sets up to be either one of the best seasons Georgia has enjoyed in a very long time, or a complete and total disaster. I’m sorry, but there is no in between this year.

Why is that?

Well, there are three factors that I believe should be considered when looking at a team’s expectations for the coming season. Schedule, returning talent, and coaching. Not exactly rocket science.

So looking towards 2017, and specifically looking at those three factors, how do things stack up for Georgia?

Let’s start with returning talent. Georgia had one player leave early, Isaiah McKenzie. Which means Georgia returns it’s top two running backs, Chubb and Michel, it’s defensive leader, Dom Sanders, and two starters at linebacker, Lorenzo Carter and Davin Bellamy. All of those players could have gone to the NFL, but they all came back, which means this team should have plenty of leadership from its senior class.

The only position group that suffered significant losses was the offensive line, which could be addition by subtraction seeing as how the offensive line was the Achilles’ heal of last year’s team. When you factor in the number three recruiting class in the nation, it is completely fair to say that Georgia is the most talented team in the SEC East, which would mean that from a talent stand point, expectations should be high.

While I will go into great detail about the schedule in the next couple of weeks, let me give you a quick overview. The schedule is as easy as it can ever get at Georgia, which is not to say that the schedule is easy, but relatively speaking, Georgia’s schedule is incredibly manageable.

Georgia draws Mississippi State out of the West this year, and they get the Bizarro Bulldogs at home. Georgia has to travel to Notre Dame in week 2, but the Irish only won 4 games last season. Navy, Duke, and Virginia Tech all won at Notre Dame last year, so let’s not make it like the Irish are the best team in college football. Georgia always plays Tennessee, Florida, Auburn, and Tech and each season those games will make or break the season, but when you look at the next level teams in the division, Georgia gets both Missouri and South Carolina at home. Going on the road to Tech would seem like a tough task for the Dawgs, but Georgia hasn’t lost at Tech since 1999.

So, based on the schedule, expectations should be high.

That brings us to the last piece of the expectations puzzle, and the cause for concern for Georgia fans, coaching. We know a few things about Kirby Smart. He is a fantastic recruiter. He is a fantastic promoter and voice of the program. He is a fantastic assistant coach and coordinator. But the 2017 will go a very long way towards defining Kirby Smart as a head football coach.

When you look at the facts on the field last season, Kirby Smart has a lot to prove as a head coach. Georgia was 8-5 last year with loses to Ole Miss, Vandy, and Tech. Two of those losses came at home, and Georgia was absolutely embarrassed by the Rebels in Oxford.

As a head coach, you are responsible for every aspect of the program. Georgia’s defense improved significantly under Smart, which would be expected since Smart is a defensive coach. However, the lack of production from the offense and the lack of creativity in the play calling is concerning. It is fair to say that the talent gap on the offensive side of the ball was greater than the defensive side, but there didn’t seem to be much progress made throughout the season. Georgia’s offense against TCU in the bowl game was identical to the one that barely managed to beat Nicholls in week 2.

One of the biggest reasons Mark Richt was fired was that each and every season, Georgia had at least one inexplicable loss. The team played down the level of competition, and had stopped winning the 50/50 games.

Fans believe in Kirby Smart, and I want to be clear, I believe in Kirby Smart, but at some point, hope has to turn into results. Everything Kirby says fires me up. I love the way he handles the media and the way he talks about the program. His recruiting has been amazing. But there was nothing about Georgia in 2016 that looked any different than Georgia under Mark Richt in 2014 or 2015. I know many people who aren’t Georgia fans that believe Smart is going to be a bust, and that is fine, but to prove those people wrong, this season has to be great.

When you look at Georgia’s schedule this season, and weigh all factors, I can’t see three acceptable losses on this schedule. Think about it, if you lose to Notre Dame, it might not really hurt you in the SEC, but what will it say about where the program is heading to lose to a team that won 4 games last season?

No offense to Mississippi State, but that is not an acceptable loss.

Knoxville has been a house of horrors for Georgia the past two trips, but Tennessee lost their best player on both sides of the ball from last year when they were supposed to be SEC East Champions, but settled for being Champions of Life according to their coach. Butch Jones is going to be fired sooner rather than later, and that guy has beaten Georgia the past two years, and should have beaten Georgia 3 of the last four. I don’t care how many people the squeeze into that stadium, Georgia is better than Tennessee and they have to win that game this season.

Like it or not, it is absolutely unacceptable for Georgia to lose to South Carolina, Missouri, Vanderbilt, or Kentucky despite where the game is being played.

Most importantly of all, Georgia has to beat Tech. Another loss to Tech would legitimize them as a rival after the Dawgs dominated that series for 15 years.

So that leaves the two acceptable losses, Florida and Auburn. Now I’m not saying that I am ok with losing either of those games, but Florida is the two-time defending SEC East Champions and they are a talented team and Auburn is projected to be one of the best teams in the conference, so losing those two games would at least be understandable.

So that is the standard for 2017, 10-2 at worst, with losses to Florida and Auburn. Just to clarify, 10-2 is not the standard. If Georgia goes 10-2 and loses to Tech and Mississippi State, that is an unmitigated disaster of a season. If Georgia goes 10-2 and loses to Auburn and Vanderbilt, also a disaster.

The challenge of this season is that while the record is important, who Georgia’s losses come to matters as much as anything. For Georgia to become the program that Kirby Smart was brought here to coach, Georgia has to win all the games they are supposed to, and start winning their fair share of the games that could go either way. That is the first step, and this season is the year where we need to see that step taken.

So if 10-2, with loses to Florida and Auburn is the minimum, then it is pretty obvious why I said there is no middle ground for this team. Georgia hasn’t won 10 regular season games since 2012. It has happened only twice since 2007. So getting back to that level would be a huge improvement over the past few seasons. A 10-2 Georgia team would be in the discussion for a New Year’s Six bowl appearance, which would be a drastic step up from where we have been.

Obviously, 11-1 would put Georgia in an entirely different place. 11-1 means that the Dawgs would most likely be taking on the Tide in the Benz with a spot in the playoff on the line. I’m not predicting that to happen, I’m just saying that is how close Georgia could be this season to greatness.

Now, what if the disaster happens?

9-3, 8-4, or God forbid another 7-5 season would mean that the program has regressed since the firing of Mark Richt. There would be no denying it. No one would care about recruiting class rankings, and Kirby Smart’s name would be at or near the top of any list of SEC coaches on the hot seat going into 2018.

No pressure, but this season may make or break the program.

No pressure, but 2017 is make or break for Kirby Smart

“Year 1 was disappointing. Any time you finish 8-5 it’s a disappointment at the University of Georgia. Certainly not the standard I expect to keep.”

-          Kirby Smart

For the past 10 years, there is an unfortunate tradition that has been observed in Athens, Georgia. During the summer, expectations and hope abound and by December, gloom and disappointment ruin Christmas.

Last year was a disappointment, and if you don’t believe me, just ask Kirby Smart. You might think it is a little crazy to say this, but year 2 might just be make or break for Kirby at Georgia. No, I’m not one of the crazy people that will calling for Kirby’s job if Georgia goes 8-5 again in 2017, but if Kirby Smart is going to achieve the success that he, and Georgia fans, expect him to achieve, we will probably see something special in Athens this fall.

What do Vince Dooley, Mark Richt, Nick Saban, Steve Spurrier, Pete Carroll, and Bob Stoops all have in common? Well, Georgia fans know all too well that it isn’t a National Title, even though Richt is the only person on that list without a national championship ring. No, the thing all those coaches have in common is that they became the coach you know them to be in year two at the school.

You see, year one is difficult. Just think about it from a human standpoint. You have to move, you have to find schools for your kids, you have to hire a staff, you have to find someone to cut your hair, you have to go around to every booster club meeting in your state, and some out of state, selling yourself to the fan base. There is a lot of crap to do in year one, and none of that even includes what you have to do on the field.

On the field you have to figure out a spring and fall practice schedule. You have to organize the practices themselves. You have to plan pre-game meals, meeting times, finalize playbooks, decide on a pre-game warm up routine, organize your sideline and substitution packages, oh yeah, and you have to figure out how to be a head football coach.

So I think we can all understand that year one requires a lot of work before you kickoff and a lot of learning once you have kicked off. But what you may not realize is that some of the best coaches of the past 20 years struggled in their first year. Here are just a few examples.

Pete Carroll went 6-6 in his first season at USC in 2001 and was 5-3 in the Pac 10.

Bob Stoops went 7-5 at Oklahoma in 1999 and was 5-3 in the Big 12.

Even the greatest coach in the history of sports (sarcasm), Nick Saban went 7-6 at Alabama in 2007, and only went 4-4 in the SEC. This was after he had already been a head coach at Michigan State and LSU.

Spurrier had a solid 9-2 season at Florida in 1990 and went 6-1 in the SEC, but again, he had experience at Duke before he took the Florida job.

Now, bringing it closer to home, Richt was 8-4 at Georgia in 2001 and 5-3 in the SEC. Richt lost to 

Florida and Auburn in his first season. Richt lost the Auburn game himself with awful clock management and gave away the Music City Bowl to Boston College by punting late in the game without enough timeouts to get the ball back.

In 1965, Vince Dooley went 7-3-1 in his first season at Georgia and was only 3-2 in the SEC.

So I think it is safe to say that a disappointing first season isn’t the end of the world, but when you look at what those coaches did in their second season, it raises the stakes for Georgia in 2017.

Pete Carroll led USC to be Pac 10 Co-Champions and won the Orange Bowl.

Bob Stoops went undefeated and beat Florida State for the National Title in 2001. Mark Richt was 

FSU’s offensive coordinator in that game, and FSU failed to score a point on offense.

Nick Saban went 12-2 in his second season at Alabama, but the Tide were 12-0 and ranked #1 in the nation before losing a close SEC title game to Florida and then losing the Sugar Bowl to Utah in a game they didn’t care about.

Steve Spurrier went 10-2 in 1991, won the SEC but lost the Sugar Bowl and a possible national title to Notre Dame.

Richt, of course, went 13-1 in 2002, won the SEC and beat his mentor, Bobby Bowden in the Sugar Bowl.

Dooley went 10-1 in 1966. Georgia shared the SEC title and won the Cotton Bowl.

Even Gene Chizik, who went 8-5 in his first season at Auburn, went undefeated in his second season and won the National Title with the best player money could buy, Cam Newton.

So, this summer, just like every summer, Georgia fans will count down the days until kickoff with anticipation of a return to Glory, Glory for Old Georgia. But this year we might just feel differently come Christmas Day.

If Kirby Smart is going to be the man to finally get Georgia to the top of the highest mountain in college football, then 2017 will most likely be the year we point to as the first and biggest step of that journey.

Glory, Glory

73 days until kickoff against App State

Go Dawgs

Athens, We Have a Problem

When I was in elementary school, my mother would tell me that I was handsome. I was very overweight, I had the worst pair of eye glasses ever made, and apparently my mother was the only girl on the face of the earth who thought I was handsome. The thing was, I wanted to believe her. By the time I got to high school, I realized that my looks weren’t going to take me very far, but that my overwhelming wit and charm would have to be my ticket. Thus, I write this blog very infrequently.

The old saying goes that the first step to fixing a problem is admitting that you have one.

No, I haven’t decided to start writing about my personal thoughts on life, because I am sure that would chase away both of the non-family members that read this.

Georgia football has a problem, and we need to be honest about it for a couple of reasons. First, I desperately want to enjoy the upcoming football season. Without proper expectations, enjoying your favorite team is impossible. If you cheer for Vanderbilt, then you can’t expect to win a national title, or else you are just setting yourself up for certain failure.

Second, without recognizing the reality of where the program is, and quite frankly, where the program has been, we won’t be able to truly appreciate where the program goes next.

Finally, without recognizing the mistakes of the past few seasons, we as a fan base, are doomed to repeat those mistakes again in 2017.

Ok, so I have laid the foundation, maybe even made you laugh a little with that first paragraph, and now is the time where I have to make you a little, or maybe more than a little sad.

The reality of the Georgia football is this: Georgia is not and has not been one of the top ten programs in America.

Doesn’t it feel nice to say it out loud. It is like a weight has been lifted. Go ahead, read that last sentence again and just feel your anxiety both melt away and build up again like the sound of an oncoming freight train.

A year and a half ago, when Georgia decided to fire Mark Richt, I wrote on this blog that Georgia didn’t have to settle for an unproven assistant coach like Kirby Smart. My argument was that Georgia was not the kind of program that had to take a chance on a guy who had never been a successful head coach before.

Not many people responded to that line of thinking, most notably, Greg McGarity, Georgia’s Athletic Director who hired Smart about four days after I wrote that blog.

There is a reason that Georgia didn’t go out and hire a proven head coach, and it is because Georgia isn’t the type of program in 2016/2017 that a proven winner is going to leave his current job for. 

Don’t you think Georgia would have liked to hire Nick Saban, Urban Meyer, Dabo Swinney, Mark Dantonio, Chip Kelley, or Bob Stoops? Of course they would have. Those guys have been successful head college football coaches.

Think about it this way, if you are an athlete who tears his ACL, do you want to go to Dr. James Andrews who has repaired the torn ligaments of every major athlete in the past 20 years, or do you want to go to someone who just graduated medical school but has the chance to really make something out of himself?

You go to James Andrews, of course.

My point isn’t to knock Kirby Smart, only to illustrate the point, that outside of the state of Georgia and the Bulldog Nation, Georgia isn’t thought of in the same way as the elite programs in the country.

So why do we think differently? The answer is very simple. There was a brief time when we were one of the best programs in that nation.

From 2002 to 2007, Georgia’s winning percentage was tied for 6^th best in the nation. During that time, Georgia had two SEC titles, one more SEC title game appearance, and 3 BCS Bowl game appearances. Additionally, if you count players on the 2007 team, there were 5 first round draft picks that played for Georgia during that time period, including the number 1 overall pick in Matthew Stafford.

Georgia was on fire as a program and everything was looking up.

But then everything changed, and the program went back to where it had been in the five seasons before 2002, a solid Top 25 team, but not a national power.

I have said many times that the turning point for the program was the 2008 “Backout” game against Alabama, and I stand by that. I also believe that no program in America, other than LSU, has suffered more at the hands of Alabama’s dominance than Georgia.

Alabama has taken players from Georgia any time they want, and the level of talent at Georgia hasn’t been the same since Saban got to Alabama.

When you run the numbers from 2008-20016, Georgia ranks 18^th in winning percentage among FBS schools.

18^th.

We aren’t a Top 10 program.

Here are some stats that make it worse.

Of the Top 30 teams by winning percentage since 2008, Georgia is one of only four teams who hasn’t won or played for a national title, played in the college football playoff, or even played in one of the old BCS, or one of the new New Year’s 6 bowl games. The other three teams? Nebraska, BYU, and Navy.

While teams like Auburn and Texas fall behind Georgia in the win percentage rankings, they have both played for, and Auburn has won a National title in the last 9 seasons.

Want to hear some of the schools behind Georgia in winning percentage from 2008-2016 that have accomplished one or more of those feats? Well I’m going to tell you anyway.

Houston, Cincinnati, Iowa, West Virginia, Northern Illinois, and Washington.

Read that list again.

One more time, please.

That is where Georgia football is in 2017.

I am, as you may know if you have read this blog before, an eternal optimist. I have always seen the glass as all the way full, even when Georgia’s team couldn’t hit water if it fell out of a boat. Because of that, I believe with all my heart that Georgia is on the right path with Kirby Smart.

Recruiting has improved. Facilities have improved. Energy in the fan base has improved.

But, until we start winning big games consistently, we are what we have been: middle of the road at best.

None of us know what 2017 will hold. On paper, Georgia should contend for the SEC East, but that has been the case every year since 2012, and Georgia hasn’t been back to the SEC title game. If we look back at 2017 as the turning point in the Kirby Smart era, we should know now that Kirby didn’t come aboard a rocket ship already launched, and ride it to the heavens. He came aboard a really nice boat that was stranded in the middle of the ocean for a decade.

If 2017 is another building block, let’s say a 10-3 building block including a win over Tech and a win in a bowl game, the last thing we need is the stupid people coming out of their mom’s basement saying we should fire Kirby.

Georgia isn’t Alabama. Georgia isn’t going to be Alabama by the end of 2017 or the end of 2018. There will probably never be another run like Alabama is on right now. Alabama isn’t the standard that we should be judging the program by.

We should want a National Title. That takes steps. Look at Clemson. They started going to BCS games consistently in 2013, had to get over the FSU hurdle in the ACC, lost a title game, and then got their payoff last season.

Georgia is heading in the right direction, but we should all be aware of just how high the Dawgs have to climb in order to get where we want to go.

88 Days until kickoff.

Go Dawgs.

Moving on but never forgetting

October 28, 1991:

I was six years old and when my parents came into my room to wake me up to go to school, I had only one question: Did the Braves win?

I can’t remember which parent woke me up that morning and, yes, I had to look up the date, but I do remember the immense disappointment I felt when I was told that the Braves had lost Game 7 of the 1991 World Series.

February 6, 2017:

I went into my son’s room to wake him up for school. He is five. The first words out of his mouth were “did the Falcons win?”

I teared up, and told him that they did not win. His head dropped.

For nearly four months I have wanted to get back to writing my blog. There have been so many things going on in sports. I did post a single blog that I wrote last year about my experience at the 2016 Masters, but each time I began writing, I just couldn’t get into it.

I missed March Madness, the start of the Major League Baseball season and the opening of Suntrust Park, the NFL Draft, UGA Spring Practice, and maybe most importantly to me, the inaugural season of Atlanta United.

Every single time I think about the Super Bowl I just shake my head. I don’t want to relive it, and I’m not going to. You blame whoever you want. You deal with it however you want. For me, the best thing to do is try to put it into perspective.

The Super Bowl loss is the biggest cherry on top of Atlanta’s Sad Sport Sundae. I’ve said it before and maybe at some point people will start to believe me. There is no city in America that has dealt with more disappointment from sports teams than Atlanta.

If you say the Chicago Cubs, I say Michael Jordan and the Bulls. If you say Cleveland, I say you got Lebron James and an NBA title, not to mention Ohio State football. I won’t even address Boston, which is now Title Town, USA.

1.

1 professional title in nearly 50 years of professional sports in this town. If you expand it to major college sports, all you add is a national title for Georgia in 1980 and a shared national title for Tech in 1990. If you do the math, the 2.5 titles this state can claim divided by the total number of seasons played, means that Georgia teams lose more than 99% of the time.

Not only do we lose constantly, and many times in amazingly dramatic fashion, but we also have to listen to the idiots in the national media knock our city as a bad sports town. When the Houston Rockets lost to the Spurs in game six of the Western Conference Semifinals a couple of weeks ago, there were a lot of fans dressed as empty seats in the arena, but no one said anything about it. The reality of the national media is that they are one of the laziest groups of people getting a paycheck. 

Don’t believe me? Just listen to how many national shows will be talking about “Mount Rushmores” over the summer. Lazy.

Atlanta isn’t a bad sports town; it’s just like any other town in the country. When our teams are competitive, we fill buildings, and when our teams are terrible, people find other things to spend their money on.

I say all of this for one reason.

One day, things are going to turn around for us. One day, we will finish the job and the Falcons will win a Super Bowl. The Braves will win the World Series again. Georgia will win another national title.

When the day comes that Atlanta is able to be a champion again, I truly believe that the taste of victory will be that much sweeter because of all the bitter losses we have had to endure.

I’ll never get over the Super Bowl. I’ll never get over the 2012 SEC title game. I’ll never get over the 1996 and 1991 World Series.

Fan is short for fanatic; I don’t have to be logical.

I am moving on. In the next week, I will be writing about Georgia’s upcoming football season, what the Braves should do with the 2017 season, and I’ll try to convince some of you to try watching the very exciting Atlanta United.

Time to bounce back.

Our Day at the Masters

I learned to love the game of golf primarily because it was a way to spend time with my grandfather. He started taking me to play when I was about 8 years old, and I was hooked. His favorite course to play was in Jackson, Georgia and each time I got to go there with him it was a special day. On the wall of the clubhouse they had a picture of the 13^th green at Augusta National, and it always seemed like Masters week would fall on my spring break, and spring break meant a day at the golf course with Granddaddy.

The first Masters tournament I can remember was 1996, when Greg Norman blew a six shot lead to Nick Faldo. One year later, I watched Tiger Woods destroy the field and win his first Green Jacket. I don’t remember how old I was when Granddaddy told me that he got to go to Augusta during a practice round one time, but I do remember how he talked about it. He said it was the most beautiful course he had ever seen.

On Friday, April 8, 2016 I got the chance to see Augusta National for myself. You see, going to the Masters isn’t like going to any other sporting event in the world. Price isn’t the reason people don’t go to the Masters, a four-day badge for this year’s tournament is only $375. The reason so many never get to see Augusta National is because the badges themselves are so hard to come by. While some families have had tickets for as far back as they remember, there are so many, like me, who could have only dreamed of walking those famous hills.

Just in case anyone hasn’t heard the story of how Bradley and I got to the Masters, here is a quick recap. Back in high school, Bradley and I both loved golf. Neither of us had been to the Masters, and one day, as we were talking about it, we made a pact. If either of us ever got tickets, we would take the other one. Pretty simple stuff.

Fast forward about 15 years and Bradley calls me on Monday January 25^th. I was worried something was wrong, because he called me at like 10am. He told me that the day before at church, a lady had walked up to him and asked him if he wanted two tickets to the Masters this year. On the phone, Bradley reminded me of our pact and said that we were going to Augusta. The feeling was surreal.

This is going to be a long post, and at times, you might not believe how much can actually happen in just one day at Augusta National, but this wasn’t just any day at Augusta, this was our day at Augusta.

Our day started out about the same time, a little after 4am I have never been so excited to be awake at 4am. We met in Madison, Georgia and started towards Augusta. In the car, there was a time of catching up, checking on each other’s families, and talking about life. That conversation alone would have made the day a special one, because life gets busy and we don’t always have time to just talk to our friends. The closer we got to Augusta, the more the conversation turned to how excited we both were to have this opportunity.

After a quick stop for some breakfast, we headed to the course. The first thing I noticed was how little traffic there was. Everything was orderly, and there were a lot of cars, but things were moving efficiently. After we parked, we had no idea where to go, so we just followed the crowd. As we approached the gates, there were multiple signs reminding patrons about the use of cell phones and cameras.

The rules regarding cell phones on tournament days is pretty simple, leave them in the car, or at home, or throw them away, but under no circumstances bring a cell phone onto the hallowed grounds of Augusta National. The penalty for breaking this rule? You get kicked out and if you are using someone else’s badge, they lose their badge forever.

After going through security, we walked through Gate 9 and were immediately handed a patron guide. This was a small book with information about the tournament, the course, the best place to watch each hole, short bios on each player, and plenty of other information. As I said, this was handed to each person as they walked in, not something you had to purchase, but more on that later. 

We walked onto the grounds of Augusta National Golf Club about 7:45am.

We walked up a winding path, past the gift shop, to a sign that pointed us to the course. We walked down a winding path, and then you see pine straw and the most beautiful green color you can imagine.

We just kept walking. As we began to lay eyes on it for the first time, I had chills. Ok, so it was little cold, but the chills weren’t from the cold. I looked up and saw the perfect blue sky and the tallest pine trees you can imagine. We didn’t really know where we were, so we just kept walking straight. We walked past the back of a large grand stand and found ourselves looking down on the 15^th green and the Sarazen Bridge.

No players were on the course yet, so we walked out into the middle of the fairway and looked down to the green. Bradley took a practice swing like he was hitting a wedge into the green, and we admired how perfect the fairway was. The early morning light bounced off the pond in front of 15, and we just stood there for a few minutes. As you look back up the hill, you get a sense of how much elevation change there is. There had to be a 40 foot drop from the top of the fairway to the green. Of course I have seen this hole played on television for years, but seeing it in person was breathtaking.

We didn’t have a plan for what we wanted to do or where we wanted to go, we just wanted to see the whole course. As we walked through the 15^th fairway, there were two ushers talking. We must have had a “first timers” look on our faces because one of the ushers said good morning and asked if we knew where we were going. After confirming it was our first time, he said he wanted to ask us the same question he always asks people on their first trip, “What was your first thought when you saw the course.” I just said, “It is perfect.” We decided that we wanted to see the first group tee off, so he pointed us across the course to the white building on top of a hill in the distance. That was the clubhouse and the first hole sits in front of the clubhouse. As we started walking away, he told us to “Enjoy your day.”

As we walked across the course, we continued to marvel at the beauty. It was like they had special pine straw that knew it was at Augusta National, so it stayed in place. There were clean lines between the grass and the pine straw as if each blade had been placed exactly where it was for a reason, and it wouldn’t dream of moving.

I had always heard the course was hilly, but until you see all of the ups and downs, you don’t really appreciate it. There is a large open space in the middle of the course, where you can see about 7 holes at once. We couldn’t get over how the course overlapped itself. We walked across 15, 17,8, and up the 18^th heading to the first hole. We didn’t realize at first that we were at the 18^th, but when we did, we stopped and just looked at it for a minute. The two fairway bunkers on the left side of the 18^th fairway are massive. The stark contrast between the pure white sand of the bunker and the rich green fairway is amazing.

After climbing the hill up to the first tee, we nestled up to the spectator line about 30 yards from the first tee and watched the 8:20am group tee off. It was the first group of the day. Three good tee shots later, and Friday at the Masters was under way.

With most of the big players going off later in the morning, we decided we wanted to walk the course. We started at the tenth hole. As we walked, we saw the cabins on the left side of the fairway where Rory McIlroy had hit his tee shot in 2011 when he was leading the tournament. In a way, it is amazing to think that a professional could hit a shot that bad, but in a way, it is amazing that it doesn’t happen more often. Most people will never be able to comprehend the pressure of standing on the 10^th tee of Augusta National on Sunday afternoon leading the Masters. I would throw up or pass out, but there would be no way I could hit a golf shot.

As we got to the bottom of the fairway, we walked over to the spot where Bubba Watson had hit his famous wedge shot out of the trees in the 2012 Masters. Being a lefty, Watson had hit a big draw around the trees and onto the green where he ultimately made a spectacular par to win the tournament. Walking away from the 10^th green we saw the famous white direction signs that are placed around Augusta National pointing patrons to different parts of the course.

The sign that said “Amen Corner” pointed us down the 11^th hole to, perhaps, the most famous scene in golf. The approach shot to the 11^th green, the tee shot at the par three 12^th, and the tee shot at the par five 13^th make up Amen Corner. So often, especially on Sunday, these three holes separate the eventual champion from those who will ultimately come up just short. We just stood there for a few minutes taking it in. Most of the players like this area of the course, because you aren’t close to the patrons. After teeing off on 12, you are about 200 yards away from the fans at the 12^th green and about 50 yards farther away as you tee off on 13. This early in the day, it was amazingly quiet and all you could hear was the sound of the wind blowing through the trees. We marveled as we saw with our own eyes the wind blowing in multiple directions in this corner of the golf course. The flag on 11 was straight like it had been starched, while just up the hill, the flag on 12 fell limp as if it had never been touched by the wind before.

We walked behind the 12^th tee and headed up the 13^th fairway. We stopped at the spot where Phil Mickelson had hit his second shot on Sunday in 2010 which led to his third Green Jacket. After looking at the beauty that is the 13^th green, we walked across 14 and back towards the front 9.

We decided to head back up to the first hole and watch play there for a few minutes. On the way, we walked behind the 18^th tee to see one of the most famous views in golf, the tee shot on 18 through narrow gap of trees. It feels like you are in a prison of trees as you eye the 25 yard corridor that opens into the 18^th fairway. We talked about how easy it would be to knock your shot right into the trees, little did we know we would see it first hand during the afternoon.

After watching from the right side of the first fairway for one group, we walked up to the grandstand beside the first green to take a seat for a few minutes. We watched a few groups come through the first, including Davis Love and Bubba Watson, then we stuck around to see the number one player in the world, Jason Day and his group. One of the people playing with Day was three time major champion Ernie Els. On Thursday afternoon, Els had made a 9 on the first hole, and after the round, said that he understood why someone would give up the game after his nightmare on the 1^st hole. From the middle of the fairway, Els nightmare continued. As soon as he hit his shot, you could tell it was not good. It was a low, hooking ball that everyone who has played the game has seen before. A total miss-hit. People yelled “fore”, but the patrons on the opposite side of the green never had a chance. Els’ ball struck a spectator on the side of the head and his ball bounced about 30 yards to the left of the 1^st green. Els would leave his chip short of the flag, then his first putt rolled about two feet away from the hole. Instead of marking his ball and letting someone else putt first, Els stood over his bogey putt proceeded to miss it. There was an audible sigh from the crowd. The first hole had gotten Els again. Els would miss the cut by the end of the day with a score of +9. He was +7 on the first hole alone.

We left the grandstand after the Day and Els group finished and headed for food and Amen Corner.

First lunch, as Bradley called it, for me consisted of a bag of chips, a coke, and a world-famous pimento cheese sandwich for the total cost of $4.50. I guess now would be as good a time as any to explain why the food at the Masters is so cheap compared to other sporting events. The reason is simple: they aren’t trying to make money. It is the same reason there is free parking on the grounds. 

Augusta National Golf Club is made up of some of the richest people in the country. You can’t join the club, you have to be invited, and if you let word get out that you hope to be invited, you will have to wait a little longer. Case and point, Microsoft founder Bill Gates. Back in the 1990’s Gates established himself for a while as the richest man in the country, worth well more than $40 billion. Gates mentioned in an interview that he hoped to be invited to be a member at Augusta, so they made him wait a few more years before extending the invitation. Why? Because it is rude to invite yourself, you should be patient. This concept may seem foreign, but it is the way it is done at the Masters. The Club has plenty of money, they want to put on a great event. Members of the club volunteer to run different aspects of the tournament each year. The reason the Masters is the best run sporting event in the country is because it is being run by some of the most successful businessmen and women in the world. Having these executives run the Masters would be the same as having the best chef in the world cook dinner for you and your family on a Tuesday night.

We walked up to the grandstand behind the 12^th tee and started working on first lunch. The first group of the day had made it to 11, so we were just in time to watch the first action of the day at Amen Corner. With the sun beating down, it got really hot in the grandstand, so after watching a few groups come through, we decided to be on our way.

A stop off at the restroom offered another interesting moment. There were cuing lines outside of the men’s room with a long line winding out the door, while you could see ladies walking straight up to the women’s restroom with no wait. This may be the only place in the world where men stand in line for the bathroom and women have no wait. Even though the line was long, the wait wasn’t. Even the bathrooms at Augusta National are efficient. There are ushers in the restrooms giving direction to open urinals or stalls so you can do your business and get back to the golf.

We walked to the 10^th green and watched a few of the morning groups come through. As we were standing behind the green, an African-American man walked by wearing a Green Jacket. He was wearing sunglasses so it was hard to see who he was, but he looked so familiar. I told Bradley that I thought it was Ozzie Smith, the former baseball player. It turned out to be Lynn Swann, the Hall of Fame football player who is a member of Augusta National.

Defending Masters Champion Jordan Spieth was about to tee off, so we decided to head back to the first tee to watch. We beat the crowed by about 10 minutes as it seemed everyone wanted to get a look at the young champ, who was leading the tournament after shooting a 66 on Thursday. Spieth laced a perfect drive down the first fairway to start his round to the delight of the patrons. With the crowd moving down the first fairway to follow Spieth, Bradley and I headed the opposite direction towards the par 3 course. There were a few other people walking in that direction so we kept going walking past the course, to the front of the clubhouse.

It turned out that we were walking to the line for a complimentary Masters photograph. One of the newer attractions at Augusta National, the club offers a complimentary picture so you can commemorate your day. We stood in line for about 15 minutes and got a picture of the two of us and one of each of us individually.

We walked back around the Club house and down towards the main gate for second lunch. This time I had two pimento cheese sandwiches, a coke, and a Georgia peach ice cream sandwich, for the steep price of $7. We sat down for a few minutes while we ate, then we headed to the gift shop. 45 minutes and I won’t tell you how much money later, we headed across the first fairway to the 9^th green.

We watched a couple of groups come through, as we waited for Tom Watson, two-time Masters Champion, who was playing the tournament for the final time, come through the 9^th hole. The ovation he received as he walked up the hill to the 9^th green was thunderous. We had a good spot just to the side of the 9^th green, so we ended up spending most of the afternoon there. We watched as group after group came through, trying to navigate the up-hill approach shot to the green that is devilishly constructed. There are three tiers to the 9^th green. The pin was on the right side of the green in the middle tier. The perfectly played shot would have the ball land about pin high, release up the embankment behind the hole, then check up and roll back down the hill giving yourself a fairly flat putt for birdie.

As group after group came through, we only saw a couple of players manage to put their approach shot on the right level. Multiple players including Jordan Speith failed to carry the ball far enough and had their shot roll back down the hill in front of the green.

As we stood there, we sparked up a conversation with an older gentleman and his friend. They had both been coming to the Masters since the 1970’s. They were also both Veterans of the Vietnam War. We listened to them talk about how things had changed around the course, how the local schools shut down for the tournament so people can rent their houses out to people coming to the Masters, but the thing I remember the most, is how he talked about the way the patrons at Augusta National behaved so much differently than those at other golf tournaments.

He said, “You will never hear any idiot here screaming ‘Get in the hole!’ when someone is putting. We don’t do that.” He also talked about how the patrons respect the grounds so much that there is never a piece of trash on the ground. Interestingly, about an hour after he said that, a green plastic sandwich bag blew across the 9^th green into the bunker right in front of us. He saw the bag and couldn’t believe it. He asked his friend, “When was the last time you saw that?” Neither of them could remember. When the next group came through, one of the caddies saw the bag in the bunker, got the rake, and pulled the bag out. We all applauded.

We spent about two and a half hours at the 9^th green, watching the large leader board at the 18^th green update the progress of the second round. We headed over to the 18^th green for what was sure to be a special moment.

Tom Watson isn’t the greatest American golfer of all time, but he is right up there. His eight major championships still hold up today as one of the most impressive records in golf history. During the day, Watson had flirted with making the cut, but trouble on the back 9 had all but guaranteed that this would be his final round at Augusta National. Knowing that, the area around the 18^th green had gotten very crowded. The best Bradley and I could do was to stand behind the green and up the hill where the golfers walk as they head to the clubhouse to sign their card. We could watch the play on the green and got an up-close view of the players as they left.

We were still about three groups from Watson and apparently we weren’t the only ones who wanted to make sure we were there for this historic moment. Three time Masters Champion and CBS commentator Nick Faldo climbed out of the 18^th hole broadcast tower and walked right past us. As he did, we said hello, to which he replied, “running off to restroom.” Judging by the way he walked up the hill to the clubhouse, Sir Nick’s lunch was not agreeing with him.

Watson received another thunderous ovation as he walked up the 18 hole. He missed a long birdie putt, but when he did hole out, there was an extended ovation as one of the Masters greatest champions said goodbye. Watson was emotional as he embraced his family and members of Augusta National, including Chairman Billy Payne, who had come out to be here for this historic moment. It was amazing to be there and feel the energy from the crowd.

After that emotional time, we walked back down the 18^th to watch the Speith group tee off on Augusta’s final hole. While Speith was the reason for the crowd, the story of the 18^th hole on Friday afternoon quickly turned from the leader of the tournament to an amateur playing with him, Bryson DeChambeau.

We were  on the left side of the fairway, watching the players tee off. Speith pushed his tee shot to the right of the fairway, just into the rough. Jordan seemed a little frustrated. Even though he was still leading the tournament, he had struggled on the day. As DeChambeau hit his tee shot, we lost sight of it. I asked Bradley if he had seen it, and he said he had lost it too. There was a good reason we both lost it, it had gone right over our heads, into the trees. We walked down the side of the fairway to where a crowd was gathered, as DeChambeau and his caddy walked past us looking for the marshal who had spotted where his ball had landed. Even though he was only two shots out of the lead, the amateur looked nervous and maybe a little embarrassed for hitting such a bad shot. His ball had hit a tree and come to rest under a huge bush on the side of the fairway. There was no way he could play the ball, so his only choices were to take a drop, or head back to the tee box to tee off again. He elected to go back to the tee, so we walked back up to the rope on the side of the fair way to look back up and watch him his third from the tee.

Then the unthinkable happened. He hit it in almost the exact same place. The ball hit off a branch right above us, flew away from the 18^th hole, bounced off the back of a building and came to rest about 25 feet behind us. We walked over and waited for DeChambeau to make his way over toward his ball. This time, he was visably shaken. There was a glossed over look in his eye, as if he wondered if he would ever hit another good golf shot in his life. If you have ever played the game, you know what feeling I’m talking about. The ball was too close to the building for DeChambeau to get a stance, but the marshal did a fantastic job of helping the young man. He got right up in his face, almost too close, and gave him his options. He could take a club length drop away from where his ball was and hit his fourth shot from there, or, and the marshal emphasized his next statement, he could go back on the other side of the building and take a drop without a penalty stroke because the building stopped the flight of the ball to where it would have landed had the building not been there. The marshal then commented that there was a nice flat area on the opposite side of the building with an open view of the green. DeChambeau seem to wake up from his glazed-over state, told the marshal he wanted to take the drop on the other side of the building, and away we went. DeChambeau hit his fourth shot up towards the green and we walked up the hill beside him, we saw the camera man walking so we made sure to get where we would be on television in the background. DeChambeau ended up making a triple bogey 7 on the hole which dropped him back to even par for the tournament, but he would finish the weekend as the low amateur, so he was in Butler Cabin on Sunday afternoon when the green jacket ceremony was taking place.

I was very impressed that the marshal was able to read the fact that DeChambeau needed someone to basically tell him what to do in that moment, and that the marshal knew the rules of the game well enough to advise him so well in the pressure-packed moment. Augusta National doesn’t just take care of its patrons, it takes care of its players too.

We spent the rest of the day watching groups play the 17^th green and then tee off on the 18^th hole. The final group of the day featured Masters Champion Adam Scott, one of Bradley’s favorite players. We saw the first tee shot of the day and we saw the last.

We knew the day was over, and there was a bit of sadness to that, but it had been a full day and an eventful one.

We walked out of Augusta National at 7:30 pm, nearly 12 hours since we had walked in. I can’t tell you how far we walked, but I would guess it would have been somewhere between 7-10 miles. 

Driving home, we tried to think if there were any holes we hadn’t seen a shot hit on, and amazingly, we think we saw every hole except 7, 8, and 16. Not too bad for a single day.

It has been a year to the day since we had our day at the Masters. Hopefully, it won’t be our last. But if it is, we made the most of it.

There are so few things in life that live up to the hype. Augusta National lived up to the hype and surpassed it. If you love golf or just sports in general and you get the chance to experience the Masters, take the chance.

When we got back to the car, we checked our phones, because we had been out of touch with the rest of the world for the entire day. That is when it hit me, part of what made the day so great, was just being where we were, in that moment, together. Not looking at social media. Not watching the news of the day. Not getting text messages from work.

It was like the pines of Augusta National cut you off from the rest of the world and provided a peaceful and perfect day without the distractions of life.

Every year, the Masters lasts four days, but for me, the memories made on our day at the Masters will last a lifetime.