{"id":3669,"date":"2011-09-04T07:35:39","date_gmt":"2011-09-04T11:35:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.calvertgames.com\/cgblog\/?p=3669"},"modified":"2011-09-04T07:38:48","modified_gmt":"2011-09-04T11:38:48","slug":"dawgs-facing-0-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.calvertgames.com\/cgblog\/2011\/09\/04\/dawgs-facing-0-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Dawgs Facing 0-2"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I am not sure if I am more surprised, disappointed, or dangerously growing towards apathy.  Or maybe some combo of all three \u2026<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Surprised that the Dawgs didn\u2019t compete in a meaningful way.<\/li>\n<li>Disappointed that the Dawgs didn\u2019t compete in a meaningful way.<\/li>\n<li>Apathetic that the Dawgs continue on a downward spiral.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>As a lifelong Bulldog fan, this trend makes my stomach churn.  Something has to give \u2026 but there appears to be a glaring lack of progress during the fall camp.  We read article after article about how the Bulldogs were going to be better conditioned.  Didn\u2019t see that show up on the field as the defense was often gasping, and at one point had to call a timeout because they were unable to stop the Broncos march towards another TD.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>And it\u2019s hard to say how much credit the Broncos will really get for beating Georgia, even if it was essentially a true road game. The Bulldogs are coming off a 6-7 finish in 2010, which ended with an ugly 10-6 loss to Central Florida in the Liberty Bowl.<\/p>\n<p>Frankly, the Bulldogs didn\u2019t look much different, aside from their Power Ranger-like jerseys and helmets. They committed untimely penalties and couldn\u2019t run the ball effectively. [Source:  <a href=\"http:\/\/espn.go.com\/college-football\/story\/_\/id\/6929604\/boise-state-broncos-once-again-come-big-early-season-matchup-college-football\" onclick=\"__gaTracker('send', 'event', 'outbound-article', 'http:\/\/espn.go.com\/college-football\/story\/_\/id\/6929604\/boise-state-broncos-once-again-come-big-early-season-matchup-college-football', 'ESPN');\" target=\"_blank\">ESPN<\/a>]<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>It\u2019s not that the Dwags lost, it is how they lost; more on that in the second quote from DawgSports, which sums up exactly how I feel.<\/p>\n<p>UGA head coach Mark Richt is the nicest guy; all indications are he is a Christian, family-man, with great intentions.  A real leader of young men.  Unfortunately, of late, Richt seems to have lost his team.  Richt loyalty to his staff, in this case offensive coordinator Mike Bobo, may ultimately be his undoing.  The 3-4 experiment led by defensive coordinator Todd Grantham is clearly not working.<\/p>\n<p>Is it time for a change?  Things don\u2019t get any easier for the Bulldogs, as they host the Fighting Chickens next week.  <a href=\"http:\/\/espn.go.com\/college-football\/team\/_\/id\/61\/georgia-bulldogs\" onclick=\"__gaTracker('send', 'event', 'outbound-article', 'http:\/\/espn.go.com\/college-football\/team\/_\/id\/61\/georgia-bulldogs', '0-2');\" target=\"_blank\">0-2<\/a>?  You bet, unless there are significant week-over-week changes, which is highly doubtful.<\/p>\n<p>I am not going to go all brass balls on you and call for the ouster of Richt; it\u2019s just that things have to change.  Meaningful change.  As in being competitive.  There is no shame going down to a better team.<\/p>\n<p>This article from <a href=\"http:\/\/www.dawgsports.com\/\" onclick=\"__gaTracker('send', 'event', 'outbound-article', 'http:\/\/www.dawgsports.com\/', 'DawgSports');\" target=\"_blank\">DawgSports<\/a> really sums up how I feel about the state of the program.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Please do not mistake this for excuse-making on my part; it is not. Boise State was the better team, they fully deserved the win that they got, and they won the game more convincingly on the field than the scoreboard suggested. The Broncos in many ways made the Bulldogs look so bad, which is to BSU\u2019s credit. They are who we thought they were, and, even if Georgia had played well, Boise State still would have earned the win and gotten the win. I take nothing whatsoever away from Boise State.<\/p>\n<p>The problem, from our perspective, is this: Boise State came into the game as a top five team, and the Broncos looked like a top five team, but Georgia came into the game as a top 20 team, and the Bulldogs did not look like a top 20 team. Again, a large part of the credit for that goes to Boise State, but our issue isn\u2019t that the \u2018Dawgs lost, it\u2019s how they lost.<\/p>\n<p>Nothing has been fixed, and few things have improved. While the defense probably played a bit better than the Broncos\u2019 35 points suggest, and the offense certainly played much worse than the Bulldogs\u2019 21 points indicate, essentially every problem that plagued this team before plagued this team still. This was the Liberty Bowl on a larger stage against a better team, which is why this game likely will mean much less to Boise State three months from now than it means to the Broncos tonight. Though the Broncos are as good as advertised, the Bulldogs remain less than the sum of their parts.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>The focus has to turn 100% onto the coaching staff.  Put together a solid game plan next week, put the players in a position to successfully execute on the plan, and the Dawgs will be competitive.  Will they win?  It\u2019s hard to say, but starting the season 0-2 may just be the final straw in Bulldog Nation.<\/p>\n<div class=\"addtoany_share_save_container addtoany_content_bottom\"><div class=\"a2a_kit a2a_kit_size_ addtoany_list a2a_target\" id=\"wpa2a_1\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.addtoany.com\/share\" onclick=\"__gaTracker('send', 'event', 'outbound-article', 'https:\/\/www.addtoany.com\/share', '');\" class=\"a2a_dd addtoany_share_save\"><img src=\"https:\/\/www.calvertgames.com\/cgblog\/wp-content\/plugins\/add-to-any\/share_save_171_16.png\" width=\"171\" height=\"16\" alt=\"Share\"\/><\/a>\n<script type=\"text\/javascript\"><!--\nif(wpa2a)wpa2a.script_load();\n\/\/--><\/script>\n<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I am not sure if I am more surprised, disappointed, or dangerously growing towards apathy. Or maybe some combo of all three \u2026 Surprised that the Dawgs didn\u2019t compete in a meaningful way. Disappointed that the Dawgs didn\u2019t compete in a meaningful way. Apathetic that the Dawgs continue on a downward spiral. \u00a0 As a &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.calvertgames.com\/cgblog\/2011\/09\/04\/dawgs-facing-0-2\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Dawgs Facing 0-2<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"addtoany_share_save_container addtoany_content_bottom\"><div class=\"a2a_kit a2a_kit_size_ addtoany_list a2a_target\" id=\"wpa2a_2\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.addtoany.com\/share\" onclick=\"__gaTracker('send', 'event', 'outbound-article', 'https:\/\/www.addtoany.com\/share', '');\" class=\"a2a_dd addtoany_share_save\"><img src=\"https:\/\/www.calvertgames.com\/cgblog\/wp-content\/plugins\/add-to-any\/share_save_171_16.png\" width=\"171\" height=\"16\" alt=\"Share\"\/><\/a><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[55],"class_list":["post-3669","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archive","tag-uga"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.calvertgames.com\/cgblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3669","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.calvertgames.com\/cgblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.calvertgames.com\/cgblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.calvertgames.com\/cgblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.calvertgames.com\/cgblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3669"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.calvertgames.com\/cgblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3669\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3673,"href":"https:\/\/www.calvertgames.com\/cgblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3669\/revisions\/3673"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.calvertgames.com\/cgblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3669"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.calvertgames.com\/cgblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3669"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.calvertgames.com\/cgblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3669"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}