Washaun Ealey to Transfer: Why Georgia Bulldogs Fans Should be Neither Saddened Nor Gladdened to See Him Go
by T Kyle King on May 9, 2011 8:20 PM EDT
in Georgia Bulldogs Football
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PrintWashaun and I have had several conversations in recent weeks. We both have come to the conclusion that a transfer to another institution would be in his best interest.
Mark Richt
Unless Coach Richt has developed Will Muschamp’s penchant for the disingenuous euphemism, it appears that Washaun Ealey has grown tired of spending more time in the doghouse in Athens than Uga.
Of course, Ealey’s presence on his head coach’s bad side has been entirely of his own making; after all, it wasn’t Coach Richt who kept fumbling, or mishandled the parking-deck hit-and-run a half-dozen different ways, or got himself indefinitely suspended. That was all Washaun, and, if Ealey hasn’t learned the lesson that actions beget consequences, Coach Richt is right that it is for the best for his troubled running back to make tracks for someplace else.
That is not to say that I wish the young man ill, or that I am prepared to dismiss the announcement of Ealey’s release with a flippant "good riddance to bad rubbish." Washaun had his struggles, but he hardly qualified as rubbish, even if his judgment needed improvement, both on and off the field. Last season, Ealey started only seven games, but he carried the ball 157 times for 811 yards and 11 touchdowns while catching eight passes for 85 yards.
Those are not statistics at which to sneeze, although it must be acknowledged, as well, that Ealey’s yards per carry and rushing yards per game declined from 5.7 and 79.9, respectively, in 2009 to 5.2 and 67.6 in 2010. As a prep player in Emanuel County, he was the Class A offensive player of the year, the all-class player of the year, and a member of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution "Super 11." As a first-year collegian, Ealey twice earned SEC freshman of the week honors, led the team with 717 rushing yards, and earned one of the team’s offensive newcomer of the year awards.
Nevertheless, his career with the Georgia Bulldogs was an erratic one; following spring drills in 2010, Ealey won the coveted Coffee County Hustle Award, and he entered the ensuing autumn as a first-teamer on Athlon Sports’ preseason All-SEC squad. He showed flashes of brilliance, tying Robert Edwards’s school record with five touchdowns in a single game against the Kentucky Wildcats, but he also disappeared in big games, being held to a single score in critical outings against the Arkansas Razorbacks, Auburn Tigers, and Florida Gators. (He would have been held to a single TD against the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets, too, but he scored when he should have knelt.)
In short, I am neither glad to see Washaun Ealey go nor sad to see Washaun Ealey go. With the obvious caveats of the sort offered by Vito Corleone to Virgil Sollozzo, I hope he does well wherever he goes, but I also hope his departure serves as additional evidence that our head coach is serious about putting a halt to the nonsense. While offseason gestures are meaningless if they do not produce wins in the autumn, offseason gestures presently are all we have, and I have few quibbles with events relating to Georgia football since the new year dawned, including this one.
Meanwhile, Isaiah Crowell’s path to the starting job just got slightly easier, albeit only slightly so. Here’s hoping Crowell and his fellow Bulldogs learn the lesson Washaun Ealey apparently never could: it’s the same distance from the mansion to the outhouse as it was from the outhouse to the mansion . . . and vice versa.
Go ‘Dawgs!
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Bobby Petrino must be licking his chops. He now has an opportunity to nab the perfect back to fumble the ball on the 1, thus setting up the safety he so badly needs to complete his point scoring equation.
Petrino Math FTW!
"If there's one thing worse than chlamydia, it's Florida." ~ Emma Stone
by RedCrake on May 9, 2011 8:40 PM EDT via mobile reply actions
That is most excellent - thank you redcrake
"One thing I will never do as long as I’m at Georgia is lose to Florida." - Herschel Walker
by tankertoad on May 9, 2011 9:05 PM EDT via mobile up reply actions
At the risk of repeating myself from SouthernDawg's thread:
It stinks that we’re losing Ealey, and even though he’s had his poor moments, make no mistake: this is a significant loss for our team.
With that said, however, no matter how talented a man is, if he can’t follow a code of conduct and accept discipline when he falls astray of those rules, then he simply doesn’t belong in the Georgia program.
I'm not sure about it being a significant loss
Granted he has talent but he seemed to go into cruise control mode in some of the bigger games. If he was a slacker (my unfounded term) then this could be addition by subtraction and send a message to the rest of the team.
I wish him well and will follow his play.
I don't think it's a horrible loss
His head wasn’t completely in the game this last year.. We still have Caleb King and Boo Malcome. We can also run Carlton Thomas between tackles the whole game if we have to. This just seemed to be unavoidable. Ealey knew he was last in the pecking order and knew the buzz was that Crowell was the frontrunner to win the starting job. While it’s not ideal that he leaves and it’s probably too late for him to have a good career somewhere else, it’s mostly self inflicted.
The guy had some amazing talent, unfortunately he didn’t seem to have the football IQ or hard work that others had.
Hate to see him go.
I hate losing what he could have been, but I won’t cry for losing what he was. As for who he is, I wish him the best.
There are only two men who can stand up and proclaim “I Run This State.” For that, Washaun Ealey has my respect, my gratitude, and my best wishes.
Second that...Good luck Washaun
Cry 'Havoc,' and let slip the Dawgs of war; - Julius Caesar, Act III, Scene 1
If he wants to redeem himself
He can sneak in CMB’s office and steal that green notebook on his way out.
"One thing I will never do as long as I’m at Georgia is lose to Florida." - Herschel Walker
by tankertoad on May 9, 2011 9:09 PM EDT via mobile reply actions 7 recs
I regret that I only one rec to give to this post.
by first and thom on May 9, 2011 9:16 PM EDT up reply actions
Don't worry i got you covered
Rec’d
Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may win.
I Corinthians 9:24
by Southern Dawg on May 9, 2011 9:32 PM EDT up reply actions
but that raises the question of whether a Georgia football player is arrested in Athens for petty (/altruistic) crimes after they’ve been granted their release.
I think the ACCPD would be so confused, they’d wind up arresting Crowell instead.
"It'll only be reviewed because the guys up in the booth want to watch it a few times too." AJ's one-handed catch at Colorado
Did he play at all this spring?
and did Mark Richt pull a phantom injury, letting Ealey miss the spring “due to injury” instead of being kicked out, so he could finish out spring semester and transfer to another school with a slightly improved black mark from his departure here?
http://sportsandgrits.blogspot.com/
not yet
I don’t know if it is good or bad, possibly both.
If he is a distraction, then leaving is good.
If he ends up playing for Florida and plays a key role in beating us, then leaving is bad. (I just picked Florida, I have no idea where he is going or even looking.)
The other thing to consider is that we had at least 4 players leave the program this off season if my math is correct. Could be used to spin negative recruiting. However, the flip side is that we have a chance to sign one more guy to what could be a small class.
The fact
that Ealey wasn’t jettisoned after the Liberty Bowl tells me that Richt wanted to give Ealey a chance, but on strict terms. I think Ealey was allowed to “save face” to a degree, and both parties let the dust settle before any action. There simply was no future at Georgia for Washaun, and he’s now been allowed to exit with a modicum of grace. This is the best possible result for everyone involved. He didn’t want to be here. We did not necessarily want him.
If anything, the running back spot is now a bit clearer. The odds of Carlton Thomas running in the middle on 2nd and long just went up.
"If we score, we may win. If they never score, we'll never lose."
-Erk Russell
by DavetheDawg on May 10, 2011 9:19 AM EDT reply actions 1 recs
I consider it good news
Ealey wasn’t willing to get with the program. Our football team wasn’t a “team” these last years and had a sense of entitlement. CMR gave him several chances to get with it but apparently the chip on his shoulder was too big. It’s about time we enforced team polices, work out standards and diet standards. If you can’t handle going to school for free, taking easy classes with tutors, working out hard, eating right and showing up on time, then we don’t really need you. It looks like CMR handled it with a lot of grace, giving ample opportunity, but in the end, if you cant do it “the Georgia way” we don’t need you. It’s a distraction and the players that are giving it all deserve to have starters that are as well. Yea "We run this state’ was cool, but keep in mind that was the ONE game CMB got rid of the green notebook while our O Line blocked as a unit. It’s unfortunate that he will be remembered for untimely fumbles, that could have been anyone, but it was his failure to adhere to team standards and policies that was the real problem.
We have a coach that gives 2nd and 3rd chances, but is making it clear you have to be a Dawg in the end. I like that a lot. Now, he will probably got to LSU with Metezburger and beat the hell out of everyone. )
"One thing I will never do as long as I’m at Georgia is lose to Florida." - Herschel Walker
He wasn't going to play if he stayed...
Georgia officials confirmed that Ealey is academically eligible to play next season. Ealey could not be reached for comment so his next destination is unknown.
- Chip Towers, AJC
"If we score, we may win. If they never score, we'll never lose."
-Erk Russell
should that be academically _in_ eligible? huh? confused.
"One thing I will never do as long as I’m at Georgia is lose to Florida." - Herschel Walker
I thought the point was that he was eligible.
So, basically, it was the coaches holding him out, not anything else. (In other words, he could go to any other program and immediately be eligible, with the exception of the requisite sitting-out-a-year at a I-A school.)
by vineyarddawg on May 10, 2011 12:46 PM EDT up reply actions
My old, tired eyes
totally read that wrong. So, his grades are in order. Good for him. Hopefully, it will expedite the transfer process wherever he chooses to play.
"If we score, we may win. If they never score, we'll never lose."
-Erk Russell
Washaun just makes it clear just how extra special Herschel Walker really was.
All that talent, yet such a humble spirit (in public anyway).
But, I guess the best player in college football ever! only comes to a program once.
by Wonderful-Ohio-On-The-Gulf Dog on May 10, 2011 10:36 AM EDT reply actions
Ok, I'm now done with Washaun Ealey.
Gentry Estes posted the following quote from Ealey:
I’m a person where I want to be a premier back. If I was to play here, I would have had to share the backfield with Caleb and Carlton also. Then they were going to try to give the freshman, Isaiah, his chance. He probably was going to get some carries at the beginning of the year, too. I just felt like I didn’t want to be in that mix of things anymore.
So he doesn’t want to compete for fear that he won’t be good enough to play regularly. That means he’s either lazy or just not any good. Personally, I think it’s the former.
I can now feel comfortable saying good riddance.
I agree - thats horse dookey
We got a sea of QBs, how do you think they feel? Maybe if his sorry butt didnt fumble the ball all the time he wouldnt have to worry about competing. Or if he knew how to block worth a damn. He was skipping workouts and what not, wow – he doesnt want to earn it, he thinks he deserves it. He had that chance to be teh premier back – and graduate with a valuable degree. He just signed his own death certificate. He can now go be a premier back at a much less reputable or good school in regards to football. I hope he goes to Tech so we can pick up his fumbles and bust through his blocks.
I want to say “screw him” – maybe that isnt right.
"One thing I will never do as long as I’m at Georgia is lose to Florida." - Herschel Walker
"Georgia Southern has not been and will not be in conversation with Washaun Ealey," Rose Carter, Georgia Southern assistant athletic director for athletics media relations, said by email this afternoon.
….Did Washaun just burn his bridges at Georgia before he nailed down where he’s to land.
by Wonderful-Ohio-On-The-Gulf Dog on May 10, 2011 9:51 PM EDT reply actions
Could Ga Southern even mention his name if he's a "perspective student athlete"?
I would think a possible transfer fits under the same rules as high school kids who haven’t signed LOIs.
http://sportsandgrits.blogspot.com/
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