From the AJC, link :

http://www.ajc.com/uga/content/sports/gatech/stories/2008/12/29/tech_uga_ring.html

Here is the first paragraph :

"Georgia Tech has figured out another way to remember its win over Georgia.

As part of its bowl bounty, Tech is giving each player a ring. Coach Paul Johnson left the design of ring to the team’s seniors. He said the seniors decided to include the score of the Georgia game, 45-42, in the ring’s design. The win snapped a seven-game losing streak to the Bulldogs."

As I've said before, Georgia Tech seems determined to remind everyone that they are, in fact, UGA's little brother. 

Pitiful.

In today's MMQB article by Peter King, he included a quote from Rod Marinelli (the now disposed Lions HC) regarding the worst season in NFL history; "Rod is a very good man. He thanked us for fighting to the end. But he said to us, 'This is us. We own this. We did this. So man up.' ''  This is the thing that drove me nuts about Willie all season.  His quotes were always "We're in the right positions, just not making plays"....  I know he eventually came forward saying that leadership begins with him and some of the blame can be focused on him, but I think that was too little too late.  I hated that he was so willing to throw his players under the bus during the season and not shoulder any of the criticism until after season end.  I think more people could take that advice from Coach Marinelli above rather than living in a world of denial that seemed to afflict Coach Martinez all season.  I feel better now after getting that off my chest.

Um, a little ashamed to admit that I have some friends and family that graduated from the "Joke by Coke," GaTech.

Also a little ashamed to see their "greatest Christmas present" or whatever this is, to their fans and alumni:

http://www.gtalumni.org/media/flash/2008-holiday-card/index.html

Here's some food for thought... UF stands poised to win it's 2nd BCS National Title.

It will be the 2nd school to do this in the BCS era.

LSU was the first program to win multiple BCS titles.

recap: 2 SEC schools have in all likelihood won 2 BCS titles each, and are the only programs in NCAA to accomplish this feat. UGA is not one of them.

anyone that believes this fault lies anywhere but squarely at Mark Richt's feet is confused. I don't need a lecture about LSU having 2 losses last year, or about UF winning it all with a loss in a season of 1-loss teams while UGA just "chanced" to have their single-loss season during other teams perfect seasons. Two facts remain crystal clear (like the trophy), one; the SEC has more Nat'l Championship coaches than any other league, even with Fat Phil's eviction, and two; UGA has no consensus Nat'l Titles since 1980. I am an angry Dawg today in spite of the season.

Anyone that is not angry probably doesn't bleed Red&Black.

I was reading an article about the upcoming draft that listed who is probably staying, leaving or undecided. The article which was on ESPN's site, but now I can't find said they are expecting a record number of underclassmen to enter the draft. It cited two main reasons. The first, is the rookie cap expected in the near future. "The second factor is a marginally talented senior class. Most underclassmen are aware of the competition at their respective positions and have some idea where they stack up in relation." It seems like that statement: "marginally talented senior class" or something like that gets batted around every year. Seriously, I would venture to say that 3 out of 4 senior classes have marginal number of talented or high-profile prospects. But what else should we expect when 25-50 of the top underclassmen bail for the NFL each year?! Of course there are less seniors to choose from because 1/4 - 1/2 of the really good ones left a year or two ago. So stop blaming the seniors and blame their peers who cut and ran... for the money.

Those that have been there all year know I don't see Stafford as a great leader, and morale and team work I see as severe weakness this season.  That being said - let me quote the kind of leadership I saw as lacking this season from a returning player, and what I hope gets invigorated.

"One more year won't hurt me. I love college, and I'm glad to be here," Owens said. "I didn't have a senior year like I wanted. We lost to (Georgia) Tech, and I can't leave losing to Tech. I've got to get revenge on that."

 - OWENS.

You know what - HELL YEA.   That is what I am talking about.  That is bleeding red and black.   That get's me fired up.

Tech is so destroyed 2009.

For those who think that Mark Richt may be burying his head in the sand with regards to the difficulties of this season and a particular assistant, here is an interesting quote from AD Damon Evans (from David Hale's blog http://ugadogsblog.blogspot.com/ ):

That's a hard question because I tell people and I use this with our coaches and staff I call it the blind spot. The blind spot is the difference between the perception you have of yourself and the perceptions others have of you. That's your blind spot, and sometimes our blind spot gets a little bit too big. We perceive ourselves as being everything OK, but everyone else is perceiving us to be (worse). The difference between the two is our blind spot. Perception is reality. Sometimes it doesn't matter where we think we are, what matters is how other people perceive us.

215 completions on 352 attempts for a 61.1% completion rate.  3,209 yards through 12 games for an average of 267.4/game, 9.12/attempt, and 14.9/completion.  22 TD's to only 9 INT's for a 2.4 TD/INT Ratio.  An overall passer rating of 153.17 which places him 15th out of 119 passers, behind only Tim Tebow in the SEC.

Asides from the quantitative measures I mentioned above, have you guys seen the games he's kept us in this year?  He played most of the second half of Alabama after getting his bell rung pretty good and helped make the score a little more respectable.  He was the only player on the offense making plays in the South Carolina game.  He was nearly flawless at Kentucky, at Arizona State, and against Georgia Tech.  If he doesn't have the games he had at Kentucky or GA Tech, we get blown out of the water.  He made huge throws in the LSU game.  Dude is 20-5 the last two years, same as Tim Tebow.

My question to what seems like a growing faction of the Bulldawg Nation; Do you honestly believe yourself when you say we'll be better off next year without Matthew Stafford lining up behind center?  That production is pretty difficult to replace (keep in mind he's done this behind one of the greenest and thinnest O-Lines I've ever seen).  Imagine what next year could be like playing behind an offensive line that is more mature and stronger.  I don't think we'll see it as the $$$ are pretty hard to pass up, but Stafford is Damn Good Dawg and anyone who thinks otherwise, please prove me wrong.  Sure, he makes the mind-boggling throw every now and then, but tell me what QB doesn't that isn't Tim Tebow or Sam Bradford.  Keep in mind the O-line issues when comparing those three.  Of the Oklahoma games I've watched this season I don't think I've seen Bradford get touched and Tebow has a more than adequate line.  Put those guys behind UGA's O-Line this year, and I have a sneaking suspicion their numbers wouldn't be so outrageous.  His one bad game this year was Florida, but that was a case of him being the only player on the field that seemed to give a crap and tried to force things because no one else was.

Well, that's my story and I'm sticking to it.  Stafford may never win an SEC or national title, but it's not like it's all his fault or our problems are going to be magically solved if he leaves.  If anything, we're going to regress on the offensive side of the ball and have to rely on the defense even more next year.   And we all know how I feel about that...

This is a few days overdue, but it was worth mentioning, nevertheless:

November was another stellar month here at Dawg Sports, as the site received 67,065 visits and 108,895 page views. The visit total was the third-highest in the weblog’s history (after the two preceding months) and the page view tally was the second-highest ever here (after September 2008).

As always, we appreciate your readership, and especially the many outstanding contributions made in the comments, the FanShots, and the FanPosts. MaconDawg and I are much obliged.

Go ‘Dawgs!

First time poster here and I just wanted to find a good site to vent some of my frustrations with being a Dawgs fan, so I figured this is as good a site as any. My main beef towards the Dawgs this year and in all the years that I have been a Dawgs fan (I've lived in a lot of different states and wasn't a Dawgs fan until '96) is that we never have any swagger. Some of you may think that me saying that is stupid and that we either have swagger or that it doesn't matter if a football team has swagger. When I say swagger I am reffering to having confidence when you step out onto the field knowing that you are going to dominate the game. I feel that this confidence starts with the head coach. Richt is a good coach but he doesn't excude confidence in my eyes. Some people might say that he does in a quite and confident in himself manner but I don't buy it.

Case and point would be all of the clutch games that Georgia ALWAYS loses. I, unlike many Georgia fans, am not totally distraut when Georgia goes 10-2 or 9-3 but its the way we get to those records. Take the Alabama game this year for instance. I knew we were going to lose that game because I knew we would come out with no confidence. You can't tell me that isn't the tightest you have ever seen a Georgia football team play in any first half. You couldn't have squeezed a pin needle between the butt cheeks of any one of our players on the field. It is the coaches responsibility to have their players prepared for the game not only physcially but mentally.

 It's so frustrating to watch a Florida game and see their players being so loose and confident and ready to destroy their opponent. We never look like that. And I'm not talking about jumping around and getting excited during pregame warmups but the actual demeanor of the players. Then you have the annual Cocktail party. Probably the best time of the year for me, until the game of course. Florida acts like they own that stadium and everything in it including our football team. We have to send the whole team out on the field to gain any confidence to beat Florida. We have to wear black jerseys to win against Auburn. That gimmick crap only works once.

How about this, how about creating your own swagger and confidence in yourself and your team without any stupid gimmicks. Who should be in charge of accomplishing this??? Until someone steps up and does it we will never win the big games. Hell we barely win the small games. South Carolina should have beat us this year if their running back doesn't hand the ball to us as he is about to score. We should have lost to Kentucky, we should have lost to Auburn (maybe not should have lost but we got lucky). Vanderbilt is a close game every year. We only beat LSU because of two freak INT's returned for TD's. Tennessee was close. And the killer is that after we win these close games to teams that we should blow out all Richt can say is how well the other team played. I hate Tebow as much as any Dawg fan but when they loss to Ole Miss he stood up and took responsibility and corrected the mistakes. None of our players or coaches would do anything like that and I think that stems from the head coach.

Then there is our defense. Oh my god. First of all who is in charge of recruiting our defensive players more importantly our secondary? Who is in charge of coaching the secondary (like making sure they know how to rap up)? Who is in charge of calling the defensive plays that can help support our horrible secondary? Answer: Martinez, Martinez, Martinez. How do Prince Miller, Reshad Jones, and CJ Byrd not only receive scholarships but start on our defense? Why weren't they sat on the bench? I don't care who was behind them on the depth chart, they could not be any worse and if they are, then what are we looking at when we recruit?

I'm not a football genius or anything (I grew up around football my whole life because my dad is a college football coach) but when you have a horrible secondary you have to get pressure to the QB so that you at least have a chance that the QB either won't see the open receiver downfield or you can disrupt his throw. But do we blitz? Ya like twice a game. And the sad thing is that we blitz so rarely that when we do blitz our LB's are either running into the backs of our own defensive lineman or right into the other teams blockers because when you only blitz 2 out of 60 plays your linebackers don't know how to apply pressure or sack the QB if they do get past the blockers. How many times did we have a chance for a sack and miss the QB? If we were fortunate enough to get the sack it was usually with the help of grabbing their face mask thus costing us fifteen yards and a first down.

How could I write this much and just now mention another highly frustrating part of being a Dawgs fan this year, penalties. No one can tell me that penalties aren't a direct result of poor coaching. You ask Richt about the penalties and all he does is come up with excuses like you don't want to tell your team to quit playing hard. Thats BS. How about taking some responsibility and benching Reshad Jones after his fifth late hit of the season. Georgia players don't care about penalties because they know that nothing will be done. Maybe they will have to run some gashers or bleachers big deal. Richt is a good coach and I am happy to have him but I would be much happier with an aggressive and fiery coach like Urban Meyer, Stoops, Saban. Hell I may even rather have Tubberville, at least he fires the assistant coaches who are responsible for poor performance.

Congratulations to Rodney Garner, he interviewed for the Auburn job.  It'd be interesting to see what he could do over there.  I really like him as part of our staff, but I can't cheer AGAINST a guy getting that kind of chance.   The best of luck to him.

And second, I just saw Reshad Jones was named second team All-SEC.  What does that say about the SEC?

I need five more words.