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Take Your Lumps Dawg Fans

After one of the most disappointing seasons in recent memory, and with the 2010 season still several months away, except more of this.

Criticizing the state of our program seems to be the chic thing to. And for good reason. Does anyone not remember what happened last season? We lost to Kentucky--at home. "Can't Get Right" absolutely carved up our secondary in Knoxville. We didn't compete against Florida. We lost to a terrible LSU team. And we got steamrolled by an Oklahoma State team that got steamrolled by the Houston Cougars. The criticisms of our program are valid, and in my opinion needed.

And there's also a reason teams like Florida and Alabama continue to be heralded as great despite losing a lot of quality players--They win. They produce quality wins against quality opponents. They beat Kentucky at home. They force Lane Kiffen to accept moral victories. They win SEC Championships and National Championships.

Face it, any criticism that we're taking. We deserve it. I deserve the constant derision from the Georgia Tech Fans that surround me. We deserve writes like Mark Bradley and Jeff Schultz generating page hits by tossing red meat to our disgruntled fan base. We are what we are. And what we are is an 8-5 football team. And personally, I wouldn't want it any other way.

What has our team accomplished since ending the season 8-5? We completed the most comprehensive overhaul of a defensive staff of any team in the Bowl Subdivision. We hired a proven NFL Veteran defensive coach. We hired a proven Defensive Backs coach. We hired a proven Linebacker's coach. All whom have a documented history of producing more with less. We managed to pull another Top 25 recruiting class, despite the perceived "instability" of the program.

Florida loses 22 players on defense, one of the most transcendent offensive players of all time, and a defensive coordinator. They're hailed as a resounding success story. Georgia Tech loses a recruiting coordinator, pulls a terrible overall recruiting class...and the AJC adores Paul Johnson's every move. Tennessee loses pretty much everything, manages to "steal" a highly recruited wide receiver from UGA, and they're "back on track". And then there's Georgia Bulldogs. Despite the howling and gnashing of teeth from Bradley and Schultz, Richt managed to put together what appears to be a significant defensive staff upgrade. And (aside from the Kirby Smart fiasco) he did it quietly. Off the radar. He signed a great defensive recruiting class--again off the radar. Georgia is poised for a huge comback season, probably more than any school in the SEC East, and yet has managed to stay off the radar. This Georgia team is going to be dangerous. They're going to win a lot of games. They are going to upset a lot of quality opponents. The writing is on the wall...and none of our critics can read it.

So my fellow Dawg Fans, take your lumps. Relish the criticism. Bask in negative press. Smile everytime you read about Mark Richt being on the hot seat. After all, we deserve it. But keep one thing in mind:

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; because there is not effort without error and shortcomings; but who does actually strive to do the deed; who knows the great enthusiasm, the great devotion, who spends himself in a worthy cause, who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement and who at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly. So that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.”--Theodore Roosevelt


The winter of our discontent is over. Be prepared to have your faith renewed in the program!

Go Dawgs!

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