Georgia Football...In Need of a Culture Change

In the last three years I cannot count how many times I have been asked this question: “Brad, what the HELL is wrong with Georgia football?” It cannot be denied. We are sliding downhill. This realization was culminated by the latest bowl loss to Central Florida, which sent yours truly into a whiskey fueled tirade at Mickey Mantle’s Bar in New York City. Bushmill’s should send me a “Thank You” card for that night. I proved to the bar that their product works, and it works fast.

Here’s some math for you….Our so-called five star players getting their butt handed to them on every down + Our coach opting for a field goal on the three-yard line + Turnovers +Penalties = Me angrily devouring 45 hot wings in the midst of the wave of Bushmill’s that crashed over me when halftime ended. “You Georgia guys take this stuff seriously, huh?” said the waitress. “Ma’am, you have no idea,” was my reply. I tolerated the remainder of the lackluster performance until about 2 minutes left in the 4^th quarter, when they showed George O’Leary laughing on the sidelines. I stuck my fork in my eye and promptly went to Lennox Hill Hospital, the same place where Mickey Mantle went after he tore his knee up on that drain cover at Yankee Stadium. (Just kidding. It was contemplated, though)

This summer has been marked by great recruiting news. The Dream Team has come to campus and created a buzz. These kids are hungry, they want to bring the pride back. However, this is the same story I’ve heard every year since I graduated. “The seniors are stepping up” and “the leaders are in the weight room motivating everybody.” Or my personal favorite, “This is a new year.”  And every year we do the following: 1) blowout 2 nobodies; 2) play Carolina like an intramural flag football team still hungover from last night; 3) sh*t the bed against Florida and Auburn/Tennessee; 4) let Vandy/Ole Miss/Mississippi State play us down to the wire; 5) Bama/LSU is always a tossup, no matter the records; 6) Beat Tech unless they cheat. There’s your 8-5 and 6-7 records. How much longer can the Bulldog Nation stand it? Where did we go wrong? My answers to those questions are as follows: Not long and the Alabama game in 2008.

The Bama game in 2008 was the high water mark for me. We were ranked #1. We had AJ Green. We had Matthew Stafford. We had Knowshon. I have never felt so good about a game in my life. I just knew we would take them to the woodshed and mow through the rest of the league and meet somebody in the BCS Championship (hopefully Ohio State, because I wanted to watch us pummel those smug pricks into the turf). The tailgate was epic. It started at 8 AM and ended at 7:30 PM. I played 75 games of cornhole. Bama people were coming by and hanging out with us, telling me they just hoped to keep it close. Hell, they lost to Louisiana-Monroe last year! I was riding higher than Amy Winehouse on a crack binge in a space shuttle. (Too soon? Oh well.)

Alabama slaughtered us. It was 30-0 before I could get my first spiked Coca-Cola stirred right. Saban had those guys absolutely wired and they came out swinging. We came out flat, sat back on our heels and watched them blow right past us. Our guys looked like they had just failed a quiz in PE….. just clueless. The Bama faithful were going nuts. They handled it well, though. They have won before. Plus, Bama was carrying the torch for the SEC long before UGA woke up, so my hats off to them eternally. It still hurt though, to watch us get embarrassed on national television and cast us into the role of spoiler for the rest of the season. That season was supposed to be ours. We never recovered from that blowout if you ask me.

It’s the culture created by UGA that is killing us, in my opinion. Have you been to a UGA game lately? Our stadium is NOT loud. The South side does not stand up for anything but third downs. I was asked to sit down at EVERY single home game in 2009. The real fans are NOT at the games. They can’t afford it anymore. The donations required and the gameday rules have priced so many good people out of coming to Athens. The school has sold out to bluebloods who treat the games like a social event. I cannot count how many times I have heard comments like this, “Ha, look at those douchebag Florida people in their Tebow jerseys and jean shorts.” As foolish as it may look, at least they give a damn. Florida fans are freakin’ loud. So are LSU, Bama, Auburn and Tennessee. An Auburn guy I know put it this way: “A guy who lays bricks for a living, who cannot wait for Saturday to get here so he can get to the stadium and saves all his money for tickets, food and beer has so much more invested in the actual game.” It’s true! These big money donors pay, but they pay to be pampered. They pay to say, “I sit in the skyboxes.” They refer to the above mentioned brick layer as a “redneck.” Well, give me 10,000 rednecks at the game and keep your $10,000 donation. I bet you have a nice leather couch in your house on Peachtree Battle with a sweet TV. No heat. No rowdy “rednecks” to bother you. Sounds like a good deal to me.

I think this attitude has trickled down to the field. A sense of entitlement. Riding the wave of the 2002-05 seasons, “we are Georgia, so get out of our way.” Bama does not give a rat’s ass about that. Neither does Florida. Apparently, Central Florida did not get the memo either. It’s time to reverse this train, and right now. Flush the “tea and crumpet” toilet, send the fairweathered fans packing and get the real folks back in here. The bricklayers from Blakely. The guy with the lawn care business from Ocilla. The plant workers from Rome, Cartersville, Gainesville, and Calhoun. The farmers from Tifton and Colquitt. True Georgians who get excited about the games, not the prospect of being seen at the game. Change the culture and you will see a new outlook, I guarantee you. We’ll have more guys like Tony Gilbert, Boss Bailey, Terrence Edwards, and David Pollack out there, guys who were dyed in the wool Dawgs that played every down like it was their last. I miss those guys. I think we have the tools to get it done. We have the talent and the coaches (lots of people disagree here, but I think Richt knows what he must do). There is a sense of urgency in 2011 and everybody knows it. Now, let’s clean house and get back to winning! Go Dawgs! (Or I’ll stick a fork in my eye).