IF THE UNTHINKABLE HAPPENS

[bobongo]

The funny thing is that I am just as excited about Tech football as I was last week. What’s completely changed in me is my opinion of the rivalry and especially national championships in football. I’ll admit that I’m incredibly biased here, but every bit of the bad taste the Bama-LSU championship left from after the 2011 season came rushing back tenfold. What’s the meaning of being a national champion? Is it the best team that season? You can’t really make that case effectively in either case because the the head-to-head record is 1-1. In fact, it could be argued that in 2011 Bama earned a bye week by losing to LSU since they didn’t have to play in the conference championship game to get to the national title game. If a team wins its conference, the idea is supposed to be that the team in question is the best team in the conference. How, then, can it be argued that another team in the conference is better without dismissing the results of actual games as meaningless? And once we start doing that, how do we decide which games actually matter?

Or to put it another way, why do two games provide a more conclusive decision than one game of which team is better? Bama lost to Texas A&M, a team that georgie didn’t even play at all. What does that have to do with the head-to-head between Bama and georgie? Why does Bama have to beat georgie twice to prove superiority, but georgie only has to do so once (while getting two chances to do so)? It’s just so incongruous and subjective as to make it rather meaningless. At least conferences have very clear, specific, and impartial conditions of victory.

Long story short, I’m done caring about any kind of “relevance” beyond the conference. This year was the most fun the ACC has been in a long time, and wouldn’t you know it, it’s the first time in a long time that neither Clemson nor FSU was a step above the rest.

Our rivalry with georgie was fun while it lasted, but our athletic departments are so different at this point that we might as well have a rivalry with the Atlanta Falcons. The point of watching sports is entertainment, and if I’m being honest, COFH is neither fun nor entertaining for me anymore. It was fun when they at least pretended not to be a professional sports team, but those days are over, and I don’t think they’re coming back. Thank goodness I don’t live in Georgia right now, and the worst fans I have to deal with are WSU or Oregon fans, which don’t even come close to the awfulness of the barking, slobbering masses in Athens. Sorry, this got really long and ranting, but my point is that I’m done giving a rat’s *** about the Georgia Bulldogs or the College Football Playoffs.

As another poster (can't remember who) put it, "There's more to college football than the national championship".

 

[WreckinGT]

Listen up guys. UGA is going to win or compete for nattys for the next 10 years. Sucks but Facts.

Pretty much. Just look at their schedule for next year. Its a cake walk. They are almost guaranteed to make the playoffs again even if they lose the SEC championship again.

 

[Richard7125]

Pretty much. Just look at their schedule for next year. Its a cake walk. They are almost guaranteed to make the playoffs again even if they lose the SEC championship again.

lol. cake walk - Florida, Auburn, Tennessee, Kentucky. Their out of conference isn't good, but this isn't exactly a cake walk.

 

[JacketOff]

lol. cake walk - Florida, Auburn, Tennessee, Kentucky. Their out of conference isn't good, but this isn't exactly a cake walk.

Florida: losing record this year and will have a new coach next year

Auburn: losing record this year, lost their starting QB to the portal, new coach’s culture doesn’t seem to be a good fit

Tennessee: 7-6 this year. Lost to Purdue who was missing multiple key players in what was essentially a home game in Nashville

Kentucky: that’s like Georgia playing Pitt and saying it’ll be a tough matchup. The 2 aren’t even remotely on the same level.

They dodge all 3 SEC teams who are even close to their level next year because they’re all in the west: Alabama, Texas A&M, Ole Miss. The best team they’ll play by far next year is Oregon, and they’ll be in game 1 of a new regime in what is essentially a home game in Atlanta.

 

[Richard7125]

Florida: losing record this year and will have a new coach next year

Auburn: losing record this year, lost their starting QB to the portal, new coach’s culture doesn’t seem to be a good fit

Tennessee: 7-6 this year. Lost to Purdue who was missing multiple key players in what was essentially a home game in Nashville

Kentucky: that’s like Georgia playing Pitt and saying it’ll be a tough matchup. The 2 aren’t even remotely on the same level.

They dodge all 3 SEC teams who are even close to their level next year because they’re all in the west: Alabama, Texas A&M, Ole Miss. The best team they’ll play by far next year is Oregon, and they’ll be in game 1 of a new regime in what is essentially a home game in Atlanta.

If Tech had that schedule, we would say it was murderers row.

 

[WreckinGT]

If Tech had that schedule, we would say it was murderers row.

We have a much tougher schedule in 2022 than UGA does.

 

[chewybaka]

I am not sure that it is college FB. I have to say though it appears that the schools that have the resolve and the finances to excel have distanced themselves from the pack. I have said for 50 years that we dabble in athletics. I have never believed it anymore than I do currently. We (GT fans) have always blamed middle management (coaches and AD's) for our situation. The problem is above their level....and we will continue to churn through the middle managers in an attempt to placate the angry mob outside the castle gate. It's what all schools with similar vision (or lack thereof)) do.

I watched the CFP and was taken aback by the size quickness and skill on both teams...

UGA signing class...5 five stars 19 four stars...

the wide gap between the true elite widens...

 

[JacketOff]

We

If Tech had that schedule, we would say it was murderers row.

We have fans that say a schedule with Miami, North Carolina, and 5-7 Florida State is also murderers row, you’re comparing apples to kumquats

 

[HouseDivided]

My uncle is getting a bag of dog **** for his brithday this weekend, no joke. Huge donor/alum for Ugag.

 

[4shotB]

I watched the CFP and was taken aback by the size quickness and skill on both teams...

UGA signing class...5 five stars 19 four stars...

the wide gap between the true elite widens...

I thought the same thing watching those defenses. The first half was old school FB....and I enjoyed the heck out of it.

But as you say, the gap widens. Ironically (to me) the engineers on this board hope to overcome the gap by catching lightning in a bottle..."if only" we could hire a coaching savant who is smart enough to think his way through the root cause and systemic issues with enough X's and O's. Lord knows, those guys grow on trees and are available on the cheap.

I see things differently. Fix the fundamental and root cause issues (which requires resolve AND $$$ in equivalent amounts) first. Then you can win a natty with a guy like Kirby as your coach. Maybe y'all feel differently than I do, but when I hear this guy speak, I get the impression that he has as much X's and O's knowledge as the guy coaching at Brown, Oberlin or Crisp County High School. But that's just my opinion.

 

[chewybaka]

I thought the same thing watching those defenses. The first half was old school FB....and I enjoyed the heck out of it.

But as you say, the gap widens. Ironically (to me) the engineers on this board hope to overcome the gap by catching lightning in a bottle..."if only" we could hire a coaching savant who is smart enough to think his way through the root cause and systemic issues with enough X's and O's. Lord knows, those guys grow on trees and are available on the cheap.

I see things differently. Fix the fundamental and root cause issues (which requires resolve AND $$$ in equivalent amounts) first. Then you can win a natty with a guy like Kirby as your coach. Maybe y'all feel differently than I do, but when I hear this guy speak, I get the impression that he has as much X's and O's knowledge as the guy coaching at Brown, Oberlin or Crisp County High School. But that's just my opinion.

And he followed Saban MS, Miami Dolphins, and Ala. great training and preparation…

 

[4shotB]

And he followed Saban MS, Miami Dolphins, and Ala. great training and preparation…

I do have to say about Smart (just like I do about Coach Key) ...Saban is the GOAT. And has been around the block a few times. If you get hired by him and retain your job, you must know a little something about the game. But, at the end of the day, if you select a random coach from the G5 to coach each team. Georgia wins 9 out of 10 times. Maybe if Bama wasn't as banged up as they were this statistic changes. But they were. The Bama CB who wouldn't or couldn't turn his head looked like what we have seen in our secondary the last dozen years or so.

 

[chewybaka]

I do have to say about Smart (just like I do about Coach Key) ...Saban is the GOAT. And has been around the block a few times. If you get hired by him and retain your job, you must know a little something about the game. But, at the end of the day, if you select a random coach from the G5 to coach each team. Georgia wins 9 out of 10 times. Maybe if Bama wasn't as banged up as they were this statistic changes. But they were. The Bama CB who wouldn't or couldn't turn his head looked like what we have seen in our secondary the last dozen years or so.

Williams and Metchie being out impacted B. Young’s effectiveness and potentially cost them the game…

 

[link3945]

I thought the same thing watching those defenses. The first half was old school FB....and I enjoyed the heck out of it.

But as you say, the gap widens. Ironically (to me) the engineers on this board hope to overcome the gap by catching lightning in a bottle..."if only" we could hire a coaching savant who is smart enough to think his way through the root cause and systemic issues with enough X's and O's. Lord knows, those guys grow on trees and are available on the cheap.

I see things differently. Fix the fundamental and root cause issues (which requires resolve AND $$$ in equivalent amounts) first. Then you can win a natty with a guy like Kirby as your coach. Maybe y'all feel differently than I do, but when I hear this guy speak, I get the impression that he has as much X's and O's knowledge as the guy coaching at Brown, Oberlin or Crisp County High School. But that's just my opinion.

The fundamental issues I think are pretty clear and obvious as a problem. It really doesn't matter if we have the greatest coach in the universe, we aren't going to compete while they are spending 10 times what we are, when their lowest ranked recruit is better than our best, when their coaching staff is 5 times our size.

But how do you fix that? It will take a ton of money, and I don't know where it comes from. How do we build that institutional support that's needed to support the necessary investments, when the state institutions are aligned with georgia and against us? I just don't see the path forward right now.

 

[JacketFan137]

The fundamental issues I think are pretty clear and obvious as a problem. It really doesn't matter if we have the greatest coach in the universe, we aren't going to compete while they are spending 10 times what we are, when their lowest ranked recruit is better than our best, when their coaching staff is 5 times our size.

But how do you fix that? It will take a ton of money, and I don't know where it comes from. How do we build that institutional support that's needed to support the necessary investments, when the state institutions are aligned with georgia and against us? I just don't see the path forward right now.

college football has basically lost any semblance of parity and for me the magic has been gone for several years. even ignoring last night the fact that teams like 2019 LSU and this years UGA team are the scrappy underdogs everyone is rooting for is hilarious.

riley in a year or two if he can turn usc around might be the only “fun” new team in the playoffs for a while. otherwise i don’t see any variation between the tournament each year as it will always contain one of bama, uga, ohio state, clemson, notre dame or oklahoma.

 

[4shotB]

But how do you fix that? It will take a ton of money, and I don't know where it comes from. How do we build that institutional support that's needed to support the necessary investments, when the state institutions are aligned with georgia and against us? I just don't see the path forward right now.

These are great questions and are what (imo) separate great leaders from the great managers. Great managers do well within the given constraints and keep things moving in the same direction more or less. Great leaders can remove or minimize constraints. Frankly we have mostly been overseen by the management types from what I have seen in all of our years as GT fans. Dr. Rice perhaps being the execption.

I think about this alot. In my younger days, there was very little (outside of groceries and gas) that my family didn't purchase at Sears & Roebuck, JC Penneys, Western Auto or Woolworth's. The thought of a world without these companies at the time was probably unimaginable fo people in that area at the time. What killed them? They had plenty of management but failed because they lacked leadership. I think this is the story of GT athletics at the end of the day.

 

[Buzztheirazz]

Williams and Metchie being out impacted B. Young’s effectiveness and potentially cost them the game…

If he had hit Williams in stride on the play he got hurt and not made him have to adjust that would’ve been a much different game. Most likely a TD and Williams stays in the game.

 

[SteamWhistle]

As an aside, remember that discussion (a few years ago) of trying to get a Sports Management major at GT to help with recruiting? If you ever wondered if it would indeed help GT:

99% of our football team does business if I had to guess.

 

[Buzzbomb]

Kid is bee-ing trained correctly….

 

[Pitt97]

I don't think it is devasting at all. More like inevitable. What you saw last night were two schools committed to doing well (winning NC's) at FB. GT and the like (which is the ACC teams minus Clemson and really most other schools) hope to do well at it. There is a huge difference in the two.

it can be both. lots of schools are committed. FSU is completely committed and they screw up. Texas as massively committed and they can't get anything right. etc etc.

bama got lucky that saban was available when they needed him. UGA got lucky that Kirby wasn't the usual saban disciple screw up. he was an unknown and it was a crap shoot. they won the lottery.