I know that most of you are sick and tired of hearing about UGA's terrible football season. But I'm not done talking about it because I just read this:

"The model that we would establish in the future would have seven home games every year. If you look at the models of other schools that have played for the (BCS) championship lately, there's always one tough nonconference game."

The article is ostensibly about UGA dropping a pair of games against Oregon in the 2015-1016 seasons. I agree with McGarity's reasoning for dropping the series, scheduled by his lying, womanizing predecessor. He argues that the time-consuming cross-country travel is perhaps inappropriate for college athletics, even if he does come across as someone with a typically substandard UGA-caliber education:

"We think we're going a long way this week [to Boulder, Colorado], try Eugene, [Oregon]. That's even further."

I'm pleased to hear that McGarity passed geography, even if he did fail grammar. Sounds like it's not just the students who could use a little more time in the classroom, McGarity.

Yes, the UGA program is in trouble. The players can't put together 4 quarters of consistent play, partially in thanks to the coaches' inability to create a practical gameplan. [Bobo!] The team wilts from opposition and collapses under pressure. The "student-athletes" are incredibly spoiled and undisciplined -- the tenth UGA player this season was arrested earlier this week for an under-aged DUI! And the solution to this problem as proposed by our newest AD, ostensibly hired by UGA President Michael Adams for his strength of character, is "let's play more easy teams"?

In that case, I've got something to say, too: Fuck you.

If I wanted to cheer for a team who scheduled weak opponents for boringly lopsided cupcake home games as a flimsy excuse to sell tickets for an extra game that no one cares about, I'd pull for scum like Alabama or Florida. If your solution to our character problems is to sacrifice some smaller and financially poorer school in order to artificially inflate our players' and boosters' egos, I want no part of it.

There are still plenty of schools who aren't willing to sell their souls in order to scrounge up a few meaningless football wins. And if this foolish babble is indicative of UGA's new Athletic Director's direction, one of those schools will be the proud benefactor of this fan's fanaticism.

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If every football game starts with a 50% chance of a team winning, there is an 88% chance that at least one of three games will end in a win. So you can probably tell what sort of weekend I had based on the following football weekend in review:

Friday: The Newnan Cougars lost their third game in a row. This is especially disappointing considering that they started the season with the longest ongoing winning streak in the state, and until Friday night hadn't lost a home game to a regional opponent in nearly 5 years. Oh, well. All streaks have to end sometime.

Saturday: Speaking of blown streaks, the Georgia Bulldogs lost for the first time in 36 years to Mississippi State, 24-12. UGA really couldn't have looked much worse, as the team seemed determined to lose the game. The team is now 1-3 and has yet to play rivals Tennessee, Auburn, Florida, and Georgia Tech, all of whom will waste no opportunity to kick a dead dawg. At this point in the season, there is no excuse for the players looking so unready for football game. Mark Richt has lost control of this team, and all of the seats in the football program should now be considered hot. (Ever the loyalist, I point out that this is perhaps not all Richt's fault: our Athletic Director was caught drunk driving while cheating on his wife in the off-season. If you want to talk about top-down bad examples, there you go. [And I find that I am mentally unable to prevent myself from typing, once again, that I hate Mike Bobo. Maybe it's a disease. Boboism: an inability to control your own actions, including putting together a competent offensive gameplan.])

Sunday: The Miami Dolphins fall to the New York Jets for the first time in 4 games. If this had been any other two teams, I probably would have called this a good game. But it wasn't. It was depressing. This was the Dolphins' first loss of the season, and the team falls into a three way tie with the Patriots and Jets. (The Bills, as usual, suck.) The NFL has a long season, and I'm not going to make a mountain of this molehill. But I would have liked to win such a close game. Especially against the Jets.

Good grief.

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That Ryan Mallett kid is pretty good. He's certainly worth a Heisman if anybody is.

Georgia played very, very poorly most of the game, and it was a surprise to everyone in the crowd that we managed a shot at the win late in the game. Of course, we failed to move the ball or score points on our last drive. Mallett had no such problems, and the better team won, 31-24.

The above pic was taken at kickoff, and you can see all those empty seats that mostly filled up by the end of the first quarter. They were empty again by the early 4th quarter, but that is partially due to the unseasonable heat: one young woman near us passed out and had to be taken away by paramedics.

I think for the most part, the fans who did show up and stuck around considered the game to far exceed our expectations. (We weren't happy with the loss, but what are you going to do with a young defense versus Heisman-candidate Ryan Mallett?) The environment was rife with anticipation bordering on dread from a crowd that seemed resigned to a loss from teh start. While we did indeed lose, I think the Dawgs showed us more resiliency and talent than we were expecting, allaying our worst fears about a completely uncompetitive season of SEC play.

Note to self: it took the Bulldogs nearly 3 quarters to figure out what to do in this game, and the offensive play-calling seemed to place an unnecessary burden on redshirt freshman QB Aaron Murray. The routes seemed poorly planned, and Murry, who was gun shy for most of the game, was only given deep and spread passing routes, forcing him to make some very dangerous throws if he didn't want to keep taking sacks. This play-calling was inexcusable for such an inexperienced quarterback who was clearly terrified of throwing an intercepted pass. Where were the slants, the quick outs, the safety valves? Murry loves to run (and he's good at it), so where were the bootlegs? Once again, I say that Mike Bobo must be relieved as UGA Offensive Coordinator. And as much as I hate to say it, if Coach Richt can not or will not remove Bobo, maybe Richt needs to go, too.

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Those of you who were paying attention know that UGA was destroyed by South Carolina on Saturday. While the final score was only 17-6, the game was never really that close. There are a lot of reasons that Georgia played so poorly -- I certainly blame Mike Bobo, but you probably knew that already -- but what has earned the most attention is the loss of A.J. Green to an NCAA suspension.

NCAA rules are complex and the most honest of mistakes can affect the eligibility of a prospective student-athlete's eligibility to attend the University of Georgia of affect the eligibility of a student-athlete to compete at the University of Georgia.

The above quote is from page 41 of the Georgia 2010 Football Fan Guide. And it's absolutely accurate. The NCAA suspended Green, UGA's star receiver, for 4 games because he sold a jersey "to an individual who meets the NCAA definition of an agent." How was Green to know that the man (Chris Hawkins) who identified himself as a collector was also an agent? Telepathy? ("Yo, man, if you're an agent you've got to tell me!") If the jersey was Green's to sell, and by all accounts that's true, why is he being punished for selling it to the person who wanted to buy it? Don't think I haven't noticed your Communist strategy, NCAA!

At least this tragedy has illuminated yet another of the NCAA's byzantine rules for the casual fan. Green should have known better: even if the NCAA says that you personally can sell your jersey, the NCAA also bans anyone from buying it. Also from the 2010 Fan Guide:

You are prohibited from providing the prospect or the prospect's relatives or legal guardian(s) with any benefit of any kind before, during or after his/her enrollment at the University of Georgia.

Ahem. That's kind of a catch-all statement, isn't it? As I read it, that means that I cannot buy Herschel Walker a Zaxby's Bourbon Chicken Sandwich Meal or help Champ Bailey's grocery-laden mother across a busy intersection. I assume that it also means that I can't buy the jersey off A.J. Green's back.

It's not Green who should be punished here. NCAA, if you must use strong-arm tactics to ensure that only UGA and Nike can profit by selling A.J. Green jerseys, at least try punishing the real troublemaker here: Facebook, the portal that connected the evil agent and his unlucky prey. Facebook: the Gateway to Evil!

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Sometimes you forget just how many people there are in Sanford Stadium until everyone is staring at the field in shocked silence. Today it was not great to be a Georgia Bulldog.

Bulldogs lose to the 4th ranked LSU Tigers 20-13. It was an exasperating game, as the Dawgs suffered through the worst offensive play calling so far in a season full of terrible play calling. When the clock needed to be killed, we called passes. When yards were needed, we called runs. Pass plays always came from the same singleback or no-back formations, telegraphing our intentions to the defense. And, for reasons I still don't understand, we continually faked an end around, a play that we almost never execute, making the misdirection entirely unnecessary. (We did run a reverse that was so obvious, we should have just handed the ball to the defense to save wear and tear on the players.)

The game went late into the 3rd quarter UGA 0, LSU 6, before the Dawgs had their only two successful offensive drives of the game. LSU scored the go-ahead touchdown with 54 seconds remaining in the game. In response, Georgia quarterback Joe Cox fumbled the first snap from scrimmage, bobbled the second, and threw a game-ending interception on the third. Thank goodness he's a senior.

Before this game, the question was whether Cox or Offensive Coordinator Mike Bobo needed to be sacked. After this game, it would appear that the answer is that they both need to go. It was an embarrassing disgrace for all.

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The Georgia Bulldogs kicked off their 2009 season this weekend in a horrible loss to Oklahoma State University. Just for the record: I'm not panicking yet.

I'm typically optimistic about the Dawgs' upcoming performances, and one loss will not cause me to lose faith. (Especially a loss to a very good OSU team.) We didn't deserve to be ranked preseason number 15 this year anymore than we deserved to be ranked preseason number 1 last year. So, to repeat, no panic yet.

We're young and in a talent gap at receiver and quarterback. Coaching has to step it up, especially on our perpetually abysmal special teams. Everyone's got to keep their head screwed on straight instead of becoming all self-pitying hangdog at a little adversity. The defense needs to stop a pass that matters for a change. And can someone, anyone please fire Mike Bobo? Like, now. Before he can call another play. Grrrr.

But as I said. I'm not panicking. Yet.

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