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Even if no one actually picked Georgia football to go 7-5, public doubt fueled championship run
System
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Even if no one actually picked Georgia football to go 7-5, public doubt fueled championship run
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The media today is not credible or consistent in good reporting. There are always hot takes that go too far—such as the one by McShay that would discredit a player with no proof—just to get noticed. This article speculated that Kirby Smart is the likely genesis of the “7-5” comment by a player. If you have proof of it report it. Otherwise it is opinion. I heard a nationally connected podcast yesterday say that Kirby generated false tweets to mislead players on what the media said. It is just as likely that some podcast on YouTube or Twitter made a remark that Georgia could go 7-5 and Kirby pointed it out. Articles like this which defend the media seem to suggest there was something dishonest being done by Kirby. It is more likely that some media members made the comments than it is that Kirby made them up.
One thing Georgia players and we fans have to endure, UGA is always the "chic" pick for an upset...how many times did you hear someone say we are on upset alert? Oregon, South Carolina, Tennessee, Miss St...preseason talking heads said we would lose to Florida and at Kentucky...Ohio St is on a mission (to their credit, they were)...TCU is a team of destiny...we play 15 games and a talking head somewhere will pick us as their big upset almost every week. So, yeah...when listening to sports radio, you do hear how UGA will lose several games every year. Once they win, all the talking heads can do is make unsubstantiated comments about their character.
Traditionally, UGA has been a really good team for a LONG time. Kirby's drive and philosophy (with some learning curve in the beginning) has turned out to be a world changing effect on the program. UGA has a different mindset now and you can tell.
Congrats to all the players and coaches on back-to-back and to all fans who have supported them and took over stadium after stadium.
Probably the biggest snub that the Dawgs endured was being placed 3rd in the first CFP ranking behind Tennessee and Ohio State. We al know what happened next.
At the end of the day we just need to realize that the sports talking heads/news/ESPN are promoting their business and their business is viewship/listenership. Like Politicians, they often just say what they believe people want to hear or whatever drives viewership. Going against the status quo is usually best for them. Whatever is the new shiny thing garners more attention. Hey! Look over here at Tenn and their offense their wiping people off the map with their passing attack! THey just beat BAMA(even though BAMA helped them out tremendously) so let's rank them ahead of the NC's who have won all of their games to that point and who blew out Oregon.
Not much to be gained, I guess, by just saying over and over again it's UGA, it's UGA, except the truth.
Apparently George Costanza was a Democrat! 🙄
The players saying, they thought we were going 7-5 is an exaggeration, but the doubt was there going back to the start of the 2021 season.
Go back to the 2021 media-days - pre-season all SEC team selections, Alabama led the way with 16 representatives on the Preseason All-SEC Team, including eight on the first team - six on defense. Georgia had only (1) player selected 1st team.
Then GA wins the NC and the media picks Alabama and Ohio State over Georgia to start the next season. The first play-off rankings come out and they place Tennesse and Ohio St over Georgia - to make matters worse - UT got the bid "because they had a better resume" - while OS (with a lesser resume) was ranked over Georgia, because they "have a more explosive offense".
Many awards that Georgia clearly deserved, were given to other programs. The Joe Moore award made themselves look like a joke - 2-years running. The TCU D-line got the better of the Michigan O-line, just like the 2021 Georgia D-line did. Then to cement the fact, the Georgia O-line destroyed that same TCU D-line.
Kirby's been dominating CFB for two years, and the award committees are giving out coach of the year awards to upstart, latest flavor of the month coaches, who've proven far less.
It all worked out for the best for Kirby and his Dawgs. Michigan has the two Joe Moore awards - Georgia has two National Championship trophies and the knowledge that they did have the nation's best O-line over those same two years.
2023 will likely finally bring a different challenge. The media will tilt in the opposite direction and likely overinflate the prospects of the 2023 team. Kirby has thought his team well. They understand the benefits and pitfalls of the physiological aspects of the game. If any coach can get his players to not relax and to not buy into the notion that they've already arrived, it's Kirby Smart. I believe Kirby can keep his players motivated and in the right mindset.
GO43N23...
Hats off to CKS and his staff. I sort of feel sorry for them in a way. THey got to celebrate another NC for what, all of a day or two, and then its right back to the ole grind stone.
Seems to me, the disdain is more in "little things", like shorting the individual Dawgs on awards, being "concerned" about the close calls or the not-blow outs, and the pretty constant "upset alert" and "trap games".
I see your point. But the big talking point around this championship has been how Georgia now stacks up against Bama. And to that end, I'd argue that the opposite case can be made.
There's an ESPN show called Around the Horn that I liked a long time ago, but haven't watched in many years. I didn't even know it was still on the air, so when I saw it in my You Tube queue a day or two after Georgia's historic beatdown of a title game opponent, I thought, Oh this'll be fun.
I was stunned (shame on me) at the lengths to which these people went to resist the idea that Georgia might actually be better than Alabama at this point. The panel kicked things off with the predictable enough line that "Ohio State ran out of receivers" (as if they didn't still have multiple former 5* recruits out there running routes). And that was actually the most level headed response from the entire group. One guy said the fact that they were being asked if Georgia is now the better team meant the answer must be no - so essentially his logic was that no matter how much more success Georgia might have than Alabama, as long as someone asks if Georgia is the better team, the fact that the question has been asked will mean the answer has to be no.
Another panelist basically dodged by saying she didn't want to be a prisoner of the "moment," somehow oblivious to the fact that the topic was, essentially, Georgia's results on the field over the last two full years.
But the most galling was probably the guy who tried to argue that Saban was in the power position sitting at the anchor desk, watching Smart toil away on the sideline as Georgia won the championship. This point was actually made on national television (though don't quote me on the phrasing).
All this to say, people are still contriving reasons to defer to Bama. It was just one segment, but the panel was comprised of sports writers from all over the country, and they were pretty unified in their message. There will always be room in their coverage for shiny new things to distract them, but I do think it's safe to say that when it comes to the ultimate topic of which team is setting the standard for the rest of the nation, the media are quite content with the status quo. It will probably take two or three more Georgia championships for that larger narrative to truly change. Even then, it might not. Bama/Saban do have six, after all...
Our rivals and Kirby/Dawgs haters in general are making some down right **** comments and insults. And know what ? That’s just Great !! Because you Know you done something right when your enemies are so upset !! And Love the Excuses being made by them to !! So for Kirby, our Dawgs, and All DawgNation let every negative comment, every insult, every excuse from our enemies be taken as a Compliment !! And just smile and say Back2Back Baby, Back2Back !! 😀 Go Dawgs !!
On another note, on different sites in the pre-season, I never saw any predictions as bad as 7-5 and surely not 6-6. But I Did see several, several that said the Dawgs would drop At Least one game. A couple I saw said two games. And the waaay out Dawg hating said three games. No I’m not gonna go back and try to find them, you’ll have to look Em up yourself. The reasoning was the Ton of talent that had left. Now For Me, I thought Dawgs Could run the table, I Wanted the Dawgs to run the table. I Believed in our Dawgs. But not gonna lie deep down in my heart I had tried to prepare myself in the event our Dawgs did lose a game. Just being totally honest. Looking forward I Believe that there’s all the reason in the world for a Threepeat. But that doesn’t mean I won’t get nervous when games are close. I guess I’ve got a bit of one of the Greatest Dawgs ever in my heart……….none other than Larry Munson !! He used to sweat out games, especially close ones. I think you can Love and Believe in your team but Still get nerrrrvous about a game at the same time. The thing is you Believe that in the close games some how some way their gonna pull it off to get the Win !! Either way it doesn’t mean you don’t love them or believe in them. Gonna be tougher for Kirby to create the Us against the world, narrative. But I’m sure we can count on media to help with that !! 😀 The media will put out a negative on our Dawgs for Kirby to build upon !! The man knows how to coach and recruit in all facets !! Why he’s building a dynasty !! Go Dawgs !!
Kirby Smart and "his profane, yet inspiring speeches" are really not that profane. I played on our Air Force base team in Europe back in the late 70s. Our coach could cuss a blue streak and did at least once a day and two or three times on Saturday. We never gave less than our best, partially because we were scared of what he might do if we didn't.
Yeah. No. I don't remember any 6-6 stuff, except mebbe some of Finebaum's Alabamy regulars. What I do remember is some "UGa better watch out for OR (cuz Lanning knows the Dawgs), UK, UT, MSU, whatever. Every week was a potential trap for the Dawgs, cuz they lost so much. Mizzou exposed them. Kent exposed them. Tech exposed them. LSU exposed them. THE osu did everything except beat them.
Now, the "experts" are all about "we never said...". I feel like just maybe some of this "UGa is the new Bammer" is aimed at tweaking Ol' Nick to give him some additional bulletin board ammo.
That said, I remember sitting in a pizza place in Athens, watching the Dawgs eke out that win in 1981. Not a fun game to watch. But, I never woulda dreamed it would take 41 years to repeat. I just have to thank Smart etal for doing it again so day-am quick.
Go Dawgs.