Hey folks - as a member of the DawgNation community, please remember to abide by simple rules of civil engagement with other members:
- Please no inappropriate usernames (remember that there may be youngsters in the room)
- Personal attacks on other community members are unacceptable, practice the good manners your mama taught you when engaging with fellow Dawg fans
- Use common sense and respect personal differences in the community: sexual and other inappropriate language or imagery, political rants and belittling the opinions of others will get your posts deleted and result in warnings and/ or banning from the forum
- 3/17/19 UPDATE -- We've updated the permissions for our "Football" and "Commit to the G" recruiting message boards. We aim to be the best free board out there and that has not changed. We do now ask that all of you good people register as a member of our forum in order to see the sugar that is falling from our skies, so to speak.
- Please no inappropriate usernames (remember that there may be youngsters in the room)
- Personal attacks on other community members are unacceptable, practice the good manners your mama taught you when engaging with fellow Dawg fans
- Use common sense and respect personal differences in the community: sexual and other inappropriate language or imagery, political rants and belittling the opinions of others will get your posts deleted and result in warnings and/ or banning from the forum
- 3/17/19 UPDATE -- We've updated the permissions for our "Football" and "Commit to the G" recruiting message boards. We aim to be the best free board out there and that has not changed. We do now ask that all of you good people register as a member of our forum in order to see the sugar that is falling from our skies, so to speak.
Comments
🤣 The down vote troll is back !! Down voting people here Regardless of their position Lol !! And I thought I get bored !! Oh well if down voting everyone gives that person a better day and causes them to treat others away from here better It’s cool I guess. 😀
I don’t get the criticism of Kirby- it takes guts to call a fake punt, onside kick, whatever. He nor Bobo can make the plays once they are called- if someone blows an assignment that doesn’t mean a bad play call. Running the ball and stopping it will always be the key to winning football games.
The TP has changed the game and it really needs to be changed somehow but even so, not every guy is going to be a Dawg. Recruiting is STILL the way to go to have any consistency and Kirby does that with best so I’m 100% behind Kirby
Exactly. I fully agree. Until I see Kirby having truly Bad years on a regular basis I can’t see abandoning him. If people look at his Whole ten years body of work we have been Elite and we are Still Elite. Only 8 teams in All CFB made the playoffs. Only One in the All the SEC won the Crown, Again. His body of work speaks for its self.
Winning the SEC every year and even more so winning a Natty every year is not realistic in my opinion. On Both of those in This age of NIL and the TP even every other year pushes the boundaries pretty hard.
Teams are on much more even ground now than they have probably ever been since CFB teams began to form. It is what it is. OF COURSE we should always Want better. And Hope that our Coaches and Team strive for the highest heights. But there are So many factors involved in winning at the highest levels over the course of the season.
Rival fan bases mock each other about this. But critical injuries to Key players at critical times most assuredly have a negative effect. Bottom line Take a 10-2 season and Enjoy it !! Take a 10-2 season With the SEC Crown and smile even bigger !! This year we went 12-2 And the SEC Crown with a first year starting QB. That is Not regressing in my view. That is a Very good record. Now strive to build on it.
That to me is what we should Hope for. And that might not come the very next year ( though it might) maybe the next year after. But as long as Kirby and his staff are knocking on the door, I mean right there close in the chase we should Believe in him and our Dawgs. He’s not satisfied either we can be Sure of that !! Go Dawgs !!
To clarify, it’s not that we need to expect that Kirby land every in-state HS recruit or snag every transfer target. But the clue to follow is what we go after. That’s the master plan in play. How could it be argued that the push for top defensive players hasn’t outweighed that for the O by several fold?
I have not intended to suggest that the HC criticism is due to a failure to sign every target. Rather, that I’m concerned as to what he considers priority positions to go after, pay more money for, etc. As an analogy, an alcoholic can’t deal with his problem until he admits he has one. I just don’t believe that Kirby thinks we have an offensive problem with either the philosophy or the player mix. That is where the criticism is focused. I think if he really thought there was a problem or that he wanted to become explosive that this would be a top priority…..and it’s clearly not.
It is true that in the NIL era, no one team will likely be dominant year after year. Likely to rotate. But are we making changes in approach so that we can have a good chance to be that team every few years at least? The HC job today is absurdly demanding and it has visibly taken its toll on Kirby already. He does seem a bit less intense? It’s been mentioned that we don’t want a coaching carousel like FL, TN, LSU, etc. But many people have the gut feeling that Kirby MAY have another 5 years left in him. From that angle, better strike while the iron is hot. The days of these guys coaching like Saban until 70+ are likely long gone.
To Me in This new terrain winning the Ntl. Title like once every four years. And being Close in the hunt in most of the other three would be very, very good. Even Elite. I don’t think we’ll ever see CFB Dynasties again. For the sake of satisfaction ( Can’t please Everybody All the time). It might have been better winning the Natty’s over time in his tenure those far. But NO there’s only a handful of teams that can say they’ve won B2B Nattys !!
Richt had multiple SEC championships. He had to do it under the old rules that Saban built a dynasty on. Richt coached for 15 years at UGA. The last 9, Saban was at Alabama. 4 other season's Saban was at LSU. We know CKS's record vs Alabama.
CKS has his NC's during the pre-NIL era. That's the point. That era is over. Trying to build championship teams the way you would under the old rules has plateaued UGA at its current level. This era of CFB has made CKS's results Mark Richt like.
"Watching UGA lose out on the top guys, watching the top guys go to UGA's rivals, watching the coaching hires decline and watching the coaches settle in to this new normal I am reminded , very much, of the UGA under Mark Richt".
Can't say it any clearer than that. CKS is no longer getting and retaining the same level of talent in the program that he was getting before the TP and NIL.
Like I said, I like the CKS/Saban method for building a team. The problems with this method are 1) you always have a young team. UGA's best guys leave after 3 years. 2) many good players (starting and depth) are poached yearly. 3) you have to pay up big for elite HS recruits that are unproven.
Maybe IF (BIG IF) that 5* QB that's committed actually comes to UGA and UGA continues to build a solid defense UGA can win another championship before all its best players leave for the NFL after 3 years.
Suddenly that "most sustainable method" doesn't seem so sustainable. Ask Dabo how well that method works.
Never said UGA was a bad team or had a bad year. Never said Mark Richt was not a good CFB coach. Under these new rules, with UGA's current methods, UGA is top 5-10 team. Has been the last 3 seasons. That is pretty good. Won't win you championships but is a good, solid program. Like Richt's.
As far as SEC championships go , yeah, that's nice but let's look a little closer. The SEC bowl record was 1-8 vs non-conference Power 4 teams in '25. In the last 2 CFB playoffs the SEC has had 1 team each year make the final 4 and 0 champions. So the SEC championship is nice but with the rise of the TP and NIL the SEC is not exactly dominating anyone outside of the SEC. Let's not forget that UGA backed into the SEC championship game in '25. An aTm win over TX and UGA is not there.
I expect CKS will make some adjustments. He'll have to if he wants to have better, championship results. Anyone who says that the results (recruiting, post season results) of the last 3 seasons are not reminiscent of Mark Richt teams is in denial or just plain silly.
You know, based on that 247 talent chart someone attached below MAYBE Mark Richt was the better coach? When you consider that CKS has the #1 talent but hasn't cracked the top 4 in 3 years. What does that tell you? Richt was actually better than CKS? No. It tells you you can't win with, as yet, undeveloped boys playing against men.
For those who say Kirby is going to have to adjust to the portal, this is an excerpt from ESPN. Building a team organically through high school recruiting is his strategy, but retention of those players you’re developing is a key pillar of the strategy. I think he understands the landscape quite well.
“A common refrain when talking to GMs this month, especially those at top-25 programs: The public still doesn't understand how expensive it is to retain the roster.
Fans frustrated that their team's transfer portal class isn't as star-studded as they hoped need to recognize how much time, effort and money is being directed toward putting out fires and keeping players out of the portal in December and January. In fact, some schools were still trying to make last-minute pushes this week for players who'd already re-signed.
Among the 18 programs that cleared 50% in Bud Elliott's Blue-Chip Ratio for 2025, only five are getting through this two-week period with limited scholarship departures: Texas A&M (11), Clemson (12), Georgia (14), Notre Dame (15) and Miami (eight so far).
High-attrition offseasons were expected at LSU, Penn State, Florida, Auburn and Michigan amid head coaching changes, and Florida State losing 33 scholarship players after back-to-back losing seasons makes sense.
But Ohio State, Alabama, Oregon, Texas, Oklahoma, USC and Tennessee all had more than 20 scholarship players hit the portal in January. Even the programs that have serious resources must make tough decisions about which players they're willing to pay up to keep and which ones are asking for too much.”
Funny you should mention that. Whenever I have a single down vote on most/all my posts I just assume it is you. Even @BigDawg61 didn't down vote ALL my posts when he was still with us. It's cool. I don't write for up (or down) votes. Just your comment seems a little double standardy to me. BTW, for the record, I think I can count ALL the down votes I have given here on 1 or 2 fingers. None were to you. If I disagree with someone I usually say why.
I can only speak for myself, but criticizing Kirby doesn't mean I'm ready to run him out of town… those aren't mutually exclusive positions. It just means I'm a Monday morning QB/armchair jock, and it's my job to grouse about what coulda/shoulda been, LOL. And that's also part of being human— we can look at the same situation and draw very different conclusions… a pretty strange species, but there's a certain beauty (and hope, I might add) in that wide range of behavior. Speaking of jobs, someone making $11M a year should be perfectly capable of tuning out the unhelpful noise while at the same time embrace helpful ideas from others. I'm thankful for and proud of what Kirby has done with Georgia football since his arrival. I just wish he'd picked up a stud OL out of the portal to protect Gunner's blind side! Go Dawgs!
Why do you always assume when someone disagrees or down votes you it’s Me ? That’s sort of weird to be honest. And you don’t provide for yourself or your family as far as I know by up votes or down votes.
I’ve told you before I don’t hate you. I don’t agree with you very often as in my view you see things more under a negative light. You believe it’s “ honest critique” and if that’s what you believe that’s fine. But it gives the appearance to me as being negative.
But conversely because I see things in a positive and hopeful way I’m told I wear rose colored glasses. Look I’m Not AFTER you on here. You don’t have to Do this it’s simply a request. But I’d ask you to go and watch the post game interviews of Buffalo’s Josh Allen AND some of his teammates.
Here’s a guy that makes $ Millions ( so does he teammates) bitterly weeping and apologizing over and over for the loss.
YES they make Far more $$ than the vast majority of us to help get over Their failures. But Even after all that they are Still human. And THAT is what I see.
People here say Gunner should have did this and shouldn’t have done that. And he failed at this or failed at that. I think some times people get so caught up in stats, data, history etc. That they forget these are human beings Not automatons . YES they’ve had opportunities presented to them that most of us could only dream of. But that doesn’t make failure any less painful.
Like You and Any Dawgs fan I Want them to win every game every time and at the highest levels.
I just get perturbed when people break down other People to more just stats. And the ole “ We should have won that game” that Some like to say. Why ? Because they Said so ? We’re not out on that field. Doing something or not doing something is Easy for us to say. But a heck of Allot harder for those players competing against other players who won’t to win just as much.
Now Nothing I’ve said here has or had ANY sarcastic intent toward you. NOR am I intending to Define who you are as a person or what you believe. IF you take some of the things I’ve said as that Maybe and I say maybe you have or have had those feelings. I am NOT the down vote troll. Obviously someone finds that as childishly funny. Lastly and this might shock you. You’d be surprised Probably if you knew how many times I AGREE with You !! And in the past even not so distant past have Up Voted you !!
Dawgs football is a GAME. It’s Not War. Or even readying for War. People usually don’t die from it unless it’s a catastrophic injury. Most of us are not employed by or have vast amounts of $$ beyond reasonable recreation tied up in it. I suppose some gamble on it so I guess their the ones that hurt the most.
So when the rubber hits the road other than chest thumping rights what do we Really have in it ?
I Love and Respect Gunner because To Me he embodies the traits of the glory days of CFB. And just an over all fine young man. Tough, Courageous, Tenacious, like a Lion On the field. Yet totally Humble, Selfless, gives all the credit to his Teammates and Coaches Off the field. And blames the Losses predominately on Himself. I’ve NEVEr heard him even Vaguely try to roll the blame on someone else.
In all honesty I admire him Much More than some QBs ( Can’t really think of any of these latter at UGA) that Yes have better records but act like their poop don’t stink !! Gunner to Me is a Great face for UGA football. Any and All that attended that fine institution ( I didn’t attend any university) should be Extremely proud to have Gunner on their brand !!
I go now in Peace to you. I have Nothing against you. And if someone down votes you it’s not necessarily me though Yes there have been times I have. God Bless You hope you have a great rest of the weekend. Sincerely !! Go Dawgs !!
There’s Nothing wrong with us agreeing to disagree on here. This site I Think is meant to be for FUN !! I doubt Kirby or his staff even come here. And even if they do they probably chuckle at all the back and forth !! If we want people to duke it out with let’s Don’t do that to Ourselves but to the Rival trolls who come here !! And 99 cents says the down vote troll is a rival trying hard to stir up animosity among US !! The ONLY thing I’m truly adamant about is Remember these players and Yes the Coaches to are human.
The “Well they make $Millions “ doesn’t Relieve them from being human. That’s All I ask. You can see a prime example of that humanity in the post game interviews of Josh Allen and his teammates where he Bitterly weeps and apologized over and over for that loss. Go Dawgs !!
Your last line especially got my attention, to practice what you preach. Your history of posts leads me to believe you are a really, really good person… the kind of person that even when we don't agree, we can get along (which is more than most can say these days). So yes, it might be advised you take some of your own medicine— don't take what others say or do (e.g., down votes) too personally. It's pretty well-established that digital expressions are often misconstrued, anyway. But you do have a positive outlook, and you encourage others to take it easy… and I appreciate that. But you need to be good to Navy, too… he deserves that. Now I'm gonna try to practice what I preach! Go Dawgs!
Thanks Brother !! Your advice is very sage and also very kind and sensitive of others feelings. I always enjoy your comments.
There are people BY FAR worse off than I. And I’m acutely aware of that so I’m sort of ashamed of my next comments. But I have a multitude of health issues. With Two different types of cancer being at the top of the pyramid. I also have PTSD, Anxiety with panic attacks and Depression mainly from my military service. People who don’t know any better ( Not talking about you or Really Anyone here ) say Oh just shake it off.
TRUST ME if just shaking it off were that easy I’d have done that years ago !!
It’d be an insult to the people who Are Much worse off than me to paint a mental picture of me in a bed with tubes hanging out of me. That would be a bold faced Lie by me. No I’m not at that point Yet. I just Stay so incredibly tired and fatigued. And a little six or seven year old child is as strong as me if not stronger. Pretty humbling.
I’m not in a wheelchair Yet. I can walk very slowly and having to stop very frequently. But it’s more and more tiresome and more and more painful.
Sleep is very irregular I sleep when I can. Never get more than about fours straight. Usually about 2-3 in sessions. When I do sleep I either have very realistic nightmares or really realistic weird stuff. Rarely no dreams at all which is what I prefer. I’ve got three different regular doctors and several specialists I see.
Again and I can’t stress this enough there are people out there that make My problems look like a comedy parade !! My heart goes out to them so much.
Over the past I’m gonna say 6-8 months I can Feel myself going down hill.
Now this next might get me Booed off here but I don’t care. If it weren’t for the Lord Jesus Christ I’d have gave up Hope a long time ago !! HIM first then my precious wife of nearly 42 years are what hold me together !! And I KNOW when the battle is over I won’t be a Loser because HE Won the Victory FOR Me !!
I used to Love the outdoors. Hunting, Fishing, just Nature. Loved improving our home or working on Man type hobbies. But those are gone. So Dawgs football which I’ve been a fan of most all my life is the last I guess hobby I’ve got.
I take it To serious. I do. But Me and everyone need to remember that under those helmets are human beings. Most of the guys on the team will never go to the NFL or any professional league.
They’ll be Our Doctors, Lawyers, Dentists, Financial Planning Advisors, Counselors etc. etc.
Even if they Do go on to make $Millions I don’t knock Em for that at least they earned it honest. Being wealthy financially as far as I’m concerned and even though I never have been ( I guess compared to some maybe I Have been) is Fine as long as it was obtained earnestly, and the person doesn’t worship what he or she has, and lastly they understand that having financial wealth doesn’t make you a Better person than someone else.
Thats something my folks pounded into me and my brother’s heads. ( Everything took more pounding with Me Lol ). They said your no Better than anyone but your Just As Good as anyone. I took that lesson deep to heart.
I talk allot on here about Gunner. But let me Loudly proclaim this from the hilltops I’m SO VERY PROUD of my own 40 year old Son and His family !! When I grow up I Hope I’m just like him !! He has done Great !! Obviously followed after his Mother !!
Thanks for allowing me to have myself a little pity party and vent off some feelings !! Yall here are my Important to ME Cyber Friends as well as fellow Dawgs fans. I hold Yall in high esteem even though we might not ever meet This side of Glory !! God Bless !! Go Dawgs !!
Yeah, I noticed some of your health challenges from previous posts. Hopefully you know lots of us on here keep you in our thoughts and prayers. Keep up the good fight, brother… many would be bitter and ready to throw in the towel if they'd been through your stuff; but instead, your positivity in the face of all that is inspiring… and hopefully enables you to enjoy lots more Georgia championships and quality time with your son and his family. Go Dawgs!
Fellow Dawgs fans and I look at the highs and lows of the recent football season in my latest Junkyard Blawg. Click below to read it. https://billkingjunkyardblawg.wordpress.com/2026/01/17/surprise-sec-champ-uga-exceeded-expectations-despite-playoff-flameout/
Bill, why aren't you on Dawgnation anymore? Why are you having to promote your articles in the comment section now?