I give our fans a little more credit than just being a wine and cheese crowd who sit on their hands. UGA fans have shown that they can, and will, turn out for the Dawgs in games big and small.
The 2024 version of Georgia has yet to reveal itself. You can’t fault fans for being a little afraid of investing in a team that truly shat the bed for a half last week. We’ve seen enough already this season to suggest, just maybe, that this team has more gaps than any other Kirby team since 2016… and, our success has spoiled us to the point that greatness is the expectation, now.
Too, this team doesn’t have that marque player like so many of its recent past. No name teams can be very good but very hard to become impassioned over. Fans may have a difficult time identifying with this particular squad.
Maybe the true potential of this team is revealed in Austin in a couple of weeks, or when we host Tennessee, or if we progress and become the hot team in the playoffs. Maybe a star emerges on some miraculous play somewhere, somehow.
I’m old enough to remember the 1983 Dawgs… the season after Herschel left. There was a sad mixture of malaise and nostalgia settling in with the fan base. We didn’t know quite what to do without #34. All of a sudden, we were without the greatest weapon in the history of football. The National Championship had been within our grasp for the last 3 years and no one thought UGA would be a contender that year.
There was a tie at Clemson early and a late season loss to Auburn at home with another #34 in a white jersey running up and down our field. The season pretty much validated the lowered expectations for Georgia.
The true identity of that Dawg team wasn’t known until a 10-9 postseason win over Texas in the old Cotton Bowl. The entire season, it seems, turned out to be a buildup to a big reveal party in Dallas.
I don’t fault Kirby. He’s having to coach this team harder. Leaders haven’t emerged. But, if the fans are expected to patiently wait until this team reveals itself, don’t fault them for doing so a little quieter and a little less sure.
The game and the play will come. The character will debut and fans will flock to buy his jersey. We’ll tell that story for the rest of our lives.
Like Kirby, we fans just don’t know when.
The 2024 version of Georgia has yet to reveal itself. You can’t fault fans for being a little afraid of investing in a team that truly shat the bed for a half last week. We’ve seen enough already this season to suggest, just maybe, that this team has more gaps than any other Kirby team since 2016… and, our success has spoiled us to the point that greatness is the expectation, now.
Too, this team doesn’t have that marque player like so many of its recent past. No name teams can be very good but very hard to become impassioned over. Fans may have a difficult time identifying with this particular squad.
Maybe the true potential of this team is revealed in Austin in a couple of weeks, or when we host Tennessee, or if we progress and become the hot team in the playoffs. Maybe a star emerges on some miraculous play somewhere, somehow.
I’m old enough to remember the 1983 Dawgs… the season after Herschel left. There was a sad mixture of malaise and nostalgia settling in with the fan base. We didn’t know quite what to do without #34. All of a sudden, we were without the greatest weapon in the history of football. The National Championship had been within our grasp for the last 3 years and no one thought UGA would be a contender that year.
There was a tie at Clemson early and a late season loss to Auburn at home with another #34 in a white jersey running up and down our field. The season pretty much validated the lowered expectations for Georgia.
The true identity of that Dawg team wasn’t known until a 10-9 postseason win over Texas in the old Cotton Bowl. The entire season, it seems, turned out to be a buildup to a big reveal party in Dallas.
I don’t fault Kirby. He’s having to coach this team harder. Leaders haven’t emerged. But, if the fans are expected to patiently wait until this team reveals itself, don’t fault them for doing so a little quieter and a little less sure.
The game and the play will come. The character will debut and fans will flock to buy his jersey. We’ll tell that story for the rest of our lives.
Like Kirby, we fans just don’t know when.
