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Never apologize for winning...BUT...

HacksawDawg

Circle of Honor
Gold Member
Dec 20, 2001
76,867
197,735
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Buford, GA
Let's call a spade a spade - that was a shit show. That said, there are very, very few teams who would have found a way to win that one. We did. That's how streaks like this come to be - only one other team has ever done it, and we are the only one to do it in the modern era. Winning is a skill.

This isn't one where you single anyone out to blame - this was a team thing tonight. These games are inevitable in sports, and especially at the college level. Classic rat poison game that I will admit I never saw coming, either. I ate the same rat poison. College kids eat it like candy. The staff warned them - they didn't listen. I didn't, either.

The concern for me was the complete lack of fire on the sideline or in the huddle on both sides of the ball. There was no pop to our effort. Worst body language I can ever recall in the Kirby era. Normally when there's a batted ball on the ground, we've got 11 bats out of hell trying to scoop it and score just out of elite habit. Not tonight. Our guys finish plays when we absolutely need it - we had guys stepping out of bounds and giving in all night. Kentucky was finishing us all night long.

Carson was absolutely flustered. Kirby will rightly deny that publicly and protect his guy, but Beck was not a leader tonight. You can't step out a yard before the sticks in crunch time if you're the leader. You can't drop a perfect snap. Composure is great, but great QB's raise the people around him. Beck has got to show he can do that. He's gotten to this point as sort of a backseat leader-by-default being the QB position. Time to step up - the NFL needs to see that, too.

The good? Etienne wants it. He's our culture. There is a hunger with him and you see why he left a starting job to come here - he wants to win. Lot of toughness and leadership to play through that shoulder tonight. He had #54 on roller skates for 10 yards downfield and his QB stepped out behind him.

Jalon Walker is our most valuable player right now. He is an absolute wrecker. And when he's not, he's a deadly spy on a running QB the same way we used Tindall. He played with incredible effort all night.

TID is becoming a star. His length and versatility is incredible. He will be even more productive when we get Brinson/Hall back.

Start Freeling.

Give the D a ton of credit. Too many missed tackles. The staff will vomit when they tally the yards after contact. But they made plays when they had to and STILL have not surrendered a touchdown. The YAC was a symptom of the overall team plague.

I said Brett Thorson would win 2-3 games for us this season. Go ahead and put this one down as the first one. And don't take Woodring for granted - you can't miss in a game like this and he didn't.

Speaking of rat poison...Bama built a ton of false confidence running past two white safeties at Wisconsin today who wouldn't travel for us. We got our ass humbled badly. Kirby is pissed off again. I hate it for the team, but that bye week is going to be hell, and it's going to be awesome for us long-term.

I absolutely LOVE how the Bama game is setting up. Please Vegas, please - favor them.

#AssumeNothing
 
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