Everything In Its Right Place

What a weekend. While for the most part, I had a great time with my friends in Jacksonville (we turned that Ramada into a pretty decent party), I would classify the last few days as a debacle. Those who were with me know why. I have been more than slightly...pissed off.

Despite non-football-related events that soured my mood, I was in good spirits entering Jacksonville Municipal Stadium. Our seats were great (you can see how close we were in the picture of Moreno) and the atomosphere was pumped. Then the game started. The Gators obliterated Georgia and their championship hopes (SEC or BCS). It's a tough loss, but it's a common sympton of a much more troubling issue that has plagued Georgia and its fan base for years.

The title of this post is a Radiohead song. It plays at the beginning of the Tom Cruise movie, Vanilla Sky, when Cruise's character wakes up from a crazy, surreal dream. Throughout the movie, Cruise goes through a series of strange events that don't add up. At the end, he realizes his recent life has been a constant dream, brought on when he was frozen following a horrific car accident. He realizes that his life hasn't been real, but an artifically created story put together by some futuristic corporation that creates dreams for people after they die. Sorry for ruining the ending.

I'm sure you're all asking, what does this have to do with anything? How dare you use Tom Cruise as any kind of analogy for Georgia football?

Well, that movie is sort of a microcosm for the state of Georgia football. The Goff and Donnan years were the initial bad dream at the beginning of the movie. Bulldog fans woke up in a state of panic, wondering what went wrong. Then, Mark Richt comes to town and restores "order." Or so we thought.

Don't get me wrong, Richt has improved the Georgia program dramatically since his arrival. The Bulldogs have two SEC titles during his time in Athens, and have finished second one year and third another.

However, to me, the debacle that occured in Jacksonville on Saturday was the part of the movie where Cruise realizes the last few years of his life weren't real. Before everyone gets mad at the following portion of this blog, I'm pointing out things that I am also guilty of.

It seems like for the past few years, Georgia fans have gotten into the habit of annointing their team the preseason national champs. It seems that every year is going to be the year that Richt finally returns the Dawgs to national prominence and deliver the crystal football.

Last year's dance party at the Cocktail Party seemed to signify that Georgia had in fact arrived. They went on to run through the rest of their schedule and pound Hawaii in the Sugar Bowl.

Enter the offseason, where expectations mounted to an astounding high. Sports Illustrated claimed the Dawgs had no weaknesses. Most major publications had the Dawgs ranked in the top spot.

But as the season progressed, it became evident that even those sports writers didn't believe their rankings. Every time Georgia showed any weakness, they were bumped down in the rankings. The Bulldog nation was left in a state of angry disbelief, further propogating the myth of an "anti-Bulldog conspiracy" in the media.

Then came the Alabama game. We all know how that went. After the original shock of that beat down wore off, the Bulldog nation gradually began to build up its confidence. And rightfully so. Georgia began to show genuine improvement and the offense was shaping up to be downright scary.

All was set up for an epic showdown in Jacksonville with the Gators, a team Georgia embarrassed last year not only by throwing a dance-a-thon in the end zone, but by dominating Florida on the field.

Instead, we witnessed an epic face plant. But we shouldn't be surprised. While Georgia fans usually lead the preseason in expectations, we usually close the season as national leaders of "ifs" and "buts." Last year, it was the thought of a near loss to South Carolina. In 2005, we thought of what would happen is Tre Battle wasn't playing with a concussion in the fourth quarter, and why we didn't stop West Virginia's fake punt.

This year, there's no excuses to be made. None. Sure, there have been injuries. But do Jeff Owens and Trinton Sturdivant keep the Dawgs from going down 31 to Alabama at halftime? Do they make up the 39-point difference against the Gators? Negative.

Believe me, I don't know why this team lays eggs in big games. They prosper when no one gives them a chance (Auburn two years ago, Florida last year), but fall flat when they're supposed to compete. How does a championship-caliber team get abused in their own house like the Dawgs did to Alabama?

Quite simply, the Dawgs are not a championship-caliber team. Haven't been in years. Of course, successful teams have to rely on a little luck to win the ultimate prize. But championship teams make their own luck. And no amount of luck would rectify what happened on the banks of the St. John's River this weekend.

Recruiting could be to blame. Georgia always nabs highly-touted prospects, but maybe they don't fill tactical or emotional/leadership needs that Georgia has.

It could be the coaching. Everyone loves Mark Richt, and again, he has definitely elevated this program. He is a very respectable man and the players seem to love him. But somewhere along the line, this humiliating losses have to stop. It's his job to prevent that. If the Dawgs came out and played their hardest and executed, but just got outplayed, that's acceptable. If these humiliating total failures like the Dawgs had against Bama and Florida happened once every three or four years, that would be OK. But we get one a year. Or in this year's case, two.

Urban Meyer is a scumbag that I wouldn't want near my school's program, but he already has a national title and the Gators are on the verge of playing for another. The talent gap between the two schools isn't overwhelming.

I'm not calling for Mark Richt to be fired. Everyone re-read that sentence. I'm a Richt supporter. But he has to change something up. Losses like this are flat-out embarrassing.

So maybe it's time to wake up from the state of suspended reality we have been living in as Georgia fans. We want to be elite. We want to be the best. But we aren't there yet. Haven't been since Hershel ruled the Peach State. Any perception we have built of being a championship-ready team has been fantasy.

That's not to say Georgia won't reach the top soon. Could be next year. In fact, I'm sure my fellow Bulldog fans will begin the preseason BCS title coronation as soon as this season ends. But it doesn't make a difference. Until this team proves that they belong with Florida and USC and LSU on a yearly basis, they are an illusion. A perennial New Year's Day bowl team that will sneak into the Sugar Bowl every few years.

For now, the Gators emphatically removed any doubt as to where the Bulldogs will and have belonged. The state of the Georgia-Florida rivalry is back to normal, with the Gators holding serve over a scared Georgia team. Last year, we thought Georgia had returned balance to the Cocktail Party. Not yet. Not after this.

Everything is indeed in its right place.