Orange and Blue Hue » Why isn’t Georgia better?

Why isn’t Georgia better?

For the life of me I just don’t get it. I look at the University of Georgia, at their stadium, at their yearly financial windfall, at their huge loyal fan base, at the fertile recruiting grounds in their backyard, at their quality coaches and I wonder . . . . why don’t they win more? Every year a number of talented high school players come out of the peach state and many of them head to Athens to play for Mark Richt. Some great basketball talent has also grown up in Georgia although many seem to head for greener pastures and other schools.

The University of Georgia is the biggest money making athletic department in the country. They don’t make the most money but they have the most profit. In fact its unbelievably so! Perhaps some of that profit is exaggerated from how they balance their books but there is still so much more than other schools . . . its seems like Georgia could tear down their stadium, replace it with a new one and have it paid off in about a decade. Not that their home field needs replacing mind you, its one of the prettiest and most nostalgic in all of the conference. When I heard the reports that Alabama had offered Nick Saban a 10 year, $50 million contract with a 7 million signing bonus I let out a laugh. There is no way Bama could afford anything like that. There is no school in the country which could remain in the black with a contract like that. Then I paused for a second . . . well . . . maybe Georgia.

I like Marc Richt. I think he’s a fine coach and one of the best football minds in the SEC. His teams never seem to overly impress me though. There is always talent on the field but they don’t seem to have the type of playmakers you find at Florida, LSU, Texas, Ohio State, USC, etc. And is it me or does Bulldog football seem to be buried on the back pages of the national papers and for late at night on the sports networks? Georgia seems like they are the best team to not receive much national notoriety. They are extremely regionalized and often overshadowed by fellow SEC teams like Florida, Tennessee, LSU, Auburn and Alabama even when those teams aren’t as good.

Is it scheduling? I realize that Georgia hasn’t played a game outside of the south since the 1965 but other big name schools seem to get away with being regionalized. Is it the lack of success between the Herschel Walker years and the Richt era? Is it a lack of big games or big names that the media loves to latch onto and write about? Is there a lack of commitment by the administration to promote and extend enough support to their programs?

The lack of commitment theory doesn’t seem to apply. The school has twice undergone renovations for Sanford Stadium in this decade and the school recently began construction on a state of the art practice facility for the men’s and women’s hoops teams and the gymnastics squad. An indoor practice facility has been proposed for football but those plans seem to have stalled as Georgia officials have heard from other schools in the South that their facilities are being underutilized. A $34 million renovation of the basketball arena is also planned once the new practice facility is completed. The school seems to be making the necessary investments in their programs.

Looking at the records, UGA has 2 SEC Championships under Richt (2002 and 2005) their first since 1982. A 20 year shutout? Now how does that happen? I look at other schools and the closest comparison would be Florida - schools of similar size and location that are even in the same conference. But other schools like OU and Texas have been able to rebuild traditional programs from mediocrity back to national prominence in all the major sports. Even the athletic directors of WVU and Louisville have lured good coaches in to take their programs to new heights in both football and basketball. Ohio State has taken its football and basketball programs to new heights in the past 5-6 years and is a school with a large resemblance to the one in Athens in terms of support and state allegiance.

Certainly there is an element of luck involved: a bounce of the ball, making the right call, landing the right coach, etc, etc. But national notoriety seems to have eluded the Bulldogs since the age of Hershell Walker. The basketball program hasn’t been deep into the NCAA since 1983 and hasn’t won an SEC crown since 1986 and still seems to be in the rebuilding mode from sanctions suffered under Jim Harrick. There are other sports at the school that have always been successful. Gymnastics, Women’s Basketball and swimming teams have had tremendous success. The baseball team has returned to high level play during this decade. However for the big two money-generating and most popular college sports . . . . Georgia seems yet to puncture that envelope of greatness.

That’s not to say that Georgia doesn’t field respectable teams. I wouldn’t be surprised if the basketball makes an NIT or NCAA tournament appearance this year. The football team is in the top half of the SEC East every year and in the mix for the Eastern Division crown. But what about the elite status? Given their overall stature why aren’t they higher on the SEC hierarchy? Comparing the past ten years in basketball they clearly fall behind such programs as Kentucky, Florida, LSU, Alabama, Tennessee and Mississippi State. In football their achievements place them behind LSU, Florida, and Tennessee.

The bottom line is that in any ten or twenty year period Georgia should be in the top three in both sports when judged from a resource standpoint. Yet for some reason they aren’t and I’m not sure why. A school that should be the home for championships is instead often the home of the phrase “wait until next year”. It’s one of those enigmas in sports where a school that seems to have all the individual pieces can’t seem to find a way to put them together. To me the Bulldog legacy will always be one of quandary and confusion.

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don’t forget, they just took the overall SEC sports crown from the gators this year- the first time the trophy hasn’t been in gainesville in what, 15 years?

[…] That’s the question Keltic Gator asks at Red and Blue Hue today. He looks at the resources available to the school - money, facilities, in-state talent - and wonders why Georgia isn’t a consistent top three power in football and basketball. […]

Its tough to maintain any kind of national prominence in football when you have a history of losing to Florida almost every year for the last 16 years. It would probably be a different story for Georgia and Tennessee if there was a playoff system in place.

I, too, wonder if Georgia’s inability to beat Florida has something to do with it. You do recall that Georgia has some long strings of winning the series, too, and still leads in the overall win-loss count. However, for a nation whose sports memory goes back no further than a year, two years tops, Florida has and always has owned Georgia. It is a psychological blow to the entire program at UGA.

Well, UGA has had an impressive run in the SEC up until this year. Makes you almost forget about Ray Goff years. Other than our first Nat’l Championship (HT:Saurian Sagacity) and Spurrier in 1990s, we don’t have that rich football winning tradition. Despite the success they have had with Richt, why do they not get the PR. I mean they just completed a mini run that compares closely to what Spurrier did at Florida, but somehow it goes under the Radar. All everyone remembers is the Herchsel Walker years. They have good recruiting. They provide pro game with good players. You bring up good points as they should be able to do what programs like Miami and FSU have. I think Richt will be a good coach for UGA for a long time.

In a what-have-you-done-for-me-lately college football world, the Gators have a more recent winning tradition. To get a lot of PR, you have to be in the national title hunt, or at least in the top five for multiple years. Or be a threat to be in the NT hunt. Or be Notre Dame.

Once you’re written out of the national title hunt, your PR days are over until next year.

The Gators weren’t getting much national pub during the Zook years. Or at least not after it was clear Zook was going to drop at least 3-4 games per year.

Probably the single biggest reason UGA has not won more SEC titles or a national title has been Florida’s dominance over the Dogs that was started when Spurrier took over the helm. A secondary reason, is Tennessee under Fulmer. Like ya’ll pointed out, you have owned us. I firmly believe that is what has stalled us in football greatness. Look at the past few years when we did win 2 SEC titles, what else was going on? Ron Zook. You guys were “slumming” and still beat us. So for that you get props.
However, I think it’s funny that some of you get it and some of you don’t. For a team that didn’t win a SEC title in its first 60 years of play in the conference, I think it’s funny that you are pointing out another team’s drought. Aside from a brief stint in the 60s and the “Cheating Years” of the 80s, you didn’t do anything until ‘91 (note: 2 of those periods include Spurrier). The fact is that no one in the Sunshine State has any long term history. Granted the “Johnny-come-lately’s” (FSU, Miami & Florida) have made the most of their tardiness.
It’s a weak argument, but I will make it: You have owned us (and kept us from rising to where we could be), but there was a time when the tables were turned and we owned you. The same could be said for Bama & Tennessee. People look at how the Vols always beat Tennessee, but there were plenty of sad Octobers for the fans in Orange before.
Football is cyclical. Sometimes the cycles are short, sometimes they are long. If/when we figure out how to string together 2 wins against you, I have no doubt, titles will follow.

Your main point appears to be why doesn’t UGA get more national attention, but your article is titled “Why Isn’t Georgia Better?” I’ll stick to the football side of the equation as our basketball program continues to claw back from near death penalty sanctions.

Where have you been the past 6 years? We’ve won the eastern division 3 times and the conference twice. We had 4 straight 10 win seasons and top 10 finishes. As trend analysis goes, we are clearly a program on the rise. We were down a bit this year, but we’ll be back up there again challenging for the east next year. Will you? I see you will be losing quite alot of talent to graduation and you could also see some key defections to the NFL.

Your may not remember, but if we had gotten just a fraction of the breaks in 2002 that the mighty gators got this year then we would have played for the national title. We were 13-1.

I think you need a more ego driven front man to garner national media attention. Coach Richt doesn’t have the desire for personal media attention the way Coach Spurrier, Coach Meyer and Foley do. In fact he shuns it. The story is about the team, not the coach and that is how he plays it.

I cannot explain your teams dominance over ours for the past 16 years. It is an unprecedented run and a tough pill to swallow, but as one said here the fact that we still command the overall series record begs the question… Where was UF prior to 1990? A better question is where was Florida for the first 90 years of their program’s existence?

Congratulations on a solid athletic program with success in most sports. I appreciate your “concern”, but I think we’ll be just fine thank you. The monkey on our back will be shed and the South’s focus may be on why Urban’s offense is so offensive.

I am sincere when I say, Good luck in the title game. You deserve to be there, and most of all the winner of our conference deserves to be there.

[…] it really really sucks for UGA that they didn’t get him, because he’s exactly the type of playmaker that UGA apparently needs to take them over the cusp to the very elite. […]

OK, I’ll bite on this. Wow. Only a Gator could be so shortsighted. Would this same “question” have been posted even a year ago before Donovan’s boys had an unexpected run to the basketball crown? Doubtfull.
Has Florida had a long tradition of great success in the two sports you mention most? Oh, no. Hmmmm.
There is a precedent in the UGA-UF football series of long streaks of dominance; most of them have belonged to the Dogs. And I believe the Dogs have won more eastern titles than the mighty Gators since Right’s arrival. Remember a couple of years ago when UGA was 13-1 but was shut out of the Championship? Of course not, that would mean looking beyond this year. Funny how the only National Championship the Gators ever won in football came under the same circumstances that Urban Meyer shamelessly politicked against this year: ‘no team should have to face double-jeopardy.’ Ask Bobby Bowden about that one - I’m sure he’ll agree.
Maybe the Legend will be the greatest coach in NCAA history - he certainly seems to think so. And maybe that’s Richt’s ‘problem’ - he’s not the over-confident kind of jackass that Meyer is, and that’s why they fit their respective schools so well. I actually kind of miss Spurrier, at least he was fun to listen to.
BTW, I thought coming in to the season that the Gators had the toughest schedule I had ever seen, and I said at the time that if they could reasonably run that gamut, they deserved a shot at a national title. Kudos to them for doing just that, although the number of losses the teams on that schedule suffered is staggering - just ask me, I’m a Dawg.
The UF offense was anemic at best this year against real defensive competition, and I wonder if you guys will score a dozen against OSU.
Either way, UGA will probably lose to VT, and at least you guys have a shot to win a National Championship - good luck!

Wanna know what’s weird, Junkyard? Meyer and Richt are good friends. Go figure.

Anyhoo, good luck winning the SEC from here on out. The Sheriff’s back in town.

Junkyard, I sure do remember that 13-1 year for UGA…

As well as remembering that UF gave UGA that one loss…

The offense might have been anemic but it was good enough for a win in J-Ville..

UGA went through a 20 year drought but it’s funny the criticism coming from a UF blogger who forgot UF’s complete drought prior to 1991. UGA went through some down years but still manages to lead UF in head to head and SEC championships regardless. UGA will be fine. There’s a reason they could survive the 20 years and still lead the nation as #3 in revenue and #1 in profits. They’re getting ready for another good run after having the most SEC wins in the last 11 years.

Congrats on beating us this year. Don’t get too full of yourselves, however. Florida will be a long shot better next year and is gonna blow Georgia’s doors off. Mark it down.

Ed, what makes you think that drought is over???

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