And then what?

So, the New Year's here, January 1st has come and gone, and I'm sad that UGA's season is over. It was the worst of times, it was the best of times. It really ended with a bang!

Sugar Bowl
You can look at this from all points of view, but the conclusion is the same. Hawaii was nowhere as good as Georgia in any phase of the game. They were an overrated joke, but what do you expect from the conference they played in? To their credit, they did everything right until they got to the Sugar Bowl. Yeah, Colt Brennan likes to run his mouth a little bit. He was cocky because he had a lot of people lining up for the fellatiorama, so why not feel like that a little bit? Remember, things are never as good or as bad as they seem. Right now Martinez looks like a freakin' genius, but is he? Did anyone in the country not know how to beat Hawaii? It was a case of superior focus and depth that won the game. We really took it easy on them offensively, which was obvious from the lack of deep passes. We didn't have to do that. The breakdown from where I was watching goes a little like this...

Offense
We blocked as well as we needed to. Knowshon and TB combined for about 140 yards. Knowshon's TD runs were awesome, and it was obvious that Hawaii wasn't about to stop that. Stafford had one pick that wasn't really his fault. He wasn't spot-on accurate, but he didn't throw the game away. He audibled well and got us into the right plays. WRs caught most of what went their way. Sutherland was a beast! Joe Cox looked wild-eyed out there, throwing the ball as hard as he could. More on that later.

Defense
What more can you say? Marcus Howard- BOOOOMMMMM!!!!! That sack on Brennan with the fumble recovery was like DDDAAAAAMMMMNNNN!!!!! We beat the hell out of Colt Brennan before he had any clue what was going on. He took a bunch of hits, and then went out with a concussion in the 4th. And then he started crying when his replacement threw a touchdown. Secondary was in the right places at the right times with 2 picks, Ellerbee added another on a tipped ball at the LOS. We crashed the line, hardly ever needed to blitz, and covered the expected screen. Colt's arm looked to me like a cold dish towel. Side arm, shovel passes, I didn't see him throw anything too strong. He may never have gotten his feet set to do so, but I didn't see NFL material the other night. He's small with a poor delivery, and can't scramble at all. How he was in the Heisman finals in anyone's guess. I thought he totally sucked, but I didn't watch him all year. Fuck off Hawaii, you didn't watch us all year, either.

Special teams
We still can't kick a ball deep, and our coverage leaves a fair amount to be desired. Brian Mimbs can kick the hell out of the ball, and he ain't afraid to mix it up! WE ARE SO GOING TO MISS COUTU! Yeah, he's a little injury prone, but think about your level of confidence when Andy Bailey lines up back there versus Coutu. No contest.

Frustrations
That announcing duo was one of the worst I have ever heard. I know that I've bitched and ranted and raved about Verne Lundquist, and with good reason. But Brenneman and Davis were far and away the worst announcers for a game I've heard in a long time. They only bright spot is that they would look at players numbers before they tried to tell us who they were (did you hear that Larry?).
1. It was Brenneman who called the Boise State game last year, and he was obviously disappointed that this year would not be a similar scenario. Both of those assholes kept going on and on about how it wasn't fair that Hawaii didn't get a chance to show us what they could do. That's called a good defensive plan. Fair has nothing to do with it, we didn't cheat.
2. The stupidity about calling us the Gators, for God's sake, once when we were on offense. Get your head out of your ass and pay attention. How can you be getting paid for such bullshit?
3. The way they tried to call out Mark Richt about going for it on 4th down, and saying that we were trying to run up the score. OMG, we were trying to run out the clock! Did he want us to kneel down? Then we would have been assholes for not giving Hawaii the ball with decent field position. Should we have kicked an extra-point field goal? Then we would have been just putting points on the board for nothing gained.
4. The idiocy of calling us a bunch of assholes for the challenge of a catch on the field on 4th down, and then being wrong about the result and spot on the field. Richt said before the game that one of the keys to not being flat was to look at the clock only, not the score. Otherwise, keep playing hard as you can and doing the things you know to do. Don't play not to lose.
5. The most laughable part of it is that they're going to be selling the DVDs of the game with the official FOX call. Good luck with that. I know we won't be buying it. However, that's why video clips are hard to come by on YouTube because they're all blocked. Gimme, gimme, gimme.
6. What the fuck is Jumper, anyway? Why do I care? Who is Bonerama? Why were they performing the National Anthem? Why not some hot chick? Why did the game take SOOOO LOOONNNGGG!!!???? The look on June Jones face told me that he knew his team was about to get killed, and there was nothing he could do about it. No emotion, no adjustments, nothing. Why did they keep showing the flag girls for UGA? In all, I thought it was a half-ass effort of production, commentary, sideline reporting (who was that Troll?), story-behind-the-story from FOX who unfortunately has fans by the balls because that's the only way you're going to get to watch it. Where was the UGA radio coverage? It was not on GXtra. Piss-poor, all in all. The radio rights were sold to XM radio through ESPN radio. It's ridiculous.

Look, Hawaii, we're not complaining about being in the Sugar Bowl. Frankly, we're thrilled. What we feel like we got short-changed on was that we weren't able to prove to the nation that we can play with anyone in the country. You got that chance and failed. Thanks to the monopoly that the BCS has on the post-season of college football, unless we're one of the media darlings (UF, LSU, UM, OSU, USCal, UTexas, OU) we're always going to have a hard time getting street cred. The only sports network out there has a bunch of people that play big-time favorites, regardless of their own alma mater. Don't believe it? Just listen to Mark May. He hates UGA. Why? Who knows. Lou Holtz (AKA Daffy Duck with that spit lisp), said that Hawaii was really moving the ball on us late. Herbstreit? Made a play against UM that fell right into LSUs hands ("Les Miles is going to be the coach at Michigan." All of a sudden, "We're the best team in regulation, no matter that we're #7!") So, we just wanted to play what the consensus had as the best teams in the country at the time: USC, OU, or VT (less so). Not a nice team that went undefeated against poor competition. We had an opportunity to be a big thorn in the side of the BCS, and the money prevailed.
Yeah, you're right. Just beat everyone, and you'll be OK. We really would like to have the USCar game back, but such is life.
As far as the broadcasting goes, I think it's simple. They can't be depended on. We just have to spend our money on the schools that we like, go to the games when we can with people that we like to be around, and talk about the game and make our own commentary then and there.

UGA: it's been one heck of a season, full of a bunch of highs and lows. We learned a lot about ourselves this year, and it feels like the sky's the limit right now. I wish I felt like this at the end of every season. My hat's off to CMR, CMB, CWM, et al and the team for hanging in there and finding the sparks we needed when we needed them. Can't wait 'til spring practice, G-Day, and August 30th. It's great to be a Georgia Bulldog!