‘Dawg Debates: Do We Really Wanna Do This?
Kirby Lee-Imagn Images Welcome to ‘Dawg Debates, in which we debate the issues of the day in Bulldog Nation with a mix of style, grace, and intellect that disqualifies Lugnut Dawg and MaconDawg from ever running for higher political office (as if that episode with Rusty Wallace in Wetumpka wasn’t enough. Though that Shriner had it coming). Today’s topic: The College Football Playoff. Or more specifically, does this team even need to be in it? Lugnut Dawg: issues need to be fixed in Athens, and missing the playoffs would serve as a wake up call to start ASAP. In the moment, last month’s win against Texas was as jubilant as you could ask for. Looking back, it only shielded or delayed this team’s offensive shortcomings. Sure, it was a great win, but it also put critical issues that needed to be addressed on the back burner. When you succeed, notably on a big stage, it buys equity, it shows that whatever those inside the building are bought into is the right way to do things. I’d love for this team to be in the first playoff. And it’d be embarrassing to tumble from being a national title contender to not even make the field of 12 teams. But more embarrassing would be to go into next year with the same problems that face this team. If you want to argue for coaching staff changes, it’s a heck of a lot easier if you can’t even get into the 12-team playoff. Based on what we’ve seen as of late, it’s questionable how successful Georgia would even be among those 12 teams, so why risk further faceplanting on an even bigger stage? Sometimes, you have to cut losses and admit that this team just does not have the ‘it,’ factor, and there’s nothing wrong with that. You move on to the next season ahead of schedule, and missing the playoff would start that road sooner than later. After all, some of the greatest setbacks lead to triumph. It’s worth mentioning that Georgia’s 2019 loss to LSU helped highlight the need for a new offensive look, and it led to Todd Monken coming to Athens. Macon Dawg: Why would you not want to be in the 12-Team Playoff. As our friends at the Georgia lottery commission like to remind people, “you can’t win if you don’t play.” Admittedly, it appears unlikely that this Georgia Bulldogs team would enter the College Football Playoff as a favorite to win it. But we saw this team beat a Texas squad that would be among the favorites, on its home turf, while nursing a host of injuries. You know those teams that have won Super Bowls with four regular season losses because they got hot at the right time and the favorites all managed to trip over their own feet at the worst possible time? We could be that aberration! Also, the embarrassment of not even making the field in the inaugural 12 team playoff would subject this team to an off-season of speculation about Kirby having “lost it.” We are talking about negative recruiting, disgruntled boosters, all the hobgoblins we really thought we had moved past. I don’t know that I have an offseason of tolerating gloating Tennessee fans in me. If you need motivation, and if you truly need a barometer of where your program is, getting into the 12 team playoff seems like a great one. There’s certainly a danger that you win an opening round matchup, maybe make it a little further than you probably deserved, and as a result delude yourself that everything is just fine. But I trust Kirby “better never rests” Smart to know better than that. I also sense that there is no substitute for being there. Managing a football team for the expanded playoff era is going to require some new management practices, and teams who are in it this year will have a year of firsthand experience with it that other teams won’t. Next year, I want us to be one of those teams who quite literally has been here before. Is this team going to win it all? Absolutely not. I think I’m on record as emphatically stating that this is a good but terminally flawed football team that can’t get out of its own way long enough to beat elite competition. But to a varying degree that’s the case for all but one team in college football every year. Maybe we make a run to the semifinals and people hail it as one of Kirby’s best coaching jobs yet. Maybe we get pantsed by SMU in the first round. Either way, I’d rather lose the game than not be picked to play at all. Go ‘Dawgs!!!
Welcome to ‘Dawg Debates, in which we debate the issues of the day in Bulldog Nation with a mix of style, grace, and intellect that disqualifies Lugnut Dawg and MaconDawg from ever running for higher political office (as if that episode with Rusty Wallace in Wetumpka wasn’t enough. Though that Shriner had it coming).
Today’s topic: The College Football Playoff. Or more specifically, does this team even need to be in it?
Lugnut Dawg: issues need to be fixed in Athens, and missing the playoffs would serve as a wake up call to start ASAP.
In the moment, last month’s win against Texas was as jubilant as you could ask for. Looking back, it only shielded or delayed this team’s offensive shortcomings. Sure, it was a great win, but it also put critical issues that needed to be addressed on the back burner. When you succeed, notably on a big stage, it buys equity, it shows that whatever those inside the building are bought into is the right way to do things.
I’d love for this team to be in the first playoff. And it’d be embarrassing to tumble from being a national title contender to not even make the field of 12 teams. But more embarrassing would be to go into next year with the same problems that face this team.
If you want to argue for coaching staff changes, it’s a heck of a lot easier if you can’t even get into the 12-team playoff. Based on what we’ve seen as of late, it’s questionable how successful Georgia would even be among those 12 teams, so why risk further faceplanting on an even bigger stage?
Sometimes, you have to cut losses and admit that this team just does not have the ‘it,’ factor, and there’s nothing wrong with that. You move on to the next season ahead of schedule, and missing the playoff would start that road sooner than later.
After all, some of the greatest setbacks lead to triumph. It’s worth mentioning that Georgia’s 2019 loss to LSU helped highlight the need for a new offensive look, and it led to Todd Monken coming to Athens.
Macon Dawg: Why would you not want to be in the 12-Team Playoff.
As our friends at the Georgia lottery commission like to remind people, “you can’t win if you don’t play.”
Admittedly, it appears unlikely that this Georgia Bulldogs team would enter the College Football Playoff as a favorite to win it. But we saw this team beat a Texas squad that would be among the favorites, on its home turf, while nursing a host of injuries. You know those teams that have won Super Bowls with four regular season losses because they got hot at the right time and the favorites all managed to trip over their own feet at the worst possible time? We could be that aberration!
Also, the embarrassment of not even making the field in the inaugural 12 team playoff would subject this team to an off-season of speculation about Kirby having “lost it.” We are talking about negative recruiting, disgruntled boosters, all the hobgoblins we really thought we had moved past. I don’t know that I have an offseason of tolerating gloating Tennessee fans in me.
If you need motivation, and if you truly need a barometer of where your program is, getting into the 12 team playoff seems like a great one. There’s certainly a danger that you win an opening round matchup, maybe make it a little further than you probably deserved, and as a result delude yourself that everything is just fine. But I trust Kirby “better never rests” Smart to know better than that.
I also sense that there is no substitute for being there. Managing a football team for the expanded playoff era is going to require some new management practices, and teams who are in it this year will have a year of firsthand experience with it that other teams won’t. Next year, I want us to be one of those teams who quite literally has been here before.
Is this team going to win it all? Absolutely not. I think I’m on record as emphatically stating that this is a good but terminally flawed football team that can’t get out of its own way long enough to beat elite competition. But to a varying degree that’s the case for all but one team in college football every year. Maybe we make a run to the semifinals and people hail it as one of Kirby’s best coaching jobs yet. Maybe we get pantsed by SMU in the first round. Either way, I’d rather lose the game than not be picked to play at all.
Go ‘Dawgs!!!
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