It's time to retire "Finish the Drill"

"Finish the Drill."

Coach Richt's personal mantra. It arrived in Athens with Coach Richt in 2001 and became a battle cry for the Georgia Bulldogs during their march to the SEC Championship in 2002. But now, almost ten years later, coaches still like the mention the phrase. I am just not quite sure if it has the same affect anymore.

Today, the reality is that Georgia is a talented but struggling football team who has continued to find it difficult to overcome challenges. In 2007, the Dawgs found their own "swagger", symbolized perfectly during the Blackout victory over Auburn. That team started the season with two early SEC losses, but reeled off victory after victory to close the season. If this Georgia team is going to recover, they need to find their own identity to rally around.

So, Dawg fans, any ideas for a new slogan?

Better Late Than Never...Kentucky Motivation

I still haven't recovered from yet another Cocktail Party hangover and I don't even know where to begin...should we play the blame game? Should we accept that maybe we're not as good a team as we thought we were...and maybe we're not even having the best season in our own state? Perhaps we should just focus on this week's task and get back in the win column...

I'm having particular difficulty dealing with the outcome of last week's contest. Part of it has to do with my absolute, lifelong, unadulterated disdain for the University of Florida. Part of it has to do with the images burned forever in my memory, images of a Georgia team with such promise, such high expectations failing so miserably to execute against the Gators on one of the largest stages in college football...especially this year. Those images are even more poignant given the vantage point from which I witnessed the Cocktail Party disaster. Bubba and I had great seats: in Jacksonville Municipal Stadium's club level, 12 rows from the field, on the 40 yard line...on the Florida side of the stadium. After Saturday's experience, it has never rung more true and I will never yield in my stance that Gator fans are perhaps the most classless fans in the conference. They were not happy about Georgia's end zone celebration last year, and Bubba and I heard about it.

Bubba and I were on the left side--staring longingly over to the right side and hoping for someone to save us...

Regardless of how we as fans choose to cope with the massacre we witnessed last weekend in Jacksonville, we all realize that it will be a much harder pill to swallow if the Dawgs don't somehow right the ship and win out against teams that they should beat. We certainly don't want a repeat of 2006 when the focus of a young team was apparently lost after embarrassingly allowing Tennessee to hang half a hundred on us Between the Hedges.

A consecutive losing streak to all five SEC East opponents, including losses to very beatable Vanderbilt and Kentucky teams in 2006 and an early season slip up against Spurrier's Cocks in 2007, raised questions about the direction and future of the program. Let's not go back there again. Instead, let's rebound like we did in [most of] the second round of that SEC East schedule run (maybe skipping the 2007 Rocky Top embarrassment). And it all starts this weekend with Kentucky.

Bulldawg Josh and I are heading up to Lexington to cheer on the Dawgs, to help to motivate them, and let them know that, even though we're very disappointed with last week's showing, the Bulldawg Nation is loyal, resilient, strong, and still behind the team. Josh and I are taking these images from the 2006 Kentucky game all the way up I-75 with us, and we want all Dawgs to remember how this felt...and not let this happen again!

Yee Haw! Music City Bowl bound!

This should be more motivating than any silly end zone celebration...