One Old Dawg and what he thinks about naysayers

It's been a long time since we've seen One Old Dawg like this. As he takes off his Georgia logo jacket and settles into his desk chair, he declares, "We’re playing Kentucky Saturday and I already talked about the 1965 Kentucky game back in October (One Old Dawg and No Time for a Pity Party October 7, 2015). It was not a pleasant experience and I don’t care to talk about it anymore. But there is one thing I do want to talk about.
 

"Negativity!
 

"People are bad-mouthing our coaches and our players because we’ve lost three football games? I understand that some who call themselves Bulldawgs are joining the chorus.
 

"My daddy used to say: 'If you can’t say something nice about someone, you ought to keep your mouth closed.' Can I get a witness?  I hate losing as much as anyone but this is not the end of life as we know it. Must I remind us all that College Football is a game played by eighteen to twenty-two year old young men? Keep it in proper perspective!

 

"Since I might run into you somewhere, there is something you need to know. As you might guess, I’m Georgia through and through; I’m a supporter, not a critic. This is my school, my coaches and my players, and my goal is to support my Dawgs any way I can, win or lose. I don’t cuss, criticize, or knock them in any form or fashion, and I’m not interested in listening to anyone else do it. Everybody at this house is a Bulldog fan.

"If you don’t feel the same you ought to turn in your Bulldawg Nation citizenship card before it gets revoked."

It's true that One Old Dawg's pup, Lucy, is a staunch Bulldog supporter. If he's watching a game at home, she's right there with him. It's thought she even wags her tail at a Georgia touchdown. One Old Dawg narrows his eyes and grows even more intense as he continues.

"Fire Mark Richt?! Have you lost your mind? Who under the sun would you get to replace him? His winning percentage ranks seventh among active coaches in the five, so called, power conferences and sixteenth among division 1-A active coaches (which is significant considering that Nick Saban is twelfth).  Six of the fifteen above him have been head coaches for only five years or less. As Tom Fornelli (CBS sportswriter) put it: 'When it comes to Richt, people spend too much time focusing on what he hasn't done rather than what he has. The man has coached 184 games with the Bulldogs and he has won 136 (seventy-four percent) of them. He has won two SEC titles (the only two Georgia has won in the past thirty-two years) and six SEC East crowns. The only thing he has been guilty of has been coaching in a conference that has been the home of some of the best coaches and teams in the country the past twenty years.'

"Can anyone say amen?

"That’s not even counting the fact that Mark Richt has also initiated many improvements in our athletic facilities and has consistently modeled honesty and integrity to our young people, the state and nation. If you are a true Dawg you’ll get behind our team and coaches, support them and pray for them that they will be able to face and overcome our present challenges and make the best they can of the rest of this season."

As always, One Old Dawg draws a spiritual parallel to the situation. "This brings to mind something Jesus said when he was accused of casting out demons by the power of Beelzebul (prince of demons or the devil) in Matthew 12:25-26:  "Every kingdom divided against itself will be ruined, and every city or household divided against itself will not stand. If Satan drives out Satan, he is divided against himself. How then can his kingdom stand?”  If some of us are berating players, trying to run off coaches and playing the blame game, it accomplishes nothing and divides us, making us more vulnerable. The Dawgs need our support not our criticism.  If you must continue your negativism and naysaying please do the Bulldawg Nation a favor and become a Tech fan.

"We do have a game this Saturday, the Kentucky Wildcats – between the hedges. Record wise they are 4-4 and we are 5-3. We both beat South Carolina and Missouri and we both lost to Florida and Tennessee. Georgia is favored by fourteen, but it seems a pretty even matchup to me. I’ve watched Kentucky play in two or three games and in my opinion, the Dawgs will need all the help they can get. This will be a sure enough Dawg-Cat fight. We are doing well against felines this year; we have taken down a Jaguar and a Tiger to date, and I’m confident we will turn these Wildcats into housecats come Saturday.  Sick ‘em Dawgs."

Okay, so tell us what you really think, One Old Dawg. You can always count on him to be crystal clear about where his allegiances are.

He'll be back here again next week for the Auburn game with more mostly true Bulldog lore.