I think the football fortunes of the Georgia Bulldogs under
Mark Ricth can be summed up in three words:
shoulda; coulda; and, woulda. Of course, the proper syntax would be “should
have”, “could have”, and “would have”, but I’m going to use the local vernacular, and a conversational style as well. Also note that
two of the three words often appear in conjunction with each other.
“In his first year, and first head coaching job, I woulda been happy with just about
anything. So, an 8-4 record, and a win
over Tennessee, is pretty nice.”
“In 2002, #5 Georgia shoulda
beaten #22 Florida, and 1st year head coach, Ron Zook. Then maybe our 2nd year coach woulda been leading us to a National
Championship, instead of just the SEC Championship.” (2nd year coach, Jim Tressel won
it all with Ohio State that year.)
“I know we won the East, and two of our three loses in 2003
were to the eventual national champion, LSU, under Coach Nick Saban in his 4th
season, but we really shoulda beaten
Florida that year.”
“Ok, in 2004 maybe #5 UGA coulda beaten #3 Auburn; maybe not. But, there’s no way we shoulda lost the game, and the East, to
#17 Tennessee when we were ranked #3 at the time.”
“I wish we coulda live
up to our rankings in 2005. Instead, we lost
to #16 Florida when we were ranked #4. #15
Auburn beat us when we were ranked #9.
And then #11 West Virginia took a lot of the luster off of our SEC title,
and #8 ranking, by beating us in the Sugar Bowl.”
“Yes, Florida beat us again, and won the National
Championship in 2006 in Urban Meyer’s 2nd season. But, we coulda
beaten Tennessee, and there’s no way we shoulda
lost to Kentucky and Vanderbilt, and ended up 4th in the East.”
“If we coulda won
either the South Carolina or the Tennessee game in 2007, then we woulda been SEC East champs, playing
eventual National Champion LSU, and Les Miles in his 3rd season. Instead, we lost to two unranked teams while
we were ranked #11 and #12.”
“2008 was the year that coulda
been; preseason #1 in both the AP and the Coaches’ poll. But, we’d already dropped to #3 before #8
Alabama hung 21 points on us in the first half of our first loss. Then, #5 Florida whips us by 39 on the way to
their 2nd National Championship in three years. And being ranked #13 apparently didn’t help in
our loss to #18 Georgia Tech to end the regular season.”
“In 2009, Nick Saban led Alabama to a National Championship
in his 3rd season as the Tide’s head coach. Meanwhile, we had our first five-loss season
under Coach Ritch. I know Oklahoma
State, LSU, and Florida were ranked #9, #4, and #1 respectively when we lost to
them; but, lower ranked, and even unranked, teams seem to be able to beat us
when we have the higher ranking. We coulda won at least one of those
games. And, we shoulda beaten Tennessee and Kentucky.”
“Is there’s anything we coulda
done in 2010 that woulda made a
difference. While Gene Chizik is leading
Auburn to the National Championship in only his 2nd season as head
coach, we stumbled to a 6-7 record in Coach Ricth’s 10th year. We lost to Central Florida in a bowl game in
Memphis. Who coulda imagined that?!”
“In 2011, despite opening loses to Boise State and South Carolina,
10-2 and East Champions (for the 1st time in six years) looked
pretty good at the time. However, back-to-back
losses in the SEC Championship and the Outback Bowl left us with a final record
10-4, and one more year of shoulda
and coulda.” (Meanwhile, across the state line to the
west, the Tide was winning its 2nd National Championship in three
years.)
“Ahhh, the year 2012; the ultimate coulda and woulda
season. I’m not talking about the ‘How the
@#$%& did we lose 35-7 to South Carolina?!’ game. I’m talking about the SEC Championship game
against Alabama. How many times have you
heard, or said, ‘If we coulda made
that last completion, we woulda been
playing Notre Dame in the National Championship. And, we woulda
beaten them!’” (Instead, Coach Saban and
Alabama go on to win their 2nd national title in a row, and their 3rd
in four seasons.)
“Who woulda picked
Missouri to win the Eastern Division in 2013, their second year in the
SEC? Maybe those same people picked us
to lose to Mizzou, and Vanderbilt, on the way to the second 8-5 season in four
years under Coach Ricth. However, I’m
not sure anyone woulda picked Auburn
to play in its 2nd National Championship in four years, under 1st
year coach, Gus Malzahn. But, they did!”
“Even though we hammered eventual East champion, Missouri
35-0, and shoulda been in control of
our own destiny in 2014, we weren’t. You woulda thought that being ranked in the
top 10 meant that we coulda beaten
either #24 South Carolina or unranked Florida.
Instead, they both beat us, and knocked us down to 2nd in the
East for the 5th time in 14 years under Coach Ricth.”
“Hey, 9-3 doesn’t look that bad this year does it? We lost to eventual West champ, and current
#2, Alabama. Then we lost our star back,
and Heisman hopeful, on the first offensive play of our lost to Tennessee. That’s a game we coulda won. And then our
last loss was to the eventual East champ, Florida, and 1st year head
coach, Jim McElwain. But, I think we shoulda had wins against more than just two
teams with winning records: Southern,
out of the SWAC; and, Georgia Southern out of the Sun Belt.”
