Mark Ricth and the Trifecta of Regret

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 2^nd year coach woulda been leading us to a National Championship, instead of just the SEC Championship.”  (2^nd 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 4^th 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 2^nd season.  But, we coulda beaten Tennessee, and there’s no way we shoulda lost to Kentucky and Vanderbilt, and ended up 4^th 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 3^rd 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 2^nd 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 3^rd 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 2^nd season as head coach, we stumbled to a 6-7 record in Coach Ricth’s 10^th 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 1^st 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 2^nd 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 2^nd national title in a row, and their 3^rd 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 2^nd National Championship in four years, under 1^st 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 2^nd in the East for the 5^th 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 1^st 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.”