Here’s the news from Athens, where Georgia fans are still trying to deal with the defensive collapse that cost the Dawgs a 45-42 loss to Georgia Tech:

Here’s a “the good, the bad, and the ugly” look back at Saturday’s debacle.

From pre-season #1 to a three-loss team that got whipped by Tech, this has been a season of disappointment in the Peach State.  “It’s not been an easy season, that’s for sure,” said Mark Richt.  “I guess we’ve just got the bar raised so high that anything less than some kind of championship is a disappointment.  That’s not all bad.”

Recently, I wrote that Richt had actually done a pretty good coaching job of guiding a team that has been ravaged by injuries through an extremely tough schedule to finish right where the SEC media had predicted back in the summer: second place in the East.  I stand by that.

But what’s happened since the Dawgs lost to Florida does trace back to coaching.  Georgia was never the same mentally after their title dreams were blown apart in Gainesville.  So while I don’t think it’s fair to say the whole season was a disappointment, the dive at the end of the season sure was.  (”Dive,” photo at left, get it?)

UGA’s defense saw the biggest decline over the back-half of the season, but don’t expect defensive coordinator Willie Martinez to be going anywhere.  Richt doesn’t expect any staff changes for next year at all.  “I really don’t.  I really don’t.  We’re going to get better, and we’re going to do a better job next year.  I can promise you that.”

Could changes in the NFL’s pay scale cause Knowshon Moreno and Matthew Stafford to leave Athens early?  Absolutely.

By the way, it’s looking like Georgia will still get a Capital One Bowl big even though they dropped Saturday’s game.

This entry was posted on Monday, December 1st, 2008 at 12:47 pm and is filed under Homepage, News . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.