BAD BAD FOOTBALL TEAM

First, I want to say that my thoughts and prayers are with Mario Raley and I hope that he will be fine. I do not know the extent of his injury, but I just hope that it is not serious.

Regarding the game... well, I am one that always tries to stay positive, but this was the final straw for me for the 2006 abortion of a season. After removing the rose-colored glasses, the thing that is now painfully obvious is not that we played poorly for the 7th time in 10 tries. What is now obvious to me is that our team - players, coaches, schemes, effort and motivation are all on par with the lower half of our conference. We have not lost to two inferior teams in Vanderbilt and Kentucky, we have been beaten by better teams. Better players who are better coached. I don't care how many stars our players had from recruiting gurus/nerds, the players from Vanderbilt and Kentucky proved that they are better. That is just it in a tidy nutshell.

Either we have restocked our cupboard with guys who only look good on paper, or they just have not been well-developed. Either way, this team has been beat in all phases of the game by everyone we have played except Western Kentucky, UAB and South Carolina. I can no longer accept that we are just young and haven't gelled or have just had crucial mistakes at the worst possible times. You know what you call teams that always, always make crucial mistakes at the worst possible times? You call them a bad football team. That is all there is to it.

I believe in the cyclical nature of most things and I hope that this is a short down cycle, but the evidence no longer leaves any reasonable doubt that this is just an incapable group and the coaches are not able to solve the puzzle.

I won't single out any individual players because outside of my three readers, nobody really gives a shit about what I have to say anyway. But, the underclassmen on this team have got to improve dramatically if they ever wish to compete for the SEC Championship. None are excepted.

I really don't want to hear ESPN and others exclaiming that Kentucky pulled a big upset today. The team with better players who were better-coached won this game and it wasn't Georgia.

Where to go from here? Well, I am now reasonably certain that we will get hammered by Auburn. We will give Tech fits, but then will lose in the final minute. Probably will be a fade route to Calvin that beats us. Then we will end up in an embarrassing Tech-like bowl game that we may or may not win. But, look at the bright side, women's gymnastics starts up soon.

So much for finishing strong. It won't happen. This team does not have the character to right the ship. It makes me sad, but, admitting that you have a problem is the first step to getting help.