This weekend’s final home game of the season (is it that time already?) is
our annual opportunity to recognize and honor the senior class. Since 2004,
Georgia is 37-11 with an SEC title. They have beaten every other SEC team. While
the 2002-2005 group still sets the standard these days, it’s still been a very
good and successful run for this senior class.
Coach Richt has requested that fans be in their seats 20 minutes before
the game on Saturday. It’s kind of sad to have to remind people to
be on time and in red, but this week’s Senior Day deserves the extra attention.
It’s our last time to enter the shrine until next year, and who doesn’t want
to stretch that experience out until the last postgame note from the Redcoats
echos around the stadium?
This has been a particularly interesting group of seniors. It’s relatively
small, numbers-wise. There aren’t many NFL draft picks among the class. Many
of the team’s stars are younger players. Some of the better seniors like Fernando
Velasco and Brandon Coutu play positions that are usually out of the spotlight.
On the other hand, you can’t tell the story of this season without acknowledging
some very big senior contributions. For some, like Thomas Brown and Sean Bailey,
it’s the story of potential and promise realized. For others like Marcus Howard,
Kelin Johnson, and Mikey Henderson, this season is about the payoff at the end
of a long career of hard work. Velasco’s stabilizing presence anchoring the
young offensive line hasn’t received nearly enough billing.
This season also provides some stark reminders that the journey isn’t always
smooth or linear with a Hollywood ending. Kregg Lumpkin played well since his
freshman season but has battled injuries right up to the end. Brandon Miller
was one of the nation’s top defensive prospects but has spent much of his career
fighting for playing time.
The senior class has stepped back into the public eye for their role in last
week’s black-out. They handled the tough job of keeping the secret with which
Richt trusted them back during the summer. Their request early last week got
the black-out rolling. But in a way, it might be something that the seniors
didn’t do that became one of the biggest developments during this season.
Fans can point to several factors in Georgia’s turnaround during the course
of this season, but most will agree with (in no particular order) 1) an improved
offensive line, 2) the emergence of Moreno, 3) Stafford becoming more consistent
down the field, and 4) Richt’s unprecedented dip into the motivational bag of
tricks.
Richt’s breaking point came
in Knoxville,
On Oct. 6, in the closing seconds of a 35-14 loss at Tennessee, Richt stood
on the sideline at Neyland Stadium and said to himself, "Never again."
He never wanted to experience that lack of emotion and energy in a game. So
he made a conscious effort to emote those qualities himself from that point
forward.
Sensing a vacuum, Richt stepped into a role that had previously been the domain
of players. Jon
Stinchcomb’s tirade at halftime of the 2002 Auburn game is perhaps the clearest
example. D.J. Shockley was another player who exuded presence and was a natural
leader as a senior. This time, Richt took it upon himself to be the catalyst
for change, and now the team looks to him. As a
player said at halftime during the Florida game, "Coach, you are the
key. You have got to keep it going."
It’s no condemnation of the seniors to talk about a void of leadership. Many
of them were (and still are) individually fighting for places on the depth chart,
and that has to come before someone can worry about lifting up teammates. The
personality traits and presence it takes to push a team of highly-skilled peers
has nothing to do with football skills or quality of character. The point here
is that a coach has to play to his team’s strengths and adapt to its weaknesses.
As Richt’s role in the past month has shown, evaluating those strengths and
weaknesses goes far beyond athletic ability.
It would have been easy for Richt to stay the course, and many of us (myself
included) would have pulled out his resume to defend him and trust that somehow
things would work out. He could have also placed the burden on the players and
challenged one of them to be responsible for rallying the team. Instead he took
responsibility for becoming the motivational focus for the team.
It’s still a work in progress and a learning process for Richt. After a month
of "cutting loose," to use his term, the pendulum might be swinging
back in certain areas. For instance, Richt has
evaluated his approach to the officials:
Since I’ve kinda cut loose a little bit in some areas, I cut loose a little
bit in that area. I probably went a little overboard on that, so I’ve just
been convicted (?) that I don’t need to do that anymore, so I will be
strictly polite and gentlemanly from here on out….If I do talk to (the officials),
it’ll be in the proper tone and I’m just gonna calm down on the official thing.
As Richt refines his personal intensity and motivational approach, there will
also be the opportunity for players to take some of the responsibility back
on themselves. There is no shortage of young players who will be returning in
meaningful roles next year. Stafford will be an upperclassmen, and it will be
the third year in the program for players like Moreno and Rashad Jones.
But even if the load shifts back onto team leaders in the coming seasons, hopefully
the transformation of Richt will have some lasting effects. "It is just
a lot more enjoyable being around here," said Sean Bailey. That’s true
not only on the practice field but also in the stands. The Munson-driven worry
and negativity is loosening up, and Georgia games are fun. Recruits see Athens
as the place to be. I totally see Richt’s reasons for pulling back in certain
areas like officiating, but there have been a lot of things worth keeping from
this experience.
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Thank you Jason Johnson
