Call to Action

This blog's already shaky beginning is quickly turning into death. Someone write something. Please.

Time for a Change

Mark Richt must be removed as the head coach of the University of Georgia football team. For those of you not familiar with Richt: he has led the Bulldogs for the past nine years, compiling a 90-27 overall record and a 7-2 bowl record. UGA has also won two Southeastern Conference titles and four SEC Eastern Division titles during his tenure. Based on statistics alone, this request for his removal may seem misinformed, even plainly stupid. However, here's another statistic that should be considered before you disreagrd my opinion:

Number of NCAA Division I Football Championships for UGA in the last 40 years: 1

Number of NCAA Division I Football Championships for UGA under Mark Richt: 0

I am making an assumption here, one that I think is true for all universities in "major" conferences, which is that the ultimate goal of a team's season is to win a national championship. For some, if not most, Division I schools, a conference chamiponship may be the most that can be hoped for. I see no reason why a school with the annual budget and historical prowess of UGA should settle for anything less than a national title. With that settled, I'll move on to my argument concerning Richt's underperformance.

The Georgia Bulldogs have had a top ten recruiting class each and every year that Richt has been the head coach. Two years ago, they were the preseason #1 team as ranked by Sporting News, led by star quarterback Matthew Stafford (an eventual #1 overall NFL draft pick) and running back Knowshon Moreno. Even with a consistent influx of fresh talent to replace those who run off in search of millions and ESPN highlights, UGA's football team has finished in the top 5 in the nation only twice in this decade. It seems that a ranking in the 10-19 range is a perennial occurrence, which to many is enough to keep Richt off the so-called "hot seat." I am not going to argue with the successful numbers that Richt has posted in his nine-year career; he has kept Georgia on the map and developed a foundation of qualities deemed attractive by many impressionable high school seniors.

I go back to my assumption that the overall goal of a football program like UGA's is a national championship. When Richt was brought in from Florida State in 2001, it was thought that he would be the man to finally bring Georgia back to the pinnacle of college football. Cemented firmly in the heart of the SEC, which is undeniably college football's premier conference, Richt gained access to the top recruits and faced a schedule that would properly test even the best of teams. Perhaps this in and of itself is the primary source of Richt's downfall; while the conference has put out the last four national champions, there is an inescapable toll that the physical play takes out on its players. Nonetheless, I go into every season expecting to have at least two or three "trademark" losses to some combination of Tennessee, LSU, Florida, and Alabama. It merely depends which teams are scheduled that year. At least one of those losses will be by twenty points or more. Even when that loss takes place and I say "I told ya so," I still am wholeheartedly confused as to how this can happen year after year after year. Take a look at the USC of 2003 & 2004, the Florida of 2006 & 2008, and the Alabama of last year. Unexpected and one-sided defeats simply do not happen. What do those teams have in common? They won national championships.

To avoid being long-winded, I'll sum up my argument. Mark Richt has been presented with the top talent in the country over his entire career at UGA. He began the season with the preseason #1 team two years ago. He consistently leads the Bulldogs to either the Outback Bowl, Capital One Bowl, or the Sugar Bowl. UGA's end-of-the-year ranking has ranged from #3 to #19 over the past nine years. Is UGA's football team traditionally in the running for a SEC championship? Yes. Does a top 20 year-end national ranking signify a successful season? For most. Will Mark Richt eventually win a national championship with the University of Georgia? I say no. He has been given enough time to demonstrate his ability to develop talent and put together a truly great season. With household names such as Nick Saban, Pete Carroll, Urban Meyer, and Les Miles showing their coaching prowess in the past decade, I see Georgia slowly falling behind and gradually losing a little bit of its luster. Mediocrity may have kept Richt under the radar and "safe" for the past few years, but there comes a time when certain results are expected. In this case, it's time for a change.

Great Expectations

The World Cup, one of the greatest tournaments in the history of sports begins Friday in South Africa. Critics, dissenters, enthusiasts and loyalists will all be crossing there fingers to see their favorite team go as far down the tournament bracket as possible. While much time has been spent dwelling on the subject of which team will advance the furthest, I want to discuss which players will make the greatest impact.

An important for who performs well at the World Cup has to do with what happened before the World Cup - more specifically, the players who sweated salt in the Champions League and UEFA Cup. These rigorous tournaments represent the crème of the crop in European football. In fact, the Champions League is basically Europe’s own mini-World Cup played at the club level. The final four teams in the Champions League tournament (a tournament only available for the top 4 teams in each respective European domestic league) this year were the eventual champions, Internazionale, Bayern Munich, Barcelona and Lyon. The final was between Inter and Munich, who beat out Barca and Lyon in the semi-finals. As far as their squads go, all of these teams employ a sizeable portion of the talent expected to flourish in this year’s World Cup.

Let’s start with Barcelona, a perennial powerhouse in European and domestic futbol. Spanish footballers run about 1/3 of the Barcelona juggernaut. At defense, Carlos Puyol and Gerard Pique are consistent starters and in the midfield, it’s commonplace to see Xavi, Iniesta and Busquets running circles around each other. In fact, Barcelona’s forwards are the only position were one does not see a permanent roster fixture in the Spanish nation team (although Bojan is knocking on Heaven’s gates). Outside of Barca’s Spanish flair lie more soccer greats: Lionel Messi, Thierry Henry, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Maxwell, Rafael Marquez and Milito. Personally, it’s a pity that Barcelona didn’t win the Champions League with a team so well qualified (and honorable!) as it is currently. Yet, what’s more disappointing is the fact that these supernovas will also not perform well at the World Cup. The Champions League ran deep into the last weeks of May and, as a result, exhausted a great deal of energy from some of the world’s best players. That being said, don’t be surprised if Messi doesn’t live up to his expectations. Don’t be crestfallen when Franc Ribery (Bayern Munich) can finish. And definitely don’t be surprised when Samuel Eto’o, Esteban Cambiasso, Wesley Snjeider and Maicon (all Inter Milan) all get out paced by their opponents.

So, if Messi ain’t pulling slack, who will perform? A few players, namely Kaka, Rooney, Gerrard, David Villa (and maybe Torres if he recovers from some nagging injuries). Be on the look out for the players that have been lying low for the past 2 months. And, since any trend has an anomaly, I am going to guess that Xavi and Iniesta will still produce; although they played for Barca’s Champions League squad, they only made it to the semi finals AND they will be playing in the same positions for the same national team.

My predictions: Spain, Brazil and England will go far. Spain to win.
Wildcard: USA

Testing

Testing, testing....1, 2, 3