The humiliation of St. Richt

AKA: The blog most likely to offer metaphysical reasons for a loss...

Is it possible that Coach Richt got away from his core last year, goodness and humility, and that now he is paying for it?

We celebrated against Florida. We blacked out Auburn. And it boomeranged. That which was once our savior, now must kill us.
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I continue to think that asking why you lost a football game is a lot like asking why God allows bad things to happen to good people. It simply is.

What if we hadn't had a penalty on that interception in the first half against Florida? Would that have been the butterfly flapping his wings in California and causing a cyclone in Japan?

Maybe. Or maybe we really do just go to sleep for some unknown reason under Richt. I'd like to see the phenomenon compared to other teams before I decide, but it's a reasonable question.

Maybe Florida and Alabama were just better, and it snowballed on us.

Or maybe we just can't block and pressure the quarterback very well. Those two things will lead to blow outs, I don't care who you are.

Maybe we started the season with the toughest schedule in the nation, relying on a freshman kicker, with question marks at defensive end, with a young offensive line, then lost our best O-lineman, and our best D-lineman, and still said "Oh, yeah, National Title - definitely."

Also, Saban and Meyer are probably in league with the devil.
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Our time will come, and quite possibly next year. But since other SEC powers (Florida, LSU, and perhaps now Alabama) were able to win a National Title so early in their current head coach's tenure, it makes things seem oh so very urgent.

But you don't have to look hard for butterfly effects in Richt's second year (2002) to see that year's National Title within our grasp. For that matter, imagine that Stafford doesn't overthrow that wheel route against South Carolina last year. How would that change the 2007 season?

Because of the 2008 squad's youth, or for other reasons, it has seemed to lack leadership. We seem unable to stem the tide of things gone wrong before the game gets out of hand. Even the players have commented on this.

But the fire of this season may forge the steel we need in years to come. And I think that, this time next year, we may be talking about the redemption of St. Richt, and a season won without any gimmicks.