Back from vacation, an optimist again for Georgia

If blogging at the level I do it here is about anything, it's about thinking my opinion should be really important to other people.

So since I was away the last 12 days, in Mexico following the smartest decision of my life, marrying the wonderful Marilyn Pegeuro, it stands to reason that you, too, would need a rehash of the past week or so, with comment.

Dawgsonline ran an excellent piece on the very surprising news that Stacy Searels has left the University of Georgia for Texas. Groo, as he so often does, hits all the main points:

The timing isn’t the best – coaches are full on into recruiting mode

One guy leaving for a lot more money isn’t a sign to man the lifeboats.

If you believe some of the scuttlebutt out there, Searels was one of the first to blow the whistle on slippage in Georgia’s conditioning program. ... and I hope that we’re not losing that challenging perspective.

Groo also has a well thought-out, as always, piece on the basketball program's recent success and it's growth.

I need to get to Athens soon to see The Dawgs in action in person. I predict an NCAA Tournament birth this year. For basketball analysis and update from my time away, I also turned to Georgia Sports Blog, and they provide the sentence that best encapsulates how I have felt recently as a Bulldog:

My optimism for basketball is the yin to my football pessimism's yang.

Still, late January is a time for even further optimism when your football team is ranked in the top 10 in recruiting rankings. And GSB, pessimistic about football in general, feeds that optimism nonetheless:

Things were looking bleak about 45 days ago on the recruiting trail. It was beginning to look like Bama would be signing our Dream Team. But Coach Richt and crew made up enormous ground with several top prospects, and we continue to hear positive rumblings from the direction of Isaiah Crowell (RB), Ray Drew (DE/OLB) and John Jenkins (Juco DT).

When you look at the most glaring holes in Georgia's talent base guys this class looks like it's heading towards addressing many of them.

Finally, from the Senator:

Don’t kid yourself – recruiting is a tough sell for Coach Richt right now. For him to go toe to toe with Saban and Smart, two tough recruiters who have a hotter program to pitch, and win is an indication to me that maybe, yes, there still is some fire in the belly.

I leave the country for 10 days, and suddenly it might still be great to be a Georgia Bulldog. Didn't take long, seldom does. Thomas Brown even sees a way to pump up our strength and conditioning program that he says worked in his day.

My question is: Is this a motivational issue, or is this a lack-of-talent issue? February can always solve that ... if you're patient, you make good decisions and you follow through.

When I was in Mexico on my honeymoon, I learned that "Arriba!," which Speedy Gonalez used to yell when I was a kid, means "Up!"

Arriba with the University of Georgia; let's go up.