Mike Anthony
Tiger Stripes
By: Mike Anthony
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
Much was made about Tiger Woods’ win at The Masters in April, and for good reason.
Not only did Woods win his 15th major championship, thus stoking the fire on questions about whether he can reach Jack Nicklaus’ all-time record of 18, but he did so after a long and improbable comeback.
Just over a year ago, Woods was barely able to swing a golf club, much less stare down the best players in the world in the game’s most famous tournament.
Before his back issues, there were also well-documented personal setbacks for Woods, leading many to say that the living legend was simply beating himself.
The funny thing is that beating himself – or, rather, a handful of golfers modeling themselves in his image – is exactly what Tiger had to do to claim another major.
When Woods burst onto the pro golf scene in 1996, his approach to the game was different than anything that had been seen before.
Instead of hitting the steakhouse after a round, Tiger spent hours on the range and putting green obsessing over the things that would benefit him the next day.
Instead of palling around with other golfers for a few drinks late at night, Tiger was early to bed and early to rise, putting in running and workouts before a round to help build the overwhelming power that made some traditional course layouts obsolete.
Time is undefeated and untied. No one ever thought that Woods would be hitting 330-yard drives and playing the same number of tournaments at this point of his career. And that wouldn’t be much of a problem if he was still battling the same fields of the 90s and early 00s.
But a very significant byproduct of Woods’ rise to prominence was the impact he had on the generations of golf that came after him. He not only inspired kids to play the game – he inspired them to play HIS game.
So, when Tiger got sidetracked by some bad personal choices and then had his body start to fail him, he wasn’t left with the task of getting back to the point of competing with the likes of the turn-of-the-millennium forty-somethings that he had become accustomed to beating.
Instead, the standard that Woods had to build back up to was that of guys like Rory McIlroy, Dustin Johnson, Jason Day and Brooks Koepka.
Not only is the top competition for Tiger now young enough to be one of his kids, it’s also had an entire lifetime’s worth of training and attacking the game in the mold set by Tiger more than two decades ago.
And where Woods may have had to search far and wide for a good gym or an indoor hitting bay to get in his extra work 20 years ago, today’s stars have had advances in technology and the added money and interest (thanks to the notoriety brought to the game by Tiger) fueling their training.
So, when Tiger made his Sunday charge at Augusta – and when he tees it up this week at Bethpage Black – he is still battling himself. Everywhere he looks, he’ll be surrounded by teens and twenty somethings who can hit it a mile, have tons of strength and stamina due to exercise and nutrition, and who take preparation and course management far more seriously than the generations of players before it.
Tiger dominated so thoroughly, and for so long, that there was almost no bar left to clear. His influence inadvertently gave him his toughest challenge yet and he was able to conquer that as well.
There’s no telling if Woods can repeat that greatness in a major. Especially since the competition is only getting better while he is only getting older.
But for at least the next week, Tiger Woods is still on top of the golf world, and there is still the prospect for golf fans of seeing a larger-than-life legend do his thing once again.
Pouncing Tiger
By: Mike Anthony
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
When Tiger Woods won the 2005 Masters tournament, it was hard to imagine there would ever be a time when he wasn’t in contention at Augusta.
That win was Wood’s ninth major victory and began a stretch of four victories in a stretch of eight majors contested.
But, for the past decade, it was easy to wonder if he’d ever be in contention again as personal and physical problems kept Woods off the course far too often and rendered him ineffective in most majors where he was able to participate.
Everything came full-circle on Sunday afternoon at Augusta National.
Woods trailed for the first 12 holes, but as the top of the leaderboard swelled and the drama heightened, Woods – as he has done so many times before – was the only one who could stare down the pressure.
Tiger was the only player in the final group to avoid the infamous waters of Rae’s Creek on No. 12. He made birdies on each of the par 5s on the second nine, the second of which gave him the outright lead for the first time in the tournament.
And then, with several players still in contention and attempting a late charge, Tiger flipped the switch on his own personal time machine, briefly turning into the nearly unstoppable force from years ago. Woods’ tee shot on No. 16 judged the large slope in the green perfectly and nearly grazed the hole to set up an easy birdie and a two-stroke lead.
On No. 17, commentators speculated about Woods’ choice to hit driver instead of a safer tee shot with a 3-wood, but the second-guessing had barely gone out over the airwaves before Tiger unleashed one of his biggest drives of the day and stalked it down the fairway, wearing a stoic and determined gaze the whole way.
Up at the 18th green, thousands of patrons had heard cheers from farther down the course and they turned their eyes to the scoreboard. With no one able to birdie No. 18 to put the pressure on Woods, the updated scoreboard showing a two-stroke lead unleashed a roar that was the loudest of the week, the volume and emotion of it capable of being produced only by Tiger Woods.
There was still some work to do and Woods made bogey on No. 18, but the tournament was all but sealed when he chipped safely onto the green and just barely missed a par putt before tapping in for his fifth green jacket and 15th major championship.
Speaking in an interview less than an hour after clinching his win, Woods said it still hadn’t sunk in. But for the thousands surrounding the 18th green and likely millions more watching on television and reacting on social media, the gravity of the moment was immediate and cathartic.
Press members who have covered Woods throughout his career were hopeful for him throughout the week and were openly cheering his clutch shots down the final stretch. Fellow golfers – both young and old – stuck around the 18th green to bear personal witness to Woods’ return to the top.
And then there was Woods’ family.
Tiger and his father famously embraced after his first Masters victory in 1997. Woods also had one of his most public showings of emotion in 2006 after the death of his father when he discussed not having him there at the end of his Open Championship victory.
The full scope of the major drought came when a new family member made an appearance behind the 18th green. Woods’ son, Charlie, raced into Tiger’s arms for a celebratory hug. Charlie was born in 2009, eight months after Tiger’s 2008 U.S. Open victory – his final major win until Sunday.
“I’m so happy that my kids could be here to see me win and to celebrate,” Woods said. “For a few years (while battling health issues), all they saw was that golf caused me pain. Today, they get to see how happy I am to play this game that I love.”
Folded
By: Mike Anthony
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
It’s been more than 30 years, and some people still haven’t learned their lesson.
For the better part of the last half century, football has been the most popular sport in America.
The Super Bowl has supplanted the World Series as the pinnacle of the sports-watching season and the last decade or two has seen college football rise to second place behind the NFL in terms of attention paid to any specific sports season.
But that still doesn’t mean that there’s room for more football.
The Alliance of American Football kicked off its inaugural season just a week after the Patriots defeated the Rams in the Super Bowl. The upstart league drew some ratings and attention in early weeks from folks who weren’t quite ready to settle into a winter of basketball, hockey and early-season golf.
The AAF assumed to fly high where other leagues, such as the USFL and the XFL had failed previously.
As it turns out, the AAF wasn’t even as successful as those previous failures.
Just eight weeks into its’ 10-week season, the AAF has shut down all football operations. The league didn’t even make it two weeks in before a desperate infusion of additional cash was needed to cover paychecks and even that couldn’t float the league through its first regular season.
There’s no shame to be had by the players and franchises of the AAF. A few hundred football players were out there doing their best to maybe catch the eye of a scout who could get them to the next level. Good for them for chasing their dreams.
But as for the executives and corporate-types who continue to hatch these ‘professional’ football leagues, it’s really time to take a step back.
The immediate failure of the AAF – and what can be assumed to be an uphill battle for the reiteration of the XFL next season – has served home the fact that there is a saturation point for even the most beloved sport in the country.
Fans go nuts over their favorite NFL team, but maybe that’s because they only have to make a 5-6 month investment.
College fan bases show up by the hundreds of thousands to tailgate and cheer and travel to far-reaching bowl game destinations, but that’s still just a few months of commitment.
The AAF – like other leagues before it – has crapped out on the same faulty line of thinking. The fact that America loves football doesn’t mean it has the ability to tolerate sub-par versions of the game through an entire calendar year.
A sea of players that plunged head-first into a new league shows that there is an ample supply of talent that is willing to keep toiling away in hopes of making it to the NFL someday. Unfortunately, the AAF was never the place for those players.
There may well be a league or program that can serve as a stepping stone for players to move from college into the pros, or that can provide a chance for former pros to get back into
the game. But the AAF was just another league that served the front offices and league owners far more than the players.
Just like the failed leagues before it, the AAF promised ‘FOOTBALL’ and not much else.
And unfortunately for the AAF, football fans have remained consistent in believing that there can be too much of a good thing.
The Broken System
By: Mike Anthony
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
As a kid, I remember the countless hours of classroom and homework time that – come March – was totally abandoned for the sanctity of brackets.
Beginning with the conference tournaments and stretching into the NCAA ‘big dance’, I was constantly overwhelmed and obsessed with drawing out the brackets and playing out all of the scenarios in my head.
Whether it was charting a course to a championship for my favorite teams or trying to figure out where the surprises would spring up, there was something about the mystique of the endless possible outcomes of the bracket that had me in a daze until April.
The annual NCAA tournament still provides thrilling moments and memorable storylines each spring, but the magic seems to be wearing off.
Sure, anyone who makes it into the tournament field still has a chance to cut down the nets, but recent seasons have taken away the one thing that made March Madness a pillar of sports watching – the unknown team that can win.
These unknown teams shouldn’t be confused with the upsets that are also synonymous with the tournament. There will always be lower seeds that notch huge wins against heavily-favored opponents, but those upsets are now just as likely to come from a big-name school in a big conference with a huge budget as opposed to previous years where the tournament was flush with more schools from smaller conferences trying to make their mark.
The latest projections for this season’s NCAA tournament guess that 34 teams – exactly half of the 68-team total for the field – will come from the five richest conferences in Division I.
The NCAA mandates that the winners of all 32 conferences participating in Division I receive a bid to the tournament. That rule gives schools in smaller conferences more of a shot at a national title than non P5 schools will ever have at a national football title, but the bias is still evident.
Doing the quick math, the latest projections see the tournament spots being taken up by the 32 conference champs, along with 29 non-champion schools from the ACC, Big Ten, Big XII, Pac 12 and SEC. That leaves a grand total of seven at-large bids to be had by the roughly 250 Division-I schools who aren’t part of those five richest conferences and who won’t win their conference tournaments.
That’s hardly fair.
Yes, most teams from the bigger conferences have better track records and dominate recruiting rankings.
Yes, the teams in smaller conferences who don’t win their tournaments don’t play the same amount of quality teams in their yearly schedule.
And yes, the broadcast might suffer a bit if analysts are forced to talk about a school they’ve barely heard of.
But it’s called March Madness for a reason.
In an NCAA basketball landscape where even middling power conference teams are mostly fueled by one-and-done players, why not reward more smaller schools who have built up a starting lineup full of three and four-year starters?
In a time where most early round games are played in half-empty arenas, why favor schools with nine-figure athletic budgets when they don’t play or draw better than an upstart squad that hasn’t been to the tournament in a decade?
Even the biggest NCAA hoops fans can’t tell you who the sixth and seventh teams from the ACC were in last year’s tournament, but they can tell you all about UMBC, Florida Gulf Coast and countless other ‘nobody’s’ who seized their moment on the big stage.
Odds are that the biggest and richest schools will still be competing once the Final Four comes around. And that’s all the reason needed to include more smaller schools and bring some more madness to March.
Moneyball
By: Mike Anthony
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
For nearly a week, the talk of the baseball world has been of Bryce Harper and his new 13-year, $330 million contract with the Philadelphia Phillies.
Harper’s signing was the crescendo of an offseason hot stove market that everyone expected to produce plenty of fireworks – especially if you equate dump trucks full of cash to fireworks.
Just over a week before Harper’s signing, Manny Machado became the first jewel to be plucked from the free agent pool when he signed a 10-year $300 million contract with the San Diego Padres. And in between Harper and Machado came a monstrous eight-year extension for Nolan Arenado with the Rockies for $260 million.
Throughout Major League Baseball, teams are bringing in more revenue than ever before and the bidding wars for each huge free agent are soaring ever higher. Bigger television deals and a new generation of social media-savvy stars that are making the game more popular than in the last decade should have baseball in its best standing in recent history.
But that might not be the case.
For every huge contract that Harper, Machado and Arenado get there are other contracts that are taking a sharp downturn for other veterans, who don’t fit the bill as a superstar.
The old line of thinking was that players would work their way to the majors and play for peanuts before being rewarded with ever-increasing contracts if they developed into productive veterans.
Nowadays, front offices that are littered with sabermetric-minded analysts more in tune with hard drives than hardball are killing the market for aging players in the middle of the talent bell curve.
Proven top-of-the-rotation starters like Dallas Keuchel and Gio Gonzalez are still without a team nearing the middle of spring training and super utility man Marwin Gonzalez – at the peak of his supposed prime years at 29 – settled for just a two-year, $21 million deal when similar players were scoring contracts three and four times the length and value just a few years ago.
And it’s even worse for those who are stars in waiting.
It used to be that struggling teams with a budding star in the making couldn’t wait to pluck him from the minors. Even if the call-up was for publicity and exciting fans rather than winning more games, it was at least getting the ball rolling on a new career.
For potential superstars currently stuck in the same situation, the road to the show is much longer and more frustrating.
Instead of teams getting prospects big league experience, front offices seem more concerned with keeping that talent cheap for as long as possible. With three years of full control and three arbitration years once a player makes the big leagues, clubs are trying to pick their spots and thread the needle for the longest possible window of competitiveness – often at the expense of players.
So, while current superstars are now rich beyond the wildest dreams of most, the rest of the league is seeing their average contracts decline. And for stars of the 2020’s still in minor league camp, it could be a long time before they get to the big club – regardless of whether or not they’re ready – if the team decides that another year or two of tanking and stockpiling prospects is in order before making their run.
Moneyball and advanced metrics have been the name of the game for nearly 20 years now. It has certainly produced some good results, but it is also breaking the economics of the game.
And with some serious labor negotiations just around the corner, it’s time for baseball to take a serious look at how players are paid if all the newfound revenues are to continue.
New Golf Course
By: Mike Anthony
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
A decade ago, professional golf was mostly relegated to the man caves of middle-aged dads as they napped their way through Sunday rounds while winding down their weekends.
Since then, a swarm of young talent has brought the game much closer to the sports mainstream. Not only are the current stars a far cry from the beer-bellied prototypes of pros from previous eras, they’re also personable to crowds, all over social media and – most importantly – better than any generation of golfers that has ever come through the sport.
Players like Jordan Spieth, Justin Thomas and Rickie Fowler have started to move the needle, and resurgences from the old guard of Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson have resulted in plenty of drama.
The changing of guard from one generation to the next is enough of a storyline to hook in the usual golf fans, but the shakeup to this year’s schedule could be the spark that ignites a burst in ratings for the game.
For years, the golf schedule religiously held to the same timing for its biggest events, inadvertently causing lulls of a month or more in viewing for the casual fans. This time around, the season will feature a schedule that features marquee events in six consecutive months.
The big shakeup begins in March as the Players’ Championship jumps forward on the calendar by nearly two months. The Masters will hold its usual spot in early April, with the PGA Championship cutting in front of the other two majors by moving from August to May.
That leaves the U.S. Open for its normal spot in the blistering heat of June, followed by every golf fan’s guilty pleasure of sneaking out of bed early to catch the (very) early morning rounds of the British Open in July. With the PGA already done, the season will bump up it’s big-money Fed-Ex Cup playoff, culminating with the Tour Championship in Atlanta in late August.
It remains to be seen how viewership and attendance will respond to the drastic change, but it seems to be a shrewd move for a sport that has always had a massive casual following while lacking the ticket gate and sponsorship revenue of the traditional major sports.
Golf may have just played its hand perfectly.
In an industry where leagues are struggling to get fans to come to games instead of going to bars or purchasing all-inclusive television packages, golf has spent a decade investing in technology and information beamed right onto the screens of everyone watching the action at home.
And while every other sport is locked into a schedule that lends it to lapses in attention from casual fans, golf has made the decision to condense what had been a very scattered 10 months of tournaments – many of which weren’t featuring top players – into six months of better tournament fields that see the four majors bookended by the next biggest player and viewer draws of the season.
If golf was a sports franchise, this is when all of its fans would be starting to get excited.
Golf had some down years in the early 2010’s, but it took a step back and evaluated its position. It developed a young group of talent that can produce for years to come, it still has the star power of old veterans and – thanks to the new schedule – it’s got some sleek new packaging that will catch the eye of more than just the die-hard fans.
So, for all of the lazy Sunday dads out there, watch out. Your regularly scheduled nap is going to be interrupted by a lot more excitement this year.
Destination Unknown
By: Mike Anthony
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
To say that the Sun Belt men’s basketball race is wide open might not be doing things justice.
If the regular season race were put in terms of a horse race, the pack would be rounding the final turn with mud flying in all directions and no one hitting their finishing kick just yet.
With seven games remaining for most Sun Belt teams, Texas State and UT Arlington are tied for the top spot. But there are six more teams within three games of the top and no listing of the conference standings will be safe until the dust settles on March 9.
Georgia Southern is one of the huge mob of teams sitting just off the pace. The Eagles split a pair of tough road games in Louisiana last week and are currently tied with UL Monroe and Coastal Carolina at 6-5 in conference play.
A strong finish could easily see the Eagles snag a top-2 finish and a free pass all the way to the semifinals of the conference tournament, but a few more losses could force them to win as many as four games in New Orleans if they want to take home the title.
It’s been an up-and-down ride for Georgia Southern this season, but now is the time for it to show the talent and leadership that has been four years in the making.
When this year’s senior class were freshmen, they were thrown right into the fire. Guys like Tookie Brown, Ike Smith and Montae Glenn showed promise, but also had to learn lessons about the college game the hard way as they were immediately inserted into the lineup.
The trio has grown – and has soaked up plenty of help in the classes that have come after them – and knew it would have one more shot for a tournament run this spring.
Unfortunately, Smith will have to watch from the sidelines as he has been ruled out for the year with a back injury. Glenn felt that pain – literally – last season when he injured a knee during conference tournament practice and never saw the floor in New Orleans.
Brown has been the steady hand throughout his career and this is unquestionably his team, but it will take a trip to the NCAA tournament to elevate his status at Georgia Southern from great to legendary.
So, while things haven’t gone to script and the Eagles will be short-handed down the stretch, it’s also fair to say that this should be their time to shine.
The Sun Belt is as deep as it has ever been, but the Eagles have already proven that they can play with anyone in the league. Come conference tournament time, the majority of players in the lineup will have played big roles and meaningful minutes in previous trips to New Orleans.
While the win-loss record isn’t where many hoped it would be at this point in the season, the Eagles have to realize that everything important – including, hopefully, their best basketball – is still ahead of them.
For the upperclassmen on this year’s team, no refresher course is needed on what can go wrong at the end of the season. Bad breaks, fluke injuries and hot-shooting opponents have all spelled disaster for Georgia Southern in previous late-season games and conference tournaments.
They’ve learned all of the tough lessons and no one doubts their ability to be the better team when things are going right for them. But they’re out of time to worry about what obstacles might pop up in the coming weeks.
If the Eagles want to win, they’ll have to put it all together and they’ll have to start right now.
A Brave Division?
By: Mike Anthony
GeorgiaSportsEdition.com news services
In recent years, the Major League Baseball offseason has routinely fit into a pattern of ebbs and flows.
With ‘Moneyball’ and sabermetric zealots convincing many teams to focus on building a farm system and putting the MLB club fortunes on hold for years at a time, the offseason has become a slow dance between teams that figure to contend in the coming summer and fall.
And while the biggest names – Bryce Harper and Manny Machado – that figure to move before opening day are still question marks, it’s very possible that the Atlanta Braves have done enough to solidify their spot atop the National League East without breaking the bank or grasping for headlines.
The Braves were the surprise winners of their division last season. After the dust settled, the Braves’ title looked much more like the payoff of shrewd front office moves and the requisite luck to win a hard-fought division than the anomaly that they were treated as while the 2018 season was in motion.
Simply put, the Braves weren’t overly flashy (Rookie of the Year Ronald Acuna notwithstanding) in advancing to the postseason for the first time since 2013. The key to Atlanta’s success was that it had a seemingly never-ending supply of guys who could get the job done on any given day.
So, while big headlines are sure to be made as the offseason’s marquee free agents sign blockbuster deals in the coming weeks, the Braves can sleep easy knowing that they’re as prepared to make a deep playoff run as any team that signs a potential MVP through free agency.
Atlanta enters 2019 with a perennial MVP contender in Freddie Freeman and having added a former American League MVP in Josh Donaldson to play third base.
Acuna will play a full year in left field, Nick Markakis has just been resigned to play right field after a huge 2018 campaign, and the trio of Ender Inciarte, Ozzie Albies and Dansby Swanson forms a middle of the defensive lineup that is as dominating as it is young.
The starting rotation may lack nationwide name recognition without a recognized frontline guy, but the Braves’ top five was as effective as any in the National League last season.
The bullpen was a question, but everything points towards the Braves digging in and mounting a strong defense of last year’s division championship.
So, there is the optimism for Braves fans. And for fans of any MLB squad, optimism is what this time of year is all about.
Eagles Unlucky Feathers
By: Mike Anthony
GeorgiaSportsEdition.com news services
To say that this season is “now-or-never” for the Georgia Southern men’s basketball team might be laying it on thick.
Sure, the Eagles have a trio of seniors in Tookie Brown, Ike Smith and Montae Glenn that have been the core of the team since forced into action as freshmen. It would be a shame for the group to rack up over a half-dozen All-Sun Belt nods between them without an NCAA tournament appearance to show for their effort.
But college basketball is as fickle a game as ever. A tough-luck loss here and an injury there can take even the best teams and leave them scrambling for a spot in March Madness.
There are still two full months of play remaining before the national tournament field is filled out, but Georgia Southern currently sits in that unenviable spot of being a team with a lot of potential that can’t seem to catch a break.
The season began with Iowa State transfer and expected frontcourt starter Simeon Carter sidelined for the first few weeks as he recovered from offseason surgery.
The concussion bug that bit Brown last season sank its teeth into two more Eagle reserves early in the season. That hurt the depth that head coach Mark Byington said would be key in the up-tempo transition game that the Eagles attempt to run throughout each game.
Soon after Carter got onto the floor, both Smith and Glenn went down with injuries. The Eagles were down two starters in their first two conference games and while Glenn was back in limited action.
Smith had to undergo surgery on his back. He hasn’t played since Dec. 14 against Brewton-Parker. Word from the team is that he will suit up soon, but no official return date has been announced.
Adding insult to the Eagles’ injury was a Saturday night showdown with Sun Belt power UL Lafayette. The Eagles and Ragin’ Cajuns have played plenty of exciting games at Hanner Fieldhouse since becoming conference rivals in the 2014-15 season.
Saturday was no exception as ULL controlled the action early before Georgia Southern attempted to win for a sixth time this season after trailing by at least 10 points in a game.
The Eagles looked to have pulled it off when Quan Jackson forced a steal and hit a layup for a one-point lead with 12 seconds to play, but a highly suspect traveling call took the points off the board and the Eagles went on to lose.
Georgia Southern is far from out of the running in what should be a very competitive Sun Belt race, but the bad breaks already suffered have to be wearing on the Eagles.
A blown lead at Texas State and Saturday’s controversial loss have the Eagles sitting at 2-2 in conference action. A quick look at the 14 remaining Sun Belt games also reveals that the Eagles’ toughest road games still lie ahead. Due to some unlucky scheduling, they will only have one game against some of the weaker Sun Belt teams as other front-runners have a pair of chances to fatten up.
None of this should be an excuse for the Eagles. They’re far from the only team dealing with injuries or ‘what-ifs’ of close games, but the first two months have been a stinging reminder that having a deep, talented and experienced roster on paper doesn’t win any games on the court.
The good news is that the Eagles are trending towards being healthier and still have plenty of time to work their way up the standings.
But the regular season will be over before long and a conference-wide letdown in early season play pretty much guaranteed that the Sun Belt will be just a one-bid league to the NCAA tournament.
So, it’s time for the Eagles to kick it into gear. They have the talent to get the job done, but it will take a good finish to the regular season and an even better showing for one final week in New Orleans in March.
Keep That Window Open
By: Mike Anthony
GeorgiaSportsEdition.com news services
Winning an FBS national championship has to be one of the toughest things to do in all of sports.
As it stands, the current setup of a four-team playoff for the national title – and decisions that have been made by the playoff committee in choosing those teams in recent years – have made it clear that only the well-known, well-financed, heavy hitters of the ‘Power 5’ conferences have a seat at the table.
And even amongst that small subset, there are myriad hurdles that can derail a promising September outlook and leave it well short of postseason expectations.
With college rosters constantly in flux, many teams (with the apparent exceptions of Alabama and Clemson) only figure to have one or two shots in any five-year timeframe at making a national championship run.
Georgia fans should take plenty of pride in what the Bulldogs were able to accomplish over the last two seasons, but that also comes with tons of ‘what-ifs’ and the creeping sense that another run at a national championship could take some time to materialize.
Georgia saw its perfect storm come together in 2017. The Bulldogs were every bit the national power they were expected to be. They took care of business in the regular season and were able to avoid a date with Alabama in the SEC Championship game, winning a league title before coming within a play or two of upsetting the Crimson Tide in a title game that was UGA’s for the taking.
A wealth of returning talent this season gave UGA the second chance that many schools never receive. Georgia had the benefit of a returning starter at quarterback, a nasty defense, one of the nation’s best kickers and a head coach who was fast becoming one of the biggest names in the game.
But the stars never quite aligned for the Bulldogs. UGA laid a regular season egg at LSU and after keeping itself in the playoff discussion down the stretch, blew a pair of big leads against Alabama in the SEC championship game.
Crazier years in the FBS may have seen fewer undefeated teams or more drama in the closing weeks, but there was little argument to be made that a two-loss Georgia team belonged in the playoff, even as it had given Alabama its biggest scare of the season up to that point.
Such is the nature of college football for the small group of teams that are always hopeful to be in the mix.
It seems to be a prerequisite that a spot as a Power 5 school and at least one marquee win is required for admission into the postseason party.
A couple dozen schools can claim to have that profile at the beginning of each season, but four months of unpredictability in both opponents and team health never fails to lay waste to most of those dreams.
And that’s where UGA will begin 2019.
The Bulldogs will still have a stud quarterback and a hot-list coach. Their kicker will be back again to lean on in close games and the defense will likely be stout once again.
But the window is closing. The list of key graduating starters, early entrants into the NFL draft and transfers to other programs is already over a dozen and may still grow.
Georgia is bound to be a good team once again in 2019, but the cruel nature of FBS football will force UGA to take two years’ worth of heartbreak and force it to start from square one once again with even fewer certainties than it has had in its two best runs in the last quarter-century.
Winning isn’t easy. Even harder is having to fall all the way down the hill after coming so close, only to try and regroup to make the summit attempt once again.
