Second-half collapses, bucking the Gators and screaming freshmen
Greg McGarity offers dance lesson to UF officials. (Curtis Compton / AJC)
First, whatever Mark Fox is doing at halftime … stop it!
Another game, another second-half collapse by his Dogs, followed by the obigatory “we got comfortable” or “we got complacent” or “we relaxed” or “we let the other guy back in the game” quotes from alleged team leaders Travis Leslie and Trey Thompkins.
Perhaps Fox should just try changing everything about the way his team is approaching the second half, because the current plan just isn’t working and there’s been no sign of improvement.
Meanwhile, Georgia might not be able to beat Florida on the field or on the court these days, but Greg McGarity showed the Gator braintrust that “it takes two to tango,” as he put it when he bucked UF’s plan to hike the ticket prices for the annual Jacksonville football clash by $10. “We’re not ready to make that move yet,” he told the UGA athletics board Thursday. Bet that raised a few eyebrows in Gainesville. Go Greg!
The athletics board meeting also saw a couple of moves made toward improving the game day environment at Sanford Stadium. Upgrading the scoreboard/video screen again allows Sanford to keep pace with other SEC schools’ stadiums, but the approval of new rules governing student ticketing is likely to have more of an impact.
Georgia has been plagued at some games with nearly a third of the 18,000 student seats going unused, a problem exacerbated when they went to electronic ticketing using the student ID cards, which made it more difficult to sell or give away unwanted tickets. Under the new rules, if students with tickets don’t attend a game or designate their seats for use by another student or for sale to the general public, they’ll receive a “strike.” Three strikes in a season and they’re ineligible for tickets to a bowl game and the following season’s games.
As reported recently by The Red and Black, student leaders support the plan because it will increase the flow of tickets to freshmen, who are generally considered more likely to show up at the games than the jaded upperclassmen, who have priority in ticket-buying.
Anything that gets more loud, cheering students into the stands at Sanford is a plus, and with Georgia’s so-called home-field advantage sometimes difficult to discern amid all the complacent alums sitting on their hands, game day in Athens could certainly use the added energy the kids bring.
And as I’ve noted before, it also would help if the powers-that-be would shift the Redcoat Band so that they could more easily be heard by the majority of the stadium.
Any other suggestions for improving the game day experience at Sanford Stadium?
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81 comments Add your comment
Einsteindawg
February 25th, 2011
5:31 pm
I think our second half collapse is due to two things: Lack of quality depth on the bench, and Fox has former experience with “smart” players. Unfortunately, we have very few, and they resort to their school-yard games when things tighten up. I do think we’ll be get better next year.
Dawg14
February 25th, 2011
5:34 pm
I honestly think it should be the opposite way around. The alumni and such were in their seats during the 2007 season just as well. do not act like that would make a difference. Can you imagine how many games we would win if we were as loud as we are when we are having a monster comeback (see Florida and Arkansas this season). Sanford/Jacksonville was rocking and you could definitely tell a difference in the other team’s play when we all were loud (Arky had like 4 back to back false starts in the shadow of their own field goal). Stand Get Loud = Home field advantage. The other team might as well have been the home team this season at Sanford, sad stuff.
Natureboy809
February 25th, 2011
5:39 pm
Giving opponents so many “second chance points” in the 2nd half has been what is killing the basketball team. Defensive rebounding down the stretch has been terrible. Other teams just seem to want that rebound more than our guys in the paint.
Ceasar
February 25th, 2011
6:18 pm
Sanford could be improved by having the Redcoat band play DIXIE!!! The fans would go wild!!!!!
Allen
February 25th, 2011
6:36 pm
Agree with everything you wrote, Bill. You hit the nail on the head about the 2nd half collapses in bb . . . and they are happening repeatedly. It’s very discouraging. I like what Mark Fox has done, but you would think we would have this second half business sorted out by now. Maybe it’s lack of depth or lack of conditioning, but our team seems to run out of energy in the 2nd half. I also agree our players do not seem to be in the game mentally. Example: the shot clock violation in the 2nd half last night — no one realized there were only 15 seconds on the shot clock.
I fully expected we would go to Gainesville and atone for the loss in Athens . . . first half showed what we are capable of doing . . . unfortunately, the second half did as well.
As for football . . . agree about putting the band in the east zone stands . . . and something needs to be done to get the student section full BEFORE kickoff. UGA alums are pretty lame in the stands, too. Yes, winning definitely helps . . . but our fans do sit on their hands for the most part and are just not as ‘into it’ as they are at Auburn, Alabama, LSU, for example.
Beast from the East
February 25th, 2011
6:44 pm
Why is it so hard to accept a loss to a top 15 team on the road that re-grouped and played a great second half? Did you really think that Donovan would not make the necessary halftime adjustments to get his team going? IMO, he’s one of the top 5 active coaches in the country. Fox has UGA headed in the right direction. Just needs to get some of these close games to convert to W’s so his kids can get gain confidence. It’s all a process that takes some time. Be proud of your team and show them some support and they might just surprise you
Ceasar
February 25th, 2011
6:52 pm
Enter your comments here
Vance Duuley
February 25th, 2011
6:52 pm
Why would the legitimate students want to watch a gang of illiterate thugs play?
Panini
February 25th, 2011
6:55 pm
Attention, everyone, especially dawgtards. We will now observe a moment of silence in memory of Saint Jan Kemp, who exposed the shameful practices at UGA that were initiated and carried out by slimeball Vince Dooley. Dooley’s image as a coach and a nice guy were forever shattered during the trial, not to mention the one million dollars that dawgtards had to pay Saint Jan. These practices of recruiting morons and coddling them for four years, them tossing them out like garbage, are still going on, but at least the world knows what’s happening in Athens now.
And now, the moment of silence…
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Thank you, you may resume your normal activities now.
JenChicktastic
February 25th, 2011
7:07 pm
Um. I’m an alum. Had my tix since 1999. I’m not complacent or sitting on my hands. I’m pretty sick of everyone making that generalization when in truth when I was a student all the way up to now there is a huge portion of the student body who don’t show up until halftime. I’m not trying to be down on the students, just asking for equality. Some Alums are there, engaged and loud enough to lose their voices for the majority of the next week. I should know, I’m one of them.
GATA Dawgs!
Noise?
February 25th, 2011
7:31 pm
Sanford Stadium, relative to other stadiums, is not as loud due to the following:
1. Heat/humidity sap crowd before kickoff
2. People “worn out” b/c of Atlanta traffic all week
3. Beer and sun don’t mix.
4. Not enough night games.
5. Stadium, though it holds 92,578, is not as high up on both sides as other venues. Thus, noise escapes.
6. Folks in front and back of me tell me to sit down and shut up during game when I try to cheer.
7. Lack of breeze in stadium.
8. No coordination of cheers.
9. No national title since 1980.
10. Program living in the past too much (Herschel (I love you but gotta have another clone of you soon), Lindsey, Erk, Dooley…you get the picture). Do something now before I die.
11. Old farts in South stands too complacent. Get off your butts and cheer would you…you Jackwagons.
12. Too many pretty girls and stadium. Football less important.
13. UGA sits on his can and sleeps all game.
14. It’s Georgia where “hospitality and southern grace” reign supreme.
15. When we can win big…we lay down and let other programs save face. We don’t kick’em ’til they stopped gurgling (that is).
Jay in VA
February 25th, 2011
7:57 pm
Happy for the scoreboard update, but even more happy about anything that gets more students in the stadium. Students will always make more noise than old guys like me. (And, for the record, I yell louder than most guys my age!) It is sad but true that some of our alums just show up to be entertained. (I said some, not all.) You’ll know who those fair weather fans are, because they are the ones you see leaving with 12 minutes to go in the game and things are not going well.
Jay in VA
February 25th, 2011
8:04 pm
P.S. – Good points made by Noise. Especially like his point #5 about the architectural aspect of Sanford. Very true, I think! I’ve been to Michigan Stadium, 110,000 or so capacity and similarly “laid back”, architecturally speaking. Not overly loud there. On the other hand, Virginia Tech has a 66,000 seat stadium that is very vertical, and the noise they make is ear-splitting! The loudest place I’ve ever been. (Of course, I think the fans are part of the equation. Anybody remember the noise they made in the 2006 Chick Fil-A Bowl?)
dog forever
February 25th, 2011
8:07 pm
YOU PEOPLE ARE CRAZY IF DAWGS WIN YOU GIVE FOX THE CREDIT IF THEY LOSE YOU BLAME IT ON THE PLAYERS PICK ONE ONLY ONE ………… PLAYS DON’T ASK TO PLAY ZONE THATS A COACHES CALL …… FOX NEEDS TO PUT THEM IN POSITION TO FINISH THE DRILL ……….
Rabun Dawg
February 25th, 2011
8:22 pm
If the games were only 20-25 minutes, the dogs would be almost unbeaten. You can see the collapse coming when the other teams start to press, then comes the “no clue” how to handle it, poor rebounding, then no real 3 point threat…. they resort to jacking it up from all over rather than trying to work down on the low post. In other words “playground ball” begins. This bunch has so much athleticism, but gets wasted when the game gets close.Me thinks Coach Fox is the right guy, looks as though most of our players are not disciplined players. Watch the Blue Devils play, then you will see a team with a real purpose that knows what the game is all about! Not to mention a “Hall of Fame” coach on the bench! All that being said, I think the future is bright with CMF at the helm and a couple of good recruiting years thrown in.
will dawg
February 25th, 2011
8:23 pm
Put red coats in open end zone to play into the rest of the stadium, so they play into closed end. Put whole student section wrapping back to middle. Move road fans into current student section corner. This is how S. Carolina does it and it makes WB a very loud place.
Florida fans you just hired a chump coach and you will get yours very soon. Now go cry that Timmy and Urban are spooning in Denver!
GATA!!!
Diggity Dawg
February 25th, 2011
9:32 pm
Bill,
Will dawg is right about the position of the Redcoats. Putting them in the E end zone would cut off the entire upper deck of Dawg fans. The W end zone is the place for them.
jojo
February 25th, 2011
10:26 pm
Bill King knows all fire Fox. No room for any mistakes fire him now. Hire Bill to name the next coach. He KNOWS all. Then fire that coach when something goes wrong. Better yet fire Bill.
Top Dawg
February 25th, 2011
11:08 pm
The problem is we have too many tatooed thugs! we need a couple heady players for late in games like that Parsons.
Hairy Perry
February 26th, 2011
12:27 am
This basketball team has been a let down. People do not fear Georgia in football or basketball anymore. The opposing coach probably tells his team to be patient because Georgia will screw themselves at some point, and then just capitalize. I am a dog fan and always have been, but we have become a joke in the college football world. I’m sorry guys it has nothing to do with being a
loyal fan it is just reality. I have gotten to the point in my life, that I no longer let it bring me down, I just turn off the t.v. and find something else to do.
acstas87
February 26th, 2011
12:29 am
Give the freshman their chance.
After all, courtesy of UGA’s blatant gaming of the HOPE scholarship and crappy admissions office half of them won’t get another season’s worth of tickets.
What a stupid solution, tying tickets to ID cards caused this problem and you really won’t fix it by shaking down upperclassmen. When over half the freshmen fail out as UGA calculates, where will the excess go? To newly-minted upperclassmen who then won’t go to I-AA beatdowns?
Accept that no system is perfect, but also accept the lesser of two evils and go back to paper tickets.
dawgerbrown
February 26th, 2011
5:56 am
I agree to what you alluded to in your article. I would think that other than Vandy, UGA has the least impressive “home field advantage” in the SEC. Don’t really know why, but it seldom seems to be as loud as it should, or as it was years ago. As far as the second half collapses. It seems like we don’t play with the same sense of urgency on offense in the second half as we do in the first. And, we consistently get out rebounded in the secon half. Seems our opponents just “want it” more than we do.
UGATex
February 26th, 2011
7:53 am
I have been to numerous games in Baton Rouge during my exile to Texas, and it is the loudest open air stadium in which I have been. LSU locates its band in the end zone, and it seems to be much more effective at cheerleading the entire crowd than the unfamiliar piped-in rock and hip-hop that comes over the PA system. Given the amount of piped in music these days, I doesn’t seem like the ban on electric instruments is appropriate any more. I fondly remember the 1970’s when the Redcoats would fire up the bass and brass to get the crowd going. I recognize that the school doesn’t have control over the electric instrument issue, but let’s move the band to a place where the North stands can get in the game too.
Buckeye
February 26th, 2011
8:25 am
It seems to me that Howard( before I was Trey) is burned out.The lack of fire and enthusiam seems, like the democrats in Wisc. to be absent.
While he has always gotten by with his talent, the reality that basketball is now a job and the pressures that come with it are staring him in the face.That, along with HE knows his stock has slipped. I don’t know how the travel, nights at the local Ritz and team buffet’s are worth coming off the bench to score 4 points and get 2 rebounds in 6 minutes.
I hope I am dead wrong. Just calling it like a I see it.
Grim Reaper
February 26th, 2011
8:46 am
JaxDawg05 said:
“This just in, Gator fans that comment under a UGA blog are weak.”
No, what’s weak is “your team”, in hoops AND football! The football team EXPECTED to win in the 70’s/early 80’s under Dooley, because like everyone else in the SEC upper echelon which UF was NOT a part of, they knew how to get away with CHEATING, UF didn’t know how, hence they got caught under Cheating Charly Pell who learned from the master, Bear Bryant, see also: Jackie Sherril, Gene Stallings, Danny Ford, former students of the Master. Now that all the teams have been on a level field since 1990, when Spurrier took over at UF, it has been SUPERIOR coaching and keeping the best in home talent at home as well as recuiting nationally. UF expects to win, even in a down year with a lame duk coach, a QB that looked like a deer looking into headlights and a back FG kicker who made despite the antics of the opposing DC who signalled the choke sign. Problem was, his own team got the signal, the Gators just took the EXPECTED W home, like the other 17 of previos 20. Thing is, UGA is a combined 5 wins and 32 losses in hoops/football against the Gators, now that is what I would call weaker than WEAK! How’s that for a “comment”?…
Grim Reaper
February 26th, 2011
8:57 am
First and foremost, Grim Reaper would like to apologize for previous and future grammatical errors, spelling etc, now on to…
Wiil Dawg said:
“Florida fans you just hired a chump coach and you will get yours very soon. Now go cry that Timmy and Urban are spooning in Denver! GATA!!!”
No, we beat you with a lame duck coach, a worse QB, and a backup FG kicker. Now we’re going to beat you with one of your own, Will Muschamp!
How hard is that going to hurt to see one of your own squeeze every bit of red and black blood out of you, now that he’s had his transfusion or orange and blue! Just when Gators thought it couldn’t get any better, UGA keeps giving! Sold your souls down a dirt road at 2AM in Wrightsville, Ga. sooo longgggggggg ago now, get one of these so called reporters at the AJC to tell you the truth, they know, Hafner and Cavan w=atched from the rented house who came and went to visit Hushel….
Wallis the dog
February 26th, 2011
10:34 am
Where exactly would you put the Dixie Redcoats, Bill? The current location is probably the best compromise.
By the way, “Play Dixie, Fire Dancz!”
UGADawg83
February 26th, 2011
10:35 am
Dang Bill-its only two years into the Fox tenure and with what he inherited he is doing an excellent job. Your negativity does no service to the cause. As far as raising Florida ticket prices why do you care? You “Mr Superfan” never go to away games you just report what Gary Danielson says on television. AJC-please get us another representative to write the “Fan Blog.”
BuckhedBill
February 26th, 2011
11:14 am
Hey Vance Duuley—you sorry yellow jacket, get off this blog now!
corkylovesbeer
February 26th, 2011
11:17 am
1.Faith
2. Family
3. GA Football
winning cures all!!!
AltamahaDawg
February 26th, 2011
4:22 pm
Matt, I think the point that you are missing is that they are not “punishing” the student that don’t attend. It’s not a moral issue. Going to a football game is not a societal requirement. Don’t go. That’s fine. They are simply trying to reallocate those tickets for the better use. If you aren’t going to literally half the games, why do you care anyway.
The drop in attendance is not due to policy. The problem is not that somebody can’t sell thier ticket. (isnt there a prodedure to turn them back in?). The problem is that the person who bought the ticket doesn’t use the ticket. Clearly. Has more to do with getting your sorry butt out of bed. You know, minimal effort to support your team. Doesn’t matter if its paper or electronic. If you go, you go.
Plus this isn’t simply an issue of how to get the maximum students into the stadium, even if it takes a street solution. It’s about an organized method to distributing tickets. Clearly there is a lot that goes into that from security to fairness to economics.
It’s a limited resource and OBVIOUSLY the students did not take very good care of it last year.