UGA

If Georgia beats Georgia Tech, no sure thing, the Dawgs will finish the regular season 10-2, a pretty impressive season for any NCAA team. Yet even with a win over Tech, most UGA fans will be disappointed.
A season that began with a No. 1 ranking could have and should have been better. Right?
Maybe not.
Florida is better team. The game in Jacksonville probably would have been closer if Georgia hadn't lost its best offensive and defensive linemen before the season got rolling, but even if Sturdivant and Owens had been there it's hard to see them making that much difference.
The Alabama game is a different matter, but the fact is Georgia came out so ill-prepared to play that they could have had a few veteran NFLers in the lineup and they still would have lost.
This isn't a Bash Mark Richt column, but the Georgia coach deserves to be scrutinized closely after this season, particularly if the Tech game and/or the bowl game end disastrously. Why Richt?
The fact is this Georgia team never developed the way it reasonably should have. Barring the win at LSU, where Georgia needed every one of its 52 points to nail it down, what Georgia performances made this team look like a top national contender?
Last week's painful tooth pull against Auburn? The nail-biters with Vandy and Kentucky? The Tennessee "classic?"
None of 'em.
Georgia was overrated when the season started. The O-line was too raw and never recovered from the loss of Sturdivant. That made things a lot tougher for Moreno and Stafford, Georgia two most gifted players. Both had good seasons, but neither had a year approaching the pre-season hype.
Defensively, the loss of Owens weakened the middle. But when was the last time a Georgia team could muster NO pass rush with its defensive ends? After 11 games coordinator Willie Martinez is still trying to figure out how to get consistent pressure on the QB.
Linebacker Rennie Curran has been outstanding and the secondary has played fairly well. But overall the defense has been too soft against good (and some not-so-good) teams.
As is the norm in college football Martinez and O-coordiantor Mike Bobo will catch most of the fan abuse. But both work for Richt and he is responsible for their performance, as well as the team's. Most disturbingly, and clearly Richt must answer for this, is Georgia's continuing identity as the dumbest, sloppiest team in the SEC.
Has any team in the country committed more asinine penalties than the Dawgs? Time and time again Georgia killed its own offensive momentum or through gas on a defensive fire by commiting stupid penalties. And I'm not talking the occasional late hit or holding. I mean those brain-jarringly stupid personal fouls and offsides and illegal procedures.
Throw in the abundance of dropped passes and you have to wonder if anyone on the team understands the concept of concentration, much less execution.
Richt mumbles his weekly apologies on the matter and vows to get to the bottom of it. But there is nothing new about this problem and yet it persists game in and game out.
Maybe the coach needs to take a look at how other teams manage to play within the rules on a more regular basis.
I didn't expect Georgia to win the national title this year. I thought winning the SEC East would have been a heck of an accomplishment. But it would have been fun to see this team -- offense, defense and special teams -- click on all cylinders more often.
It's what the great programs around the country do regularly.
Right now, we aren't in that elite and it's not because of talent.
It's because the talent fails to play up to its ablity.
The team needs to get better but it will only if the coaching staff does its job better. Scary things is, I'm not sure they realize that.
Go dawgs.