re: This will be year 2 of Phase 3 of Mark Richt's tenure

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I expect very big things this year. Looking at Richt's head coaching career, you can split it up into nice and easy 5 year blocks.
Phase 1 was 2001-2005. 2001 was his first year ever as a head coach and had some expected ups and downs. New coordinators, new system, new players, etc. Year 2 of this phase produced Richt's greatest team to date. We finished 13-1, SEC and Sugar Bowl champs, and #3 in the country. By far Richt's best phase.
Phase 2, 2006-2010. Pretty bad phase. 2006 saw the beginning of a new OC, a freshman QB, year 2 of an incompetent DC and a sorry LB coach, and the start of a complete erosion of discipline and fundamentals. However, in year 2 of this phase we had arguably Richt's 2nd best team to date. 11-2, Sugar Bowl champs, and finished #2 in the country.
Phase 3, 2011-current. This phase is much more reminiscent of phase 1 than 2. The discipline, toughness, and fundamentals that were highlighted phase 1 that were sorely lacking in phase 2 look to have returned. Our staff is light years better than phase 2. Our DC is cut from the same cloth as our first one was. We have a very good QB and a great defense. Taking all of that combined with our favorable schedule, I think that the 3rd "year 2" of Richt's tenure could be the best yet.
Every coach's career has ups and downs, that's just the way it goes. Richt started trending up early, then trended down pretty steadily, and now looks to be heading back up again. Do yall think this period from 2011-2015 will more closely resemble his first or second phase?

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1 win away from playing in MNC in our 2002 SEC champ. year against Florida. One catch by Terrence Edwards and we were undefeated. You could have made the case for us being in the MNC in 2007 as well, as we were the highest ranked team when Pitt beat (I believe WVU?), but Kirk Herbstreit's opinion matters in the media, like it or not. And I like how he conveniently changed his way of thinking for Bama to get in this year (although I also thought Bama should have been in it, like I think UGA should have played for it in 2007). Football is a game of inches. We have 2 SEC championships and 4 appearences under Richt. That is not mediocre, imo. Florida got in the MNC game with what 3 losses, LSU got in with 1 and 2 respectively? It all depends on how other teams shake out, and in our case it didn't fall our way in 2002, or 2002. Like I said...game of inches.

ETA: My memory is shot

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RollTide1987

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yea, our win vs clemson in 80 and their win in 81 determined national champions. idk what you are bitching about, ask any competent Georgia fan and they'd tell you clemson is our rival. it's not like we don't like alabama, sure, you guys annoy the shite out of us, but you are not anything more than an SEC rival which technically even Vandy is that

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Don Raper

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That's one thing I'll give our fanbase, we dont put up with that shite for 5 seasons.

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Between 2003 and 2006, Mike Shula was the head coach of the Alabama Crimson Tide football program.

You need at least a Excel presentation. I would prefer to see a PowerPoint one myself. You are welcome to use this artwork as a background:

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A few of those games had SEC implications

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Our games with Clemson had national implications. In 1980 we won a close one in route to a national title. In 1981 clemson returned the favor (on the way to a national title) giving us our only regular season loss with Herschel. 1982 opened with the last 2 national champions squaring off, in a game so big that ABC helped pay for our lights so they could televise the game at night. In 1984 Clemson was ranked in the top 3 and we beat them with a FG as time expired. Those 80s UGA/CU games were flat out nasty, and were far more important than any of the 80s/90s UGA/bama games.

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And yet you still regard Clemson as a rival, even though you now only play them once a decade?

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I would put them no higher than 6th.

Yeah...I was kind of flip flopping those, and I guess the only other reason I put UT ahead, is because they've caused us so much more pain. Think Hobnail boot game and how awesome it was to beat them at their house like that.

Also, 4 appearances in the SEC Champ. 2 of which we won, 1 of those years we had a legitimate shot at playing for a MNC if things had gone our way. Another year in 2008 we also had a legitimate argument at playing for the MNC. It's not Upper elite until we win a MNC, but it's nothing to shake a stick at and say UGA will always be mediocre when clearly that is not the case over the past 11 years. The ball rolls our way once or twice, or doesn't roll the way for another team, we could be looking at at least playing in 1 or 2 MNC games.

ETA: We are coming off an SEC champ game appearance in which our D played lights out, right up until the wheels fell off on special teams (like I could've predicted they would). We fix ST's we will be a force to be reckoned with this year. We have to get by Mizzou without some key components, but I think if that happens, this season could be very special. And I'm no Disney Dawg. Not one who thinks we're going to have a MNC appearance every year only to be let down year after year. The components aare in place. We have to at least get back to the SECCG.

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and when we play clemson in 2013 and 2014

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there are talks to shelve this series btw. May just be scuttlebutt but there are some talks to cancel it.

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we didn't even play a QB, no RBs and no WRs.

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Brantley started no? You had Demps and Rainey play right, or at least 1 of them? And whose fault is it yall haven't recruited any WRs?

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We were only 4 points worse than them

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Well we were only 1 score worse than you in a year you won the national championship and we had a true freshman QB, average WRs, no defense, and Martinez and Jancek on the sideline. What do I win?

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Between 2003 and 2006, Mike Shula was the head coach of the Alabama Crimson Tide football program.

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And most people in the sports world thought us insane to fire him just one year removed from a 10-win season and a contract extension.