How will you feel if we regress again?

Not to be an alarmist but we've declined each of the past 2 seasons to varying degrees.

-Granted, after 2022 there was only one direction you can go from there. But it was more than JUST wins and losses. I mean just looking at the black and white on paper we went 12-0 and were a hair away from another SEC title (and likely natty), but instead had a consolation prize of winning a major bowl game by 60. Hey that's incredible. But for those of us that watched every snap of every game it didn't always "FEEL" quite so incredible.

Up 17-0 at HT on UT-Martin. Losing 14-3 at HT against SC, up by 3 entering the 4th. Tied with AU at half, after 3, and with a few minutes to go in the game. Tied with mizzou at half and up by 3 with 10 minutes left. Required an INT by a DL to begin to put it away. Beat tech by 1 possession after giving them the ball back with a few minutes left.

That team started very slow then hit their stride later on in the year, but it was still much different going from '21/'22 when we pummeled jsut about everyone and knew we wre guarnateed to win once we got a 10 point lead . Still though, from 22 to 23 we expected a dropoff anyway and the overall results were still solid.

-Now we go from 23 to 24. First 2 games we kick arse and are riding high before things change.
We're losing by 3 to UK both at HT and entering the 4th. We keep a 1 point lead from 8 minutes through the end. Look like a JV team against alabama before just pretending we're playing a video game and abandon all logic and somehow get bakc in it, then lose anyway. Upu by 10 on a bad MSU team entering the 4th and it stayed there. Play the absolute game of the year in Texas and knock off the #1 team. Down by 7 at half against a lousy UF. Needed their QB to get hurt, their long snapper to frick up, and an interception by a middle linebacker to end up winning. Played truly one of the worst games I have ever seen by a UGA football team in oxford. Back on track with a couple solid wins including tennessee. Look like we forgot how to play defense against tech and go to 8 OTs wiht those losers. Again, somehow...the defesne went beastmode and beat texas a second time. We then get a team that we should be much, much better than with a month to prepare with stockton and we looked like we didn't even belong on the same field with them.


Now we can point to a hundred different reasons for WHY all of the above happened. Pretty much everythign written above is objective fact with a couple opinions thrown in, so there's not really much to debate there. My question is....is it going to bother anyone if we again trend downward for the 3rd year in a row? And the excuses can and will be numerous...breaking in a new QB, transfers at WR that don't knwo the playbook, poor OL recruiting and coaching, too many personnel losses on D, tough schedule, etc. etc. Not saying any of those things wouldn' have merit either. I am just saying thoguth that it would be a bit worrisome for me if we again appear worse than the year before for a 3rd time in a row. I trust kirby fully and completely but if we falter again youd' have to think that we'd need to make some internal changes in some form or another.