re: I don’t feel good about the Bama game

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We'll need pics for verification purposes

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Didn't this one turn out to be a guy?

The internet, like every other form of mass communication, is excessively used as a propaganda tool. If there's money or power at stake, paid propaganda is being used to shape opinion. That includes message boards, youtube, twitter, facebook, instagram, television, radio, etc. The techniques of the propagandists are always similar; "I'm an objective observer, one of the good guys, and I see problems with what [name here] is doing or saying." Repeat ad infinitum and eventually rational people will begin to believe it. This kind of propaganda has been used with great success over centuries.

So here's my theory on criticism of the head coach. If you like your coach, take the bad with the good and avoid joining the ever-present chorus of negative propaganda from people who want your team to fail. If you want him to lose the confidence of recruits, or be fired, or to just get tired of it and walk away, join in the fray of constant criticism, lots of it coming from people who are not Georgia fans. You'll have plenty of company finding fault with every conceivable move he makes. If we lose two games in 3 seasons, that must mean the coach screwed up badly, because if he hadn't we would never lose a game. If our players get too many reckless driving citations, he's not a disciplinarian and the culture is bad. Etc.

Same for players. If you want to discourage the quarterback, for example, call them out for every perceived misstep, repeatedly until they feel completely unwanted. Ask Stetson Bennett how that felt, as he worked his way through two championship seasons. He showed his regard for our fan base in the championship parade. Can't say I blame him, but I don't think the non-stop criticism he read on the internet represented the opinion of rank and file UGA fans.

I see this starting to play out again, three weeks into the season the boo birds are circling. Carson's a game manager, Bobo sucks, Searles sucks, we're gonna lose more games because Kirby's game plan sucks. This message board is the least of it, the message is on every UGA forum and it's being amplified by rival teams and their media.

Sorry, my message wasn't about your criticism in particular, just the general nature of how this works now. I agree that second guessing the coach has always happened, but the anonymity of the internet allows propaganda to augment and encourage that criticism. With the aid of that propaganda, criticism on the internet becomes much more guided and deleterious than face to face conversations between fans.

I do have an opinion about the value of third party assessments of any complex undertaking, including fans critiquing the coaching of a football game. The vast majority of those opinions are only correct when by accident. That's because I think it's nearly impossible for even well informed fans to accurately assess the decisions of a coach. They don't have an equal understanding of the game of football, the team's abilities/health/preparation, or the opponent. Sure they can see when the team loses, but that doesn't mean they understand the initial gameplan or why it failed. They can recognize a bad coach, but only because the opposing coaches are frequently better at their job, not because the fans are better.

What fan critics are doing is the equivalent of having a beer on Saturday afternoons while watching rocket launches, and then telling the rocket scientists where they went wrong when one crashes. Or watching brain surgery as a hobby, and then critiquing the neurosurgeon when the surgery has a bad outcome. The observers have a very superficial understanding of the problem at hand, very little information about the specific gameplan, or how each individual part performed its designed function, or what adverse conditions may have contributed to the failure. I agree, we all do it from time to time, and it's generally self-delusion because we don't know what we don't know.

Idk if it’s the Monday beers or what but I just started feelin really good about this one.

Kirby has some built up anger to unleash on Bama. It all makes sense the conservative nature in which we’ve played the 1st 3 games. Bama may be fricked and we don’t know it yet.

I gotta tell you, I'm not the least bit worried.

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Hell… you’re numb to it by now. Hope all is well

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Lol, all is going really well. I do miss my conversations with your old man.

Welp, might as well not play on Saturday.

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predict another 20-17 type loss this Saturday.

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I do miss my conversations with your old man.

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Ditto with Peyton from Get the Picture. I found myself really missing the Senator's commentary after each week's games. I loved his Observations from the Armchair recaps, & the S&P+ analysis each week.