Fix What's Broken and Not What Annoys You

There are only so many hours in a day and because of that we have the concept of Opportunity Cost. If you're not working to fix what's broken, then whatever you are doing is a distraction.

College football is pretty straight forward. Most of the time, the better team wins. Players + Coaches = Team.

There are obvious exceptions in a one game scenario where turnovers, injuries or other miscues can impact a single game. But as the time line of evaluating a single rivalry or the entire scope of all college football grows longer, the better team wins most of the time.

So why do I post this? Because I'm excited to see Georgia renew it's contract in Jacksonville. There are only two reasons to leave Jacksonville:

1. If we thought we'd make more money playing somewhere else.
2. If we thought it would help us beat the Gators.

The university makes more profit down there over a two year cycle than we would make playing a two year cycle of home and away. So it's not money.

That only question left is...would it help us win more games? Which brings us back to the original question. Why do teams typically win games. Because they have better players and coaches.

I think it was Blutarsky who pointed this out first. Since 1990:

UGA vs. UF: 3-14 on a neutral field
LSU vs. UF: 5-14 home and home
UT vs. UF: 6-14 home and home

If playing home and home is such a cure all, why haven't LSU and UT performend noticeably better?

If we were to leave Jacksonville, it would be a way of saying that the current state of affairs is not Coach Richt's responsibility. That it's not his responsibility that we don't have better players and coaches than the Gators. That somehow the physical location of the stadium is the root cause of our issues.

The absolute worst thing that could've happened to Richt yesterday would've been to move that game without fixing the real, systemic issues with losing down there. If he thinks he gets pressure from Dawg fans for losing in Jacksonville, today. That's nothing compared to what he'd hear if he lost to them in Athens or Atlanta. And we will continue to lose more than our fair share regardless of the location until we close the coaching and talent gaps.

Yesterday was a good day for our program. It was a day where excuses for failure were ignored in favor of good business sense and yes....tradition.

We can beat them down there, and return the rivalry to balance. But it'll take raising our game to Meyer's level. Not trying to rearrange the deck chairs.


PWD