Has it gotten out of hand? Expectations that is? When I talk to my fellow UGA fans these days, it's never anything about our SEC Championship last year, heck it's like that never even happened!...the best Rose Bowl victory in the history of history?..nope, it's just about how we fell short by millimeters in the NCG, or how the refs killed us, or how Nick Saban is the head of the mafia...etc. etc. (sigh)....

So honest question, has the bar been raised to high? Even my Auburn cousins don't talk about the great season they had, it's just the lamentations of getting prison raped by us in the SECCG. It's like everything, even a great win against Bama, just got flushed with that one loss.

Has it become a situation of NC or failure?
Has the SEC gotten to the point to where it's just us and the rest of the CFB world is just 'specks of dust underneath our fingernails'?

We've actually seen this a lot worse as far as UGA as a program has been....let's face it, 10 wins and a annual bullwhipping of Tech wasn't enough to save poor ol MR. Would things have been different if we were in the Big 10 or ACC? Nobody was going to be satisfied until we got some more trophies, and I don't mean a Citrus Bowl championship trophy.

Now that we have tasted success, it's only going to get worse I fear. It's not about the prestige of winning the toughest conference in the land anymore, the SEC, it's 'How do we get back to the NC and win the big one!' And as for the rest of the CFB? If you aren't at Clemson or Ohio St or USC or Miami, you don't even have a right to sit in the same room with us and talk about football!

So, is this a good thing or a bad thing? Are the days of enjoying a beatdown of Florida just something we yawn at and keep on looking ahead to the playoffs? Bama is our new nemesis to some and not because of the rivalry thing like with UF or Tech, because beating them is what stands in the way of a NC.

So, is all of this good, or bad? Is it changing CFB and what it means to us, and changing it for the good or bad? Thoughts....????

When fans/media discuss the all-time greats (e.g., Tom Brady, Michael Jordan, Michael Phelps, Nick Saban, Alabama Football) the bottomline seems to be the number of championships won and sustained success of those players, coaches, and programs.

Once fans/players/coaches/programs win a national championship, anything less seems unsatisfactory. For example, Alabama fans/players/coaches no longer are satisfied with winning an SEC Championship or making the College Football Playoffs, just winning national championships. Fwiw, Saban said victories elicit a feeling of relief rather than exultation.

Last year UGA's playoff run was magical for Dawg fans. However, the achievement bar was raised with that success. Anything less than a repeat or national championship win won't be met with universal accolades.

AFD.....so do you think that's a good thing or bad thing? I mean, I've always been the kinda fan that lived CFB 'one game at a time'. I mean, if we beat UF or Auburn, then life was good! It's like an Auburn fan told me a while back, after we stomped them one year, I said, 'The fact that yall won a NC since we have, was that any consulation after the beatdown we put on yall?' His response, 'No, not really.' So, does it cause us to no longer savor the game, so to speak, and look too much at the 'big picture'? Just throwing around some discussion about this that I had with some serious fans on the subject. It seems my crowd was a bit divided on the topic. Some felt like me, that getting to caught up in looking for the big prize (NC) diminished the joy of enjoying CFB as a whole. Would do you think?

Darindawg,

A championship or bust mentality isn't exclusive to college football. Soccer powers Brazil and Germany are bummed that they didn't win the 2018 World Cup because they've won it several times before. However, Croatia fans are ecstatic despite their team losing the World Cup final. Why? Because their country had never made it that far before and they are a relatively small country (population 4.1 million compared to 67 million in France) that beat the odds to make it that far.

When it comes to UGA Athletics, the bar (i.e., expectation management) is the program's previous success:
- GymDogs: with 10 national championships, just making the NCAA Regionals isn't considering much of an achievement and if the season ended there it would be a disappoinment
- Hoop Dawgs: with only one Final Four appearance in program history and only one NCAA tournament win since 1996, most fans would consider it a successful season if the team advanced to the Round of 32
- Football: with 2 national championships and 15 conference championships, most UGA fans consider last season a success; however, since Mark Richt was fired after winning 2 SEC Championships (lost 3 others) and 74% of his games (the 8th most of any FBS program from 2001-'15), the administration and fans demand more than runner-up status

Is it right or wrong for college football? That depends on one's perspective and temperament. If Kansas had UGA's Football success, then Jayhawks fans would be be ecstatic. However, if UGA had Kansas' Basketball success, then our Hoop Dawgs fans would be just as ecstatic.

No doubt though that the passion of southern college football fans has focused a microscope on the sport and the internet has provided a medium for fans to express themselves 24/7/365. Oftentimes the disgruntled fans chime in the loudest and longest making it seem like they're in the majority. With the $ that the sport generates and the enormous salaries of head coaches, it's high stakes and win big now, not later or else (six new SEC Head Football Coaches in 2018).

The bar has always been high in the SEC. It was high when I was in school back in the "glory days" of the early 80s, and it's not really that much different now. But wherever the bar is, it doesn't have much bearing on my view of UGA football.

My main criteria is: are we reaching our potential as a program? Are the players achieving their best? I'm not sure exactly what the scorecard for that looks like, but I know it when I see it. If we do that, then I'm happy.

The potential for our program is as high as it gets. For years I felt we fell a bit below that level, and that didn't change in Kirby's first year. But he completely changed my mind last year. Kirby is intensely improving every detail of the program and doing what he can to get our players to reach their individual potentials. He's not taking any "shortcuts".

The results of those efforts are what we saw on the field, and if we keep that up, the accolades will come. It's a process, and we have a strong foundation to build future success on. As far as I'm concerned, that's the bar and we're above that right now.

UGA RS Junior Safety J.R. Reed:

https://www.dawgnation.com/football/dawgnation/georgia-football-sec-championship-j-r-reed-kirby-smart-sec-media-days

"The SEC Championship doesn't mean anything if you don't win the national championship."

I love J.R. as a player, but he didn't grow up in SEC country. As much as I hate SOS, his number 1 goal every year was to win the SEC and he believed that if you win the SEC, the national "stuff" will take care of itself.

Darin-

I think for UGA faithful, we are seeking a national title now and nothing else will do. Why, because so many in our fanbase have never experienced it-I was 11 when it happened in 1980 and I still remember how excited I was-and I really didn't know any better since I was so young. With all our rivals having won a title since we last won one for the most part-Tenn, AU, Bama, LSU, UF, FSU, Clem, and even GT won a title (albeit tainted) since we have won a title, it makes all of us starve for one. To come SOOO close last year makes it even worse. But for those of alive back in the 80's, we lost two tight games the year after our title, one to Penn State was for a national title. I remember how hard that was, it was a tight game with a long pass in the 4th to beat us. It sucked but we had just won a title two years before, so it stung less than last year.

I guess what I am trying to say is this, IF/WHEN we win another title, we will all want another but if we fall short, it will not hurt like last year hurt. The Braves lost the World Series to the Twins, lost to the Blue Jays, but finally got the title in 1995 over the Indians and while the series loss to the Yankees the next year or was it two years, stung, at least we had finally won our title. Falcon fans, such as myself, feel the same way after the horrible Super Bowl loss two years ago. I am not saying winning one cures this mentality, I guess I am just saying it makes it hurt a lot worse. When you have gone as long as we have since winning a title, you are starved-if you get that next title you are no longer starved, you are full or satisfied as a fan. It takes a drought to build up the starvation again.

This does not apply to all teams in all sports. As a huge UGA hoops fan, I would LOVE to see us win a national title in hoops but my expectations are not there for it. UGA football has the expectations and with those expectations come more hunger, more disappointment and also passion. Not every school has the ability to win a national title in college football-we are one and have not done it in a LONG time while watching our rivals do it. We came so close last year, and now we want to finish it. But, if we are being honest, we have to wonder, did we blow our best shot?? I don't think so but no doubt you do sometimes have lingering doubt in your mind.