Latest / Talking Dawgs / OH NO: Georgia Football fans IRRATIONAL FEARS heading into 2026...
Transcript
- Daniel: right, Glenn, let's jump in. ⁓ we're talking college football, Georgia football. We're talking irrational fears today. Now, let's set the stage. Let's lay the groundwork. First of all, ⁓ so glad that you're here. If you're new to the channel, you're new to the show, ⁓ Clint: Yes. Daniel: Clint and I love talking about Georgia Bulldogs. We have a podcast where we do that every day over at Locked On Bulldogs. ⁓ we started this just to Clint: We do. Daniel: To kinda let it out. To kinda let loose all of the the random thoughts and the random takes and all the things. So there's a newsletter. If you're new to the channel, ⁓ there's a link in the description. You can sign up for a free newsletter from us each and every day. We'd love it if you just subscribe to this channel, ⁓ wherever you're watching this, listen to this. ⁓ that would help us out a tremendous amount. Thanks so much for being here. Clint, when we say irrational fears, we mean things that keep us up at night. Clint: Mm-hmm. Daniel: Whether they have any merit or basis in reality or not. We try to deal objectively in reality. We try. Clint: And and then what happens? The Daniel: But we are football fans, Glenn. We are fans of football. And I think you know, football fans are not exactly the most grounded in reality people that you're ever likely to meet. Clint: Not describe us. Daniel: They fundamentally believe the best and the worst simultaneously. I could Clint: It's it's why we are fo it's why football it's look, you I think everybody can enjoy football. I think everybody can be a college football fan. I don't think it takes one particular type. However, there are some of us who have found our way here because it feels so natural to our depraved indifference to life and everything about it. ⁓ we can have jubilation, we can have joy, and we can have utter heartache all within a five minute quarter. Daniel: Sure. Especially gifted. Yeah. Clint: It's wild. It's wild. ⁓ keeping us up at night. Daniel: It's crazy. It's crazy. So irrational fears. Irrational fears, things that keep us up at night. Do you want to start? Do you want me to start? Okay. I'm afraid it's not gonna be a good this is not this is not gonna be a just when I say it's not gonna be a good episode, I think people understand Clint: I want you to start. People know. Daniel: There are pe this if you're a certain type of person, this is what you want. But then there are some people that are gonna hate this. They're gonna hate this. Clint: You need to walk in. It's look, when you, if I'm gonna go on a hike with you, okay, you need to tell me where I might die and might not come back down the mountain, okay? And then I have set myself up so that when I hit that mark, guess what happens from there on after? We fine. We're fine. That's what we're doing right now too. Daniel: There you go. Yeah. We're fine. We're fine. So if you disagree with these fears, please, as a friend, leave us a comment. Try to talk us off the ledge. We don't even necessarily believe these things. Again, the tail the title of the episode is Irrational Fears. ⁓ Clint, I'm afraid Gunnar Stockton is average. The thing is, there's a lot of people telling me Gunnar Stockton's average. Clint: Y Daniel: And they've been doing it for a long time. And Gunnar Stockton has done some notably unaveraged things in his Georgia career. Like, he ran Carson Beck clean out of town. He came in and he won the SEC Championship game single-handedly. We were down at halftime. And he brought us back and won the game. Literally on his concussed head. Clint: He has. He did. He did. Yeah. Daniel: He started as a full-time starter last year, won the SEC in his first year starting, took us to the college football playoff, and still anonymous defensive coordinators, when being asked a question by reporters, say things like, Yeah, Gunnar Stockton, he's a tough kid. ⁓ he's not an NFL player. There's nothing special about him. There's nothing special about Gunnar Stockton. I'm just Clint: Yep. Yep. Yep. Daniel: We have a saying, Clint, that we we try to build our life on. Okay? And it's when someone tells you who they are, you should believe them. Okay. There are a lot of people now I know that's not Gunnar Stockton telling us who he is. I get that. But there are a lot of people who've been trying to tell us that Gunnar Stockton is average for a long time. Even in the face of evidence to the contrary. I'm afraid Gunnar Stockton and and Clint: Uh-huh. Daniel: I don't have to tell you, Clint, with no Zachariah Branch, who was a security blanket that Linus would have been proud of last year. With no Zachariah Branch, there is a chance this off like the box could get stacked against this Georgia team. I don't care how good the offensive line is, I it's not it's not great. Clint: Mm-hmm. Mm. Daniel: It's not a great feeling. It's not a great situation. Am I crazy? Can you talk me off the ledge? Clint: ⁓ Daniel, you I have many irrational fears that keep me up at night. You've stolen one of them that cycles through my head. And so I wish I could talk you off the ledge. But instead, I am asking you how you like the view that both of us are looking at. Look, here's the reality. Gunnar Stockton, we've we've seen him be great. We've seen him be good. We've seen him be pedestrian. And that's being as generous as I can with him because he's starting quarterback at UG. Daniel: ⁓ dear. Clint: I've seen him get baited into interceptions. I've seen him just nosedive a football. I've seen him overshoot receivers by 10 yards over their head. That would have been clear touchdowns. When we talk about he's gonna be average, it's not. It's It's it's the Auburn quarterback issue. It's the Florida, it's the DJ Lagway. I'm not putting DJ Lagway on Gunnar Stockton. They are not the same, but I'm trying to. He's a clown and he is talentless. Okay. But it's the same, it's the same hemisphere of types of mistakes that are made. It's the I see Lawson Luckin' Lucky streaking for a touchdown. If I put it on him, we're gone. Daniel: No, DJ Lackway's a clown. Yeah. Yeah. Clint: And instead it's him missing the mark. He but here's another way of saying this irrational fear. Gunnar Stockton has to make a market improvement from last year to this year. We believe he has the ability, the brain, the tenacity, the hard work, and the physical talents to do that. And yet, he still has to go do it. Period. So ⁓ no, I I have a fear because Daniel: Gotta do it. We gotta see it. Clint: Because it's not there yet. It's like everybody. if I use DJ Lagway and you guys are hating me, let me use Arch Manning. Arch Manning I'm told Arch Manning, you ca I've heard one moron of a of a alumnus from Texas tell me, Well, it's a Manning, I wouldn't bet against him. Well, he sucked and he didn't progress and he didn't get better. There was a couple games at the end of the year he did. Yes, that is true. Daniel: Gosh. Okay. Okay. Clint: And and it was, it was markedly improved. It it's a manning. I wouldn't bet against a manning. Daniel: But his last name? That's what we're going off of? ⁓ Okay. That's about as oldness of a take as I've ever heard in my entire life. Offense intended. Clint: Okay. Offense very much intended, old Miss Fan. You're the worst. You're the second worst, as a matter of fact. ⁓ We did. We did. Daniel: Yep, we covered that already on previous episode. Go back and listen. ⁓ all right, Clint. What's where we where are you go where you want to go next? Your first year rational fear for the twenty twenty six college football season? Clint: ⁓ my my rational fear is You there are certain things that your heart wants in life. Daniel: Sure, sure. I'm drinking one right now. Mm-hmm. Clint: Okay. It's we set ourselves it's the hope that'll kill you. Yeah you are. It's the hope that'll kill you, people. I know that you hope for Ronald Acuna to make it an entire year without bursting some tendon or ligament or muscle somewhere. I n that's what I want too. And if it happened, ⁓ it'd be so glorious. Well I Daniel: Why would you do this? Why would you do this? sounded like a fun episode when we were talking about it, like beforehand. It's I don't know how even, now that I think about it, how did we think this was gonna be fun? Clint: The pre produce Because you you and I translate the same stupidity in our head. Daniel: Six sadistic little morons. Who we are. Just trying to build a community of six sadistic little morons over at talking dogs. If Clint: Yes. Your heart wants what it wants. That's you know what? That's our new our new tagline is sheep hurting the six sadistic little idiots, morons. Daniel: But Yeah, if you're Listen, if you're as dumb as us, we we apologize to no one. We're this is who we are. Yeah. Come on over. Yeah. Clint: No one. This is we've we've out in front of everybody. Okay. ⁓ my heart, here's what I want every single year at Georgia. And I'm a spoiled brat. Let me tell I am a spoiled little brat with this hope that I have. My hope is that the inside linebacker in at Georgia is always, always year in and year out producing first round talent into the league. Turns out, I'm spoiled because I have that. Daniel: What do you want? What do you want? Yeah, you are. Yeah. Yeah. Clint: Everywhere. Channing Tyndall, Nicobe Dean, Roquan Smith. I year after year after year. CJ Allen. Boom. Here's my fear. My fear that is that. Rayland Wilson needs to become CJ Allen. And and he's not up to the task of doing so, Daniel, because he's not tough enough. He's not ready to lean in that leadership role. He would we would would have already seen it by now. He would have already shown the glimpses. He wouldn't have been overshadowed by others. We wouldn't need to see Justin Williams and Zayden Walker in the game getting reps. We wouldn't need Chris Cole to go ahead and step up like we're anticipating him doing. Raylan Wilson can't be CJ Allen, can't be N'Kobe Team. Can't be Roquan Smith, can't be in that mold, because if he was, he would have done so already. And we're banking on him a lot. And then Georgia doesn't have one alpha. We have four pretty dang good guys, but not one space eating monster. And that's my fear. Daniel: Yeah. I that's that is absolutely valid, Clint. I think my f I think I have a fear that's in that's adjacent to that and that it is Chris Cole and Justin Williams have already told us who they are. Why are we asking them to get in a phone booth and transform all of a sudden? They already told us who they are. Chris Cole Clint: All out. They did. Chris Cole has. Many times over. Daniel: Pretty good. Justin Williams, not really a factor. That's what that's objectively what we've seen so far from them. Chris Cole, pretty good. Justin Williams, not really a factor. They already told us who they are. I I think we pencil in this linebacker room year after year. And I I I don't disagree with you. There's some danger in that. Clint: He's a lot of danger. Daniel: There's some danger in that. Clint: can't can't get become complacent on things. And that's my that's my point is that we just always say Kirby Smart always produces an inside linebacker that's gonna take off and get drafted and be be the hell storm that he is in this SEC. Okay. I and I've again I've believed it. I've seen it. He's done so. My fear is that this year is a is a leap year. Daniel: Yeah. Yeah. I'm gonna I'm gonna give the offensive version of that. But I'm gonna but I'm gonna frame it a a little bit differently. Because we've seen this movie before, Clinton. Stop me when I get to the part that makes you barf. Georgia might not have a big alpha receiver, but the depth at wide receiver, Clint. Hoo wee. The depth. This Georgia team's got so much depth at wide receiver. They're probably ten, twelve, fifteen guys who might be fine at wide receiver. My fear is, Clinton. Fine wide receivers stay fine wide receivers period. I'm just now to be fair I have not I have not gone back year by year and historically looked at every good wide receiver in the history of college football. So please prove me wrong in the comments. Please, I'm literally begging you. Clint: Period. Daniel: But I just go down the memory banks and I think about the great wide receivers. Okay? They're great wide receivers. That's who they are. Now they might not have the same production their freshman year as they do every other year. But they're there. They still show it. They still look great. Let's just talk about Georgia. I know Zachariah Branch was not here his freshman year. Clint: Mm-hmm. Daniel: This is a five star kid coming out of high school. He goes to USC. He's good at USC. He comes to Georgia. He's absolutely elite at Georgia. He's great. I George Pickens steps onto campus. Who is he? He's great. Now, he's not the best wide receiver necessarily. You know, his first game of his freshman year. But you can see the greatness right there. Like, Devontae Smith. The best wide receiver to play in college football in the last ten years, probably. Won the Heisman Trophy. His true freshman year I don't I probably don't have to remind you, Georgia fans. He caught the game winning pass in the twenty seventeen national championship game. Clint: Yep. Daniel: Great ones are great. Period. Who did we see last year, Clint? That looked great. At what point of looking at Isaiah Canyon's tape did you say I think he's elite? Clint: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Daniel: Okay, wide receivers stay okay wide receivers. George's got a bunch of okay wide receivers. If you are holding your breath, waiting for them to transform into something that they are not. I we do this every year. You're the same guy that talked yourself into like the straight line sprint speed. Clint: Every year. Daniel: in twenty twenty four of a wide receiver who had cinder blocks for hands could not catch anything, but you talked yourself in into him, Aaron Smith being elite for Georgia. Clint: I Daniel. See, and this is, I'm glad you brought up 2024. That's where I went to immediately. Of all the games Georgia played in 2024, do you know how many games Arian Smith led this team in receiving yards, Daniel? There were seven games. There are three names. Okay? Three. That Daniel: More than more than some. Yeah. It's the worst position group Georgia's ever had at any position ever. The twenty twenty four wide receivers. Clint: Ever. There are three three names that have multiple games in which they had led the team in receiving. Okay. So three names. Arian Smith is one. Number two, Oscar Delp. Daniel: Yeah. Uh-huh. Yep, okay. Yep. Clint: And and I'm being generous with that one because of how I'm doing some stats. So I basically d Dom Lovett is tied with that. Okay. And number three is the aforementioned London Humphreys. Okay. London Humphreys could have taken over that season. He was leading receiver on a couple of games, could have taken over. ⁓ and ⁓ by the way, another leading receiver in a game during that season was Cass Jones. Daniel: Yeah. Yep. Clint: Cass Jones led the team, four receptions, 53 yards, and a touchdown against Georgia Tech. Daniel: Fifty three yards led the team in receiving against Georgia Tech. I can't even Clint: ⁓ d do you remember how many overtimes did we go to in that game? Daniel: ⁓ ten million. Ten million overtimes. Clint: We to we had to get twenty one points in the fourth quarter of that Georgia Tech game because London Humphreys couldn't seize the opportunity away from Arian Smith, who led the college football in drops. Daniel: I mean n w not not trying to just absolutely bag on the kid, even though we're absolutely bagging on the kid. He was objectively horrendous. Period. Average wide receivers are average. Georgia fans are notorious for trying to talk themselves into them being better than average. Look at the co look at the group we had on last year's team. There were two wide receivers worth a darn on that team. And Colby Young was hurt for a lot of the season. So there was one. Because everyone else was average. If you're holding your breath, Georgia fans, prove me wrong. Find me a wide receiver that was average for three years, two years. I mean just dead average. And then it became elite, a game-breaking wide receiver. You're not gonna find it. You'll find it at other positions. You'll find it at defensive line, you'll find it at offensive line, you'll find it at linebacker, you'll find it at safety, you'll find it at running back, you'll find it at quarterback, you'll find it at a lot of other positions. Clint: Ain't gonna find it. You will. Daniel: You will not find it at wide receiver. That's tough. Yeah. Clint: No. It's a tough scene. Daniel, I'm gonna hit you with another irrational fear. And Daniel: Please, please. Clint: The irrational fear is that KJ Bolden is the only safety worth mentioning on this team. Daniel: So y your rational fear is that it's a twenty twenty five repeat? Clint: Peep. Yep. Daniel: We're running back last year. Clint: Let's run it on back. My irrational fear is that Jamari Riddle, Khalil Barnes. Gentry, you whatever transfer and whatever Rashawn Dinkins magic that was there, all that is useless because we have more. He might be good this year, but last year branch at safety was not good. Maddox was not good. My rational fear is that KJ Bolton's gonna be holding up the whole damn thing on the back end all by himself, and we have more space to cover than 15 yards down the middle of the freaking hash. We need somebody coming up and run support. We need people who are going to play on the edge. We need people who are going to be covering tight ends. policy. Daniel: It's it's funny 'cause it's real. It Georgia has missed in the transfer portal on safeties recently. And we thought we had good ones. What if I told you Georgia signed a safety from a mid-major program and a safety from a high major college football pretty dang good program and neither of them hit. What if I told you that one of those safeties names was Zion Branch from USC and the other was ⁓ Adrian Maddox from UAB? Georgia repeats the exact same formula this year, going Jamari Riddle from ECU and Khalil Barnes from Clemson. They have gone over to before. They might go over to again. All right, Clinton, I got one more. I got one more irrational fear. And I'm gonna try to take us in a different ⁓ a little bit of a different direction here. Because it's actually it's the best case scenario and it's the worst case scenario. It's actually the scenario that is so good that it's so bad. My irrational fear is that this Georgia team is better than you think it is. My irrational fear is that this Georgia team is the team that Kirby Smart's been waiting on. He's got the veteran quarterback. He's got the physicality. He's got the the talent sprinkled throughout the roster that he needs. My irrational fear is that this Georgia team goes 12-0, 13-0. Clint: See where it's going here. Daniel: Sixteen and wins the national championship and Kirby Smart retires. Clint: ⁓ yep. Daniel: Because it's gonna happen sometime. And you tell me, is Kirby Smart more likely to retire after winning the national championship or after going eight and four? Clint: Can we Kirby Smart will not, will not go out on a year that he loses to Florida, has a tough time against Brent Key, gets misses out on the SEC championship, is left on the outside looking in, and says, you know, it's time, it's time to hang him out. No, no, no. Ladies and gentlemen, that's not how Kirby Smart goes. If that were to happen this year, he's coming back next year. If it's. If you want Kirby Smart to coach your team for the next ten years, you hope for eight and four for nine years. That's how you can guarantee Kirby Smart coming back for that tenth year. Daniel: You hope that you'll stop wanting him to coach your team. That's basically what Clint's s telling you. Clint: Yes. Yes. That's what I'm saying. He is gonna go out riding high, hoisting a national championship trophy, and then can I can I can I give you another something that's happening as well? Daniel: telling you. The competitive spirit won't let it happen any other way. Sure. Why not? It's a safe place. Clint: Does does is Kirby Smart a loyal guy to his coaches? Does he set them up for success on their next job very well? Daniel: Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, ⁓ boy, here we go. Here we go. Clint: Has Glenn Schumann been given opportunities to coach other places? Daniel: Yep. And if Georgia goes sixteen and ⁓ wins the national championship, you think Glenn Schumann's gonna have his pick of the litter? He's gonna be the prettiest girl at the ball. Clint: Our defense doesn't allow people to score more than twelve points per game. We win the national championship undefeated. Glenn Schumann is the pick of the litter, whatever team he wants. Daniel: Yeah. A Georgia fans worst case scenario is Georgia wins the national championship. Kirby Smart retires. Glenn Schumann goes to coach Tennessee, who fires Josh Hipel. Clint: Because you do not take over Kirby Smart after sixteen and no winning the national championship. Daniel: And Georgia promotes Mike Bobo from within to be the head coach. That's a Georgia fans absolute worst case scenario. Clint: The the arches would be put on chains and ripped out from their foundation by every truck in Georgia. Sparks flying everywhere. Daniel: Yeah. Yeah. Dragged down Broad Street in front of God and everybody. listen, talk us off the ledge, friends. Get in the comments, let us know, let us know what you think. Make sure you subscribe to the newsletter if you're not already. Make sure you're subscribed here. Clint: What what just th three years over under three years, Kirby Smart. Daniel: I think it's over. I think you've put these fears in my head about Kirby Smart retiring. Genuinely, I think he's catching a second wind. I think he kinda likes it. I think he's figuring it out. I think this NIL thing is a puzzle. I think he thinks he's winning. By the way, he is winning. And I f I think he likes winning. I think we're I think we're safely ⁓ over Clint: He is on three, don't know. Daniel: I do not think there's a player on this Georgia roster that will be coached at Georgia by anyone other than Kirby Smart. I think we're safely at five years right now. Safely. Clint: Huh. Daniel: But I you know me, I'm just a cockeyed optimist, Clinton. Just s sunshine and rainbows all the time. That's how I roll. Clint: Yeah. Daniel, I'm so glad we're here between the banter if I could be totally honest with you. Daniel: Just, this is this is a place for honesty. Let us know ⁓ your thoughts. Let us know your irrational fears. Maybe we'll try to talk you off the ledge. ⁓ He's Clint. I'm Daniel. Make sure you're subscribed everywhere you get your podcasts and on YouTube, and we'll see you guys next time.