Final one of the 2022/23 season. Bittersweet for sure. Took some time away after the loss to enjoy the new year and time off of work.

Care: CJ Stroud the dawg.

Oh what could have been. This was peak CJ playing like a Heisman trophy quarterback. One on hand it was incredible to watch him dissect one of the country's best defenses and do it both with his arm and his legs. On the other hand, it made me wonder: "what the HELL. Where was this all season?!" My conclusion right now is that it was coaching. Day didn't want him to get injured. But why didn't we see this against Michigan? What happened to flip the switch?

Whatever it was, it was glorious to watch and hopefully, even with another loss on his resume, people remember CJ for just how good he was.

Don't Care: The outcome of the national championship

We saw the true national championship at 8pm on 12/31. Those were the two best teams in college football going toe-to-toe and trading blows for a full 60 minutes. That's what college football is about and I don't think Michigan or TCU stand up for that long on the same field against either team.

My wife is a Georgia fan so I'll smile and cheer for her next Monday but it will be with dead eyes and half-effort.

Care: Ryan Day giving up play-calling

It's been the biggest story after the game that I've seen. Ryan Day is supposedly giving up play-calling. If you watched the UGA game you know that Day's play-calling isn't an issue. He's a mastermind when he has time to truly study a defense and in every single bowl game/championship game he's coached in his team hits the field with a plan that works (Bama 2020 was not so much a lack of preparedness as it was being completely outclassed across the board by an all-time Bama team).

But if he wants to make that change it's because he suspects the team will be in a better position to win every game, not just the ones we have 4+ weeks to prepare for, and I'm fully on board with that. I trust in Coach Day completely and him to realize that he needs to be focused on the full team and not just the offense is a big step and I think it will lead to positive change.

Don't Care: Refereeing in the post-season for CFB

I understand the problem we're running into with a lack of refs coming up through the ranks because it's a lose-lose career and barely a career for a lot of these people. That's a root cause that needs to be fixed but I don't have a solution.

However, there needs to be some solution for the terrible performances we see over and over again caused by either incompetence or a terrible rulebook with enough gray area to paint a battleship.

It was covered well in the Skully this morning but the odds that three plays, each in separate games, each exhibiting at least one characteristic of targeting, and each initially called targeting on the field...that are then ALL overturned is ridiculous. If anything, the hit on Harrison Jr. was the least like targeting, imo, but the other two were egregious. Then you have the overturned touchdown by Michigan which might be the worst call I've ever seen. There are multiple angles that prove, without a doubt, that it was a touchdown and the ball was still moving until he was in the end zone and the refs somehow saw enough to say it was indisputably not a touchdown and overturned the call...they should be fired.

All in all it was a terrible week for officiating and they need to change how it works. An independent agency should be the absolutely minimum so that conferences with actual investment in the outcome of some of these games aren't supplying the officials. At the very least that means the official could be biased personally which is a deal-breaker already.

Figure it out.

Care: Jim Knowles and his scheme

I care about this in two different ways. The first: I love Jim Knowles as our DC and I think by the end of his tenure at OSU we will all be talking about how happy we are Ryan Day hired him. The second: the criticism he's received the last few days is both justified and misguided, in my opinion.

The defense did not perform adequately against UGA, by any measure. It was the best offense we played all year, and it showed. There were a couple of plays that could have not happened (Ransom tripping, for example) but that seems to be a trend at this point and not a freak occurrence.

But Knowles' system is complex, he has one person with any extended experience in it on the field, and the rest of our guys were coached up by what we know understand is a sub-par CB coach. The weakness all year was our secondary, and that's the group that's arguably the most important in Knowles' scheme. It's also the group that required the biggest change in their style of play and mental processing on the field year-to-year. The bumps and mistakes we saw were completely expected before this season started but the lack of quality offenses we played made our defense look a lot better than it was so everyone raised their expectations significantly.

It was never going to be fixed in a year. It may not be completely fixed next year. But Knowles' system repeatedly put our guys in great positions to make plays...the last part that's needed is a group of guys comfortable making those plays which they weren't this year.

This is really a "let him get his guys and coach them up" system because of its complexity. Even next year I believe we'll see a change in the right direction.

Don't Care: Negative talk about the direction of the program

I've still seen plenty of negativity. And I understand the cause of it. But Ruggles hits that field goal and everyone talks about how amazing we are and nobody talks about bad defense, poor coaching, or anything.

We finished most of the second half without 5 of our top 7 playmakers on offense (JSN, Miyan, Tre, Harrison Jr, Stover). It should in our offensive production but what team would be able to still be in position to win the game at the end missing all of that talent? This year I don't think there's a team that can claim that other than us.

This team and program is still in the top tier of college football. We showed it in spades this weekend. We have weaknesses, sure, but we also are so high up the chain the odds we move down or don't move at all are significantly higher than the odds we move up. That's just a fact. Getting over the hump is hard.

You can be unhappy about yet another 11-2 season. You can certainly be unhappy about another loss to Michigan. But don't act like the sky is falling, we're soft, and everyone needs to be fired.