I really thought I would’ve been posting a good bit about the Hoop Dawgs on my blog by now, but unfortunately the season hasn’t excatly been inspiring. I know that makes me sound like a fair-weathered fan but truthfully, watching the downward spiral that has become our calling card as of late has just been too depressing. The last couple of seasons I’ve been angry & frustrated at our apparent inability to improve. This year though I’ll be honest, I just gave up. I’ve watched every game on tv & cheered my ass off, but resigned myself around mid-December when we needed overtime to knock off Wofford AT HOME that this would just be lost year for the program.
So it wasn’t particularly surprising to hear first thing this morning that Dennis Felton had coached his last game for the Red & Black. I knew this would be his last season, but admittedly I didn’t expect AD Damon Evans to fire Coach Felton with 6 weeks still left on the season. I was talking about this very issue last night with a friend, after witnessing the Dawgs get humiliated against an unranked Floriduh. I didn’t see the point in a mid-season pink slip for Felton simply because there are only a few weeks left to play and Coach Herrmann won’t be a drastic change from the status quo.
However after reading some of Damon’s comments from the press conference earlier I can understand his perspective. He made it clear that his top priority is to act in the best interests of our student athletes. He also made the statement that when he met with the team this morning he assured our players that he hasn’t given up on them and won’t give up on them. I really respect his position in wanting the team to end the season on a high note and giving them every opportunity to do so. If that means making a change in coaching to breathe some new life & hope to a program circling the drain, then so be it. At least now UGA can get a jump on the process of finding our next Head Coach. Considering we’ll be in competition with several other programs, including SEC rival Bama, for the top prospects this move to terminate Coach Felton now seems appropriate.
I don’t know about you though, but I just feel rotten about this today. I’ve seen the anger, frustration, and even downright ugly vitriol on the message boards & blogs the last 2 months, so I may be in the minority here. I really wanted Felton to be the answer. And I really wanted, expecially after last year’s miracle SEC Tournament win, for Coach Felton to lead the Hoop Dawgs to SEC Chamionships & NCAA tourney berths. What he inherited at UGA when accepting this job can only be described as a hot mess, and that’s in the best of terms. He lead us out of a dark period of probation, suspensions and national embarrassment. And I stand by the fact that he was the right man at that time. We hadn’t seen such discipline on the team & committment to academic achievement in many years. Unfortunately, those much-needed virtues never translated to recruiting coups or enough wins on the court. Even the angriest of fans though cannot deny Dennis’s passion for leadership, integrity, and his student-athletes. I’m proud that he never comprimised his principles of leading this team the right way and will always be grateful that he single-handedly changed Georgia Basketball’s negative image following the Harrick years. Dennis Felton is unquestionably a good coach and an even better man. I wish him & his family God’s every blessing and look forward to seeing him coach next season. Whichever team is lucky enough to land him, will certainly be better off with him at the helm.
But as great of a man as Dennis Felton is, I believe he probably out-punted his coverage even before last season’s SEC Tournament Championship. As I said earlier, he was the right man to lead us out of the Harrick debacle, but not the right choice to lead us to Championships and post-season tournaments. He’s simply could not or did not recruit the volume of top tier players needed to compete in this league & fulfill consistent winning goals. So it’s now time to seek a leader for the program who is more capable of achieving the expectations of one of the premiere athletic programs in the country. Damon Evans stated today what many of us have longed to hear for quite sometime:
“We have goals and expectations for each of our sports and that includes playing for championships at both the conference and national levels. Today, we begin the process of elevating Georgia basketball to a sustained level of meeting those goals and expectations.”
For now, Coach Felton’s long time, loyal Assistant Coach Pete Herrmann will lead the Hoop Dawgs. With nearly 3 decades in coaching, including a 12 year stint at the Naval Academy, he’s more than capable of leading this team in the interim. I’m hoping he can rally the team he knows so well and motivate them to end their season with pride and on the high notes of some wins. More importanly, I pray Coach Herrmann can inject some fun and hope to a discouraged group of young men that a better season is just around the corner. That’s the very least our players deserve.
Coach Herrmann will have to move fast though, in less than 48 hours we play at Bama. Considering their head coach Mark Gottfried resigned just days ago after struggling this season, the game should be interesting to say the least. We’ve got a great shot at getting our first SEC win and putting a silver lining on a pretty battered season. Hopefully the Hoop Dawgs will pick themselves up from some bitter disappointments and prove they are better than their record shows. I’m quite confident that’s precisely what Coach Felton would want.
Be sure to check back in the next couple of days. I’ll have a post up with information about some possible names we’ll see in the job serach for coming weeks. In the meantime…
GO DAWGS!!!
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