Capital One Bowl Recap: The End of an Era?

Posted by dudeyoucrazy on January 2, 2013 in Blog, Georgia Bulldogs, SEC | 4 Comments

I’ve put off writing this post-Capital One Bowl recap for a number of reasons.  For one, it marks the finale of just the third 12-win season in Georgia history – why would I want that to end?  In many ways this season had everything: highs (Florida), lows (South Carolina), thrills (Tennessee) and crushing disappointment (Alabama) all wrapped up in a successful season-long effort.  I don’t want that to end.  Why would I want to write about that ending – even if it ended in winning fashion?

On the other hand, Tuesday’s game was – at least on the field – largely uneventful.  The Bulldogs defense underperformed.  Aaron Murray shuffled between atrocious and amazing in as little time as possible before settling down to set a number of Bowl and Georgia records.  Gurley racked up yards, Alec Ogletree and Jarvis Jones made plays.  In the end, Georgia – the more talented team – pulled away.  The Capital One Bowl was everything good and maddening that the 2012 season was.  We had seen this game before.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not complaining about the game.  It was fair and good.  I would have preferred a blowout, and Georgia was certainly capable of such.  And, for a while I almost thought I wanted the back-and-forthness to match the Tennessee game.  But in the end, I was OK with it as all of the things above happened and the game seemed an oddly anticlimactic, but appropriate, final note for the 2013 season.

And I didn’t want that.  I didn’t – and I still don’t – want that, because I don’t want the season to end.  Alas, the season is gone.  And so is Alec Ogletree.  Based on his teary-eyed late entry at the post-game Press Conference (and obvious general knowledge), Jarvis Jones is gone.  Aaron Murray could not have been more non-committal if he was running for public office.  A host of seniors and several other juniors are gone.

The 2012 season is gone, and so are many – if not most – of the figures who made it worth clinging to.  And that’s not something I want to write about.

 

That’s all I got/

Andrew