Column: There will be a time to drink the Sanford Brewery Kool-Aid, but this isn't quite the time yet

          Way back when, around 60 years ago, fluoride became part of our water, to aid in dental health.

          What we need now is a mist of Xanax or Valium wafting through the vent of offices, restaurants, and bars throughout Georgia.

          To aid in the mental health of those who wear – and breath – red and black, to tap the breaks a little bit, to slow the hyperbolic hyperventilating.

          Listen to people and read things – from breathless coverage to message – boards, you’d think sometimes that Kirby Smart had lifted Georgia State to the fringe of a national championship.

          Or he had just about rewritten the UGA football history books, revolutionized the whole situation.

          That he had turned the college football world on its ear – or ass – because he had done just absolutely remarkable things at the University of Georgia.

          Please, for the love of God and all that is realistic, logical, contextual, and factual – apologies for throwing such headache-inspiring words out there – and true, stop it.

          Stop it, stop it, stop it.

          Stop talking about recruiting. Stop it.

          Stop bragging about recruiting rankings. Stop it.

          Sure, you can’t help it, while completely forgetting about how you may have dismissed the bragging of other fan bases who did well on paper in an internet scam – recruiting coverage – in February and watched it not quite translate in the fall

          Happens all the time, and people make excuses.

          Listen to people, read some things, and you’d think that Mark Richt was, eh, Ray Goff 2.0.

          For whatever reason, maybe because Richt found other things in life more gratifying and fulfilling than a football program and it’s offensive to not be obsessed, people started whining about the coach who broke a two-decade streak of no SEC championships and raised the standards.

          OK, stop right here, stop reading and thinking and preconceiving.

          Liked Richt, always did, and pretty much defended him against absurd arguments. For a long time.

          But – again, slow down – I found his roster management very subpar, was never enthralled with his pretty predictable offense, and pretty much stayed annoyed at how many just blatant knuckleheads he recruited.

          Too often, there was a little too much in one spot and not enough somewhere else. And too often, that somewhere else was the most important unit in the game, the offensive line.

          Frankly, if I’m a college AD, it’s in the head coach’s contract that, no matter how many scholarships you have available to give out, he must sign at least 10 players who have an ‘L’ in their position, i.e. OL or DL, or LB.

          Most linemen have played both ways at some point. Gain or lose 30 pounds, you can move a lineman to the other side of the line. Gain or lose 30 pounds, a DL and LB can flip.

          You can never, ever, ever, ever sign enough offensive linemen or players flexible enough to become a full-time offensive lineman. Unless, of course, you’re Jim Donnan or Mark Richt.

          Richt’s life outlook, of course, brought him admiration and respect and scoffing derision. There was a perception that he sought out projects, kids who needed somebody like him, that he could change lives through football and winning wasn’t all that important to him (a smothering load of crap). There are a couple I knew a bit about who were phenomenal high school players but whom - even though I believe humans are supposed to help humans as much as they can - I wouldn’t sign even if you gave me five more scholarships,

          Granted, many coaches work that way, and no doubt Richt changed lives. Players and coaches are better for having played and worked for him, and whining aside, the University of Georgia is a better place because of him.

          That said, a coach who is investing in people has to make sure he does it right, because he himself is an investment. The coach makes too many mistakes, a de-investment may be coming.

          And Richt, like pretty much every coach, is stubborn and conservative. The program indeed rose under him and then stagnated under him.

          No, he did not leave the program in ruins. Recruit doors weren’t closing. Fans weren’t giving up season tickets. Donors weren’t slamming shut their checkbooks. But much of the grumbling was deserved.

          See? It’s possible to be open-minded enough to see both sides of a situation.

          I have nothing against his successor. Nothing. Well, maybe he’s a little clenched. There was that let’s-keep-secrets-for-90-days deal early on, and making it sound like playing Florida in Jacksonville hurts the Georgia program is absurd and laughable.

          Too much is put on Smart’s stint with Nick Saban, and that shortchanges how good a football coach Smart is, has been, and was going to be anyway. I’m not sure the true seeds of this success and what’s to come weren’t planted when he was a wild-n-crazy youngster in Valdosta with some other wild-n-crazy youngsters like Muschamp and Holgersen and Leach, and when he was working under the prematurely balding Chris Hatcher.

          Smart probably learned to be a little more paranoid and conspiratorial under Saban, and no doubt he learned tremendous tips on overall program management and standards, which is really why Alabama is what Alabama is: Saban has an open mind – good Lord, look at his assistant hirings – but has standards that you adhere to or you leave. We’ll visit thoughts on Saban and Alabama another time.

          The hype – and that’s all it is until players show up, get coached, and play and win – has overwhelmed people’s already deteriorating memories and context-by-convenience, if at all.

          To this point – and that’s the whole reason for the dissertation is to this point, not what Richt ended up doing, which I highly doubt Smart will repeat too much of – Smart has done nothing Richt didn’t do, or probably couldn’t have done. To this point.

          The one difference is the playoff system, which has allowed Smart to coach in one more game.

          So let’s look at both coach’s second seasons, while noting that the regular season was still 11 games in Richt’s first year.

          I didn’t realize Richt didn’t lose to an unranked team his first three seasons. And his worst win in that span was probably 16-13 over UAB in 2003, an 11-3 season. That’s still soooo much better than beating a poor Nicholls State team by two at home.

          In Smart’s second year, Florida and Tennessee were almost historically clustered, and fired coaches in the middle of the season, and Tech wasn’t a bowl team.

          In Richt’s second year, all three went to a bowl, the Gators and Vols going 8-5 and the Jackets 7-6.

          There was no playoff in 2002, but it probably would’ve had No. 1 Miami vs. No. 4 Southern Cal and No. 2 Ohio State vs. No. 3 Georgia.

          Or not, since the Big Ten and ACC didn’t have conference title games that year.

          That was the year Ohio State beat Miami 31-24 in double overtime in the title game at the Fiesta Bowl. The Buckeyes won plenty of close games, and Georgia likely would’ve been favored.

          And the analysis here is that Georgia would’ve beaten Miami or Southern Cal in a finale.

          That said, I also don’t think winning a national championship would’ve changed Richt’s philosophy much, and I’m not how far up the program would have risen.

          Would his roster management have improved, as it needed to? Would he have gone after fewer knuckleheads, as he needed to? Would he have signed more offensive linemen every year, as he needed to? How would a national title affected staff turnover? Would he have listened to people a little more? Maybe. Maybe not.

          But back to the at-the-same-time comparisons, the whole point of the stop-the-canonization process monologue.

          The reality is that Richt’s second year was better than Smart’s, because of the weakness of the East. After that, well, sorry, it’s a wash, for what has actually happened on the field during the season of playing football.

          Not February.

          Through the same point in time, three games into the fourth season (excluding the playoff game):

          - Richt had a better record against top-25 teams, 10-6 to 9-7. Richt’s two losses to unranked teams were to Florida and to Boston College in a bowl, Smart’s to Vandy and Georgia Tech.

          - Richt’s losses were by a total of 68 points, Smart’s by 107.

          And the division isn’t nearly as strong as it was back then. Shoot, Florida knew how to get QBs and do something with ‘em. Shoot, Missouri – arrrrgh – came in and won the East in 2014, Tennessee and Florida teaming to go 14-11 overall and 7-9 in SEC play. Those two teams combined to go 53-22 Richt’s first three years, 39-35 in Smart’s first three years.

          Simple as that. The F word: Facts. And the C word: Context.

          We can certainly agree both earned plenty of second-guessing, Richt for early clock management and Smart for some bizarre, almost uncharacteristically “huh?” strategy that, well, pretty much cost two big games, maybe a third.

          “But but but but but but but.”

          Sorry, no “but” allowances just yet, but they’re coming.

          That’s the reality, like it or not. As of now, after three games in the fourth season, in what matters – Saturdays – Smart has basically done nothing more than Richt except play in one more game, and you really have to own a petty level of dislike for Richt to argue too much, and an inability to put hype and dreams aside for some reality, aka delusional.

          Now, as to your “but” screeching.

          To this point, Smart’s roster management is by far superior. Not even close. Even the mistake of over-recruiting upper-level quarterbacks at the same time. At the most important positions – down linemen – Smart has blown past Richt.

          Player development has been superior, even if the records are basically the same. Don’t forget that there are a number of players on this team who Richt & Co. recruited and who committed to the former staff, who – sorry – raised the standards and set the table while no doubt reaching a ceiling. Again, had Richt won the national title in his second year, I’m not sure how often he’d have come real close to repeating unless he changed some things.

          Don’t forget, either, that everybody was chugging Kool-Aid for Richt’s first three years, having broken the SEC championship slump, having started becoming a national program, and getting plenty of positive attention. Many of you want to forget your giddiness of the early 2000s, but it was there.

          Not quite to the level of silly it is now, but it was there and it was strong.

          Too, Smart didn’t approve any of the new toys and facilities he’s gotten, others approved it and paid for it for him. Those balls started rolling while Richt was here, and yes, he wanted all that, too.

          All that said – emphasis on “all” clearly – there’s this:

          Georgia is a stronger program through this point of Smart’s stint than Richt’s, though he took over a better, cleaner program.

          Georgia takes fewer recruiting gambles, unnecessary gambles, evidence being the number of young players who earn playing time early.

          The jury might still be out on consistency as far as coach and game-planning – don’t canonize the new OC based on these first three games – go, and the Notre Dame game will only be part of the equation. This season offers many opportunities, and the expectation here is for less chances for raging second-guessing.

          All of those are abstracts.

          Will there be a time to guzzle the Kool-Aid because of what’s actually happened on fall Saturdays? Yes. Will it be fairly soon? Yes.

          But not yet. Beating Notre Dame isn’t it. Beating you-know-who and then beating somebody after that game, that’s when.

          And yes, it’s coming.

          Wishful thinking doesn’t change the past or the comparisons, or misconceptions. Reality will overtake wishful thinking at some point, and there will be joy.

          Go ahead and buy some for-a-reason chairs and tables, because man, is there gonna be some property destroyed.