There’s a tendency among a fanbase like ours, one that’s been repeatedly slapped around and disappointed over the course of two seasons to refuse to believe that things are really turning around. And there’s also a temptation to fret that things simply have never been like they were in the “good old days” of the Mark Richt era. But in fact, the 2011 Bulldog defense compares favorably from a statistical standpoint to many of Brian Van Gorder’s units. And I fear some members of Bulldog Nation have forgotten that those halcyon days of yore included more than a few days where the end result was an ugly “W”, much like the ones we’ve seen over the past month. If anything, most of the games summarized in the links in that last sentence were uglier than what we’ve seen in 2011.

But no one remembers those games for some reason. They’ve been glossed over. The bottom line is that there are no ugly road wins in the SEC. Every SEC road win is a thing of absolute beauty. Every one. We’ve got 2 of them. We’re 3-1 in the conference and any one of a number of boneheaded moves in the South Carolina game from being the only undefeated team in the SEC East. I’m not satisfied with where our team is, but I’m damned sure pleased. Given where we were on September 11, 2011, how could you not be?