Willie Martinez: "Thanks" for the Memories at Georgia

In the last few days we've spent an awful lot of time saying goodbye to Bobby Bowden, Charlie Weis, and, er, Al Groh.

Now, Willie Martinez and the Georgia defensive coaching staff is out of a job after Georgia's bowl game.

And you know what? It's no surprise.

Some friends and I were having drinks in a bar in Athens the day after the LSU loss and a guy said this:

"You have no idea how powerful the Georgia Bulldogs alumni are around here. They wanted Willie Martinez out last year and Mark Richt pleaded to keep him. At the end of the year, he'll be out."

And this was before the horrific performances against Tennessee, Florida and Kentucky.

We'd already seen the potential for Georgia's defense to be absolutely dreadful against South Carolina and Arkansas when the guy in the bar made the comment, but he couldn't have foreseen the lack of tackling against Tennessee, Florida, and Kentucky.

It was absolutely horrible.

In fact, we'd like to argue that we saw more fight at Michigan State than Georgia's defense this year.

Yes, we realise that Martinez's defense picked its butt up against Georgia Tech in a game that everybody (well, us anyway) thought they lose—heavily. But let's not call Martinez' firing unwarranted or the least bit undeserved.

And while we're at it, can we suggest someone else to coach the wide receivers who, apart from AJ Green, couldn't catch a cold this year?