I think we are at a point where we have to self reflect on our wins over the past 9 years and realize we haven't beaten a solid team during that time. Beaten some talented teams. Not that we haven't played in big games and won, but we haven't beaten a top tier team under Mullen yet. At the time we played yes. But I don't think we have a win over a team that finished with 10 or more regular season wins under Mullen. Not sure if we've ever beaten a team that ended with 9 regular season wins.

That being said, this is not a blame or bash Mullen thread. This is a we are still far away from being an upper echelon team and it comes down to one thing and one thing only. Talent. I think we are well coached. But we lack top talent across the board and it shows in games against teams that are well coached and have better talent.

I'm convinced now we will never beat Saban. His teams have superior talent and superior coaching. You don't luck up and beat teams like that. Georgia is now at that point.

The question I have now is what the hell do we do about it. According to Mullen, we are young and a developmental program in year 9. At what point will we cease to be that? Again, not bashing Mullen. But at some point there has to be a vision of what we are to become. A growth plan to extend us beyond what we are. Is our goal to be the best at finding overlooked talent and molding it and coaching it up? That can only take us so far. At some point we have to win in recruiting. Not in state, but out of state. At some point, we have to acquire the talent necessary to win big.

Mullen was wrong when he said there was enough talent within a 4 hour radius of us to compete and win at a high level. Within 4 hours of us is OM, Alabama, Auburn, and LSU. There has to be a bigger effort on our part to extend the brand and compete for top talent. Until we can do that, 10-2 is the ceiling. Tonight sucked, not necessarily because we lost, but the way we lost reminded us all that in year 9, we still have a long way to go. We've come far, but this road is a lot longer than we envisioned.