ATHENS -- The first caller to Mark Richt's weekly radio show, someone identified as "Fred in Savannah," sternly lectured the coach on the failures of Georgia's defense and implored him to hire a new coordinator.
"All right, Fred, thank you for your opinion," Richt calmly replied.
On the radio, on the message boards and around the proverbial water cooler, Bulldog Nation is abuzz about what's wrong with Georgia's football team, which has its worst record (4-4) this deep into a season since 1996.
There are more rants than answers right now.
"It's tough to tell who's having a worse year, the team or the fans," said Buck Belue, a former Georgia quarterback who co-hosts a show on Atlanta sports station 680 The Fan. "It's gotten really ugly as far as the fans go -- the ‘fire everybody' stuff. It sort of compares to the penalties and the turnovers you see from the team."
On Richt's radio show Monday night, interspersed among words of encouragement, there were calls for defensive coordinator Willie Martinez to be fired, for players who commit penalties to be benched immediately and for something to be done to improve fundamentals and discipline. The passion was palpable.
"I don't blame people for being upset," Richt said at one point. "I don't blame people for wanting answers at all. I mean, I don't like being 4-4. No one likes being 4-4."
On Tuesday, he added: "I don't think one fan has brought up something we haven't thought of. We think about all these things. We're trying to make the best decisions we can make."
He made a couple of decisions this week -- to stick with Joe Cox at quarterback and to start Caleb King at tailback. But as for the larger issue that "Fred in Savannah" and others want addressed -- staff changes -- that will be a postseason decision. Meanwhile, Bulldog Nation struggles to comprehend 4-4.
"There is a lot of frustration. A lot of people are upset," former UGA defensive end David Pollack, now a sports radio and TV commentator, said Tuesday. "Fan is short for fanatic. You always got to remember that."
Pollack, who co-hosts an afternoon show on Atlanta sports station 790 The Zone, said he saw "question marks where the team might struggle" entering the season. "But Coach Richt has done such an amazing job over the past eight years of taking question marks and making exclamation points and solidifying weaknesses."
Not this time.
And what does Pollack, one of the best defensive players in UGA history, think is the problem with UGA's defense?
"The last two years ... it's been frustrating to watch," he said. "Things haven't gone the way you want them to go, [with] missed tackles and not being opportunistic. It's concerning [to be] minus-15 in turnover ratio. You got to find a way to intercept the ball, got to find a way to get fumbles. And let's be honest: The offense has put [the defense] in tough situations, too.
"But there is something missing, something not clicking, and I don't know what it is. I'm not a coach. I don't know how to fix it."
He often is asked, on the radio and elsewhere, what he thinks of Martinez's work.
"I usually don't say too much about it," Pollack said. "I think Willie [in 2007] had a really good year -- had the defense playing really well and really opportunistic, unlike the past couple of years. ... I have got a tremendous amount of respect for him, and I love him and he's a great human being."
Yet Georgia has allowed 37 or more points in eight of its past 14 games, making Martinez a frequent target of criticism.
"I really don't pay attention to a lot of that stuff because that's not really going to get your team ready to play," Martinez said last week. "You would stump me with questions if you asked me what so-and-so said because I don't know. It may come off as somebody who doesn't care, but that's not true. That's just not really what's going to help us win games."
Richt reiterated Tuesday that the focus must remain on the coming games. He was asked if there's anyone -- maybe a coaching colleague elsewhere -- from whom he seeks counsel in such trying times.
"Coach Tuberville is in town tonight [for a speaking engagement]," Richt said. "Maybe I will grab him and see what he's got to say."
Good idea.
"I don't want it to seem like I'm giving advice or anything. Be sure to put that in there," Tommy Tuberville, a former Auburn coach, told the AJC. With that stipulation, Tuberville offered his thoughts about 4-4 Georgia:
"The one thing about [Richt's] teams over the years, he's always had a great running back," Tuberville said. "They've always been able to run the ball. I don't think there's any doubt losing [quarterback Matthew] Stafford was obviously big, but I think the biggest loss for them was [tailback] Knowshon Moreno.
"It's hard to lose a quarterback, and it's hard to lose a running back ... but when you lose them both in the same year, it really puts you in a tough spot. Because your [new] quarterback who hasn't played much doesn't have the luxury of a running game to keep him out of trouble."
As for the post-Stafford, post-Moreno Bulldogs, Tuberville said: "Evaluating Georgia's team this year ... the schemes are fine. Willie [Martinez] is fine. ... I think it's just been a combination of things this year: can't control the running game to the quarterback making mistakes to the defense staying out on the field."
Belue adds another explanation: "playing young, inexperienced players at a lot of positions."
Georgia plays Tennessee Tech -- hardly a marquee opponent -- Saturday, and the fan furor could be expressed by some uncharacteristically empty seats in Sanford Stadium.
"I wouldn't underestimate our fan base," Richt said. "Our fans do love the Dogs. You can tell by the passion."
Staff writer Chip Towers contributed to this article.
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