Clichés are most prevalent in locker rooms when the losing starts.

Approaching one day and each game at a time, taking nothing for granted and having a short memory have oozed out of the Georgia camp this week.

With three losses scarring the Bulldogs’ résumé, long-term goals of winning the SEC or national title are in the wastebasket. Clinging to the task of winning one game at a time, quarterback Joe Cox admits, is all they can do.

“I know that sounds real cliché, but it’s the truth.”

Georgia’s season didn’t start with a loss to Oklahoma State. Players and coaches started the day after the bowl win last January, another painful aspect of the disappointing first half of this season.

“Obviously people are upset which is what you’d expect,” Cox said.

“We all work hard. We don’t want to go out Saturday and get embarrassed and be like, ‘Oh well.’ It hurts us more than anybody, more than the fans, or the coaches. We’re the guys that play the game. It’s not like we go out there and play the game and just say whatever. We’ve been working since January every day to play 12 games. It’s not a good feeling when we work that hard and it doesn’t show.”

The Bulldogs haven’t been stranded at .500 this late in a season since 1996, Jim Donnan’s first season as head coach. Current players were in elementary school back then, listening to the Macarena, the No. 1 song on the music charts.

The Georgia program hasn’t had to dance around the hint of mediocrity in a long time, but the team’s 3-3 record has led to some hand wringing.

“Something [offensive coordinator Mike] Bobo said the other day, is that we’re kind of at a crossroads,” said tight end Aron White.

“We can either lay down and give up and quit for the rest of the season, or we can keep fighting. He looked at all of us in the eyes and said, ‘I have the confidence in all of you guys and you know what’s expected of you.’

“What he expects from us is to keep fighting, and I definitely agree with him.”

Georgia coach Mark Richt hasn’t lost more than four games in a season in his career, but is already brushing shoulders with the digit now. Nobody sees a mediocre team, A.J. Green said, when looking around the locker room, and frustration is the consensus regarding the team’s record.

“No one is happy,” Richt said. “No one is excited about what happened, but these guys are resilient. They are pretty tough guys. I think they’ll be able to focus on what’s important and start moving this thing in the right direction.”

The season will not turn into on -the-job training for young players in preparation for next season,. Richt says Cox is still the starting quarterback and, “Really the only goal we set was to beat Vanderbilt.”

“We by no means think this season is down the drain,” White said. “Some of our goals have been tarnished a little bit, there have been more obstacles placed in front of us but we some our goals are still achievable.”

Three rivals loom on the schedule: Florida, Auburn and Georgia Tech. Winning all, or a majority, Rennie Curran said, “will show the nation we’re not out of it.”

Beating Vanderbilt is first on the checklist, Joe Cox said. A win would begin the effort to keep the team from being “a part of a season none of us can be proud of.”

“Hey, whatever it takes,” said receiver Michael Moore.