LIVE BLOG: Georgia seeks bowl bid (and revenge vs. Tech)
Georgia players, angered by a home loss to Tech in 2008, planted the "G" flag after last year's win at Bobby Dodd Stadium.
(This will serve as the Georgia live blog when the game starts. We’ll also have a Tech live blog on, as they say, another network.)
ATHENS — Hello and welcome to the last game this season that anybody at Georgia or Georgia Tech will remember.
The Jackets (6-5) still have a low-level bowl game to play. The Dogs (5-6) hope to still have a low-level bowl game to play. But tonight’s meeting is really about the final opportunity for either school to create a highlight in a
The memory of Tech players (like wide receiver Andrew Smith) mangling the hedges lingers with Georgia players.
mostly miserable season.
As Georgia defensive end Demarcus Dobbs said, alluding to the last four years of his senior class: “I don’t know if we’ve left a legacy. But I know if we don’t make it to a bowl game, that will be one legacy that we leave. … We’ve done a lot as a class. But the only thing that matters is how you finish. Nobody going to talk about the Sugar Bowl. They’re going to talk about what we did our senior year.”
Kickoff is still several hours away. But there’s no reason to wait until then to start the banter. This will serve as your live Bulldogs’ blog during the game. I’ll update it later when I get to the stadium.
A few thoughts before kickoff:
♦ Georgia is favored by as much as two touchdowns. Sounds about right. While strange things happen in rivalry games, the only absolute about either team is that the Dogs can put up points, led by the Aaron Murray-to-A.J. Green connection. In the last six games, Georgia has put up point totals of 41 (Tennessee), 43 (Vanderbilt), 44 (Kentucky), 31 (Florida), 55 (Idaho State) and 31 (Auburn). I realize Mike Bobo bashing is a favorite pastime of fans but offense hasn’t been the problem, defense has. And about defense . . .
♦ The only way I see Tech winning this game — other than via multiple Georgia turnovers and penalties — is if the Jackets run for a ton a yards and dominate in time of possession, keeping Georgia’s offense off the field. So the onus is on defensive coordinator Todd Grantham and the Dogs’ defensive front. The Jackets are without starting quarterback Joshua Nesbitt and their offense isn’t nearly as fluid with backup Tevin Washington.
♦ Tech coach Paul Johnson knows his team is undermanned this game. He’ll have to “steal” a possession or two. So a couple of trick plays, like a fake punt, wouldn’t be surprising.
♦ Neither team has a win over a quality opponent. The difference is Georgia still needs a win to become bowl eligible. If it can’t beat Tech, it doesn’t deserve a bowl. The Jackets had lost three straight until having to scramble to beat 3-8 Duke last week.
Now, about this rivalry. The road school has won the last three meetings. Tech has split two since Johnson’s arrival. But if the high point for this Georgia senior class was going 11-2 and winning the Sugar Bowl in 2007, one of the low points was losing to Tech at Sanford Stadium two years ago.
To punctuate the upset, Jackets’ players tore off pieces of the hedges — something Georgia coach Mark Richt has reminded his players of this week.
“Coach Richt’s definitely been quick to tell us about that,” guard Clint Boling said. “We’ve got pictures all over the locker room. We definitely know what they did last time they were in Sanford Stadium.”
Wide receiver Kris Durham, another senior, said: “That sticks out more to me than [beating Tech] last year. It’s something you remember. You can still Google and see the pictures. They’re very vivid online.
“Those [hedges] are sacred to us. That gets to you a little bit. We didn’t protect our own house. We didn’t protect the hedges. We can’t say anything bad about them tearing up our field because we didn’t prove it between the lines and they did. They beat us.”
OK, that’s it for now. If you missed it, here’s a link to my interview with athletic director Greg McGarity earlier in the week. He’s standing behind Richt and says the coach will be back next season, and I agree. While I’ve been critical of Richt and the direction of the program in the last two years, my view is he has earned the chance to turn this around.
I’ll check back later.
♦
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2,645 comments Add your comment
5150 P.O.A.D.
November 27th, 2010
7:10 pm
Dawgs it is still 40 min to kick we have been talking about all the other games happening. Say what you have to say
Please give us your break down on how the game will be played.
1eyedJack
November 27th, 2010
7:11 pm
saint simon, you could get a Best Buy associate to make your peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for a lot less.
Huh?
November 27th, 2010
7:11 pm
Hunker Down
Yeah, I like your analysis!
TampaGator
November 27th, 2010
7:11 pm
Who gets the better bowl if Georgia wins…..vs. Florida? Neither get a very good bowl…..maybe they should play again in the Shreveport Bowl…the both would deserve it.
Richie_Rich1986
November 27th, 2010
7:12 pm
TampaGator,
It happens man, It was an ugly game. But atleast your not a Dawg fan like myself and having to witness the butt whippins yal have given us my whole life. It’s getting down right embarrassing. I did everything in my power to go to the Georgia/Florida game this year to watch us lose to a field goal with the clock running out. The Gators can have one bad season this decade can’t they?
saint simon
November 27th, 2010
7:12 pm
live look-in on ESPN… CMR just finished his pre-game prayer
Huh?
November 27th, 2010
7:12 pm
ScoutDawg
Are you that drunk?
Richie_Rich1986
November 27th, 2010
7:13 pm
TampaGator,
I live in Clearwater btw. Definitely not what I was expecting with I left Georgia.
ScoutDawg
November 27th, 2010
7:13 pm
Everybody enjoy the quality posts of Saint Hymen now while you can. He will be gone again for 365 days, except for random posts as a gator, war eagle, or tiger.
crawdad
November 27th, 2010
7:14 pm
always had auburn for a #2 team until fairly cheap shot our qb butafter they call that penalty on him in the iron bowl i forgave and startedpulling for auburn again. but im a diehard dawg.
Huh?
November 27th, 2010
7:14 pm
“Durn that SCAM apologist and wannabee nerd trishawanta is back.”
You one pathetic excuse for a dawg fan.
1eyedJack
November 27th, 2010
7:14 pm
POAD, I would look for both teams to try to control the game on the ground. Dawgs have a better passing attack, better defense, and home field. Too much for you to overcome without devine intervention.
saint simon
November 27th, 2010
7:15 pm
True 1 eyed jack… the UGA guy can’t make a good PB&J to save his life
Huh?
November 27th, 2010
7:15 pm
crawdad
Trust me, no one cares if UGA fans don’t pull for Auburn. You gals have your own troubles.
ScoutDawg
November 27th, 2010
7:15 pm
Even if I was HUH you would still be an irrelevant NERD.
saint simon
November 27th, 2010
7:16 pm
ScoutDawg, i’ll be here all night ms. precious
Richie_Rich1986
November 27th, 2010
7:16 pm
POAD,
It’s pretty simple, Murray needs to get AJ the ball. lol plain and simple. Hopefully our offensive line can get some push on the Jackets DL and open up some holes for Caleb and Ealey. It’s not going to be a good defensive game. If the Dawgs can get out on top early I think the Dawgs have a good chance. If Tech keeps the game close and holds possession of the ball that is their key to winning this game. Neither teams defense is anything to write home about.
TrishaDishaWarEagle
November 27th, 2010
7:16 pm
scout, I am a nerd, as defined by a UGA fan.. I went to a great school, earned a Degree in a technical field of study, and make a pretty good living…yep.. AUBURN UNIVERSITY, the loveliest village on the plains. My parents went to Tech so I didn’t really want to go there..and the Regents still will not let UGA have an Engineering program..I guess they feel all that alcohol and date rape drugs (uga ranked top 5 party school year in year out) and circuit/process/structural design=a trillion dollar liability.
Huh?
November 27th, 2010
7:16 pm
“Even if I was HUH you would still be an irrelevant NERD.”
Comeback fail, ma’am.
Huh?
November 27th, 2010
7:17 pm
TrishaDishaWarEagle
Gotta love pathetic, angry crybabies.
ScoutDawg
November 27th, 2010
7:17 pm
Your eloquence is only matched by your prose NERD, HUH.
bugsquacher
November 27th, 2010
7:17 pm
wooooooo hoooooooo….. come on nerds……. its time for your beat down…..lace them up……. we are going to kick your a$$
Huh?
November 27th, 2010
7:17 pm
“Your eloquence is only matched by your prose NERD, HUH.”
Comeback fail, ma’am.
saint simon
November 27th, 2010
7:18 pm
Hmmmm… Nerd or bumpkin? nerd or hillbilly? nerd or country a$$ redneck? mercedes or ford truck? Life is full of decisions…
Hit A Single
November 27th, 2010
7:18 pm
When the Dawgs win people can’t stand it and even in a down year people can’t stand it. That why UGA is the most popular athletic program in the Souteast.
TrishaDishaWarEagle
November 27th, 2010
7:18 pm
That wasn’t a slam at the good UGA fans, but the good ones are not on this blog, so it’s moot..
Pathetic truth about UGAy
November 27th, 2010
7:18 pm
In the 1986 Jan Kemp trial, O. Hale Almand Jr., a lawyer for UGA, offered a justification for the favorable treatment accorded the athletes, citing a hypothetical player. “We may not make a university student out of him,” he told the jury, “but if we can teach him to read and write, maybe he can work at the post office rather than as a garbageman when he gets through with his athletic career.”
That trial exposed UGA for the football factory that it was, and exposed Vince Dooley as a fraud and a sleazebag. It also derailed Dooley’s plans for a political career. That’s why we see the decrepit old fraud doing TV commercials even now.
Mark Richt is just the latest in a line of sleazy UGA coaches who coddle athletes and discard them after four years of football. He recruits illiterate morons he knows aren’t smart enough for college, but he doesn’t care, as long as they help him line his pockets with millions of dollars each year.
Sickening, isn’t it.
joshua nesbitt
November 27th, 2010
7:18 pm
FIRST!!!!!!!
bugsquacher
November 27th, 2010
7:19 pm
trisha, go away, you made a poor choice and when to a cheating school, nobody cares about you…… its GA vs Ga Tech time….. its time to mash some bugs……
saint simon
November 27th, 2010
7:19 pm
ummm what’s a squacher?
TampaGator
November 27th, 2010
7:19 pm
Richie Rich…..
I just can’t understand how a team can practice offense all year and look worse than a high school offense at the end of the year. Everyone in GatorNation sees that John Brantley can’t play in the spread offense…and maybe any kind of offense for that matter. But Addazio and Meyer keep putting him out there. They stick Jordan Reed in the game….and the offense comes alive…just in time for Addazio to stick Brantley back in the game…and then we watch the drive die a quick, sad death. Well….at the end of the season…I hope Addazio role as OC and OL coach dies a quick, happy death. GatorNation would love to have Bobo as the Gator OC.
Aubie-won-knobi
November 27th, 2010
7:19 pm
ScoutDawg fell into his own hangover puke and has gotten himself drunk all over again from ingesting his regurgitation.
Huh?
November 27th, 2010
7:20 pm
“That why UGA is the most popular athletic program in the Souteast.”
Talk about delusional.
ScoutDawg
November 27th, 2010
7:20 pm
Oh St. Simons you know you will be gone after the first 10 minutes over at that dude trisha’s house with your alter ego poad.
Hunker Down
November 27th, 2010
7:20 pm
Mrs. Murray on radio and speaking how proud she is of CMR and Bobo. That they provide the tools of life and what a great education her children are recieving.
bugsquacher
November 27th, 2010
7:20 pm
man on man, I cant wait…… tech gets killed tonight
Hit A Single
November 27th, 2010
7:20 pm
Trishadishawareagle – You ever heard of Billy Payne. He saved the Tech campus by bringing the Olympics to Atlanta. Saved your facilities and your pride! Oh yea he is a UGA graduate you hypocrite.
Huh?
November 27th, 2010
7:20 pm
“you made a poor choice and when to a cheating school”
So where’s the evidence of any cheating at Auburn?
saint simon
November 27th, 2010
7:20 pm
UGA most popular athletic program in the southeast? LOL. It barely beats Clark Central in it’s own zip code…
Hit A Single
November 27th, 2010
7:21 pm
huh! – Your mama still hasn’t named you! I can see why.
1eyedJack
November 27th, 2010
7:21 pm
Arky is gonna whup Leslie.
bugsquacher
November 27th, 2010
7:21 pm
woof woof woof woof woof woof ……. come on dawgs…….
TampaGator
November 27th, 2010
7:22 pm
Richie Rich…..me….Clearwater Beach….just recent…from Atlanta. I need a long walk down to Caladesi Island right now to clear my mind.
Huh?
November 27th, 2010
7:22 pm
“Your mama still hasn’t named you! I can see why.”
Comeback fail.
Hit A Single
November 27th, 2010
7:22 pm
Saint Simon – If it is not the most popular why are you worried about UGA?
saint simon
November 27th, 2010
7:22 pm
bugsquacher says “man on man, I can’t wait”… LOL, another queer doggie.
PS, what’s a squacher?
TrishaDishaWarEagle
November 27th, 2010
7:22 pm
Well it looks like that a**hat Petrino will beat Les Miles..too bad.. I still hate petrino for being a coward in the middle of the falcons season..
bugsquacher
November 27th, 2010
7:23 pm
hey saint simon,,,,, agnes scott called and the girls volleyball team would like to open with tech next year in football….. they figure it will be a win for them
Jeff Schultz
November 27th, 2010
7:23 pm
POAD — Dont know where refs are from.
Huh?
November 27th, 2010
7:23 pm
“I still hate petrino for being a coward in the middle of the falcons season..”
Falcons are doing just fine without him.