Georgia shows signs of life (for those still paying attention)
Tavarres King's second touchdown catch made the score 35-0, and the rout was on. (Brant Sanderlin/AJC)
ATHENS – It’s best to not get lost in the blur of “what-ifs.”
What if the first opponent was 1-AA roadkill and not a ranked team? What if Georgia had a week to work out flaws before playing Boise State? Or an easy game to prep for South Carolina? Then would they be leading the SEC East today? What if Marcus Lattimore had suddenly declared before last week’s game, “On second thought, I’m going to save my legs for equestrian. Away with you, Mr. Spurrier”?
It’s just not worth it.
Georgia dug a deep hole, and it’s going to be a while before anybody will be able to see light again. The hole didn’t get any deeper Saturday. But otherwise, we saw what we already knew: The Bulldogs are physically superior to Coastal Carolina. They rule over all Chanticleers. Say it loud, say it proud. They led 21-0 after roughly 17 seconds and 38-0 one series into the second half, when all starters headed for Barcaloungers.
They won 59-0. If they can do this to Coastal Carolina, imagine what they could do to Liberty, and Presbyterian, and Stony Brook. Big South: You are the gum under the SEC’s shoe.
“All right. We got a victory,” coach Mark Richt said.
It was the first time Richt he could use those words in a postgame news conference in nine and a half months.
Georgia had not won a game since beating Georgia Tech on Nov. 27. Since then, Athens had witnessed various forms of suffering, anguish and humiliation: A lifeless defeat to Central Florida in the Liberty Bowl. A body slam by Boise State in the season opener. A woulda-coulda-shoulda loss to South Carolina.
“This probably won’t turn a lot of people’s heads,” quarterback Aaron Murray admitted.
But a win was needed for some kind of cleansing. Or exorcism. The Dogs just aren’t feeling the love these days, and they know it will take a long series of victories — or at least one in Florida — before they feel it again.
Even one of the team’s cheerleaders could be overheard as the final seconds ticked down, “Yay! We’re 1-2!” the words dripping with sarcasm.
The good? There is a pulse after an 0-2 start. A 59-0 win takes a certain level of effort and pride, even if the marquee reads: Godzilla vs. Bambi. It was the Dogs’ most lopsided victory since a 70-6 win over Northeast Louisiana in 1994. Richt can only hope it’s a greater launching pad than it was for Ray Goff 17 years ago.
But some of the negative vibes around the program also were reaffirmed. There were about 10,000 empty seats in Sanford Stadium at kickoff. Attendance (tickets distributed) was announced as 91,946, which is the first non-sellout (by 800) in the Mark Richt era. Georgia had sold out 64 straight. The last non-sellout came in Jim Donnan’s final game against Georgia Tech in 200.
We can quibble about how close the number was to listed capacity. But bottom line: When the most popular sports property in the state fails to sell out for the first time in 11 years, it’s significant.
So it was a little surprising when Richt said, “I don’t think it’s a big deal. It was just about taking care of business.”
For players, that last part is true. But externally, confidence will build again only if Georgia can string together wins over the next four weeks: at Mississippi, Mississippi State, at Tennessee and Vanderbilt. It would create some momentum going into the Florida game.
“Our goal is to go 10-0, and that started today,” Murray said.
“I’m sure most people just view this as as somebody we should have beaten,” cornerback Brandon Boykin said. “But a game like this, just getting the shutout, gives us confidence.”
OK: What if? What if Georgia had played Coastal Carolina first?
“I wouldn’t have wanted that,” Boykin said. “I wanted to play a tough team at the beginning of the year. That game showed us what we needed to do to get ready for South Carolina. We played better last week because we had a rough time with Boise.”
In other words, this is your team. The schedule wasn’t going to change that. Now it’s about making the headache go away. We’ll know more over the next few weeks.
By Jeff Schultz
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556 comments Add your comment
Snoop Dawg
September 17th, 2011
9:48 pm
td, you are totally depraved. Inebriated on the koolaid.
flip on the TV. Check out ESPN, FOX, CBS, ABS, NBC. Check our the scoreboards. You won’t find UGA. We’re so low and sorry now that they don’t even carry our scores or a 15 second highlight.
SC just beat Navy by the skin on their teeth. What does that make UGA.
Do you think UGA can beat Ole Miss in Mississippi? How bout MSU in Athens? Tennessee in Knoxville? how about Florida in jax lead by UGA hero Will Muschamp? Auburn? even GT? NO!
UGA will be lucky to win four games this year.
All you perverted Richt lovers remind me of Alice the Goon. You’re all sick and need psychiatric counseling.
Marjoe Richt has utterly destroyed Georgia Football. He has divided the Bulldog Nation. It will not be reconciled until he is relieved for cause and sent into exile in either florida or north carolina.
5150 UOAD
September 17th, 2011
9:50 pm
So many ranked teams not looking good today.
Please stop all the BS rankings until after the 4th game.
Is it really Alive?
September 17th, 2011
9:53 pm
Nope just another tease for the UGA kool aid drinnkers out there.
td
September 17th, 2011
9:54 pm
Snoop Dawg
September 17th, 2011
9:48 pm
No my friend you are the Obama supporting sick puppy that will destroy anything to get your way. You thing UGA is entitled to win the championship every year and we need to change the coach (raise taxes) if you do not get what you want. Please crawl back under that rock you came out from under. Your mentality is ruining this country and now you are trying to ruin the football team I have rooted for since before you were even born.
Flat Tire on I-95 in Jacksonville
September 17th, 2011
9:54 pm
td
when did I ever say I wanted my team to lose
you should put down the Jack Daniels and sober up so your able to see to read
and Im clueless really
still waiting on your response as to how we got a top 5 recruiting class under your so called Adams restrictions
Snoop Dawg
September 17th, 2011
9:54 pm
Aaron Murry always looks great and rolls up great numbers against patsies. Against winning teams, he chokes like a baby. this is a serious problem.
LMAO
September 17th, 2011
9:55 pm
“Our goal is to go 10-0, and that started today,” Murray said.”
Charles Martel
September 17th, 2011
9:56 pm
The UCF Knights lost to Florida International today. Not too long ago, UCF beat UGA.
Tell me again about this “superiority of the SEC”.
td
September 17th, 2011
9:56 pm
Is it really Alive?
September 17th, 2011
9:53 pm
Nope just another tease for the UGA kool aid drinnkers out there
10 more year extension for CMR right now so that all you band wagon fans will leave and find another team to root for.
oompa loompa dawg
September 17th, 2011
9:56 pm
Murray better hurry up and grow up real fast then…..
Snoop Dawg
September 17th, 2011
9:56 pm
Is there anyone out there who really still believes that Richt can coach anything higher than Pop Warner?
Dr. Phil
September 17th, 2011
9:57 pm
I guess the fan base didn’t obey Mike Adams. He may be biting the rug in his suite.
Snoop Dawg
September 17th, 2011
9:58 pm
td is on the Richt payroll.
td
September 17th, 2011
9:58 pm
Snoop Dawg
September 17th, 2011
9:54 pm
You are not a real fan. You are a troll for coming on blogs and downing the program and downing the players. Go away troll you worthless Obama supporter.
Dabo Dawg
September 17th, 2011
9:58 pm
The real “Dream Team” is at Clemson!
Snoop Dawg
September 17th, 2011
9:59 pm
Just exactly what is “The Richt Factor”?
5150 UOAD
September 17th, 2011
9:59 pm
FSU ain’t looking too fast compared to Oklahoma
Snoop Dawg
September 17th, 2011
9:59 pm
Dabo would school Richt like a kindergartnerer. Good thing we don’t have to play Clempson this year….
td
September 17th, 2011
9:59 pm
Jeff, Why am I getting held up on my post. Not one bad word and all I am doing is calling out the trolls.
Eat and Tweet
September 17th, 2011
10:00 pm
Looks like Aaron Murray will eat his words again…..
td
September 17th, 2011
10:00 pm
Snoop Dawg
September 17th, 2011
9:58 pm
You are lucky Jeff is holding up my post to you.
10 - 6
September 17th, 2011
10:02 pm
Wow it wasnt that long ago.
Snoop Dawg
September 17th, 2011
10:02 pm
td you are the troll/ Could i sell you a glossy 8×10 signed photo of Preacha Man Marjoe Wrecked at the Koolaid fountain?
Snoop Dawg
September 17th, 2011
10:02 pm
td you are lucky i do not know where you live.
5150 UOAD
September 17th, 2011
10:02 pm
Dabo is a Moron…………He bought him a week off the Damn Hot Seat with the win over Auburn.
frannie mae
September 17th, 2011
10:04 pm
Boykin said. “But a game like this, just getting the shutout, gives us confidence.” Boy we really are in big trouble……
cattle dawg
September 17th, 2011
10:04 pm
Snoop, Im concerned about Murrays play in big games as well. Then again he is a sophmore in game experience. Hopefully he will start to step it up. Now about cmr I have lost alot of confidence in his ability to lead this team. We will just have to see how the season shakes out.
Snoop Dawg
September 17th, 2011
10:05 pm
Ever seen that bumper sticker, “I may be slow, but I’m ahead of you”? Well, that’s about what Dabo is to Markt Marjoe Wrecked Preacha Tan Man. aka Buddha on the sideline. Also known as the Ultimate energy vampire.
5150 UOAD
September 17th, 2011
10:06 pm
Looks like FSU is trying to be the Old Cheap & Dirty FSU of the Richt days.
td
September 17th, 2011
10:06 pm
Snoop Dawg
September 17th, 2011
10:02 pm
Well I guess that makes you a “Hope and Change” supporter and that is all we need to know about common sence.
Dr. Morpheus
September 17th, 2011
10:06 pm
True, no one will make too much out of this win. It’s just one good step in the right direction and another opportunity for the usual suspects to post comments demonstrating they don’t have Real Lives.
Dabo Dawg
September 17th, 2011
10:06 pm
The real “Dream Team’ whipped Auburn today….. suffer sucka’s!
lawzoo
September 17th, 2011
10:06 pm
Damn ! Carolina sqeaked by two lousy teams in a row by a measly 3 points. On second thought—- Navy isn’t bad. They have the triple option. Also they are very disciplined.
Jeff Schultz
September 17th, 2011
10:07 pm
TD — I’ll check filter. Sometimes comments get flagged in there for no apparent reason and I have to release them.
Snoop Dawg
September 17th, 2011
10:07 pm
Cattle Dawg, I am not looking forward to the day when Mettenberger lays the wood on UGA with an LSU uniform on. Murray really isn’t six feet tall. He’s scrappy and a good precision passer but is just too small. He will be taken out before long with a season-end injury and then since Preacha Man and booboo are too stupid to give the other qbs some reps we will be SOL.
Since Vince
September 17th, 2011
10:09 pm
Im still banned by chipper and Billy king…. so what I just boycott the advertisers…..
Flat Tire on I-95 in Jacksonville
September 17th, 2011
10:09 pm
td
10 yr contract extension
Yea good idea lets see I guess we will be
4-16 against FL
Lose to Vandy and KY another 4 more times
28-42 in the SEC east
7-13 against a down TENN team for 2 decades
Hoping every year that FL loses out so we can possibly play for an East title
Another 40+ arrests
Ten more Uniform changes
All while ranking #2 for the decade again in recruiting
Snoop Dawg
September 17th, 2011
10:10 pm
td, from your spelling skills I would guess that you may or may not hold a GED.
Dabo Swinney
September 17th, 2011
10:10 pm
We back . We ran down that Hill real good today !
td
September 17th, 2011
10:10 pm
Jeff, they were a little negative towards posters on here that are either trolls or clueless and trys to call out individual players but sometimes you have to stand up to ugly people to show everyone else how stupid they are.
Jeff Schultz
September 17th, 2011
10:10 pm
TD — I’ll tell you why. “Obama” is a word I have flagged because I’ve found 75 percent of people who post “Obama” do it in context of a racist message. I actually fail to understand why so many readers bring Obama into a sports blog when the subject has nothing to do with him. It’s like, “Oh, you don’t like Richt? Then you must like Obama.” It’s that random. But whatever. Your comments are posted.
Snoop Dawg
September 17th, 2011
10:11 pm
Preacha Mans’ a dead man walking. It’s all about the money and Adams knows it. His “vote of confidence” yesterday is akin to Brutus praising Caesar on the Senate floor during the Ides of March. Adams is sleazier than Brutus ever imagined…
Since Vince
September 17th, 2011
10:13 pm
If you say or use Barrack Hussein the liberals will label you a racist. Love the censorship of the AJC….. just saying
Rotten in Denmark
September 17th, 2011
10:15 pm
1eye, you couldn’t be more wrong. Just like Obuma, Coach Complacency doesn’t have the qualifications for the job he has.
Your kind is the Hope & Change crowd, as it let’s do nothing, and just sit around hoping change will happen with no effort and no action.
Review the following and tell me where I have one fact wrong:
Coach Complacency: “Bobo, you’re doing a great job” – 2010
Mediocre Mark: “Play calling is overrated” – 2011
Dismal Failure’s first comments after the Boise debacle: “Tee hee hee” 2 weeks ago
Unfit for his office: “Yeah, I’m not sure why we called that play” – 2010
Lack of action: A team of thugs with combined rap sheet that make any mafioso proud – 2010, and no action until the heat got so hot he was forced to respond.
Lack of action: A DC on national television caught taunting and giving the choke sign to a opposing kicker. Still no action and no comment.
All of this is OK with you?
He either can’t see — or doesn’t care — that the wheels have come off. Do you see any evidence of an effort to improve?
I refuse to apologize for demanding accountability and some semblance of work ethic. This clown hasn’t earned his pay in over 3 years.
Sitting here watching the REAL teams play on TV tonight, and remembering when we used to be one of them. Now, we’re a total has-been and getting worse.
td
September 17th, 2011
10:15 pm
Flat Tire on I-95 in Jacksonville
September 17th, 2011
10:09 pm
Thank you for proving my point. You are coming on here running down CMR and you know it makes the team look bad. You hate the man and the team, so again why are you a so to speak “fan”? You just proved you hate this team and hope they lose so that CMR will get fired.
GR82BAG8R
September 17th, 2011
10:15 pm
The streak is over – - is this the first sign that fans are starting to vote with their feet???
Official attendance was 91,946, below the capacity of 92,746. There were at least several thousand empty seats (fans who bought tickets, but did not bother to come – - most bad teams suffer that fate at the end of the season, not the third game)
The last time Georgia did not have a sellout at Sanford Stadium was Nov. 25, 2000, in Jim Donnan’s last home game as coach against Georgia Tech.
Flat Tire on I-95 in Jacksonville
September 17th, 2011
10:16 pm
td
The only person that voted for hope and change was you King Kool-aid man
Your the old fart who believes in such things as:
Energy Vampires
Dream Team
Dancing in the Endzone
Uniform Changes
Kryptonite Kool-aid
Since Vince
September 17th, 2011
10:17 pm
Wait till more losses come and more empty seats will come.
td
September 17th, 2011
10:19 pm
Rotten in Denmark
September 17th, 2011
10:15 pm
So you have just proved you are a CMR hater and a lover of “hope and Change”. If you can only point out the negative and not point out any positive then you hate what the man stands for and since you want him to lose to get fired then you hate the DAWGS. Why do you hang around and not just put on a little Orange or Yellow. The Yellow fits your comments.
Barnabas Collins
September 17th, 2011
10:19 pm
energy vampires will run amok come December.