Georgia’s ascent to SEC title game is positive sign for future
Mark Richt has Georgia back in SEC title game for first time since 2005. (Brant Sanderlin/AJC)
In Mark Richt’s first five seasons at Georgia, the Bulldogs played in three SEC championship games. In the next five, they played in zero. So this somewhat qualifies as a welcome back to relevancy.
But does the euphoria of playing in the conference title game against LSU on Saturday project to long-term significance?
If Georgia’s 10-game winning streak wasn’t the mere residue of a soft schedule, if Richt once again truly is in command of this program, if the relative off-the-field peace – let’s put Isaiah Crowell aside for a moment – isn’t some aberration, then the Dogs can celebrate much more than a division title.
Georgia may suddenly find itself in a position to flip the power structure in the conference.
That’s not to suggest LSU or Alabama may implode any time soon. (They won’t.) But given the Dogs’ youth and ascent, the maturity and resiliency following the 0-2 start, returning talent, and an expected impact on recruiting, completing for SEC titles may be the norm again. And competing for SEC titles means relevancy on the national landscape, as well.
Athletic director Greg McGarity isn’t that far removed from having to ponder making a coaching change after this season. So he has been careful not to be overly effusive in praise or make grand proclamations in recent weeks. But he didn’t hesitate when asked about the future.
“The potential is there for us to build on what we’ve established this year,” he said. “Things are definitely going in the direction we want them to be going in. But you can never stop having a sense of urgency.
Isaiah Crowell (center), the subject of rumors in recent days, will suit up, but Richt wouldn't address status of his running backs. (Brant Sanderlin/AJC)
“I think we’ve seen in this conference that you can turn things around quickly. That’s evidenced by what Steve [Spurrier] did at Florida. It’s evidenced by what [Nick] Saban has done at Alabama, and what he and [Les] Miles did at LSU. The difficult thing is staying competitive. If your recruiting falls off or you have [coaching] turnover, you can fall behind in a hurry. Look at what happened at LSU before Nick got there. Look at Tennessee now.”
The Dogs don’t need to upset LSU in the Georgia Dome to validate their season. But not getting blown out would help. And they have a legitimate shot to win this. Aaron Murray is playing that well. So are his receivers. So is the defense.
The biggest problem is the running game in general and Crowell in particular. He has been a cyber-rumor with ears in the past few days. Pick one: He malingered at practice; he feuded with teammates; he quit; he got suspended. The only certainty is that his health (lately his ankle) has been an issue all season.
Crowell was at the Dome with his teammates Friday. He is on the “dress-out” list. Richt again declined to comment on the status of any of his running backs. But McGarity chuckled when asked about the suspension rumor, saying he knows nothing of it and commenting, “I’d know, wouldn’t I?”
If the situation is weighing on Richt, he hid it well. He seemed at peace. He referenced his 100th career win at Tennessee, the comeback against Florida, the wins over Auburn, Kentucky and Georgia Tech. It was a news conference of reflection for Richt, which is unusual for him during the season.
“We’ve had a lot of really special times with this team this year,” he said. “I’ve enjoyed it maybe as much as any season that I’ve coached.”
He referenced the 0-2 start, the 6-7 record in 2010 and “all of the things I knew were swirling around, which I’m sure intensified. I didn’t pay a lot of attention to it, but I knew it was out there.”
When a national writer asked Richt if he felt vindicated, he responded: “This year in particular I’ve been very thankful for everything that’s happened. I’m thankful for a group of men who bought in back in January and went through all the things you have to go through to create team atmosphere and chemistry.”
It got them to the title game. It could get them to more in the future.
By Jeff Schultz
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608 comments Add your comment
nerds are funny
December 2nd, 2011
9:53 pm
gtbob does not have the intelligence nor the class to go away after last week. A moron never knows when to quit.
North Georgia Dawg
December 2nd, 2011
9:53 pm
Funny when Tech trolls come on here and talk about how UGA sucks when their team couldn’t even come close to beating us last week. 31-17.
kerryb
December 2nd, 2011
9:53 pm
I’m beginning to think that all of this stuff about Crowell this week is sandbagging.
sammiamm
December 2nd, 2011
9:53 pm
SSI –
No hyphen in rehab.
Steer yourself toward a dictionary.
5150 UOAD
December 2nd, 2011
9:53 pm
FU nerds are funny.
Where do you see UGA having a Power Running Attack?
Murray’s passing has been the dawgs bread and butter this year. The dawgs have been able to run enough to let Murray pick plenty of teams apart. Bobo has used the running game to keep the lead and finish games after the dawgs had the lead.
PerroGrande
December 2nd, 2011
9:54 pm
Help, I’m SSIGator and I spend my life talking down Georgia Football and Coach Richt. I have been posting hundreds of messages here under various names and I don’t have a life, so I post here non-stop.
North Georgia Dawg
December 2nd, 2011
9:55 pm
Here’s a hint, Tech- Murray is going to throw! Not another touchdown!
Ckgator
December 2nd, 2011
9:55 pm
The Dogs are in the game because they are a decent-to-fair team with a favorable SEC schedule, in a year when both Florida, and UT are down, and USC had the worst luck imaginable losing their senior QB and Heisman candidate RB.
Considering this and the fact that their current class is not even in the top 30 (# 31 per Scout.com), the doggies won’t be nationally relevant any time soon, and are hardly trending in that direction. Tomorrow’s outcome will illustrate this.
kerryb
December 2nd, 2011
9:55 pm
Richt wouldn’t seem at peace if there were serious problems going on with Crowell.
sammiamm
December 2nd, 2011
9:56 pm
5150 –
And hopefully Bobo turns Murray and his the tight ends loose tomorrow.
Then maybe wideouts can get behind secondary once or twice.
Bad Dawg
December 2nd, 2011
9:56 pm
Why are people still bragging about the tech win? UGA should beat Tech 90% and the fans should expect that. What happened to bragging about things that matter, like championships? Who cares if UGA wins 10 games a year, if they have nothing to show for it in the form of BCS bowl rings or championship trophies. The state of the UGA fan base is getting worse and worse. Did any of you happen to reflect on the 10 wins UGA has this year. Please examine the schedule closely and you will see that UGA has done nothing out of the ordinary. UGA has become a joke over the last 3 years, No respect from the media, other fans, and even former players are taking shots at UGA. Even the tech fans mock us and other fans call UGA the most delusional fan base ever and now I see why. Even on the LSU blogs they do not even mention UGA, all they talk about is the Alabama game if anyone does mention UGA the other bloggers laugh. This is pitiful and UGA fans need to wake up and realize it has been 31 years and counting.
TampaGator
December 2nd, 2011
9:57 pm
Kerry B….
Florida’s defense was ranked 10th in the country. Dawgs 5th. The difference will not be the defense. It will be your offense…..against LSU. You have one. The Gators did not have one.
OkieDawg
December 2nd, 2011
9:57 pm
Actually, Florida is down to 68 players on scholarship Only 68! That is 17 below the legal number. The rats are leaving that sinking ship and going to real programs. If your son had NFL potential, would you want Weis coaching him?
nerds are funny
December 2nd, 2011
9:59 pm
Good come back 5150 TOAD, you sure smacked me down on that point. We had to depend on Murray. DAMN, what are we gonna do now? Like I said, let the grown ups speak and you go to bed or turn on the cartoon network.
sammiamm
December 2nd, 2011
9:59 pm
Ebb and flow Ck –
Enjoy your ebb.
Well enjoy our flow.
And the show.
kerryb
December 2nd, 2011
10:00 pm
Ckgator, last I checked signing day wasn’t until February and we have at least 10 spots left. My guess is that the program is headed in the right direction and some recruits may change their commitment from other schools to UGA. Besides, UGA is recruiting a lot of linemen and they are not usually 5 star players. That’s if you believe all the ranking crap. For instance, look at Ronald Powell. Do we now really believe that he was the best player in the country? Not.
North Georgia Dawg
December 2nd, 2011
10:00 pm
Dawgs will be irrelevant? Almost all our good players are back next season. Plus the Dream Team guys will be a year older and some of them will be more ready for game action (Nick Marshall, Swann, Ray Drew and some others… Besides Boykin, Ben Jones and Glenn, tell me who we are losing that we can’t replace with all we have coming back.
PerroGrande
December 2nd, 2011
10:00 pm
Help me please! I went to Tech, and I hate Georgia. It controls my life…well I don’t have a life. You see, since Tech lost to UGA agian, I can’t boast about football, so I just attack Coach Richt and the players personally. How do I overcome the addiction? It is worse than heroine. My wife is going to leave me, and my kids don’t like me anymore. My dog just growls at me….
Finebalm
December 2nd, 2011
10:00 pm
SEC Champs – YOUR Georgia Bulldogs.
SSIgator
December 2nd, 2011
10:01 pm
sammiamm -
I won’t need to lay any facts on you. As you said, you are going to watch the game. The results will be there for all to see. The realistic UGA fans will see it for what it is – a beatdown by LSU of a poorly coached, over-rated (except in the typical UGA fans mind) opponent. The members of the Mark Richt KoolAid Club (if they are not too hung-over) will be on here as soon as the game is over, making excuses and talking about how great next year will be.
nerds are funny
December 2nd, 2011
10:01 pm
bad dawg that was a bad piece of crap you posted. I have spoken with lsu fans and they are not taking this game lightly. Please join TOAD in leaving and letting the adults speak.
Ckgator
December 2nd, 2011
10:03 pm
Samm-
Your flow is making it to the game. Ours is winning it more often than not, and taking home a crystal ball a month later.
Tomorrow you wil be jambalaya.
AAA Bail Bonds R Us - Athens office
December 2nd, 2011
10:03 pm
In other words, Richt is sweating out the results of another drug test for Crowell. Just get rid of the stupid jerk, he’ll be another cancer like Ealey and King were. This moron was a loser from day one.
PerroGrande
December 2nd, 2011
10:03 pm
CKgator is in this blog dissing UGA because his team isn’t in the game tomorrow. He has no life like his fellow gator, ssigator. You see, they hate Georgia and since the Dawgs whipped the Gators, they live to talk down Georgia football.
kerryb
December 2nd, 2011
10:03 pm
North Georgia Dawg, defense will be even better next year. 9 returning starters. Garrison Smith is turning into a player and he will take Tyson’s spot and we are loaded with returning underclassmen in the secondary.
nerds are funny
December 2nd, 2011
10:04 pm
ssigator, speaking of bad coaching, where are your gators going to be bowling at this year? Or are you gonna watch replay of one of their bcs games with prince tebow? You got leaks down there son and you best worry about their coaching or lack there of.
5150 UOAD
December 2nd, 2011
10:05 pm
This UCLA v Oregon game sucks and it isn’t even in the second half. UGA better hope the SEC CG doesn’t look like this. Well, USC was the team that should be in this game but the probation thing allowed UCLA in the game. That almost has the same ring as the SEC CG? You know that USCe should be in the Dome over UGA. You have to admit USC had some real bad luck this year. If the tables(schedules) were reversed, you know you dawgs would be saying the same thing about the schedule and USC being in the Dome.
sammiamm
December 2nd, 2011
10:05 pm
SSI –
And again, you’ll be where after the game?
Walkin' on Sunshine
December 2nd, 2011
10:05 pm
I wonder if any of the books about UGA football include the perspective of someone speaking for the late Jan Kemp? The perspective that “student” athletes like Lindsay Scott were playing years without taking college level courses? That the proudest moment of the football program was earned by players who never earned a single college credit?
Dawgtards love to return to 1980, but their memories are really short when it comes to remembering an earthshaking event that happened a few years later that showed the world what a joke UGA athletes were and what a scam artist their beloved Vince Dooley was (and is). So for all those dawgtards with short memories or who think their athletes are actually taking real courses and trying to graduate, here’s the quote that broke the trial wide open and showed what a slimeball Dooley is:
O. Hale Almand Jr., a lawyer for the defense, 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.”
Nothing has changed at UGA, they just do a slightly better job of keeping things quiet, but that’s hard to do when almost 50 of your player-thugs have been arrested, isn’t it?
UGA: WINNER OF THE FULMER CUP AND THE CESSPOOL OF THE SOUTH.
North Georgia Dawg
December 2nd, 2011
10:06 pm
But South Carolina lost to AUBURN with Lattimore AND Garcia. Their defense was what lost the game fore them against Arkansas. Get your facts straight.
herschell??
December 2nd, 2011
10:08 pm
Hey OkieDAWG . I would be careful telling the Gators that Zooker is available. Your memory must be as short as your manhood. Zooker BEAT THE LEGHUMPERS!
kerryb
December 2nd, 2011
10:08 pm
Walkin’ on Sunshine, Thanks for the novel…….moron. Your team must be disappointing and going nowhere so you decided to be a hater and dig up 30-40 year old stories. What a tool,
sammiamm
December 2nd, 2011
10:08 pm
Ck –
Flow we shall.
But you’ll still ebb.
Sorry.
Enjoy your time in ebb, and on this blog.
SSIgator
December 2nd, 2011
10:08 pm
sammiamm -
I spelled the word that way so he could sound it out phonetically, but feel free to advise.
nerds are funny
December 2nd, 2011
10:09 pm
Gee, another great post TOAD. I sure hope our game is not like the UCLA game especially since I will be there. Look captain obvious, if you can not make better observations, then please disconnect and say bye-bye.
North Georgia Dawg
December 2nd, 2011
10:09 pm
Anyone who loses to THAT Auburn team doesn’t deserve the East and in the end that’s what happened. No one cares about the “what if” crap?
PerroGrande
December 2nd, 2011
10:10 pm
CKGator, maybe the Dawgs can represent the SECE against LSU better than Florida did. If my team lost to LSU 42-11, I guarantee you I wouldn’t be smack talking and boasting on the SECE Champion’s blog! That is kind of like a Frenchman bragging to the Americans about the fight his countrymen put up against the Nazis at the Maginot line.
TampaGator
December 2nd, 2011
10:10 pm
Okie Dawg…
-Jenkins left for drug use at CB
-McFarland left because he was not good enough at TE
-McCoy left to play in the spread at Texas Tech
-Christian left because he was third string TE, did not come to meetings on time, and knew Florida has commits from two of the top TEs in the country
-Clark left because he rarely played and is a little spread WR who would not play in Weis’s system
-Dowling left for reasons not known for sure, but I am sure it was legal related.
-Coxson left last year because he did not fit the spread….should have stayed.
-Dunkley left because of academic issues and he was a little spread WR and was buried on the depth chart at WR
-Jordan Haden left because he was home sick and wanted to play close to home
-Brandon Beal left for Minnesota to get playing time, which he would not have received at Florida
-Adrian Bushnell left for academic reasons and enrolled at Louisville.
-Dee Finley left after being arrested again…at Muschamp’s suggestion
-T.J. Lawrence left to get playing time at Florida A&M and becaus he did not fit the spread offense WR type….maybe he should have stayed.
I think Trey Burton may transfer to be with Meyer at Ohio State (with his brother).
Muschamp is clearly out the players who have bad attitudes, get into trouble with the law, don’t go to class, or don’t fit his system (if they want to leave). Those players leaving open up postions for players who are Muschamp’s type of players.
Now….what about your “intel” that you have better than mine.
North Georgia Dawg
December 2nd, 2011
10:10 pm
Grantham has turned that defense around and while we will pretty likely lose tomorrow, our defense is good enough to keep it from getting too out of control.
Finebalm
December 2nd, 2011
10:11 pm
TOAD LOL. Please reset the weak schedule point again. Good stuff.
DILLIGAF
December 2nd, 2011
10:11 pm
Ckgator:
Waawaawaa…..UGA stinks, yeah we know, you AJC sports blog trolls have been vomiting that all season long.
Why don’t you enlighten the masses on your perception of the state of the football program at the U of FLA under the current coaching staff and also please give us you expert opinion on where you see your program in the next 5 yrs.
kerryb
December 2nd, 2011
10:11 pm
Tech morons. Your team will always be a second rate program that is just above the GSU’s and Georgia Southerns. Matter of fact Ga Southern may be a better option team than you are. Get use to losing to us every year. The sooner you accept it the better off you’ll be mentally.
UGAAlum1997
December 2nd, 2011
10:11 pm
http://espn.go.com/college-football/story/_/id/7303321/georgia-bulldogs-safety-bacarri-rambo-tries-cope-son-death
Read this story… If you aren’t cheering for Rambo tomorrow you have no heart.
SSIgator
December 2nd, 2011
10:12 pm
sammiamm -
I will be watching the ACC game afterwards.
sammiamm
December 2nd, 2011
10:12 pm
SSI –
Really? For a two syllable word?
O-K
Gee, it works.
Enjoy the foot-ball game.
Lo-ser.
Ckgator
December 2nd, 2011
10:13 pm
Perro- don’t taze me bro. I call it like I see it. I’ll take our down years, because I know when we peak we are top 5 or better. When UGA peaks they decide not to fire the coach they hated 2 months earlier.
You’re just not an elite program. When Bama / UF / LSU fans you talk about a dream team, we laugh because for elite programs this is more or less the norm. It’s no coincidence 2 of the last 5 Heisman winners chose Florida out of high school. It’s too bad one of them decided to steal a laptop and ended up at Auburn as a fallback.
It hurts, because it’s the truth.
TampaGator
December 2nd, 2011
10:13 pm
Perro…..
That was a very logical post….and wisely stated.
OkieDawg
December 2nd, 2011
10:13 pm
@TampaGator, And as far as your comment about OSU not contacting current Gayturd commits, you do realize that Stan Drayton, the Gayturd recruiting coordinator, is going to OSU? Are you naive or totally uninformed? I have a well connected source in Gainsville and will match you uninformed comment for uninformed comment.
nerds are funny
December 2nd, 2011
10:13 pm
perrogrande, by now you are aware of the ignorance of flarida fans. They have the same football intelligence as gt fanns. At this time of year we need to pitty them and show patience. Ah, to hell with that. They both suck!
sammiamm
December 2nd, 2011
10:13 pm
A-C-C?