LIVE: Georgia hopes for easy day against Georgia Southern
Mark Richt wants his players to focus on game but BCS standings are on Sanford Stadium scoreboard.
ATHENS — For the first Saturday of the season, Georgia will take the field today as SEC East Division champions. And by the time this game ends, the Bulldogs hope nothing will have happened to dampen that title.
A week after clinching the East title at Auburn, the Dogs play host to Georgia Southern. Nothing against the Eagles, who have an impressive winning tradition at the Division 1-AA/FCS level, but this one shouldn’t be close.
Georgia has three simple goals: 1) Tune up defensively for next week’s game against Georgia Tech, which, like Southern, runs an option offense; 2) Build a big enough lead to get into position to pull starters in the second half; 3) Get out of this game without any significant injuries.
A berth in the SEC championship against Alabama is secure, but Georgia could have more on the line after that. The Dogs’ No. 5 ranking in the BCS creates an outside possibility they could still sneak into the national championship game. In short, the Dogs would need to win out over Southern, Tech and Alabama, and then hope that two of the other three teams ahead of them in the BCS — Kansas State, Oregon and Notre Dame — lose a game. Click the link for how it breaks down.
It wouldn’t be surprising to see Georgia come out a little flat today against Southern. A letdown after a four-game winning streak and last week’s 38-0 blowout of Auburn seems only natural. Conversely, Georgia Southern (8-2) will be pumped. It’s a big deal for an FCS team any time it can face an FBS opponent, and I’m sure a lot of GSU’s players dreamed of playing in Athens. So I could foresee a final score of something like 48-21.
Here’s some more reading material if you’re looking to pass the time:
• Chip Towers on Georgia trying to stay focused while keeping an eye on the BCS.
• Chip on Todd Gurley on trying to become only the second true freshman running back in UGA history to go over 1,000 yards. (You know the other guy.) With four more games, there’s still a slim chance Gurley (973) can catch Walker’s freshman season rushing record of 1,616 yards, but he would need to average 160.7 per game.
• Here’s my three-second view of the game and other investment advice in Weekend Predictions.
Finally, in case you missed it, WSB Channel 2 picked up the broadcast for this game. So pull up a couch and follow along while you’re commenting here.
And with that, I’m going to open the cyber-venting lines now. What are you looking for in today’s game?
By Jeff Schultz
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522 comments Add your comment
Buckeye
November 17th, 2012
2:14 pm
Bama 49-0 v 1-9 W Carolina
SEC! SEC!
Justin
November 17th, 2012
2:14 pm
That’s why you cannot trust a backup receiver. He fumbles.
jack bull
November 17th, 2012
2:15 pm
Nice job McGowan. And you wonder why you play much.
Justin
November 17th, 2012
2:15 pm
Just great. Give Southern all the hope in the world UGA! Go ahead! Let them make this a f’king game!
Jeff Schultz
November 17th, 2012
2:15 pm
Like I said . . .
Phipps
November 17th, 2012
2:15 pm
Go back to Ohio Yankee boy
Mike Franklin
November 17th, 2012
2:16 pm
“Georgia given Southern fans something to cheer about. Sloppy effort so far.”
Yeah… seems to be a curse on some Saturdays *sigh*
Buckeye
November 17th, 2012
2:16 pm
With 7:15 left in the Third
SEC! SEC!
Justin
November 17th, 2012
2:17 pm
Don’t you just love seeing Southern players jumping around like they are in the game? Well guess what? Thanks to UGA’s sloppy play (as usual), they are.
NOTAGAIN
November 17th, 2012
2:17 pm
sloppy, sloppy, sloppy, sloppy, sloppy….once again, ateam we should crush, and we look like a third-rate high school team.
jack bull
November 17th, 2012
2:17 pm
Not sure who’s responsible for the pitch man, but it seems like NOBODY is even close to the guy.
Discount DoubleDawg
November 17th, 2012
2:17 pm
Buckeye- what’s your point?
SEC- last 6 National Championships. SEC! SEC!
Makes you insecure doesn’t it?
jack bull
November 17th, 2012
2:18 pm
As I was saying….
Mike Franklin
November 17th, 2012
2:18 pm
My wife is from Ohio… she just called him ‘butteye boy’ lol.
bawbie
November 17th, 2012
2:18 pm
FIRE THESE CLOWNS!
Buckeye
November 17th, 2012
2:18 pm
boom boom,
Been down here in SEC! SEC!ville for two long. Your lack of class has rubbed off.
Justin
November 17th, 2012
2:18 pm
Murray sucks.
Buckeye
November 17th, 2012
2:19 pm
discount,
And none of them were yours. Nor, did you play in any. Just sayin’
Mike Franklin
November 17th, 2012
2:19 pm
Give ‘em time… we’ll wake up and find ourselves in a game.
Jeff Schultz
November 17th, 2012
2:20 pm
Wow, what happened to Virginia Tech? Losing 13-3 to Boston College at halftime. (Sorry, providing a distraction from this game.)
Justin
November 17th, 2012
2:20 pm
Well hey, at least the starters will be in for the entire game!
Joey
November 17th, 2012
2:20 pm
Justin, Murray has done what that “sucks?”
Buckeye
November 17th, 2012
2:20 pm
Vandy has a better record then TN and Auburn.
SEC! SEC!
ugafan13
November 17th, 2012
2:21 pm
Why do we always play down to the other teams level and why can’t our offensive line block for pass protection or run against an undersized defense?
Phipps
November 17th, 2012
2:21 pm
ACC should be renamed OGAB, only god at Basketball
Buckeye
November 17th, 2012
2:22 pm
dogs only up 7 after 1. Oh My!
Phipps
November 17th, 2012
2:22 pm
Good
Justin
November 17th, 2012
2:22 pm
Defense can’t even lock onto a tackle.
Buckeye
November 17th, 2012
2:22 pm
At what point do Jenkins thighs start rubbing together? 380?
Starring Sebastian Cabot as Mr. French
November 17th, 2012
2:22 pm
SC 7 Wofford 7 halftime….
Dumbo
November 17th, 2012
2:23 pm
I think I’ve sen this before….somebody forgot to tell UGA that GA Southern is serious about thinking they can win….Richt better call a sideline meeting and explain that playing not to get hurt and not hanging onto the ball is going to cause UGA some major problems
jack bull
November 17th, 2012
2:23 pm
Again, nobody on the pitch man.
Discount DoubleDawg
November 17th, 2012
2:23 pm
just sayin’ doesn’t get you anywhere… none were you yours either and I think you may have played for one and you lost. Don’t give me- “well at least we played for one…” YOU LOST TO AN SEC TEAM…
SEC! SEC!
If you are going to play the conference game, so will I… you will lose.
Justin
November 17th, 2012
2:23 pm
@ Buckeye, Southern’s offense is built to eat up clock so if you don’t score everytime you have the ball (which Murray is incapable of doing) then it’s going to be ugly.
Bentwaterdawg
November 17th, 2012
2:24 pm
The fact that a walk on(mcgowen) is playing ahead of many scholly athletes
Is just pathetic, he probably wasn’t even that good of a high school player
O'Ventbrel
November 17th, 2012
2:24 pm
The only thing VT has on offense is Logan Thomas and even he has been disappointing this year. A lot of youth and no strong playmakers.
Dumbo
November 17th, 2012
2:24 pm
Idiot DC better put DT & DE on the field and move Safeties up close to the edge to cover the pitch
Justin
November 17th, 2012
2:24 pm
Jarvis Jones is a great player but he is so slow.
jack bull
November 17th, 2012
2:24 pm
Uh, someone really needs to address the pitch man issue…
Buckeye
November 17th, 2012
2:24 pm
justin,
I root for ugly. Have we had a fire Win With and Bobo yet?
Justin
November 17th, 2012
2:25 pm
Georgia’s defense is already worn out and they aren’t getting any help from Murray and crew.
Mike Franklin
November 17th, 2012
2:25 pm
Gotta give credit where it is due… think GSU could beat GT without much work.
Buckeye
November 17th, 2012
2:25 pm
Eagles have zero to lose.
dogs have everything to lose.
Let the puckering commence.
Justin
November 17th, 2012
2:26 pm
All because of Rhett McGowan fumbling the football. Sickening.
Jeff Schultz
November 17th, 2012
2:26 pm
I think Dogs just dropped to 12th in BCS.
ugafan13
November 17th, 2012
2:26 pm
That was a piss-poor set of defensive downs by the Dawgs!
Jimmy Crack
November 17th, 2012
2:27 pm
Oh the humanity!
Buckeye
November 17th, 2012
2:27 pm
I’m not playing conference – but that’s all dogs have to hang their hat on. No claims of their own – since 1981 anyway.
6-7 Liberty Bowl anyone??
ugafan13
November 17th, 2012
2:27 pm
Richit is a joke of a coach! He needs to learn how to get the team ready for a game. Somebody needs to tell him his special teams suck!
Mike Franklin
November 17th, 2012
2:28 pm
D has to adjust and stop
O has to stop eating KFC before gametime.
Oh… and that pain, Butteye, could use some Preperation H…