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
Overrated Notre Dame
November 17th, 2012
2:57 pm
Bad kicker saves Dawgs.
jack bull
November 17th, 2012
2:57 pm
don’t see us scoring 45 today like i originally thought.
Justin
November 17th, 2012
2:58 pm
For our players to be so big they go down way to easy. Georgia Southern’s players are 5′9, 160 and they are vey hard to tackle.
EPIC FAIL
November 17th, 2012
2:58 pm
how bout a pick 6 choker QB
jack bull
November 17th, 2012
2:58 pm
another bad pass by Murray.
Jeff Schultz
November 17th, 2012
2:58 pm
Personal foul coming . . .
Overrated Notre Dame
November 17th, 2012
2:58 pm
Referees trying to help Dawgs.
Mike Franklin
November 17th, 2012
2:58 pm
Good call… zebras had their specs on lol
Buckeye
November 17th, 2012
2:58 pm
Nice bullet dodging, dogs.
DawgNole
November 17th, 2012
2:58 pm
G
November 17th, 2012
2:28 pm
They scored 20 on ALA last year. Just relax its early
____________________
They scored 21 on ALA last year.
O'Ventbrel
November 17th, 2012
2:58 pm
GA Southern giving the enemy a break with penalties
Rodster
November 17th, 2012
2:59 pm
Wow! could the play by play on WSB be any worse? The guy doing the color commentary is ridiculous.
Also, UGA dogged a bullet on the chop block call. GASO would have scored and gone in ahead 14-10.
Buzz 2011
November 17th, 2012
2:59 pm
It looks real easy for the Dogs.
Their offense is NC caliber, ha, ha, ha..
Buckeye
November 17th, 2012
2:59 pm
Mark May what say you about dogs?
jack bull
November 17th, 2012
2:59 pm
Rome with a great catch. That ball was behind him..
Mike Franklin
November 17th, 2012
3:00 pm
Murray trying a Matty Ice drive
Dabney Dwayne Dooley
November 17th, 2012
3:00 pm
Need a big penalty here, refs. Thanks in advance. TG
Voyceofreason
November 17th, 2012
3:00 pm
I realize it’s stupid and not particularly possible, but I still can’t help imagining the officials huddled in a group before the game with some covert SEC bigwig telling them, “OK, if things ever get sticky here, just call a chop block on Georgia Southern … no one will ever know the difference.”
jack bull
November 17th, 2012
3:00 pm
two more bad throws..
Buckeye
November 17th, 2012
3:00 pm
And the dogs think they can hang with the real SEC! SEC! Bama
Justin
November 17th, 2012
3:01 pm
TOUCHDOWN! That’s Murray’s 2nd time this year throwing a touchdown right before the half!
glory between the hedges
November 17th, 2012
3:01 pm
Thats ball game
chalkdawg4
November 17th, 2012
3:01 pm
Out of town. Is the game online anywhere?
Dabney Dwayne Dooley
November 17th, 2012
3:01 pm
Happy Day! Happy, happy Day! We’re number 5! we’re number 5! Hahahaha!
Jeff Schultz
November 17th, 2012
3:01 pm
Touchdown .. Nice pass to Mitchell after 2 bad ones by Murray.
Buckeye
November 17th, 2012
3:01 pm
Happy dogs.
I’d be embarrassed.
Eagles are D2 are they not?
jack bull
November 17th, 2012
3:01 pm
Uh, that was nothing like the pass to end the half in the Ole Miss game, Mr Neal….
PAT, always an adventure..
Overrated Notre Dame
November 17th, 2012
3:01 pm
Still ugly.
45 ACP
November 17th, 2012
3:01 pm
78 yards in 59 seconds, what me worry…
Buckeye
November 17th, 2012
3:02 pm
chalkdog,
Try wsb.com. No one nationally gives a rip.
O'Ventbrel
November 17th, 2012
3:02 pm
LOL hating on legit chop block and roughing the passer calls. Get over it.
That’ll probably be it for the day, folks. We’ve seen this script before.
Mike Franklin
November 17th, 2012
3:02 pm
chalkdawg4 – WSB feed on ESPN3 here but blacked out in some places
MarineOne
November 17th, 2012
3:02 pm
Did Ga get bailed out or what! Should have been down at half.
Justin
November 17th, 2012
3:02 pm
Georgia Southern scored 21 points on Bama last year and Bama only scored 45. UGA could score around 31-38 points today and I don’t think Southern will reach 21.
glory between the hedges
November 17th, 2012
3:02 pm
Buckeye..what are you talking about?? Check GA southern score last season. What a loser
Overrated Notre Dame
November 17th, 2012
3:03 pm
Should be 14-10 Eagles but its 17-7 Dawgs. Awful.
glory between the hedges
November 17th, 2012
3:03 pm
With bama*
Discount DoubleDawg
November 17th, 2012
3:03 pm
Indiana should be NAIA and they put 49 points on you… C’mon bucky you can find something relevant to say can’t you?
Justin
November 17th, 2012
3:04 pm
If not for McGowan’s fumble, this game could be 24-7 right now. But hey, defense needs to take the pitch man better in the 2nd half and shut them down. Holding Southern to 7 points would be a great accomplishment.
Eric C.
November 17th, 2012
3:04 pm
MarineOne, did you see the play? It was clearly an illegal chop block.
falconsrus
November 17th, 2012
3:04 pm
chalkdawg4
November 17th, 2012
3:01 pm
Out of town. Is the game online anywhere?
espn3
Justin
November 17th, 2012
3:05 pm
@ Overrated Notre Damn, shut up. You’re just mad because Tech is going to get stomped as usual next week and they’ll lose to Duke today too!
glory between the hedges
November 17th, 2012
3:05 pm
Overrated should be 14-10??? How do you figure. They chop blocked and got caught.
Referee at UGA game.
November 17th, 2012
3:05 pm
Alright UGA, I did what I could to make sure you got into the end zone…the rest is up to you!
Overrated Notre Dame
November 17th, 2012
3:06 pm
Luckily the referees bet on UGA yo cover….
Eric C.
November 17th, 2012
3:06 pm
UGA on pace for 500 yds offense and defense on pace to keep GSU well below their rushing average. It’s not pretty, but it’s better to save the pretty stuff for Alabama.
Is it Gurley or Girley?
November 17th, 2012
3:07 pm
How are UGA’s freshmen doing in their remedial reading classes?
Justin
November 17th, 2012
3:07 pm
hahahaha at the Tech fans that are mad about UGA winning!
Voyceofreason
November 17th, 2012
3:07 pm
Got news for folks: Southern chop-blocks probably 20-25 plays a game, easy. Between Southern and Ga. Tech, though, it seems like that call only gets dusted off at the absolute worst possible times.
Overrated Notre Dame
November 17th, 2012
3:07 pm
I’m a Dawgs fan. I just call it like I hear it.