Georgia projects well for 2013, even with flaws in win
Mark Richt gets the Gatorade bath after Georgia's Capitol Bowl win over Nebraska. (Brant Sanderlin/AJC)
ORLANDO – The players wore hats reading “CHAMPIONS” in all cap letters. The fact that “Capital One Bowl” — and not SEC or BCS — also was stitched on the caps in a much smaller script might deflate that declaration a bit, but it doesn’t take away from where Georgia may be headed.
Were the Bulldogs great in their final game of the 2012 season? Hardly. The defense, purported to be loaded with NFL talent, too often played sloppy and undisciplined. The quarterback, Aaron Murray, threw two interceptions in the team’s first three possessions. It is what happens sometimes in bowl games. The Dogs didn’t save their best for last. Their best came in the next-to-last game against Alabama.
But ultimately, what came out of Georgia’s 45-31 win over Nebraska in the Capital One Bowl were signs that this program isn’t likely to take a step back next season.
There will be new players. There will be a different team personality. The schedule will be tougher. But the Bulldogs just finished a season that saw them go 12-2 and come within five yards of winning the SEC championship and going to the BCS title game. They rebounded from the crushing loss in the SEC championship game to win a significant bowl game. They showed resiliency by losing two starting wide receivers (Marlon Brown, Michael Bennett) during the season and a third in Tuesday’s game (Malcolm Mitchell). They endured several early season suspensions on defense and played without two defensive starters against Nebraska (John Jenkins, Abry Jones).
Jarvis Jones and several defensive starters now are expected to leave for the NFL. Maybe Murray comes back, but probably not. But Georgia is in a good place now, a player again on the national scene, and nobody could have seen that coming two years ago in Memphis when the team schlepped off the field a loser to Central Florida in the Liberty Bowl, dragging a 6-7 record.
“The seniors started a legacy here,” freshman running back Todd Gurley said Tuesday. “They’re passing it down to us, and we’re just going to keep moving forward and winning each year. I know a lot of teams will have the goal of going to the national championship next year, but we really believe that. We’re going to bring in a great recruiting class and we’re going to get it done next year.”
Todd Gurley, here breaking through for a 24-yard touchdown, finished with 125 yards rushing to lead the Bulldogs. (Brant Sanderlin/AJC)
As flawed as the Dogs looked against Nebraska, the result and the season projected well for the future.
It starts with the two freshmen in the backfield, Gurley and Keith Marshall. There were questions about the running game going into the season following the excommunication of Isaiah Crowell, but the two quickly eased concerns. In the final game of the season, Gurley rushed for 125 yards and a touchdown and Marshall made a difficult back-shoulder, 24-yard touchdown catch to give the Dogs a 38-31 lead early in the fourth quarter.
There’s the future.
It doesn’t matter if the starting quarterback is Murray or Hutson Mason. Georgia’s offense should function well, and the team should be in the middle of things again.
When asked about Marshall’s catch, offensive coordinator Mike Bobo said, “We’ve kept things pretty simple for him and Todd because they’re freshmen. But that play there gives us a level of confidence next year that we can expand their package.”
Gurley, Bobo said, brought “a physicality to the offense that we needed. He did a great job leading us as a freshman. I told him after the game, ‘You had a great year, but now you have a chance to be great. So let’s go to work.’”
Marshall said he battled knee tendinitis before the season, affecting his workouts. “I lost some of my explosiveness,” he said. “But it’s finally feeling better. I’m looking forward to getting started on my workouts.”
And then this: “Honestly, I feel we’re the best team in the country. We can play with anybody. We were one play away this year.”
There were hiccups Tuesday. The first half took nearly two hours. The two teams combined for 47 points, five offensive touchdowns, three interceptions (including Nebraska’s pick-six against Murray), a field goal and a blocked punt for a safety. The Dogs trailed 24-23, then 31-23. But Murray, after starting 11 for 24, stopped scaring NFL scouts. He connected with Chris Conley for a 49-yard touchdown, then later scrambled away from pressure to connect with Marshall. Later, he found Conley again on a “jailbreak screen” against Nebraska’s blitz — nice call by Bobo – for an 87-yard score. Checkmate.
It ended well. There’s reason to believe it could end well next season, too.
By Jeff Schultz
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772 comments Add your comment
GT
January 2nd, 2013
9:00 am
NCDawg, thanks for the graphic explanation of what GT stands for and I have to admit you nailed it. My family was in the sewer business.
Middle Tenn was a though out for us, actually we lose a few like that to keep the NCAA off our ass. We learned that trick from your loss to Colorado a couple of years ago. After that you guys were bullet proof, no body could be that bad and cheat. We watched your athletic director tour Atlanta with a mobile stripe joint going on in his car, your players travel with those weapons of mass destruction with the serial numbers filed off them. AJC never adds the Dawg player’s shelve life factor to their models for next year, they hit the NFL fallout, a real schedule but the elephant in the room is how many of your flock is playing for the chain gang next September. Bet if AJC ran the driver’s licenses they could get an educated guess right now, but how can you sell papers like that?
Hey Schultz
January 2nd, 2013
9:03 am
Had GA played a good team yesterday, it would have clearly lost for the same reasons it always loses against top 10 teams, not being ready. Same ole, Same ole.
Thomas Brown
January 2nd, 2013
9:08 am
Florida is # 4 and we beat them – same ole same ole ?
DawginLex
January 2nd, 2013
9:10 am
I am not all that heartbroken about the defense leaving. The suspensions killed us. Imagine Notre Dame playing without that many starters. They would be 9-3 right now.
Murray needs to come back. Kwame too although he probably will go on and leave.
Grantham has his own guys next year and by God, they need to not eat any funny brownies this spring. The offseason is a time where they need to be working to get stronger and stay out of trouble and keep their grades up.
Schedule is tough, especially if Clemson’s guys come back.
Thomas Brown
January 2nd, 2013
9:11 am
Middle tennessee college you lost on purpose, who the very next week lost to Lousiana Monroe and who just lost their last game to Arkansas State college 45 to nothing. What was that purpose again ?
Thomas Brown
January 2nd, 2013
9:13 am
DawginLex,
I agree with all of that, except Kwame Geathers is still a baby, so he is back.
Larry
January 2nd, 2013
9:14 am
Amidst all the euphoria, I have to wonder if I’m alone in thinking a team which won 12 games needs an entirely new coaching staff, top to bottom, if it is ever going to get better or even stay where it is.
This is an extremely talented, very poorly coached team. It will come back to bite us next year and the years after.
Realistic
January 2nd, 2013
9:14 am
Everyone seems worried about all the “talent” we lose on defense. I haven’t seen much this season to cause me to believe we would be hurting if Grantham or all of those NFL picks left (besides Jarvis Jones). Nebraska gashed us, Alabama gashed us, and it seems that we rely on our talent not scheme to stop people. Everyone is bashing Bobo but besides SC, which side of the ball hurt us this year?
Hey Schultz
January 2nd, 2013
9:15 am
Lol, Thomas and FL scored 9 offensive points against Jacksonville State shortly after too.
Buckeye
January 2nd, 2013
9:17 am
dogs will be 1-3 out of the gate
DawginLex
January 2nd, 2013
9:21 am
Kwame needs to come back. His family has history in the league so they may be ok financially. I’m not sure he will keep his starting spot though. Jonathon Taylor is a beast up to 325 pounds.
DollarDawg43
January 2nd, 2013
9:21 am
Lex you are spot on, start to finish.
GT
January 2nd, 2013
9:25 am
The problem with Georgia scheduling a good out of conference opponent they do it five to ten years in advance, and these big hat no cattle brand name schools don’t stay figure heads forever. Even when they hand pick a bowl opponent like Central Florida the computer starts smoking. They put Clemson on their schedule thinking they had a patsy and now they have to risk a national championship team playing a real schedule and actually being a national championship caliber team. B State came up and bite em a year ago. And old South Carolina won’t go away, which before Spurrier got there would have suited Georgia to a tee. If everybody would just sit still so you could figure out who was who that NC would be yours.
DawginLex
January 2nd, 2013
9:25 am
We need a D-line coach too. And we need to bulk up our linebackers to stop the run. Everyone bashes the D-line for the run game but in the 3-4, the LB’s are the playmakers. I love JJ and Tree but do they really strike fear to a running game? Pass rushers? Yes sir. We need more size at LB
GT
January 2nd, 2013
9:35 am
Nope Thomas Brown we learn our lesson winning the ACC a couple of years ago. Players started showing up with tee shirts unaccounted for; mob type personalities started hanging with Paul Johnson. If only we could have had the little problems like Georgia has with its players wearing cowboy gun holsters in the locker room to protect their lockers from being robbed by recruits. Man can’t keep his stash safe on that campus, or maybe that recruit just reached in the wrong locker to pick up his traveling expenses. It was a communication problem so put those guns away would ya?
Thomas Brown
January 2nd, 2013
9:36 am
Excuse me Florida is # 4. Their Top 5 NCAA Defense beat # 10 South Carolina, # 9 Texas A and M, # 11 LSU, and # 12 Florida State (FSU.) Now, what the heck was it you said summarized their season ? Something about Jacksonville State says it all about # 4 Florida when you’re UnRanked yourselves, LOST to us 10-42, have a 7-Loss Season, and remain on NCAA Probation in FOOTBALL beating NO ONE except for a 6-Loss team just now who LOST 5 of their last 6 games ?
I must have missed that viewpoint on your “team.”
Thomas Brown
January 2nd, 2013
9:37 am
You won NO ACC Championship a few years ago. You’ve won 1 Conference Championship starting 1957 and did not even play in a Major Bowl game that season.
Thomas Brown
January 2nd, 2013
9:44 am
A Major Part of our Rush Defense problems is that we send the Defense back-out too fast with :
UGA :
_______________________________
2,556 yards rushing UGA 2012 season
_______________________________
Opponents :
____________________________________
2,550 yards rushing Opponents 2012 season
____________________________________
This with Todd Gurley, and Keith Marshall, whom we never really did get out in space to take advantage of Keith Marshall’s 4.19 speed. This caused us to give up over 4 minutes a game in time of possession. We need to run the ball more. Good Heavens, we face more transfers-out at running back now, with all them sitting on the sidelines and none of them playing at all. 2013, we had better run the football if we want to not be # 76 in rushing defense against 2013 without Alec Ogletree who single-handily is the only player we had who could tackle on a running play.
DawgNole
January 2nd, 2013
9:52 am
Buckeye
January 2nd, 2013
7:30 am
dogs were 1-2 in their biggest games of the year, Nebraska excluded.
nice season dogs
________________________
Can’t exclude Neb; we played it and won it. That’s like saying “dogs were 1-0 in their biggest games of the year, Neb, Bama, and SC excluded.”
Be fair and show some integrity in your posts for a change.
Hey Schultz
January 2nd, 2013
9:53 am
FL has beat who? A bad Michigan team came with 1 min of beating SC yesterday, LSU lost to Clemson. A&M was the 2nd game of the season. A&M would love to play FL again.
FSU is way overrated. 11-2 going into the bowl and ranked only 12th. Why, they had not beaten anybody of significance.
Let's Get Serious Folks !!!
January 2nd, 2013
9:53 am
UGA still has a lot to prove before they start to talk about beating Clemson, S.C, LSU and Alabama all in the same year. Folks get your head out of the clouds! UGA has shown us the best that they can do as players and a coaching staff. The failed spike was totally stupid and showed us that the QB nor the coaches were thinking football in the most important situation UGA had been in since 1982! Let’s not forget that Nebraska was not a great team and UGA couldn’t dominate them. I wish that Murray would leave because I’d love to see some of the other QB’s compete for action. Murray, like Stafford cannot win the big one’s!! UGA may win 9 or 10 next season but don’t hold your breath for a BCS appearance!
JB
January 2nd, 2013
9:54 am
Grantham seems to like to commit the two Outside LB’s to the pass rush on most plays, and with the other two LB’s having run AND PASS responsibility it seems to leave us short on stuffing the run, just my observation. Note, The two outside LB’s seem to rush wide. That’s what other DC’s are seeing on film, thus lot’s of yards given up between the tackles.
JB
January 2nd, 2013
9:57 am
I miss the 4-3. If works better if you have fast physical LB’s
GT
January 2nd, 2013
9:58 am
Thomas Brown you are correct, we ran a rogue program and got our ACC Championship taken away. The NCAA have so many taps on our phones we have started selling air time commercials. We have a bigger listening audience than the Tech radio networks 790 mainly because its signal goes one block pass the Varsity.
Steve
January 2nd, 2013
10:00 am
Gotta love all of the Tech dorks as well as other schools having no life at all so they play on UGA blogs. Pathetic.
GT
January 2nd, 2013
10:03 am
Thomas Brown does the word incest mean anything to you. When you only play with your cousins how does anybody know anything about how good any SEC school is are if they are improving? Let’s see how Florida does in the Sugar Bowl.
Hey Schultz
January 2nd, 2013
10:06 am
Wisconsin vs Neb, never in doubt. GA in doubt until the 4th when Neb gave the game away. 3rd and 13 from the 13 and give up 87 yds.
Richt will extend contract before Adams leaves in the summer. Watch.
monty
January 2nd, 2013
10:06 am
Good thing we had a 3 year record breaker starter at QB. He bailed the defense out all year. A first year guy or possibly even a 2nd year guy and we lose 4 games at least.
JB
January 2nd, 2013
10:07 am
The most fun was reading the Tech blogs after their win over a quarterbackless and Lackluster half hearted effort by a USC team, who’s head coach seem to not even engage in the game. They are ready for Bama LOL
DawgNole
January 2nd, 2013
10:07 am
RedandBlackDAWG
January 2nd, 2013
7:57 am
I think Alabama will not let down the SEC like LSU and Mississippi did . . . Mississippi was just over rated I think.
_____________________
Mississippi’s Rebels have not played their bowl game yet. How did they “let down the SEC”?
Moist Dawg
January 2nd, 2013
10:09 am
Richt really missed an opportunity yesterday. If I was CMR I would’ve outlawed the gatorade bath and outlawed any celebrations after the game. Then I would’ve made the entire team, including seniors, stay on the field fora full contact practice.
It wouldve been a classy move that would show everyone that we are going into 2013 on a mission and that we are disgusted by the cap one bowl.
When we play our best football we are unbeatable but CMR and AM should apologize for the not playing that way yesterday.
JB
January 2nd, 2013
10:12 am
Moist Dawg……Is most of that moistness between the vacate spot between your ears?
Moist Dawg
January 2nd, 2013
10:16 am
That doesn’t even make sense jb. We need to be on a mission in 2013 and that started yesterday. We need to start preparing for next season while the other teams are still stuck in the past (2012)
JB
January 2nd, 2013
10:20 am
Moist….I would call 2013 a competitive rebuilding year…..Of course what scares me is by the time the new D is rebuilt, All the OL and Gurshall will be gone. Gotta keep reloading. We really need this tailback from Norcross. Watched his playoff games on TV. He looks SEC ready NOW.
Wet Willie...keep on smiling
January 2nd, 2013
10:23 am
The good news is the Gubemint will start taxing you 2% more today on the payroll tax (back to 6 from 4) and this time next year all teams will receive a trophy…..wait…correction…Ok so the plan is to take the trophy from those that earned and give to those that just wanted a trophy. Yes, that makes more sense.
DawgNole
January 2nd, 2013
10:23 am
Thomas Brown
January 2nd, 2013
9:00 am
We absolutely gave you Alabama fans all you could handle, didn’t we ? We beat # 4 Florida as our best win and your best win is over us # 6.
Thomas Brown
January 2nd, 2013
9:08 am
Florida is # 4 and we beat them – same ole same ole ?
_________________________
Happy New Year, TB. Hopefully 2013 brings with it less venom between us.
You ready to concede that fla 2012 was pretty damn good after all–as I predicted–and won’t, in fact, lose “four or five games”?
Tell, you what, I’ll trade you an “OK, Thomas Brown, FSU didn’t deserve a major bowl bid (they lost to fla, after all)” for an “OK, DawgNole, the gators were better than I thought they would be and obviously won’t be losing four or five games this season.”
Deal?
Now don’t go gettin’ all mad at me. I’m just giving you a little good-natured ribbing here to start the New Year off on a lighter note. Here’s hoping our Dawgs and Falcons (and my Noles) have even better days ahead in 2013!
DawginLex
January 2nd, 2013
10:25 am
Comparing scores is a slippery slope
Georgia 45
Vandy 3
SC 35
Georgia 7
Sc 17
Vandy 14
Want to continue? Plus comparing scores from during the season to a bowl game is really dangerous
Thomas Brown
January 2nd, 2013
10:33 am
Let’s wait and see how # 4 Florida does in the Sugar Bowl against Louisville, before we can decide if Florida had a GREAT SEASON 2012, or not ?
Huh ?
Top 5 Defense in the NCAA with wins over beating # 9 Texas A and M, # 10 South Carolina, # 11 LSU, and # 12 Florida State (FSU.)
Wait and see how they do against # 22 Louisville, when Louisville lost to 7-Loss UCON just 2 games ago ?
Is there no fan of opposing teams in the College Football Town, who can bring anything better than that as to why our 2012 season 12-Win Season is not great ?
Tell me you have not pinned your hopes on Louisville beating Florida because Louisville won the DEFUNCT Big East ?
5150 UOAD
January 2nd, 2013
10:34 am
Hey Gurley…..”We’re going to bring in a great recruiting class and we’re going to get it done next year.” I think that has been said for the last 32 years but some how we are supposed to think it will happen in 2013?
Moist Dawg
January 2nd, 2013
10:34 am
JB, it is january 2nd and you have already given up on next season? It’s fans like you that make me want to vomit.
We need to start getting this team ready NOW. My inside sources say Murray is coming back next year, so we need to start putting him in high pressure situations in the offseason. Make him train with Navy Seals or with Donald Trump. Get him used to the pressure so that when we play those tough teams he won’t throw 3 picks.
GTBob
January 2nd, 2013
10:37 am
Yes Jeff, im sure everyone across the country who watched UGA struggle against an average Nebraska team who was coming off of a 39 point loss was really thinking that UGA had greatness in their future. Why is it so hard for you and Bradley to admit that UGA is only a slightly above average team who excelled with a garbage schedule?
5150 UOAD
January 2nd, 2013
10:38 am
I don’t think Murray had too great of a showing yesterday but it was good enough to get him drafted int the 3rd or 4th round.
JB
January 2nd, 2013
10:40 am
Moist…..good, if you vomit, you may leave
JB
January 2nd, 2013
10:42 am
Murray will be a 3rd round pick or so and end up on development squad or something. All the good he has won’t over come the bad that oozes out when he gets to the NFL
DawgNole
January 2nd, 2013
10:44 am
DawginLex
January 2nd, 2013
9:10 am
I am not all that heartbroken about the defense leaving. The suspensions killed us. Imagine Notre Dame playing without that many starters. They would be 9-3 right now.
Murray needs to come back. Kwame too although he probably will go on and leave.
Grantham has his own guys next year and by God, they need to not eat any funny brownies this spring. The offseason is a time where they need to be working to get stronger and stay out of trouble and keep their grades up.
________________
Agree.
Schedule is tough, especially if Clemson’s guys come back.
DawgNole
January 2nd, 2013
10:46 am
Oops. “Schedule is tough, especially if Clemson’s guys come back” was part of DawginLex’s post–not mine.
Still agree.
JB
January 2nd, 2013
10:46 am
Cowher, the old Steelers coach days he wouldn’t draft Murray. Dungy says he’d take him first round. Both have won Super Bowls. Neither has a draft coming up also.
GTBob
January 2nd, 2013
10:47 am
Aaron Murray will basically be John Parker Wilson in the NFL. He will make a team and be a third stringer for a couple of years.
JB
January 2nd, 2013
10:48 am
s/b Steelers coach says
JB
January 2nd, 2013
10:49 am
Hats off to Dawgs. 12-2 in the SEC and a top 10 finish. Pretty dang good.