‘All the Way Turnt Up’

Caleb King's 75-yard touchdown run was a thing of beauty. (Brant Sanderlin / AJC)

So, how’s that ACC championship game looking now, huh?

Finally made it home from Historic Grant Field (MARTA may be smarta but it sure isn’t faster) with the chants of the UGA student section we sat near still ringing in my head.

Early on, Tech’s hip-hop heavy video board had video of some of the Jackets leading the gold-and-white crowd in the popular number “All the Way Turnt Up” but it wasn’t long before the Georgia students appropriated that as the theme song of the evening for the Dogs.

Man, it felt good to see Georgia rediscover the joys of running the ball straight at the opponent. Washaun Ealey, with his 183 yards, and Caleb King with 166 made it look easy at times, particularly on King’s 75-yard run. And Joe Cox discovered, as Buck Belue knew all those years ago, how good you can look at QB when all you have to do is hand off to your backs.

Actually, that’s selling Cox short. He made a couple of key throws tonight and did a great job of managing the game for the most part. It shouldn’t have been as close as it was, with the Dogs having to settle for field goal tries too often in the second half, but that’s a minor point in the afterglow of a terrific win by the unranked Bulldogs over the nation’s No. 7 team.

Those takeaways by the Georgia defense were pretty sweet, too.

And the middle of the Georgia defensive line finally lived up to its billing, making Tech’s Jonathan Dwyer not much of a factor in the game. You had to wonder why the Jackets kept trying to run up the middle, when obviously they had more success on the perimeter. And their decision to go to the air exclusively on that last series of downs? Curious, but it worked out well for the Dogs.

I’ll take a closer look at the game Sunday, but for now let me just say that I haven’t decided yet which game is coming off the list of my 10 favorite UGA wins over Tech … but I definitely know which game is being added to the list!

It’s a great night to be a Georgia Bulldog!

And as the student section chanted while the seconds ticked off the clock at the end, SEC! SEC! SEC!