Who really won the G-Day game?
Christian LeMay showed a lot of promise on the winning touchdown drive. (Brant Sanderlin / AJC)
When I was a kid and we attended G-Day games, a favorite joke was to ask who won the game and answer, “Georgia.”
Ask me who won Saturday’s G-Day game on a sunny but breezy day in Sanford Stadium, and I’ll answer “the defense.”
Doesn’t matter whether they were wearing red or white jerseys, Todd Grantham’s troops looked surprisingly solid Saturday, despite the fact that most of the first-string secondary wasn’t participating because of injuries.
In the first half especially, the Red and Black team offenses had trouble sustaining drives, as witnessed by the baseball-like halftime score, with the underdog Reds leading 5-3.
And, in fact, the most scintillating player on offense in the intrasquad game was borrowed from the defense: Branden Smith, who had a couple of nice runs and caught two passes, including a beautiful 28-yard scoring play on which he juked cornerback Derek Owens and raced down the sideline.
The defensive player who generated the most chatter, however, was sophomore nose guard Kwame Geathers, the spring defensive MVP, who made such a statement on the field that Grantham has indicated we may wind up seeing him in the game at the same time as incoming JUCO star John Jenkins rather than just backing him up.
Geathers seemed to be having his way with starting center Ben Jones at times Saturday. He was commanding double-blocks, just like you want of a nose in the 3-4 scheme, made four tackles (two for loss) and in general just stopped up the middle, a big change from last year.
Of course, when both sides are Georgia Bulldogs, one aspect of the team looking good means another part of the team didn’t. The offensive line is, of course, still reeling from the loss yet again of Trinton Sturdivant, but the middling showing of the running game and the eight sacks given up by the two teams didn’t exactly fill you with confidence about our OL.
Glass half full or half empty? Geathers looked so good Saturday that I’m voting half full.
Other thoughts and observations from G-Day …
We saw a lot of starters Aaron Murray and Hutson Mason, a good bit of Christian LeMay and, this being G-Day, a surprising amount of playing time for scout teamers Parker Welch and Greg Bingham. Murray looked solid, hardly breaking a sweat, though he did give up a safety on his first play from scrimmage. But the two best offensive drives of the day were the game-opener when Mason led the Reds down the field (before the first of Carlton Thomas’ two fumbles ended it) and the 10-play, 75-yard comeback drive by the Blacks, engineered by LeMay and featuring a nice catch by Orson Charles to set up the 12-yard touchdown run by Ken Malcome. LeMay looked relatively poised, had a really nice fake at one point in the drive and showed a lot of promise. …
As mentioned earlier, the running game was, well, missing for much of the day. Caleb King looked pretty good, what little we saw of him. Thomas had a couple of nice runs, others that, more typically, didn’t go anywhere, and those two fumbles. Malcome, who’s been hampered by injury this spring, also showed some flashes, particularly on his scoring run. Generally, though, the ground game was unimpressive. …
Not surprisingly, Tavarres King and Charles looked like the class of the receiving corps. As for the continuing game of where-in-the-world-is-the-Marlon-Brown-we-expected, the junior did have four catches for 47 yards but also missed badly on what should have been a long completion from Murray. …
Redshirt-freshman defensive back Connor Norman had one of those out-of-nowhere days in the injury-depleted secondary, with his name frequently called out by PA announcer Brook Whitmire. He ended up with five tackles, three pass deflections and a great, reaching interception. If Sanders Commings does indeed move to safety, the rise of Norman in the DB corps could be welcome news. …
Matt Stafford won the halftime QB challenge, as expected. (Brant Sanderlin / AJC)
OTHER NOTES OF INTEREST
Matt Stafford won the halftime quarterback challenge, but since he’s the only one of the four contestants who’s still an active player, it would have been shocking if he hadn’t been the winner. … My old Athens High classmate Andy Johnson was the coach of the winning team in the pre-game letterman flag football contest for the second straight year. Among those former players still showing some juice were Fred Gibson, Garrison Hearst and Kelin Johnson, who showed up late on the field but ended up making a couple of nice catches. … My former Redcoat brother had clued us in that the word was the band will be playing from the west end zone stands this season, as they did last year at G-Day and again on Saturday. A good move that should make them much easier to hear throughout the stadium. … A pre-game announcement on the video screen about the Chick-fil-A Kickoff Game said both Georgia and Boise State will wear their home colors in the Georgia Dome. Game exec Gary Stokan told fans he wants to see a lot of us in red, too. Awright, RED-OUT! … Isaiah Crowell wasn’t playing Saturday, but he was easy to spot on the field and signed quite a few autographs over the hedges (as did departing Dog A.J. Green). … We wound up Saturday at Foley Field, where the Diamond Dogs took a 7-2 win over the No. 4-ranked Florida Gators. It was already a good day in Athens, but that was the perfect capper.
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144 comments Add your comment
1eyedJack
April 17th, 2011
11:41 am
51WTGW50, had you been paying attention you would know that CMR previously opined that they would not be running any new ball plays, thus not giving Boise anything new on film to prepare for.
Say hey to Andy Johnson
April 17th, 2011
12:32 pm
I was a 5th yr. senior in Fall of 71, when Andy Johnson made his soph. debut at QB. He is one of my all time, all time favorite UGA players. Bill, tell Andy Johnson “hello from a UGA classmate”. He and Jimmy Poulas are two of my favorite Dogs.
Recall the GT game in 71 when Andy drove the Dogs the length of the field and hit Jimmy Shirer for the game winning TD? I loved that drive. He led another long drive two years later, vs Bear Bryant and Alabama, only for them to win it late. Bear said it was one of the best drives he ever saw.
Heck, I recall listening in the GA State Championship game with Athens HS and Johnson vs Valdosta.
Go Dogs.
RabidDawgFan
April 17th, 2011
12:35 pm
Burma Shave must have no life
Little does he know I banged his wife
Rabid Dawg Fan
51WTGW50
April 17th, 2011
12:35 pm
1yeydJack
That is always such a joke. You run plays because they work or then don’t bet Steak or Beenie Wennie dinners on a game plan that is made to FAIL. Richt & Bobo have been at UGA long enough for BSU to have plenty of tape on the plays that will be called in the DOME. It is not like Bobo is some Offensive Guru or something.
RabidDawgFan
April 17th, 2011
12:37 pm
Anyways, the defense was the obvious winner in this game on both teams. But it’s just a scrimmage. When we kick off agianst Boise we’ll have all of our recruits in there raring to go and hopefully everyone will be healthy and ready to go. Our defense looked great out there yesterday and that’s without Boykin, Commings, Hamilton, etc. I think Norman should definately get some playing time this season. He’s a ball-player. I want to see more of him on the field.
51WTGW50
April 17th, 2011
12:39 pm
RabidDawgFan
Same can be said to the Husbands of most UGA coeds that are married. Everybody had a shot at those chicks during their college days. I know your wife I mean Ex-wife very well.
RabidDawgFan
April 17th, 2011
12:40 pm
Is it just me, or does Christian Robinson not make a lot of plays? You can’t convince me that he’s better than Richard Samuel. I think Samuel and Ogletree should be our starting ILBs. Not to say that Robinson doesn’t deserve to play because he does, but is he really a starter? Ogletree will be All-SEC and Samuel has that potential, but will Robinson help us change games? Is he a game changing linebacker? I doubt it. Like Grantham says “Put the best players on the field.” Time to do it Grantham.
SugarHillDawg
April 17th, 2011
12:45 pm
I thought you had to walk it if you talked it. Robinson’s name seldom gets mentioned over the PA during play. Someone else needs to pick up the mantle.
1eyedJack
April 17th, 2011
1:03 pm
Sometimes your job is to ensure that others make the plays.
Dawg4ever
April 17th, 2011
1:58 pm
Christian Robinson was the 5th best linebacker on the team last year. I haven’t seen this motor mouth make a play behind the line of scrimmage since he’s been at UGA. Shows how little depth UGA has on defense if this guy is starting. Watch Geathers blowup the Softass Ben Jones over and over again, and he was in the backfield all day. Wouldn’t get too excited about him yet, every SEC team with a big D.L. dominated jones last year. Jones will get dominated again this year, just like the rest of this terrible O.L. This is the worst O.L UGA has had since they had to start 3 freshmen several years ago. It’s a shame that UGA’s O.L’s have been so pathetic since Richt has been here. You would think that after watching his O.L getting dominated for 10 years that this clown would have figured it out. Games are won and lost in the line of scrimmage, not by throwing the ball all over the field, but this genius and his O.C. have no clue how to win in the SEC. It will be another long season watching this line get manhandled in the SEC, yet Preacherboy will have another one of his classic excuses. The excuse is now obvious, and it is Richt and BooBoo. UGA fans deserve better, and after this season hopefully we want have to watch this clown and his buddies embarrass UGA anymore
dawgfan
April 17th, 2011
2:12 pm
I just don’t get the optimism of some of you folks. I’m sorry. Why would you take a glass half full view of the O-line’s performance in the G-day game? What have they done to deserve the benefit of the doubt? This is the same O-line that had its azz handed to it on a silver platter by the best SEC D-lines for the past three seasons. Is Geathers really that great or was he going against one of the SEC’s worst O-lines? Since past performance is the most reliable predictor of future performance, I’m going with the latter.
Thanks a pad load Chet.
AltamahaDawg
April 17th, 2011
2:24 pm
What harm is there in being optimistic?
Actually, forget all that…….more to the point. Why does it seem to bother you so much if folks prefer to be optimistic? We get it. You are not. Super. You would rather die a thousand deaths. Great. Obviously thats how you deal with your college football experience. But. Is there any reason that do will not allow foks to behave in the manner that they enjoy more? Especially about voluntarily enjoying a sport game? What exactly is your agenda here?
UGA FRIEND
April 17th, 2011
2:51 pm
I predict UGA will go 11-1 or at worst 10-2 in the regular season. Soft schedule against SEC West and
weaker opponents (Florida/Tennessee) in East. I think they will beat Boise State easily and win a close one against SC. The rest of the schedule (yes including Auburn) should be cupcakes
51WTGW50
April 17th, 2011
3:30 pm
Down 5 runs to the Gators in the baseball game.
FRIEND the dawgs will split with USC and UK
Split with Auburn and UT
Lose to the GATORS as usual
Lose to BSU.
St.Petedawg
April 17th, 2011
3:36 pm
I swear some of u people on here are the most pessimistic people that i have ever heard in my life! Damn the offensive line wasn’t that good because they were mixed together! How would the running game get going when the line didn’t have any chemistry? This is just spring practice people. If all u do is down everything they do then find another team to “root” for.
Mobile Dawg
April 17th, 2011
3:46 pm
No harm in being “optimistic”, however it pains me much less to be realistic. I’m looking forward to watching the defense play this year. I believe this will probably be the best we’ve seen since Pollack and company.
The Andy Johnson post brought back some old memories. The bad before the good. I saw him beat my beloved “Red Elephants” of Gainesville High School, coached by the legend “Bobby Gruhn”.
dawgfan
April 17th, 2011
3:48 pm
For the love of God Altamaha, STOP READING MY POSTS. I’m begging you. All you do is whine about them. Why do they BOTHER YOU so much? My agenda? LMAO. Have a beer man. It seems that YOU are the one taking things too seriously around here, not me. I just disagree with those that are optimistic. That’s all. I’m sorry I have an opinion that apparently differs from your own. Please forgive me.
St.Pete, we’ve been hearing that excuse for a while now about how the O-line can’t “gel” because of injuries and blah, blah, blah. Its old and I’m tired of it.
Mobile Dawg
April 17th, 2011
3:54 pm
dawgfan, a buddy of mine building a log cabin long ago taught me a valuable lesson. After viewing his creation “of which he was very proud”, I told him I didn’t care much for log cabins. His response, “if everyone in the world drank Dr. Pepper, Coca Cola wouldn’t be in business.” As Dawg fans we can all agree to disagree at times. After watching Richt’s “coaching performance” the last few years I often wonder out loud why he still has a job.
College Football Spring Scrimmage Notes - 4/17/2011 - Florida State, Georgia, and More
April 17th, 2011
4:05 pm
[...] The Black beat the Red 18-11 in yesterday’s spring game. Though the real winner was likely the defense. [...]
Fire Mark Richt
April 17th, 2011
4:37 pm
Hey numbnuts, quit trying to run each other down and support your teams and their coaches instead. I for one share Altamaha’s enthusiasm. Enough with the pessimism. Go Dawgs!
Pago Pago DAWG
April 17th, 2011
5:06 pm
Yesterday, they only had 25,000 at The Big House. No admission, but they asked for donations for a local kids hospital…..UM raised about $325,000.00.
What did UGA for a local charity yesterday?
AltamahaDawg
April 17th, 2011
5:08 pm
No, I think I will just stick to giving you a hard time about that broken record. How’s that?
AltamahaDawg
April 17th, 2011
5:11 pm
You clearly play it to get personal attention, so why pretend it bothers you when you get it?
Lets Face it
April 17th, 2011
5:32 pm
Enter your comments here
AltamahaDawg
April 17th, 2011
5:37 pm
Mobile, knowing what a good guy you are I can safely say that you didn’t go on and on and on about how much you didn’t like his cabin. You didn’t keep asking him how in the world he could possible like that cabin. You didn’t suggest that him “liking” that cabin somehow was the problem with the plumbing. I am positive that you didn’t suggest that if you insulted his cabin enough, somehow it would be a better cabin. So that example isn’t going to mean anything to the boy.
Bawbie
April 17th, 2011
5:38 pm
FIRE DAVE PERNO!
Lets Face it
April 17th, 2011
5:59 pm
Yeah so much for our baseball team. They stunk it up once again to the Gators today 14 – 7.
51WTGW50
April 17th, 2011
6:08 pm
Why would 3 people drive from Columbus to steal stuff for the UGA players lockers? That sounds odd. I would think they had to know the building would be open for the Faculty thing or they know some of the ball players. Will be interesting to see if they are Carver Columbus fans or students.
It Ain't Rocket Science
April 17th, 2011
6:35 pm
I have read as much information as I possibly can about other teams spring games in the last day or so, and it seems, with very few exceptions, the defenses have been the better part of the game. That’s why I am not all that concerned with how spring games end up score wise, or if the defense dominates the game. We also, as fans, aren’t going to see the full offensive game plan put into play so it is pretty hard to judge the offense in a spring game. The defense is pretty much going to operate except for changes in personnel, much like it does in spring ball. Only the players on defense will change. A 3-4 will still opoerate the same way in the real games as it operates in a spring game.
Willie
April 17th, 2011
6:40 pm
Who won the game?
Lemay. Took the team down for the go-ahead touchdown to get the win.
Poise.
BigDawg
April 17th, 2011
6:49 pm
this Boise game is exactly the oportunity this program has needed for about 2 years
not since the Bama game in 08 has UGA had a nationally important game against a top ten team with big national media and national pre-game hype, a win could potentially be the boost this program desperatly needs
G-Day
The Good: blitz schemes, d-line, good play from 3 different qbs
The Bad: o-line played horribly but imo not as bad as people are making it out to be
The Ugly: recievers played horribly, Charles looks great and King is pretty good, but nobody else looks capable
Destin Dawg
April 17th, 2011
6:53 pm
Mason was a Parade Magazine all American…. great H.S. Stats.. he should have played more last year… if Richt doesn’t give Mason and Lemay chances to play if they out perform Murray… I’ll be the 1st to say.. time for a change
Destin Dawg
April 17th, 2011
6:56 pm
we do need to give dream team recruits.. a chance to play early.. shake ‘em up… play ‘em all play.. ‘em early !! open up the offense… Go Dawgs !!!
Carlton
April 17th, 2011
7:29 pm
“..and the 10-play, 75-yard comeback drive by the Blacks, engineered by LeMay and featuring a nice catch by Orson Charles to set up the 12-yard touchdown run by Ken Malcome.”
Bit of a Freudian slip there Bill?
trupert
April 17th, 2011
7:36 pm
I hope and think most of these negative comments are from worried Alabama fans, Auburn fans and Tech fans that don’t want to see their teams get beat by Ga again.
The offensive line was devided between two teams and the offense is always behind the defense in the early going. Ga will be much improved on defense and the offense will again put up 300yds passing a game and 30+ points a game against many teams. The special teams are special and it will be a great year to be a Bull Dawg.
OldDawg55
April 17th, 2011
7:47 pm
Hey, “Rain”…why don’t you get an early start at season tickets at U.S.C., or Clemson…maybe even Georgia State. We don’t need your negativity in the Dawg Nation. You whine like a little puppy but really don’t have good Dawg blood. Your analysis is flawed and nothing shy of a 13-0 season would impress you (You could get impresed this year!!) But all in all, we’d be much better off without your contributions to our football blogs. In short, get lost!!!
James
April 17th, 2011
8:03 pm
Hutson Mason would have won the game if he’d been allowed ot take his team down for the winning drive.
Parker Welch? Geez, what drama. Guess Richt sent the word down to try and get a win for Murray’s confidence.
But pretty sure, if the ball was in Mason’s hand with a 1 minute to go, Mason’s side wins.
Reece
April 17th, 2011
8:09 pm
Murray keeps gathering more stats that don’t matter (non-pressure situations).
Like his big 3rd quarter, take that out, and you got 40 yards, and o td’s.
Murray only scored 5 touchdowns aganst ranked teams.
75% of Murray’s stats are in non pressure situations, on G-Day, and last season.
Reece
April 17th, 2011
8:16 pm
Lemay went 5 for 7 (70% completion) passing in last 2 Spring games, for 2 td’s, including a game winning td to come form behind with less than 90 seconds to go in front of 40,000 fans. Man, the kid’s throwing a touchdown every 3 or 4 passes.
Dawgdown
April 17th, 2011
8:26 pm
The real winners in the G-Day game are Bama and Auburn, whose spring games showed considerably more talent and promise. I HOPE we go undefeated and win a NC next year and every year, but I KNOW that in recent years our expectations have been too high and I see the same cycle starting again already. I don’t blame Richt for the expectations–he’s usually a straight-shooter and realist in predicting outcomes–but regardless, we’re setting ourselves up for another letdown if we believe the numerous excuses, provisos, and explanations for the mediocrity of the spring scrimmage game.
Dawgdown
April 17th, 2011
8:30 pm
Like trupert and others have said, many of the negative comments here are from trolls, and I don’t want to sound too negative myself as a Dawg, I do think we have shown some progress and there were good indications, but our recent seasons and yesterday’s scrimmage game leave me with some concern for the upcoming season. I’d personally rather go in with modest expectaions and be very pleasantly surprised next season.
AltamahaDawg
April 17th, 2011
8:32 pm
Imagine how good he is going to be after redshiirt year. We’re all pulling for LeMay. You and all your alias’ couldn’t give less of a crap about Lemay. Just your next excuse to be a pest.
At least you can actually say you have seen him throw football once in your life, unlike last week when you were pretending to know anything about him.
AltamahaDawg
April 17th, 2011
8:36 pm
Didn’t see Bama’s but the only thing I found remotely interesting about Auburns was that rec-league scoring method. Everybody get’s a trophy for trying.
They looked very average to me. Ark looked as polished as AU.
Dawgdown
April 17th, 2011
8:38 pm
Boise State will tell us much and then Carolina will tell us the rest we need to know about next year’s team. Of course we could start out 0-2 and still end up 10-2, but even then we will see how well we play in those games, and how much improvement we make from the first to second weeks. I’m not going to get too up or too down until then.
Dawgdown
April 17th, 2011
8:40 pm
Altadawg, I agree with you about Lemay. He could be a great spark when we need it, and may well be Murray’s successor.
51WTGW50
April 17th, 2011
8:45 pm
I still don’t see what everybody sees in LeMay. I still think Mason is for real and needs to play. If he doesn’t get at least 15 min. of real game experience by the end of the 3rd game, then he needs to really consider transferring. Hutson Mason is too good to be wasted by Bobo and Richt. Mason could probably go to Clemson or USC and get a real shot at starting.
Dawgdown
April 17th, 2011
8:56 pm
I agree that whoever is number two and three on the depth chart at QB needs to get more playing time and more reps, especially number two. Make the third or fourth possession an almost-automatic series for the backup, to give him some significant, meaningful reps as preparation for the time he will inevitably need it. I sometimes wonder if Bobo is just holding on by the skin of his teeth offensively and game-plan-wise without looking at the big picture. At the very least, backup QBs need to be played in the closing minutes of already-settled contests.
dawg fan
April 17th, 2011
9:03 pm
since they both will be wearing home colors that means they both will definitely be wearing the nike pro combat uniforms… im interested to see what nike will have for us
dawg4651
April 17th, 2011
9:56 pm
No one has stolen from the locker room today. because Auburn players only rob trailer parks. So all lockers are safe.
51WTGW50
April 17th, 2011
10:01 pm
4651
They are looking at people from Columbus. You know where Crowell is from?