Dogs’ first two games could make or break Mark Richt
Dogs face a big challenge with their opening game.
“None, I don’t feel any pressure. None at all.”
That’s Mark Richt’s not entirely convincing answer to the question of whether he’s feeling pressure coming off a losing season. Richt made the comment when his spring speaking tour stopped at the Savannah Golf Club on Wednesday, as reported by the Savannah Morning News.
I know the guy is supposed to have ice water in his veins, but with most of the football world figuring his job is probably on the line in the coming season, you’d have to figure that maybe, deep down inside, Richt is feeling the pressure. Just a little.
Something Richt also said Wednesday night does a nice job of summing up the enormity of his situation.
“I think the biggest challenge is to be at midseason form for our first two games,” Richt said. “They’re big games for us. [The Boise State game] will help set the tone for our season. The very next week, South Carolina will be big. Since they’re one and two, we have to be ready.”
Beating South Carolina would make Georgia the SEC East favorite.
Rarely has a team coming off a losing season and with a coach considered to be on the hot seat entered a season with two bigger, more important opening games.
One way of looking at it is that Greg McGarity has stacked the deck against Richt by putting Georgia in the Chick-fil-A Kickoff Game against a high-powered offensive juggernaut the week before the Dogs open their SEC season against Steve Spurrier’s defending SEC East champion Gamecocks. But conversely, McGarity also has given Richt (who agreed to the scheduling of Boise State) a chance to completely turn things around for his program in just two games.
As Richt said in Savannah, the nationally televised game against the Broncos gives the Dogs a chance “to show the college football world we’re still a pretty good football team.”
Win both of those first two games and the Dogs, whom Chick-fil-A’s Gary Stokan seems sure will be ranked in the pre-season Top 25, likely will vault themselves into the Top 10 and put themselves in the driver’s seat in the SEC East in a rebuilding year for the Florida program.
Lose both of them, and even Richt is going to be sweating bullets.
Split the games and the Dogs will have either a quality nonconference win but start out in a hole in conference play, or have a nonconference loss against a well-regarded team and still be favored to take the SEC East.
No pressure? Yeah, right.
So what are your expectations for Georgia’s first two games? Are you dreading them? Do you expect Georgia to take both? Or, if you’d be satisfied to come out of those games 1-1, which game would you rather have as a win? Does a conference game always trump a nonconference one, or is defending the SEC’s honor against Boise State more important this time?
Find me on Facebook.
Follow me on Twitter.
— Bill King, Junkyard Blawg
Tell us what you think about the site
Customer Care »
Vacation stops, manage subscriptions and more
AJC Services
Sections
Other Editions
Visitor Agreement | Privacy Statement
© 2013 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
317 comments Add your comment
dawgfan joe
April 22nd, 2011
9:32 am
UGA gonna blow Boise!!!!!! Home crowd and that SEC Defense gonna blow them out the Dome like that tornado a couple years back!! After this game, TCU will be thinkin about goin back to the Mtn West cuz playin with the BIG BOYS will SUCK for these MID-MAJORSA!!!!
Bronco05
April 22nd, 2011
10:19 am
Rumbo, we still have Kellen for one more year. We did lose our top two receivers, but we have quite a few in the stable that look to be ready. We only lost 2 on the O-line and one of the D-line. The Dawgs definitely have a size advantage over us. Murray will be without AJ Green, which is a shame. I was looking forward to seeing him play, but I don’t blame him a bit for jumping ship. It sounds like UGAs D is much improved, so it should be a great game for both teams. I don’t think it will be a blowout on either side. UGA is hungry, we know this. After a 6-7 season, it’s understandable. But, BSU is still a little upset about ‘05, (even though there wasn’t a single current player, on either team, in that game.) Should be a great game regardless! Go Broncos!
Seger fan
April 22nd, 2011
10:31 am
Can’t believe we’ve sunk so low as to be an underdog to (or even be worried about) blue-field Boise State in our own state. Wake up, Dawgs!
SLCDawg
April 22nd, 2011
10:36 am
i have to agree with some of these c0cks that clowney vs whoever is playing left tackle could be worrisome.
wolfman
April 22nd, 2011
10:43 am
I think MR will win both and UGA will have a good season, and be slaughtered in the SEC championship game (if it gets there).
kerryb
April 22nd, 2011
10:48 am
Mark Richt’s job is in trouble……blah,blah,blah. It must be a Bill King blog. Bill should rename his blog, “I’m hoping that Mark Richt gets fired blog”. It seems as though he has run out of topics and stays on this one all the time.
PB
April 22nd, 2011
11:14 am
Hey dawg fans! Insert everything that VT fans said about size, home crowd, humidity, all your awesome players(lol) etc…. and watch what happens.
Let me put it this way. Boise has better players, skill, strength, football knowledge, coaches, fans, and everything else.
This game doesn’t mean much, UGA is no better than a Fresno. Putting UGA on the schedule is better than Ole Miss. UGA would be the 3rd-4th best team in the MWC. This game means more to you than you all are willing to admit.
WHEN THIS GAME IS OVER, YOU’LL ALL BE TELLING YOURSELF HOW IT DOESN’T MATTER BECAUSE IT’S NOT A SEC GAME……………just like VT did, LOL. Whatever helps you sleep at night.
PB
April 22nd, 2011
11:20 am
I know you all watched the Boise VT game. Here is a reminder of what you’ll have to to deal with.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zGmRfK5lDyE
Buckeye
April 22nd, 2011
1:57 pm
0-2 start for Win With…..bank.
Bronco
April 22nd, 2011
2:24 pm
Just a few things…..
Dawg Fans, Georgia will be a big game, and one I am not sure my beloved Broncos can win. With that said before you guys start going off on our talent level and that we return no one. Do a little research, i am confident that if you do you will not be quite as confident from your false sense of security you are pulling from 05. Few things to research……
1) Kellen Moore
2)Billy Winn
3) Doug Martin
4) Giraldo Hiwat
5)Byron Hout
6)DJ Harper
7) Kirby Moore
Just to name a few……………check it out and see how you feel
sofork
April 22nd, 2011
3:06 pm
Georgia should be favored in this home game, but Boise State isn’t chicken feed either. Those boys know how to play football. This isn’t 2005.
USC GAMEC0CK
April 22nd, 2011
5:00 pm
USC beats georgia….NEXT
USC GAMEC0CK
April 22nd, 2011
5:02 pm
Lattimore will get his yards even with a new big fat dude playing at nose guard…so what…Todd Grantham is still coaching the defense…right?? yeah, that’s what i thought…nuff said
USC 24 georgia 10
truedawg
April 25th, 2011
4:42 pm
the question..I’d rather loose to SC keep the respect in the SEC. But it will be a close game with SC, but unless they can pass on our secondary I see them heading back to SC carrying a butt whippin’ No way they are running up the middle this year. I think Bronco’s are headed a long trip back with a broken heart. They have a great offence but no D. They have a great plan, but everyone does til they get hit, and the “Junkyard Dawgs ” are gonna hit Boise in the mouth…HARD. by the halftime I look to see a very scared QB getting rid of the ball too fast, too early and looking up at the lights often.
With a a weak D line last year and learning a new scheme and a redshirt QB in his first big game…The chickens still barely won….If you think its 24-10 USC, your drinking the wrong water…DAWGS ROLL!! 17-10
PaleRider
April 26th, 2011
1:48 pm
Dawgs win the first two and all of them up to Jacksonville. The Dawgs will be undefeated and ranked in the top four going into the Florida game. Then they will lose because, well, it’s Florida.
Ron Smith
April 26th, 2011
1:51 pm
UGA will be trounced by Boise State and lose to South Carolina by a slim margin
DawgyDawg
April 26th, 2011
7:07 pm
Boise State is probably the best coached team I have ever watched play live. Kellen Moore is absolutely incredible and we will be lucky to keep it close against them. That being said…. I think we will win out in the SEC East.