The same problems plagued Georgia all season long, and while the players must take the blame for the turnovers and penalties, the fact that the Dogs never really could get a handle on either problem has to be seen as an indictment of Mark Richt’s coaching staff. Most of Georgia’s problems were a matter of sloppy or careless play, not lack of talent.

Looks like Joe Cox's eyes are closed when throwing this fourth-quarter incompletion. Maybe that explains those two interceptions. (Brant Sanderlin / AJC)

Early in the season when Joe Cox would make stupid mistakes, many of us gave him the benefit of the doubt by pointing out his relative inexperience despite being a fifth-year senior.

But the most damning statement that can be made about Cox (and his coach, Mike Bobo) is that the quarterback never got better as the season progressed. Saturday night, with nearly a full season under his belt, he …

Joe Cox leaves the field after his second awful interception. (Brant Sanderlin / AJC)

Wow, that was two really ugly quarters of football Georgia played in the second half Saturday night.

With the apparent focus of a 3-year-old child, the Dogs squandered a 20-6 halftime lead by turning the ball over four times.

How pathetic was it? When the Dogs got the ball back at midfield with just under 2 minutes left in order to tie up the game and Joe Cox proceeded to throw an interception on the very first play, nobody seemed surprised.

Which was uglier, his first interception or that second one? How’s that for a discussion point?

Longtime blog commenter Cuz, with whom I watched the game, summed it up pretty well when he said the second half was like a “greatest hits” of all the bad plays Mark Richt’s 2009 team has committed. Make that “greatest hurts.”

Special teams? Pretty awful, from Branden Smith’s fumble of the opening kickoff of the second half to the fact that Richt …

Fans plan on wearing black for Uga VII. (University of Georgia)

There’s been no official call for a “Blackout” and I fully expect the team to be in the traditional red helmets and jerseys Saturday against Kentucky.

Which is as it should be.

But I’m hearing from a lot of fans who plan to wear black, or at least black shirts, to the game as a mark of respect for the Seiler family on the death of Uga VII.

That sounds like a good idea to me. Not a big media thing, not a “Blackout.”

Just the Bulldog Nation mourning its lost mascot.

What do you think? If you’re going, do you plan on wearing black?

Will Washaun Ealey finally break the 100-yard rushing mark this week? (Brant Sanderlin / AJC)

Whether you’re going to be wearing red and black or blue and white on Saturday, you figure to be watching your team try to run the ball down the throat of the opponent.

Kentucky coach Rich Brooks may have talked this week about his team needing to be able to throw the ball in order to beat Georgia, but with a still relatively inexperienced freshman quarterback in Morgan Newton and the Cats ranking 112th nationally in passing offense, that’s probably not going to be his first choice of attack.

Especially since the Wildcats rank 17th nationally in rushing offense, averaging just over 200 yards per game. The Cats’ Mr. Everything, Randall Cobb, who gashed the Dogs so badly last year, may be banged up, but they’ve also got Derrick Locke in in the backfield, and he ranks fifth in the conference, averaging 82 yards per game. He’s had three 100-yard rushing games this season.

Fortunately, the …

Uga VII won't be replaced for the Kentucky game. (Brant Sanderlin / AJC)

Saturday apparently will mark the first home game since the beginning of the line of Uga mascots in 1956 that Georgia won’t have a live bulldog at a Sanford Stadium game.

According to the “Damn Good Dogs!” book written by Uga’s owner, Sonny Seiler, and Kent Hannon, there have been away games with no mascot since the current line of mascots began, most recently the 2000 Oahu Bowl when Uga VI didn’t make the trip because of Hawaii’s quarantine laws. But since Uga I made his debut on Sept. 29, 1956, there has always been one of the Ugas or a substitute at all the games in Athens.

The most famous sub was Otto, who took the place of his injured brother Uga IV for four games during the 1986 season and was co-mascot with Uga for the Tech game that season. Otto, who had a brown and black spot on his back that kept him from being considered for the official mascot (which traditionally is all-white), ended up with …

Uga VII. (Georgiadogs.com)

The death of Uga VII, who was officially introduced as to UGA fans at the Georgia Southern game in Athens on Aug. 30, 2008, makes his tenure the shortest of the Uga line of pure-bred white English bulldogs owned by Sonny Seiler of Savannah.

Previously, Uga II, who was mascot from 1966 to 1972, held that distinction. The Seilers have provided UGA’s mascots since 1956 and generally have served about nine years each.

At 56 and a half pounds, Uga VII, whose official name was “Uga VI’s Loran’s Best,” was second only to Uga VI as the biggest mascot in the line. He was 4 years old.

The Ugas are among the nation’s most popular and celebrated college mascots, especially with the TV networks that cover football. Uga V was perhaps the biggest “celebrity” of the line, having had a role playing his father in the film “Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil” and been named America’s best college mascot by Sports Illustrated.

Uga VII’s time with the Bulldogs was …

Contributors also will be mailed a bowl ticket application on Tuesday, good for requesting bowl game tickets until the priority deadline of 5 p.m. on Dec. 4. Orders will be accepted by mail, phone and online.

All of the SEC-contracted bowl games in which Georgia might be selected to play will be listed. The athletic association will not charge purchasers’ credit cards until the bowl bid has been officially determined. Orders will be filled only for the game in which Georgia is selected to play and tickets will be assigned based on contributors’ cumulative Hartman Fund score. Any orders received after the priority deadline will be filled on a first-come, first-served basis …

David Greene on the sideline at last week's Auburn game. (Brant Sanderlin / AJC)

Former Georgia QB David Greene is one of the classiest folks associated with UGA football that I’ve had the pleasure to meet. And the grace that has always characterized No. 14 is coming into play again as he prepares for Texas’ Colt McCoy to take away his NCAA record for the most wins as a starting quarterback.

Both Tony Barnhart on CBSsports.com and our sister paper, the Austin American-Statesman, have talked to Greene about the impending ascension of McCoy, likely to happen this Saturday when the Longhorns are expected to get McCoy’s 43rd victory. He tied Greene’s record of 42 wins last week.

Greene says he plans on making a congratulatory call to McCoy, just as the record holder he displaced, Tennessee’s Peyton Manning, did when Greene took the record away from him.

“I’m like anybody else. You really don’t want to see your records broken,” Greenie told Barnhart. “But if somebody is going to …

The Dogs won't have game-winner A.J. Green on hand this year. (Brant Sanderlin / AJC)

l wanted to get a Kentucky fan’s view of this week’s game between the Dogs and the Cats, so I checked in with my old friend Herb to see what he was expecting.

I mentioned how concerned I was about how Georgia handling QB-turned-receiver/runner Randall Cobb in the “WildCobb” formation (this was before word came out that Cobb was “questionable” for the Georgia game).

“I think you guys will win by two touchdowns,” Herb said flatly. (Here it should be noted that Herb could teach Vince Dooley a thing or two about talking up your opponent. He said almost exactly the same thing before the game in 2006 … the one the Wildcats won 24-20.)

Back to Herb: “[Randall] Cobb and [tailback Derrick] Locke are both nursing leg injuries, but will probably try to play. We have a couple of others who are unlikely to get in the game, including [cornerback Trevard] Lindley, who we really need on defense. I feel the …

The area near UGA's famed Arch is still being trashed by tailgaters. (University of Georgia)

It seems the message that UGA President Michael Adams sent to tailgaters back in September about picking up their trash before they leave campus after a football game has only been partially received.

The Augusta Chronicle reports that while the pleas not to turn the campus into a dumping ground have resulted in improvements in some tailgating areas, things have not improved on the North Campus quads near the university Arch, where the crowd is largely made up of students.

Speaking of last weekend’s Auburn game, George Stafford, UGA’s associate vice president for auxiliary and administrative services, said: “Saturday was a bad day. North Campus was as crowded as it’s ever been and the trash was awful.”

The problem has been exacerbated by the increase in night games in Athens, which means more time for tailgating and drinking.

“We’re very concerned about it,” Stafford …