A powerful performance by a suddenly powerful UGA team
Did this guy outcoach Paul Johnson? Yes he did. (AJC photo by Brant Sanderlin)
There have been times lately when we’ve wondered, “Who are these guys?” Because they weren’t the Bulldogs we’d come to know and admire. They were undisciplined and undercoached. They were always reacting to an opponent, never forcing the issue. They were a finesse team, and a team devoid of force doesn’t win big in the broad-shouldered SEC.
But on the final night of an underwhelming regular season, Georgia played as if it remembered its breeding. It acted like an SEC team. It ran the ball with fury and blocked like the crack of dawn and played big-boy football. And at halftime we were saying, “Who are these guys?”
Because these weren’t the Bulldogs of recent vintage. These were tougher, stronger, meaner. They had come into the stadium of a team looking to solidify its hold on a rivalry and a state, and they’d been the aggressor from the first. Indeed, they were the aggressor from the coin toss. Georgia won it and, rather than do as every coach does in modern football, Mark Richt didn’t defer his choice. He wanted the ball and he wanted it now.
And when his men got it, they pounded Tech in a way Georgia never pounds anybody anymore. Ten plays, all runs, Caleb King and Washaun Ealey taking turns, the unassuming offensive line blowing massive holes in the Tech line. Ten plays, all runs, and just like that Georgia was ahead in a game it was supposed to lose.
Give Richt credit: All week he had to answer questions — one from me on the Wednesday SEC teleconference — about the need for change in his program, and in this game he did change. He and Mike Bobo eschewed the fancy stuff and just Lombardi’ed the game plan, and it was beautiful in its brutality. Three Tech defenders had to be helped off the field in the first half, and after 30 minutes Georgia had outgained the nation’s No. 7 team by 141 yards and had outscored it by 14 points.
But it was only a year ago in Athens that Georgia had led by 16 points at the half, and within seven minutes that lead was gone. Everyone knew Tech would again come out flying, and sure enough the Jackets scored on their first possession. But Georgia needed only one play to answer, Caleb King taking a handoff and fleeing 75 yards. And from then on Tech was chasing, and in the end the fleet Jackets couldn’t run fast enough.
It came down to one possession. Georgia up six, Tech with a chance to win. The Jackets moved across midfield but unaccountably stopped running the ball. Four consecutive passes, the first three nicely defensed, the fourth simply dropped. (The second and third passes were defended by Reshad Jones, the Georgia safety who’d spent the last year answering questions about his missed tackle of Tech’s Roddy Jones.) And suddenly Georgia was the second-best team in Georgia no longer.
Richt and Bobo and Willie Martinez had outflanked the new genius Paul Johnson and had done it without A.J. Green, their best player. And the guys who did play outfought a Tech team known for its pugnacity.
And now we have issues galore. Does one blissful night off North Avenue override the worst season under Richt? Probably not. But for the Bulldogs and their coach and all his coaches, it had to feel good to reclaim state supremacy and to mar what has been a glorious Tech season. (To say nothing of wrecking the ACC title game.) What happens with Martinez and the other assistants can wait until another day. What happened Saturday night was a slice of deliverance 365 days in the making.
Back to our question: Who were these guys? They were the Georgia Bulldogs, only they weren’t the Georgia Bulldogs that contrived to lose five games this season. These were Bulldogs from a different time, a time when Georgia football was power football. (The Bulldogs rushed for 339 yards, the highest total under Richt.)
And if this is the way Georgia football it to look in 2010 and beyond … well, maybe the future isn’t so grim after all. Maybe the future is big and brawny thing.
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
1,342 comments Add your comment
Preston
November 29th, 2009
12:55 am
in about 7 years, you MIGHT win another one
jbts30228
November 29th, 2009
12:55 am
Great game. UGA had to hold on by the skin of their teeth. Tech is a very good program. Good luck in the ACC Championship. Please to all Dawg fans. Let us please show some class in this victory. Do not act like the Tech fans have the past year.
bdawgfan
November 29th, 2009
12:55 am
Was that King and Ealey or Worley and Henderson! Vince must have given Richt and Bobo tonight’s game plan.
TECH SUCKS! TECH SUCKS! TECH SUCKS! TECH SUCKS! TECH SUCKS! TECH SUCKS! TECH SUCKS! TECH SUCKS! TECH SUCKS! TECH SUCKS! TECH SUCKS! TECH SUCKS!
8-1! 8-1! 8-1! 8-1! 8-1! 8-1! 8-1! 8-1! 8-1! 8-1! 8-1! 8-1! 8-1! 8-1! 8-1! 8-1! 8-1! 8-1! 8-1! 8-1! 8-1! 8-1! 8-1! 8-1! 8-1! 8-1! 8-1! 8-1! 8-1! 8-1! 8-1! 8-1! 8-1! 8-1! 8-1! 8-1! 8-1! 8-1! 8-1! 8-1! 8-1! 8-1! 8-1! 8-1!
Time will show there is a reason nobody runs that offense in Division I football except for the service academies.
All is right in the state of Georgia again. (Except that Sonny Perdue is still Governor and Glenn Richardson failed in his suicide attempts.)
historydawg
November 29th, 2009
12:55 am
Didn’t academic fraud vacant Enemy victories in 98-00? 1 out of 19 must equal dominance, according to the Techies, who so familiar with numerical prowess.
jojatek
November 29th, 2009
12:55 am
Well… I said right here last week that Georgia would ride a season full of emotion into this game and take an early lead, and that we would need to maintain our composure, absorb whatever they threw at us, and STICK TO THE GAMEPLAN. They held up their end of the bargain, of course, but we lost sight of ours. Throwing the ball during that last series of downs when the option would have clearly netted us a first down and, very likely, a game-saving touchdown,is simply inexplicable to me. CPJ is “coach for life” at Tech if he wants it but, frankly, putting Bay-Bay in that position on 4th down should never have happened in this game (although Thomas needed to make that catch if he expects to be drafted in the first or second round and play on Sundays). Bottom line: We run our normal offense in that series and we steal this game 31-30 – period. Instead, Georgia (and CMR) demonstrate (again) why they are the team that defines Division 1 (do we call it FBS this year?) football in this state…
Hats-off to CMR and the Dawgs… a plain-old, back-of-the-woodshed ass-whuppin’ that should serve as the perfect wake-up call for my “not-ready-for-prime-time” Jackets before they face Clemson (and a frustrated C.J. Spiller) next week…
Go Jackets!! (and here’s hoping that the Dawgs get something better than Shreveport or Memphis… they deserve it…)
Dangerous
November 29th, 2009
12:55 am
Yes KD Tech does have a bad D, sorry ! AND TO ALL THOSE WANTING WILLIE GONE DON’T FORGET BOBO TOO! WAY TOO MANY TURNOVERS AND WAY TOO MANY BAD PLAY CALLS AND DON’T FORGET HE’S THE QB COACH AS WELL. THIS GUY STINKS!!!!!!!!!!!
Troup Dawg
November 29th, 2009
12:55 am
Well now!! Techies back on all fours in front of the BIG DAWG!! You are our bee-otches again!!!
HAHAHAHAHAH!!!!
rv310
November 29th, 2009
12:56 am
3 and out ,bad field position killed the d all year. when the o can move the ball and special teams dont suck we can win. bad play calling and bad q play was the main prob.make o adjustments and call plays that make your quarterback sucsessfull like tonight and you have a chance. go dogs!
JSS
November 29th, 2009
12:56 am
This is why grown men and women should never live vicariously through the endeavors of 17-22 year old boy and girls… Again, congratulations to the UGA football team. Until the next time that Clean Good old Fashion hate is renewed on the field in Athens in 2010.
Big Five
November 29th, 2009
12:56 am
November 28. 2009. Agreat SEC day.
SEC-3
ACC-0
big d-wood
November 29th, 2009
12:57 am
This game just proves what a joke the ACC is. Two mediocre teams from the SEC beat the top two teams in the ACC. Enjoy your championship game. Both conference champions would have a losing record in the SEC. If GA had a good coaching staff, we would be looking at 9-0 vs. the nerds.
humble the bumbles
November 29th, 2009
12:57 am
NEVER GIVE UP!
NEVER GIVE OUT!!
NEVER GIVE IN!!!
HOW ‘BOUT THEM DOGS!!!!!!!
Georgia Rushes By Georgia Tech 30-24
November 29th, 2009
12:58 am
[...] A Powerful Performance – AJC.com Categories: Clean Old-Fashioned Hate, Football Email Print | Share [...]
cdawg
November 29th, 2009
12:58 am
Great game, tech was in it all the way, don’t remember last UGA game that had 339+ yards rushing, bobo didn’t abandon the run. nice ride back to athens I am sure. Still though, two teams that have struggled in the SEC just took 20K seats from Tampa.Recruits, where do you want to play?
Denver Dawg
November 29th, 2009
12:59 am
it took until 12:42 am, but finally there came a Tech fan, trotting out his beliefs why ol’ Turkey-Neck “CPJ” still has our number.
Child, please…
Saint Simmons Hater
November 29th, 2009
12:59 am
KD are you smoking crack????
It might have been your worst game but only because we kicked your butts without our best player and with a very very young team. PJ will never be able to recruit the talent to beat UGA 2 years in a row. Receivers will
not come to Tech to block and a good running back wants to play in the I formation. PJ will make Tech another NAVY!
Saint Simons
November 29th, 2009
12:59 am
I admit that I’m gay and I now pledge my allegiance to the mighty Bulldog Nation. You are FAR superior to anything that my tiny brain could possibly comprehend and I surrender all that I thought was masculine about myself.
playmeortrademe
November 29th, 2009
1:01 am
Greek,
Amen brother, It’s a great win to shut the Techies up, but the Dawgs beat an overrated team they should beat any given year as long as the talent gap is this wide between the two. This program has to get to where UF and UT pee their pants the week before the UGA game just thinking about what’s coming, and Tech has no chance on their best day. Right now UF just laughs at us and asks where they can get tix for the SECCG.
Saint Simons
November 29th, 2009
1:01 am
The Papajohns.com bowl team just kicked your ass on your own field. HAHAHAHA!
Dan
November 29th, 2009
1:01 am
Thought CPJ was a genius? guess he should go back to Navy. As I have said all year, (not here but to my close GT buddies at work) GT is a nice little story, Gimmick offense but they can’t hang. If not for luck, it would have been 10 in a row this year and not 9 of 10! ((((((((((((((30-24))))))))))))))))))))))))) hahahahahahahahahahahahahahhahahahahahha
Scout Dawg
November 29th, 2009
1:02 am
Damn that has got to suck. NERDS.
WRGADog
November 29th, 2009
1:03 am
GO DAWGS! UGA’s worst team in years thumps Tech’s best team in almost twenty years. Order is restored within the state and life is good!
Beware of the junkyard dawg
November 29th, 2009
1:03 am
Tech sucks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
coach smith
November 29th, 2009
1:05 am
Every Dawg Has His Day!!!!!!!!
coach smith
November 29th, 2009
1:06 am
there were some hobnailed boots in Atlanta tonight and they were on the feet of Washaun Ealey and Caleb King
Saint Simons
November 29th, 2009
1:06 am
(((24-30))) WAHWAHWAHWAHWAHWAHWAHWAHWAH!!!!!
Dave
November 29th, 2009
1:08 am
Where is Saint Simons now? Go Dawgs!
SEC Rules!
November 29th, 2009
1:08 am
ACC- Almost Competitive Conference
Billy ( Not Martin)
November 29th, 2009
1:08 am
As a Tech fan, I am not a Geogia hater.
I pull for them when they do not play Tech, but since I attended neither school, I just like to see a State school do well in the national rankings.
I do think it is sad though that a program that consitently gets the kind of talent Tech would kill for would even let them get close to beating them. But if not for a dropped pass, they were on the verge of letting another game slip away by penalties and mistakes.
Georgia is the most talented underacheiving team I’ve ever seen.
They dominated Kentucky and lost. They had LSU in their grasp and lost.
They were dominated by FLorida and Tennesee to the point they looked like one of the worst teams in the ACC… see FLorida and FLorida St.
I like what Tech is now. I’m a realist and know that we may never have the depth of talent UGA has, but CPJ has the demeanor that you know they’re always going to fight. I’m not sure a UGA fan can say that.
Scout Dawg
November 29th, 2009
1:08 am
Thank you nerds. It is goings to be a long year. See you tomorrow.
Top Dawg
November 29th, 2009
1:08 am
Hey Saint Simons, Ramble on, and all you sorry fair weather, closet exiters that call yourself tech fans, 30-24 HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I was in the Mall of GEORGIA today and I have never seen so much new tech merchandise on people in my life. I guess it will be a while before I ever see that again!
Go DAWGS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Saint Simons, stay on your own cry baby blog page from now on!
GODAWGS1317064318460
November 29th, 2009
1:08 am
GOOO DAWGS!!! TECH SUCKS!!!!! HAHAHAHAHAHA NERDS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Saint Simmons Hater
November 29th, 2009
1:08 am
Hey tech having trouble holding on to your Balls????
BeBe Balls that is!!!!!!
Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha
30-24 that really had to hurt.
Dawg fan!!!
November 29th, 2009
1:09 am
to archangeladidas,
Good luck next year Florida. No Tebow, no defense, no quarteeback, and possibly no Meyer. BTW, that lame press conference Meyer had earlier this week was classic. I even like the tears. Meyer is going to his dream job next year.
So again, good luck next year.
Scout Dawg
November 29th, 2009
1:13 am
It must suck to get beat by the worst team ever you NERD loosers.
coach smith
November 29th, 2009
1:14 am
Yep!
Time to put all that new Tech merchandise you front-running Techies ran out and bought back in the bottom of the drawer.
And you can take those new car flags back down and toss them in the closet!
That earthquake we all feel is the shaking of thousands of techies jumping back off the bandwagon!
Brian
November 29th, 2009
1:15 am
This is going to be a fun year! We had gotten so used to beating Tech every year, we had come to settle for gloating for a week or two, and then letting it go. But seeing “45-42″ every day on these boards from the gloat-happy North Avenue Trade Schoolers for an entire year? The gloves are off, and I will make it my personal mission to write “30-24″ after every one of my posts for the next 364 days. Beyond that; now that we’ve gotten the bitter taste of last year out of our mouths, we’re going to make sure punks like St. Simons and Yellow Fuzz get their fill of &^%$ stew every day for the next year. It’s great to be a Georgia Bulldog!
Saint Simmons Hater
November 29th, 2009
1:16 am
Tech really has UGLY uniforms!!!!!
Oh yeah 30-24 Hahahahahaha
And you might have won if you had not dropped the ball!!!!!!!!
The Grinch
November 29th, 2009
1:16 am
In UGA’s WORST year in the past 9 we still beat tech in their BEST season in the past 9 years. Poetic justice. BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!
povox
November 29th, 2009
1:18 am
Congrats, Dawg fans. Your team played better than mine today. And it was a helluva game (despite the outcome.)
The Grinch
November 29th, 2009
1:18 am
My daughter just dropped her bottle. What a great Boo Boo Thomas impression. BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!
Pi$$onatechie
November 29th, 2009
1:19 am
fruit flyz that what u are…fruit flyz…and you were falling like flies … how about ‘em dawgs!
WRGADog
November 29th, 2009
1:19 am
Absolutely Crappy Conference (ACC)!
Jim Mora Jr.
November 29th, 2009
1:19 am
Look at the Chick-Fil-A’s falling from the sky!!!
I hear Saint Simons police are on special alert tonight, looking for a suspect possibly jumping from a high rise or even a bridge.
The Grinch
November 29th, 2009
1:21 am
tech is sooooooo last year
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!
Fort Worth Dawg
November 29th, 2009
1:22 am
The 2 ACC reps playing for the Acc title both lost to lower SEC teams….hmmmm?
dawg4life
November 29th, 2009
1:22 am
Does anyone know who just committed to the Dawgs after the game tonight?
dawg4life
November 29th, 2009
1:22 am
Does anyone know who just committed to the Dawgs after the game tonight?
Dawg 1
November 29th, 2009
1:22 am
So let’s get this right…
Georgia has 5 losses. South Carolina has 5 losses. Both beat their rivals this weekend, who are playing in the ACC Championship Game? Pretty much says it all.
Clemson 48 Georgia Tech 30
Then we’ll see who the competiton in the bowl game is.
Let’s not hear any more of attempting to equate the ACC with the SEC at least through the first half of next Fall’s Football Season. You got nothing…
Jason
November 29th, 2009
1:23 am
Tech FAIL:
http://images.cheezburger.com/completestore/2009/11/28/129039487239897100.jpg