In the SEC Least, know who looks hot? Mark Richt and UGA
As Vince Dooley once said: "We've got good depth at dog." (AJC photo by Brant Sanderlin)
Two weeks ago we wondered if Georgia would win another game. (I was pretty confident about Vanderbilt and Idaho State, but the way the Bulldogs were fumbling and getting arrested you couldn’t know.) Now we wonder if they can win the SEC Least. (It’s suddenly possible.) And we also wonder if their coach isn’t again the most stable guy in his division.
Mark Richt has gone from losing four in a row, a personal nadir, to beating two division brethren by the aggregate score of 84-14. In the SEC East, where every team has lost at least two league games, this qualifies as a surge.
How uninspiring has this division, once the class of the collegiate game, become? Consider: Should it beat Kentucky in Lexington on Saturday night, there’s a chance Georgia, which not so long ago was 1-4, would go to Jacksonville favored over Florida.
Because the Gators are awful. And South Carolina looks eminently capable of doing the South Carolina thing, meaning build up hopes only to send them crashing. And the other three East teams are a combined 2-8 in conference play. A closer look at the Least;
South Carolina: Even by Poultry standards, the past three weeks have been dizzying. The Gamecocks blew a lead at Auburn, beat No. 1 Alabama by two touchdowns and blew an even bigger lead at Kentucky. Steve Spurrier botched the endgame in Lexington and was summarily demoted from Evil Genius to the New Les Miles. And Marcus Lattimore, the great freshman runner, got hurt against the Wildcats.
Florida: Watching the Gators lose to Mississippi State and erstwhile lieutenant Dan Mullen, it really did seem as if the Urban Crier was about to cry. (Given that the last Florida coach who lost to MSU got fired the next week, Meyer might have had reason.) His famous offense had managed six points against Alabama and now seven versus State. In between he’d managed to get outsmarted by Les Miles. Retirement looks better with every week, wouldn’t you say?
Kentucky: Joker Phillips, the new coach, has a new slogan: Operation Win. This marks an improvement on the old UK mission: Operation Lose In The Most Painful Way Imaginable. And the Joker did just beat Spurrier — would that make the Ol’ Ball Coach the Riddler? — in a game of national significance. But the Wildcats have also accomplished two things that required real effort: They made Florida’s offense look good for one night, and they lost to Ole Miss, which had lost to Jacksonville State.
Vanderbilt: It was believed new coach Robbie Caldwell wouldn’t win an SEC game this season. Hah. He has beaten Ole Miss and might beat Tennessee. He also lost to Georgia by 43 points. It’s still Vandy, I’m afraid.
Tennessee: As ever, the Vols’ schedule eases toward the end. By then, however, they figure to be 2-6 overall and 0-5 in SEC play. And the hiring of Derek Dooley, which went over well enough at the time, has begun to be regarded as another in the series of Mike Hamilton whiffs. (Athletic directors never look good when their choice messes up worse than Les Miles, who has become the most interesting man in the Western Hemisphere.)
Loading ...And then there’s Richt: Calm, cool — if Georgia’s coach is nothing else, he’s calm and cool — and managing to collect his thoughts. The offense looks good. The defense looks better. After starting 0-3 in the conference, the Bulldogs are on the move.
To win the division, Georgia needs to finish a game ahead of South Carolina, which holds the tiebreaker edge because it beat the Bulldogs. (A three-way tie could reset the tiebreaker.) But the Gamecocks still must play Arkansas in Columbia and Florida in Gainesville; it’s possible they could finish 4-4 in the league.
To get to 5-3, Georgia cannot lose again. It must win at Kentucky, in Jacksonville and at Auburn on Nov. 13. I’m not sure about that last game — Auburn’s pretty stinkin’ good, to borrow a Richt-ism — but neither the Wildcats or the Gators are any better than the Bulldogs. This could still happen, people.
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435 comments Add your comment
MS Bully
October 18th, 2010
9:18 am
Mark,
Why don’t you give MS. State some credit. Not only did they beat Florida on the road they also beat Georgia at home. Look at who gave Auburn their toughest game, Mississippi State!! State held Auburn to 17 points. State’s only other loss is to undefeated LSU. Check your top 25 and you will see Mississippi State, not Florida or Georgia. The only remedy is more COWBELL!!!!!!!
DawginLex
October 18th, 2010
9:19 am
Mark,
Have you stored enough valium away for the possibility that the Kentucky Wildcats might be in ATL in the SECCG????
Beat UGA
Beat MSU
Beat Vandy
Beat UT
florida loses to UGA
SC loses to either Ark or fla
UK is in Atlanta
And, mwh6767...
October 18th, 2010
9:19 am
…talk about being obsessed – you are a Tech fan but have been going to UGA games for 15 years – wow, you REALLY are obsessed, Thanks for pointing it out so well…and I have no allegiance to either school (Davidson Wildcat – Class of 1975)…so I can objectively say that Tech fans are MUCH more obsessed with UGA than vice-versa…
Ted M
October 18th, 2010
9:19 am
UGA could go to the Sugar Bowl with a 8-5 record.
Greg
October 18th, 2010
9:19 am
Hey dawg house
There were a lot of empty seats against Tenn and Vandy. STFU
SECWasteManagement
October 18th, 2010
9:19 am
As long as Georgia beats Florida (which I will be raising un-holy hell at) then the season was a great one. Winning the East is just too far of a stretch for me to look at right now though. Kentucky played their best ball of the year on Saturday, and it won’t duplicate. I know Richt will have them focused for Kentucky and all, but you know everyone is looking towards Florida. The Gators are a crumbling program this year and I hope reality has set in for UF because things are not going to get better. UGA had their years of dominance with Butts and Dooley, then Florida took over until now. Day of the Dawg has finally come boys!
Tweets that mention In the SEC Least, know who looks hot? Mark Richt and UGA | Mark Bradley -- Topsy.com
October 18th, 2010
9:19 am
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Mark Bradley and Jay Philips, Chase Cain. Chase Cain said: Happy Monday! It's about time! RT @MarkBradleyAJC: In the #SEC Least, know who looks hot? Mark Richt and #UGA. http://bit.ly/91Tgw6 [...]
ryan
October 18th, 2010
9:20 am
Dawgfan- So running the entire field on the team and dancing around like a bunch of idiots is showing class? How bout stomping on Vandy’s logo? Your jealousy of the UF football program is obvious , yet a prideful ignorant dog will never admit that. Two national titles since 06, and the pups haven’t sniffed one since Reagan was in office. That eats away at every UGA fan’s heart. We know it does. Your post reeks of a typical UGA with no concept on reality, and the fact that the gators have owned you in your lifetime. Keep up the bitter attitude. In two weeks you will more than likely finish off that bottle of Jim Beam and drink yourself into a depressing stupor. UF owns UGA.
Hey, Greg...
October 18th, 2010
9:21 am
…there may have been a lot of empty seats, but at least they were “sold” – can’t make people go to the game, so YOU, STFU…
SECWasteManagement
October 18th, 2010
9:21 am
Empty seats or not, it was still the 60th something straight sell-out. The tickets were purchased even though someone was not in the seat.
TheItalianDawg
October 18th, 2010
9:22 am
people, Vandy is not as bad as many stated here, Vandy can be very competitive team, they beat Ole Miss and can not be taken lightly and still beating them 43-0 and limit them to 140 yards that is pretty impressive. dawgs D was dominant. but how about the play calling of Mike Bobo, I’ll say very much improved but lets see if he can be consistent against Kentucky.
Hey, Ryan...
October 18th, 2010
9:23 am
…get your facts straight – Carter was still in office when UGA last won the MNC…
Dawg House
October 18th, 2010
9:23 am
The Vanderbilt game was the 61st consecutive sellout at Sanford Stadium.
How many sellouts has Tech had the last 2 seasons?? Just 1. When the Dawgs came rolling in, and punched em’ in their stingers.
(((((30-24)))))
8-1
60-39-5
Ted M
October 18th, 2010
9:24 am
Urban Meyer has gotta be feeling the stress. Considering his almost retirement last year how soon before he starts to get bombarded with questions about stress management and possible retirement?
just a fan
October 18th, 2010
9:26 am
A win is a win is a win, a couple weeks ago we thought we weren’t going to beat Tennessee after the way they played LSU we are playing better as a team week to week and you can clearly see the improvement in the D all this team needs to do is take it one game at a time and don’t get caught looking ahead
Terry
October 18th, 2010
9:26 am
I see nothing has changed with the most delusional fan base. Beat two bad teams at home and you’re just awesome! You will win out!!
Only a complete in denial moron would be talking bs like this after losing 4 games in a row. There is no other fan base in this country that has as many idiots as the uga .
robodawg
October 18th, 2010
9:26 am
If UGA beats UK and Florida, but loses to Auburn, and USC loses to Arkansas and Florida, could we have a 4 way tie of teams with 4 losses?!
Doug
October 18th, 2010
9:27 am
Derek Dooley a whiff? Time for you to start writing about Kentucky basketball. How can you call a coach a whiff when he goes into the season with 65 players on scholarship? We have exactly 1 upperclassmen, Luke Stocker, who will be drafted. In the last quarter against UGA at one time we had 7 TRUE freshman on the field at the same time.
DD may turn out to be Saban ll or a whiff but nobody in their right mind can evaluate him now with the lack of talent.
SadDawg
October 18th, 2010
9:27 am
“Auburn has had 4 really close wins and their defense looks worse than the Dawgs.”
*******************************
Come on Ted M, do a little research and you’ll see that we have one of the better Ds in the SEC, as far as points allowed, already. Look at what SC’s offense did vs Bama, and what ARK did to Auburn.
Grantham’s bunch has held all of our opponents to fewer points than the top teams have, even with 9 new starters and a whole different scheme. Plus, until the past 2 games, Bobo’s O led the free world in 3-and-outs. I like the way I can actually see adjustments on the fly by Grantham.
Yeah, we lost 4 games, but were in every game, and in 2 of them, The offense scored 6 and 12 points.
It seems like the D is getting better, but we’ll know Saturday afternoon . . .
mwh6767
October 18th, 2010
9:28 am
HEY. Nice try but I’ve been to games that uga DIDN”T play Tech and heard the “and to hell with Ga. tech ” from the students and fans. Stop making excuses, thats my problem with uga fans on this site. You guys want to bad mouth other fans and other schools for things but you do the same or similar things. I read the bradley and shultz pieces, even if they are about uga, or tech or whomever because I love college football. ANY time a fan of another school says ANYTHING not liked about UGA, uga fans go after him. But yet the roles are reversed all the time and not just uga fans against tech. Point is stop whining, smack talk is part of college football and everybody has a favorite team and everybody has the right to do it. If you don’t like somebody saying TO HELL WITH UGA, OR NOTHING SUCKS LIKE A BIG ORANGE, OR GAYTORS. Shut off your computer, stay at home, and watch the game on your own tv.
Dawg House
October 18th, 2010
9:31 am
my point, earlier, was the fact that Tech fans TRULY expect UGA supporters to fold up, and throw away our “G” gear. They expect us to badmouth the program and burn down the stadium.
When reality sets in, that we LOVE our program today more than ever, they get frustrated. There are the few, and trust me, they are the FEW, who want Richt gone, and want to act like we are doomed. But they are not “real fans”. Tech should know a thing or 2 about “real fans” and fake…… where were you guys before Paul Johnson got lucky as s*** and beat UGA 2 seasons ago?…… think about that for a minute……
“To Hell with Georgia Tech”??….no…. I don’t obsesss over another team… so I prefer to say “Go Dawgs!!!!”
84Dawg
October 18th, 2010
9:31 am
Mark,
Pains me to say it, if South Carolina becomes South Carolina, there is an equal chance that Georgia becomes Georgia ans finds a way to lose to UF. With 2 weeks to prepare for us, I do not like our chances.
What are the odds that a team that loses to CU and Miss St, beats UF, UT and Auburn?
If UGA was to win the East-what is the reward? A shot at Bama or a rematch with Auburn? Yikes
Ted M
October 18th, 2010
9:32 am
Saddawg – I meant to say Auburns defense looks worse than the Dawgs defense early in the season. I agree they are looking pretty good now.
Geez, mwh6767...
October 18th, 2010
9:34 am
…you are totally wrong about your argument above and cannot bear the fact that the Tech fight song does say what it says, and has always said that, while you admit that the UGA song is adjusted for every opponent – just keep digging, buddy, that hole is getting deeper and deeper, and the obsession stronger and stronger…
No smack talk from me, just pure facts – no smack needed when facts are facts…
another ptc dawg
October 18th, 2010
9:35 am
Problem #1–The Dawgs have lost three road games, two of them at night. If the Dawgs grow up in Lex they have a chance.
Problem #2–Florida has an open week, but they are still fl. This is the only game I really want to win this year(until gt). I think we have a good chance.
Problem #3–Auburn is good this year!! But the home team loses more often than it wins in this series. So the Dawgs have a chance.
My preseason prediction was AU vs UGA for the SECCG. Still possible.
Sanford Drive
October 18th, 2010
9:35 am
How do you avoid being mugged at Tech on a Thursday night??
Attend the football game.
mwh6767
October 18th, 2010
9:35 am
Dawg house I was at the uga v. tech game two years ago and it wasn’t luck. Tech came out in the 2nd half and want it more. And just like uga came to tech last year and ran it down tech’s throat that is what happened in 2008. One team wanted it more. STOP MAKING EXCUSES
Burdell
October 18th, 2010
9:36 am
The irony of the “I can settle the…” post made my morning…
?????
October 18th, 2010
9:36 am
So in order for UGA to compete for an SEC title, the SEC has to go in the toilet? Makes sense to me.
robodawg
October 18th, 2010
9:37 am
It’s still S Carolina’s to lose. But that’s entirely possible. And you gotta think all that talent in Gainesville is going to come together at some point this season. At least their defense will keep them in most games. This is going to be interesting. Better bring our A game to Kentucky and give the Gators something to think about.
Dave
October 18th, 2010
9:37 am
Just focus on KY, people. Hope to play well against the. Cobb is going to be hard to contain.
Can’t see anyone stopping Newton…maybe slow him down. Get a lineman and a linebacker to shadow him and his every move. Their ONLY responsibility is Newton….period. At 6′6″ and 250…he can run like a deer. He’s pretty much unstoppable.
Get the win in KY. Survive and advance. Anyone that states “It’s ONLY KY!” should be banned from making comments on any blog from here on out.
Sanford Drive
October 18th, 2010
9:37 am
That REALLY REALLY ugly car that Tech parades around the field before their home games, has a flag on the front that reads “Top Hell with Georgia”………
You won;t find a damn thing in Sanford Stadium that reads “To Hell with Georgia Tech”……
What the Huck!
October 18th, 2010
9:38 am
A few years ago Georgia was struggling and Auburn was ranked 5th in the nation. At a high school game on Friday night an Auburn friend promised not to rub it in about how bad they beat us during the following week.
Georgia dismantled Auburn. Anything can happen.
Beating Kentucky in Lexington on Saturday night will require a monumental effort and the Dogs don’t have nearly all of their probelms worked out, but Mark Richt is who Rudyard Kipling had in mind when he wrote, “If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs and blaming it on you . . .” Mark Richt is a man.
cantondawg
October 18th, 2010
9:38 am
UGA is a completely different team now than in the first four games. AJ is back and now the offense has alot of confidence and any time you have #8 on the field you have a a slugger’s chance of winning games. Defense is playing much better and starting to get the hang of CTG scheme. I really like our chances against UK and UF. Auburn should be the real test of the season but we have historically played them well. I think UGA can run the table and get to the SECC.
mwh6767
October 18th, 2010
9:38 am
Geez, I have never denied the tech fight song says what it says. As usual a non uga supporter gets attacked for not drinking the kool aid. YOU ARE MISSING THE POINT!
SC Dawg
October 18th, 2010
9:39 am
Gotta love the Gator fan whining on here about class. You must have a short memory pal b/c I seem to recall Meyer calling a timeout a few years ago late in the fourth against Miami with UF up by twenty plus points so the Gators could kick a field goal. Also called a timeout late against UGA 2 years ago so they could score again. Yeah when I think about class Meyer and UF always come to mind. Oh yeah where is UF ranked this week.
And, Burdell...
October 18th, 2010
9:40 am
…that irony got just the response that was intended – and you took the bait, too…
Ted M
October 18th, 2010
9:40 am
Mark,
I agree with Doug. You need to cut Dooley some slack and not because he’s a Dooley but because he was dealt a really crappy hand.
Gator Palooza
October 18th, 2010
9:40 am
Fire Meyer NOW!!! He was winning with Zook’s recruits and has been revealed. We need a coach with a deep South pedigree and a drawl.
Lowcountry Bulldawgs
October 18th, 2010
9:41 am
The way Bobo has called plays the past two weeks CMR better watch out or the Falcons will be looking to hire him after the playcalling of Mike Mularkey the past few weeks.
So, mwh6767...
October 18th, 2010
9:42 am
…just what is the point I am missing? The Tech song says what it says, so my point is that Tech is more obsessed with UGA – inquiring minds want to know…
mwh6767
October 18th, 2010
9:42 am
SC DAWG so it was classy for Richt to have his team dance in the end zone several years ago in uga v. uf game after they scored a td?
cantondawg
October 18th, 2010
9:42 am
Cowboys are 1-4 and it’s obvious WP will be canned after the season. How nervous are the Tide fans right now. We all know that JJ will unload the bank and double CNS salary to 8 million. There’s no way Saban passes up the chance to coach America’s team.
Nick Esasky
October 18th, 2010
9:43 am
Come on Mark, that column from 2 weeks ago was clearly written tongue in cheek, concluding with “if Georgia loses this week, forget I mentioned this”. Not hardly a prediction.
If Mark Richt’s program is now the model of stability in the SEC East because it beat bad Tennessee and Vandy teams in the last 2 weeks and hasn’t had a player arrested in the last week, that doesn’t say a lot for the SEC East. The East is about as bad in football as the SEC West was in basketball last season, and that’s saying something.
SadDawg
October 18th, 2010
9:44 am
mwh6767, I don’t think it was a matter of “want” in that ‘08 game. We had a DC who couldn’t adjust to PJ’s subtle halftime changes, and the rest is history.
Ted M
October 18th, 2010
9:44 am
Don’t fire Meyer (I know you were being sarcastic) make him quit. Make him quit like a little quitter who just can’t take it.
gene
October 18th, 2010
9:44 am
yeah all you here in sanitation landfill stadium is rednecks cursing.
mwh6767
October 18th, 2010
9:44 am
The point is both sides hate each other both sides to leval obsess over what the other does. Uga fans will say they don’t but they do. Stop whining about the hell with uga. Stop whining about a gator fan saying something about uga. Because All fanbases talk smack!
nola dawg fan
October 18th, 2010
9:45 am
Mark did totally lay out this potential a couple weeks ago. The crazy thing is if you believe this pipe dream (about what it is.. but yeah, its fun), you actually needed UF to beat MSU the other night. UGA would have fared better in a 3 way tie breaker with UF and USC (better in division record than USC, blah blah).
But hey, just beat the fighting Bradleys, errr the Wildcats. And worry about the rest later.
Hey, Nick Esasky...
October 18th, 2010
9:45 am
…so what if the column to which Mark pointed you was written “tongue in cheek” – if it comes to fruition, it is genius, especially since he put the disclaimer about losing to UT in there…