A chilling thought: What if Richt DOESN’T beat these Gators?
Bulldogs and Gators gather to debate the issue: "Who's worse -- you or us?" (AJC file photo)
The Georgia Bulldogs head to Jacksonville, where they’ve won three times since 1989, as favorites over Florida. We couldn’t have foreseen such a thing a month ago, but here it is. Georgia, which had lost four in a row, has won three in a row. Florida hasn’t won since September.
A check of the SEC stats shows that Georgia leads Florida in every significant offensive category and in rushing defense and turnover margin. Heck, Georgia has even been flagged for fewer penalties.
Put simply, this stacks up as Georgia’s best chance to beat Florida since 2004, when Ron Zook was a lame duck. (And Georgia did prevail that year, though not without a struggle.) Put even more simply, this puts an even greater onus on the coach who’s 2-7 against the hated Gators. Because what will it say about Mark Richt if he can’t beat Urban Meyer’s worst Florida team?
I know, I know. A month ago, we were calling this Richt’s worst team. But much has changed. And you can’t have watched Florida lose to Mississippi State in Gainesville and Georgia beat Kentucky in Lexington and not think the Bulldogs are playing the better football. Georgia’s hot. Florida’s not. But how hot will Richt’s coaching seat be if his team goes to Duval County and finishes second?
I’m on record as saying I think Georgia will win. Judging by the little poll accompanying that post, 80 percent of you agree. But now I’m asking: What if Georgia doesn’t win? What then, huh?
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532 comments Add your comment
Yuck
October 30th, 2010
8:08 pm
Can we go ahead and concede the 63 of the next 70 games against UF and just save everyone some time and money…
Yuck
October 30th, 2010
8:11 pm
Seriously, fool me once UGA, shame on you….
Fool me 18 out of 21 times, shame on me….
oh…and go f yourselves….and just stay in Fla…we don’t want any of you to come back…
Sandyspringsjacket
October 30th, 2010
8:23 pm
LOSING SEASON, bet Sheivport looks really good now.
2Dawgs
October 30th, 2010
8:42 pm
3 turnovers and no one can expect to win. This one’s on Murray, not Richt.
atlgator
October 30th, 2010
8:52 pm
I’m sorry UGA fans. Ya’lls team sucks.
wildbill
October 30th, 2010
8:56 pm
18 losses, 3 wins. Welcome to Johnny Griffeth football! Losses are the norm. Stay in the dorm and watch a good game on tv.
Lifelong Dawg
October 30th, 2010
9:00 pm
Without Murray UGA loses by at least 3 TD’s. This one is on Richt. He’s like John Cooper at OSU with Michigan. Cooper won a lot of games for Ohio State, but Michigan OWNED them. Richt got out-coached and his players got out-motivated (again). He has to go. Our program is flagging, and confidence is sagging. It’s best for all involved for Richt to move on to another program, and let UGA move on to another coach.
wildbill
October 30th, 2010
9:01 pm
I wonder what the procedures are to begin an application for UGA to move down to AA ball. This AAA ball is just too darn hard. Heck, Idaho State will probably be favored after the egg was laid down in Jax.
DAWG
October 30th, 2010
9:05 pm
One thing Georgia does well, nothing at all.
GatorGuy
October 30th, 2010
9:08 pm
CMR is too good a man to by fired. (Just like Joe Pa, Bobby Bowden, and the great Al Groh) Ya’ll just need to lower those expectations,and accept defeat, but remember that your coach is great guy. Apologies to all those future NFL’ers who have to put up with the losing. Dont worry, you will still get paid. M. Stafford did. Any chance they chisel Richt, Donnen and Goff into Stone Mountain. It would be like Mt Rushmore in reverse. Any one thought about how this UGA loss will effect Tuesday’s election. I hope TeamObama wasnt counting on a Dawg win. Not good. Finally, pls stop sending those plane tix to CMR to fly to Chile to inspect the damaged coal mine. He’s not falling for it. Get it, falling!!!! Until the next visit to Jax, see you in traffic.
Warmest Holiday Wishes
Devil's Advocate
October 30th, 2010
9:15 pm
Not too long ago, Larry Munson wailed on radio about the absence of “players” at UGA. He knew that UGA was recruiting players that didn’t measure up. He asked “where are the players” and no one in the booth dared to answer. They knew that players were coming to UGA with lower talent levels AND lower behavioral standards. THIS IS NOW OBVIOUS. I would like to hear Larry Munson’s opinion of the game that we just witnessed.
hahahaha
October 30th, 2010
9:50 pm
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
VINCE DOOZY
October 30th, 2010
10:22 pm
Seriously, can’t we just phone the loss in from now on?
Florida A.D. Foley: How big a whuppin you want this time?
Georgia A.D. McGarity: How about 7 points?
Florida A.D. Can’t do it. No way. We’re back on track much improved from last year.
Georgia A.D. What about 24-10?
Florida A.D. Look, 44-12 is as good as I can do.
Georgia A.D. We’ll take it. Thanks again and I’ll talk to you again next year.
Florida A.D. Sure thing, LOSER.
Thus another UGA loss to Florida would be in the books but look at the time and money it would save!
Randy's Johnson
October 30th, 2010
11:46 pm
The root cause of the problem here is that UGA is not as good, nor has it ever been as good, as its fans think it is/was. That National Championship was 30 years ago, boys. Time to join the 21st century.
Jughead Obama
October 30th, 2010
11:46 pm
The root cause of the problem here is that UGA is not as good, nor has it ever been as good, as its fans think it is/was. That National Championship was 30 years ago, boys. Time to join the 21st century.
Big Dawg
October 31st, 2010
12:57 am
Follow dog fans,
We need to keep our chins up after this one. We can still make this a good season by running the table – then go look at all the 4/5 star recruits we have coming in next year! We may well be playing for all the marbles in both the SEC and nationally!
Hunker Down!
Big Dawg
SICK and TIRED oF CRAP
October 31st, 2010
3:51 am
IM sick and tired of the same ole crap; Losing Top recruits, not playing 60 min of football,losing to pathetic teams like SC and Kentucky, our inept play calling and losing to Florida every frikin year. Im Tired of Mark Richts Boys home. Im tired of Mark Richt….
Bud
October 31st, 2010
6:46 am
Still own Florida 47-33-2 !!! They will never catch us !!!
Steven
October 31st, 2010
8:03 am
Any bowl predictions if we win two more games. The bowl practice will help for next year!
AtlGator
October 31st, 2010
8:34 am
yay! We owned the Gators back when we wore leather helmets! Yay us! Bud, you’re either delusional, funny, or just plain sad.
UGA is Florida’s bitch for the last 20 years that anyone can remember. The only highlights for UGA are some grainy footage of “Run Lindsay” and an endzone celebration by the entire roster after their first score three years ago.
And they haven’t won since! 3-18 last 21. That’s not a rivalry.
rcgator
October 31st, 2010
9:51 am
Perhaps a change of uniform color would do the trick. If you cannot understand its coaching then you cannot be helped. We beat you with GA players (Henry) and you lose with Florida players (Murray).
College Football Expert
October 31st, 2010
9:56 am
Chilling!
SCGator
October 31st, 2010
9:57 am
Bud you are pathetic. Put on a Jethro Tull album and listen to “Living in the past”
Where you in Jax in 1981 driving a tacky conversion van like all of your breathren during the “good ol’ days?? (with an ugly bulldog head on the spare tire cover)
There was a point when it was 44-15-2. Keep that in mind.
College Football Expert
October 31st, 2010
9:58 am
Shreveport is a dream that won’t happen for these losers. Fire Richt now!
dlagator
October 31st, 2010
10:02 am
RUH-ROH! I told you not to get too excited about beating UT VANDY and Kentucky….I bet that was a long ride home.
Murray = Average….
HUMPGATOR
October 31st, 2010
10:49 am
ONCE AGAIN DAWGS ARE GATORBAIT SWEET!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!. IT’S GREAT TO BE A DAWG HATER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!. GOOOOOOOO GATORS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Think about it
October 31st, 2010
11:00 am
I’m not so sure even the fly on the the wall would stick around to hear what McGarity will have to say when he meets with Richt after this game. Yesterday we once again handed the outcome of the Georgia/Florida game over on a silver platter to a Florida team who was having a hard time beating their way out of a wet paper bag with a hole in it. When Murray threw that first pick I got a bad feeling that, this is not going to be good. His first 5 passes were misses being either underthrown or sailing on him. In his defense I thought I saw him shaking his throwing hand like he took a hit on it during that first series of plays which brings me to the point of coaches having players prepared. Florida was having problems all year with Brantly taking control of the team after Teabow and knew that if they were going to win this game he had to do something different. So he prepares not one but three quarterbacks in a week to carry out his gameplan while on the other hand Georgia coaches could not prepare Joe Cox in five years. Georgia has good coaches that have taken this program as far as they can. They can’t make the adjustments needed to assure victory during the course of the game. Case in point being we sacked Florida early but their coaches adjusted to counter our attack and they were able to move the ball and score. And what’s with the kicking game? We did not put the ball into or out of the endzone on kickoff but rather allowed Florida to start at the 40 or better the biggest part of the game.
I think the writing is on the wall that McGarity want’s more for this program than Richt can give and change is in the air.
HUMPGATOR
October 31st, 2010
1:24 pm
HEY [Think about it], CAN YOU SAY WAH. IT’S GREAT TO BE A DAWG HATER!!!!!!!!!!!!
Jock Cullen
October 31st, 2010
3:24 pm
Record is 47-40-2. You don’t count our last 7 wins? Hard to believe that 21 years ago the series record was Ga 44, UF 22, 2 ties!!!
DJS
November 1st, 2010
10:10 am
It is NOT a home game for the Gators. They travel an hour and half by bus, stay in a hotel, and are not playing in the swamp. Yes, Georgia travels further, but flies (all paid for) and technically spends less time traveling as it is a 45 minute flight. The stadium is always sold out, half Florida and half Georgia. I live in Jacksonville and I remember as a kid, when Georgia won every single year, not once did they mention moving the game. Stop finding lame excuses for your losing streak against Florida. It’s not the venue thats the problem.
Plus Georgia (and Florida) make millions off this one game. It’s a win win for both schools.
heartburn Saturdays
November 1st, 2010
3:49 pm
Mark Richt is no longer a viable option for U.G.A. His passion for Georgia football took a hit when he was forced to change defensive coordinators. The defense is much improved, but sadly, the offense continues to invent ways to lose games. The Dawgs are 13-11 over the last 24 games. The administation gave Richt a pass last year, its way past time for a new coach!!
Selah again
November 2nd, 2010
10:02 am
Bye bye, Richt. Selah.