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
RAMBLINWRECK
October 28th, 2010
4:47 pm
Dawginlex, i hear you on the VT trip but they are putting up sick offensive numbers and are playing well in their last 6 games (6-0)!! I think they should have beaten boise and it was a mental letdown for them coming back home and trying to get up for JMU. They took that loss personal and are playing with a chip on their shoulder now something the defending ACC champs should be doing! Our defense is just not responding with the 3-4 scheme. We lack playmakers within our front seven and we are just losing the war in the trenches just like what uga & iowa did to us last season. Our kids lack a nasty streak and then all the stupid fumbles and penalties. The mental mistakes vs decent teams will kill you. I believe in CPJ and i know he hates to lose but there seems to be a disconnect somewhere as our guys just don’t seem motivated? I have been perplexed with how bad we look and the fact that we get dominated by teams that are decent but nothing to go crazy about. We have not lost back to back games under CPJ yet so something has to give in blacksburg. I have a bad feeling it could be the woodshed and the whole nation will be able to tune in.
I think you guys have a great shot at beating florida as well. If you can keep murray from eating dirt and get some big stops on defense you should beat them.
THE (G) ON UGA HELMET STANDS 4 GATOR
October 28th, 2010
4:48 pm
MARK RICHT CAN’T BEAT SOUTH CAROLINA,ARK OR MISS ST,AND YOU HILLBILLIES THINK HIM AND MIKE BOZO GONE BEAT FLORIDA,YOU ALL ARE CRAZY!
BRING KIRBY SMART HOME,HE KNOWS HOW TO BEAT FLORIDA! MARK RICHT DOES’NT!
DLAGATOR
October 28th, 2010
4:52 pm
You guys are too funny…All of a sudden the Dogs are back…they beat UT, Vandy and freakin’ Kentucky…C’mon guys give me a break.
Every message either about going home and home or the UF fans wearing jorts…get a real coach and a real football team and then start talking trash. I’ve never seen a fan base that acts like their program has ever been a winner…you guys are pathetic and even if you beat UF, you’ll still have Mark Richt as your coach…good luck with that one!
blazer
October 28th, 2010
4:53 pm
it would be a Thrilling Though if the Gators win!!
ct
October 28th, 2010
5:04 pm
gator alum and tix holder here..who cares who wins, both programs are in the dump this year. Gators offense is a total joke and Meyer with all his arrogance tries to blame it on practice…lol…Georgia stinks too…as a Gator fan, I will refuse to gloat if we beat a bad Georgia team…game really does not matter, no matter how hard we all try to build it up.
Devil's Advocate
October 28th, 2010
5:27 pm
It sure is a long ride back to Athens and beyond after a loss to the Gators. A long time ago, back in the day, 2 of my gal friends bummed a ride down and back. After the Gators won, they must have drunk all night and snored all the way back to Athenstown. I wonder if it would have been any better had the dawgs won. I won’t be making this trip, and I have no idea whatsoever who is gonna win. CMR does not inspire confidence however. To my observation, he is like Top Gun when he wouldn’t engage in conflict…………..
jerry
October 28th, 2010
5:36 pm
Richt was cooking at 450 degrees during the losing streak but the oven has been turned down to about 250. A loss gets it back up to around 450-500.
wins-by-a-link
October 28th, 2010
6:01 pm
Georgia won’t lose in jax, Too much offence, They have the best qb since david greene, defence may be a little shaky but should be able to hold fla to 20 or less, richt felt the heat and responded.
Jean Short with Donger hanging out
October 28th, 2010
6:12 pm
17 out of 20….. make it 18…
Bulldog Friend
October 28th, 2010
6:14 pm
Mark: Nothing will happen to MR. He will be coaching football at UGA
with BoBo (if he chooses) in 2011. He has an excellent W/L record in his 10 years. He will not be fired due to one medicore season and because he
loses to UF. Do you have a suggestion for a better HC at UGA?
UF Streak is Over
October 28th, 2010
6:23 pm
The dawgs will win convincingly on Saturday with a blowout and take back this series. Without tebow, florida coaches look ordinary. Their offense may be worse than vanderbilt’s! Dawgs in a rout: 41-16!
way to go Richt
October 28th, 2010
6:23 pm
Richt is paid 2+ mil yearly to at least be competitive with Florida. 2-7 soon to be 2-8 ain’t competitive. McGarity needs to grow a pair and deal appropriately after Richt’s Saturday joke of an effort, where he goes in knowing he isn’t going to win, and wait and see, for the umpteenth time he won’t have them prepared, there will be a ton of missed tackles, Ealey and King probably both cough it up once, and Vance Cuff will blunder again in the secondary. Knowledgeable fans know the probable outcome and when it happens in reality, its too bad Richt keeps the 2+ mil and gets to finish out the year. Ric ht’s a loser against Florida, and stinks against the SEC’s best coaches. Please, next search committee, note to self, do not consider unproven assistant coaches who incredibly might believe powder puff football will cut it against LSU, Bama and Florida, and soon Tennessee when Dooley gets that program rolling.
FloridaStateinDC
October 28th, 2010
6:34 pm
If Georgia does lose, which looks likely, FSU will clean house in recruiting..woohoo….
Bet the Dawgs!
October 28th, 2010
7:10 pm
Laying 3 points, against this terrible florida team? This may be the easiest money I’ve made all year. Ga will win this game by 20+—-florida has nothing. Dawgs 44 florida 19
BobbyDawg
October 28th, 2010
8:26 pm
I’ve got a lot of faith in our defense especially the way they played the first half against Kty.
Our offense is playing like wildfire and seems to be able to move the ball on any team. I’m gonna be looking for big plays from A.J. Green, Aaron Murray, and Caleb King.
Dawgs 35 Gators 24 GO DAWGS!
kgtech
October 28th, 2010
8:43 pm
Why all the hype about the Fla-UGA game. TN,Vandy- high school caliber. Ky well you just got lucky. Keep all your trailor,jail infested sh** out of Fla and quit giving the great state of GA a bad name.
beatdowns galore
October 28th, 2010
8:43 pm
This will be Mark Richts waterloo after the third beatdown in a row by the mighty Gators. Bank on it leghumpers !
tell me again
October 28th, 2010
8:59 pm
What if Georgia doesn’t beat this pitiful Tennessee team? What if Georgia doesn’t beat this paltry Vandy team? What if Georgia loses to this dangerous Kentucky Team? Every week it’s the same story line – the Dawgs are going to kick Florida’s A** and laugh all of the way back to Athens – Urban has no magic, no coaches and precious little talent with even less experience – it’s over. Dawgs better than advertised and Gators as bad as they feared. Urban emptying the jail cells will not save him.
athdog
October 28th, 2010
9:11 pm
Buzzzzzzzzz…..until you go through a season with no players beating their girlfriends’, you need to lay off of the ‘UGA thugs’ line.
Until the Dogs stop giving up first downs on third and long, longer, super long, ridiculously long, they will not beat Florida or any good team. Ky, Vandy, and UT are not good teams.
Once again, play action will be shown to be ineffective when the running game is sputtering…and I’m a big Richt fan!
GA fan wants to stay in JAX
October 28th, 2010
9:23 pm
For all the years we’ve been going to Jax –Love it and love the beaches– and all the years we’ve won in Jax, I can’t believe everyone thinks it’s because it’s in Florida is the reason we lose. What a croc –It’s not were we play or the talent level its the coaching….
Michael Adams
October 28th, 2010
9:24 pm
With two weeks to prepare, the Smart Money is on Florida .
And after this game, maybe I’ll just have to give Old Kirby a Call !!!
I really do need a fix asap !
SugarHillDawg
October 28th, 2010
9:31 pm
Hey Bulldog Friend, what’s this one bad season crap? This will make TWO IN A ROW!!!!!!!!! If we lose, Richt needs to go PERIOD!!!!!!!!!!!!
Yellow Fuzz
October 28th, 2010
9:50 pm
Mr. Obvious
October 28th, 2010
12:59 pm
If Yellow fuzz wasn’t gay, he would like girls.
My girlfriend is one of the best looking girls on the ug campus. I guarantee it!
Georgia is an SEC stepchild
October 28th, 2010
9:55 pm
This is too funny! UGA fans (in their own Minds) have the Dawgs as a top tier SEC team when in actuality UGA has won 3 SEC championships in 20 years and 1 national title in 30. Those are Ole Miss numbers.
UGA with all the talent in the High Schools are so overrated year in and year out. Who to blame for that? Coaches, Facilities, AD’s, support personnel? It does not matter. The past three years UGA has been an embarrassement to the SEC with all the arrest, failing to meet expectations, penalties, and turnovers.
The problem starts with the President of the University, Michael Adams, when he arrived on campus he wanted to be bigger than Vince Dooley and anyone else. It job is to lead the University not to be the media outlet. As Paul Bryant said one time” I have never seen 80,000 people show up for a science experiment on a Saturday afternoon”. Dr. Adams should give CMR the facilties he needs to build a “franchise”. Our current facilities are horrible and if you do not believe me go around every other major program in the South and take a look. Build a indoor “full” practice facility. Coach Mcgill got what he wanted with booster support for tennis and built a state of art facility and it is recognized nationally. But Dr. Adams is too much about Dr. Adams.
Athletic Director, Dooley to Drunk to McGarity…Dooley got forced out and many boosters were upset, The Drunk was all about removing any Dooley marks around the Campus. In the process he made several horrible hires. McGarity, he learned a good one at Florida, we all hope it rubs off on some of the nobodies around campus.
Coaching, CMR had a great staff when he took over for Donnan, Donnan left a boat load of great DL, OL and inside people for CMR. CMR brough in some great speed, athletic skill people to make the offense and defense better than most and won some titles with that talent. Since then he has lost coaches, recruits have not panned out, penalites have added up, and arrest are at an all time high.
The UGA team has a group have become below average, we lose Green, Durham, Huston, and a couple of other players to the NFL or graduation and there goes our offense and our stand out defensive player. What will we do then? We have a couple of players suspended for games while in high school this year or sitting out as a “players strike”. Who in their right mind wants a kid like that in a decision making postion on their team? No one, but I guess as bad as we are we are desperate.
We have won 3 games in a row against the 3 worst teams in the conference and we are all excited and thinking because UF is down we will win, are you kidding me? Florida is still loaded with 4 and 5 star talent , have better speed than us and had a week off to prepare, get well and rest.
We will get hammered if we can not throw the ball and will have yet to stop the power sweep( Florida’s) bread and butter.
We will find out how good we are in the second half opening drive, if we are ahead, do we score?, if we are behind can we stop them?
But as of today we are a SEC Step Child in the SEC.
Felon alert!
October 28th, 2010
9:56 pm
lets see, speeding ticket or playing a felon. You decide.
Rainey has not played since his Sept. 14 arrest on a felony charge of aggravated stalking for allegedly texting his former girlfriend, “Time to Die [expletive].” The charge subsequently was reduced to misdemeanor stalking as part of a deferred prosecution agreement, and Rainey was reinstated to the Florida team on Oct. 11. He did not play in the Gators’ Oct. 16 loss to Mississippi State, but Meyer said last week that Rainey would be eligible to play against Georgia if he met the conditions of his reinstatement.”
Fool alert!
October 28th, 2010
9:59 pm
Georgia is an SEC stepchild is a confirm idiot.
“The problem starts with the President of the University, Michael Adams, when he arrived on campus he wanted to be bigger than Vince Dooley and anyone else.”
You stupid sob, he is the biggest man on campus. What a fool are you?
ROTLMAO
aarh
October 28th, 2010
9:59 pm
UGAbugkiller- I’m tired of the arrests too & I’m not sure what the answer is. Why should Richt go bc of that when Meyer has the same problem at FL.? I also think some crimes are worse than others, & I don’t think the starter’s offenses were as bad. Not every offense deserves to be kicked of the team.
Georgia is an SEC stepchild
October 28th, 2010
10:00 pm
Sorry for the misspellings, and grammar, but was fired up!
UF 24 UGA 22 …I have lost confidence and the bye week for Florida means too much, wish we could have swapped the dates and inserted UK from last week to Florida, we could have had a chance.
Georgia is an SEC stepchild
October 28th, 2010
10:02 pm
Fool ALERT!
How many people have heard of Michael Adams when he arrived on campus? a handful
How many who know nothing about football knew the name DOOLEY? A few SEC Stadiums full.
you moron…
Georgia is an SEC stepchild
October 28th, 2010
10:04 pm
Still today..How many people outside of the state of Georgia know who Michael Adams is?
still very very few…..
How bout VINCE 20 years after his last win?
Millions
Fool alert!
October 28th, 2010
10:06 pm
How many who know nothing about football knew the name DOOLEY? A few SEC Stadiums full.
Maybe idiots like you think the football program drives the university, but those that attended and graduated don’t think like you. Thank God for that.
Michael Adams was Vince Dooley’s boss. Period. Nothing else matters.
Georgia is an SEC stepchild
October 28th, 2010
10:06 pm
Fool Alert!
Your mom is a street walker and she still knew who Vince is?
Fool alert!
October 28th, 2010
10:07 pm
Still today..How many people outside of the state of Georgia know who Michael Adams is?
Damn, you really are an idiot. The university is not guided by the crowd that lives and breaths ESPN.
Georgia is an SEC stepchild
October 28th, 2010
10:08 pm
Florida and UGA, both have done a horrible job in keeping the student athletes out of jail and out of trouble, that is pretty much a wash on both side by side.
Fool alert!
October 28th, 2010
10:08 pm
Georgia is an SEC stepchild it is past your bedtime. You are an uninformed, uneducated idiot. Now STFU.
Georgia is an SEC stepchild
October 28th, 2010
10:10 pm
Once again, every school in the SEC including Vanderbilt is grounded by the Athletics Program and that is why every school starts a football team, moves to FCS and competes, for the national recognition and television availablity to expose their campus.
Go light one up, you need it.
You got your handle right, you are a FOOL.. and we need to be on alert.
Fool alert!
October 28th, 2010
10:11 pm
Florida and UGA, both have done a horrible job in keeping the student athletes out of jail and out of trouble, that is pretty much a wash on both side by side.
Why is it the responsibility of Florida and UGA to keep athletes out of trouble? Should they monitor the band members as well? You really are clueless on the role of the university. You must be one of those crotch holding street corner philosophers.
Fool alert!
October 28th, 2010
10:13 pm
Once again, every school in the SEC including Vanderbilt is grounded by the Athletics Program.
Dude, you are an idiot if you think these schools are driven by athletics. Sure they love the money, but just because it funds additional programs that might not be funded otherwise.
Georgia is an SEC stepchild
October 28th, 2010
10:14 pm
Fool Alert, I can wager to you, I have been on more campuses, attended more sporting events, have an higher education level and have access to more programs than you could only dream about.
Therefore from this post on, you are a ghost to me. You have proven your inability to communicate with a lucid thought.
Fool alert!
October 28th, 2010
10:15 pm
have an higher education level and have access to more programs than you could only dream about.
hahahah. The tough internet guy. hahaha.
Fool alert!
October 28th, 2010
10:16 pm
Just because you attend SEC football games, you think you understand how a University works. Only in your drunken stupers.
Georgia is an SEC stepchild
October 28th, 2010
10:16 pm
When all you can do is type what I have written and make some idiot comment, it shows your inability to think and the inability to get your head out of a$$.
Fool alert!
October 28th, 2010
10:18 pm
Just tell me again how Micheal Adams is not the big man on campus because “everyone” knows who Vince Dooley is… That is my favorite.
Georgia is an SEC stepchild
October 28th, 2010
10:18 pm
FOOL ..Go to bed, your mom just got in from her street job and wants to do an internet show so her pimp will not show up and beat on her for her lack of money earned.
Fool alert!
October 28th, 2010
10:20 pm
Georgia is an SEC stepchild if Vince Dooley is the bigger man on campus, why didn’t he fire Micheal Adams?
Georgia is an SEC stepchild
October 28th, 2010
10:21 pm
Just in case you did not know it, every President is hired by a board or chancellors and he has academic control over the campus and all actions on that campus. At UGA Adams put his hand on hiring every coach and AD. At every other institution the Board and Chancellors create a committee and do the hiring, it is all about power play with Dr. Adams.
Dr. Adams knows NOTHING about athletics, football, or anything that is related to it.
You moron.
Georgia is an SEC stepchild
October 28th, 2010
10:24 pm
I guess MAL MOORE at Alabama the AD should have allowed the president of the school hire someone other than Nick Saban? No he went to the Board and told them to give him the money to hire the man he wanted and they did. Dr. Adams could learn alot, stay out of the Athletics Department and enjoy the money it brings in so he can champion those science projects.
Fool alert!
October 28th, 2010
10:25 pm
Dr. Adams knows NOTHING about athletics, football, or anything that is related to it.
And why should he. The university is about education, not providing a tail gating opportunity for fools like you to make bigger fools of themselves. Half the idiots at those games never attended the school. Georgia has all of the athletics facilities it needs, either currently or in the works.
Move the Game
October 28th, 2010
10:25 pm
If georgia loses again, adams & mcgarity should insist they move the game to Athens or Atlanta every other year. UGA has a huge disadvantage by having to travel hours to atlanta then fly to jax, go to the hotel, etc. and florida just has a short bus ride from gainesville.
Georgia is an SEC stepchild
October 28th, 2010
10:27 pm
Fool …You must be a young pup, go ask your daddy if you know who he is and ask him how Dr. Adams did such a poor job when he first arrived in making his marks on the Athletic Department.
I am sure anyone else on here above the age of 40 can fill you in on how much turmoil Dr. Adams caused and the money that was withheld due to his incompetence for years after Coach Dooley was forced out.