A tale of two seasons: UGA rights itself; Tech is going wrong
Florida usually wins this game. But maybe not this time. (AJC photo by Brant Sanderlin)
Seasons can be confounding things. Georgia lost its first two games and its coach was thought by some to be a goner. Now Mark Richt stands one game from solidifying his position once and for all. (Well, at least until 2012.) The game will be played in Jacksonville, the place where Richt fares worst, but still: If the Bulldogs win Saturday, they’ll surely finish no worse than 8-4 and they could well win the SEC East, and either way significant improvement will have been shown.
Consider, on the other hand, Georgia Tech. The Jackets won their first six games and rose to No. 12 in the Associated Press poll. They’ve since lost to two unranked opponents and figure to be underdogs in three of their remaining four games. What appeared to be a bounceback season could become something far less, and a 7-5 record wouldn’t satisfy anyone. Not after the 6-7 of 2010. Not after starting 6-0. Should Tech prove unable to arrest its slide, it would represent the first real reversal of Paul Johnson’s stewardship.
Here we pause for stipulations: Tech’s 6-0 start was largely a function of schedule, the same as Georgia’s 0-2 beginning, the same as the Bulldogs’ five consecutive victories. (Georgia’s four SEC wins have come against opponents that are an aggregate 1-15 in league play.) But you can only beat the teams you play, and you can only play the teams on your schedule. And football, for all its intricacies, is often a game of sheer momentum. Georgia and Richt have found it. Tech and Johnson have lost it.
There are moments where you’d swear this Georgia team is scarcely an improvement over last season’s, but this team — key difference — hasn’t fumbled away so many winnable games. (Only one so far, that against South Carolina.) A starving Bulldog Nation will take the thinnest of victories over the hated Gators and treat it like fiilet mignon. And even if Georgia somehow contrived to lose to Auburn and Tech, it would be hard to part with Richt after a season in which he finally negotiated his tripwire game.
See you soon. Paul Johnson with Clemson's Dabo Swinney. (AP photo)
Tech could lose every game from here until New Year’s and Johnson wouldn’t be going anywhere. He remains in high esteem among his constituency. But here’s a cold slice of truth: The man who beat Georgia in Year 1 and won the ACC in Year 2 has gone 7-7 over his past 14 games. Last season’s collapse could be attributed to the loss of quarterback Joshua Nesbitt, who broke his arm at Virginia Tech on Nov. 4. These past two losses have been far more troubling.
When all else failed, Tech under Johnson could always be counted on to do one thing as well as any team in the land — run the ball. Heck, the Jackets rushed for 411 yards behind a backup quarterback against Georgia last year. In the losses at Virginia and Miami, Tech could muster only a total of 406 yards rushing.
If you’re a Tech fan, that’s scary stuff. It suggests the Jackets’ talent has grown so thin it can no longer power an offense that has been proved to work. After the Miami loss, Johnson suggested Tech was getting the five-blockers-on-four-defenders looks that mandate running up the middle as opposed to pitching wide, but that “the four [defenders] are winning.” That’s not a schematic issue. That’s a failure of manpower.
Most all the players he inherited from Chan Gailey are gone, and in four recruiting classes Johnson hasn’t yet found a talent on the order of Nesbitt or Jonathan Dwyer or Demaryius Thomas. (Unless it’s freshman quarterback Vad Lee, who’s being redshirted.) And if Tech can no longer do well what it has come to do best … well, what hope is there?
But that’s another thing about seasons. Just because you look awful one week doesn’t mean the next will yield greater misery. Georgia stunk out the joint in its opener against Boise State, but here the Bulldogs are, back in the Top 25. Even if Tech still has to face Clemson, Virginia Tech and Georgia, all three games will be staged at Bobby Dodd Stadium, and Johnson is a fairly daunting figure as an underdog. (Ask Georgia.)
Tech could still make something of its season. Georgia could still find a way to mess up. Right now, though, only one team is on the upward trail, and that’s the one bound for Jacksonville.
By Mark Bradley
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363 comments Add your comment
Joey
October 24th, 2011
5:17 pm
dan, you talking about our coach’s weight?!?
Dang son, I don’t defend Richt much, but don’t look at a close-up of PJ, on HDTV!
Turkey-neck, with, what, about c-cup man-boobs?
GTBob
October 24th, 2011
5:18 pm
We have winning records against all those teams recently.
Not scared at all.
A fan of a team that was lucky to beat Vanderbilt is not scared of LSU or Bama. That sounds like a UGA fan.
bb
October 24th, 2011
5:18 pm
Awesome, now that Bark is off the band wagon Tech has a chance to turn things back around.
Interestingly, as Bark points out, UGA’s recovery is largely a function of schedule also. Based on Sagarin ratings, UGA hasn’t beat anyone higher than 42 (Tenn), basically the same as GT who hasn’t beat anyone over 41 (UNC). GT does have the worst loss (74 UVA). I guess we’ll see this weekend if UGA has really made any progress when they play #27 Florida (although Florida is going the wrong direction and we might find out in the next few weeks that is not much of a test either).
KBP
October 24th, 2011
5:19 pm
Herschel . . . here’s my point. I do see the boneheaded errors by players and coaches. Cupcakes? Just who has AL beaten? I’ll somewhat give LSU a slight nod because of Oregon. I saw a Saban coached team BLOW a 28 point lead to Auburn. A Richt coached team blew a 3 td lead to Vandy and ESCAPED with a win. Of these two, the more unbelievable is AL CHOKING away a 28 point lead to Auburn. Saban has had a remarkable run lately but so did Richt from 01-08. We are headed in the right direction and I think with better play calling in the future the East will be up for grabs between GA, FL, TN, SC, and Auburn once A&M and Mizzou come on board.
headley lamar
October 24th, 2011
5:19 pm
UGA has won.
3 out of its last 4 against Alabama
3 out of its last 4 against LSU
6 out of the last 10 against Auburn
9 out of the last 10 against Tech
7 out of the last 10 against South Carolina
3 out of the last 4 against Tennessee.
Its time to start taking care of Florida. We have proven we can beat the rest.
Life is good dawg fans.
Joey
October 24th, 2011
5:21 pm
Headley, I’m not picking a fight with a fellow Dawg, but I’ll bet you Kirby gets a head-coaching job offer before Richt and Bobo.
Dogs on Fire!
October 24th, 2011
5:22 pm
This may be the worst fla team in 20 years—GA should be able to beat them easy and win the SEC east!!! Fla’s offense may not even score with all of GA’s starters back. Ga 33 Fla 3 Gators get blasted!!!!
Bradley- Will You Keep It Zipped On Falcons. You always Jinx them
October 24th, 2011
5:22 pm
I don’t want to tell you to shut up, and typically enjoy your articles, but everytime you open your month about a Atlanta opponent not being any real competition we end up losing…EVERY TIME. You never take any NFL team for granted. That might be the very game they get on track (Colts) against the birds. All it takes is a player or fan to read this article, which I feel is a little out of line as a writer, to get them started. Not to mention, the Falcons have been the MOST inconsistent “play-off contenders” from week to week. How can you be sold bold. Plus we them in their backyard and not the Georgia Dome
I’m dissappointed in this article- you should know out of all people to never under-estimate a football team in its own stadium/dome. Make the Falcons prove that they can beat the teams they are suppose to beat on a regular basis.
Please stop and just wait and see what happens.
OldTimerTim
October 24th, 2011
5:24 pm
Mark,
Richt didn’t beat a ranked team in 2010 or 2011, there’s been no improvement there, at all. He has beaten the bad teams both seasons, is that reason enough to keep him?
GTBob
October 24th, 2011
5:25 pm
UGA would more them likely finish the season with a losing record if they had Auburn’s schedule.
Move Ga-FL Game
October 24th, 2011
5:26 pm
McGarity needs to demand that this game by moved to atlanta or home and home. Fla has all the advantages and a short bus ride to jacksonville. Ga has to take a bus to atlanta, then a plane to jacksonville then another bus ride to the hotel. Plus, fla always has more fans at the game. I’m tired of playing fla when they have all the advantages. Move the game in 2012 to Atlanta!
KBP
October 24th, 2011
5:26 pm
And Herschel, if CMR does not win at least 10 games most years then he will be gone. Winning 10 games most years will be tough to do but that is what the fan base expects. One more thing, Saban and Miles will eventually have a few down years too. Then will they continue to be the gold standard of coaches?
Gator Man
October 24th, 2011
5:26 pm
Georgia loses were against ranked team, so how can they stick their chest out, if the gators had this schedule we would have the same record as Georgia, I mean who did these guy pay to dodge Ala, LSU, Ark.
I hope this overated team go to the SEC championship and play the big boys and watched them get stomped by LSU or Ala.
Augusta Dawg
October 24th, 2011
5:31 pm
With Bobo’s play calling and CMR passive coaching,UGA will struggle with Fla, Aub and Tech……. Maybe Richt will survive,but demote Bobo……………………
KBP
October 24th, 2011
5:31 pm
Should Richt be blamed if there are no more ranked teams on the schedule? Why not just lose the rest of the games and wait until next year to win when there maybe ranked teams on the schedule since beating ranked teams is the ultimate goal, not beating whomever is on the schedule and winning the East and playing for the SEC title. Is Auburn ranked?
OldTimerTim
October 24th, 2011
5:32 pm
No aLABAMA, lsu OR aRK, AND no SEC East Champ? Not good.
Joey
October 24th, 2011
5:33 pm
Come on Headley, what you are leaving out are our most current records vs those teams.
Blowout loss to Bama in Athens.
Loss to LSU in Athens.
Blowout loss to Auburn.
We beat Tech. Whoo hoo!
2 losses in a row to South Carolina.
A nasty loss to UT when we had our last “Dream Team” that kept us out of the SECCG.
Hey I appreciate the 100+ wins by Richt, but those wins aren’t coming against good teams anymore.
OldTimerTim
October 24th, 2011
5:33 pm
Yeah, Richt lost to Boise & SC,
And went 0-5 in 2010 to ranked team.
0-7 vs. ranekd teams since 2009.
headley lamar
October 24th, 2011
5:33 pm
I mean who did these guy pay to dodge Ala, LSU, Ark.
We play those teams most years.
And beat them.
3 of last 4 against Bama
3 of last 4 against LSU
Whats your point?
headley lamar
October 24th, 2011
5:35 pm
Come on Headley, what you are leaving out are our most current records vs those teams.
Blowout loss to Bama in Athens.
Loss to LSU in Athens.
Blowout loss to Auburn.
We beat Tech. Whoo hoo!
2 losses in a row to South Carolina.
A nasty loss to UT when we had our last “Dream Team” that kept us out of the SECCG.
Hey I appreciate the 100+ wins by Richt, but those wins aren’t coming against good teams anymore.
Very true but that’s when we were down.
When UGA is up we beat those teams. Headed back that direction now.
Joey
October 24th, 2011
5:37 pm
GTBob, man you used to offer objective debate about our team. Now it seems you just like to insult.
That’s too bad . . .
Gordon
October 24th, 2011
5:39 pm
Who is the best team UGA has beaten? No one in the SEC East is very good this year, including the team that beat UGA. Now that it turns out neither Tech nor Auburn is very good, UGA can win from here until the SEC Championship game and not prove a thing. If they beat Alabama or LSU there then you can call them a good team.
Things are never as good as they seem or bad as they seem. Bradley’s opinion is usually based on the most recent game. Let UGA lose to Florida and the sky will be falling again, and let Tech upset Clemson and we’ll hear about how special Tech is.
Augusta Dawg
October 24th, 2011
5:39 pm
UGA’s coaching is sub-par and will never beat the class of the sec……………. When will folks wake up to this vanilla play calling and passive coaching……..How long do you give them??????????????? Would Coach Saban and Miles put up with this??????? NO WAY!!!!!!!!!!!!
Joey
October 24th, 2011
5:39 pm
Love your optimism, Headley. I sincerely hope your sense of direction is better than mine!
Go Dawgs!
Mr. Dawg
October 24th, 2011
5:40 pm
As a true Georgia fan and staunch supporter of Richt I am very hopful that the Bulldogs finish strong. The results of the first half of the season have been good enough to get them into position have a fine season. The second half should be exciting. A 10-2 or 9-3 finish probably won’t shut the negative idiots up. Regardless it will give Richt the opportunity to come back again next year and get UGA Football back to the kind of National Prominence that the real fans were used to. Hopefully that will mean a National Championship in the near future and most certainly an SEC Championship or two with this current freshman class.
Red Stick
October 24th, 2011
5:41 pm
Headley,
Yes Georgia is 3-1 against LSU since 2004 but you conveniently left off 2003, when the Tigers beat UGA in Death Valley and Atlanta.
Of course there is no disputing that LSU is clearly heads and tails above the Dawgs this year. The only way Georgia would beat LSU is if the Tigers played their worst game of the season and turned the ball over.
Geaux Tigers
Go SEC
Snake Doc
October 24th, 2011
5:41 pm
Headley,
AL, LSU, Auburn have all won National Championships in the last 6 years.
Tech has played for a conference Championship and won it.
UGA and the orange ceo???? ehhh, not so much!
Birdhair
October 24th, 2011
5:43 pm
Look up the last 10 BCS champions. All have been coached by someone at the school 8 or less years. Time for change….birdhair flying, i mean trending, south
Snake Doc
October 24th, 2011
5:43 pm
oops, I left out florida. lower caps on purpose
Snake Doc
October 24th, 2011
5:47 pm
UGA and the orange man fans all love mediocrity. Tha i’s how they spend their mediocre little lives. Mired in mediocrity, married to mediocre wives, who have mediocre little children, with mediocre little jobs.
Would you expect anything less from a mediocre minded group of mediocre individuals?
Brent
October 24th, 2011
5:54 pm
Yeah cause we all know that vandy miss st miss tenn and coastal carolina are top 50 teams. bwahaha. both teams suck.open your eyes.
look what bama did to vandy.
Gracie
October 24th, 2011
5:54 pm
Is Crowell passing in ANY of his classes?
Birdhair
October 24th, 2011
5:55 pm
I use the ajc newspaper for cleaning the windows of my red f-150. The ajc is about as predictable as birds flying south in the winter. Schultz lost all accountability when he wrote that wren, another bird, was executive of the year after last season. I’ll listen to bradley when he can actually predict a game correctly.
BigDawgExpress
October 24th, 2011
5:57 pm
And you………a mediocre little man trying to make himself look like a bigshot.
midtown
October 24th, 2011
5:58 pm
If Georgia would have had an any two game combination of LSU, ARK, or ALA instead of MISS and MISS ST, Mark Richt would have been fired.
To the point
October 24th, 2011
5:58 pm
A few salient comments:
1. Four different SEC teams have won the last five BCS championships.
2. UGA was not one of those teams.
3. During that period, UGA did not win the SEC championship.
4. During that period, UGA did not even win its SEC division.
5. Red panties.
In other words, UGA has sunk into total irrelevancy both regionally and nationally.
So why is UGA paying Mark Richt millions of dollars a year?
St. Simon's Daddy
October 24th, 2011
6:03 pm
Not trying to start a argument but most schools would love to have a coach who has won 100 games in his 11th season. Richt is in the top ten in winning pct. He has not wond a NC but not many coaches have. One thing that bothers me about him is that he should have stood up to Coach Franklin. We do not know what was said on the phone the next day but he should have told Franklin he would talk to his coach and Grantham and get back to him. I was at the game and the Vandy players were talking trash the whole game and unfortunately some of our players were giving it back to them. The only thing that matters is the final score. Talk is cheap. Every thing runs in
cycles and right now the Dawgs are young and inconsistant. One game at a time. Learn from mistakes and get better with practice. Lets play the Gators and see what happens? I do think that Richt needs to run the table to keep his job. Something tells me McGarity would like his own guy. Paul Johnson is not going anywhere not just yet. It has been many many years since Tech has put back to back good seasons together (10 wins or more). He will get at least two more years. If he does not beat the Dawgs then he will go. A good question is who would Tech get to replace him? I think most Tech fans would love to say they have a coach in his 11th season that has won 100 games. For the Tech fan that said Clemson is the number one team in the country. Have you watched Ala or LSU play? Tech or UGA has not played a tough schedule. But lets face it, schedules are made years in advance and who knew all these teams would be bad? Many years UGA has played a killer schedule. This just happens to be a down year and lets hope we can take advantage of it. Three of the next four teams will not be easy. Go Dawgs and see you in Jacksonville.
p-coal dog
October 24th, 2011
6:04 pm
really needed tech to be undefeated and highly ranked headed to ACC championship last week of season. too bad. Point man, you feel that major college programs rise and fall in 5 year spans. How long you been around these parts?
Bob
October 24th, 2011
6:10 pm
We (Dawgs) might have a coach on the way out; however, a one-dimentional offense and no defense is not a formular for success. Doesn’t take teams long to figure out a CPJ team. And, I think we’ll beat UF by 21 points.
bill
October 24th, 2011
6:11 pm
It’s the most important game of the Richt era, regardless of what his fan club says…beat the Gators, and he’s in Athens for as long as he wants…lose again (making his record against the Reptiles 2-9), and McGarrity has a big decision to make after we clobber Tech again (the one team that Richt beats on a regular basis).
Nate
October 24th, 2011
6:14 pm
bob tech’s defense isn’t all that bad recently. i wouldn’t talk smack when you gave up 28 to vandy and it well coulda been 35+
i would like to take the points and florida please. i will even make it 18. what do ya say bob. $500?
Bob
October 24th, 2011
6:20 pm
Nate…does your momma know you’re on the computer again? I’m thinking we win by 21; however, I’ll take any win…go spend your $500 on a new Dragon-Con game.
Old Tech fan in NC
October 24th, 2011
6:23 pm
@Gravy Train…you called Johnson some unflattering names and then called him a “mountain man”. That, Sir, is an insult to many mountain men.
Johnson is a perfectionist and expects excellence and seldom gives encouraging words when things are normal. However, when his own players make a mistake or do something not according to his plan, he “talks” to them. It is not a requirement to me a mountain man to be mean/gruff/outspoken/disrespecting.
gtfanfrom1951
October 24th, 2011
6:25 pm
well UGa will be sick again after Sat.
Tech Engineer
October 24th, 2011
6:27 pm
Bring out Vad Lee! Tech must have a good pssing game to make the triple option work.
RAINBOW
October 24th, 2011
6:35 pm
TECH WILL LOSE 3 OUT OF THE NEXT 4 GAMES IF THEY CANNOT COMPLETE 12 TO 15 PASSES PER GAME. YOU CAN SEE ALL OF THE GOOD TEAMS ARE ATTACKING THEIR OFFENSE TO DISRUPT THE PLAYS BEFORE THEY GET STARTED.
TechLB
October 24th, 2011
6:36 pm
Good article Mark, I would like to hear CPJ respond…
GTMan – I agree with you, you call it straight and we should listen, let’s not sugar coat it. Love the man or hate him, his teams play reflect his coaching.
To all Hatfields and McCoys – Guys, honestly, so many bad Sportsmen on here, when you call names is that revenge for getting multiple wedgies in middle school or being picked last for kickball or what? Seriously, let’s talk about football, the juvenile stuff just proves your trailer park has cable/internet…And I don’t just mean Dawgs either. I respect UGA and their program, give us the same and let’s all try that for a little while.
birddawg92
October 24th, 2011
6:49 pm
If Richt somehow figures it out in J’ville this year but still loses to Auburn and GT, if he’s not fired, he should be. (Of course, I want him fired even if he wins out—as you pointed out Mark, honest evaluation shows this team is no better than the past 2 years, it’s just been masked by a cream-puff schedule after the first 2 games. All those remaining are having down years—with UK having become an absolute mess in short order post-Brooks.)
BankerDawg
October 24th, 2011
6:51 pm
I think both are probably middle of the road in their respective conferences, that’s pretty much it.
Our schedule was front loaded, theirs is backloaded.
We are extremely lucky we avoided LSU, Bama, and Arkansas this year…just the luck of the draw.
I will say that Tech’s special teams are flat out awful, and most of the reason they lost that Miami game….just awful.
GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO DAWGS! SIC ‘EM!
goodsport
October 24th, 2011
7:03 pm
Nothing personal but i pick the Gators over UGA,GT over Moo Yoo and the Cocks over UT in close ones.