A soggy salute to the Georgia Bulldogs, SEC East champs
Branden Smith returns a first-half interception Saturday. (AJC photo by Brant Sanderlin)
Athens — On the dark night Georgia lost to South Carolina to slide to 0-2, the Bulldogs’ offensive coordinator went looking for spirits to lift. To his surprise, Mike Bobo found that spirits were unbowed.
“I’d tell them, ‘If we hang together and keep working, we’ve got a chance to be very good,’” Bobo said Saturday. “And every one of them said, ‘Coach, we’ve got a chance to be great.’”
As he spoke, Bobo sat in a chair in a locker room, the floor of which had been covered in plastic and doused with water. A nondescript game had ended with the Georgia Bulldogs champions of the SEC East for the first time since the distant year 2005.
“We grabbed water bottles and threw them around the room,” said wide receiver Marlon Brown, scorer of Georgia’s only touchdown this day, and even the 51-year-old head coach got in the soggy swing of things. Seeking to slide across the wet surface, Mark Richt made it only halfway.
“I thought it was going to be fun,” Richt said of his maneuver. “I can’t say it was fun.”
For Richt, the day’s overriding emotion seemed more relief than exultation. He arrived from Florida State in 2001, won the SEC in 2002 and took his Bulldogs to the SEC championship game three times in four years. Then, having set the bar high, Richt went five years without a return to the title game, and when this season began there was no assurance this coach would have this job come 2012. And then the 2011 Bulldogs started 0-2.
“When we lost to South Carolina [the second of the two losses], a lot of things go through your mind as a coach,” Richt said. “Sometimes you’ve got to make something up — you don’t want to lose your team. But [that night] I could stand there with a straight face; it was very easy to believe in them. And I said, ‘If we don’t spit the bit … if we keep grinding, we can do it.’ ”
On Saturday, his Bulldogs finished this latest drill. Yes, they were aided by a schedule that eased after the back-to-back whammy of Boise State and South Carolina, but it isn’t as if Georgia backed into anything. It has won nine consecutive games, beating Tennessee and Florida and Auburn en route, and it finished 7-1 in SEC play. (Let’s note that South Carolina took the East with a 5-3 record last season.)
Richt: “It’s hard to win nine in a row. We’ve done something special.”
The details of a forgettable Victory No. 9 — Georgia trailed Kentucky, which had lost by 30 points to Vanderbilt last week, after 29 minutes and led only 12-10 after three quarters — will soon be forgotten. The ramifications will linger long. Said cornerback Brandon Boykin: “I’ll definitely remember this game for clinching a championship on Senior Day. Everyone had so much riding on this game.”
Richt again: “I told the players this [East title] was the most meaningful to me. I don’t know if that’s true or not, but it felt like it today.”
Here he laughed, but there was no comedic content in the job Richt and his staff did to keep this team buoyant after a start that might have sunk another bunch. “It wasn’t just 0-2,” Richt said, “but 0-2 coming off 6-7 [of last season] and with everything swirling around. We did a really good job handling all the noise.”
Said linebacker Jarvis Jones, the sudden star of a ravenous defense that held Kentucky to 13 yards and one first down after halftime: “It’s not how you drive; it’s how you arrive. We kept fighting, and look at us now.”
Said cornerback Branden Smith: “All [the 0-2 start] did was bring us together as one family.”
Said Brown: “We kept grinding.”
Even after 11 games and nine victories, it’s hard to know just how good Georgia is. The Auburn victory was the only time the Bulldogs thrashed an SEC opponent, and for long stretches Saturday they flailed against the worst Kentucky team of the new millennium. But they won. Since the night of Sept. 10, they’ve done nothing except win.
Said Richt: “I don’t know if we’re a great team, but we’re SEC East champs.”
In the grand scheme, that’s all that matters. Georgia headed back to the big game in the big city, back where it once belonged. Full credit to this team and this coach for taking it there.
By Mark Bradley
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710 comments Add your comment
TampaGator
November 19th, 2011
9:21 pm
LSU’s offensive line is so good…..the QB and HB and mess up the hand off on the goal line…and the running back can still walk into the end zone hardly touched. Wow.
Sonny B. Layne
November 19th, 2011
9:21 pm
There are a lot of Morons on this Blog. If you are a non-UGA Fan please tell me why you even care about UGA.
1.Why you complain about a weak schedule. You never say anything when our schedule is among the the 10 toughest in College Football. Many of these games are scheduled years in advance.
2. If you are a Tech fan, it is ok to complain. I personally never have any idea who you are going to play from week to week, unless I see it in the paper. No, I don’t watch your games & don’t care about you except for once a year. You can win them all, except against us. I derive no pleasure when you have a bad year.
3. If you are a fan of a team that is down this year that we beat this year, you probably beat us the past few years when we were down.(Exception, Auburn & Tech).
4.I don’t care about you unless we play you & if we don’t, I don’t care whether you win or lose and again don’t derive pleasure when you do lose.
5.If you are a Alabama, Arkansas, or LSU Fan, it is OK to talk about how bad GA is, because one of you will play us. If you don’t pull for those teams, why would you care? The worst that can happen is that GA can lose, but we are going to play in the Championship Game. Should we just not show up?
I just don’t get it. Sweep around your own front porch. Don’t seek pleasure from other people’s pain.
TampaGator
November 19th, 2011
9:22 pm
GT….
If Tech wins….it won’t because of luck most likely….it will be because of bad coaching by one coach and good coaching by another. That might happen.
TampaGator
November 19th, 2011
9:24 pm
49-3 LSU over Ole Miss in the 3rd. Yikes. Time to watch a bad team on another channel.
TampaGator
November 19th, 2011
9:25 pm
P.S……
USC is beating Oregon 21-7…..oh boy….the BCS is in turmoil
TampaGator
November 19th, 2011
9:26 pm
Time for a national playoff system…..obviously.
GT Kings of the All CLown Conference
November 19th, 2011
9:26 pm
TG Could be CMR has not shown me that he really wants to lead this team. Grantham seems like his only good decision over the last 5 years. I hope the administration waits ’till after the bowl to discuss contracts…………..
ddawg
November 19th, 2011
9:27 pm
TampaGator
Boise State’s record is 8-1. UGA is 8-2 and the Gators are??? You seem to spend a lot of time on this blog. No life huh??
GT Kings of the All CLown Conference
November 19th, 2011
9:29 pm
Looks like the stars are aligning for a LSU/AL rematch while watching the OR/USC game. Could this put UGA in the Sugar?
TampaGator
November 19th, 2011
9:29 pm
ddawg….
Not right now….I am recovering from major surgery in bed…..
TampaGator
November 19th, 2011
9:32 pm
GT….
Richt is one of the best recruiters in the nation. With Meyer gone….he may be the best in the SEC. And he, unlike some of his most recent players, is of extremely high character. He is not going anywhere this year or many years in the future. He just needs to continue to hire decent assistant coaches to coach up those recruits……a problem in most recent past that has hurt him. He also needs to consider hiring another OC and promote Bobo to assistant HC and move him to the sidelines.
TampaGator
November 19th, 2011
9:33 pm
Did anyone notice that ESPN is reporting that Meyer is most like the next head coach at Ohio State…..unless the NCAA comes down hard on the Buckeyes?
TampaGator
November 19th, 2011
9:34 pm
LSU’s fouth string RB looks like a Heisman winner. Yikes.
GT Kings of the All CLown Conference
November 19th, 2011
9:35 pm
Maybe BOBO can get a a HC job somewhere else? God I would dance in the streets!
tired dog
November 19th, 2011
9:37 pm
Great job by the defense again. Poor job by the OC and head coach who had only one really good game out of 11. Lack of discipline shows in not being able to get up for an important game. Crowell needs to keep a chiropracter and medicine on the sidelines. Unbelievable how fragile he is. I gave him the benefit of the doubt the first six times but after that….
louisiana dawg
November 19th, 2011
9:38 pm
good job dawgs. Celebrate now, but take of business in atlanta
Eric C.
November 19th, 2011
9:39 pm
TampaGator, “Yes, Oregon outplayed LSU to the tune of 22 to 40″ it was 27 to 40 you fraud and USC is beating Oregon 21-7 and Ga Southern scored 21 pts on UA…what does that say about LSU?
ddawg
November 19th, 2011
9:39 pm
TampaGator
Hope your recovery goes well. I did learn respect and concern for others at Georgia.
Honeybadgersgotnone
November 19th, 2011
9:40 pm
Tampagaytor, So LSU is going to be +40 on UGA? Care to bet a few cnotes on that? Go back to bed numbnutz. You are a delusional old man living in the years of Tebow.
I’ve read your posts and you’re a BAG of excuses. If Brantley had two legs, If we get this RB NEXT year, If we had a good coach instead of Mustchump. If If If. If my aunt had a pen** she would be my uncle so shut it.
jw
November 19th, 2011
9:49 pm
A great time for celebration and what does the Nation do – whine and complain – face it – National Championships aren’t going to happen year in and year out – how about enjoying what you have instead of nit picking it to death. Your team didn’t fold – especially when EVERY SINGLE one of you had Richt on the the end of the plank, one step from a certain death. You guys don’t get it – you’ve got a great man, he’s going to have a couple of off years – he’s got a better winning percentage than Vincent – his defensive man is as evil as Erk ever was – and all you guys do is complain – complain – complain – the offensive guy is just like Vincents – you are winning – whether it’s 50 or 1, a win is a win – rally the Nation and kick Tech’s butt and give the Bengal Tigers a thrashing and mess up their championship year!!!!!!!!!!!! Who knows, if you play your cards right a TOP FIVE ranking is out there!!! You are 3 wins away – Quit complaining and enjoy the moment – all of you – please!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
todd grantham
November 19th, 2011
9:49 pm
well, Mark, it would be courteous to tell your bloggers when you’ve signed off and headed back to unfashionable south Gwinette. You shouldnt drive off into the night counting the blog hits with out letting the populace know
Big ole Cock
November 19th, 2011
9:50 pm
Congrats to the dawgs from a Gamecock fan. You guys had a great season and deserve to go to Atlanta. I’m sure you will represent the East proudly against LSU (or Arky??). Looking forward to another USC – UGA head to head battle for the division again next year. Go Cocks. Go WOLFPACK!!!! AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.
Richt let who get away?
November 19th, 2011
9:51 pm
Da’Rick looks mighty fine tonight.
Third Man
November 19th, 2011
9:54 pm
LSU 34, Georgia 10
Shattered dreams and illusions of grandeur.
Old Dog
November 19th, 2011
9:54 pm
“I don’t know if we’re a great team, but we’re SEC East champs.”
Richt could not have said it better.
Loyal Dawg
November 19th, 2011
9:54 pm
Congrats Dawgs! Way to ignore the naysayers and win the East! It’s awesome that our team fought back from the adversity of an 0-2 start to get to the SEC Championship. Great job Coach Richt and staff. Even if we don’t win the SEC Championship game, it was still a great turnaround season.
Buzzzzzzz
November 19th, 2011
9:57 pm
You Dawg fans who keep bashing Tech enjoy yourselves all you want. The thing is… Tech alumni and fans have lives that don’t depend entirely on what a bunch of kids does on Saturday afternoons. College sports are fun to follow, but the biggest reason for going to college is to get an education.
UGA fans don’t seem to care about anything but football, and they don’t care if their players are enrolled in silly majors that no parents who are paying the bills would send their kids to UGA for. The very few football and basketball players who graduate have no job opportunities and end up unemployed or working in menial jobs that hardly require a college degree.
Georgia Tech is a real school with serious academic standards, and that includes scholarshipped athletes. UGA has a long history of being a drunken party school, where parents send their kids for an easy degree, even if the degree itself is worthless.
Jan Kemp exposed the obscene sleazy crap going on at UGA with athletes being enrolled in courses a ten-year-old kid could pass. That was almost three decades ago, and nothing has changed. If anything, the abuses are more blatant today. Way too many illiterate morons are being recruited, and the very high arrest rate shows clearly that Richt does not care if his players have any morals or character.
The bottom line is that most Tech fans have very good jobs and productive lives that don’t depend on Tech’s football record for their happiness in life. It would be great to beat UGA more often, but when you put scholar-athletes up against dummy-athletes, it’s usually no contest.
So keep on posting your scores all you want, especially since you’re home with plenty of time on your hands. I wish you well, maybe you’ll get lucky and get your old janitorial job back before your unemployment checks stop coming.
Loyal Dawg
November 19th, 2011
9:58 pm
Ogletree laid some serious hits on some guys today. I would have loved to have had him the entire BSU game. He is a real difference maker.
KBP
November 19th, 2011
10:00 pm
If we don’t turn the ball over, we beat Tech. Now, Bama or LSU will have their hands full with our defense. Neither of them have much of a vertical passing game and that plays to our advantage as we are very good against the run. If our o-line shows up, then our offense will put more presure on their defense than they will put on ours. If no more than one turnover, we will win.
Buzzz
November 19th, 2011
10:00 pm
UGA fans don’t seem to care about anything but football, and they don’t care if their players are enrolled in silly majors that no parents who are paying the bills would send their kids to UGA for. The very few football and basketball players who graduate have no job opportunities and end up unemployed or working in menial jobs that hardly require a college degree.
Georgia Tech is a real school with serious academic standards, and that includes scholarshipped athletes. UGA has a long history of being a drunken party school, where parents send their kids for an easy degree, even if the degree itself is worthless.
rg
November 19th, 2011
10:01 pm
This medium was not available during the Vince era. I’m just sayin’.
Loyal Dawg
November 19th, 2011
10:01 pm
jw- most of the whinners on here are GT Trolls trying to stir things up. I’m sure GT Bob will also be on here soon.
KBP
November 19th, 2011
10:03 pm
Third Man, Beat Arkansas first!
GT97
November 19th, 2011
10:04 pm
This needs to be reposted frequently to remind dawgtards what an embarrassment they are.
Georgia Tech had the nation’s best average SAT score for football players, 1028 of a possible 1600, and best average high school GPA, 3.39 of a possible 4.0. But because its student body is apparently very smart, Tech’s football players still scored 315 SAT points lower than their classmates.
Many schools routinely used a special admissions process to admit athletes who did not meet the normal entrance requirements. More than half of scholarship athletes at the University of Georgia, the University of Wisconsin, Clemson University, UCLA, Rutgers University, Texas A&M University and Louisiana State University were special admits. . . At Georgia, for instance, 74 percent of athletes were special admits compared with 7 percent of the student body as a whole.
The link is:
http://www.usnews.com/education/blogs/paper-trail/2008/12/30/athletes-show-huge-gaps-in-sat-scores
(STILL) 3-10 against ranked teams
November 19th, 2011
10:06 pm
…..sigh, unfortunately, we are destined for Richt to be the head coach for the next few years…..we can only hope that we get a new OC…..someone with an attitude like Grantham…
KBP
November 19th, 2011
10:06 pm
jw, point taken.
(STILL) 3-10 against ranked teams
November 19th, 2011
10:08 pm
Loyal Dawg….is the problem….exemplifying the typical blind Richt-lover….already conceding the SEC champ game to LSU and celebrating mediocrity….
ARdawg
November 19th, 2011
10:11 pm
It’s great to be a Georgia Bulldog!!
GSUEagle91
November 19th, 2011
10:13 pm
UGA does deserve kudos….To win 9 straight is a tough task but the schedule was weak, allowing for this to occur.
Now LSU awaits UGA in Atlanta…. I suspect a 41-10 LSU win is in store.
DAWG56
November 19th, 2011
10:18 pm
I guesss there’s bound to be someone else on this blog who thinks that, maybe, just maybe, Brandon Harton is the better running back that the “one and only” Isiah Crowell? 2 carries for – what? – 11 -12 yards?
Drunk Bee
November 19th, 2011
10:19 pm
.Georgia Tech Sports 9:30 a.m. Wednesday, October 26, 2011
Georgia Tech ranks last among ACC schools in graduation rates for football and men’s basketball programs, according to figures released Tuesday by the NCAA…
According to the NCAA figures, Tech posted a graduation rate of 55 percent for football, 27 percent for men’s basketball and 77 percent for all men’s and women’s sports combined. The Yellow Jackets’ all-sports rate was 11th in the ACC…
Georgia posted a graduation rate in Tuesday’s report of 65 percent for football, ranking fifth in the SEC, and 43 percent for men’s basketball, seventh in the SEC. The Bulldogs’ all-sports rate of 79 percent tied for fourth in the SEC.
I love it when the GT idiots come on here trying to play the academics card. Next they are going to try to tell everyone how Calculus 101 at Tech is taught so different there than anywhere else in the country. What a joke.
ew ew Bucky Blew
November 19th, 2011
10:22 pm
LSU will Hang over 40 on the dawgs too bad so sad…..
ddawg
November 19th, 2011
10:25 pm
GT97
What is your football program’s graduation rate?
Loyal Dawg
November 19th, 2011
10:26 pm
I don’t just judge my coach by one or two seasons out of 10. Especially when we run a great program that hasn’t been on probation. I also don’t consider a coach won over 100 games in 10 season mediocre. Some should learn the meaning of the word mediocre anyway. It means “Of only moderate quality; not very good”. I don’t think many consider a coach who has won 2 SEC Championships and been in 4 SEC Championship games in 10 years mediocre.
Drunk Bee
November 19th, 2011
10:29 pm
@ddawg- I blew up GT97’s attempt to soothe his inferiority complex. The academics thing doesn’t pay anymore and everyone knows it.
flagboy?
November 19th, 2011
10:30 pm
Congrats to the Dawgs on being SEC East champs.
Win next Saturday then worry about the next trip to Atlanta
flagboy?
November 19th, 2011
10:33 pm
Loyal Dawg, around this time last year, there would have been a lot of people who would have taken Muschamp to be the HC of UGA in a heartbeat. . . wonder if they still feel that way. Same could have been said about Mullen at Miss. St. . . .
goodsport
November 19th, 2011
10:34 pm
You dogs need to remember your next loss is closer than you think,you got lucky today! LSU will take no prisoners.
KBP
November 19th, 2011
10:35 pm
GT97. . . There is no comparison between the academic standards at Tech and UGA. If Tech did accept as many special admits as we did then they would compete more consistently for ACC championships and would be more of a rival to us than they actually are. For example, we have not been Florida’s rival over the last 20 years. They have won too many of the games for us to be their rival and Tech is not our rival because we have won too many of the games over the last 20 years. Tech should be excited about beating us because they do not match up well talent wise. Most kids go to Tech because they want to get a degree and play College football-Kids go to UGA because they want to go get a degree and play Pro football. That speaks volume about the caliber of athletes both schools recruit. Without a lot of special admits, any Coach that can win 9 games 3 out 5 years at Tech should be given a Paul Hewitt type contract.
WHAT WAS GOING ON WITH TH REFS TODAY
November 19th, 2011
10:37 pm
WHAT WAS GOING ON WITH TH REFS TODAY- IT WAS LIKE THEY WHERE TRYING TO GIVE THE GAME TO KY