The Bulldogs didn’t just outplay Tech – they outcoached it, too
Give that Bulldog a hand, if not a great big kiss. (AJC photo by Brant Sanderlin)
This time a year ago, it was possible to wonder if the Georgia Bulldogs would ever again outsmart an opponent. On Saturday they outsmarted Georgia Tech. And there, if anyone still wondered how 0-2 became 10-2, was the answer.
It wasn’t just that these Bulldogs have good players — Georgia always has good players — or that the schedule eased after those first two games. It was that Georgia, which hadn’t played to its gifts since 2007, coalesced around a coach and his staff.
Back to 0-2. “That was when we closed the door,” said tight end Orson Charles, “and we said, ‘We’ve got to stop playing for ourselves.’ We need to play for this guy.”
By “this guy,” Charles meant Mark Richt, who has done in his 11th Georgia season something that’s difficult to do in contemporary college football. Richt has fought off the doubt accrued over three underachieving seasons and hoisted his Bulldogs back to eminence. They have two championships in the bank — the SEC East was clinched last week against Kentucky; the state title was secured Saturday against Tech — and will play for a third next weekend against LSU, the finest team in the land.
“We’ve got the best coaches in the SEC,” said center Ben Jones, and on this day his boast carried some weight. Georgia beat Tech as handily as Tech under Paul Johnson is ever beaten, and the difference wasn’t so much manpower as brainpower. Offensive coordinator Mike Bobo had one of his finest days, and defensive coordinator Todd Grantham capped a stellar second season by keeping Johnson’s prized option-based spread from doing nearly enough.
And let’s be honest: There were those among us, this correspondent among them, who weren’t sure we’d see such a day. Johnson’s first bunch of Jackets went to Athens and beat a Georgia team that had entered the season ranked No. 1 in the nation, and last year Tech amassed 512 yards behind its backup quarterback against a Grantham-coached D. (To be fair, Richt got the better of Johnson in 2009, when Georgia used power football to upset the team that would win the ACC.) But it must be said: When last the Bulldogs beat Tech this bad, Chan Gailey got fired two days later.
The key was that Georgia got ahead early, and it did because Bobo cogitated like a young Steve Spurrier on a caffeine jag. Isaiah Crowell, Georgia’s best tailback, didn’t play, and Richard Samuel, his injured backup, hasn’t worked since the Florida game. Carlton Thomas, the No. 3 man, was coming off his third suspension of the season and didn’t start. And still Bobo conjured up 17 first-half points.
Of Georgia’s first six running plays, only one involved a player listed as a running back. Branden Smith, normally a cornerback, carried twice. Quarterback Aaron Murray carried twice, and the niftiest moment was a double-reverse to receiver Malcolm Mitchell. Said Bobo: “We were trying to mix them up, give them something different … Our base plan for the game was to be balanced, but as the game went on I thought the best way to win was by throwing.”
Murray complied, completing 19 of 29 passes for 252 yards and four touchdowns. Nine different receivers caught those 19 passes. Said Richt: “Mike did a great job … Mike dialed up some beauties.”
As for Grantham: His defense yielded a touchdown at the end of the first half and another near the end of the second, but never did the Tech ground game appear as dangerous as in Georgia games past. Even in the first half, Johnson was forced to call inside handoffs to his A-backs — a play the Jackets seldom use — to approximate an up-the-gut push. “And once we took that away from them,” Grantham said, “we were back to controlling the game.”
Down two touchdowns in the third quarter, Johnson got antsy. His Jackets didn’t look capable of sustaining a series of long drives — they’d managed one seven-minute surge in the first half — and he called for Tevin Washington to throw, which isn’t a Tech strength. The resulting two interceptions killed all hope.
And that, in surprisingly simple fashion, was that. Georgia beat Tech and its coaches trumped Tech’s coaches and, after 10 consecutive victories, the matter of Richt’s job security has been tabled. He has his Bulldogs back where they’re supposed to be: Atop the SEC East, playing for the conference championship, shrugging off Georgia Tech.
“I didn’t celebrate as much after this one as I did last week,” Richt said, and there was no real need. In this state, order has been restored to nature. Why celebrate a given?
By Mark Bradley
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961 comments Add your comment
AL GROH $$$
November 26th, 2011
9:15 pm
SIGN GROH TO AN EXTENSION!! THIS DUDE DEFENSE WORKS! EVERYBODY FROM THE 60’s REMEMBER THIS D!! THE GUY IS 87 AND KNOWS HIS FOOTBALL!!
JB
November 26th, 2011
9:15 pm
greatest two embarrassments for Tech in recent memory. Reggie Ball, after a Georgia beat down, in the locker room snapped at a reporter and said, ” it’s just a game dog”….. The other being the now famous former ACC title year under Johnson, when after losing told the press, ” We got bigger fish to fry”…………………………….Tech knew it had the wrong people in place both those times. I think Johnson is an embarrassment to the ” tweed jacket set” at Tech.
wde
November 26th, 2011
9:16 pm
UGA grit landscaper ..could it even be possible that you a bigger moron…..no I don’t think so.
AL GROH $$$
November 26th, 2011
9:17 pm
I’M OLD AND ALL THAT TECH CAN AFFORD!!
Tech D
November 26th, 2011
9:17 pm
Al Groh!!! He used to coach in the NFL and knows his stuff!! Give him a big raise and bonus!!!!
Wally Butts
November 26th, 2011
9:18 pm
Tech plays legitimate student-athletes who will go on to successful careers in industrial management and engineering.
Georgia plays bozos who would not have met the academic requirements to enter any college or university. The few who actually graduate will have worthless degrees and skills for which there is no demand. Most will be pathetic losers who are a burden on society. Fortunately the CEOs of Walmart and Waffle House are Tech alumni who will give some of them jobs, but even a graveyard shift fry cook has to have some skills and the ability to stay sober.
Yes, Tech fans would love to defeat Georgia more often, but not at the win-at-all-costs price that Georgia pays.
Next time you see a homeless drunk, be kind to him, he may be a former UGA player.
The Civil War is Over
November 26th, 2011
9:19 pm
@UGA grit landscaper
Odds are you didn’t go anywhere. “Traitor to the south”…that would be you guys who make the south look completely stupid.
UGA OWNS gtu
November 26th, 2011
9:19 pm
Hey gtu, thanks for showing up today to get your ANNUAL BEATDOWN. BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAAA
UGA OWNS gtu!!!
Always have, always will.
Dawg79
November 26th, 2011
9:20 pm
We may or may not win next Saturday, but after last year’s debacle, going 10-2, beating GT and playing for the SEC championship is sweet! – Go Dawgs!!!
flagboy?
November 26th, 2011
9:20 pm
UGA grit landscaper
November 26th, 2011
9:14 pm
Just pointing out uga is a traitor to the South, that’s all. All you yankees love it, and it’s not my problem. I didn’t go the uga, thank God.
__________________________________________
yes yes. you win. thanks again.
MDawg
November 26th, 2011
9:21 pm
Wally and grits are about as ignorant as they come.
AL GROH $$$
November 26th, 2011
9:21 pm
GT, WERE INNOVATORS IN ALL ASPECTS OF LIFE BESIDES COLLEGE FOOTBALL!
Engineer
November 26th, 2011
9:21 pm
Tech: produces engineers, scientists and managers
university of football in athens: produces a bunch of thugs who major in “recreation” and “developmental studies” destined for welfare!
Dee
November 26th, 2011
9:21 pm
…And to heck with Ga Tech!
Same as last year and the next 10 years, especially with that gimmicky high school offense.
Suck it, nerds!
UGA OWNS gtu
November 26th, 2011
9:22 pm
Well gtu, win #62 over you was as easy as we anticipated. But I must say that I admire you for even showing up today since you KNEW that we were going to DESTROY you AGAIN. LMAO
UGA OWNS gtu!!!
Always have, always will.
Terry
November 26th, 2011
9:23 pm
Mark Bradley, This is what Spurrier said after the game. “Really, it was three defensive scores. And the punt, too. Melvin, he’s a defensive player. So that’s basically four defensive touchdowns,” coach Steve Spurrier said. “Georgia outplayed us. Give ‘em credit. They definitely outplayed us. But we won the game. Sometimes it happens like that. Somebody was looking out for us tonight.”
flagboy?
November 26th, 2011
9:25 pm
Wally Butts
November 26th, 2011
9:18 pm
. . .Yes, Tech fans would love to defeat Georgia more often, but not at the win-at-all-costs price that Georgia pays.
Next time you see a homeless drunk, be kind to him, he may be a former UGA player.
__________________________________
Yes. .that win-at-all-costs mentality that leads to vacated wins and NCAA investigations. Awful. .just awful.
UGA OWNS gtu
November 26th, 2011
9:25 pm
Yeah, I know, it wasn’t really that much of a contest… we are simply BETTER THAN YOU gtu.
UGA OWNS gtu!!!
Always have, always will.
K.Nix
November 26th, 2011
9:26 pm
Already accepting a loss next week as ok dawg79? The “old guard” dawg fans would never go there, would they? SImply satisfied with “playing for the SEC championship” – that is the weak mental approach that cost GA much success in past years.
AL GROH $$$
November 26th, 2011
9:26 pm
SURE THE GT FANBASE WILL BE OUTRAGED BY THE PERFORMANCE TODAY AND DEMAND CHANGE! ALL 2,000 OF THEM.. GET YOUR FREE HOT DOG IF YOU VOICE YOUR DISPLEASURE
Buckhead Bulldog
November 26th, 2011
9:26 pm
”Originally started in 1905 as a section of the UGA Military Department, the University of Georgia Redcoat Band has grown in the last 100 years from 20 military cadets to over 350 men and women covering almost every major at the University. The band’s first non-military performance was not at a football game, as many would think, but the 1906 Georgia-Clemson baseball game! For the first twenty five years of its existence, the band members split their time (albeit not evenly) between their studies, their military drill, the band, and the athletic events they were required to play at (including baseball games, which eventually released the band from their duties). It was also during this time that the fight song “Glory Glory to Old Georgia,” composed by former bandsman and future head of the Music Department Hugh Hodgson, made it debut. At a Georgia Tech game in the late 1900s, a reporter for the Atlanta Journal, not knowing the new Georgia fight song, kept constantly complaining about “the incessant playing of ‘John Brown’s Body.’” (While it is interesting to note that the main Georgia fight song is model after “The Battle Hymn of the Republic,” that song was actually based on the 1859 song about the abolitionist known for taking over the US arsenal at Harper’s Ferry, Virginia (now West Virginia).
http://bands.music.uga.edu/redcoats/history/
AL GROH $$$
November 26th, 2011
9:28 pm
ASTRONAUTS, ENGINEERS, AND FREE HOT DOGS!! THE GT WAY
Coffee Bluff DAWG
November 26th, 2011
9:28 pm
Johnson panicked and went to the air resulting in 2 INT. Got to give it up to the superior UGA players but also GT was badly out-coached.
flagboy?
November 26th, 2011
9:28 pm
Engineer
November 26th, 2011
9:21 pm
Tech: produces engineers, scientists and managers
university of football in athens: produces a bunch of thugs who major in “recreation” and “developmental studies” destined for welfare!
_____________________________
Hope that makes the loss easier to take buddy. . comfort yourself however you see fit.
UGA OWNS gtu
November 26th, 2011
9:29 pm
Win #63 over gtu next year will DEFINITELY be a bigger STOMPING. Only 365 more days till your NEXT BEATING. Tick tock gtu… tick tock… LMAO
UGA OWNS gtu!!!
Always have, always will.
Kris
November 26th, 2011
9:30 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.
MDawg
November 26th, 2011
9:30 pm
anyone who thinks the GT football team is full of future industrial managers and engineers is delusional. I’m sure a few but c’mon, GT football players are no more academically accomplished than UGA players or anybody else for that matter.
AL GROH $$$
November 26th, 2011
9:30 pm
GET A JOB RALPH, THIS ISN’T MONSTER.COM!!
Buckhead Bulldog
November 26th, 2011
9:31 pm
Ralph
November 26th, 2011
9:27 pm
Tech lost to UGA again, eh?
wde
November 26th, 2011
9:32 pm
@Ralph I am a hiring manger for a Fortune 100 company and I would never refuse to hire a Tech grad if he is the best person…you sir are a fool and pretender.
UGA grit landscaper
November 26th, 2011
9:32 pm
wow, a uga monkey got his learnin’ up. copy and paste. will wonders ever cease?
UGA OWNS gtu
November 26th, 2011
9:33 pm
I absolutely LOVE how gtu fans know that we are SIMPLY BETTER THAN THEY ARE. Accept it, move on. BWAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAA
UGA OWNS gtu!!!
Always have, always will.
wde
November 26th, 2011
9:33 pm
@Kris quick question for you how many names have you posted that crap under in the last 3 years??
flagboy?
November 26th, 2011
9:33 pm
Ralph
November 26th, 2011
9:27 pm
It’s worth repeating this post from a year ago:
__________________________
it’s funny how little that game means to tech people after they lose. You can always tell the people that are incredibly intelligent because they take to the interwebs to show just how much smarter they are then everyone else.
Kris
November 26th, 2011
9:33 pm
@MDawg: GT football players are no more academically accomplished than UGA players or anybody else for that matter.
You just keep telling yourself that. It’s BS and you know it.
UGA OWNS gtu
November 26th, 2011
9:34 pm
We OWN gtu. Period.
UGA OWNS gtu!!!
Always have, always will.
wde
November 26th, 2011
9:35 pm
@UGA grit landscaper where oh were did you get you 3rd grade education little fella?
AL GROH $$$
November 26th, 2011
9:35 pm
Kris it’s funny your mail room boss said the same thing about you.
flagboy?
November 26th, 2011
9:35 pm
UGA grit landscaper
November 26th, 2011
9:32 pm
wow, a uga monkey got his learnin’ up. copy and paste. will wonders ever cease?
__________________________
ah. . there you go. . that’s the tech people we know. Congrats. Keep making your mama and daddy proud.
The Civil War is Over
November 26th, 2011
9:35 pm
@Ralph
Your comments would indicate that you are also racist.
flagboy?
November 26th, 2011
9:36 pm
Kris, what are the ACT/SAT requirements for athletes at tech?
AL GROH $$$
November 26th, 2011
9:37 pm
WE OWN THIS STATE!!! AL GROH FOR PRESIDENT AND REGGIE BALL FOR VP!!
Mark Bradley
November 26th, 2011
9:37 pm
I’ve had to delete a dozen posts in the past half-hour. I’m not happy with the direction of this discourse.
Dawg79
November 26th, 2011
9:37 pm
K Nix,
Not accepting anything, just stating that the outcome won’t affect the joy of this season. I remember how we lit up LSU in 2005, so I am pulling for them, but after 0-2, a loss wouldn’t crush me.
BTW – And how many “old guard” Dawg fans were ready to run CMR and CMB out of town? Answer, PLENTY, so lose the ‘old guard” elitism. Dawgs will give it their best, and that is all we can ask!
UGA OWNS gtu
November 26th, 2011
9:37 pm
I ESPECIALLY enjoyed watching the gtu fans leaving early today in the 3rd and 4th quarter… I loved the despair on their faces.
BWAAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAA
UGA OWNS gtu!!!
Always have, always will.
UGA grit landscaper
November 26th, 2011
9:37 pm
haha, the truth hurts. doesn’t it, grits?
make sure to polish up your Sherman busts, morons
GoDOGS
November 26th, 2011
9:38 pm
Kris – Yet here you are on a GT/UGA game blog at 9:30 p.m. on a Saturday night writing an epic of gibberish in an attempt to make yourself feel better. Must hurt pretty bad?
AL GROH $$$
November 26th, 2011
9:38 pm
WE OWN THIS STATE
Dawg Whisperer
November 26th, 2011
9:38 pm
All these comments about how GT players are becoming engineers, managers and scientists… that’s an amazing feat when GT ranks near the bottom of the ACC in advancing these “student-athletes” through their curriculum. More like learning how to manage how to engineer their way out of the science classes at GT. Don’t let facts get in the way of bitterness.
Dee
November 26th, 2011
9:38 pm
It’s hilarious how every time Tech loses their wussy, little fans always seem to fall back on their diplomas. LOL. If they actually won a game, then they would be chirping about how they’ve always been athletically superior. Pick an excuse and stick with it, nerds. You can’t have it both ways.