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
Destin Dawg
November 26th, 2011
7:00 pm
Go Dawgs.. beat LSU !!
todd grantham
November 26th, 2011
7:00 pm
UGA Nat, hey, i dont get paid to write this stuff. its just my contribution to public discourse.
Ellis Yew
November 26th, 2011
7:00 pm
Dat dawg meat cook up purty good wit a lil onyone.
I-SAID-IT
November 26th, 2011
7:00 pm
All the way to the dome…….Ah,
Triple Floption, hey you were right, it is funny!
GTBob
November 26th, 2011
7:00 pm
We had like 180 yards rushing we’re incredible! yall couldn’t stop us!!!!
Doodaddy
November 26th, 2011
7:00 pm
To the Tech fans who booed the Munson tribute: I hope your Karma runs over your dogma.
RedandBlackDawg
November 26th, 2011
7:02 pm
GT BOB,
You say CMR is the worst coach in the SEC. Now he is 10-1 versus your coaches and your high school offensive team. And by the way your team was offensive today, the way they played. So if CMR is so bad, what scale do you use for your coaches, players and team as a whole. Imagine how bad the beat down would have been, if UGA had their first and second RB’s in the game. And our bad coach CMR, showed mercy on you in the 4th quarter and did the usual kind thing when you have a team beat like UGA beat Tech. We tried to run out the clock and not humiliate you any worse. This with our two best Rb’s missing from the game. Even then, our third and fourth string runners were able to run half decent against you.
I am sure you feel that somehow you got a moral victory because you weren’t beat as bad as UGA beat Auburn, who by the way, would destroy you also.. I guess we have to give GT credit by your thinking. It is now 10 moral victories out of 11 total games against our truly horrible coach. Maybe you can find a poll that awards standing and gives out bowl games based on moral victories.
I can’t figure out if you are just an over zealous fan of GT. or just darn stupid. I am tending to lean towards the latter in your case.
By the way, how many of your football team is going to graduate with those engineering degrees, you say make it so hard to get players for your team? Surely you should have at least 10 Rhodes Scholars with pads on, since they have to be so super smart to play for Tech.
GO DAWGS and GATA
Ogre
November 26th, 2011
7:02 pm
Stoped old manboobs from winning. Nice senior day. NERDS!
FedUp
November 26th, 2011
7:02 pm
UGA could have put up 50 against Tech. They were very good to Tech in the 4th quarter.
UGAGIRL
November 26th, 2011
7:02 pm
My son is an incredible athelete . . . would never play for CPJ. His decision, I backed it up. What a jerk, makes him feel big to yell at his players, call people that can’t help what they are very, very bad names. He is a first class idiot. I. can’t. stand. CPJ.
FedUp
November 26th, 2011
7:02 pm
UGA could have put up 50 against Tech. They were very good to Tech in the 4th quarter just running the clock out.
todd grantham
November 26th, 2011
7:02 pm
Somewhere, The Great Munson is enjoying this victory today.
Idiot Dawg
November 26th, 2011
7:03 pm
cajun boy, r u really a LSU fan? shouldn’t you be watching swamp people right now? It’ll help you pass the time before you have to go on the roof to turn the antenna next week
TechRon
November 26th, 2011
7:03 pm
Well done, Dawgs. A clear winner. Better team, better coaches. Another year of pitiful defense for Tech. I honestly don’t know if Tech will ever beat UGA again. Hats off, well done, UGA.
The Lapinsky Files
November 26th, 2011
7:03 pm
“We played terrible and still put up good numbers. We had to bench our starting QB and we still moved the ball without too much of a problem”
What numbers? The only #’s that are important are points-You had 17, WE had 31. Oh yeah, we were already on the bus and let your “backup” score a meaningless touchdown.
Are you referring to these numbers?
Total Yards UGA-380 Tech-355
Turnovers UGA-1 Tech-2
Hahahahahahahahahahahahahaahahahahahah
todd grantham
November 26th, 2011
7:03 pm
UGAGIRL, have we ever been married?
GTBob
November 26th, 2011
7:04 pm
We had like 180 yards rushing we’re incredible!
Nah, it was 243. The second most you guys have given up all season. Like I said, it was one of our worst offensive games of the season, but ill take 17 and 350 on our worst day.
356 days to go
November 26th, 2011
7:04 pm
Well, the first step is admitting you are losers…….
Hi, i’m GT we run the triple flotion, we have lost 10 out of the last 11 meetings, we got rings made for our only win……
Hi GT
Time.
November 26th, 2011
7:04 pm
Johnson is the perfect Tech coach. His view of his team is just as bloated as the average Techies view of their trade school educations. I hope the good columnists of the AJC, and the arrogant think they own the world Tech fans keep slurping on Johnson. As a UGA fan, it’s good to know there is ZERO threat coming from within this state. Georgia State is going to prevent more of a threat going forward than Tech. At least there’s a legitimate coach there…LMAO.
FedUp
November 26th, 2011
7:05 pm
GT Bob, yeah to go with your 35 yards passing until UGA put in their 3rd string and gave Tech that one pass at the end. UGA was very kind to you in the 4th quarter just content with running out the clock. AM could have thrown for 400 today if he wanted. UGA wore Tech out and UGA didn’t even have their starting RB’s out there.
todd grantham
November 26th, 2011
7:06 pm
Georgia Tech has a new 12 step program: Learn how to accept a dozen years of losses to your in-state rival without committing suicide.
Gator Man
November 26th, 2011
7:06 pm
bucket
There loses was in the west, how can UGA claim to have won the east? SC beat everybody in the east incl puppies:
UGA keep going back to 2005 when you beat LSU, that year, you played teams with 500 record or better this year you did not.
LSU by 30, with ease””””’
asa
November 26th, 2011
7:06 pm
can’t wait until next August when Tech fans say Ya’ll got trouble at Ga need to fire your coach we have the genius coaching the most exciting offense in football. Nerds are just Nerds never understand real life or football.
Chris
November 26th, 2011
7:06 pm
GTBob- you were the person who said We had like 180 rushing we’re incredible!
Idiot Dawg
November 26th, 2011
7:06 pm
I am pretty sure the dawgs will be eatin crayfish next sat. nite. LSU will run out of patience looking ahead to playing OSU in the NC game!!!
hambone
November 26th, 2011
7:07 pm
I was going to get on here and dog tech, but i have a whole year for that…………
Ellis Yew
November 26th, 2011
7:07 pm
Gators whomp semenhowles now for total SEC dominance over ACC.
Dawwwwg
November 26th, 2011
7:07 pm
That genius lost the game on the first play…..trick plays are for losers who don’t believe in their team……And what a wonder it would have been if the nerds had managed to lose by two points. The second try fieldgoal that genius gave UGA would have become a legend.
And how did Tech get Reggie back?
It’s time to drop Tech from UGA’s schedule.
FedUp
November 26th, 2011
7:07 pm
God, Tech just sucks. It’s amazing. Don’t EVER talk about the UGA/UF record since 1991. UGA has TOTALLY dominated the past 15 years. At least UGA has won 2 of the last 4 against UF. I don’t see Tech winning but by a fluke but once about every 10 years at tops. Oh, and 18 of 22 starters are coming back next year for UGA.
Tom in Atl
November 26th, 2011
7:08 pm
Paging Level 57 Warlock in Section 107 – you can pick up your Sceptor at Lost and Found.
Reggie
November 26th, 2011
7:08 pm
Holding Tech to 243 yards is a great defensive game. They usually rush for about 300 to sometimes even 600 like against Kansas. Only giving up 243 is great. Hell, Alabama gave up 300 rushing yards to Georgia Southern and they’re not even FBS.
Reggie
November 26th, 2011
7:08 pm
We were a tackle of Roddy Jones away in 08 to being 11-0 vs. Tech since Richt has been here.
RedandBlackDawg
November 26th, 2011
7:09 pm
Shine My shoes Dawg,
That would be hard for anybody to do, since they are both firmly planted in your mouth at the moment. The DAWGS would also have to remove their shoes form your lower posterior area first for you to be able to sit down in your high chair properly. Actually, it is pretty hard to distinguish your lower posterior area from your mouth because they both expel the same thing. I will let you figure out exactly what that is, idiot.
GO DAWGS and GATA
4 times in his 11 years
November 26th, 2011
7:09 pm
Mark Richt s aoon will have appeared in THE DOME for the SEC CG for the 4th time in his 11 years. With some luck he could ALSO LAND IN THE SUGAR BOWL for the 4th time in 11 years and that has to be a UGA record. MAJOR BOWLS LIKE the SUGAR and the Capitol One and the Outback are his back yard. HE WINS THEM TOO !!!
CMR OWNS CPJ, who IS ON THE HOT SEAT. CPJ LOSES EVERY BOWL GT goes to under his program.
Not bad AND win or lose, UGA will either be in the Cotton Bowl or the Cap One Bowl or the Outback Bowl and play for $$$ money.
GT is in the sad, low, low, low level bowl…………….JOHN BELK BOWL.
THAT says it all for GT, GT football and their brand of play. Heck, that game will be broadcast all over Mecklenberg County at 3 AM.
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHA
GTBob
November 26th, 2011
7:09 pm
So if CMR is so bad, what scale do you use for your coaches
CMR is given one of the best recruiting classes in the country every year. If you really measure success by how much you can beat a team like GT who very rarely even has a decent recruiting class then you should probably raise your expectations. He has turned UGA into an afterthought in the SEC.
Tom in Atl
November 26th, 2011
7:10 pm
Tech sign seen after game- “We run this Mother’s Basement”
slobberknocker
November 26th, 2011
7:10 pm
@ it’s just horseplay, you must not see the paper or listen to radio, Tech has more robbery, rape, ect. on campus than any other school. Talk about the “hood”. Get a grip you got your HOODIE A$$ whooped AGAIN!!!!
Mark Bradley
November 26th, 2011
7:11 pm
Let’s be clear: Paul Johnson isn’t on the hot seat. He got good value from this team. Most Tech folks would have taken 8-4 coming off 6-7.
Reggie
November 26th, 2011
7:12 pm
Oh GTBob, all week is was how Georgia sucked and how GT was going to beat Georgia…but now that you got manhandled, it’s all about the recruiting classes? Shut up. Your pathetic.
Football Fan
November 26th, 2011
7:12 pm
If you are a major division 1 prospect and you want to go to the NFL go to Georgia. If you want to punch a calculator for your career go to Tech. I am a UGA grad and I have Tech fans that call me boss at work.
todd grantham
November 26th, 2011
7:12 pm
GTBob, please go to bed.
Tom in Atl
November 26th, 2011
7:12 pm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fEdkLVzHUO4
Still worth laughing at
Ramblin Man
November 26th, 2011
7:13 pm
Wow I was planning to come on here and say nice win to UGA and I guess I can say that to the players and coaches but some of you fans are pathetic. How sad is it that UGA won and played a pretty good all around game and all some of you can do is bash GT before a single GT fan made a post? Most GT fans knew this was probably not going to be a win and were hoping for a good showing nothing more. Good luck next week, as your team will really need it, and get some kind of help for your self esteem as it seems to be pretty low.
Chris
November 26th, 2011
7:14 pm
GTBob seems like he has got it all figured out
todd grantham
November 26th, 2011
7:15 pm
Tech will forever be limited in football. there are only so many slots in the “train whislte blowin’”, “ramblin’ wreck drivin’” and “UGA hatin’” courses.
Lil' Barry Bailout (Revised Downward)
November 26th, 2011
7:15 pm
“Beat LSU and this turns into a magical year”
———————–
Prediction: You’ll awaken from your dream next Saturday night and will be hating Mark Richt all over again.
HedgesHaven
November 26th, 2011
7:15 pm
GTBob,
You choose your comments very wisely….you play both sides and it makes you a genius.
4 times in his 11 years
November 26th, 2011
7:16 pm
JOHN BELK BOWL tell is all. Period, end of story.
Off to Stoney River to enjoy some YELLOW JACKETWHUPPIN PRIME RIB.
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHAHAH
Dave from GT
November 26th, 2011
7:16 pm
@ Football Fan….. hear you run a pretty mean Waste Pickup company. Someone’s gotta do it !
Sorry we didn’t give you Mutts more of a game. We’ll be back.
todd grantham
November 26th, 2011
7:16 pm
Tech cheats enormously and STILL can’t win.