Unless it beats the Gators, UGA will be a 10-2 underachiever
"Wait just a doggone minute! Isn't that the signal for the infield fly?" (AJC photo by Bob Andres)
At the absolute worst, Georgia figures to finish its regular season 10-2. Just last year, a 10-2 regular season yielded an SEC East title and bought Mark Richt a contract extension and was taken as a sign that Georgia football was on the ascent. To go 10-2 again, assuming this 10-2 includes a loss to Florida and the absence of another division title, would be taken as an abject reversal.
Here’s where the Bulldogs’ bunny schedule serves as both boon and burden. Georgia still must play Kentucky, Ole Miss, Auburn and Georgia Tech; the aggregate record of those teams is 7-16. The Bulldogs also will face Georgia Southern, which plays at a lesser level. If Georgia beats those five but loses to Florida, it will be described, oddly but accurately, as a 10-2 underachiever.
When the Bulldogs were going 8-5 in 2009 and 6-7 the next season, the question became: Would they ever win big again? They’ve since gone 15-5, which would seem to offer an answer, but in light of the drubbing administered by South Carolina we note there can be a difference between Winning Big and Winning Big Games. Georgia has come to occupy the space between.
Its last victory over a Top 10 team came when it defeated No. 7 Georgia Tech on Nov. 28, 2009. The Bulldogs last beat an SEC team ranked in the Top 10 on Oct. 27, 2007 (No. 9 Florida in the Gator Stomp game). Their last victory over anybody in the top five came against No. 5 Auburn on Nov. 11, 2006. Since Oct. 30, 2008, Georgia is 4-13 against ranked opposition, and three of those times the Bulldogs were the higher-ranked team.
Coming off their 2011 turnaround, these Bulldogs figured to have much working for them: A fourth-year junior at quarterback, nine defensive starters who are either seniors or juniors and, above all, the softest of schedules. But when you play so few games against opponents of comparable worth and you lose them all, that schedule turns against you. It makes you seem a team that is, as Lou Holtz once said, living a lie.
It would one be one thing if the Bulldogs were capable of no more, if the only thing enabling them to be ranked at all was the canny maximization of modest resources. But you cannot recruit at such an exalted level and then claim personnel bankruptcy. There aren’t 10 more talented teams in the land. So why, when it comes time to step up in class, does Georgia invariably flunk?
We cannot help but look to the coach. It’s his program. He hired these high-salaried assistants, recruited these star-spangled players. And isn’t as if Richt has never won a Big Game: From 2002 through Jan. 1, 2008, Georgia was 22-10 against ranked opponents. It is 6-14 since. It has become the classic bully: It terrorizes the small fry but turns tail when the big boys show up.
After winning the East last year, the Bulldogs faced No. 1 LSU and lost 42-10. After rising to No. 5 in the land this season, they played South Carolina in Columbia and lost 35-7. That’s a 60-point spread in prove-it games, and the latter loss was truly alarming. Georgia wasn’t ready to handle a team like LSU last season, but 1o months later it was even less prepared for what the Gamecocks unleashed. Isn’t experience supposed to be a teaching tool?
Maybe it can still be one. This year isn’t over. If Georgia can beat Florida, there’s a chance the Bulldogs can again win the East. South Carolina would have to lose twice, but its next two games are against LSU and Florida on the road. Even so, the sight of the Gators again on the rise is surely disquieting: Of the four times Georgia has won the SEC East, three came in Year 1 after a Florida coaching change, and the fourth was in Ron Zook’s final season. This is Year 2 for Will Muschamp, and Florida just climbed to No. 4 in the Associated Press poll.
Having lost three in a row to South Carolina, Georgia has already fallen behind the Gamecocks in both standings and hierarchy. If Florida jumps back ahead of the Bulldogs, the Richt renaissance will have been the briefest of moments. His program will be in danger of falling into the hole from which he once rescued it: That time in the ’90s when Florida and Tennessee owned the division and Georgia, under Ray Goff and Jim Donnan, was relegated to third place.
This looked to be the season Richt and his Bulldogs consolidated their hold on the division, and they might yet. But anything less than an East title would rekindle all those questions about Richt. There’s no way Georgia would move to fire a coach who wins 10 games two years running; there’s also no way the second 10-2 would feel half as good as the first.
At some point Georgia has to answer the question, “Yeah, but who did you beat?” And that answer cannot continue to be, “Well, there was that Tech game back in ‘09 …”
By Mark Bradley
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987 comments Add your comment
ga gator
October 9th, 2012
1:42 pm
Atlanta Gator you are correct. We still do not know how good our Gators are. We know they don’t quit, we know the coaches have made great adjustments at the half and we know they are deeper and more physical than last year. We also know that the players have bought into what Muschamp is selling and that is tp train hard in the offseason, get into trouble and you are gone and to play to the last play.Driskel is getting better each week but we still have a small margin of error to win the way we are winning. IF SC gets by LSU this week, it will be crazy in the swamp the following week against the OBC.
Hairy Dogs Mentor
October 9th, 2012
1:44 pm
Go back to sleep moron.
Layinlow
October 9th, 2012
1:45 pm
Those criticizing mcgarity just don’t get it. Contract extensions are meaningless, the key is the buyout. When mcgarity reworked richt’s contract he took all of his security away. Remember when the contract sit around a longtime beofore richt signed it? The reason for that was because richt was mad about his buyout. The school will only owe richt 4.8 million if he is fired after this season. That number drops down to 2.4 million after next season. And richt can leave on his own and owe the university zero when it was 2 million on the old contract. Now do you people get it? Mcgarity did indeed learn something all those years under foley. Mcgarity had to extend richt for recruiting purposes and at the same time he took richt’s security away. Mcgarity is a very smart man!
Flat Tire on I-95 in Jacksonville
October 9th, 2012
1:46 pm
AAAAA Athens Bail Bonds R Us
The Clarke County Sheriffs dept probably dont to arrest anymore Dawgs they dont want to be linked to a national embarrassment
Alphare
October 9th, 2012
1:47 pm
UGA O is a problem when opponents’ D is good. But when opponents’ D is mediocre, UGA’s O can overwhelm them.
The problem now becomes, why cannot the O score on the good D. I believe the answer is, spread out the defenders, catch them off-guard with creative plays, etc. I saw Spurrier do it in the latest UGA game. But you rarely see dawgs do it. Mad hatter offense can be a good thing with UGA’s offense.
Flat Tire on I-95 in Jacksonville
October 9th, 2012
1:49 pm
Layinlow
Thanks for the info I guess we will have to wait and see then what Mcgarity does. I still dont agree with him giving the contract extension period after last seasons joke performance
Flat Tire on I-95 in Jacksonville
October 9th, 2012
1:51 pm
Alphare
Those are good points
Wait hold that thought
This coaching staff knows what the…… they are doing
RNB
October 9th, 2012
1:51 pm
Whe are some of these folks going to wake up? Richt will finish 10 and 2, get another extension, sign another good class, send several players to the NFL, start spring practice, hear how great UGA is gong to be, start the season. Sound familiar? Folks Richt is perfectly content in doing this. Why wouldnt he be? My concern is that Greg McGarity is content also. We need to raise our voices to put an end to this madness every year.
nut
October 9th, 2012
1:55 pm
I may have been a little hard on the guys but we still have a lot to play for. Still agree something aint right in reguards to the big game laspes, i like richt but sometimes a change is just needed i like kyle shanahan or gruden as head coach and raheem morris as d cordinator all young energetic and experienced.
Dawggie
October 9th, 2012
2:01 pm
Folks, CMR is now 111-39. He’s won 10 or more games in 7 of his 11 full seasons in Athens. He’s won the SEC twice and the SEC East five times. He’s 7-4 in bowl games. Here’s the rub: other coaches look at that record and realize that it’s pretty darn good. A lot of those coaches wouldn’t be sure they could top that. If GA blows out CMR with that record, you’re going to have a tough time getting an established coach to come in here. You’ll end up with a coordinator or a retread. I know CMR can be frustrating, but you have to look a little before you leap. You might end up making things worse.
Flat Tire on I-95 in Jacksonville
October 9th, 2012
2:02 pm
Anyone know when……
Dream Team III is coming to the theatre??
I cant wait to see it!!!!
The first 2 movies were outstanding
BrizDawg
October 9th, 2012
2:03 pm
It’s bad enough to lose to the Gators once a year, but now that Spurrier is coaching the Gamecocks, losing to both USC and UF in the same season is like losing to Florida twice – an abomination for any Georgia fan. I would also add that the last 5 times UGA has won a share of the Eastern Division (02, 03, 05, 07, 11), they are 2-3 against Florida: this leaves a sour taste in the mouth of any Bulldog, even in a championship year. CMR has to make a habit of beating the Gators to consistently win the division and really distance himself from the hot seat. Losses to UF will always keep that seat warm for him. I disagree that Richt needs an Eastern Division title this year (though that would be nice), but I agree that this season would be a huge disappointment if they ended 10-2 with this schedule. If you take away the 3 non-conference gimmes, that would be a lackluster 7-2 without any quality wins. But all this talk about Florida is premature: CMR & Co. need to take care of business against Kentucky. I know, it seems far-fetched, but this is a possible trap game for the Bulldogs. They could be caught looking ahead with all this pressure to beat Florida. And let us not forget that the Wildcats put up more points against USC than UGA did.
Layinlow
October 9th, 2012
2:05 pm
Flat tire, he had to for recruiting. We don’t want the cupboard bare for the next coach. Richt fully undestands the situation he is in. My guess is he gets one more season and if things don’t turnaround against the ranked teams he will be given the option to step down to avoid being fired. Don’t forget that adams is gone in july of next year which is another strike against richt. Trust me mcgarity knows what he is doing and he fully understands the kind of rich talent this state produces and where we should be in the hierachy of the sec. Richt was/ is a very popular coach and mcgarity had to give him a little rope, especially since mcgarity was coming in from another program. But the contract structure is the writing on the wall.
Flat Tire on I-95 in Jacksonville
October 9th, 2012
2:06 pm
Dawgie
Nice try with the stupid stats
Care to give us his stats against the top 10
How about the top 25
Heres a stat Richt still hasnt beaten all the SEC East teams in the same year; Spurier did it at SC
100 wins against Vandy KY and Moultrie Tech look good on a stat sheet but doesnt garner respect from others
Thanks for trying though
JB
October 9th, 2012
2:10 pm
Oh Boy.When ever you put the MUST label on a game for Richt the last 4 years….you can count on a L.
Flat Tire on I-95 in Jacksonville
October 9th, 2012
2:11 pm
Layinlow
I understand the recruiting point but I also understand that this coaching staff could coach a Super Bowl winner to a championship
Richt still had 2 years I could see giving him an extension this year after a good season but not last year
Hope your right though about the contract and Mcgarity
Though I dont see this team being better than 9-3 at best next year and thats stretching it for me
JB
October 9th, 2012
2:12 pm
Question of the day…… What’s different at USCe the last 100 years …other than Sprurrier?……. That team Saturday that made us look like Duke is his Creation……..Don’t think coaching matters?
Yo Yo
October 9th, 2012
2:14 pm
This is just too funny, one week ago the UGA nation and some dumb fans were talking SEC and BCS Championships. Then on Saturday nite no one heard a peep out of these same loser dumb fans, GT fires their coordinator and they crawl over there on that blog and beat up poor Tech, and today the article is about Must winning against Florida and they are back to talking smack again,
Some people just do not learn.
dawgs01
October 9th, 2012
2:16 pm
Go compare granthams numbers and willie’s numbers against ranked teams and you will see that grantham is worse than willie and I could not stand him. Grantham has fooled us all. Nine players from this defense will get drafted and they are saying five could go in the first round which would be more than bama last yr what’s the difference our defense sucks
JB
October 9th, 2012
2:16 pm
Dumb fans?……………and Yo Yo for a moniker is not…LOL
Dawggie
October 9th, 2012
2:17 pm
Flat Tire – The idea that anyone would be an improvement over Richt is moronic. Go look at issues that Bama, Tennessee, Michigan, UCLA have had in recent head coaching searches. Sorry, but UGA is not every coach’s dream job. The idea the Gruden, Peterson, Patterson, etc. will be on their way to Athens to replace Richt is a homer’s fantasy. Could it happen? Sure. But they’re not stupid enough to laugh off a 75% winning percentage in the SEC. If that’s not good enough in Athens, many will say, No Thanks.
dawgs01
October 9th, 2012
2:20 pm
Jarvis jones is over rated and expect him to slide down the big board. He is one dimensional a pass rusher and on Saturday night I don’t know what he was doing he was just sprinting up field running himself out of the play and opening up running lanes for connor shaw who looked faster than anyone on our defense. Jarvis played horrible technique. Every one rushing off the edge knows you can’t rush pass the qb at three yards you got to turn that hot corner. He killed a mizzou tackle that will never sniff the nfl and mizzou might not win a sec game this yr. South carolina ran right at jones and put him on roller skates spurrier said they knew they could do that bc that is what tennesse did too
Yo Yo
October 9th, 2012
2:22 pm
JB
October 9th, 2012
2:16 pm
Dumb fans?……………and Yo Yo for a moniker is not…LOL
That is the best you got?….come on dude, fire away.
dwagtown
October 9th, 2012
2:23 pm
Ahh the UGa obsession w/ Florida–never gets old does it?
Yo Yo
October 9th, 2012
2:24 pm
I probably should have said..”some UGA fans”
dawgs01
October 9th, 2012
2:24 pm
How many games into the season befor defense figures out how to line up. South carolina snapped the ball four or five times when our secondary and lb’s were standing around. The secondary gives up two big touchdowns a game and then everyone points fingers at the end of the playwhich tells me no one knows what they were doing. Grantham hnas done one thing good and that has been confusing his own team. Trying to be all complex with nfl schemes has not helped us but hurt us we look worse than last yr with same team.
JB
October 9th, 2012
2:25 pm
Dawggie…….For a guy with an ego with something to prove…..There isn’t a much better place to try it. Money, talent galore and beautiful campus.
dawgs01
October 9th, 2012
2:27 pm
Rambo sucks. Does not know the zone coverages can not play the ball in the air and takes the worse angles whoever drafts him will get a guaranteed bust who will probably get in trouble with drugs
JB
October 9th, 2012
2:29 pm
dawg01….I agree with most of our DB play the last 3 years. We get burned a lot…..But I’ve seen Bama’s get burned also, just say’n
Dawggie
October 9th, 2012
2:34 pm
JB – no question, that’s the case sometimes. But Peterson has resisted every step up to remain in Boise and after joining the Big 12, Patterson has no reason to leave TCU. Gruden has decided he likes the broadcast booth. Cowher doesn’t seem to miss coaching. Not everyone has Urban Meyer’s ego!
Flat Tire on I-95 in Jacksonville
October 9th, 2012
2:34 pm
Dawgie
Moronic
Really???
The state of Georgia has been a top 5 recruiting state for over 2 decades
UGA is a top 5 money making Football Program
UGA has put more players in the NFL than any other school in the SEC since 2000
And you are going to tell me we couldnt bring in a great coach that knows if I get the keys to that they arent going to come
They look at the recruits we have and laugh at the incompetence of this coaching staff not being able to beat ranked opponents in years
And your stupid explaination about a big time name not wanting to come here because of a 75% win percentage not being good enough
LOL
Did that scare Saban and Meyer wanting to go to programs that demand Championships; something way better than 75% wins
Do yourself a favor and go to billisking.com and listen to what he said about UGA
And by the way you need to layoff the midday booze
Derek
October 9th, 2012
2:36 pm
All you dreamers….Richt is here to stay. No way the AD fires one of the winningnest and most liked coaches in football. There would be riots in Athens. Richt is beloved by true fans, by the administration. He is a great coach. Not perfect but great. I predict that Bobo will be the HC at a strong program within 3 years. Responders to this blog never read national sports news–I don’t guess. Bobo is respected throughout college football as a fine OC. Now I believe that Richt should call the plays and Bobo should focus primarily on the QB’s. Richt is a great mind on offense–the decline of FL State happened when Richt left. Talk about money–you would see it leave the program by the millions if Richt were fired. Greg is happy with Richt and the University is happy with a great coach who would never be caught on a motorcycle with a pretty blonde. Let Auburn have Petrino (as rumor has it Petrino is headed to Auburn when GC is fired) I will take Richt every day of the week. GA wins out, wins the SEC, wins the bowl and Richt is crowned coach for life.
Dawggie
October 9th, 2012
2:41 pm
Flat tire – maybe someone with your oversized ego would work. I gave you four examples of major programs that fired the last guy and had a hard time finding a replacement. Or do you think that Mike Price, Jim Mora, Jr., Brady Hoke and D. Dooley where the replacements these programs wanted all along? But Georgia’s different, right? So many things that places like Bama and Michigan lack. Sounds like you’ve got it all figured out.
JB
October 9th, 2012
2:41 pm
WARNING……Richt’s wife posting under the moniker of ” Derek”
dawg52
October 9th, 2012
2:44 pm
Hey Jake, first, I’m a dawg of 42 yrs, so I’m not a banwagon rider, have stuck with the dawgs thru thick and thin. It is quite evident thru the past Richt records that he cant produce the fire in the guys to win, or even show up for our ‘big games’. I love coach Richt, think he’s a fine person to represent the university, but his past record in big games is unsatisfactory. Would love to see him get this turned around, but as last Saturday showed, its not happening. Herbsrtreet hit the nail on the head, whether its bearable or not. We have too much talent to get drug thru the mud like we did vs the gamecocks…..period!! Here’s hopin for better things…….
Phil
October 9th, 2012
2:44 pm
Derek,
Bro, you have lost your mind. Bobo has never been approached by anyone for a HC position. He couldn’t get the Georgia State job after Curry leaves. Petrino is a scumbag, even I wouldn’t want him over Richt. But Richt being a great coach? Hardly, look at his record against quality opponents, not the cupcakes.
JB
October 9th, 2012
2:45 pm
Yea Derek, he’s so beloved that McGarity took away the 2 mil he would have to pay if he left and cut his buyout for being fired about 50%…..Yea, beloved.
NCDawg
October 9th, 2012
2:45 pm
In my mind they must BEAT Florida… not just survive them. The only way to repair our image is a statement win and I’m afraid I don’t see that coming unless something miraculous happens. It isn’t scheme or talent that causes this to happen. It is mindset. There is a endemic mindset problem and I don’t see a way around it except canning the whole staff and starting over.
Beating Florida convincingly is the only way to tangibly resurrect this season. That and finishing the season strongly. I could take getting to the SEC Championship game and losing a squeaker to Bama…as long as we look like we can stay on the field with them and don’t kill ourselves with turnovers and other stupid plays. I know… it sounds far fetched but stranger things have happened.
Derek
October 9th, 2012
2:46 pm
And all you Richt haters…do you know that if Derek Dooley and Gene C are fired that Auburn or Tennessee would offer Richt or Bobo the world to take over their programs. Bunch of ignorant non-football minds trolling this blog.
here we go again...
October 9th, 2012
2:47 pm
You can twist the stats all you want. For example a 10-2 record that doesn’t mean much considering the competion and the 2 loses. I’ll take it another step. CMR has won 10+ games 7/11 seasons. Well keep in mind that UGA is on the same division as Vandy and UK. Next argument, CMR has won to SEC Champs…well, ALL. Yes ALL the SEC “powers”, have at LEAST 2 SEC champs and 1 NC. UGA is the ONLY SEC team that has one the SEC and no NC. Stas are funny.
Flat Tire on I-95 in Jacksonville
October 9th, 2012
2:48 pm
Dawggie
sounds like you got it figured out too
funny how ex UGA football players writers etc are talking about this coaching staff
but hey you’re a smart person you dont try to find someone new when a company is floundering do you; you just sit there and say no one is going to want to run my company
Phil
October 9th, 2012
2:48 pm
Derek,
I hope they do offer Richt and Bobo, and I hope they take it!!
Layinlow
October 9th, 2012
2:49 pm
Derek, you’re simply telling some flat out lies. Bobo is not respected nationally and no major program is going to hire him. In fact i have heard that one of the main reasons richt’s contract was structured with a low buyout was because mcgarity wanted bobo demoted and richt refused. Thus the low buyout and clear message that richt would sink or swim with bobo. Well richt is sinking!
JB
October 9th, 2012
2:51 pm
Richt is mid tier ACC material…..8,9 wins every year and a bowl and he’d get the key to the city. In the SEC, we call that short term……………everywhere but Athens I guess
Yo Yo
October 9th, 2012
2:53 pm
Derek
October 9th, 2012
2:36 pm
All you dreamers….Richt is here to stay. No way the AD fires one of the winningnest and most liked coaches in football. There would be riots in Athens. Richt is beloved by true fans, by the administration. He is a great coach. Not perfect but great. I predict that Bobo will be the HC at a strong program within 3 years. Responders to this blog never read national sports news–I don’t guess. Bobo is respected throughout college football as a fine OC. Now I believe that Richt should call the plays and Bobo should focus primarily on the QB’s. Richt is a great mind on offense–the decline of FL State happened when Richt left. Talk about money–you would see it leave the program by the millions if Richt were fired. Greg is happy with Richt and the University is happy with a great coach who would never be caught on a motorcycle with a pretty blonde. Let Auburn have Petrino (as rumor has it Petrino is headed to Auburn when GC is fired) I will take Richt every day of the week. GA wins out, wins the SEC, wins the bowl and Richt is crowned coach for life
Using stats on Winning by Head Coaches in today’s game( 1990s to today) are just ignorant. Crossing decades when todays coaches have 12 to 13 to 14 games to back in the old days when coaches had 8 -10 games to win just does not add up. Teams traveled by bus, train, compared today to private first class chartered jets and stay in first class hotels. Just tired of the comparison issues.
JB
October 9th, 2012
2:54 pm
You put Richt at say Vandy or Ole Miss with average talent, you would see 6-6. coaching them up ain’t happening in Athens.
JB
October 9th, 2012
2:56 pm
Had the best QB in the country for 3 years, the NUMBER 1 NFL pick………and won what? Crickets.
Dawggie
October 9th, 2012
2:58 pm
No, actually I don’t pretend to have it figured out. I’m agnostic on CMR’s fate at this point, but I don’t pretend that he’s the second coming of Ray Goff either. It’s called perspective. Richt has the best winning percentage of any coach in GA history. But you’re right. What kind of a company would keep around a guy like that?
Flat Tire on I-95 in Jacksonville
October 9th, 2012
2:58 pm
Richt at Vandy
LOL
you wouldnt be looking at 6-6 it would be 2-10
The talent level at Vandy would expose that
Mr Red and Black
October 9th, 2012
2:58 pm
All of the apologists for the current UGA coaching situation are part of the problem. Your brainless support of a very mediocre football program due to its very mediocre coaches just prolongs the agony before the abcess can be removed and the healing can begin. Mark Richt has enriched himself while sinking the football program to second tier status. My message to coach Mark Richt: don’t let the screen door hit you in the ass on your way out!