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
Lord Saban
October 8th, 2012
5:04 pm
Kinda funny that a week ago all the big talk was about gurshall, the defense with all those great starters back, Jarvis Jones being a top draft pick, and georgia competing for the national title. Now it seems like a concession that the gators are gonna put a whupping on the dawgs. And they probably will.
Brad K
October 8th, 2012
5:05 pm
Also Florida is a crappy, pill popping, geriatric, state, you live there because your poor.
Tide Roll
October 8th, 2012
5:06 pm
You got this kid Gurley. Why not get some legitimate SEC linemen to block for him. Year after year Richt misses the point. Look at Tennessee’s offensive line. Look at South Carolina’s offensive line. Look at Florida’s offensive line. What the hell does it take man?? And this year is shaping up as the worst ever. Shamire Devine. Jeremi Hall.Octavious Jackson,Trenton Brown, Marcus Swain, Delando Crooks, Devonte Seymour and last year, incredibly, Brandon Greene. 32 friggin years. This is why.
Buckeye
October 8th, 2012
5:08 pm
Wrong, Brads. The dogs will need to win the Liberty Bowl.
Better the Liberty Bowl than no Bowl at all? Perhaps!
BamaGuy
October 8th, 2012
5:09 pm
Just in..Tebow says Dogs suck worse than Jets…
Red Panties
October 8th, 2012
5:12 pm
Enter your comments here
Lord Saban
October 8th, 2012
5:12 pm
Buckeye,
I hope you don’t think the dawgs could win the Liberty Bowl. UCF may have something to say about dat.
Mark's Pick
October 8th, 2012
5:13 pm
from bradley’s august 29, 2012 column, predicting great things once again for his beloved bulldogs.
“Good team + bunny schedule = SEC East title. If you’re looking for a team that has a real chance to do something, you start with one that has either a seasoned quarterback or a shutdown defense. Georgia has both. And it did win its division last season, and with an even easier schedule I see no reason why it can’t again.
The reach is in picking Georgia to win not just the East but the whole SEC. Memories of the Bulldogs’ 42-10 loss to LSU in the 2011 SEC title game are fresh and raw, but for 24 minutes the Tigers seemed the side more apt to be routed. Georgia held LSU to no first downs in the first half and should have led by 17 or even 21 points. There’s no reason a more experienced band of Bulldogs can’t upset LSU or Alabama this December, and is there any way a 12-1 SEC champ wouldn’t play for the BCS title? Confidence level: I’m comfortable with all aspects of this pick.”
classic! AJC dog homers.
DaWGS NEED HELP
October 8th, 2012
5:14 pm
Fire Mark Richt! We can win win as long as were playing inferior opponents.Play a ranked team and we fold like a house of cards.
We need a hard nose football coach, not someone who wants to take them swimming on rainy days and have bowling nights.McGarrity needs to wake up.
Top Dawg
October 8th, 2012
5:15 pm
This UGA football program reminds of the movie, “Groundhog Day.”
One Problem
October 8th, 2012
5:16 pm
All this about UGA having to beat Florida, and then getting help from a double dose of SC losses, which the second of which will (just for now we will pretend that LSU hands SC their first loss this weekend with half the the LSU team on crutches which I just don’t see happening) almost certainly have to be handed to them by Florida, now THERE is a dilemma! If UF is good enough to win against SC, I just don’t know how to connect the dots to UGA taking them in Jax. UF defense was incredible against LSU. I have never seen UF play quite that physical a game…. especially without any injuries. Florida will have one big advantage on SC that UGA did not…….Driskall is used to being chased around alot by huge DE’s!!!! LOL
r
October 8th, 2012
5:16 pm
Really thought this year was our year. A huge CMR fan, but there’s no sense in expecting anything better than last Saturday as long as his staff is there.
Tide Roll
October 8th, 2012
5:17 pm
I think Westlake’s Chance Warmack could have helped at right guard Sat. Night. instead of No.64. and N. Gwinnett’s Jujuan James at right tackle instead of “Molasses” Theus.But they’re at Alabama and Tennessee! No wonder you get it handed to you every time you play top ten teams.
DaWGS NEED HELP
October 8th, 2012
5:17 pm
BamaGuy
We kinda a look like Bama under Mike Shula.Start helping Kirby Smart pack.
Red Panties
October 8th, 2012
5:20 pm
Mark,
If a bullfrog had wings it could fly and you say if the dogs beat Florida. Well you must not have seen the game, the Gators beat LSU into submission—–they quit. The Gators finished the game with 25 straight runs and LSU couldn’t do anything about it.
Muschamp turned a bunch of boys into men in one year and they are about to go on another 20-2 run against Georgia. SC and Florida are the class of the East, soon Tenn will be 3rd and then maybe we get a new coach.
MT
October 8th, 2012
5:20 pm
That headline about Tech and Al Groh is the one ever since SAT night
I’ve been hoping to see about UGA and Mark Richt.
BamaGuy
October 8th, 2012
5:24 pm
DaWGS NEED HELP
October 8th, 2012
5:17 pm
BamaGuy
We kinda a look like Bama under Mike Shula.Start helping Kirby Smart pack.
Assistants can come and go as long as Saban stays around…New Off. Coordinator this year and we seem to be doing just fine…Saban can and at times does run our D so no worries there either…I do remember the Shula years but we didn’t give him a raise? Ouch…
Red Panties
October 8th, 2012
5:24 pm
ONE PROBLEM Driskel doesnot have, he can see over the line of scrimmage!!!!!!!!
Beast from the East
October 8th, 2012
5:26 pm
“Muschamp turned a bunch of boys into men in one year”
You said a mouthful there. Our new S&C coach, Jeff Dillma, is an animal! Watch a game and see him on the sidelines the entire time pumping the players up non-stop. He’s turned our team from “soft” to hard as nails in one year! We may not win them all, but there is no quit in this team!
Mark Richt's Goatee
October 8th, 2012
5:27 pm
The towel was thrown in when we could not find one person willing to do it right on punt returns except McGowan doing his Logan Grey imitation. Seriously, with all the speedy D backs and recievers, this is our best person to run back punts? Thanks go to our special teams coach for this one. Now the opposition checks “punt return” off their list of things to prep for.
TallGreen
October 8th, 2012
5:27 pm
Wow, Mark Bradley calling a 10-2 season, in the nation’s TOUGHEST conference and TOUGHEST division an UNDERACHIEVMENT?
Beg to differ. I’ll take 10 wins in the best division in the nation any season. I’d prefer 11 or 12, but 10 is a great season in the NATION’S TOUGHEST DIVISION.
Coach’s poll has UGA as #12, after a 35-7 loss. Tat’s respect for Mark Richt’s SEC division.
Red Panties
October 8th, 2012
5:28 pm
Almost forgot Mark, one other problem with the dawgs beating Florida. The Gators now have the Boise State Off. coordinator and Pease had no problem cutting up Gratham’s defense last year with much smaller and slower atlethes. I don’t think Grantham can stop the Gators with 13 on defense.
Sad but true.
TB DOG
October 8th, 2012
5:30 pm
Most of you keep saying that Georgia gets the same rated players as Alabama and Florida. You need to look at the recruits’ when they come into the programs and you will find that both teams get higher rated recruits across the board especially linemen.
Cobb Dawg
October 8th, 2012
5:31 pm
I’ve been at Sanford Stadium when CMR lost to a bad UK team. I’m also not counting Ole Miss, AU, and Ga Tech as wins. This coaching staff has yet to prove to me that they have any motivational skills. And this team quit (never started) on Sat. At this point I’m not looking forward to the UF game. Sad but true.
Vegasdawg
October 8th, 2012
5:32 pm
Can we just move on please. We all know that we played the worst game.
Did anyone see David Pollack and hear his comments Sunday night on ESPN U? Really. He doesn’t even try and be partial to say well terrible game for the dawgs this is what I think they should do to get back on track instead he acts like he is embarrassed that he went to Georgia and got his education paid for. This is alarming to me as a UGA grad.
mambo
October 8th, 2012
5:32 pm
Who cares? The dawgs will squeak by 8 and 3 and lose to another second tier team in a another second tier bowl.
Joey
October 8th, 2012
5:33 pm
“it will be described, oddly but accurately, as a 10-2 underachiever.”
**************************************
Whoa, MB. You have lost touch with 50% of the UGA brethren. 10-Wins is a mark of greatness – nevermind all that SEC stuff. We win 10 games, we go to Tampa or, or better yet, we to . . . to Orlando! Whoo hooo!!
MB, leave our good man coach alone. We have our fingers in our ears, and we won’t even hear anyone talk about the BLOWOUTS.
Seriously, wake up, Dawg fans. No UGA coach in history has endured as many BLOWOUTS in 4 seasons as this coach, well not since the 30’s.
I am ready for this good man to go work full time, as a good man.
Leave the football coaching to somebody who HATES TO LOSE!
Phil
October 8th, 2012
5:33 pm
Been saying for the last 4 years on here Richt needs to go. He will never get us to the same level as Alabama and LSU. Sure, he will probably get 10 wins again this year but 10 wins against the teams on the schedule is a no brainer. And that buffoon McGarity will probably give him an extension because he got 10 wins.
Racking up wins against cupcakes and routinely getting beatdowns by ranked opponents is not where we want to be. It’s going to take someone other than Richt to get us to where we want to be.
If you people can’t see that you are blind as a bat.
Nub
October 8th, 2012
5:35 pm
Change will come at UGA when the cash cow at the Athletic Association starts losing weight … It’s coming if we lose to the Gators ….
GamecockJerry
October 8th, 2012
5:36 pm
I don’t know what Uga needs, but certainly a little less delusional fans may help. I read all last week on the AJC about how the Cocks looked against Ky. Yes, they hit us in the mouth in the 2nd quarter with some big plays, special teams, penalties, snap over head. But what did we do. 31-0 in the second half. You licked your balls at the half and played with your tails between your legs in the second half. Until Murray gets some fire, you’re in for more of the same. 10 wins and the Outback bowl. Enjoy Tampa!!
BamaGuy
October 8th, 2012
5:36 pm
Seriously, if I were Georgia, I would swallow all that self righteous pride and call Bobby Petrino…He would take that program’s talent to a level that hasn’t been seen there EVER…I know they wont do it because of the whole replacing Richt with a sinner thing but that would be a game changer….
The Truest Fan
October 8th, 2012
5:37 pm
CMR is the greatest. He deserves a huge raise and a contract extension. So do all of our great coaches. Why is everyone so angry? CMR is a winner, Bradley’s just trying to trick you with “fuzzy math.” So what if we beat Carolina and LSU? We beat teams like FAU. Keep Richt forever. A good Christian man. Great for our Univeristy. Great forever.
Beast from the East
October 8th, 2012
5:38 pm
BamaGuy,
How is Petrino any better than Richt? What has ever won? He loses all the big games, too!
TXdawg
October 8th, 2012
5:39 pm
Rambo, or whatever his real name is, is a disgrace to the program. Suspensions, poor play, but after all that CHEP SHOTS OUT OF BOUNDS when his team is getting it handed to them. He is not worthy of being on the field and representing the Bulldog nation…and should not be allowed to just showcase his “talent” for the NFL, for which he will leave at the end of the year. What a douche.
Dawgs88
October 8th, 2012
5:40 pm
Fire Mark Richt and his entire worthless staff!!
Dawgs88
October 8th, 2012
5:40 pm
Fire Mark Richt and his entire worthless staff!!
Phil
October 8th, 2012
5:41 pm
BamaGuy,
Petrino is a good coach but he is damaged goods right now. I also think he is a scumbag the way he left the Falcons in mid-season. You have to have SOME morals in your coach, and Petrino doesn’t have any. There are other good coaches out there to go after without having to settle on a scumbag like Petrino.
Beggin' since 2008
October 8th, 2012
5:42 pm
Fire Richt! PLEASE!
Hurry up and Hire Muschamp before someone else does. McGarity is a bozo.
Hamco
October 8th, 2012
5:42 pm
Georgia constantly underachieves, this is the hallmark of a Richt-coached team. Will it ever get any better while he is there? I seriously doubt it.
Few teams in this conference have the talent Georgia has but it takes coaching to go along with that talent.
TallGreen
October 8th, 2012
5:43 pm
South Carolina, UNDER Spurrier, has a habit of FADING DOWN THE STRETCH.
07- Lost last 5 games
08- Lost last 3 games
09- Lost 4 out of last 5 games
10- Lost last 2 games
11- Lost 1 after beating UGA to lose the SEC East title to UGA
So Spurrier has had 5 shots lately, and choked down the stretch.
His teams fade.
They are not finishers.
Spurrier is a start big finish small kind of coach.
Beggin' since 2008
October 8th, 2012
5:43 pm
Yep, take his arse from the Gayturds!!!!
Albie
October 8th, 2012
5:43 pm
I falsely believed that this team was top 5 caliber and a NC contender prior to Saturday’s game. This is a good team but not a great team. A great team would have kept it close, not just give up after the opposition’s first TD. I still support this team but I am disappointed that they didn’t put up a fight. SC exposed the weaknesses of this team and I hope that the coaching staff can make necessary adjustments before the FL game. I think a new OC is a necessity if this program ever wants to contend for a NC. I honestly think that will happen since Bobo was only given a 1 yr contract extension after last season. I like Bobo as a person but he is not the man for the job. He is a great recruiter so perhaps they can utilize him only in that manner in the future.
Joe
October 8th, 2012
5:44 pm
The problem is a head coach that says we got our butt kicked but we were not flat……WOW….really? not flat? No fire…No nothing….we all gather and the bad news is we got spanked bad…good news is we all did it together……do you honestly think you would hear a saban or a miles or a spurrier say that??? lets all pull together and skip home…lalalalala ..BS!
GB
October 8th, 2012
5:44 pm
Has Spurrier at South Carolina finished out a season well since he’s been there?
Lookat this track record.
STUDENT ATHLETE
October 8th, 2012
5:45 pm
Does anyone in the Athletic Department have Jim Tressel’s phone number?
GB
October 8th, 2012
5:46 pm
Spurrier’s South Carolina:
2007, lost last 5 games
2008, lost last 3 games
2009, lost 4 of 5 last games
2010, lost last 2 games
2011, lost to Ark to lose SEC East div to UGA
Spurrier starts big, and finishes small.
ARdawg
October 8th, 2012
5:47 pm
11-1 would be underacheiving with this team and schedule. Cut and paste any way you like Bradley, getting blown out and being totally unprepared for a game against SC is inexcusable. Yes blame does lay some where. I expect the trolls and Nerd fans to point to the UGA fans but laying blame doesn’t get us anywhere. Neither does keeping the current coaching staff in check. 10 seasons was what it was about when teams only played 10 games. Things are different now. Georgia will never do better than a 10 win season with this coaching staff.
BamaGuy
October 8th, 2012
5:48 pm
Phil
October 8th, 2012
5:41 pm
BamaGuy,
Petrino is a good coach but he is damaged goods right now. I also think he is a scumbag the way he left the Falcons in mid-season. You have to have SOME morals in your coach, and Petrino doesn’t have any. There are other good coaches out there to go after without having to settle on a scumbag like Petrino.
Look, I am as big a Falcon Fan as anyone and I understand the whole scumbag thing but people do change and say what you want but Petrino can coach his ass off and has for years…Every program that he came to he has turned them round and left them better…He just needs a defensive coach but his offenses always give everyone problems..Everyone….He has won big games and he has won them against bigger schools who had more talent…He will resurface somewhere and he will win….
SSIgator
October 8th, 2012
5:48 pm
Joey?
Joey is that you?
Dawg Bite
October 8th, 2012
5:49 pm
It is Groundhog Day for sure. Same song,second verse…..beat up on the “patsies”, get stomped by the good ones! When will this madness end? And Bradley thinks UGA can still win the East? Better beware of the UK’s, Ole Misseys, and, heaven forbid, the Techies. Whew, glad Clempson not on the sched this year!