Geathers’ punch, Vandy player’s clip likely to result in suspensions
ATHENS – Georgia noseguard Kwame Geathers and Vanderbilt center Logan Stewart are expected to receive punishment from the Southeastern Conference for their actions on a play in the fourth quarter of this past Saturday’s game in Nashville.
On the second play of the Commodores’ first offensive possession of the fourth quarter, Stewart comes up from behind on Geathers and dives for the back of his left knee and clips him at the end of a play, in which quarterback Jordan Rodgers is run out of bounds for a seven-yard gain. After he is knocked down, Geathers immediately whips around and punches Stewart in the side.
Referees immediately threw flags. After a lengthy discussion, Stewart was called for clipping and Geathers is called for an unsportsmanlike personal foul. The Commodores were awarded an automatic first down as a result of the personal foul penalty.
The SEC has yet to issue a ruling on the chain of events, but precedent indicates both players will likely be subjected to disciplinary action from the league office.
Just last season, Georgia center Ben Jones was assessed a half-game suspension for his flagrant illegal block against Mississippi State. Jones had to sit out the first half of the Colorado game the following week.
And anytime a punch is thrown during a game, it almost always results in at least a half-game suspension. Auburn players Mike Blanc and Michael Goggans had to sit out the first half of the Alabama game last year after throwing punches against Georgia last November.
Meanwhile, repercussions could also be forthcoming for Georgia strong safety Shawn Williams. The junior starter was flagged for two personal fouls against the Commodores, including one in which he appears to be fighting with a Vanderbilt player.
If Geathers and Williams are subject to suspensions, they will be assessed in the Florida game on Oct. 29. The Bulldogs have a bye this week. Stewart’s penalty would be assessed in Vanderbilt’s game against Army this weekend.
Geathers, a redshirt sophomore from Georgetown, S.C., has started three games at noseguard for the Bulldogs and alternates regularly with junior John Jenkins. He has seven tackles, a pass break-up and a quarterback pressure.
Williams, a junior from Damascus, has started every game this season, including one at inside linebacker. He is the Bulldogs’ third-leading tackler with 34 and has two interceptions, including one against Vanderbilt this past weekend.
Saturday’s game, clinched by Georgia in the final seconds, was extremely emotional. The night ended with Vanderbilt head coach James Franklin and UGA defensive coordinator Todd Grantham in a shouting match at midfield.
Check out the video yourself and tell us if you think Geathers and/or Stewart deserve to be suspended.
– Chip Towers
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530 comments Add your comment
Ed Pilcher
October 19th, 2011
8:09 am
The punch by Geathers was bad, but the clip by Stewart, when the play was pretty much over, and Geathers had no bearing ON the play was much worse. That could have been a career ending, or at least season-ending clip. No wonder Geathers punched him. He’s lucky he didn’t clip me like that. If he had, I really would have given the league office something to suspend me for, because Stewart’s family jewels probably would have been kicked all the way up into his throat when I god done with him.
Bremen Dawg
October 19th, 2011
8:09 am
Looked like a cheap shot to the knee
JB
October 19th, 2011
8:09 am
Saban/Bama run their team like the Special Forces. Dawgs run theirs like the “Dirty Dozen”. Hate it, but pretty true.
Powder Springs Playa
October 19th, 2011
8:10 am
Geathers will be suspended but I completely understand his reaction. That was a cheap shot with the intent to injure. That is not a chop block.
icallbs
October 19th, 2011
8:11 am
It is a shame these blogs have devolved to the point that they are dominated by total wingnuts, especially people who simply hate Georgia and can’t wait for the next Georgia blog to begin posting the same old nonsense. You people are pathetic. Think about it, you have this secret little life of spending inordinate amounts of time on something you claim to hate. Hmmmm…..pitiful.
Tom
October 19th, 2011
8:11 am
I suspect Stewart will have to sit at least a half-game, as Jones did last season.
KDawg89
October 19th, 2011
8:12 am
Shouldn’t this article, as advertised on the front page, be titled “Vandy player tries to ruin Geathers career”?
straitroad
October 19th, 2011
8:17 am
Using the standard set by Nick Fairley at last year’s UGA – Auburn game, neither player should suspended. Mike Slive should be suspended for not having any credibility. As for Geathers’ punch, he should have taken Stewart’s helmet off first. And after hearing James Franklin whine to Mark Richt, kudos to Vandy for hiring the school’s first black female head coach.
LHarding Dawg
October 19th, 2011
8:17 am
The Vandy player could have just as easily hit KG high as low. KG was protecting himself. The Vandy player should be the guy having to sit out a game.
legionaire
October 19th, 2011
8:21 am
The Vandy player is a cheap shot jerk. The SEC should take him out for the rest to the season and allow Geathers to be in house disciplined. Geathers did what any normal person would do, lash out at a numbskull who tried to possibly cripple him for life. Any one who has ever played any football knows how stuff just happens by accident, let alone a flagrant cowardly act.
Paul Johnson has Moobies....
October 19th, 2011
8:22 am
I’ve been hearing about this since Saturday but this is the first time I’ve actually seen the video. Logan Stewart’s chop block could have ended Geather’s season or even worse, his career. Steward deserves to be suspended, not Geathers. He did lose his composure but that should be handled internally and not result in any loss of playing time.
Ignorant Dawg Fan
October 19th, 2011
8:22 am
I will always support anything that a Dawg player does on the field and I will back it up with excuses and denial.
You can’t prove anything!
still a dawg fan
October 19th, 2011
8:29 am
I don’t blame Geathers for going after that guy because that guy could have ended his career with that dirty play & with all the dirty plays that Dirty Fairley had last year, HE NEVER ONCE GOT PUNISHED & HIS DIRTY PLAYS WERE FAR WORSE THEN THIS ONE
Wally Pinkerton
October 19th, 2011
8:29 am
They should suspend this newspaper.
LHarding Dawg
October 19th, 2011
8:32 am
How ignorant is this guy called “Ignorant”!
JOS
October 19th, 2011
8:33 am
The Vanderbilt game is just another in a long line of incidents of classless UGA players and now a classless coach been defended by classless UGA fans without regard to facts or rules. What else is new?
ozzfest
October 19th, 2011
8:33 am
I had not seen the play until just now.
CLEARLY, the Vandy lineman in the coward….HELL, I WOULD HAVE PUNCHED THE DUDE TOO!
I have a new-found respect for Kwame!…and too be clear the Ben Jones hit at Miss State was cowardly as well.
I wish Richt would punch somebody in Jax.
GeoffDawg
October 19th, 2011
8:34 am
That could’ve seriously blown out his knee and ended his career. That Vandy player is a punk and deserved to get smacked. The personal foul penalty against Geathers is plenty.
Doofus Dawg
October 19th, 2011
8:35 am
“LHarding Dawg
October 19th, 2011
8:32 am
How ignorant is this guy called “Ignorant”!
Well… He be a Dawg fan, don’t he?
What dat tell ya?
crusher
October 19th, 2011
8:36 am
Thank you for showing the video. If the SEC takes a look at this then they should suspend the Vanderbilt player indefinitely. That was a hit that could have ended a players college career and could have damaged him for life. Thank goodness he didn’t have the leg firmly planted. Geathers shouldn’t have thrown the punch but what would you have done picked the guy up and brushed him off and told him to hit your knee anytime. Get with it. Maybe the Vandy coach should be suspended for allowing his player to do such a deed.
WesDawg
October 19th, 2011
8:36 am
Lets hope that white trash vandy player comes to Sanford next year and leaves on crutches. F’ him and his crybaby coach. Grantham should have punched his dirty ass.
Mr. SEC
October 19th, 2011
8:39 am
NCAA and SEC officials are out to sucker punch UGA anytime they can. Now that UGA is playing a bit of decent ball, they decide to hit them with suspensions with the biggest game of the season coming up.
Everybody stand up and clap for the NCAA and the SEC officials, but let Auburn pay for play and nothing done about it is BS!
LHarding Dawg
October 19th, 2011
8:40 am
What did you do Ignorant, change your name to Doofus?
Mark Richt
October 19th, 2011
8:40 am
Don’t worry Dawg fans. I have a contingency plan in case the SEC suspends one of our players.
We’re not gonna wait until we score this time. Right after the coin flip, we’re gonna clear the bench and take out as many Gator starters as we can get our hands on.
That should even things up, and I know that my fans will insist on a raise and a contract extension for me and my staff after pulling off such a brilliant scheme. This will teach Todd Grantham to upstage me!
G-Dawg
October 19th, 2011
8:41 am
Nashville…i watched the the game again. Both teams were playing pretty normal. Crap didnt hit the fan until the second half, after Vandy started to gain a lil confidence cause they were playing toe to toe with the Dawgs. Then they started to run their mouth, and we had to shut them up!! Everyone needs to get their facts straight!!
SugarHillDawg
October 19th, 2011
8:41 am
If Geathers has to sit at ALL it’s a travesty. You gotta be a low down dirty POS to do that to an oppsing player. I say the Vandy player gets a two -game suspension.
Georgia Nation!
October 19th, 2011
8:43 am
It’s all Vandy’s fault!
They’re mean!
It ain’t fair!
Referee Don
October 19th, 2011
8:44 am
A chop block has to involve two offensive players, one hits below, the other the top, so it wasn’t a chop black. It was a “cut” black because it was below the knees. And it looked like a clip.
North ave. faithful
October 19th, 2011
8:44 am
I have been reading these blogs several days now, but after seeing clip of the Stewart hit to Geathers I have to say that Geathers should have hit him in the mouth,perhaps a couple of times. Its a shame that he will probably be suspended for Gator game.One thing that I get tired of seeing in all games these days ,not only UGA but my Jackets and Falcons as well is the trash talking,taunting and celebrating that takes place after any play of substance. Seems like all teams now act like the hurricanes of the 80s that used to celebrate a punt that went out inside the 5 yard line.Just go out ther and do your job and take your but back to the huddle.This isnt esy to say,but good luck to you dang dawgs against gators, GO JACKETS!!!!!
G-Dawg
October 19th, 2011
8:45 am
NCAA has already lost all reliability and consistency! At the big scope of how things have rolled for the past few years…they have proven to be useless in college sports. Both NCAA and OSHA are worthless!!
Tom
October 19th, 2011
8:46 am
SugarHill, Jones got a half-game last season for the MSU clip. Two games might be a bit heavy.
Mark Richt
October 19th, 2011
8:46 am
Oh yeah, I forgot the best part.
We’re gonna pull off this pre-game beat-down against the Gators while sporting our new pink Breast Cancer Awareness unis! They are so cool!
Michael Veli
October 19th, 2011
8:47 am
The red panties Damon Evans was playing with actually belonged to Chaz Bono…
BullDogMike
October 19th, 2011
8:47 am
This new Vandy coach is a punk. I could tell at his press conference, he wants to show everybody he’s tuff enough to stay in the SEC. His new tactic at Vandy is to tell these players that we will in fact do anything and everything to win a game. This includes cut blocks, spearing, etc. Otherwise, he knows they can’t stand toe to toe with SEC teams on a regular basis.
Columbus Dawg
October 19th, 2011
8:49 am
If it had been me, I woulda popped a cap in Stewart’s @ZZ !!!
GATA
Georgia Nation!
October 19th, 2011
8:51 am
Yay!
We Beat Vandy!
We’re Back!
Go Dawgs!
October 19th, 2011
8:54 am
I believe Geathers was taken out of the game at that time yet Vandy left their center in there and in it was right in front of their bench. Also, check out Franklin come running to point out the punch by Geathers but conveniently didn’t see the illegal hit. What a bunch of crap!
Airdawg
October 19th, 2011
8:54 am
Looked like an open hand puch in the back to me..
dawgfan
October 19th, 2011
8:55 am
Remember when the AJC ran all those stories on the Georgia Tech offensive lineman that got ejected from the 2007 UGA-Tech game for a dirty block late in the game? Remember Jeff Schultz’s sanctimonious column harshly condemning such a heinous act and lecturing the Tech faithful on how they should feel about it? Yeah, I don’t remember any of those stories either.
Whenever UGA is involved in something like this its huge news but the same thing goes on at North Avenue and there wasn’t a peep out of the AJC. I remember it well. It wasn’t mentioned in the full article on the game. There were no columns about it. Nothing. Zilch. Nada. Maybe they should direct some of those “Open Records Requests” at Tech so they can pick up on 2 year old NCAA investigations going on blocks from their office. Unbelievable.
AJC=JOKE. UGA owns it. UGA is what sells and gets the mouses clicking. They would be nothing without us.
BP-85
October 19th, 2011
8:55 am
Hey Innocent bystander-
You’re right in saying that was not a ‘Chop Block’, but you’re a fool if you say that is a legal block. That is not legal and for good reason as it could cause serious and a career ending injury and just a cheap shot. I love the way you presented the definition for a chop though, block like you really knew what you were talking about.
georgiagirl
October 19th, 2011
8:56 am
Funny AJC has wrote on this all week and ESPN wrote a small article. They must not have anything else to do but bash UGA.
DC
October 19th, 2011
8:59 am
I swear…I feel like some of these UGA bloggers are trolls..how dumb can you be?? Both players were wrong..but to say the cut block deserves a 2 game suspension?? I’m sure you would say that when your DAWGS chop block/cut block they deserve a 2 game suspension too…
But no..you all state “they are defending themselves and the other team was playing dirty all night”…really? REALLY?
Thanks Paul in NH for the video…ahem that was way before Fairley speared murray..which he was flagged for…also..WHY ARE WE EVEN BRINGING UP NICK FAIRLEY..man you UGA fans have nightmares about that guy..
wballs
October 19th, 2011
9:00 am
Players throwing punches, the occassional DUI, coaches starting fights with other coaches, etc. It’s great…to be…a Georgia Bulldog…say it’s great…
Timmy Dog
October 19th, 2011
9:01 am
Actually if you look the last of the clip in slo-mo, you can see that the Vandy player actually gets his helmet on the front side of the knee/leg. Be honest fellow Dog fans.
bucket
October 19th, 2011
9:01 am
Thank God that someone from the AJC finally did some research! I hope Mr. Shultz will publish an article apologizing to Mr. Geathers. And lo and behold, who was running off the Vandy sideline screaming on the play? Why it was Mr. Innocent Coach Franklin! His guy had just taken a cheap shot that could have ended the career of a player who has a legitimate shot at the NFL and all he is doing is pointing to Geathers retaliation. “Look what they did to us!!!” “We should be allowed to take cheap shots and run our mouth cause we are Vandy!!!”
RS Dawg
October 19th, 2011
9:02 am
Is this not about the same thing that Ben Jones had to sit a half for last year? Seems like the Vandy player should be punished. I knew we should have never danced in that end zone, we are still paying.
bucket
October 19th, 2011
9:06 am
@ wballs – get your facts straight. CTG didn’t start a darn thing. That situation was instigated by CJF from Vanderbilt. Thanks for taking another shot at the Dawgs, however. It just reminds us of how relevant we are to the everyday lives of the people who supposedly hate us!
Referee
October 19th, 2011
9:08 am
@Timmy Dog
You’re right. It wasn’t a clip and it wasn’t a chop block. It wasn’t even a late hit. It was a simple cut block.
lewisbuzzard
October 19th, 2011
9:09 am
I can understand a player getting suspended for throwing a punch at an opposing player, but suspension for a clip penalty. That is an awful precedent to set. I can hear the Dawg nation alraedy whining when similar action is taken against one of their OL somwhere down the road for an illegal block.
bucket
October 19th, 2011
9:09 am
@ RS Dawg – on that point I totally agree with you. The SEC officials on the field and in the office in Nashville are still paying UGA back for that stupid end zone celebration.