UPDATED: Georgia Bulldogs steamroll FAU 56-20 on record-setting offensive night
Georgia tailback Todd Gurley breaks free on a 38-yard touchdown run early in the third quarter against Florida Atlantic on Saturday at Sanford Stadium. (AJC photo by Brant Sanderlin)
ATHENS — Georgia and its fans got what they paid for and Florida Atlantic got its $1 million check as the Bulldogs rolled over the Owls 56-20 on Saturday night at Sanford Stadium.
The win gets No. 7 Georgia off to a 3-0 start for the first time since 2008, when it began the season ranked No. 1. The Bulldogs (1-0 SEC) play host to Vanderbilt (1-2, 0-1) on Saturday.
Georgia simply overwhelmed their Sun Belt Conference visitors with offense. The Bulldogs rolled up a school-record 713 yards — breaking the 1993 record of 667 yards versus Southern Miss — and did it with strong running and passing.
Tailbacks Todd Gurley (111) and Keith Marshall (104) each went over 100 yards rushing — the first freshman pair to do that in a game since Thomas Brown and Danny Ware in 2004 — and quarterback Aaron Murray threw for a career-high 342 yards on 14-of-19 passing. He accounted for four touchdowns — two passing and two rushing — and he moved up to tie Eric Zeier for second on Georgia’s career passing TDs list with 67. David Greene is the all-time leader with 72.
“It’s a great feeling,” said Murray, who left the game late in the third quarter. “You’ve got to give credit to the way we worked this week in practice and the way we’ve been working. Guys have been determined to work their tails off to understand the game plan and what teams do defensively so we can come out and execute. And that’s what we did tonight.
Meanwhile, Georgia’s vaunted defense didn’t look as dominant. Playing without All-America outside linebacker Jarvis Jones, who sat out with a slight groin pull, the Bulldogs gave up 318 yards and 15 first downs. The Owls, who managed only one touchdown in their 7-3 win over Wagner to open the season, tied the score at 14-14 early in the second quarter and converted eight of 12 first downs in the first quarter.
“I was concerned,” Georgia coach Mark Richt said. “They were legitimately taking that ball and moving it down the field. Their quarterback was very confident, they were throwing and catching the ball and their running backs were good.”
But Georgia shut out the Owls’ offense in the second half and managed to rest most of its starters in the fourth quarter. And not having Jones made an impact.
“Yeah, I think it affected us.,” Richt said. “Guys like Jarvis tend to get you off the field. Knowing Jarvis, he probably would’ve been good for a sack or two.”
Everything wasn’t rosy for Georgia’s offense either. Murray threw an interception in the end zone, backup quarterback Christian LeMay threw a “pick-six” interception and the Bulldogs fumbled three times for the second week in a row, losing two this time. Also, the Bulldogs were penalized eight times after being flagged 12 times a week earlier.
“I didn’t like the turnovers,” Richt said. “There were too many balls on the ground. We’re still not fielding punts and kicks like we should. We have a lot to fix.”
Georgia’s victory came on a night when the school inaugurated — or “collared,” as they like to call it — a new mascot. Russ, the 8-year-old half-brother of Uga VII, was sworn in as Uga IX in a ceremony right before kickoff. Russ had served as interim Uga for 25 games over four seasons after the deaths of Ugas VII and VIII.
Gurley passed the century mark with a 38-yard touchdown run at the 10:18 mark of the third quarter. That gave him 106 yards on nine carries and Georgia a 42-14 lead. At that point Marshall had 104 yards on 10 carries. Gurley has scored a touchdown in all three of his games as a Bulldog and has five touchdowns on the season.
“That’s good right there, both of us getting 100 yards,” said Gurley, who is averaging 92 per game. “If we can do that every game the outcome should always be a win.”
The game featured several career highs for several players. Junior tight end Arthur Lynch scored the first touchdown of his career. He hauled in a Murray pass and went 36 yards, diving and reaching the ball over the pylon. It required an official review to reward him the score. Lynch had a career-best three catches for 73 yards.
A week after catching a career-best eight catches against Missouri, Michael Bennett had a career-high 110 yards receiving on four catches. He had a 67-yard touchdown catch late in the second quarter.
Linebacker Amarlo Herrera had a 35-yard interception return for a touchdown that made the score 49-14 late in the third quarter. LeMay scored his first career touchdown on a quarterback sneak in the fourth quarter.
Whatever passion Georgia may have lacked in Saturday’s game should return 10-fold against the Commodores. You’ll recall that last year’s game between those teams in Nashville — the Bulldogs won 33-28 — ended with a shouting match between Georgia defensive coordinator Todd Grantham and Vandy head coach James Franklin.
“I know we’ll be motivated for that game,” Richt said. “We’ll be ready.”
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198 comments Add your comment
Joey
September 16th, 2012
12:45 pm
UGA #5 in AP Poll.
Under The Bleachers
September 16th, 2012
12:46 pm
SEC Power Rankings
ALA/LSU- no separation except the quality of teams they have played
UF- good 2nd half team, if they learn to play with urgency in the first half they will be tough
UGA- beat who was on the schedule, some of these guys are good, some holes on OL.
TN- Will learn from the loss to UF
USC- would be right there with UF/UGA,. but qb issues and Lattimore has not been needed
Miss. St- easy schedule, next test Alabama
A&M- good speed, young talent, learning new system
Missouri- good offensive talent, defense is weak, little to no depth
Vanderbilt- is better than what they have shown on the field, could flip/flop with Missouri
Auburn- poor coaching, developing of talent, who knows but this group is in a for a beating with LSU
Arkansas- this ranking is based on Saturday without Wilson, a great deal of questions
Ole Miss- signs of players buying into what Hugh Freeze is selling
Kentucky- dumpster fire, with no tackling skills, no quarterback, coaching change coming
Loved watching those smart Kids from Stanford beat those thugs from Southern Cal and that Muskrat looking Lane Kiffin losing. That ranking was pure PAC 10/ West Coast/ anti SEC voting. Oregon lays 50 plus on USC
Joey
September 16th, 2012
12:47 pm
Good Lord, Notre Dame jumped from 20th to 11th.
Another win and they’ll jump Bama!
Beast from the East
September 16th, 2012
12:50 pm
Joey,
Notre Dame looked good yesterday. I was really impressed with their defense. I’ve always hated them, but I have to admit they do look like a top 10 team this year.
DawginLex
September 16th, 2012
12:54 pm
Arkansas is not a quality win. The defense is horrid and without Wilson they would not win a league game except Kentucky
Joker is done. 2-10 and I bet he has already been told this is his last year by the time they play us
CHDawg
September 16th, 2012
12:56 pm
I was impressed with Justin Scott-Wesley’s speed! They put him in late, but he can fly. Let’s put him in for a reverse, a delayed drag across the middle or a deep route and see what he can do! Also, was pleased to see by Lynch make some plays. The fumble cost us, but you live and you learn. He looks very, very, promising to me, as does Rome. Let’s get them the ball some more. I’d love to see a TE shovel.
Under The Bleachers
September 16th, 2012
12:57 pm
UGA ranked No. 5? Who knows if they are a Top 5 Team? The Big 10 is completely horrible, even Ohio St.
My Top 10
1,LSU
2.Alabama
3.Florida St.
4.Stanford
5.Oregon
6.Florida
7.West Virginia
8.Clemson
9.Georgia
10. South Carolina/Oklahoma
I am a SEC Fan,and Biased, that says enough, I do not like my team being ranked No.1 until the final poll so I place Bama at No.2 . I want to see UGA play a team with a real defense and if they win like they have, they would jump up into the top 5.
CHDawg
September 16th, 2012
12:57 pm
big Lynch
Joey
September 16th, 2012
12:58 pm
Beast from the East, like I told Tampa Gator, I’ve seen enough the last 2 weeks to make up my mind about Driskel. He will be hard to handle in Jax.
My fellow Dawg fans saying different are whistling past the graveyard. I think the past two games with y’all have THESE Dawgs knowing they can beat the Gators – to hell with the past.
This time it will be talent vs talent, and coach vs coach. Pease vs Grantham will be especially fun to watch. We may have a slight advantage on talent, with the Gators having an advantage on depth.
Y’all got another brutal October this year, but it won’t be a “0 – for” this time.
Under The Bleachers
September 16th, 2012
1:03 pm
DawginLex
September 16th, 2012
12:54 pm
Arkansas is not a quality win. The defense is horrid and without Wilson they would not win a league game except Kentucky
Joker is done. 2-10 and I bet he has already been told this is his last year by the time they play us
——————————————————–
Yeah, Joker is done, and Petrino is on their radar, I think Dooley is stating his case so far he wants to keep his job.
As for Arkansas, that win had a great deal to due to the defense that Alabama threw at them and the talent level that separate Alabama/ LSU from others can be seen in their OL on offense, and their front Seven on Defense. But Arkansas is a very poorly coached team at so many levels, and I can say the same thing about Auburn as well.
Beast from the East
September 16th, 2012
1:05 pm
Joey,
We still have a lot to prove. Need to play 4 quarters of quality football, as we won’t be able to rally from second half deficits against LSU, UGA, SC or FSU. Those teams are too good to play catch up against. That said, I’m very excited by the improvement they’ve shown each week. The coaching staff has been nothing short of excellent with the halftime adjustments. This team has shown great poise coming from behind on the road in consecutive weeks. Fun season…so far.
Beast from the East
September 16th, 2012
1:08 pm
Under the Bleachers,
I predicted that Petrino will be coaching at UT or UK in 2013. Depends on which one pulls the trigger first. I hope it’s UK because the thought of Petrino at UT is scary. He is a total scumbag, but the man is a heckuva college football coach.
DawginLex
September 16th, 2012
1:12 pm
UK AD will never hire Petrino
BILLY JACK
September 16th, 2012
1:14 pm
Under the bleachers dont do anymore rankings it makes you look stupid-Georgia would beat Stanford by 4 touchdowns.
Beast from the East
September 16th, 2012
1:18 pm
“UK AD will never hire Petrino”
Lex,
I know you’re UK fan and Calipari fan, but my feeling is that if you’ll hire someone with Cal’s baggage, then you won’t hesitate to hire Petrino. Just my opinion and time will tell. It might be UK’s best chance at getting a quality football coach because of Petrino’s current situation.
Beast from the East
September 16th, 2012
1:21 pm
Stanford looked very good last night. Their d-line was just running right over USC’s o-line in the second half. I was impressed.
CHDawg
September 16th, 2012
1:21 pm
Beast, teams take on the characteristics of the staff sometimes, and I have noticed Muschamp’s very even keeled and confident attitude going into halftime (when he was under a lot of stress) in the last two games. He pointed out the good and was confident they could adjust for the mistakes. Then, the team came out and did exactly that. May have a Muschamp team characteristic in the making. Getting noticably stronger as the game goes on is a great trait for winning organizations. I won’t wish him well in Jax, but unlike a few of the few bitter types here, I wish him the best otherwise.
kingdaddy
September 16th, 2012
1:21 pm
graphite
Thanks for the offer. Already had breakfast and have my own “Razorback Roast” on the Rotisserie…
CHDawg
September 16th, 2012
1:23 pm
noticeably
Paul in NH
September 16th, 2012
1:26 pm
chase
September 16th, 2012
11:03 am
I agree with almost all of your last comment EXCEPT the bit about LSU
And BAMA has not been tested yet by a legit team AND NO – Michigan (who barely beat air force) is not “legit”
———-
This post has to be a joke. Alabama hasn’t been tested but that is more a reflectio of how good they are rather than the level of the competition.
Beast from the East
September 16th, 2012
1:26 pm
CHDawg,
There was quite a bit of griping about Muschamp after week 1, but he’s shut those idiots up and is doing a good job. He’s determined to do it his way and it seems to working. Like I said earlier, we still have 4 top 10 teams on our schedule and it won’t get any easier.
St Simons
September 16th, 2012
1:33 pm
I think Florida is the team to beat in the East.
The game down here will be epic.
We can win it all, but we have to play a whole game, not a half.
You know it. I know it.
We probably aren’t a top 5 team yet. Be realistic, fellow Dawg alums.
But we’re in the hunt, fer dam sure.
Joey
September 16th, 2012
1:34 pm
“UGA ranked No. 5? Who knows if they are a Top 5 Team?”
**************************************
Hey, Under the Bleachers,
So who are the geniuses who thought USC was #1?
It’s all speculation, and fodder for the comment boards . . .
Paul in NH
September 16th, 2012
1:35 pm
Both UGA and UF look pretty good to me.
St Simons
September 16th, 2012
1:35 pm
and the BigJoke10 & 12pack are just horrible. The Sunbelt conferrence
is better competition. Really.
Joey
September 16th, 2012
1:40 pm
I think you’re right Beast – Petrino hasn’t been in trouble with the NCAA before. He left the Falcons in the middle of the night, then had a young girlfriend at Arkansas.
In between, he built up the Razorbacks to prominence. Arkansas was justified to fire him, but it sure ain’t enough to keep him a down and out program to snatch (no pun intended) him up.
Kentucky may do it.
7576DAWG
September 16th, 2012
2:14 pm
When the MEDIA pre-ranked Southern Cal #1 I knew that wasn’t going to last . There is no way a team with around 70 to 75 scholarships will have the depth to beat the great teams. To play in the SEC or any team winning the National Championship they must have the depth and the only way to achieve that is to have approx. 85 good scholarship players on the team.
That is the biggest criticism of Mark Richt’s past recruiting failures. Walk-on’s will not cut it. Every once in a while a walk-on will be worthy to get a scholarship but Georgia can not waste 5 to 8 scholarships every year on sub-par players that they didn’t even take a second look at when their class was being recruited.
Since McGarity has started overseeing everything ,Georgia has improved a lot on their recruiting philosophy . With the 4 defensive starters out everybody can see the gaps we have at depth. I hope Mark Richt will continue to show improvement and willingness to get our recruiting results where they need to be.
Under The Bleachers
September 16th, 2012
2:38 pm
BILLY JACK
September 16th, 2012
1:14 pm
Under the bleachers dont do anymore rankings it makes you look stupid-Georgia would beat Stanford by 4 touchdowns.
I do not know who you are, but when you use words like stupid or curse words if really standarizes your level of intellect. Four touchdowns? You have to be kidding or a real homer.
Under The Bleachers
September 16th, 2012
2:42 pm
Joey
September 16th, 2012
1:34 pm
“UGA ranked No. 5? Who knows if they are a Top 5 Team?”
**************************************
Hey, Under the Bleachers,
So who are the geniuses who thought USC was #1?
It’s all speculation, and fodder for the comment boards . . .
____________________________________________________
Joey, If you have read any of my comments about USC over the summer and during the season I have stated over and over that USC was all smoke and mirrors, and my placement on UGA is all speculative based on suspensions and their not yet proven Offensive Line against a good defensive unit. They may well be a top 5 team, I would just like to see them play a talented team first. That test is coming very soon in the upcoming weeks and UGA may do very well against those teams and earn that ranking.
Under The Bleachers
September 16th, 2012
2:50 pm
Lex,
I just know that UK really would like to get their program to respectability again, and Petrino has spoken to several big time UK boosters already. The Joker experiment did not work and most folks in and around that program were ready for a change last season, but did not make waves. They are now pounding the Athletic Board for change and they want to win and win now or at least be competitive. There is no buy out for Joker and there is no buy out for Petrino, and he knows the area from his Louisville days and it allows him and his family a fresh start at a program that is easy to please with above .500 seasons.
I still think that the folks at Texas Tech will make a run for him once they fire The Tub there.
magadog
September 16th, 2012
3:37 pm
…go dawgs…impressive…who ya gonna play next – girl scout pick-up game? I’ll be impressed when you can beat real football teams.
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graphite
September 16th, 2012
4:48 pm
In my humble opinion,they had USC #1 in order to get the Nat’l Champs out of the SEC…..been here too long….the hook and crook is not over yet!..RollOn
Brainiac (CMR/UGA Fan For Life/Jarvis Jones for Heisman))
September 16th, 2012
7:31 pm
T-Dawg:
Ifr you have been keeping up with all things UGA you would know that CMR and Mason worked out an agreement LAST YEAR where Mason would become the starter if Murray went down. Otherwise Mason will “RED SHIRT” this year and will be the starter next year. Mason has had several quotes on here saying he sincerely hopes nothing goes bad for Murray because he would be forced to take over Murray’s job. Therefore if Murray stays healthy Mason will NOT play one down this year.
Only problem I see is Murray is just a Junior and if the NFL doesn’t encourage Murray he can come back next year!!!!!!!!!
Brainiac (CMR/UGA Fan For Life/Jarvis Jones for Heisman))
September 16th, 2012
7:36 pm
@ Under the bleachers:
Why would you say a team must earn a ranking?????????
What did USCw do to earn their LOFTY rankings this year?????????????
Brainiac (CMR/UGA Fan For Life/Jarvis Jones for Heisman))
September 16th, 2012
7:38 pm
@ Magadawg:
What makes you think anyone on here gives a Fat Rodents A$$ what does/does nt impress you??????
Brainiac (CMR/UGA Fan For Life/Jarvis Jones for Heisman))
September 16th, 2012
7:43 pm
@ 7576 DAWG(2:14 pm post)
If a team can’t win a NC with only 75 scholarshipped players that means you have just written UGA out of a shot at the NC!!!!!!!!!!!
Brainiac (CMR/UGA Fan For Life/Jarvis Jones for Heisman))
September 16th, 2012
7:49 pm
@ Kingdaddy:
Are you eating HAWG MEAT again??????????????????????????????
Brainiac (CMR/UGA Fan For Life/Jarvis Jones for Heisman))
September 16th, 2012
7:54 pm
@ Beast from the East:
UGA is having to do a lot come-from-behind !!
Probably even moreso than the Gators!!!
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Brainiac (CMR/UGA Fan For Life/Jarvis Jones for Heisman))
September 16th, 2012
8:09 pm
To Whom it may concern:
John Jenkins is NOT slow!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
funny....
September 16th, 2012
11:13 pm
do you people know anything about football.
Georgia played such a base defense in the first half. Whay stunt or blitz if you don’t have to. They played off receivers and fell into zones.
Still not a full stregnth either.
This defense is just fine.
With Tree and Rambo coming back possibly this week they’ll be at 100% and they’ll be running the full defensive package with QB pressure and blitz.
The old defense will be back
funny....
September 16th, 2012
11:13 pm
**why** sorry
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