No. 5 Bulldogs ‘Spurriered’ by No. 6 South Carolina, 35-7 (UPDATED)
Georgia coach Mark Richt (R) congratulates South Carolina's Steve Spurrier on the Gamecocks' third win in a row over the Bulldogs. They're now 4-4 against each other. (AJC photo by Bob Andres)
COLUMBIA, S.C. — It’s starting to look like Steve Spurrier is going to be just as frustrating for Georgia at South Carolina as he was at Florida.
The Ol’ Ball Coach had his No. 6 Gamecocks clicking on all cylinders Saturday night against the No. 5 Bulldogs at Williams-Brice Stadium. In the most-hyped game in the history of this series, South Carolina jumped out to a 21-0 lead in the first quarter and never looked back en route to a 35-7 victory.
The win was the Gamecocks’ third in a row over Georgia — the first time in the 118-year history of the rivalry they’ve done that — and makes Spurrier 15-5 as a coach against the Bulldogs. He was 11-1 as the Gators’ coach and 4-4 since he’s been at South Carolina. Including his stints in the NFL and USFL, it was Spurrier’s 250th career victory.
“Having it against the Georgia Bulldogs was special,” said Spurrier, who was 1-2 against Georgia as a Florida quarterback. “They are a team that used to beat my alma mater pretty well. I have been very fortunate against a coach as them, not so much as a player, but as coach, so that was special.”
The loss was kind of a double-whammy for the Bulldogs (5-1, 3-1) because Florida also scored a big 14-6 win over LSU Saturday in Gainesville. Georgia will need to the Gamecocks to drop two games and then have to beat what could be a Top 5 Florida team to return to the Georgia Dome as Eastern Division champions.
South Carolina (6-0, 3-0) plays on the road at LSU and Florida the next two weeks.
Georgia falls to 3-5 in top 10 matchups under coach Mark Richt and 3-10 when the ESPN College GameDay crew happens to be in attendance. The last time the Bulldogs won one of these marquee games was against Hawaii in Sugar Bowl on Jan. 1, 2008.
The Bulldogs will try to regroup during next week’s off week. They’ll resume play at Kentucky (1-5, 0-3) on Oct. 20.
“Tonight we weren’t very good,” Georgia coach Mark Richt said. “But the world didn’t end. We’ve still got a lot of things to play for and a lot of good things can still happen.”
The Bulldogs had boldly stated that their goal this year was to reach Miami and to play for the BCS championship. How, then, Richt was asked, can they be expected to rebound from such humiliating loss?
“They’ll be fine,” Richt said. “They’re supposed to dream big; I want them to dream big. They’re good men and they’re going to fight. They’ll come back together and win again.”
The Gamecocks’ offensive charge was led by Georgia native Connor Shaw. The junior quarterback from Flowery Branch who’s best known for his running ability,gashed the Bulldogs’ defense with arm as well. He finished with 162 yards on just six completions – an average of 27 yards per – and threw for two touchdowns. Shaw also had 78 yards rushing and scored an in-your-face touchdown on a 7-yard run with 6:17 remaining in the game.
“He was pretty much reading me,” said Georgia’s All-American outside linebacker Jarvis Jones. “If I got up field he was going to take off running. . . . He’s a good player. He made plays with his feet and he was fast, faster than I thought he was.”
South Carolina running back Marcus Lattimore had yet another 100-yard game against Georgia. The junior from Duncan, S.C., had 109 on 24 carries and a touchdown, giving him 467 yards and 4 TDs in three games against the Bulldogs.
The Gamecocks finished with 392 yards against Georgia’s once-vaunted defense. After finishing fifth in the nation last season in total defense, the Bulldogs entered Saturday’s game 55th. They will drop again this week
“I don’t think that team is 35 points better than us, or whatever it was,” UGA senior cornerback Sanders Commings said. “We just made too many mistakes tonight; gave up some big plays, had some penalties, turnovers. You can’t win games like that.”
The most impressive part of South Carolina’s victory had nothing to do with Spurrier’s famous “ball plays.” It was defensive coordinator Lorenzo Ward’s unit had Carolina on the verge of shutting out the Bulldogs for the first time since they lost to Alabama 31-0 in 1995. Georgia came in leading the SEC in scoring (48.2 ppg) and yards (536 ypg). The Bulldogs hadn’t scored fewer than 41 points in a game all season.
It was a tough night for quarterback Aaron Murray, who came in with the knock of having never beaten a ranked team on the road. Harassed all night by the Gamecocks’ rangy defensive ends Jadeveon Clowney and Devin Taylor, he completed just 11-of-31 passes for 109 yards and threw an interception. The Bulldogs, who finished with just 220 total yards, scored a meaningless touchdown in the game’s final three minutes with South Carolina’s victory well in hand.
“Very talented defense all over the board,” Murray said of South Carolina’s defense. “They’re up there with the best I’ve ever played. They’re definitely one of the top ones.”
This one was over quick South Carolina shot out to a 21-0 lead in the first quarter on two long drives and a punt return for a touchdown.
The game could not have started any worse for Georgia. The Bulldogs won the coin toss and deferred to the second half, giving the Gamecocks the ball to start the game.
South Carolina wasted no time doing something with it. Gaining 62 yards on two pass plays, the Gamecocks covered 76 yards in 2:32 and scored on a 20-yard pass from Shaw to Bruce Ellington. On both passes South Carolina receivers for behind safety Bacarri Rambo.
The Bulldogs got a 48-yard kickoff return from Malcolm Mitchell and seemed poised to answer after a 15-yard run by Todd Gurley got the Bulldogs down to the South Carolina 34. But after a failed reverse, Murray’s pass was batted up in the air at the line of scrimmage by defensive tackle Kelcy Quarles and intercepted by a diving DeVonte Holloman.
South Carolina made the Bulldogs pay. Utilizing Lattimore in both the running and passing games, the Gamecocks again drove the field. Shaw threw his second touchdown of the night, a 19-yard strike to wide open tight end Rory Anderson. And just like that, the South Carolina led 14-0 with 6:29 still left in the first quarter.
Georgia had to punt after its ensuing possession, and that’s when the Gamecocks turned it into a nightmare night. After bobbling the catch, Ace Sanders recovered and returned the punt 70 yards for a touchdown. It was Sanders’ second punt-return TD this season and it put South Carolina ahead 21-0.
“It stinks,” Murray said of the lopsided defeat. “It definitely hurts a lot. We put a lot into this game. It definitely means a lot. But there’s still a lot of games to play. They’ve got a lot of tough games left and so do we. Right now they’re in the driver’s seat and we have to win every single game to make it to Atlanta. We’ve got to grind and work and we did that last year. But it’s not a good feeling.”
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920 comments Add your comment
RunninWithTheDawgs
October 7th, 2012
7:04 am
I sure hope the Falcons don’t draft Murray. I’ve seen enough of him. Can’t play under pressure.
Beast from the East
October 7th, 2012
7:05 am
FSU shows it’s true colors and loses to another mediocre ACC team.
Dawgs embarrassed on a national stage by SOS, yet again.
Gators get their first win over a top 10 team under Muschamp.
All is right in the universe.
Go Gators!
The Palmetto State Welcoming Committee
October 7th, 2012
7:06 am
Hope all y’all UGA fans who drove to Columbia enjoyed the warm hospitality of the Palmetto State.
pdqubet
October 7th, 2012
7:06 am
There’s nothing more entertaining than reading the comments after a loss. Hell, for that matter, after tough wins against, uhhhh …………….Buffalo and Florida Atlantic ($100… someone will defend these games on the schedule). This loss surprises the Dawg Nation? Really!!!? I’d rather lose to the Alabama’s, the Florida’s, the LSU’s, than to rout really good high school teams and set ourselves up for the annual woodshed beating like last night. I don’t have the answer like so many of you seem to have, but since I have 2 cents, I’d lose the coach, stop scheduling embarrassing wins and quit beating our lips about how good we are.
legionaire
October 7th, 2012
7:09 am
The blowout proves that the UGA coaching staff is suspect. The O line has been exploited the last 2 games. The D backfield is giving up cheap TD’s on blown coverage. Special teams are not only giving up cheap TD;s, they are giving up field position. We fans do not pretend to know how to coach an SEC team. We do know good football and what we have seen over the past 3 years against ranked teams ain’t it. McGarity will not put up with what is out there now.
Fred
October 7th, 2012
7:10 am
******* SPECIAL BULLETIN *******
Ringling Brothers has just announced that the circus has hired the entire UGA coaching staff. The assistant coaches will trade in their playbooks and whistles for clown costumes and painted faces. Mark Richt has been appointed as Head Clownmaster and will supervise all Ringling Brothers clowns.
Fred Ringling, owner of Ringling Brothers, gleefully announced that Richt was the most qualified clownmaster, having coached clowns at UGA for more than ten years. He then presented Richt and the assistants with their shiny new clown noses.
Richt acknowledged that the circus has been having difficulty hiring enough clowns in recent years, but his first act was to drop the requirement that clowns be able to read and write, and that it was okay if they had a rap sheet. “After all,” he said, “this policy worked well for me in Athens, where I was used to dealing with bozos.”
Please join with us in wishing Mark Richt well in his new position.
Crab Island Dawg
October 7th, 2012
7:13 am
If SC has UGA players & UGA has SC players, same results SC wins! I rest my case.
bulldog top fan
October 7th, 2012
7:18 am
i am disapointed beyond believe,but not suprised. we have not played anybody
as long as we have pushover schduling and a coach who cannot win the big games
and excepts loses like this with is it’s not that important attitude we wll never be
a national power
General Mills
October 7th, 2012
7:22 am
We are who we thought we were.
Beano Cook
October 7th, 2012
7:24 am
Georgia can still back into the SEC Championship game like they did last year.
Bozo N. Richt
October 7th, 2012
7:27 am
You think that was bad??? Wait til next year – - UGA wont win 5 games. WRITE IT DOWN. As I been saying for years now, Richt’s program will ALWAYS be second rate – - the guy is just in way over his head.
philip livingston
October 7th, 2012
7:33 am
Take a look at Georgia’s record over the last ten years. Then look at Alabama’s. The people are getting what they demand. Georgia is getting mediocrity and excuses, years after year, decade after decade.
JCJenny
October 7th, 2012
7:34 am
NA-NA-NA-BOO-BOO!! FINALLY THOSE THUGS GET A TASTE OF HUMBLE PIE!!!
Rick in Warner Robins
October 7th, 2012
7:35 am
If you didn’t see this coming, you are blind. Who has UGA played? Nobody. The party is officially over and stark reality is finally settling in…maybe…UGA doesn’t have anything for 90% of the SEC. If Tennessee hadn’t of beat themselves, this would have been two losses in a row. Get used to it Dawgie fans…you’re big losers in the SEC.
juggling nouns and verbs
October 7th, 2012
7:36 am
Does anyone proofread these articles? Spellcheck won’t find missing words.
RMikel58
October 7th, 2012
7:47 am
First off let me congradulate S. Carolina who played a complete game on both sides of the ball.
They were focused, determined, aggressive, and never let up.
A very good team.
For the Dawgs and the entire team as a Georgia Fan the entire stadium took you out of the game from the get go.
Cant put a freshman on Clowney and expect 1 person to block him all night and that falls on Bobo that didnt know how to adjust during the game. Clowney and those defensive ends threw Murrays timing way off!
Defensively im telling you those guys are still trying to learn where to line up and making untimely mistakes with coverage. How you cant prepare for a dual QB is beyond me.
Spurrier out coached Richt and took him to school last night and totally embarrased the Dawgs.
Youre gonna drop to #15 in the rankings and maybe further.
0-10 against ranked schools is a dismal record to have CMR and why you didnt put Malcolme in sooner is beyond me.
One more SEC loss and its over!
You may trying to take a week off before playing S. Carolina next year…..thats how Spurrier beat you when he was in Florida.
On this night experience or talent wasnt a factor, its the Desire to win is vwhat makes champions.
Remember this Grantham………… Bump-N-Run, just a the game cocks did on their defense.
SEC Rocks
October 7th, 2012
7:49 am
The coaching showed at beginning of 4th qtr when CMR pulled players together for pep talk and immediately they have multiple penalties for lack of concentration and poor sportmanship. Leadership and attitude is missing.
dawginduluth
October 7th, 2012
7:53 am
What I don’t understand is why anyone would have felt good about Richt after his third season. You know, after all the Donnan coached talent was depleted?
He can’t turn boys into men. He can’t take raw talent and coach it to the next level. His players don’t respect him or UGA. His teams typically aren’t ready to play. I can’t remember one of his teams playing all four quarters. And he can’t win against ranked teams. In this case we didn’t get what we paid for.
What do you expect when your goal is to make it to the SEC championship every year and your opponents’ goal is to make it to the NC every year?
4DaBirds
October 7th, 2012
7:56 am
Out coached and and embarrassed as usual. Richt is garbage, and always has been.
Billy Mumphries
October 7th, 2012
7:58 am
“Georgia can still back into the SEC Championship game like they did last year.”
And this matters? Why? A meaningless bowl game so more money can be spent on hats and T-shirts?
Billy Mumphries
October 7th, 2012
8:00 am
“You know, after all the Donnan coached talent was depleted?”
No championship for more than 30 years and somehow the dynamic and charasmatic Donnan hadd a bunch of talent? Yeah, right.
Greg
October 7th, 2012
8:01 am
Have you noticed Richt cannot beat a well coached team? He loses 90% of the time to coaches like Saban, Spurrier, Miles, and Meyer. He gets out out coached everytime. Georgia has the athletes but up against a well coached team, they are scrambling all over the field trying to figure out what to do because they are out coached.
OldGrunt
October 7th, 2012
8:03 am
In summary, we witnessed a Marc Richt “coached” team last night. What was it this time? Over confident? Lack of preparation? Lack discipline? Can’t wait to hear the excuses!
Tom
October 7th, 2012
8:03 am
Does this writer believe in proof-reading?
kingdaddy
October 7th, 2012
8:03 am
After sleeping on it, I still feel the same way. Time for Hutson Mason and time for Oline shake-up. Move Burnett to center. Andrews was manhandled last night. Gates was ineffective against Clowney and Bobo gave him ZERO help. Where were the TEs? Merrit Hall played a good game but he disappeared too much. Sad to say, many of the trolls make fun of Murray’s short stature. Last night, he made all of their jokes a reality. I have been unwavering in defending the Dawgs against “cheapshots”, but after last night, I don’t see a staff capable of coaching this team to greatness. I hate lil stevie and SC fans are the worst. The Bulldawg faithful must listen to ridicule for this poor pitiful performance which was a loss to be pinned on COACHES.
McGarity…do your job, or step down now…
NC DAWG
October 7th, 2012
8:06 am
Only explanation for the Dawgs poor performance is the Al Gore defense. It must have been the altitude in Columbia rather than lousy preparation and execution. The entire coaching staff should apologize.
perk
October 7th, 2012
8:06 am
no adjustments on either side of the ball. O line got crushed. Ran same short-right side draw at 14 times for net 5 yds. Murray off again all nite. D line – no pressure. many dropped assignemnts from D backs and safeties. Totally out coached. If Rambo knocks down that ball on 2nd play of game – totally diff ballgame. totally emabarassing
Dirty South TV
October 7th, 2012
8:12 am
Chip Towers,
Please–PLEASE go back to school and learn grammar. This has to be the worst article we’ve ever read.
Bozo N. Richt
October 7th, 2012
8:14 am
How – or better still – why didnt we this coming???? – - Struggled against BUFFALO!! and FAU!!!!! and TENN – - Heralded Defense stinks – - they look dazed and confused and the Coaching, well, we’ve been living with a second rate staff that cant beat a ranked opponent for years now – and next year we will be hard pressed to finish 500.
Richt’s program will ALWAYS be second rate – - The game announcers said it all in the fourth quarter – - how can any team be that overrated??
loveallthings football
October 7th, 2012
8:15 am
Yep them dawggies underestimated a real SEC team. Alabama would kick their tails too. Fans are a bunch of crybabies. This is so entertaining. BAMA vs. Carolina – now that will be the Big one.
GFJacket
October 7th, 2012
8:15 am
kingdaddy, I thought Tech fans were the worst.
Thogwummpy
October 7th, 2012
8:16 am
Well, this is one I could see coming all year. This season, our defense hasn’t been doing much in terms of pressure on opponents quarterbacks….and our offensive line hasn’t been doing well in QB protection, or run blocking. This was a textbook case of a game being won or lost “in the trenches”. Our lines look like they are very weak boys when playing….almost anybody. That means that there’s something seriously wrong with the strength/endurance coaching—and that had better be looked at, because these lines have been suspect for years now (as a matter of fact, I saw a pre-seaon show where it was said that UGA’s linemen have a reputation now in the SEC as being out of shape compared with the competition). And perhaps, it (and the lack of heart we saw Saturday) may be attributable to the same lack of discipline that puts all these players into suspension every year. Maybe CMR needs to re-evaluate his nicey-nice “buddy” approach to running a team; and start breaking some furniture every now and then. Mr. Calm seems to think Jesus will come out of the sky and rescue the game…and this time, that attitude got exposed.
01HAWK
October 7th, 2012
8:16 am
The team takes the demeanor of the Coach. Muschamp is getting his team back from the dead and he was fussing quite a bit yesterday.
Look at NICK SABAN on the sidelines. He is not happy even after he blows a team away because he wants a perfect game.
CMR is a happy go lucky Coach. Have you really truly read the comments that he makes sometimes. They are nice…………………..To nice.
GFJacket
October 7th, 2012
8:17 am
UGA fans need to lighten up. It’s only one loss. Play the season out. You may be surprised….
Bozo N. Richt
October 7th, 2012
8:21 am
Musberger and Kirk Herbstreit tell it like it is and issue scathing words about our performance.
Larry
October 7th, 2012
8:22 am
Richt, Grantham, and Bobo are deserve this loss. The Dawgs were simply not ready for this game; this is a trend which has repeated itself over and over. I’m getting really tired of hyping UGA when it clearly doesn’t deserve it.
THIS TEAM DOES NOT BELONG IN THE TOP 25!
LogicalUS
October 7th, 2012
8:23 am
“We have all the top recruiting classes and then get beat like that”
Here is the rub….TOO MANY unknowledgeable UGA fans believe that just because a player commits to UGA that they are automatically the greatest player in the history of football. It is not helped that virtually every “journalist” who reports on UGA in Georiga are bigger disney beaners than the fans to whom they are supposed to be giving the state of the program.
So you get delusional nonsense like “Gurshall” as the greatest running duo in the history of football, ever. More like NO-shall.
The reality from Saturday night was that SC was more talented, more developed and better at EVERY POSITION…DL\LB\S\CB, OL\RB\WR\QB. In fact, there was only one player on the UGA squad from Saturday night that could have cracked the two deep at SC and that was Malcolm Mitchell.
01HAWK
October 7th, 2012
8:23 am
# 55 in total defense in the country before this game. What will it be now, yet all the coaches got a raise. How do you figure that.
I was told by many on this blog that I was a hater. No I was not. I saw a very over rated UGA team that allowed the likes of FAU, BUFFALO, MIZZOU, TENN to score to much and run and pass on them AT WILL.
So much talent and here is another year where CRYSTAL will not be coming to the local WALMART.
kingdaddy
October 7th, 2012
8:24 am
How much did we pay the TEs coach, DLcoach, Secondary coach Oline coach for last nights beatdown? Let’s dont forget the big three. I won’t say their name, they have been mentioned enough. Our kids could have done better coaching themselves. Lil stevie owns UGA! OMG, I CAN’T BELIEVE I SAID THAT!!!
USC1801
October 7th, 2012
8:25 am
As a South Carolina Alumni and metro Atlanta resident I listen year after year to the Dawg Nation talk-up there team as if they were a national championship contender. I listen to fans call in to various talk shows and speak of their quarterbacks as if they were the best in the nation Arran Murray, (ok not Joe Cox) Matt Stafford and David Greene and on and on….. Other callers can not understand why the Bulldogs always seem to underachieve, they are not underachieving they are over hyped. When you run up big numbers against unknown teams (I had never heard of the University of Buffalo until they showed up in Athens this fall) you get an inflated view of your team, you gave up 347 yards, 23 points and 70 offensive plays to this team in your own backyard and you still talked as though you had on of the best defenses in the county, talk about living in denial. If Georgia was in the Southern Conference or Conference USA then they could be proud of the team they have and expect to win championships year after year but this is the SEC you know Big Man Football. A local radio personality said last week that Georgia beat Tennessee because they were playing at home and have a better coach and South Carolina would beat Georgia for the same reasons. CMR needs to worry less about WJWD and more about what Steve Spurrier and Will Muschamp would do.
Jorge O'leary
October 7th, 2012
8:28 am
Hey, at least you don’t suck nearly as bad as Tech does!
Bob Saccomanno
October 7th, 2012
8:28 am
That was pathetic, The whole team LOOKED like they were going to get run. I mean show some nards. SC looked like they had our playbook. unbeleivably unprepared on UGA.s part.
Tired of deer in the headlights looks fro #11. dude you’ve been here 4 yrs
Gary
October 7th, 2012
8:29 am
Everyone needs to take a deep breath. GA will be fine. We have been learning throughout the year that though we have a few stars throughout–our offensive line is not strong. And Grantham as DC was not a good move for UGA. His attitude last year–fired up the emotions but was not sustainable. Once again the uninformed start the chant, “Fire Richt.” Really? The fact of the matter is that UGA has always been an average team with a few flashes of greatness. We have always been overated–even when we won the NC in 80. Can we be great? I think so. We need a DC. We need an OL coach. We need Richt to take over OC resp and let Bobo handle QB’s. We need to go to Kentucky and run the ball 40 times and play Old Man football. This loss hurts. Had we won we would have been ranked #3 in the nation. Now we have to win them all to get back into the top 10. The goodnews is that it is very likely that SC will lose the next two weeks. A characteristic of Spurrier’s SC teams is that they win a big game and then go on a losing streak. GA loses a big game and goes on a winning streak. I am sticking with Richt but giving him OC resp, moving Bobo exclusively to QB and receivers, getting a new DC and OL coach. I think we have a decent shot at winning the east, defeating Alabama and playing in the Sugar bowl. You can’t spell sugar without UGA.
Eric
October 7th, 2012
8:30 am
Let’s see .. it’s first down, so lets hand the ball off up the middle for no yards … AGAIN and AGAIN and AGAIN…
Flat Tire on I-95 in Jacksonville
October 7th, 2012
8:31 am
Where are the kool-aid bloggers
You know who you are;
I want to hear how stupid I am for saying this was going to happen once again this season
Come out come out wherever you are
Murray the Midget
October 7th, 2012
8:31 am
Forget about beatin the GATORS, I never have and never will beat a ranked team——-I just can’t see over those big guys
kingdaddy
October 7th, 2012
8:31 am
GFJacket
Nope. They are more like bothersome nats. SC backs it up, but are still obnoxious. Don’t worry GF, we still don’t like you either…
Flat Tire on I-95 in Jacksonville
October 7th, 2012
8:32 am
Gary
Seriously
We need another coach
We dont need Richt taking over anything
Flat Tire on I-95 in Jacksonville
October 7th, 2012
8:33 am
Where are the kool-aid bloggers
You know who you are;
I want to hear how stupid I am for saying this was going to happen once again this season
Come out come out wherever you are!
DAWG FAN KICKED IN THE NADS
October 7th, 2012
8:33 am
OH THE HORROR!!!! THE HORROR!!!