Georgia’s tackles feel they gained valuable experience against South Carolina’s ends
ATHENS – The performance of Georgia’s offensive line – and its tackles in particular — against South Carolina this past weekend was one the Bulldogs would just as soon forget. In fact, that seems to be one of their primary goals this week.
“That game’s over,” freshman tackle John Theus said. “We looked at the film and we learned from it and we’re ready to go on to the next game. We’ve all moved on. We’re preparing for Kentucky now.”
On paper, it doesn’t look as bad as it was. Officially the Gamecocks were credited with two quarterback sacks and two quarterback hurries. But anybody who watched this past Saturday’s 35-7 domination of Georgia knows defensive ends Jadeveon Clowney and Devin Taylor had a much more profound effect on quarterback Aaron Murray and the Bulldogs’ offense.
Murray had career lows with 35 percent completion rate on 11-of-31 passing for 109 yards. The Gamecocks were credited with 10 pass break-ups, several of them occurring nanoseconds after the ball left Murray’s hands.
The end result was the Bulldogs were held to 41 points below their scoring average and 312 yards below their yards per game.
“It’s just one of those games you have to throw it in a bag and move on and focus on our next opponent, which is Kentucky,” junior left tackle Kenarious Gates said. “That’s what we’re doing. We’re working on Kentucky now. We’re not worried about South Carolina. It’s in the past. We can’t do anything about it.”
Gates had the toughest assignment of anybody on the team as he played the entire night head up against the 6-foot-6, 256-pound Clowney. Occasionally Gates would get some help from a chipping running back or fullback. But essentially it was the first-year starting tackle against one of the best pass-rushers in college football all night.
“It was a great experience,” Gates insisted. “He’s a great player. You’re going against one of the best D-ends in the SEC. You’ve to got to give him credit. He’s strong, quick off the line. He opened my eyes to what I need to do to get better and the things I need to work on. We gave each other good competition out there.”
The question now is whether Georgia’s overall confidence on offense has been shaken to the core.
“No,” Gates said. “We still have high confidence in our team. We still have our goals moving forward. We’re still trying to do what we’ve been doing all season, which is to win and be one of the best offenses in the nation”
As bad as Saturday was, the Bulldogs remain second in the SEC in points scored (41.3 per game), third in total yardage (484 ypg) and their nine quarterback sacks allowed are fourth-fewest in the league.
“I think we’ll be fine,” Murray said. “I think we’re still confident with who we have, with the play-calloing, with everything that’s going on. We just didn’t execute when the time came. When plays were there to be made we just didn’t hit on them. . . . But I don’t think we’re shaken up at all. We’re going to come out very confident in our next game and be ready to go.”
Murray feeling better
Murray said he was being sincere when he said Saturday night and Sunday morning were “the worst 12 hours of his life.” Between the Bulldogs’ dismal performance against South Carolina, Murray’s house getting vandalized and finding out Sunday morning that his father had cancer and needed surgery immediately, “My head was about to explode at that point,” Murray said Wednesday.
But he was feeling much better after returning to practice this week. “Things are on the rise,” Murray said.
First and foremost, the prognosis for Denny Murray, who has thyroid cancer, is very good. “It’s a very treatable cancer,” Murray said. “They removed the thyroid completely and now he has to wait a few weeks and get a scan to make sure it didn’t spread. So hopefully we got it early enough and it didn’t spread and it’s gone.”
In some ways, Murray said having to deal with his father’s illness helped him deal with Saturday’s loss and all that has happened since, including getting a speeding ticket in Gainesville, Fla., on his drive back Monday.
“I was being a little baby, then my parents came in and told me about what was going on,” Murray said. “I didn’t even think of football after that. I didn’t think about the game. Nothing. It really does put everything in perspective about what’s most important in your life, who’s most important in your life and putting those things first.”
Said Georgia coach Mark Richt: “There’s never a good time to find out about your father having something like that. But it does help get everything else that happened in perspective. Those things don’t seem as bad.”
Practice update
The Bulldogs practiced for more than two hours in what coaches and players described as a “competition day.” There was a lot of contact and fundamental work and the day ended with the offense and defense scrimmaging.
“We had a good day; we had a fun day; we competed,” Richt said. “We treated it like a spring practice. We had a lot of things to work on and, since we weren’t going to compete Saturday, we decided to go out and compete with a scrimmage today. And we had some great competition.”
They said it
“First of all, I say we have the best fans in America. They do foolish things sometimes, usually in the first few hours after a ballgame. That’s just normal emotions. . . . Every once in a while a fan will do something foolish. But that doesn’t mean all fans are foolish.”
– Richt on fan behavior
Etc. . .
All-America outside linebacker Jarvis Jones was held out of practice for the second day in a row with a sprained ankle. Thursday is the last day of practice and it will be in shorts and helmets. . . . Richt said junior defensive end Garrison Smith has played exceptionally well in a backup role and will see his repetitions increase in the second half of the season.
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508 comments Add your comment
Don
October 11th, 2012
4:04 pm
even if UGA wins out…and finds a way for SC to lose and back into the SEC championship game, it will leave a sour taste in my mouth. I almost would rather not go, win out, and end up in the Sugar Bowl as the highest ranked SEC team not in the National Championship Game. Otherwise…it’s the Outback AGAIN, or at best the Capital One Bowl. Anyone else?
Flat Tire on I-95 in Jacksonville
October 11th, 2012
4:08 pm
Don
Im right there behind you
7576DAWG
October 11th, 2012
4:09 pm
Mobile Dawg
I quit golf 4 years ago because it was too frustrating. I would have 10 to 14 birdie putts a round and only make 1 or 2 of them. Any level of player can get to the point where they accept they will never get any better. It was easy for me to quit at 56 years old, four years ago, I had to play every tournament from the back tees and at 5′6″ tall I couldn’t stay up in distance with the taller golfers.
I could have you shooting under 90 in one month.
aldogg2121 was right do not sacrifice accuracy for distance. Practice the one , two and three feet putts a lot. Golfers who shot over 90 miss a lot of one to two feet putts. When I played I played 150 rounds a year . Week- in golf won’t get the job done. It depends on your age and how bad you want it. Good luck.
aldogg2121
October 11th, 2012
4:15 pm
@Joey
Maybe I was not specific enough, but I meant coaches that jumped straight from assistant jobs to head coaching jobs at MAJOR programs. Most of the guys you mentioned cut their teeth as head coaches at smaller schools before they made the leap to a major program, i.e. an SEC school.
dawg gone
October 11th, 2012
4:15 pm
I’ve loved the dawgs for 40 years but I can’t stay with Mike Adams and Mark Richt. Can you imagine if Spurrier had this current Georgia team?
chase
October 11th, 2012
4:19 pm
DawginLex
Georgia CANNOT play BOTH LSU and ALABAMA in the same regular season schedule AND next year’s schedule has not been released
Flat TIre
I am ticked off about the loss, but it was just that, 1 BAD LOSS! Have you seen SCAR play their 2 road games at Vandy and Kentucky??????? They are a different team at home and put every single ounce of emotion and everything they had into that game – The last time they did that, #1 BAMA got beat in Columbia….AND GUESS WHAT….THAT BAMA TEAM PLAYED FOR THE NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP!
Maybe it is my years as a player or high school coach, BUT jeesh let the season play out Because all of you who think the sky is falling now will be THE EXACT SAME ONES on here barking about how great the DAWGS are and how you “knew it all alone” if UGA wins out – ESPECIALLY if they WIN the SECCG!
aldogg2121
October 11th, 2012
4:22 pm
@chase
All due respect, bud, but you are living in lala land. UGA is not going to backdoor our way into the SECCG again. We had our chance to earn our way there and we blew it.
“Next year…”
chase
October 11th, 2012
4:30 pm
aldogg2121
so you have a crystal ball that says SCAR can’t lose to LSU, FLORIDA, TENNESSEE, or ARKANSAS?
Flat Tire on I-95 in Jacksonville
October 11th, 2012
4:31 pm
chase
Once again lay off the bong
That Bama Team that lost to SC did not play for the National Title that year
Thats your problem you dont know your facts
Mobile Dawg
October 11th, 2012
4:32 pm
Appreciate the golf tips. Finally taking some lessons and they have helped some but the bottom line is that it takes committment to get better and lots of time. My plan to get better involves delegating a lot of my work to my son lately, my wife has taken over some of the administrative responsibilities, freeing me up to study cutting edge golf. Wait a minute, I’m beginning to sound like someone else.
Mobile Dawg
October 11th, 2012
4:34 pm
Flat’s right, they lost three games that year chase, here’s your sign.
chase
October 11th, 2012
4:40 pm
was that BAMA team not #1 and lost to a #19 team in Columbia? and did that team not win the NC the very next season?!?!?! THE SAME TEAM!!!!
did they fire Saban???? did they fire Saban when he went 6-6 and lost to Louisiana Monroe?
chase
October 11th, 2012
4:40 pm
There’s your sign
aldogg2121
October 11th, 2012
4:43 pm
@chase
No, I don’t have a crystal ball…funny, neither does Mark Richt.
And SC is not the only team we have to leap-frog. Florida is also undefeated and controls their own destiny.
chase
October 11th, 2012
4:44 pm
when you are saying a great team lost a few games but stayed the course and were rewarded by winning National Championships, YOU ARE MAKING MY POINTS FOR ME!
too many of you want to ignore facts like UGA is in the top 5 winning programs since Richt has been there!
does that mean I am happy with the loss? NOOOOOOOOOOOOO
does that mean I think they are not underachieving? NOOOOOOOOOO
do I think they need to be better? YESSSSSSSS
but I cannot stick my head in the sand and ignore all of the great things they have achieved like most of you knee-jerk armchair know-it-alls
chase
October 11th, 2012
4:45 pm
aldogg2121
NOPE!
If UGA beats Florida, Florida DOES NOT CONTROL THEIR OWN DESTINY
aldogg2121
October 11th, 2012
4:47 pm
chase, that is the talk of a fan of a team that is happy being slightly better than mediocre. Face facts, UGA is an afterthought in the SEC these days. That does not please me to say that…it makes me mad. But it is true.
Richt has taken us as far as he can…we need to go in another direction in order to get over the hump. Kind of how we went with Richt to get us to where we are now from the days of Goff and Donnan, we need to make another step up in class of coach in order to compete for championships.
RickDawg49
October 11th, 2012
4:50 pm
Just curious whom all these Richt haters plan to replace him with that would consider coming to a place liek Athens, that has such lousy negative fans…………just saying!
Joey
October 11th, 2012
5:04 pm
I think I’m gonna throw up if another Richt-Fan-Boy compares his hero to Saban.
Flat Tire on I-95 in Jacksonville
October 11th, 2012
5:14 pm
chase
You state UGA is not Under achieving
Are you serious
Not beating top 20 teams in years is under achieving
And dont twist your story that AL team didnt win the National Championship that year; you thought they did to make your point that UGA still has a chance to win out and play for the national title this year
Oh and now you say that AL team won the National Title next year; yea they sure did with basically the same team from the previous year that they lost to SC and DIDNT play for any title; but guess what UGA next isnt going to have the same team they lose 9 on defense
and you think this coaching staff is going to coach next years team to a national title losing 9 on D
LOL and keep drinking your bottle of kool-aid if you do
Sorry but Im not a delusional kool-aid drinker that easily falls for something
Joey
October 11th, 2012
5:16 pm
RichtDawg, not a “hater” but not a lousy dumbass fan either. We aren’t gonna change coaches, but if we did, with the exception of a half-dozen coaches with huge buyouts, or just happy where they are, UGA would have its pick of any of a couple dozen coaches, all of whom win more games with half the talent.
Hey, Richt had a pretty good run, but HE lost to underdogs, even with his best teams,and that kept him from the Big Game. His time is past – it should be obvious to the Fan-boys and to Richt himself.
I really can’t figure out why he hasn’t just retired by now, what with all the blowouts he get handed to him. He should be embarrassed by those blowouts, over and over.
Crazy UGA
October 11th, 2012
5:22 pm
Wow AR Dawg, impressive. Its too bad you are too blind to listen to any rational, objective comments. Again, I am not a Tech fan. You have some sort of complex my friend, because apparently anyone who criticizes you or Richt is an automatic “Tech Fan.” And “go back to your woods?” Aren’t most Tech fans from Atlanta? I don’t think of Atlanta as “the woods.” If you were paying attention, you probably could tell I went to Texas, and thus I guess you could call me a “Texas Fan.” But I went to law school at UGA, so I could indirectly be a “UGA fan” as well. Def not Tech.
No matter what school I am a fan of, firing Richt will be highly detrimental to the program and will put it back into the Goff/Donnan dark ages.
Crazy UGA
October 11th, 2012
5:22 pm
criticizes “Richt being fired” is an…
aldogg2121
October 11th, 2012
5:45 pm
@Crazy UGA
“firing Richt will be highly detrimental to the program and will put it back into the Goff/Donnan dark ages.”
ONLY if they hire the wrong guy. That is why I do not want an unproven guy like a Kirby Smart; a head coaching experiment with a newbie could set the program back years. If they replace Richt with a proven, successful HC then we may be able to take the next step and compete for championships. I know there is not another Nick Saban out there that we can just go out and grab, but there are plenty of mid-tier schools who are beginning to learn how to win under the direction of a guy who is just starting to make a name for himself. Bring in one of these guys who has proven he can do more with less…see what he can do with more.
Concerned and confused Dawg
October 11th, 2012
6:11 pm
rumor on Chattanooga sports talk says there is a great deal of tension on dawg staff…grantham and garner not getting along to the point of garner and another coach offering their resignation at Monday staff meeting…supposedly garner not happy with grantham.s rotation of d-linemen and the K.Griffin recruiting debacle…any truth to this??
Crazy UGA
October 11th, 2012
6:15 pm
aldogg,
The problem is, you never know who is right and wrong until 5 years down the road, when you have won a championship or your team sucks. There have been many can’t lose guys who get hired and are not good.
DawginLex
October 11th, 2012
6:22 pm
Concerned and confused Dawg
October 11th, 2012
6:11 pm
rumor on Chattanooga sports talk says there is a great deal of tension on dawg staff…grantham and garner not getting along to the point of garner and another coach offering their resignation at Monday staff meeting…supposedly garner not happy with grantham.s rotation of d-linemen and the K.Griffin recruiting debacle…any truth to this??
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Nope
Practice was testy yesterday. Richt actually used the a word to one of the players. Lots of hard hitting. Like a full blown scrimmage from the spring. Lots of offense versus defense with losers running sprints. Coaches heard screaming at the players.
Concerned and confused Dawg
October 11th, 2012
6:27 pm
Lex, this was supposedly Monday at Butts-Mehre.
chuck
October 11th, 2012
6:30 pm
.
I am a Georgia fan, but I would take Conner Shaw over Aaon Murray at Quaerback any day. He plays with energy, and he is not afraid to take a hit. Murray never runs with the ball. Afraid he will get hit. I said before the game that Shaw would beat Georgia with his legs and he did. Georgia is pathetic in games like that. New coaches are needed badly.
chase
October 11th, 2012
6:35 pm
Flat Tire on I-95 in Jacksonville
No I said they WERE underachieving
chase
October 11th, 2012
6:40 pm
Flat Tire on I-95 in Jacksonville
why don’t you admit that you and ALdogg21211 are a couple of RICHT HATER COOL AID DRINKERS
and it doesn’t matter if they won the National Championship this year..you still wouldn’t like him
you two are THE WORST SORT OF FANS
YES the DAWGS are underachieving this year SO FAR…..Doesn’t mean they can’t win out and be 11-1 and be in the SEC Title Game and possibly the NC
NO THE DAWGS are NOT MEDIOCRE – the stats say they are a top 5 program in ALL OF COLLEGE FOOTBALL
You two are the type of microwave instant fans that have no sense of history! You just choose to look at what happens right now that makes you feel better or worse about your life! You don’t want to acknowledge all of the good and that is the PROBLEM!
DawginLex
October 11th, 2012
6:43 pm
Concerned and confused Dawg
October 11th, 2012
6:27 pm
Lex, this was supposedly Monday at Butts-Mehre.
***********************************************
All rumor with no truth to it according to the 24/7 guys
Concerned and confused Dawg
October 11th, 2012
6:45 pm
Thanks Lex.
ARdawg
October 11th, 2012
7:07 pm
Crazy UGA
You said you were not a fan and yes Nerd fans are the ones oon these UGA blogs that are not fans.
Now to your statement. A coaching change is a set back to any team. How clairvoyant of you. Your statement is back to the dark ages of the Donnan years? A law degree hasn’t done much for your football acumen, has it?
I am well aware of the risks and pitfalls of a coaching change. The Donnan/Goff years are ancient history. I wish the Richt years were. In the previous 6 years Richt has proven he can’t get this team to the next level. You obviously are not a UGA fan because you think this is a good thing. Many in the Dawg nation think this is tired and pathetic. Even if you aren’t a Nerd you should be, you think like one
ARdawg
October 11th, 2012
7:10 pm
chase
What is it about a beat down of 35-7 and all hopes of a national championship gone, don’t you understand. If Richt won a NC this year, it wouldn’t be because he was a good coach, it would be because he was a magician
chase
October 11th, 2012
7:18 pm
ARdawg
Really,
Because I remember in 2007 when Georgia lost to SCAR and got blown out 35-14 at TENNESSEE and yet at the end of the season SHOULD HAVE PLAYED for the NC and most of the country admitted that they and SOCAL were the BEST 2 TEAMS!
oh and didn’t LSU LOSE 2 GAMES THAT YEAR and win it all?
Didn’t BAMA lose last year and not even play in the SEC Title game and make it?
so don’t tell me one loss ends it all – Hisotry and Common Sense says YOU ARE WRONG
birdo
October 11th, 2012
7:18 pm
Would have been nice to learned from your coach prior to game. Please give these kids a chance and get rid of Head Coach. These kids need to have a chance to succeed. The team was just not prepared for this game.
GoldenDawg
October 11th, 2012
7:40 pm
The common refrain: “wow, if we fire Richt, we might end up with Goff” is exactly the timid half measured thinking that gets you 32 dry years despite having as much talent as any program in the country.
General Custer must go!
Dawgs1
October 11th, 2012
7:42 pm
Well we owned Fl til the old coach got there , we owned SC til the old coach got there. that is 2 losses we pretty much count on most years now Dag gum I hope he doesn’t take over another team we play every year.
Gman 84
October 11th, 2012
7:43 pm
Chase, UGA did not play for the MNC in 2007 BECAUSE they got destroyed by UT. The constant is the coaching and the song remains the same!
Old Man River
October 11th, 2012
7:48 pm
Some teams prepare for the obvious by learning from coaches during the week prior to the game. Other teams learn from hindsight because there is no coaching.
ARdawg
October 11th, 2012
7:49 pm
chase
In 2007, did they play for a national championship? It makes no difference if they are far and away the best team in the country at the end of the year. They will not play for a national championship. They very likely won’t even play for the SECCG. A team doesn’t take it in the shorts 35-7 and stay in the NC picture. If you really followed college football, you’d know that
Really
October 11th, 2012
7:52 pm
Richt haters are kool-aid drinkers? That may be the dumbest thing I’ve ever read.
Rangerdawg
October 11th, 2012
7:55 pm
Hey, heard or read any news on ESPN about the UGA football team? Me either, I guess that is what happens when you get embarrassed on national tv. Thanks coach!
Flat Tire on I-95 in Jacksonville
October 11th, 2012
8:06 pm
chase
For your 2007 scenario um UGA wouldnt get in the national title due to their lousy record against ranked teams now since 2007
People are going to say we arent good enough and would leap frog other teams in front of us
By the way we would get destroyed by Bama in the championship game cause they have a coaching staff that knows how to coach
Please man up and be on these blogs when the basic reality has set in at the end of this season again that this coaching staff blew another opportunity again this year
Flat Tire on I-95 in Jacksonville
October 11th, 2012
8:11 pm
chase
I choose to look at right now LOL
I dont think I need to give you the stats again do I
I will be glad too if you want
mark
October 11th, 2012
8:14 pm
you know your coaching staff is not developing players when a highschool lineman can come in and start at right tackle! we should have stud redshirt seniors and juniors across the line,our coach is infatuated with wide recievers and quaterbacks, and thats one of the main reasons we can’t compete with the big boys
Rick James
October 11th, 2012
8:16 pm
It still amazes me how Tech fans will pretend to be Alabama fans,South Carolina fans or upset Georgia fans to take swipes at Georgia in these blongs..I guess you have nothing better to do.
Flat Tire on I-95 in Jacksonville
October 11th, 2012
8:20 pm
Rick James
In case you didnt know there are UGA fans that are tired of the status quo. I guess you missed the call in show after Saturdays embarrassment you might have realized that since that was every caller that called in
DawgNole
October 11th, 2012
8:20 pm
mark
October 11th, 2012
8:14 pm
you know your coaching staff is not developing players when a highschool lineman can come in and start at right tackle! we should have stud redshirt seniors and juniors across the line,our coach is infatuated with wide recievers and quaterbacks, and thats one of the main reasons we can’t compete with the big boys
________________
Valid observation.