Visit by LSU, return to Auburn highlight Georgia’s ‘13 schedule (updated)
By TIM TUCKER
Georgia’s 2013 football schedule restores South Carolina to a familiar early-season spot, includes a visit to Athens by LSU and — in an odd quirk — calls for the Bulldogs to travel to Auburn for a second consecutive season.
The SEC finally unveiled next season’s league schedule Thursday after spending many months sorting through the complexities of expansion to 14 teams. The league emphasized that next season’s schedule, like this season’s, is a transitional “bridge” and not a model for an ongoing rotation.
For Georgia fans, the 2013 schedule might be disconcerting: It is UGA’s first since 1957 without a home game against either Auburn or Georgia Tech, the Bulldogs’ two oldest rivals.
For more than a half-century, Georgia has hosted Auburn in odd-numbered years and Tech in even-numbered years. But the SEC said it shifted next season’s Georgia-Auburn game to Auburn “in order to maintain a balanced schedule for the 2014 season and beyond.” Two other games, Ole Miss at Alabama and Texas A&M at Ole Miss, also will be played at the same site this season and next.
“Repeat-venue games, while not desired, provided the only solution to the complex scheduling issues,” SEC commissioner Mike Slive said in a statement.
The other thing that jumps out about Georgia’s 2013 schedule: It is tougher than this season’s and last season’s, both of which avoided the top SEC West teams.
After opening next season with a previously announced non-conference game at Clemson on Aug. 31, Georgia will start SEC play Sept. 7 in Athens against South Carolina. On Sept. 28, Georgia will host SEC West power LSU. Clemson, South Carolina and LSU are currently ranked among the nation’s top 14 teams.
Next season’s Georgia-South Carolina game will mark the 21st time in 22 years that the teams meet in their SEC openers. The exception was this season’s October meeting.
The Georgia-LSU game will be a homecoming for Zach Mettenberger, currently LSU’s starting quarterback and a former Georgia player. He grew up near Athens.
After the early-season gauntlet, Georgia’s remaining SEC games next season are Oct. 5 at Tennessee, Oct. 12 at home against Missouri, Oct. 19 at Vanderbilt, Nov. 2 against Florida in Jacksonville, Nov. 16 at Auburn and Nov. 23 at home against Kentucky.
In addition to the opener at Clemson, the previously announced non-conference schedule includes home games against North Texas (Sept. 21) and Appalachian State (Nov. 9) and the road game at Tech (Nov. 30).
Next season’s schedule is spread over 14 weeks. Georgia will have a bye week following the South Carolina game and another before the Florida game.
“The 2013 schedule will obviously be very challenging,” UGA athletic director Greg McGarity said in a statement. “Our No. 1 priority throughout this process was to protect our long-standing rivalry game against Auburn, and in order to keep this series intact, it necessitated a return to Auburn in 2013. We will start working on the 2014 rotating SEC schedule this spring, and we can confirm that Auburn will be returning to Athens in 2014.”
Beyond that assurance, the SEC described the ’13 schedule as “not based on any previous or future scheduling formats.”
GEORGIA’S 2013 SCHEDULE
All caps signifies home game
- August 31 at Clemson
- September 7 SOUTH CAROLINA
- September 14 Open
- September 21 NORTH TEXAS
- September 28 LSU
- October 5 at Tennessee
- October 12 MISSOURI
- October 19 at Vanderbilt
- October 26 Open
- November 2 Florida ( Jacksonville)
- November 9 APPALACHIAN ST.
- November 16 at Auburn
- November 23 KENTUCKY
- November 30 at Georgia Tech
SEC WEEK-BY-WEEK, 2013
Aug. 31
Ole Miss at Vanderbilt
Sept. 7
South Carolina at Georgia
Sept. 14
Alabama at Texas A&M
Mississippi State at Auburn
Vanderbilt at South Carolina
Sept. 21
Auburn at LSU
Tennessee at Florida
Sept. 28
Ole Miss at Alabama
Texas A&M at Arkansas
Florida at Kentucky
LSU at Georgia
Oct. 5
Arkansas at Florida
Ole Miss at Auburn
Georgia at Tennessee
Kentucky at South Carolina
LSU at Mississippi State
Missouri at Vanderbilt
Oct. 12
Alabama at Kentucky
South Carolina at Arkansas
Florida at LSU
Missouri at Georgia
Texas A&M at Ole Miss
Oct. 19
Arkansas at Alabama
Auburn at Texas A&M
Florida at Missouri
Georgia at Vanderbilt
South Carolina at Tennessee
LSU at Ole Miss
Oct. 26
Tennessee at Alabama
Kentucky at Mississippi State
South Carolina at Missouri
Vanderbilt at Texas A&M
Nov. 2
Auburn at Arkansas
Georgia vs. Florida (Jacksonville)
Mississippi State at South Carolina
Tennessee at Missouri
Nov. 9
LSU at Alabama
Arkansas at Ole Miss
Auburn at Tennessee
Vanderbilt at Florida
Missouri at Kentucky
Mississippi State at Texas A&M
Nov. 16
Alabama at Mississippi State
Georgia at Auburn
Florida at South Carolina
Kentucky at Vanderbilt
Nov. 23
Mississippi State at Arkansas
Kentucky at Georgia
Texas A&M at LSU
Missouri at Ole Miss
Vanderbilt at Tennessee
Nov. 30
Alabama at Auburn
Arkansas at LSU
Tennessee at Kentucky
Ole Miss at Mississippi State
Texas A&M at Missouri
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247 comments Add your comment
FloridaDawg
October 19th, 2012
6:51 am
So with our “history” of BIG games, do ya like our chances?
barneyfife
October 19th, 2012
6:58 am
Thoughts & prayers go out to all of you suffering losses in your lives i.e. parents, pets, etc. It puts it all in perspective. Win or lose on any Saturday, the sun comes up on Sunday and life goes on as usual.
That said, we all love our Dawgs. As a 1980 grad and Redcoat, what has happened in Athens over the past 5 years hurts. Mark Richt, by all acocunts, is an outstanding man. But NOT an outstanding head coach! The time is way past to send him off with his pink slip. Poor play calling, blind loyalty to friends on staff, poor clock management, lack of respect from players (face it, they don’t fear him, or discipline wouldn’t be so bad), the list goes on. Why in the world he was given another 5-year contract extension, I have no idea.
Mediocrity is the name of the game at UGA, and will continue to be the case. Sad to say, but it is. Nothing will change with Mark Richt there. I am not a “Richt Hater”, but do expect excellence for the obscene amount of $$$ we are paying him and his joke of a coaching staff. Let them all go NOW!
Hair E Dawg
October 19th, 2012
6:58 am
Guess there’ll be no way for Richt to “back into the dome” next year…
65dawg
October 19th, 2012
6:59 am
This is awful. This is not fair!! Oh, wait a minute, I sound like Steve Spurrier. Never mind!
John
October 19th, 2012
7:07 am
So based on the last five years of losing to ranked teams, Richt and Bobo will either be unprepared for the early games or go so conservative at the wrong times and lose to Clemson, SC, LSU and Florida and any other ranked team. Thank God for teams ranked 23 through 25 and unranked teams who we can beat. CMR mat want to remember Appalachian State beat Michigan. No wait, he will be so worried about what color shirts the fans are wearing to care whether his underachieving allstars will actually win. At least Ray Goff actually cared whether we won or not.
Cupcake Wars
October 19th, 2012
7:09 am
Hmmm… North Texas and Appalachian State. The Cupcake Wars continue!
No fun in Richt ford truck
October 19th, 2012
7:15 am
Well richt foam at mouth wanted somethin better he Got it…..No lame teams play ….0-2 after clemson and south carolina rocks us dead…..and well North Texas be are candy cane dinner rout oh richt you and booBoo better be prepared are could be 1-3 after LSU Game. 8-4 at end of season…Good thing he got new contract so will blame he lost some OL men and center and stuff..I hope Murray loves it he be lookin at grass face first all time…and again No Hiesman Trophy from Ga since 1980….wait till 2014 alabama comes in beats us with a Hobbknob boot!
Gordon
October 19th, 2012
7:27 am
UGA will make history in 2013. They will become the first team to lose to 3 teams with the same mascot.
gdawginkalamazoo
October 19th, 2012
7:31 am
GOrdon, haha, now that was funny.
gdawginkalamazoo
October 19th, 2012
7:32 am
Could be four if Auburn hires a new coach and you all them the tigers instead war eagles or plainsmen.
Texas Dawg
October 19th, 2012
7:57 am
The lack of keeping in- state quality recruits………
The lack of ability to beat teams that have the same or better athletes (inept coaching)………
We lose the first three games….we lose almost all of our defense for next year……..
2013 will be CMR last…………..
douglas
October 19th, 2012
8:01 am
Great schedule…after Richt loses all of those games next year, McGarity will have a good reason to fire him and the rest of his overpaid coaches. Just hope Kirby Smart is still around.
NCDawg
October 19th, 2012
8:04 am
Jeez all the belly-aching has to end folks! Does nothing please you people? The Dawgs do not control their SEC schedule. The league is trying to balance the schedule so teams can keep traditional rivals. App St took out Michigan a few years back so NO ONE can claim a the Dawgs have a soft schedule next year. Once the playoff format and the selection criteria are setup, then you can expect 1 cupcake a year probably. Stop the griping and be fans not persistent critics.
Hate GT
October 19th, 2012
8:09 am
What a horrible thing to do to all the DAWGS fans!
Only “6″ home games!
I pay all this money and I only get “6″ home games?
Donald
October 19th, 2012
8:21 am
Good thing the Dawgs paid Oregon $250,000 to get out of that series, the Ducks would humiliate Georgia.
Smart move. Cowardly, but smart.
Dwayne
October 19th, 2012
8:34 am
Wow, great schedule….Spurrier must have made it for us.
joe jenkins
October 19th, 2012
8:43 am
hey, crybaby brainy
we should at least get 6-10 of the top ten players in the state of georgia….these top players go else where and have better careers…..As long as richt is the head coach we will never win the sec again. Why don’t you go crawl up in a feedle position again and have richt sing happy birthday to you again untill you sober up from drinking so much delusional kool-aid bro….We might get four….we might aint going to cut it…jackass
TampaDawg
October 19th, 2012
8:46 am
Cupcake wars
Please find a single D-1 team that doesn’t schedule atleast 2 “cupcake” games in a season.
3 or 4 I understand the complaints. But 2 is the standard throughout all of D-1 football.
Shutup and move on.
Jiggy Smaha
October 19th, 2012
8:56 am
What is the very best month of the year to play college football in Athens, GA? October!!! How many games did we play in Athens THIS year during October? ZERO!!! How many next year? 1 The scheduling sucks for the fans. We play half the home games when it is weltering and then take a month off. It sucks.
RedandBlackDAWG
October 19th, 2012
9:08 am
I really don’t see how a lot of these fortune tellers on this blog can predict what this team will do next year, since we don’t even know exactly who will be on the team all of the way yet. We don’t even know what the make up of the opponent will be for that fact.
We should have a much more experienced OL, two potential All Americans at running back, and a very strong receiving corp. Not sure who will be the QB as of now.
Defensive wise, we will have to replace a few superstars but overall, there is a lot of potential in the back ups that are training this year, so who knows.
The schedule is pretty tough as compared to this year, but I think UGA has a lot of good athletes that will rise up to the challenge. I would think that the first four games, will tell us how the season will shake out, but until then, nobody can look into their crystal ball, and predict their future.
GO DAWGS and GATA
NCDawg
October 19th, 2012
9:29 am
Everybody calling for CMR’s head… chill. We will know the answer in @ week. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again… we lose to Florida and CMR is gone. If UF beats SC tomorrow and the Dawgs win in Jacksonville… then the SEC title is still a possibility. Of course winning in Jacksonville doesn’t guarantee CMR stays. If we win and the team continues to under perform, especially on defense, then he may be a goner anyway. McGarity has always said that each season would be assessed individually at the end of the year. Given the expectations going into the year, anything less than a trip to the Georgia Dome will be the end of the line for CMR. And even a poor showing there and/or in the bowl will be hard to overcome. All in all if the Dawgs don’t make it to the SEC championship and have a competitive game there, then CMR is gone.
So relax… if you want coach gone then there is a pretty good chance it will happen.
Mike Slive
October 19th, 2012
9:31 am
Alabama is getting a making call for allowing 8 teams in 2 years get byes before playing them. I agree that playing UK is weak but UT will be better. Also lets talk about door mats in the East UK, Vandy and Mizzo which are not in the West (unless the au thing continues…hehehe). Honestly Alabama would love to play UGA, UF as well as SC but they dont want any part of that. Any way they will meet up with at least one in the SEC championship game.
Alabama Dog
October 19th, 2012
9:47 am
I agree Georgia will probably not be prepared to play that many big games early on. Player suspensions (who’s next?), which have become so commonplace the last 5 or so years will more than likely continue. While I am really not in favor of a coaching change (due to the fact I have no idea whom they would go after to succeed Richt), if results do not surface on the field THIS season, and VERY SOON there may not be a choice but to axe Richt.
MontanaDawg
October 19th, 2012
10:14 am
Well, at least the schedule is a bit more challenging than this years’ patsy run. Now, if we ever want to compete in the 4-team playoff in 2014 and beyond, we’d better get rid of App State and North Texas-like teams and add some decent teams from the other conferences. The tougher the better. Strength-of-schedule will be a factor in who goes to the playoffs for the NC.
WF-TexasDawg
October 19th, 2012
10:15 am
3-4 record heading into Jacksonville next year.
Dawg Tired
October 19th, 2012
10:34 am
Just how bad will we be next year?
Dawg Deep In DoDo
October 19th, 2012
11:13 am
Since You WUSSIES seem to think that playing in the SEC is easy, name me one team in the SEC that doesn’t have at least one very noticeable player, and one that doesn’t have at least three players in the NFL. Spurrier better enjoy now, because he knows this year and next the quality of recruits slides down hill.
DIT
October 19th, 2012
11:25 am
Funny how this blog talks about next year with half of this season still remains.
What’s even funnier is the people all worried about the schedule next year, Coach Richt being around, all the “overpaid” assistance, only 2 soft games… Oh my what is the world coming to!!!
If the Rapture comes before next season you’re going to say to yourself, “Why did I waste my time worry about that stuff when I should have been right with the Lord.”
Just saying….. Oh let the comments come in on this one. But as always… Go Dawgs. Win or lose I’m a fan!
joe jenkins
October 19th, 2012
11:30 am
Who cares about 2013…we already know we are looking at 5 losses on that schedule….for the rest of this year we need the defense to match the intensity of the offense and win out….if we lose to fla…this season will be a big disappoinment……I wonder if richt sung happy birthday to robert d….or to reuben foster?…..ihe did
Holy Guacamole
October 19th, 2012
11:35 am
Wonder if Spurrier will whine about South Carolina’s cream puff schedule next year like he did about Georgia’s schedule this year.
I doubt it.
kingdaddy
October 19th, 2012
12:26 pm
Holy Guacamole
I thought lil stevie would whine about UGAs schedule being too soft again in 2013. That’s just who he is…
kingdaddy
October 19th, 2012
12:28 pm
With fans like we have, who needs trolls? Pathetic…
kingdaddy
October 19th, 2012
12:30 pm
Topdog/smith&wesson
Brainiac is 100,000 times the Bulldawg fan you pretend to be…
RussRules
October 19th, 2012
12:31 pm
“This season is too easy” “Next season is too hard” You bitches whine and moan about anything and everything….For Christ’s sake, shut up sit back and relax…..geeez
DawgNole
October 19th, 2012
2:18 pm
kingdaddy
October 18th, 2012
10:06 pm
claytondawg
ok, I’ll bite. What illness did I have besides Thomas Brown stalking me?
___________________
Thomas Brown stalking you is enough, isn’t it?
DawginNY
October 19th, 2012
2:27 pm
I hope we have a new coaching staff by then. I am sick of losing all our big games.
DawgNole
October 19th, 2012
2:30 pm
Columbus
October 18th, 2012
10:47 pm
Bye before FL is sweet….playing Clemson and SC back-to-back to start the season…..SUCKS! Is this still Evans’ leftovers? It helps strength of schedule but it also increases chances of losing…..especially when you play tough games right off the bat.
_______________________
IT HELPS STRENGTH OF SCHEDULE! That’s what matter. It also EARNS RESPECT. If you lose, then GET BETTER–instead of whining about playing decent opponents.
DawgNole
October 19th, 2012
2:50 pm
NCDawg
October 19th, 2012
8:04 am
Once the playoff format and the selection criteria are setup, then you can expect 1 cupcake a year probably.
__________________
We can only hope. I’ll believe it when I see it.
DawgNole
October 19th, 2012
2:55 pm
Donald
October 19th, 2012
8:21 am
Good thing the Dawgs paid Oregon $250,000 to get out of that series, the Ducks would humiliate Georgia.
Smart move. Cowardly, but smart.
___________________
Cowardly is the key word here–not smart.
DawgNole
October 19th, 2012
2:58 pm
MontanaDawg
October 19th, 2012
10:14 am
Well, at least the schedule is a bit more challenging than this years’ patsy run. Now, if we ever want to compete in the 4-team playoff in 2014 and beyond, we’d better get rid of App State and North Texas-like teams and add some decent teams from the other conferences. The tougher the better. Strength-of-schedule will be a factor in who goes to the playoffs for the NC.
_______________________
Right on! Thank you.
yarddawg
October 20th, 2012
8:40 am
When do we play Savannah St.?
Andy
October 20th, 2012
10:00 am
Brain don’t worry you can have Sanduskyplace now quit crying!
Andy
October 20th, 2012
10:59 am
Brain quit your crying I understand you applied for Sandusky job. Keeping my fingers crossed for y ou. Hope you get it. seriiously that is the stupidest statement I have seen in a long time.
UGAFan
October 20th, 2012
1:56 pm
Not that I like suspending players; I’m proud we (& Kentucky) have the toughest policies in the SEC. Makes me feel sad for Spurrier to make that statement because what is he saying about his team/school?
UGAFan
October 20th, 2012
2:03 pm
Anybody else thinking more conference reshuffling &/or a 9 game conf. schedule is the reason for another “bridge schedule”?
UGAFan
October 20th, 2012
2:09 pm
DIT, everybody’s talking about it because the SEC released it now. I think they should have waited until Feb. or @ least after the bowls!
Mike Franklin
October 21st, 2012
9:34 am
Leave it to some SEC corporate experts to screw up the football schedule… like hiring a GT grad to work at Micky D’s… order a Big Mac and you’ll get an uncooked chicken patty with a scoop of ice cream.