With an eye on Florida, concentration will be key for Bulldogs against Kentucky

LEXINGTON, Ky. – Georgia coach Mark Richt grabbed a microphone and stepped on a stage at UGA’s Legion Field on Thursday night and declared himself a Florida Gators fan.

“Believe it or not, I am cheering for the Gators this weekend,” Richt told a thousand or so Georgia students and fans gathered there to hear a Jason Aldean concert. “We need them to beat South Carolina to get us back in the driver’s seat.”

Losing a game in the SEC certainly makes for strange bedfellows.

The Bulldogs (5-1, 3-1 SEC) were unceremoniously dispatched by South Carolina 35-7 in Columbia, S.C., on Oct. 6. But during Georgia’s bye last weekend, the Gamecocks lost at LSU.

That means a loss by South Carolina (6-1, 4-1) to No. 2 Florida (6-0, 5-0) on Saturday — coupled by a Georgia win over Kentucky — will set up what essentially will be an SEC Eastern Division elimination game for the Bulldogs against the Gators next week in Jacksonville. A Georgia win in that game would give them the head-to-head tiebreaker over Florida. A loss, and the Gators almost certainly will roll on to the Dome.

But, of course, first things first. And the timing of events Saturday will be interesting.

Florida and South Carolina kick off in Gainesville, Fla., approximately three hours and 15 minutes before Georgia does the same against Kentucky. That means the Bulldogs could know the outcome of that game about the time they take the field at Commonwealth Stadium.

That could be a good thing or a bad thing.

“We know we’ve got to focus on our business or it won’t mean anything,” Richt said. “So I’m not worried much about it. I don’t want to sit there and have that game become a distraction in any way to our preparation for our game. But I don’t think we’ll be able to stop anybody from knowing what happened in the ballgame.

“I’m not expecting that we can keep it some kind of secret or even that I want to keep it a secret.”

In the digital age of social media, it’d probably be impossible anyway. The good news for the 11th-ranked Bulldogs is Kentucky (1-6, 0-4) is a team against which they can afford to be slightly distracted. After last week’s 49-7 loss at Arkansas, the Wildcats’ average SEC margin of defeat is 28.5 points. That happens to be the approximate line by which Georgia is favored in Saturday’s game.

There have been many contributing factors for Kentucky’s demise. It has lost two quarterbacks, two tailbacks and two safeties to injuries. Jalen Whitlow, a freshman who started out as a wide receiver, will get his third start at quarterback for the Wildcats Saturday. Nevertheless, coach Joker Phillips said, hope is alive.

“They’re excited to go out and play,” said Phillips, who had 42 freshmen and sophomores among the 68 players he took to Arkansas. “They don’t think about it. They’re getting an opportunity to play, and a lot of them are getting an opportunity to start, so I don’t sense a hopeless feeling.”

Georgia emerged from its undressing at South Carolina similarly positive. Because of last year’s experience — they won 10 in a row to overcome an 0-2 start and reach the SEC Championship game — they were espousing hopeful optimism following the off week.

“It definitely stinks that we’re not in the driver’s seat right now,” said quarterback Aaron Murray, who’s coming off an 11-for-31, 109-yard passing performance against the Gamecocks. “But we just have to do our thing. We have to make sure we win the remainder of our games because if we lose even one more, there’s no shot of making it to Atlanta.”

Said cornerback Sanders Commings: “The goal is still to win the national championship. We’ve got to have a little help around the league and around college football, but it’s still definitely the goal for us.”

All of that will be out the window if Georgia loses to Kentucky, which has beaten the Bulldogs twice since 2006 and traditionally plays them tough in Lexington. And it could be all for naught if the Gators don’t handle South Carolina.

But rather than hide from that reality, Richt has embraced it. He even wore a red shirt with orange stripes on Monday to underscore his pro-Florida sentiment this week. And while there won’t be a television in the Bulldogs’ locker room at Commonwealth Stadium, Richt said he’ll make no attempt to barricade the information superhighway.

“First of all, I don’t think there’s any way you can keep anybody from finding out what’s going on in the world of college football,” he said. “Even if I tried to say, ‘I don’t want anybody to say anything about that game; I don’t want to hear anything,’ you might get on the bus and the bus driver says something. Everybody’s going to be watching that game.

“The reality of that situation is South Carolina will have three more SEC games to play after that game and we have four more games. So, again, we know we have to focus on our business.”



MORE ON GEORGIA FOOTBALL

193 comments Add your comment

Bigdawg63

October 20th, 2012
8:03 am

Graduate1969, you are spot on! We are becoming a joke when our head coach publicly staes ” I’m a gator fan this week” Others in the SEC are just laughing at us !!!

Joey

October 20th, 2012
8:06 am

Did Richt have orange and blue pom-poms to go with that shirt? Geez, Coach, how about you just beat SC yourself for a change?

Richt has no shame apparently – singing to, and hugging recruits, openly rooting for UF, but worst of all, staying on as UGA’s coach, while getting the Dawgs humiliated over and over, year after year, every single time we play a good team. Blowouts galore. I’m just glad we now know it doesn’t matter if the Dawgs get beat by 28 or by 7, right?

But it is what it is. Win 10 at UGA, and you’re coach for life.

Richt may want to put down his pom-poms and help Bobo get the O clicking again.

Go Dawgs!

John W Holmes

October 20th, 2012
8:07 am

14 has always been a special number for me so I’ll say UF 14 USCe 3

papadawg

October 20th, 2012
8:29 am

I think then gators will find out how and why the Gcocks beat the DAWGS the way they did. Hate to say it but the Gcocks by at least 10.

HoneyBadger Has the Munchies

October 20th, 2012
8:29 am

I bet you would never hear Spurrier or Muschamp say they are Georgia fans for a week. Come on Man!

joe jenkins

October 20th, 2012
8:32 am

I want fla to beat sc and thats about it…..I wonder how many yards whitlow rushes for against us tonight….i bet we make make him look like a heisman candidate……..well if we lose to the cats today….richt will probably get fired….so its a win win situation
HELP
HELP
HELP

HoneyBadger Has the Munchies

October 20th, 2012
8:33 am

“Believe it or not, I am cheering for the Gators this weekend,” Richt told a thousand or so Georgia students and fans gathered there to hear a Jason Aldean concert.
What a DOUCHE

NCDawg

October 20th, 2012
8:34 am

Poor ole Kentucky… they get to face an angry set of Bulldogs. It’ll be like big brother beating up on little brother because big brother got in trouble and wants someone to take out his frustration on. I hope to see a heaping helping of Gurshall and some big rushing stats. I guess a win is a win but I’d like something that says that SC was a wake up call and not a death knell.

NCDawg

October 20th, 2012
8:45 am

I think is the 3rd or 4th time I’ve posted this… if UGA loses to UF, CMR is gone. Everybody thinks McGarity is in CMR’s back pocket and I really don’t think so. Personally, I think that if we had lost to Tech last year, despite backing into the SEC Championship game, McGarity would have at least explored the possibility of canning CMR. With the expectations going into this season I think the bar is set at get to the SEC championship and win or look good losing. Anything short of that smacks of under achievement and I truly believe McGarity wants excellence. He canned the Gymnastics coach for failing to win championships. Keep that in mind… CMR’s tenure and a pretty good season saved him last year. It won’t save him if we lose to UF. McGarity will say nothing until the season is over, count on that, but it doesn’t mean that CMR won’t know his time is done. He should realistically treat the UF game as his do or die game.

gamewatcher

October 20th, 2012
8:50 am

Mark Richt just doesn’t get it…..good teams don’t rely on other teams to help them….they take care of ther own problems. Something that he failed to do two weeks ago when he and his coaching staff had the Dawgs poorly prepared to face Carolina.Something that’s becoming a common pratice for he and is team every year against ranked teams they face…..and I’m afraid it’s not going to get any better until either he leaves or he brings in coaches who can coach and movitate players……I’ll bet Kentucky plays Georgia close today…the Dawgs always seem to play down to the level of thier competition….i.e. poor coaching!

NCDawg

October 20th, 2012
8:51 am

And I will take backing into the SEC championship game, if that is how we have to do it. Bama backed into a National Championship last year. They had to rely on other teams to lose to get the chance. All you people saying you don’t want to rely on UF beating SC to get a shot at the SEC championship are just plain idiots. The Dawgs got to play for their National Championship in 1980 because of a bunch of fortunate bounces. They don’t even get the chance if Notre Dame doesn’t tie Tech. Winning every game is the goal but you don’t throw away a season because you looked bad in one game. Get some realistic perspective folks. Really.

joe jenkins

October 20th, 2012
8:56 am

hell…these last 6 games should be do or die for richt…..I bet richt sings happy birthday to all of his fellow sec coaches…..i bet he calls spurrier and sings…happy birthday dear spurrier….happy birthday dear spurrier….thank you for beating the hell out us…. thank you stevie…i will personally drive to columbia with your present from the richt family……geez i just think i vomited in my mouth!!!! please mcgarity
HELP
HELP
HELP

Coarch Ric

October 20th, 2012
8:56 am

Don’t worry Dawg fans. I’m not really pulling for Florida. I’m just jumping on the bandwagon so I can feel like a winner when the Gators dismantle this second-rate South Carolina team.

I recommend that Dawg fans enjoy the Kentucky game and then take a two week vacation. Be sure to get back home in time for the Auburn game. It should be a good one!

gamewatcher

October 20th, 2012
9:00 am

Hey NCDawg….did you forget Bama’s only lost last year was to LSU and it was a close loss…not an embarssing blowout on national TV!

NCDawg

October 20th, 2012
9:05 am

No I didn’t and I also remember that LSU’s onlt loss last year was an embarrassing butt kicking on national TV in the National Championship game. They looked as bad as we did against SC.

NCDawg

October 20th, 2012
9:05 am

Onlt = only… doh!

Joey

October 20th, 2012
9:06 am

NCDawg, not gonna get in a scrap with another UGA fan on gameday, but most of these fans complaining about Richt know this isn’t just about one game – he has now lost 5 games in the easiest 2 schedules UGA will ever have, 3 embarrassingly so on National TV.

All of us hope the trend ends, but it never does.

Layinlow

October 20th, 2012
9:14 am

NC Dawg, do you have some kind of insider info that Richt must beat UF to keep his job? Or are you just speculating? My thoughts are he will get fired at the end of the 2013 season unless he does something special. I think things line up for next year because of these factors, Adams will be gone, richt’s buyout drops to 2.4 million, a tougher schedule.

mcdaviddawg

October 20th, 2012
9:16 am

Richt has nver focused on teams like Kentucky, part of why we have had loses and far to close gmaes with the likes of Kentucky and Vandy. Please Santa bring Georgia a real and interested coach.

NCDawg

October 20th, 2012
9:16 am

Joey, I agree… but I am willing to see if the ship can be righted. I think it is justifiable to send CMR packing if he loses to UF. Not just because he has lost yet another marquee game but because there is something wrong and this staff can’t seem to make the corrections to fix it. The opportunity has been afforded to them and if they lose, yet again, another big game then it is time to move on and give someone else a chance. The talent is there, the facilities are there… the results don’t match up.

joe jenkins

October 20th, 2012
9:17 am

Richt is just like mack brown….they both don’t know a damn thing about defense….coaching in the sec is rough….i got to hand it to richt he won us two conference championships..after 05 richt just lost his mojo or something….its really sad to see a young confient richt turn into to a old rich careless man like he has become today….boss bailey was on 960 the ref last night and even he sounded like he has lost alot of confidence in us when it comes to richt winning the big game….
richt=mack brown

NCDawg

October 20th, 2012
9:28 am

Joe Jenkins… that is a fair analogy… although I don’t think CMR is old and careless. I think he lost his Mojo and I am pretty sure I know why. I also think he cares but something shifted and he can’t seem to get it back. He wants to win as badly as any coach. Please do not mistake his stoicism with a lack of caring or competitiveness. Tom Osborne rarely showed any emotion. For that matter the Bear didn’t either… he was just a menacing looking stone. All I can say is we will see against UF. Do or die.

[...] 6. Will the Bulldogs be caught looking ahead to the Florida game? [...]

Bama Fan

October 20th, 2012
9:29 am

@NCDawg

Here’s the thing… Alabama didn’t get blown out by LSU last year. They played a close game and won in every statistical category except for the score. The team never quit. Our kickers had a horrible day and missed several kicks that would have sealed the win for the Tide. But, in the end, Bama lost.

The Bama Nation accepted that loss and the team went on to play the rest of the season to the best of their ability. We didn’t whine or wish for someone else to avenge our loss for us. We understood that we were out of the NC picture and simply hoped for a quality bowl game.

None of us had a clue that the only other contenders for the NC would fall to lesser opponents as the season wound down. Did Alabama benefit from an undefeated Oklahoma State team losing to a lousy Iowa State team that finished the season with 7 losses? Of course they did. Was that ESPN or Alabama’s fault? Of course it wasn’t. Objectively compare Alabama’s one loss in overtime to the undefeated #1 team in the nation by a final score of 9-6 to OK State’s loss to Iowa State. Can you really say (with a straight face) that Alabama shouldn’t have played for the NC?

When all was said and done, the two best teams played for the NC, and the best team won. There is always a bit of luck involved in winning a National Championship, but the luck alone won’t get you there if you don’t work your tails off every week to be in a position to take advantage of it.

Georgia fans should concentrate on what Georgia needs to do and stop worrying so much about what happens at the Capstone.

Vampire Bill

October 20th, 2012
9:31 am

“It definitely stinks that we’re not in the driver’s seat right now,” said quarterback Aaron Murray, who’s coming off an 11-for-31, 109-yard passing performance against the Gamecocks.

Yes Mr. Murray, it does stink but what REALLY stinks is the way the chickens embarrassed you and your team mates and the entire state of GA. Hope your father is recovering nicely.

I’m still a dawg fan but I REALLY don’t like these attitudes of the UGA coaches and players.

Ga Dawg81

October 20th, 2012
9:41 am

I am as upset as most of you losing to South Carolina on national tv. However, the season is not over. Take one game at a time and work on being better each week. As far as Richt saying Go Gators, I do not agree with him. He should have said something like if the Gators win then we have a huge opportunity to get back in this thing if we win our games. I stand behind him because I am a true Dawg. I support our team win or lose and I will be there for each game cheering them on. Richt is not as bad of a coach as most of you make him out to be. He actually has the best winning pct. of any coach we ever have had. What I want to see from him is that killer instinct. Once we get ahead of a team we do not let off the gas. Most of us do not see this from him but I will tell you that he does have a temper and he can yell. If you go to practice you will see this. His calm demeanor is for the public. The man is a competitor and I think he needs to publically show that. When he does the team will react as well as the fan base.
Go Dawgs

LogicalUS

October 20th, 2012
9:43 am

UGA back in the SECCG would have the lowest rating in the history of the game because the viewers aren’t going to tune in for another 44-10 beatdown of the 2nd or 3rd best team in the EAST who backed into the game agan because the schedule makers at the SEC office.

Boring.

joe jenkins

October 20th, 2012
9:45 am

hey bama fan….so what are you saying….yall did back into the mnc….any one loss team that makes to the mnc game backs into it….so take that bro!!
ncdawg….i hope richt gets back what he lost because after 2002 i thought richt was going to shatter all of dooleys records and win us 2 mnc’s by now…its really a damn shame….I dont want to see richt get fired…..I just want richt to regain his mojo and beat fla

Mobile Dawg

October 20th, 2012
9:45 am

81, I have to disagree with you on Richt. Our players are often not prepared for what they are going to face, our gameplan often looks ill prepared and in disarray. Our adjustments seem to be nonexistent, our players often out of position. This relates to the daily coaching taking place in Athens.

GatorBait 18-4

October 20th, 2012
9:49 am

Football Guy

October 20th, 2012
9:50 am

Yeah, Kentuckys real tough. ANY peewee football team will beat them.

Joey

October 20th, 2012
9:52 am

Oh yeah, NCDawg, I’m gonna pull for him win or lose. There’s nothing I’d rather happen than Richt figuring out what’s wrong, but I’m not optimistic. I hoped when Richt left, it would be on his own terms, but the longer he hangs on, it’s apparent he is not concerned about the ugly losses, and blind to the fact that good DCs can easily defend his (not Bobo’s), HIS offense now.

He is using up all of the goodwill he built with the DawgNation in the successful, first-half of his career in Athens.

GatorBait 18-4

October 20th, 2012
9:53 am

“Believe it or not, I am cheering for the Gators this weekend,” Richt told a thousand or so Georgia students and fans gathered there to hear a Jason Aldean concert. “We need them to beat South Carolina to get us back in the driver’s seat.”

Let me get this straight, Richt wants a top 5 team to beat a top 10 team that destroyed his team 2 weeks ago, “to get us back in the drivers seat”. I’ll be darn I just never thought about it like that.

Bama Fan

October 20th, 2012
9:54 am

@joe jenkins

If you were more familiar with the National Championship in CFB, then you would know that many teams have won the NC without the benefit of being undefeated.

I admitted that there is some luck involved in winning a championship — any championship.

What some Georgia fans on these forums don’t seem to understand is that luck alone won’t do the trick. If you’re trying to make me feel bad about the Crimson Tide, then you’re wasting your time, my friend. Best of luck against the Cats today. May the best team win — they usually do.

RTR!!!

Joey

October 20th, 2012
9:56 am

“Once we get ahead of a team we do not let off the gas.”
***********************************
Ga Dawg81, it also wouldn’t hurt for Richt to figure out how to fix things when he starts to get blown-out – like right then – during the game, instead of the following Wednesday . . .

He is just not a great sideline coach.

Why Quit?

October 20th, 2012
9:59 am

I’ve been a Dawg fan all my life and yes, I’m embarrassed about how SC destroyed us. I also agree that our long term problems with us not winning big games is soley on mark richt, because he’s the head coach and coaches with very little or no emotion, excitement or enthusiasm. However, we as true fans don’t just quit on the season, hell, that’s what you are accusing the coaches and players of doing. If you’re still a fan, you get off the ground,move forward and do the best you can with the cards you’ve been dealt. The easiest thing in life to do is quit!

If you don’t understand what’s going on here, the reason richt and all of the smart people in bulldog nation are pulling for the gators and LSU last weekend is because its what gives the Dawgs the best chance for success this year. It happens in sports all the time, not just to the dawgs, so hell yeah I was an LSU fan last week and a Gator fan this week, because that’s what’s best for the Dawgs! If you can’t see that, you don’t have your eyes open.

Understand that no matter how much anybody may want richt gone, it ain’t going to happen during the regular season, so get behind him and the team and hope that they run the table and get back in the hunt in the SEC and the BCS.

Go Dawgs!

Joey

October 20th, 2012
10:06 am

In the SC game, I knew after 14-0 we were done, so I tried to be more analytical than emotional for the rest of the game. Here’s what I saw:

Our D looked confused and out of postion on at least half of their plays, and substitutions were made at the last possible second.

Our O-line blocked nobody. The only time they pass-protected, the game was a rout, and SC was rushing 3 or sometimes 2.

Our backs were pitiful in pass protection. Glancing blows was about as good as it got.

Our punt-return team was predictably horrid, as has been the case for 4 seasons, but the punter is not very good in neither distance nor hang time.

We made no meaningful adjustments on offense – the whole game.

Yet on Wednesday after the game, Richt said they had corrected the mistakes.

Anybody else doubt that?

GatorBait 18-4

October 20th, 2012
10:09 am

Never seen a coach (Richt) that is constantly asking for help from another team to do what he should have done. But don’t get me wrong, I was happy to see such a nice man get a contract extension.

Bama Fan

October 20th, 2012
10:12 am

FWIW,

I believe that Georgia fans will get their wish today. LSU has given the Gators the same gift that Alabama gave Georgia last year when they faced the Gators. Lattimore is injured. Florida probably had a better team than South Carolina to begin with, but with the Gamecocks limping into Gainesville today, it is highly unlikely that they will upset Florida.

The worst thing that could happen to Georgia today would be to get a key player injured in a game that means next to nothing. Hopefully, Georgia can amass a huge lead early in this game and let some of the younger players get some much needed experience in mop-up duty. That, in my opinion, is what Dawg fans should be hoping to see in Lexington.

Enjoy the weekend, CFB fans!

NCDawg

October 20th, 2012
10:19 am

The thing that I was happiest about in the first few games was the defensive adjustments at halftime. We corrected what we were doing wrong. That sort of happened in the 2nd quarter in SC but then the weight of the offense doing nothing really took a toll. I think that game had 2 turning points. Rambo losing that interception and not scoring on the drive mid way through the 2nd quarter. We should have scored on that play. Either play would have made it a new game. It didn’t and we sagged.
We should have run power right at those ends… just like LSU did. Instead we tried to throw it and the line just couldn’t give Murray enough time. The receivers should have been running laps for the passes they dropped as well. Maybe they did and we just don’t know it. Anyway… the adjustments made didn’t hold up. Inexplicable. We’ll see what happens against UF.

Joey

October 20th, 2012
10:21 am

Bama Fan, y’all have 4 tough games coming up in a row – who are you most worried about, other than your appointment in Cajun territory?

After A&M, Wester Carolina may be the tougher test. Your “little brother” is worse than ours this year.

HoneyBadger Has the Munchies

October 20th, 2012
10:23 am

Joey….A lot of what you observed and brought to light is shared by many.

Mobile Dawg

October 20th, 2012
10:24 am

You hit the nail on the head without knowing it NCDawg. We should have run at those tackles like LSU did; why didn’t Richt and Bobo know that in advance, and if not in advance why not an adjustment during the game?

HoneyBadger Has the Munchies

October 20th, 2012
10:25 am

Mark Richt = MELONCOLY, ALOOF, OBTUSE

HoneyBadger Has the Munchies

October 20th, 2012
10:26 am

Defensive ends that crash inside fast….run off tackle and containment is broken and runs are more successful…just a thought

Snoop

October 20th, 2012
10:37 am

Hmmm
Da Preacha vs Da Joker…
Sounds like the coaching matches up pretty evenly today in Kentucky.

Idiots.

jrmdvm1

October 20th, 2012
10:37 am

If UF beats SC, and then we beat UF, that does not constitute “backing into” the SEC East Championship. That is winning it. That would just be the top 3 teams each beating one of the others. If SC hadn’t lost to LSU, those results ( SC beating UGA, UF beating SC, and UGA beating UF ) would have resulted in a three-way tie that would have used rankings to decide the winner. Depending on rankings could be considered backing in to the championship too, no matter who would have been the top team in the rankings ( probably SC if they hadn’t lost to LSU, depending on the SC-UF score and “intangibles” in that game ). I’m sure that UF fans would feel cheated in that scenario since they would have beaten SC. SC’s loss to LSU just removes them from that tie breaker scenario, and it becomes head to head, UF-UGA. I don’t call that “backing in”. Now I am not happy with the team’s performance in the SC game. When Alabama went up 31 on us, we at least made a bit of a comeback. No effective adjustments were made. For instance, someone should have noticed that maybe SC was getting too good at responding to the snap count. If they were picking up on the physical signals, it should have been possible to create enough offsides penalties that they would have been hesitating and even up things for the OL. Why is it that it always seems we have one of these “letdown” games before fixing things ( if we do manage to fix them this year ). As others have said, it is underperforming for the talent. And we don’t seem to fix it when it happens against the weaker teams. We have to wait until we underperform against a good team in a big game. I think that is what frustrates us when we have a talented team.

Gorilla Biscuit

October 20th, 2012
10:38 am

GatorBait 18-4

October 20th, 2012
10:39 am

I think you are right unfortunately

———————————————————————————————————————————–

Joey

October 20th, 2012
8:06 am

Did Richt have orange and blue pom-poms to go with that shirt? Geez, Coach, how about you just beat SC yourself for a change?

Richt has no shame apparently – singing to, and hugging recruits, openly rooting for UF, but worst of all, staying on as UGA’s coach, while getting the Dawgs humiliated over and over, year after year, every single time we play a good team. Blowouts galore. I’m just glad we now know it doesn’t matter if the Dawgs get beat by 28 or by 7, right?

But it is what it is. Win 10 at UGA, and you’re coach for life

joe jenkins

October 20th, 2012
10:41 am

Anyway’s i dont get this backing into things….their will be no sec teams going undefeated this year….i think the joker has something planned for us today…i expect a nail biter against them…..when is the last time we put a beat down on this team?