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Home > Mark Bradley > Archives > 2008 > September > 27
Saturday, September 27, 2008
Tidal wave blacked out Georgia’s hopes
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Athens — Forget Corso and Herbstreit. Forget Holtz and May. Forget, for that matter, anything you might have read in this space about Georgia being really good this year. For guidance in matters concerning college football, you had only to read the financial magazine Forbes, which last month proclaimed Nick Saban “the most powerful coach in sports.”
Here’s how mighty the Alabama man actually is: He came to Sanford Stadium and outflanked Mark Richt in a way nobody has since … since ever.
For all the blather about the blackout, the supposedly supercharged Bulldogs were the ones who performed as if unprepared. The Tide, by way of conspicuous contrast, acted as if it had awaited this moment of arrival since that long-ago night when George Teague stole the ball from Lamar Thomas in the Superdome. For the second time this young season, the Tide came to this state and sent a message to the masses: We’re back.
Once again, Bama football matters. And Georgia? Never has a band of Bulldogs so good been made to look so bad as in this first half.
Debit the Dogs, yes, but at the same time credit the Tide. Saban’s team handled the night far better than the home side, which appeared to believe its choice of haberdashery would cow the proud visitor. Much was made during the week of the leaked video that showed Alabama strength coach Scott Cochran suggesting the Bulldogs were donning black because they “were going to a [bleepity-bleep] funeral.”
Truth to tell, corpses show more fight than Georgia did in that unaccountable half. And Alabama was utterly resolute. Said Saban: “We focused on what we had to do. We knew we had to be single-minded in our approach and not be affected by the atmosphere.”
Bama played a perfect first half, mixing powerful inside running with John Parker Wilson’s deft passes to his splendid receivers. Wilson completed his first six tries. Alabama scored on its first five possessions. And poor addled Georgia kept being called for penalties, the same penalties they’d overcome in Columbia and in the desert, the penalties that left them no chance against an opponent of comparable skill.
It was 7-0 after 6-1/2 minutes, 17-0 after 18 minutes, 31-0 at the half. Not since the 1999 Auburn game had Georgia trailed by so much after a half, and this time Kevin Ramsey, the overmatched defensive coordinator on Jim Donnan’s next-to-last team, wasn’t to blame.
Richt kept waving his play sheet to the crowd, exhorting the masses to do what his team clearly couldn’t, which was stop Alabama. And the sleek Bulldog offense, the one with Matthew Stafford and Knowshon Moreno and A.J. Green, couldn’t ding Saban’s defense. Georgia had four first-half first downs, Bama 17.
For his part, Saban didn’t play to any audience. He paced his sideline, clapping now and then. His mission had been accomplished in the days before his team hit town. He’d made believers of his men, and he’d handed them a scheme against which Georgia had no reply. He’d earned his $4 million this week.
Afterward, Saban was coaching still. He was upset his team bungled two onside kicks and had a punt blocked to let the Dogs within sniffing distance the second half. He actually said: “I hope we can learn from this.”
Owing to his dour demeanor, Saban has been dubbed Coach Satan by media wags, and surely his dark presence seemed appropriate in a place where most everyone was wearing black. “I know I don’t look happy,” Saban said. “But I am happy.”
The most powerful coach in all of sports is also the toughest to please.
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