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Home > Mark Bradley > Archives > 2009 > January > 01
Thursday, January 1, 2009
UGA wins bowl game, just not one they wanted
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Orlando — It was a play befitting a postseason game in this state in the month of January. One Georgia star threw the ball and the other caught it for the clinching touchdown, and in that moment we were reminded how gifted Matthew Stafford and Knowshon Moreno truly are.
Alas, it was the wrong bowl in the wrong city on the wrong date, and this game didn’t yield a BCS title but just another halting victory in a strangely indifferent season. And if it was the last big play either make as amateurs — the belief here is that it was — their valedictory wasn’t accompanied by a blare of trumpets but by one leather-lunged fan standing outside the interview area.
“Matty Stafford!” the man kept yelling. “You’re going to the Cincinnati Bengals, Matty!”
Seven NFL scouts representing five teams were credentialed for the Capital One Bowl, and they had to be impressed by some of what they saw. Stafford authored maybe his finest collegiate half just after one of his worst and exited as the MVP, and when he accepted his award the chant rose from the assembled Georgia fans: “One more year!”
But not once afterward did Stafford or Moreno say the words Bulldog Nation yearns to hear — that they’ll stay and play for Georgia next season. Here was Moreno’s response to the chants: “It was cool. It really meant a lot. At the same time, you’ve got to do what’s best for your family.”
Stafford: “I’m not sure yet, and that’s about it.”
The game itself tracked the season: The offense fooled around awhile, and only a spirited first-half effort from the defense — say hey, Willie Martinez! — kept the Bulldogs close. Yet again we witnessed that maddening scenario: A hugely talented team giving a pedestrian opponent reason to believe. As Mark Richt would say, “I told the offense [at halftime], ‘Just don’t make it any harder than it is.’ “
But that’s why Georgia was in Orange County on New Year’s Day, as opposed to Miami come Jan. 8. It simplified nothing. It committed so many penalties and stopped itself so often that it played to capacity only once or twice all season.
Credit the Bulldogs for this, though: When it came time to put Michigan State to sleep, they turned to their two best players. On third-and-10 from the Spartan 21, Moreno ran a wheel route down the right sideline. Stafford arched a lovely ball, and Moreno rose over linebacker Greg Jones, the Big Ten’s leading tackler, to snatch it.
“I didn’t do anything special,” said Moreno, being modest. “Matt put it right in the pocket, right where it needs to be.”
For those keeping score, that makes three bowl victories for Stafford and two for Moreno, but if they leave now those will be the only big trophies they’ve earned. “[We] still don’t have a national championship and stuff like that,” Moreno said, “but I’m happy to be a part of this team and happy with the victory.”
Happy, yes, but not nearly ecstatic. Put simply, the Capital One wasn’t a big enough stage for Stafford and Moreno. They were (are?) capable of more.
No kid grows up dreaming of hoisting a trophy on the floor of the rickety old Citrus Bowl. Indeed, Georgia nearly walked off without the one it just won. The Bulldogs had turned to leave the field when Casey Nickels, a backup tight end, looked over his shoulder.
“Hey,” he said. “Somebody get the trophy.”
And Chris Davis, the right guard, walked over and grabbed it and carried it to the locker room. It was a nice enough little ending. There was, however, a time when this season promised so much more.
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