AJC > Sports > Columnists > Archives > 2007 > October > 24
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
Dogs need to quit making excuses
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Terence Moore
Athens — Stop it.
Just stop it.
No more yapping about the neutral site in Jacksonville that isn’t. Yeah, the Gators had an edge with bye weeks before all of those other Georgia games, but get over it. Sure the Bulldogs suffered key injuries to a D.J. Shockley here and a Kregg Lumpkin there that left them bruised against Florida, but Georgia still had other gifted folks. Who cares that, as some raspy voice of doom would say, “Lady Luck” wasn’t with the Bulldogs in many of those losses to the Gators?
The SEC standings don’t care, and neither should you.
Two victories against the Gators in 17 meetings? That’s absurd, not only for Georgia, but for any program with thoughts of reaching the elite of college football, and thus the problem for the Bulldogs: Despite their six-year run of goodness under Mark Richt before this season, they’ve just been an elite wannabe.
You can’t become the real thing without a national championship in recent years, and you also can’t do so when you keep losing to a team perpetually among the nation’s elite from the same division of your conference.
So, yeah, I hear Kelin Johnson, for instance, speaking with passion about this often wrongheaded obsession in the Bulldog Nation with Florida. “I know people who have their whole week messed up when we lose [to the Gators],” said Johnson, Georgia’s senior strong safety. “It’s like those people can’t even function when they get up in the morning. Some of them drink themselves to sleep because we lost. It’s a shame. It’s funny. You can take it however you want.”
This is how Georgia coaches and players should take it: They should man-up. They should get the job done on Saturday at Jacksonville Municipal Stadium. Mostly, they should forget about all of that irrelevant stuff (locale, injuries, demons) surrounding the Florida game.
No way, the Gators have been that much more talented than the Bulldogs during Florida’s years of dominance that are becoming decades. In fact, the Bulldogs usually have been more talented than the Gators. “I agree,” said Barry Every, an administrative assistant in Georgia’s football department before joining Rivals.com this year as a national recruiting expert. “I’ve always joked that maybe Vince Dooley sold his soul to the devil. In my heart, during the seven years prior to this one when I was working at Georgia, only once was Florida definitely, without a doubt, the better team. That was Coach Richt’s first year.”
That was 2001, when David Greene was a redshirt freshman at quarterback with a slow bunch of Bulldogs facing a speedy Florida team during Steve Spurrier’s last year in Gainesville. Richt’s only victory over the Gators was a 31-24 triumph three years ago. So what’s the Bulldogs’ problem? “I just think they [freeze] up during that game,” said Every, telling the truth.
Whether Georgia players and coaches wish to admit it or not, visions of Gators always are rattling around their heads. It has turned them into a psychological mess at the sight of orange and blue. That said, Richt told reporters earlier this week that he doesn’t discuss that 15-out-of-17 thing with his players, but you just knew he had his fingers crossed while uttering those words. He even suggested as much later during a private moment.
“The bottom line is, I just don’t want to discuss what I say to the guys. You know what I mean?” said Richt, easing into a smile in a hallway at Stegeman Coliseum. “Yeah, I’ve talked to them, but I’ll be vague with the media about it.”
Still, inquiring minds want to know, which is why we asked Georgia quarterback Matthew Stafford about the theme of his coach’s Gipper speech. Actually, it was more of a classroom lecture. “I can’t remember it all, except how the games have kind of gone in spurts, with Georgia dominating for a while and then Florida,” Stafford said. “Coach Richt just talked to us about trying to take back the streak and to start winning against these guys.”
Yeah. Like now. Without all of the excuses and alibis.
Permalink | Comments (205) | Categories: Terence Moore, UGA / SEC
Falcons should have kept Jackson
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Terence Moore
To paraphrase an AJC colleague of mine, this cutting of nose tackle Grady Jackson by the Falcons was Bobby Petrino’s version of yanking his scholarship away.
Now Jackson is free to transfer to Michigan, Ole Miss, Ball State or wherever else he chooses.
I guess.
Here’s what I know: At 1-6, and with Petrino as a rookie NFL head coach after a stint at the University of Louisville, it’s officially panic time around Flowery Branch.
According to those in Jackson’s camp, they were told by the Falcons decision-makers that Jackson was playing selfishly in the Falcons’ new defensive scheme and that he was disruptive in the locker room.
Whatever. I’d take him.
The man was using all of his 350, 380, 500-something pounds to have a productive season after doing the same last season for the Falcons. He also was among the few veterans in the locker room not blasting Petrino either loudly or softly in public.
“Hate is nowhere around,” said Jackson after I asked him about his relationship with Petrino.
Well, that was earlier this month, when Jackson still had that scholarship. Guess his old teammates will be asked to rise before dawn to run the steps of the Georgia Dome after their next loss.
Permalink | Comments (65) | Categories: Quick Hit
Services »
