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AJC > Sports > UGA > Blog > Archives > 2006 > September > 21
Thursday, September 21, 2006
On the run
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
It’s obvious now that, for whatever reason, Coach Richt is reluctant to replace Thomas Brown with Danny Ware as the Dawgs’ official starter at tailback despite three straight weeks of Ware being the top back and Brown lagging behind both Ware and Kregg Lumpkin in production. This week, Richt said he viewed all three backs as “co-No. 1s.”
Perhaps Richt thinks keeping Ware hungry will pay off since there were complaints the back grew complacent toward the end of last season. Maybe the coach really does think, as he said this week, that it’s just “the luck of the drawâ€? that Brown has been getting tackled in the backfield and producing fewer yards per carry than Ware and Lumpkin.
While the number of carries per back evened out somewhat last week (10 each for Brown and Lumpkin, eight for Ware), the production didn’t. Ware averaged 6 yards per carry, Lumpkin averaged 5.4 and Brown averaged only 2.6 yards.
It wasn’t for lack of trying. You could see Brown was giving extra effort, to no avail. The fact is that the way Georgia’s line is blocking so far this year, a smaller back like Brown is at a disadvantage. That fourth-and-one last week where he got stuffed for a loss unfortunately summed it up.
Georgia shouldn’t be trying to run Brown between the tackles, but for some reason Richt is kinda stubborn that way, as he was in the past with Tyson Browning. Brown should be a situational back, as Browning eventually became — used on outside runs, where his speed will help and his size will be less of a factor. Throw it to him on screens or in the flat. But don’t try to use him as a power runner, because he’s not.
Georgia should give the bulk of the carries to Ware and Lumpkin. They’ve earned it.
SCHEDULE BUFFALOED: Who would have thought a couple of years ago that there’d be a real danger of the Dawgs not taking Colorado seriously as the Buffs’ visit to Sanford Stadium approaches. Georgia a four-touchdown favorite over Colorado. Wow. It wasn’t that long ago Colorado was one of the top programs in the country, and even during the decline in recent years they’ve still been a perennial in the Big 12 championship game (thanks to playing in the weaker northern division with the Nebraska program in eclipse). Back in the Buffs’ Bill McCartney heyday, this would have been a major intersectional match-up. Now we just have to hope the novelty of playing a team led on the field by a bison will keep the Dawgs’ heads in the game so we don’t slip up and end Colorado’s losing streak.
UNIFORM THINKING: While a number of teams, including the Trade School, are doing special games where they wear throwback uniforms, that’s not likely to happen with the Dawgs. Let’s face it, what would we throw back to? Aside from minor tweaks with the piping and sleeve stripes, both the home and away jerseys have pretty much stayed the same. Vince Dooley already went retro before retro was cool when he brought back the silver britches in 1980, replacing the white pants that wouldn’t get anyone excited as a throwback. (Remember those awful white pants Jim Donnan used for a couple of games?) And a throwback Georgia helmet would be plain silver, which would make the team look a bit like Ohio State but probably wouldn’t do much in the way of replica sales (which is what this throwback business is all about). So this is one gimmick UGA can pass up.
On the subject of uniforms, I was amused to read recently that Nike U. (aka the University of Oregon) has instituted its fourth full uniform redesign in 10 years with four different jerseys and pants and two (soon to be three) color helmets. That gives them 384 possible combinations — every one of them absolutely butt-ugly. As I’ve said before, while Oregon is hands-down the winner of the ugliest uniform in college football sweepstakes, the Dawgs have one of the best-looking. But I still wouldn’t mind reviving the black road britches from time to time, and I think a special black “home” jersey for Jacksonville or a bowl game would be cool on an occasional basis. (If you haven’t seen the black Georgia jersey Nike started making a couple of years ago, it’s really nice.) Just as long as we never get into that awful dark jerseys and dark pants combo that so many schools use. I’m sorry, but that still looks like a high school or, worse, San Jose State to me.
GAMEDAY: I see that for the upcoming game UGA has quietly reduced the size of the South Campus alcohol-free Family Friendly Zone on the D.W. Brooks Mall in front of the Plant Sciences building. School official George Stafford said that “based on the attendance we have had the first two games, we felt that it was in the best interest of our fans to condense the area.” Looks like they’re learning you can’t really teach old Dawgs new tricks.
