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AJC > Sports > UGA > Blog > Archives > 2007 > September
September 2007
It takes two …
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
I get the feeling that maybe the best thing that could have happened to Thomas Brown was Knowshon Moreno.
From the first time he touched the ball this season, the redshirt-freshman from New Jersey became a crowd favorite, not just because of his awesome running skills, but because of his energetic, spirited play and the way he jumps up and runs back to the huddle. He’s a spark plug, just like David Pollack was for Georgia’s defense a few years ago.
Moreno still has things to learn, however, so despite what many fans would have preferred, Coach Mark Richt has kept senior Thomas Brown as the starter, although both backs have gotten plenty of carries. The result has been Moreno getting better as he watches Brown, and Brown, feeding off Moreno’s energy, playing the best football of his career. Saturday showed what that can result in … 180 yards and three touchdowns. And that was with a hurt shoulder!
Brown made the point about Moreno’s impact himself after the game. “I’m a pretty self-motivated person,” he said, “but at the same time I am competitive. [Moreno] comes out every day with a lot of energy and it kind of pushes us all.” Moreno and Brown appear to be pushing each other on and off the field (as the dancing on the sideline showed Saturday) in a way that hasn’t happened before when tailbacks shared time in a Richt backfield.
Suddenly Georgia has a running game to reckon with. And that’s despite a young offensive line that at times makes the running backs do just about all the work.
As Matthew Stafford said, it’s fun to watch them.
MORE GOOD STUFF: Major kudos to Mohamed Massaquoi for the way he went up high for that touchdown pass from Stafford. MoMass has really elevated his game this season. I still don’t understand why we don’t throw to him more often. … Brown had several terrific runs, including that 50-yarder for Georgia’s first score when he made a great cut, and the one that put Georgia up 30-17 when he juked a Rebel just about out of his shoes. Moreno looked really good, too, with his 90 yards and one touchdown. … We know from the past two weeks that if there’s a minute left on the clock, Stafford and company are fully capable of getting into field goal range. … We didn’t end up with a successful possession after it, but that onside kick was a thing of beauty. … Another good game for Brandon Miller, including an interception. Let’s hope he keeps it up; we’re going to need more of that down the road.
NOT SO GOOD STUFF: The scattered boos when Tripp Chandler continued dropping passes early on. It’s understandable, considering the passions the game engenders, but it’s definitely not cool to boo your own players in the college game. Coaches, OK. Officials? Definitely. I know a lot of the ovation Chandler got when he finally made the first of two catches Saturday was sarcastic, but fortunately the kid didn’t realize that. He took it as a show of support and ended up making another, bigger catch later. Let’s hope he’s gotten the monkey off his back and we won’t have any more sorry booing episodes. … Georgia’s defensive troubles Saturday didn’t appear to be a case of the team coming out flat after the Alabama upset or playing lethargically as Bulldog teams have been known to do against lesser opponents. No, both our lines (but especially the defensive line) were simply outmanned by the Ole Miss lines. The fact that we won is due to superb individual efforts and the Dawgs’ greater depth at skill positions. As Richt said after the game, “I’m glad we could win the game and not play our best.” … Georgia’s secondary overreacted to getting burned on a long pass by playing extremely soft coverage the rest of the game, allowing Ole Miss to dink and dunk its way downfield, eating up clock while we hardly pressured their quarterback at all. … Kregg Lumpkin, wearing a massive hand cast, was put in on the kickoff receiving team Saturday, and Ole Miss proceeded to squib kick it toward him much of the time. He picked up one for a short return but let a couple of others bounce past him to deep man Thomas Brown. If he wasn’t ready to catch the ball, why put him in? … Kickoff coverage was again poor. More about this later in the week.
OTHER STUFF: So, a game with no live television coverage, and we still have numerous lengthy “media” timeouts? Was that so CSS wouldn’t have to bother to insert commercials later in its taped coverage, or so we could be subjected to more commercials on the jumbotron? … The dry turf was coming up in huge chunks and players sliding were kicking up quite a bit of sand. They came out at halftime trying to do some makeshift repairs to the field. If the drought doesn’t break over the next five weeks, we’ll be seeing some literal sandlot football come November. … Hope the members of the Redcoats really like The Who since they’ve had to play that show three weeks in a row.
Game-changing play
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
A lot of big plays Saturday, as the offense carried the defense for much of the game. But for my money the key play was the take-away inside the 5 yard line on the Ole Miss fumble, which was followed by a 96-yard Bulldog scoring drive.
Fans of the running game had to be thrilled with the Dawgs offense.
More tomorrow!
Evergreen memories, brown turf
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
With another home game approaching Saturday (the last until Troy comes for homecoming in November), I got to thinking about how gameday has changed for me over the years. I’ve been a season ticket holder (sitting in the same seats!) since 1975, and I was in the student section during college, but before that I used to have different ways of getting in (including once when a cop my Dad knew let us in free at the main gate).
That freebie was a one-time thing, though. When my son and I were leaving the most recent home game, I pointed out the spot near the North end of the bridge that used to be the gate where cheap “high school” tickets to the games were sold early on Saturday mornings when I was a kid. Those tickets put you in the old end-zone bleachers but were only a dollar, as I recall.
However, after Vince Dooley put the football program on the rise, the high school tickets weren’t always available for sold-out big games. I needed a more sure way of getting inside the stadium, and as a junior high school student, the cost of a full ticket (about five or six bucks by then, I think) was more than my allowance could swing. I was kinda young for the crowd that sat by the railroad tracks back then, and the view from Sanford Bridge left a lot to be desired.
But my Dad was friends with the man who was in charge of distribution of souvenir programs at UGA games, and so I got on the list of kids (all boys at that time, I believe) who peddled the programs at home games.
It was a sweet deal. You actually got PAID to go to Georgia football games! Well, really, you got in free and you earned 10 cents for every program you sold (the price was a dollar, which was twice was the programs had sold for the previous season). Technically, after you’d finished selling for the day (only a few die-hards continued after kickoff), you were supposed to sit on the grassy hill on the North side. But many of us preferred to try and find an empty seat somewhere in the stands, and it usually wasn’t too hard. I managed to see some games from the 40- or 50-yard-line of the lower level that way!
You’d pick up your programs the afternoon before the game at the gate next to Memorial Hall. The programs were bound in cellophane in packets of 25 and you could take as many as you thought you could sell (and wanted to lug around). Generally, I’d take 50 for regular games and 100 for Homecoming or a game against a big rival. (Some sellers took many more than that; you turned back in any you didn’t sell.) The routine was that my Dad would drop me off in the vicinity of the stadium mid-morning Saturday (this is when game time was 2 p.m.) and I’d sell until just before kickoff. I usually managed to sell out, but that wasn’t the main point of the exercise. It was to get in to the games!
By then, the UGA programs were entirely locally produced and seemed to have more interesting articles in them than the ones today that go for six times the price. In earlier years, the programs mostly had featured generic football artwork that probably appeared on hundreds of game programs around the country. But by the mid-1960s, the Georgia programs had nice full-color pictures of UGA players and coaches on the covers, like they do now.
All of which ties in to the new Vintage Georgia Football 2008 Calendar from Asgard Press that I got the other day, featuring a different cover of a vintage UGA football program for every month. I’d been buying the usual UGA calendars (featuring recent players) for years but by accident stumbled across the 2007 Asgard calendar in an Athens bookstore last year. Its eye-catching cover sported the cover of the program from the Sanford Field Stadium (as it was called at the time) dedicatory game with Yale (complete with bulldog mascots for both teams). There also were programs from the 1930s on up to the 1964 game against Kentucky, which had a pretty cheerleader and Uga I on the cover.
The programs come from UGA’s Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscript Library, and each month’s 11” x 14” cover is perforated at the top so you can remove it and frame it if you like. This year’s calendar doesn’t have any games quite as notable as the one against Yale, but it does have the program from the 1979 game against LSU that marked the stadium’s 50th anniversary (and incorporated those matching bulldogs from the original cover). Other games include Texas in 1957, Stetson in 1934, Clemson in 1945, Boston College in 1951 plus regular SEC opponents and the program cover from the 1929 game against Tech. A new addition this year is a notation of the date and place of each game (one from Jacksonville is included) and the final score of the game that day.
Alison Trimble of Asgard tells me the 2008 calendars are available in several Athens area stores, including the University Bookstore on campus. You also can buy them or get more information at www.vintagedawgs.com.
TURF ALERT: I was disturbed to read the Athens Banner-Herald report earlier this week that, in keeping with a strict watering ban that went into effect Sept. 17 in Athens, UGA groundskeepers no longer will water campus lawns and athletic fields, including the one at Sanford Stadium. North Campus already is hurting from all the tailgating that’s moved up there in the past couple of years, and barring enough rain, Sanford groundskeeper Paul “Waldo” Terrell said the stadium’s green turf could start to fade by this Saturday’s game. By the next game in November it could be a brown, torn-up mess. Not only will it look bad, Terrell told the ABH, its playability will be affected. The field’s base is sand, and without water the sand gets dry and loose. So turf could start coming out in chunks as it’s played on and compromising players’ footing. If the field gets torn up too badly, the entire turf may have to be replaced by next season, which could cost about $100,000. I’m all for UGA showing solidarity with the Athens community, but that seems a mighty expensive proposition. Surely someone in President Michael Adams’ office can get a waiver from the watering ban to prevent having to replace the entire field!
“One and done, baby!”
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The last time all three King brothers watched a Georgia football game together on TV was the 1999 game against the Insects, but we had all gathered at my parents’ home in Athens earlier Saturday to celebrate my birthday, so we decided to watch the Dawgs and Alabama on my brother’s big-screen set in Watkinsville, joined by my daughter and one of my nieces.
We wanted to hear how the Scott Howard-Eric Zeier broadcast team did in their debut without Larry, so we muted the sound on ESPN (where they seemed to spend a lot of time talking about things other than the game anyway) and instead listened to the Georgia Bulldogs Radio Network while watching. It took us a little while to get used to the audio running a couple of seconds ahead of the picture, but that wasn’t really a problem.
That 1999 game we’d all watched together went to overtime and didn’t turn out well, so when this one also went to overtime, we were more than a bit nervous. Literally on the edge of our seats, in fact. Thank goodness Matthew Stafford and Mikey Henderson were as cool as could be, though.
The Dawgs indeed proved they were still man enough (thank you, Pat Dye) to handle the Crimson Tide in Tuscaloosa, and that big old Dogpile in the end zone was one of the prettiest sights I’ve seen in a long time (though I was concerned about poor little Mikey at the bottom). My son, who was at the game at Bryant-Denny Stadium, said pandemonium reigned among the UGA fans there for about three minutes after the catch, while those Bama fans who weren’t pelting the Dawgs with cups sat there stunned. News alert: Saban doesn’t walk on water.
Every SEC win is crucial nowadays and the Bulldogs face some tough (and tougher) challenges ahead, but Saturday’s win was the kind you can build a team and a season on. Stafford might have been maddeningly inconsistent over the course of the game, but when it mattered, he delivered. Likewise the still sometimes drop-happy receiving corps. Our running tandem was steady if not spectacular. The Georgia defense might have looked winded and wilting in the fourth quarter, letting Bama rip off some runs up the middle, but when it came to OT, they were nearly perfect. And Georgia’s young and much-questioned offensive line played well, seemingly getting better as the game progressed.
There’s a lot of room for improvement, but this is one to savor. Georgia winning over the Tide in Tuscaloosa and the Yellow Jackets losing. Quite a birthday!
MORE GOOD STUFF: That first drive by Georgia was the best so far this season, with a good mix of play calls by Mike Bobo. Adjustments by the Bama defense took away those easy screen-pass completions on subsequent drives, but Georgia still managed to move the ball when it had to. … Sean Bailey came up big, and Stafford throwing to Knowshon Moreno and Thomas Brown continues to be one of the Dawgs’ best weapons. … Both Bailey and Moreno showed a lot of second effort. I wish Moreno’s fire and spirit would spread throughout the team. … The Dawgs were remarkably successful on third down, definitely a good sign for the offense.
NOT SO GOOD STUFF: At least four dropped passes, three by tight end Trip Chandler alone! He did, however, partially redeem himself with a key catch on the final drive for the ultimately unsuccessful field goal attempt (though we would have been even closer had he not had one of his drops earlier in that drive). … Two interceptions. On the first one, a pressured Stafford didn’t square his shoulders and threw into coverage instead of throwing it away. And on his second interception, Stafford simply overthrew his receiver. There were other passes he threw too high or behind his man. And still his numbers were pretty good, and he maintained his composure. If this guy ever clicks for an entire game, watch out! … Our secondary (notably Bryan Evans) got flat-out beat on a couple of long Bama passes. … Georgia continued to have to waste timeouts early because of personnel and organizational problems (one even called by the defense), leaving us working desperately against the clock at the end. … Will someone at UGA please tell Dannell Ellerbe how to fasten his helmet properly? … Penalties hurt Georgia, limiting one drive to a FG and keeping a couple of Bama drives alive. … The Georgia defense needs to work some more on handling a no-huddle offense. We’re likely to see a lot more of that down the road.
ON THE AIRWAVES: Scott Howard was informative and steady handling the play-by-play, though for most of the game we found ourselves missing the tension-building Munson laments and colorful descriptions. At the end, though, the fan in Howard came bursting out with his voice breaking like a teenage boy as he screamed “Touchdown!” after the overtime score. Installment #1 in the Scott Howard “best of” compilation. As for the audibly nervous Zeier, he started out sounding like Joe Piscopo’s “I’m screaming and I don’t know why” sportscaster on “SNL” as he shouted every word breathlessly, but he calmed down a bit as the game went on and provided knowledgeable and pertinent analysis of pass routes and strategy. And for those looking for a bit of comforting homer-ism, there was Zeier’s frequent use of “we” and “our” throughout the game. … It was interesting that ESPN’s Lee Corso, who earlier on “Gameday” had predicted a Bama victory by putting on the elephant’s head, was already sounding like a UGA convert when sideline man Loren Smith talked to him shortly after Georgia’s first drive. … ESPN completely missed a play while showing a feature on tailgate food. They should keep that stuff contained to halftime. … And on a non-Georgia note, even the Old Ball Coach had to crack a half-smile/grimace Saturday afternoon when LSU pulled that beatifully executed flip pass on the fake field goal. That’s the kind of stuff that makes college football so much fun.
Which teams will show up?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
In talking with other UGA fans this week about Saturday’s game against the Crimson Tide, the one constant has been that none of them had a sure feel for how the game will go.
All of their assessments were preceded by a lot of ifs. If Georgia can run against Alabama like Arkansas did … (of course, we don’t have the Razorbacks’ offensive line, not to mention Darren McFadden). Or if Georgia can get its long passing game going against Nick Saban’s man coverage (and IF our receivers hold on to the ball). And so on.
But the basic comment most Dawg fans have made is that it depends on WHICH Georgia team shows up … the one that plays up to its capabilities or the one we saw in the South Carolina game and the first quarter against Western Carolina.
Interestingly, I’ve found the same lack of certainty among Bama fans. They feel good about the game if the team that got off to a fast start against Arkansas shows up. But if Bama plays like it did in the second half against the Razorbacks …
The oddsmakers have installed the Tide as the favorite, but only by a field goal. Even they don’t have a strong feeling about the outcome of this game.
History is against the Dawgs since Georgia has won only one time out of seven visits to Tuscaloosa. (A little homecooking by officials played a part in a couple of those.) But that lone Georgia win was the last time we were there, in 2002, when fans (and UGA alum Pat Dye) were similarly unsure about what to expect from the Bulldogs.
And recent history (late last season) shows that the Dawgs are capable of beating anyone when least expected. Most observers feel Georgia has more talent and speed while Bama has a more confident and experienced team. But it’s a team coming off an emotional and bruising come-from-behind win.
This is just the kind of matchup that makes college football great.
Go Dawgs!
Stumbling toward Tuscaloosa
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
True to form, the Bulldogs took the field for a game against a lesser opponent Saturday with lethargic play and looking like they wished they were somewhere else. Then they started getting sloppy and things got even worse in a first quarter to forget.
When you’re a Division 1 team and you’ve played 15 minutes on the clock with a not very good 1-AA team and you’re tied 3-3, something is wrong.
QB Matthew Stafford unfortunately led the way, misfiring badly on passes, calling the wrong protection scheme and fumbling while getting sacked. Looking like his early freshman self, in other words, instead of the accomplished sophomore Mark Richt had led us to expect. Stafford just didn’t seem to have his head in the game for the first quarter and a half.
Finally, midway through the second quarter, the Georgia offense woke up and put it away, ending up with a respectable score for a game like this.
Why the Georgia coaching staff seems unable to get the Dawgs mentally ready for these games, even in this season of the Appalachian State Lesson, is a mystery. Whatever they’re doing in the way of game prep for these gimme games just isn’t working.
Let’s face it, if the Dawgs play in any of their remaining games like they did in the first quarter Saturday, it could get ugly. Several teams on the schedule are suddenly looking a lot tougher, including Kentucky and Troy. (Granted, a couple aren’t, notably Auburn.) Mess around like this in too many games, and Georgia easily could find itself having to sweat out a winning record this season instead of worrying about winning the SEC East.
GOOD STUFF: Knowshon Moreno. He’s still looking like a freshman at times, running into blockers and missing holes, but he’s already the mainstay of our running game and getting better every week. His first touchdown run was a beauty. By the end of the season, he should be awesome. … Once Stafford got on track, he made some really nice throws. And that play with the fake-out diamond formation of all the receivers to one side while the QB runs the draw to the other side worked brilliantly, with Stafford getting a 22-yard gain. I know Mike Bobo justified using the play against Western Carolina by saying “that was the best play in that situation,” but it might have been wiser to keep it under wraps for another week. … MoMass was back as the starting flanker, replacing the drop-prone Tony Wilson, and led the team with three catches. … Brannan Southerland continues to be Mr. Dependable when it comes to short-yardage plays. … That drive where Georgia moved from its 35 to the WC 23 in just two pass plays and then Moreno capped it off with a TD run was one of the prettiest UGA drives in quite a while. … Mikey Henderson has a nice punt return that set up that long touchdown pass from Joe Cox to Demiko Goodman. It was good to see Cox finally getting some playing time.
BAD STUFF: Both lines (and our linebackers) had trouble at times with a 1-AA team, which is pretty disturbing. There were a lot of missed tackles, too. And the Dawgs didn’t look very good adjusting to the Catamounts’ no-huddle offense. … Georgia’s not-so-special teams continue to have serious problems. Our kickoff coverage has been poor. On the “Fifth Quarter Show,” former UGA kicking great Kevin Butler noted that the Dawgs are engaging receiving team’s blockers instead of evading them and heading for the man with the ball. Whatever the problem is, Georgia needs to fix it fast. Likewise the problems with getting the right personnel on the field for punts and the opposing team’s field-goal tries (the Dawgs had to burn another couple of timeouts Saturday because of 12 men on the field) and with illegal shifts in our punting formation. … Two more dropped passes. Enough said. … Stafford continues to overlook wide-open receivers while missing on tougher throws to the end zone.
OTHER STUFF: So it’s back to Bama for the first time since 2002. Maybe Coach Richt can get Pat Dye to do another motivational job for the Dawgs. … What’s with the ESPN announcers and Alabama’s QB? Literally every mention of him in their coverage of the game against Arkansas used all three names, “John Parker Wilson.” It’s not like he’s an assassin or serial killer. … One of my brothers, who’s involved with the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, says they’ve been told there’s a possibility the kickoff time for the Dawgs’ game against Ole Miss will be moved to 9 p.m. Not only would that inconvenience the fans from South Georgia, but it would mean the FCA would have to scrap its plans to have 2,000 high school athletes at the game since a lot of them come from more than three hours away. Let’s hope Damon Evans isn’t blinded by dollar signs and vetoes any such late kickoff.
Who do we play next?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
“Western Whatever.”
That’s what I answered recently when my daughter asked who the Bulldogs were playing after South Carolina. For a moment there, I couldn’t remember if it was Western Carolina or Western Kentucky.
That’s how much this week’s game means to me. And at least I’ll be there. A lot of folks with season tickets skip out on these mean-nothing schedule-filler games against minor nonconference opponents with directional names. Sometimes they give their tickets away to folks who just want to experience a college football game, even if it’s one that nobody’s very excited about. Oftentimes the seats remain empty. But it’s still a sellout, of course, because the seat has been paid for. So attendance officially will be 92,746 (actually, 93,000 is the real count now), but nowhere near that number will actually be in the stands.
I can understand why some people skip these games. Getting up a tailgate and lead-footing it to Athens can be a lot of trouble, but it’s worth it when Georgia is playing an SEC game or a nonconference team worth seeing. Oklahoma State packed the house. A lot of folks got really excited about seeing Ralphie the bison last year when Colorado came calling.
But when the opponent is, let’s face it, a designated loser just there for the payday, it’s hard to work up much interest. Obviously, from the way the Dawgs generally play in these games (flatter than week-old Coke), it’s difficult for the players and coaches to generate much enthusiasm for them, too. (No offense meant to Western Carolina or any other such school we play; if we were in their league or vice versa, I’m sure we’d get excited about it. But they’re not and we don’t.)
At Georgia under Mark Richt, we don’t even get to see our team run up some ridiculous score like they do at Florida or Oklahoma or other major schools that pile on the points while dispatching a minor opponent. No, UGA usually piddles around, looks embarassingly disinterested for a half or so and then finally puts the game safely away, while keeping the score within gentlemanly boundaries.
What’s the fun in that?
I know the argument for these “breather” games; the conference schedule is so tough, plus we have the Yellow Jackets every year. The schedule has been upgraded somewhat in recent years with intersectional foes lined up for one of the open spots. This year, Okie State. Of course, the trade-off is that we’ll have to go visit those schools in return, reducing the number of cash-cow home games some years (like 2008, when we’ll travel to Arizona State, meaning only six home games, one of which isn’t lined up yet). So the Western Whatevers and Eastern Thingumyjigs and Louisiana-Something-or-Others fill out the other nonconference home spots, usually including homecoming.
This year that spot goes to Troy.
Oh boy.
WHAT’S WRONG WITH THIS PICTURE? So let me get this straight. After one loss, UGA has been written off, while the sports writers and polls have annointed the Jackets a hot team on the rise after … what? Beating an unranked team (albeit one with a big “name”) and pounding on a 1-AA team that probably would have a hard time beating some metro Atlanta high school teams. Let’s face it, Notre Dame normally makes the Top 15 just by showing up; the fact that they BEGAN the season unranked showed that everyone knew they were terrible this year. And running up the score on a 1-AA team is hardly the stuff rankings should be made of. Meanwhile, after convincingly beating Oklahoma State, a team that in the pre-season all the media types were hyping, Georgia loses a game it could have won to a fairly evenly matched conference opponent and almost drops out of the Top 25. (And the same folks who a week earlier were telling us how great the Bulldogs were are now gleefully detailing their decline. How quickly they turn.) OK, the Dawgs are 1-1 and there are a lot of 2-0 teams out there. Do you rank a 1-1 team over a 2-0 team? Happens all the time. Many of those 2-0 teams’ victories are over designated patsies on a par with Samford. Of course, it shows you how ridiculous and volatile the college football polls are that Michigan began the season an overhyped No. 5 and then dropped completely out of the Top 25 after one loss. The BCS poll has it right by not even getting cranked up until a month or so into the season.
THIS WAS PREDICTABLE: One win and that classy guy Steve Spurrier already is trying to work his psychological head games on Georgia, belitting the Dawgs and pointing out how many consecutive SEC East teams they’ve lost to OVER TWO SEASONS. I’m sure he thinks that if he can work his mojo he’ll have the Dawgs psyched out like they have been the past decade and a half in Jacksonville. Only one problem. He’s not at Florida any more. It’s South Carolina. Nobody gets psyched out by a loss to South Carolina. You fix what you did wrong and you move on.
Bad old habits resurface
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
If you consider Mike Bobo the equivalent of a freshman as an offensive coordinator, then Saturday night against the Gamecocks was his game where he looked like a freshman: awkward, making bad choices, his inexperience glaringly apparent.
Saturday night saw Bobo offering up trick plays at the wrong time (poorly executed) and some inexplicable calls on third down (an end-around with third-and one??!!) or fourth-and-short. And who calls a fade when you’re in the middle of the field? The Dawgs were fine between the 30s but then would go away from what got them that far. Hey, if you’ve got a hot running back in the game, why pull him out? Why go away from the running game when it’s working? And in the passing game, what’s with calling all those low-percentage, hard-to-complete sideline and corner routes?
Still, you certainly can’t pin the whole loss on Bobo’s play calling. Or on sophomore QB Matt Stafford’s fairly lousy play. Though those were two of the biggest reasons Georgia lost.
No, this one gets pinned on the offense as a whole. OK, we knew the line wasn’t going to be very good (and they weren’t, though they got better in the second half), and while you might give them part of the blame for Stafford’s happy feet and poorly thrown passes, they weren’t responsible for his apparent inability to see anybody except his primary receiver (including others who were wide open), and the linemen weren’t the ones dropping entirely catchable (and important) passes when they were on target. Of course, they were the ones committing the false starts, but again, part of that goes on Stafford, who didn’t do a good job managing the game. When you’re behind, you don’t need to be eating up all of the play clock and barely getting the snap off in time, making the linemen even jumpier. And that first time out of the second half, with 20 seconds still left on the play clock, was inexcusable.
Speaking of which, poor clock management continues to be a hallmark of Richt teams. Maybe it was because we’d already unnecessarily burned a time out and wanted to conserve what we had that Georgia let the clock continue to run when the Cocks were milking it before their last punt. Whatever it was, we ended up getting the ball back with a 1:20 instead of about a minute longer than that. Putting more pressure on Bobo and Stafford.
Another problem was Georgia’s very spotty special teams play, with only our return men having good nights. Kickoff coverage didn’t get decent until the second half. And an illegal shift by Michael Moore (who also dropped a couple of passes) on a punt resulted in a possibly game-costing penalty that negated a fumble recovery.
Certainly, the defense had its troubles, particularly against the run (a common refrain from the past couple of seasons) and in making the first hit stick, but the D played well enough to win. Any time you hold an SEC offense to 16 points, YOUR TEAM SHOULD WIN.
GOOD STUFF: Knowshon Moreno. Fans already love this kid, who not only plays with a spark but jumps up and runs back to the huddle! He’s like an offensive version of David Pollock, with his motor always running. I realize team politics may play a part in all this, but if he isn’t the starting back by mid-season, someone’s asleep at the wheel. … Except for the interception on that desperation pass late in the game, the Dogs haven’t had a problem with turnovers so far this season.
MORE BAD STUFF: What do Bobo/Stafford have against throwing the ball to Mohamed Massaquoi? Why are we throwing to unproven guys like Tony Wilson (two key drops in two games) or Michael Moore when MoMass is still making unbelievably athletic catches in the all too few instances when the ball comes his way? Even when he’s double-covered. He’s a major weapon; use him! … Will someone tell cornerback Bryan Evans that he needs to look back and see where the ball is? He got one interference call because he went for the man without ever looking at the ball, and on two other plays he missed possible picks because he never looked up. … Too much of Georgia’s offense in the first half was behind the line of scrimmage. If we want to take pressure off the line, we should just dump it out to Moreno or Mikey Henderson in the flat. That’s going to have a much higher percentage of positive yardage than screen passes behind the line. … The first quarter of the game seemed to be dominated by yellow flags and TV time outs. … Unless Georgia can get the NCAA and NFL to let David Greene come back to run it, the Dogs should take Steve Spurrier’s advice and can that sleeper play. Of course, it’s not really designed to be a fourth-down play. … Toward the end, Bobo got impatient in his play calls, going for the end zone (again, with low-percentage passes) when what we needed was a first down.
OTHER STUFF: The Redcoats repeated last week’s James Brown tribute. Speaking of which, word is coming out of the Redcoat Band that, as was posted in a comment here last week, the seemingly inexplicable absense of “Dooley’s Junkyard Dogs” from the Brown tribute is a result of Damon Evans or Mike Adams (is there really a difference?) ordering that the song not be played, even though the band had rehearsed it and planned to use it as part of the show. The logical conclusion is that the objection is to the fact that Vince Dooley’s name is in the song’s title. If so, that’s pathetic. … South Carolina legend George Rogers hosted a tailgate near Georgia’s practice fields on Lumpkin on behalf of his foundation and had his Heisman trophy sitting on a table and his framed jersey nearby. … It was amusing to hear a Gamecocks fan calling in to the “Fifth Quarter Show” and painting this wholly false picture of his team having beaten the Dawgs up and down the field. Hey, you won the game but your team didn’t look that good. Just slightly better than the Dogs, who looked terrible. I mean, only 16 points and having to punt seven times (two more than Georgia) in a game in which possession was pretty evenly split is hardly making an offensive statement. The Cocks’ defense was more impressive, though the Dawgs’ lack of execution was a big part of it. As Spurrier himself said after the game, “We are two evenly matched teams.” Which neither team should take as a compliment.
Spurrier at USC: It’s not the same
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
As college football rivalries go, UGA vs. South Carolina has always been sort of one-sided when it comes to the fans.
Sure, it’s often a tough, close game (though the Dawgs have ruled the past five meetings). But it probably means more to the players (both teams having a lot of folks from the other side of the Savannah River) and coaches (who recruit each other’s states aggressively) than it does to most of the Bulldog Nation.
Even the addition of Steve Spurrier to the mix hasn’t really jacked up the Gamecocks into major rival status for most fans. Sure, we’ve loved beating him the past two years (especially last year’s shut-out) and want to keep on beating him. But it’s not quite the same as if he were still with the hated Gators and it was Jacksonville, now is it?
If the Prince of Darkness being on the South Carolina sideline hasn’t made this into a major rivalry, I doubt it ever will be.
Carolina folks key on this game all summer long, but UGA fans merely view it as the beginning of the SEC wars and usually the first challenge (though far from the biggest one) of the season. It’s no more important than any other game against an SEC East opponent.
Folks certainly get more excited about this game than, say, the Mississippi schools or Kentucky or Vandy (even taking into account last year’s stumble against the latter two). But it’s no UT. Or Auburn. And certainly not even remotely on the scale of Florida. Or even the nonconference insects from North Avenue. Or, for that matter, schools like Alabama and LSU that we don’t play every year. Heck, even Clemson, now just an occasional opponent, means more to the Bulldog Nation in terms of rivalry.
Like I said, we still hate Spurrier. But while still dangerous and at times brilliant and certainly capable of beating any team in the conference if he could get the talent, it’s not like when he was in the prime of his career and sneering at the rest of the world.
It’s Spurrier Lite.
Top 3 moments from a good first win
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
My three favorite moments during Saturday’s game against the Pokes:
1) MoMass playing heads-up football with that tackle on the Okie State punter to set up Georgia’s first score. Everyone else seemed concerned with setting up the return, but he saw that the ball was on the ground and rushed in. I bet it felt good to be on the other side of a big tackle for a change!
2) The spin move Knowshon Moreno put on an OSU defender on his first pass reception.
3) The way the fans’ shouts of “No, no!” turned to “Go, go!” when Mikey Henderson started out retreating before finally turning the corner and setting off on that 63-yard punt return.
OTHER GOOD STUFF: Georgia scoring on the first play from scrimmage with Thomas Brown scampering 14 yards on that good-as-new knee. … I liked the way Mike Bobo had us throwing a lot of dumps and screens to our backs, a good way to give them the ball in the open with a head of steam and also take the pressure off our inexperienced offensive line. Moreno had three really nice runs on pass receptions (though one was negated by a clip). … A couple of things I really liked about the game Bobo called: First, we ran mostly out of the I-formation. I think we only ran that awful sprint draw that Richt was so fond of one time (and it didn’t work). Secondly, Bobo showed great patience, especially in the second quarter when a sack and a false start had us at second down and 27. Instead of trying to get it all back in one play, we ran Brown (who got 17) and then threw to Sean Bailey, who took it down to the 3, setting up our third TD. Much of the offense was vanilla, particularly in the second half, but it was effective. … The crowd was really into the game, making a lot of noise when the Cowpokes had the ball. … After a line-drive first effort on which he got a lucky bounce, Brian Mimbs looked pretty solid punting the ball. His hang time seemed to get better as the game went on. … Mr. Reliable, fullback Brannan Southerland, punching in another score from down close. If we’re on the 2, that’s who needs to get the ball. … Only one dropped pass (though it was real bad one, right in his hands) and no turnovers. Pretty remarkable for a first game. … That was an excellent fake by Matthew Stafford on the pass for Georgia’s fourth touchdown. … The second effort by Moreno that extended some of his runs after the first hit.
NOT SO GOOD STUFF: Special teams play was spotty and, at times, disorganized. Kickoff coverage improved after that long return by OSU after our first score, but we got called twice for having 12 men on the field before receiving punts (and would have gotten a third but for a timeout) and it was a real groaner when two Dawgs watched a punt that should have been downed at the Cowboys’ 2 dribble between them into the end zone. And protection for our placekicker was poor on the PATs, which is why we didn’t go for a field goal when we had fourth down on their 32 with 9 minutes left (or, for that matter, at all) despite having one of the top field goal kickers in the country on the sideline. (Kudos to “water girl” Kathryn Richt for asking that question that so many fans wanted to ask on her husband’s Sunday recap show.) That probably also explains why we let the clock run before OSU punted late in the first half rather than call a timeout so we could get in position for a field goal try. I’m sure the coaching staff will be working on improving our kick protection in practice this week since the Gamecocks no doubt will pick up on that weakness. … OSU had most of its success with screen passes and option plays on the right corner of the UGA defense, indicating a need for some adjustment there. … Our defense showed a lot of speed, but there were quite a few missed tackles by the first man to the ball. … Finally, I understand us running out the clock the last three times we had the ball in the fourth quarter, but what the heck was Stafford doing still in there at QB if all he was going to do was hand off to Moreno? That’s what backup quarterbacks are for and it would have given Joe Cox a little game time. Plus, it would have looked awfully stupid if Stafford had gotten hurt while unnecessarily in the game on mop-up work.
OTHER STUFF: How could the Redcoats pay tribute to James Brown at halftime and NOT play “Dooley’s Junkyard Dogs”??!! … Did you notice that all seven of the Munson cups were available randomly at the concession stands, instead of one per game like the Uga cups last year? That’s gonna make it difficult for anyone who wants a complete collection. … Sanford Stadium has gotten its first “name” concession outlets with the addition of a Moe’s Southwest Grill (burritos) in the West lower end zone and a Mcalister’s Deli up in the 600 level (top deck on the North side). How about a Varsity location? … The drink stands remained understaffed and run by folks who didn’t seem sure of what they were doing. Meanwhile, the Sanford shops had more people behind the counter than they did lined up to buy merchandise.
Men vs. (Cow) Boys
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Once again, Georgia opened against a team from out West sporting a high-powered offense and the national pundits were hollering “upset special.”
It was Boise State, Mark II, as the freshman-laden Dawgs lent credence to the idea that the Big 12 is really the Big 2 Plus 10 Others.
And Okie State isn’t one of the Big 2.
Welcome to the SEC.
Other quick thoughts: Welcome back Sean Bailey and Thomas Brown. A big welcome to future stardom, Knowshon Moreno. And Brandon Miller, you finally lived up to your billing!
A great win. Next week should be more of a challenge.
More tomorrow.
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