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AJC > Sports > UGA > Blog > Archives > 2007 > October
October 2007
What next, a shaved head?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Six touchdowns against the Florida Gators?
A piece of cake considering how pumped up the Dawgs were Saturday after Mark Richt’s masterful motivational ploy.
Now comes the hard part: not slipping back into the Bulldogs’ bad habit of coming out for a game flatter than day-old Coke. Especially after a big win. It’s hard enough for any team not to be slightly deflated after an emotional victory; ask LSU and Kentucky. But Georgia teams have a history of coming out flat even for big games, as happened this year with Tennessee.
That’s why Richt’s forget-the-penalty-and-celebrate-the-touchdown move was a brilliant stroke. It not only got the team pumped, it helped them overcome the mental block that Georgia seemingly had developed about playing the Gators.
In some of Georgia’s past losses to Florida, the Gators arguably had a more talented team. But in several cases, including in the Richt era, Georgia sometimes entered the game clearly the more talented side and yet played tightly wound, obviously with a fear of losing in the back of their minds, while Florida was loose and seemed to be having fun. The Jacksonville curse, some called it.
This time around, it was the Dawgs who were loose, playing all-out, at times barely in control. And obviously having a lot of fun. That’s just what was needed.
So now what will Richt do to keep his team from suffering what some would see as the inevitable next-week letdown, which might make them ripe for an upset by a not-too-shabby Troy team? Coaches have tried a lot of tricks in the past, from Jackie Sherrill’s ridiculous castrating of a bull to Vince Dooley’s much more effective promise to shave his head back in 1976.
Hey, maybe Richt wouldn’t look so bad with a chrome dome. Whatever he decides to do, getting his team in the right frame of mind to play up to their capability while having fun seems likely to be the key to winding up this season more successfully than might have seemed possible a couple of weeks ago.
DAWG BITES: Since we won, we can gripe about the officiating in Saturday’s game without it looking like an excuse. Whether all those yellow flags were caused by the officiating crew just trying to keep control of the game after Georgia’s celebration, or whether they were looking to punish the Bulldogs for flouting the rule, a couple of the calls against Georgia were just plain mystifying. Where was the second face-mask grabbing on that play, and how come they didn’t see the Florida player also had a handful of face mask like everyone else (including the CBS crew) did? And the call about not enough men on the line that wiped out a big pass play? Can SEC officials count? And why was that flag thrown by the official farthest away from the play? If the conference comes down on Richt with a fine or reprimand for his flouting of the celebration rule, they also need to take a hard look at the subsequent calls, too. … Percy Harvin is a special player, but Georgia’s resurgent defense still showed a tendency not to tackle well sometimes Saturday. Our pass coverage in the secondary left something to be desired, too. Kudos to Willie Martinez and his crew for vast improvement, with six sacks of Tim Tebow really remarkable, but the Dawgs still need to get better. … Georgia’s interception was, as ESPN put it, an “ill-advised” throw by Matthew Stafford, but I think most of the blame on that play goes to Mike Bobo for an ill-advised call at the 1-yard line. And Stafford still needs to work on his penchant for throwing low-percentage passes into double coverage. If one of our receivers has two men on him, that usually means someone is open elsewhere. … The 84-yard Stafford touchdown pass to MoMass was really beautiful. That’s what having a running threat like Special K will open up for you. … Poor clock management cost us again on that rushed missed field goal attempt where Richt tried too late to call a time out. … Knowshon Moreno should be the poster boy for second effort; two of his touchdowns wouldn’t have happened if he hadn’t made that extra effort after initially being denied.
Now THAT’S the way!
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The key to Georgia’s win Saturday?
For the first time in years, they didn’t play like they were afraid of the Gators. Coach Mark Richt finally remembered from his FSU days what kind of attitude your team needs to have going into a game with Florida.
Plus, Knowshon proved he’s SEC freshman of the year, no doubt.
That was the story, not a bruised shoulder.
On neutral sites and home-field advantage
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
I saw Coach Mark Richt on TV the other night talking about the future of the Georgia-Florida Rivalry on the River (the new politically correct name for the former World’s Greatest Outdoor Cocktail Party) and whether it might stay in Jacksonville.
Like most UGA folks, Richt doesn’t consider Jacksonville to be a really neutral site, other than the 50-50 split of the tickets. He expressed some support for the idea of rotating the game after the current Jacksonville contract expires, possibly between Gainesville, Athens, Jacksonville and Atlanta.
The latter, Richt noted with a grin, is certainly every bit as NEUTRAL a site as Jacksonville.
A rotation like that might end up pleasing more people than simply a Jacksonville-Atlanta rotation or leaving the game just in Jacksonville. It certainly would bolster each team’s home schedule every four years and make the site of the game no longer a bone of contention for Dawg fans.
Of course, playing the game in Athens every four years might not provide as much of a home-field advantage as the Gators would get out of a game in Gainesville. In recent years, playing Between the Hedges hasn’t really given the Dawgs that much of an edge. Sure, with some opponents, the Sanford Stadium crowd is vocal and becomes a factor, but often large sections of the stands seem more inclined to sit and wait for something to happen on the field. The noise level certainly doesn’t approach Knoxville or Baton Rouge, despite the best efforts of the UGA student section, which remains on its feet for the entire game and does its best to be a factor.
Unfortunately, not enough UGA students can get tickets to the games, a point the school’s Student Government Association made last week at that meeting of the UGA Athletic Association’s board of directors where most of the media attention was focused on plans for an indoor practice facility.
The Athens Banner-Herald reported that Katie Bowers, student government president, asked the athletic association to set aside more of Sanford Stadium’s seats for UGA students. Many students who wanted to get season tickets this year only were able to get tickets for some of UGA’s home games, she told the board. She pointed out that UGA sets aside a lower percentage of its seats for students than many other schools, including Florida. About 19 percent of Sanford Stadium seats go to students compared with 24 percent at the Swamp, she said.
I know alumni support is a crucial financial component of the Georgia program’s success, but I think it ought to be a given that any UGA student who wants to attend all the football games (not all of them do) ought to have the chance to do so. It shouldn’t be all that hard to ascertain what percentage of the student body would attend if it could, and seats should be allocated for them to purchase. If they don’t buy them all, nonstudents certainly will scoop up the remainder.
It would make Sanford Stadium a much more intimidating place to play if we had more screaming students on hand.
ON THE NEWSSTAND: Sports Illustrated has come out with a special issue devoted to 75 years of SEC football, and the issue has six different covers, one each devoted to UGA, LSU, Alabama, Tennessee, Florida and Arkansas. Georgia’s cover features Vince Dooley, Frank Sinkwich and Herschel Walker, who probably would top most lists of the top three Bulldog football figures of the past 75 years. Herschel is one of those profiled as the greatest players, and the 1980 Dawgs are profiled as one of the best title teams. In looking at the conference’s early years, UGA tops the 1940s while the Institute on North Avenue (which no longer belongs to the SEC) ironically was the top team of the 1950s. UGA ranks third in number of conference championships with 12, behind Bama’s 21 and UT’s 13. The special issue sells for $6.99.
Team ain’t heavy
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Some highly touted high school phenoms live up to their billing as a college freshman; others are still struggling to deliver the goods consistently midway through their sophomore season.
Thanks goodness New Jersey’s greatest high school running back falls into the former category, as it appears Knowshon Moreno may have to carry this entire Georgia team on his back. He certainly did that Saturday night in Nashville, ending up with 157 yards on 28 carries and practically willing the Dawgs down the field on that last drive despite having gotten dinged up a little earlier.
With his offense having wasted several opportunities in the first half with off-target long passes and drives killed by penalties on the line, Mark Richt told Loren Smith after the game that he decided at halftime Georgia was going to have to run the ball more. Unfortunately, injury-prone Kregg Lumpkin wasn’t around long to help, but Moreno was up to the task, getting 123 of his yards after intermission.
Behind a line that still follows departed coach Neil Callaway’s penchant for being able to pass protect but not block for the run, that meant Moreno often had to freelance, cutting back away from where the play was intended to go. That 32-yard third-quarter run that set up a Bulldog touchdown by the reliable Brannan Southerland was a gem.
And then there’s Matthew Stafford, who continues to be maddeningly erratic. For most of the first half Saturday, his timing was abysmal as he continually threw the ball too late. And for some reason offensive coordinator Mike Bobo seemed determined to keep going for the long ball time and time again until Stafford got it right (which he never did). The worst was that third quarter play where Sean Bailey was wide open and Stafford sailed the ball several feet over his head.
But give Stafford credit for keeping his cool and coming through on that last drive, making some key passes to complement Moreno’s gritty runs as the Dawgs ate up the clock moving into position for the winning field goal.
And kudos to tight end Tripp Chandler, who’s turned his game around in a major way. He had two key catches Saturday night, including one where he got leveled right after catching the ball but held onto it and then jumped right up, Moreno-style.
MORE GOOD AND BAD STUFF: The Dawgs defense looked pretty awful at times in the first half, especially trying to stop a running quarterback. Obviously, Vandy noticed our weakness for misdirection plays and used an end-around and a reverse to great effect on their first scoring drive. In the second half, the Georgia D played a lot more aggressively and had pretty much shut Vandy down until they fell asleep on that long pass play that brought the Dores downfield in a hurry. Thank goodness for Darryl Gamble stripping the ball and Dannell Ellerbe jumping on the fumble. That more than made up for a badly missed tackle Gamble had on a Vandy first-down run in the first half. … Likewise, that was heads-up play by leading receiver Tony Wilson jumping on his own fumble when the ball was stripped after a big catch on the final drive. … Will Bobo or someone please tell Stafford to quit throwing sidearm? He almost got one of those throws intercepted Saturday. … Georgia was seven of 16 on third-down conversions, which won’t get it done against the conference elite.
OTHER STUFF: It was good to see an angry Coach Richt shoving players as he broke up that impromptu midfield celebration by some of the Bulldogs after the game. But as Kevin Butler said on the “Fifth Quarter Show,” it’d be nice to see some of that emotion during the four quarters of the game. … It seemed in the first half like that awful ESPN2 crew was more interested in talking about NASCAR than what was happening on the field.
Time to turn things around
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
If you were to assign a letter grade to the various aspects of the Georgia team at the midpoint of the season, it’d probably be the kind of report that gets kids grounded.
Aside from the running game, which has managed to be pretty good at times despite the lack of any blocking, the marks on the whole would be average to poor. The passing game and passing defense for the most part have been below average, quarterback play has been uneven enough to be considered just average overall, special teams and offensive line play would merit barely a passing grade, and the defense against the run definitely has been a failure.
There’s still time for improvement and a decent showing, however. So what are the things the folks in the stands or watching on TV feel Georgia really needs to do in the remaining games? Here are the consensus points raised by fans I’ve talked with this week:
Establish an effective pass rush. We haven’t sacked a quarterback in a couple of games now and haven’t really seriously pressured one, either. This is perhaps the most important of all the things Georgia needs to do. If the defense doesn’t start pressuring opposing quarterbacks, some of the games down the road could get every bit as ugly as what happened in Knoxville.
The young, frequently overmatched offensive line has to begin to show SOME improvement. Six games in, they’re not looking any better than at the start of the season.
The defense badly needs to work on fundamentals like tackling, and somebody needs to see that the linebackers are better positioned to help stop the run since our defensive line also appears overmatched much of the time.
Mike Bobo needs to help Matthew Stafford settle down and quit hurrying his passes. Whether that means rolling out more from the frequently collapsing pass protection or more screen passes or dump passes to backs, something must be done. Stafford isn’t developing at the rate he should have. Bobo said earlier this week that it’s part of the QB’s responsibility to be a leader and make everyone around him raise their game. It’s time Stafford truly made this his team.
Along those lines, Stafford must develop as a downfield threat. Yes, this involves better protection and receivers holding on to catchable balls, but let’s face it, Stafford’s timing has been awful on most of his long throws. If teams know we can’t go long, it’s going to make things even tougher for our short passing and running games.
Some team leaders need to step up and get the Dawgs fired up. The coaches obviously don’t know how to do this.
There’s plenty of talent on this team. It just needs to be used more effectively.
They just stepped on our face …
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Usually, when Georgia has had a bad first half on the road and I’m watching on TV, I call my middle brother, Jonathan. He’s so gung-ho and positive that he always makes me feel better about our prospects, and quite often he’s proved right with the Dawgs making a dramatic second-half comeback.
Saturday, after that 28-0 first-half debacle in Knoxville, I called Jonathan and asked what he thought. He said he wasn’t sure if he was even going to watch the second half.
It was that kind of day in the Bulldog Nation.
Anyone who had paid attention to Georgia’s defensive lapses in allowing long scoring drives over the previous couple of weeks kind of expected that Tennessee’s ailing offense would get well against us and be able to move the ball on Georgia.
But many fans, me included, expected the Dawgs’ offense to take up the slack. I figured it would be close but Georgia had a pretty good chance to win a scoring battle against a Vols defense that ranked near the bottom of the SEC.
Unfortunately, Tennessee played with fire and desire, like a team battling to save its coach’s job, while Georgia played like a team that figured all it had to do was show up because, after all, this was a ROAD game and we all know how terrific MARK RICHT teams do on the road. (That is, if you don’t count Jacksonville as being on the road.)
At the start of the game, UT picked up right where they left off in the second half in Athens last year. Unfortunately, so did UGA, which didn’t even cross midfield in the first half, our deepest penetration being our own 48-yard-line.
It was a whipping of Goff-ian proportions and, unfortunately, a complete team effort.
VOX POPULI: The murmurs about Matthew Stafford’s progress (or the lack thereof) that had been dampened by the OT win in Tuscaloosa resurfaced into full-fledged grumbles after Saturday’s game. He’s not getting better, he’s regressing, quite a few fans were saying. I’m not ready yet to write off Stafford, but I can see where those folks are coming from. He’s still throwing off his back foot. He hurries even short passes. And Georgia essentially doesn’t have a downfield passing threat because he so badly overthrows or underthrows those routes. The fact that he’s playing behind a young and, frankly, abysmal offensive line probably has more to do with Stafford’s erratic play than any deficiency in talent or refusal on his part to learn. But it’s clear he isn’t yet thriving at QB. … Likewise, grumblings about Mike Bobo’s performance as Georgia’s play-caller grew after Saturday’s offensive implosion. A lot of fans wanted Richt to give up the signal-calling, but some wonder whether Bobo was experienced enough. I’ve actually liked the way he’s called a much more balanced offense than his boss did, showing more patience with the running game. But I concede the point Bobo’s critics make that his offense tends to be predictable. Again, though, the weakness of the offensive line has to be a major factor. Frankly, I think most of Georgia’s current woes are a result of poor recruiting on both the offensive and defensive lines over the past several years. A mediocre QB can handle a game fine behind a great offensive line, but the opposite isn’t true.
MORE BAD STUFF: In the restaurant biz, it’s location, location, location. In football, it’s fundamentals, fundamentals, fundamentals, and on Saturday Georgia gave probably the worst exhibition of tackling seen by a Georgia team since at least the Goff years, maybe ever. Two or three missed tackles on a single run were commonplace. … You think any of the teams we’ll face the rest of the year noticed the Georgia defense’s penchant for overpursuing, leaving half the field wide open for a long play? … Even with eight men in the box this defense doesn’t seem capable of stopping a team from running right up the middle. … After the game, Kelin Johnson said that the Bulldogs aren’t looking at the big picture. “Taking control of the East, that’s the last thing on our mind right now.” Unfortunately, it also appeared to be the last thing on their minds Saturday when they had the chance to do exactly that. … I know I’m not the only one tired of hearing defensive coordinator Willie Martinez say, “We couldn’t get off the field.” Maybe if he adjusted his schemes DURING a drive, that might not be such a problem. … Some of the miscues by offensive lineman Trinton Sturdivant were understandable in a noisy, hostile environment like Neyland Stadium (though the chop block was just stupid). But there’s no excuse for the Georgia defensive line picking up four offsides penalties. Do they not look where the ball is before they line up? … Quote of the day from road-game play-by-play man Scott Howard: “This is just baffling.”
WAS THERE ANYTHING GOOD? Yeah, Kris Durham had a really nice catch on the Dawgs’ first drive of the second half before getting hurt, and Demiko Goodman showed Georgia’s other receivers how it’s done by going up over the defender to snag that touchdown pass. Kenneth Harris, who bobbled what should have been a TD pass, should pay attention. And Kregg Lumpkin looked pretty good on a couple of the few runs he got in the fourth quarter, though by then it’s hard to tell whether the Vols defense was really trying. Tripp Chandler had some key catches, including one TD, but he also whiffed some blocks.
Getting a leg up …
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Asked the other day what was the common denominator in Georgia’s recent wins in Knoxville, Phil Fulmer said, “special teams.”
There’s a good chance that might apply to this year’s game, too, but not necessarily in our favor.
To date, the Dawgs’ coverage of kickoffs has been spotty at best and often just plain bad, resulting in some long returns (though, thankfully, none have gone all the way … so far). Last week against Ole Miss it didn’t take a particularly astute eye to spot the seams in Georgia’s coverage, and the Rebels took advantage of that. Giving the other team the ball at midfield or, worse, in your own territory is courting disaster.
Obviously, the Dawgs need to work on not just getting downfield in a hurry, but making a tackle that sticks. I know special teams are frequently a venue for walk-ons and subs to get some game time and Coach Richt has concerns about players getting hurt on kickoffs, but perhaps an upgrading of our personnel on kickoffs would be helpful.
Former UGA kicking great Kevin Butler raised another point on the radio Saturday night. He doesn’t think Georgia should be using Brandon Coutu for kickoffs. One big reason Butler cited: The danger of Coutu getting hurt helping make a tackle (we learned last year, unfortunately, where we’d be without him). He also disagreed with Georgia’s penchant for directional kickoffs as opposed to just sticking it deep in the end zone, precluding a return. There’s some question whether Coutu can do that consistently, but Butler said there are folks on the team (he mentioned Andy Bailey) who he thought could be coached up to kick it deep on a regular basis. (Butler wasn’t lobbying for son Drew to get the job; he said he thinks Drew is pretty likely to redshirt this year.)
I think Butler has a point. Why take the chance of a long return (something we seem vulnerable to) if you can prevent it?
If we can’t find someone to put it in the end zone, we’d probably be better off just kicking it out of bounds and taking the penalty. I’m being facetious, but the resulting field position would be about what we get most of the time now on kicks and considerably better than we’ve gotten on some kicks.
THREE INTO TWO: This has been debated in the beat blog, but I’ll put in my two cents’ worth. I would hope the coaching staff won’t be in a hurry to take the current successful two-man tailback rotation and turn it into a three-man rotation again. Kregg Lumpkin is a very good back, but he can’t help but be behind Thomas Brown and Knowshon Moreno in terms of sharpness and game-readiness. And trying to run a fairly equal three-man rotation (which hasn’t been particularly successful for us in the past) would mean reducing the number of touches for Brown and Moreno. At the same time, Lumpkin is a senior and a talented runner. And he has a different running style from the more similar Brown and Moreno. So we don’t want him just sitting on the bench waiting for someone to get hurt. I like what one of the guys on the “Fifth Quarter Show” had to say about this last weekend: Use him as a situational back and throw to him as an H-back. Get him the ball out in the open, where he’ll be extremely dangerous. But a true three-man rotation at tailback? Doesn’t sound like a good idea.
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