Dogs desperate for a win at Vandy

By Tim Tucker

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

NASHVILLE –- Georgia has won 40 of its past 45 football games against Vanderbilt, including 13 of the past 14.

But have the Bulldogs ever needed a win over the Commodores worse than now?

With last week's ugly loss at Tennessee still roiling the fan base, the Dogs are back in the Volunteer State to play Vanderbilt at 12:21 p.m. Saturday, needing an impressive victory to perhaps temper the furor through next week's open date.

Many years, Georgia might have taken a win over Vanderbilt for granted. This afternoon, the Dogs would take a win over Vanderbilt as an opportunity to exhale.

Imagine the alternative: A loss to the Commodores would give Georgia a three-game single-season losing streak for the first time since 1990, would drop the Dogs below .500 for just the second time under coach Mark Richt (the other being at 0-1 to start this season) and presumably would put much of Bulldog Nation in full meltdown mode.

Amid the post-Tennessee firestorm, Richt relentlessly stayed on message: The most important thing this week, he kept saying, is this week's ballgame.

"There is nothing else that's worth focusing on," he said. "There's nothing more important that we can do right now than get a plan together and get ready to win. Everything else is really just not important right now."

That stance served to defer questions about possible changes to his coaching staff -- but also to underscore how badly his team (3-3, 2-2 SEC) needs a win at Vanderbilt Stadium.

"It's very crucial this week to get things back on track," linebacker Rennie Curran said. "Everybody feels like the season has been an emotional roller coaster."

"To be in the situation of being 3-3 is not something I expected with the kind of program I feel we have," tight end Aron White said, "but it's something you've got to deal with when it comes up."

Despite Georgia's domination of the series with Vanderbilt, recent games have been close. Georgia won 24-14 in Athens last year and 20-17 in Nashville in 2007 on a last-second field goal. In 2006, Vanderbilt won 24-22 in Athens, the Commodores' only victory over Georgia since 1994.

As for 2009, the Bulldogs' myriad problems -- turnovers, penalties, missed tackles, blown coverages, inability to run the ball, inconsistent passing -- have made every game an adventure.

And Vanderbilt has its own problems. The Commodores are 2-4 overall, 0-3 in the SEC. They are coming off an overtime loss at Army last week. They are struggling on offense, averaging 6.33 points per game in conference play.

"It is a team," Richt said of Vanderbilt, "that I am sure is just as hungry for a victory as we are."

"Probably both teams are frustrated and feel like they are better than their records indicate," Vanderbilt coach Bobby Johnson said, "and the only way to prove that is to win the next game."

Vanderbilt hasn't beaten Georgia in Nashville since 1991, making the Bulldogs an interesting choice as the Commodores' homecoming opponent this season. Vandy has called for a "blackout" of the game, asking its fans to wear black -- a psychological ploy that Georgia has been known to use, too, with both success (Auburn 2007) and failure (Alabama 2008).

After Saturday's game, Georgia will have two weeks to prepare for its Oct. 31 clash with No. 1-ranked Florida in Jacksonville -- two weeks that would pass more pleasantly for the players and perhaps less contentiously for the fans with a win over Vanderbilt.