Georgia seeks a prize amid a season's rubble

By Tim Tucker

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

ATHENS -- Next-to-last in the nation in turnover margin. Next-to-last in kickoff coverage. Fourth from the bottom in penalties.

And maybe the most mind-boggling statistic of all: just one opponent fumble recovered all year. Nationally ranked? Not since September.

Such is the tattered resume Georgia's football team will take into Saturday night's game at Georgia Tech.

A program that started last season ranked No. 1 in the nation and opened this season No. 13 goes into its regular-season finale needing an improbable victory over its archrival to avoid a .500 regular season.

"We are just trying not to quit on the season after everything that's happened," offensive tackle Clint Boling said. "I think if we can win against Tech, that would be great for our team morale and emotions."

It also would defy the body of work built over the past 11 games.

Georgia has reached this point of the season without a signature victory and with some truly horrendous losses: the 45-19 whipping at Tennessee, the 41-17 pummeling by Florida and, perhaps worst of all, last week's second-half meltdown that turned a 20-6 lead into the Bulldogs' first home loss to Kentucky in 32 years.

Georgia has won the turnover battle in just one of 11 games, has trailed in nine of 11 games and has allowed 34 or more points in five of eight SEC games.

It all adds up to a 6-5 record, already Georgia's most losses in a season under coach Mark Richt. And it has an unnerved Bulldog Nation calling for change to Richt's staff.

But first: this matter of the Tech game.

A loss to the No. 7 Yellow Jackets would drop Georgia to 6-6, which would be the Dogs' first regular season without a winning record since 1996.

"It's one of those numbers you want to avoid," defensive end Demarcus Dobbs said of a .500 mark. "Having such a mediocre, underachieving year, winning ... against a high-ranked opponent would give you some kind of life going into the off-season."

Said defensive end Justin Houston, "It will brighten a lot of people up if we can pull out this victory. ... Hopefully it would turn a lot of people's minds around here and lift up a lot of our teammates because I know some of them are down right now."

The question is whether, from the rubble of a season gone bad, Georgia can summon a solid enough game to compete with Tech (10-1).

Last week's fall-from-ahead loss to Kentucky offered the Dogs no encouragement. If anything, it was reminiscent of their 45-42 loss to the Yellow Jackets in Sanford Stadium last year:

• Georgia, which led UK by 14 at the half last week, led Tech by 16 at the half last year.

• Georgia, which fumbled away the second-half kickoff to Kentucky last week, fumbled away a third-quarter kickoff to Tech last year.

• And Georgia, which was outscored 28-7 by Kentucky in the second half last week, was outscored 33-14 by Tech in the second half last year.

The Kentucky game, Boling said, "kind of felt like" the Tech game.

Statistics indict the 2009 Bulldogs in many areas, but the turnover numbers are the ugliest and costliest and, in the end, figure to be the defining mark of this team.

The Dogs committed four turnovers and forced none against Kentucky, a disparity typical of a season in which Georgia is among the worst teams in the nation in both giveaways and takeaways.

The Dogs are tied for 106th among 120 major-college teams in turnovers lost (26). They are 111th in interceptions thrown (16) and 65th in fumbles lost (10).

"It's tough to comprehend," offensive coordinator Mike Bobo said. "It is just kind of an avalanche right now of turnovers. And we've got to find a way to stop it."

As susceptible as the Dogs have been to turnovers, they've been even worse at forcing the same miscues from opponents.

They rank 120th –- last -– among major-college teams in turnovers forced with eight. They have intercepted seven passes and, astonishingly, have recovered only one of their opponents' 12 fumbles.

That lone fumble recovery came more than two months ago, Sept. 19 at Arkansas, by linebacker Rennie Curran.

No other Division I-A team has fewer than three fumble recoveries. Seven teams have 15 or more.

"It's crazy," Curran said when reminded that he has Georgia's one and only. "When you consider how much work and how many hours we put in, it's hard to believe we didn't get the results we wanted this year."

The Dogs' overall turnover margin is minus-18, meaning they have committed 18 more turnovers than they have forced. That is tied for 119th nationally, ahead of only Miami (Ohio), which has a 1-11 record to show for its negative-21 margin.

Turnovers are hardly the team's only statistical debacle. The Dogs rank among the nation's worst teams in kickoff return yards allowed (119th), penalties (116th) and red-zone defense (103rd).

The stats suggest a lost cause, but Georgia gets another chance Saturday night to refute them.

A win, quarterback Joe Cox said, "could change a lot of things."