Georgia won’t alter travel plans for trip to desert

Athens — Georgia will journey nearly 1,900 miles over three time zones and go up at least one heat index to get to Tempe, Ariz., for Saturday night’s game against Arizona State. But the Bulldogs’ travel plans won’t differ much from their standard trip to, say, Starkville, Miss.

That is, they’ll fly out on Friday, check into a Phoenix hotel Friday night, rise late Saturday morning, play ball Saturday night, hop back on a plane immediately after the game and head home to Athens.

The Bulldogs arrived at that conclusion after considerable deliberation. They considered leaving Wednesday or Thursday to adjust to the different time and temperature but concluded it wasn’t enough time to acclimate.

“It was even brought up to fly out the day of the game, get off the plane, stretch and let’s go,” coach Mark Richt said. “But I felt like the best thing for us was to try to stay in the normal rhythm of a normal away game. We have a pretty good record on the road. So I felt like, ‘let’s stay as close to that routine as possible and see what happens.’ “

It’s hard to argue with that logic. Georgia’s record in road games under Richt improved to 26-4 with Saturday’s 14-7 win at South Carolina.

Of course, Georgia, doesn’t usually encounter 100-degree, dry-heat temperatures in late September. Saturday’s forecast calls for 97 degrees at kickoff with only 27 percent humidity.

“I don’t know if we could go into a building and turn on the dry heat or not,” he said. “That might be worth thinking about. We’re probably fooling ourselves if we think we’re going to be able to simulate it. We just need to be willing to substitute and keep it as fresh as we possibly can.”

Poor protection

Richt said he wasn’t sure if the Bulldogs would see a “bigger bunch of big, strong guys” than they saw in South Carolina’s front seven this past Saturday. He can only hope so because Georgia didn’t handle the Gamecocks very well.

Matthew Stafford was sacked four times and hurried at least as many in Georgia’s 14-7 win. Meanwhile the Bulldogs averaged just 3.0 yards per rush.

Offensive coordinator Mike Bobo said South Carolina was indeed good on defense but that Georgia had to play a lot better.

“In this league you’re going to see that kind of front seven,” Bobo said. “We’ve got to do a better job of taking advantage of the opportunities like we had in the first half. We just have to make some plays and keep fighting. You’re going to have bad plays and bad drives in this league.”

Remarkably, Georgia did not have a turnover. The Bulldogs fumbled twice but recovered both. In fact, quarterback Matthew Stafford hasn’t thrown an interception all season.

“I wouldn’t say we panicked but we didn’t really relax and play like I thought we should have,” Bobo said. “May have been a little nerves. We’ve got a bunch of young guys out there playing. But it was good to see us come back and take the lead when we were behind.”

Curran SEC’s defensive player of the week

Bulldogs linebacker Rennie Curran was named SEC defensive player of the week Monday.

The sophomore from Snellville had six tackles, a sack and two quarterback pressures in Georgia’s14-7 win over South Carolina. More importantly, Curran forced a fumble at the Bulldogs’ goal line while South Carolina was threatening to score the game-tying touchdown in the fourth quarter. Asher Allen recovered in the end zone for one of two turnovers the Gamecocks had inside the Georgia 5.

Punter Brian Mimbs, who boomed a 77-yard punt against South Carolina and averaged 52.2 yards for the game, admitted he was surprised when he wasn’t named the league’s special teams player of the week.

ASU’s loss surprised Richt

Richt expected Arizona State to be undefeated when Georgia got to Tempe but the Sun Devils’ 23-20 overtime loss doesn’t’ give him any more confidence.

“To be honest I didn’t even know who they played but I was surprised when I heard UNLV got them,” he said. “But when you win as many games as [Dennis Erickson has] won, you know how to rebound from a tough loss, especially when you’re playing a team that you’ve been looking forward to playing for a while. There may be even a greater sense of urgency now.”

Etc.

Georgia’s pass defense fell to 86th nationally and 11th in the SEC (236.3 yards ) per game. Conversely the Bulldogs are allowing only 59.7 yards rushing a game and 2.5 yards per carry.