Although head coach Mark Richt placed some emphasis on the officiating of Georgia’s loss to South Carolina after Saturday’s game, Georgia ultimately put itself in the position to depend too much on which way a call would sway.
“Ultimately, we have to make sure we don’t get in those fourth-quarter situations,” wide receiver Chris Conley said.
Richt does plan to bring up the intentional grounding penalty called on Hutson Mason and the holding call on Todd Gurley’s 54-yard touchdown run to SEC head of officiating Steve Shaw, but what does one make of the fourth-and-inches call at the end of the fourth quarter?
A photo of the zoomed-in frame showing the spot of the ball in regards to the end of the first-down marker made its rounds on social media following the game. Even linebackers Amarlo Herrera and Ryne Rankin retweeted and shared the image with their followers on Twitter.
As Richt described the spot of the ball after the game: “I just couldn’t tell where the ball was. If you had a credit card we may have been able to slip one in there.”
Those who view the photo can make their own judgments of whether or not Georgia’s defense stopped South Carolina’s quarterback sneak. The decision came down to the officials and they ruled it a first down. Going forward, Conley would rather not face a situation in which his team depends on such a close call.
“Were we happy with that spot at the end of the game? No,” Conley said. “Could we have done things earlier on to prevent that? Yes. And ultimately that’s what we have to look at going into this week because it’s not going to get any easier. We play in the SEC.”
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