ATHENS — Let’s just go ahead and say it: It’s a must-win game.
Nobody else will say that. Georgia coach Mark Richt and South Carolina coach Steve Spurrier, to a lesser degree, have gone out of their way to dispel the notion that Saturday’s SEC opener between the Bulldogs and Gamecocks is an all-or-nothing affair.
But there is a feeling of desperation prevailing over the proceedings, at least from the Bulldogs’ camp.
Georgia (0-1) is coming off an inglorious loss to Boise State on Saturday at the Georgia Dome. And while there should be no shame in losing to the nation’s No. 4-ranked team, to have been summarily outclassed by a Mountain West opponent 35-21 in the Bulldogs’ backyard generated an outpouring of fan discontent unseen in the previous 10 years of Richt’s tenure.
As a result, the line of questioning in advance of Saturday’s game shifted from the SEC ramifications of the game against the 12th-ranked Gamecocks (1-0) to whether Richt thought it was “a must win for you and your program.”
“It’s not a must win mathematically for the [SEC East] race or not a must win in any other way I know of,” Richt said tersely. “Is it crucially important? There’s no doubt about that. But we look at every game like it’s a must-win game. So however you want to spin it, you can spin it.”
There is enough riding on the game without adding the wrinkle of job security. South Carolina and Georgia were the teams tabbed in the preseason as favorites to win the East.
“What that means nobody knows till the end of the season,” Spurrier said. “We all know it’s a big game. The team that loses is not out of it, and it’s not the end of the year for either team. But it is a huge game.”
Richt is in his 11th season as Georgia’s head coach and has averaged 9.6 wins. But the belief among a growing number of fans is that the program is trending downward. There is some evidence of that, with the victory totals decreasing the past four years from 11 in 2007 to 10, then eight, then six.
During roughly the same span, other SEC teams have been on the rise. Conference brethren have claimed the past five BCS championships. So expectations have been raised as the Bulldogs’ productivity has decreased. That has proved to be a volatile mixture for Richt.
“As honestly as I can say it, I’m just trying to get first downs and touchdowns and red-zone stops,” Richt said. “That’s all I’m worried about right now.”
And that’s worrisome enough. The Bulldogs struggled in all three endeavors in the opener. And in the Gamecocks, they will face a team similarly built for success.
South Carolina is led by sophomore tailback Marcus Lattimore, whose coming-out party came with a 182-yard rushing effort in the Gamecocks’ 17-6 win over the Bulldogs last year in Columbia. Lattimore, who went on to rush for 1,197 yards and score 19 touchdowns as a freshman, has beefed up to more than 230 pounds in his second season and is the piece around which the Gamecocks’ offense is built. Quarterback Stephen Garcia and wide receiver Alshon Jeffery keep the Gamecocks from being one-dimensional.
“[Lattimore] gets stronger as the game goes along, so you’ve just got to come to work,” Georgia defensive coordinator Todd Grantham said. “You’ve just got to make sure that when you tackle him you’re playing physical and you get a lot of guys running to the ball.”
South Carolina’s defense features one of the better fronts in the SEC, a group made better with the addition of end Jadeveon Clowney. The 6-foot-6, 252-pound freshman had seven tackles in the opener.
But the Gamecocks also weren’t sharp Saturday. They fell behind 17-0 early before rallying for a 56-37 win over East Carolina in Charlotte.
“We really looked liked a rag-tag bunch of guys,” Spurrier said. “We pretty much just played sloppy football. It’s a good thing we didn’t play a team as good as Boise State.”
Likewise, Georgia’s players feel they must be much sharper Saturday. Flaws on the offensive line and in the running game were exposed against the Broncos, and South Carolina will be a hard team on which to show improvement. Throw in possible ramifications for their head coach, and the Bulldogs are feeling some pressure.
“We try not to worry about that,” quarterback Aaron Murray said of the negative attention on their coach. “We just know it’s a big game just for ourselves, just to get back on a roll, back in the right direction, to get a win under our belts, a big win against a great opponent, an SEC win. So, yeah, it’s a huge game because we don’t want to start off 0-2 or 0-1 in SEC play.”
Said tight end Orson Charles: “I just pray that the fans stay behind us. Yeah, we let them down in that first game, but I don’t see us letting them down the rest of the season. We just have to come out there and bounce back.”
