Mike Bobo remembers all the games he has called for Georgia over the past seven years or so. But the one last year against Tennessee in Knoxville stands out vividly in his memory.
“I remember I thought we had a pretty good plan of some ways to attack them,” said Bobo, the Bulldogs’ offensive coordinator. “Then I’d say 75 percent of the call sheet we couldn’t call.”
Bobo and the Bulldogs entered that game last year fresh off an exhilarating 44-41 win over LSU. But they left banged up. They already were without tailback Todd Gurley (ankle) and flanker Malcolm Mitchell (knee) before the game. Soon they were without several others.
Keith Marshall, who started the game at tailback, went down in the first quarter trying to catch a pass out of the backfield with what turned out to be a season-ending knee injury. In the third quarter, wide receiver Michael Bennett went out with a knee injury while blocking on a play. Later that same quarter, wideout Justin Scott-Wesley went down in a heap while covering a punt. Another knee injury. Another ACL. Another casualty for the season.
“I was about to throw up,” Bobo said. “Really. We were just trying to figure out who were the guys out there and what they knew and could execute.”
It didn’t end there. Before that fateful third quarter ended, punter Collin Barber joined the wounded. His punt was blocked, scooped up and carried back for a touchdown and he was concussed by a blindside block well away from the play.
“I never got back to the locker room, but Justin was back there and Keith and Collin Barber, who got a concussion,” Bennett recalled this week. “It wasn’t a good game for us.”
Somehow, the Bulldogs recovered enough to win that game. But just barely.
Leading 17-3 at halftime, Georgia fell behind in the fourth quarter and needed a heroic drive by quarterback Aaron Murray and a touchdown catch by Rantavious Wooten to send the game into overtime. Tennessee’s Pig Howard fumbled going in for a would-be touchdown in the fourth quarter, and Marshall Morgan kicked a 42-yard field goal for the Bulldogs to win 34-31 in overtime.
The victory was good, but the carnage of that day altered the course of the season for the Bulldogs. With five of their top skill players sidelined, Georgia lost the next two games, to Missouri and Vanderbilt. They were never the same.
“We kind of went through a little spell there for a couple of games after that one,” Bobo sighed. “But we got away with that game.”
A year later, the Bulldogs are preparing to face Tennessee again — and they have yet to return to full strength.
Mitchell remains sidelined after re-injuring his right knee on the eve of preseason camp. After playing the first three games of the season, Marshall hyperextended the same knee last week against Troy and is out. Split end Jonathon Rumph will miss his fourth consecutive game with a hamstring injury. And while Scott-Wesley physically is able to play, he has yet to make it back to the field this season because of an ongoing disciplinary issue. He’s supposed to come back next week.
But the Volunteers will play no violins for Georgia. They have injury issues of their own this time. They’ll play without two of their top receivers, Von Pearson and Josh Smith, who are sidelined with high-ankle sprains. Tennessee also is banged up on the offensive line.
Meanwhile, the Bulldogs are healthy everywhere else. Gurley, the SEC’s leading rusher (134 ypg) and a leading Heisman Trophy candidate, not only is well but well-rested after playing only the first two offensive series in last week’s 66-0 rout of Troy. Georgia has discovered two other talents in freshman tailbacks Sony Michel and Nick Chubb, who each has averaged 10 yards per carry between them. And both lines of scrimmage appear to be intact.
“Now the tables have turned,” senior center David Andrews said. “We’re on our home field, and we have a healthy team. We just need to go out there and take care of business.”
And leave the game as healthy as they started it.
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