ATHENS — Even after Georgia had beaten Kentucky 19-10 to clinch the SEC Eastern Division championship Saturday, nothing went as planned for the Bulldogs.
With plastic strewn across the floor of Georgia’s locker room at Sanford Stadium to protect it from the postgame celebratory deluge, coach Mark Richt sensed an opportunity to make a splash. So he yelled for the assembled mass to part in the center of the room and got a running start to make a belly slide to end all belly slides across the wet surface.
Trouble was the surface wasn’t very wet. Richt hit hard on his belly, stopped quite suddenly, then was further traumatized when a room full of 300-pounders thought the point was to form a dog pile atop their triumphant coach.
“It was a really bad idea,” said Richt, laughing but wincing at the same time as he was still feeling the effects well after the game. “I don’t think I broke any ribs, but it did hurt. I couldn’t breathe for a while. I thought it was going to be fun. I can’t say it was. But it was for a good reason, and I think the boys liked it.”
And so the day went for the Bulldogs. Yes, they won their ninth consecutive game — the most during a season since Georgia went 11-0 in 1982 — and they’re back in the SEC championship game for the first time since 2005. But virtually everything else went off script.
- Freshman tailback Isaiah Crowell, expected to make a run at 1,000-yard season on this day, was lost instead to an ankle injury on his second carry of the game. His availability next week is questionable.
- Crowell's absence was exacerbated by the news minutes before kickoff that No. 2 tailback Carlton Thomas was missing the game because of "personal issues." Richt later said the twice-suspended junior had "violated a rule," and declined to elaborate.
- Quarterback Aaron Murray struggled all day, so sharp a week ago, threw 13 incompletions and an interception in 29 attempts. Even the Bulldogs' lone touchdown came with an asterisk. Wide receiver Marlon Brown ran the wrong route on the play.
But there were some things that went right for the Bulldogs. Georgia’s defense, ranked No. 4 nationally, held Kentucky to 13 yards in the second half and forced four turnovers.
“We always want to be in that position,” said outside linebacker Jarvis Jones, who added 2.5 sacks to his SEC-leading total, which is now 12.5. “Our offense started kind of slow today, and it was a defensive game. Kentucky is an SEC team, so I knew it was going to be a dogfight, I knew they’d come to play. We did, too.”
It was way tougher than Georgia could have imagined. After winning their past two games by the combined score of 105-23, the Bulldogs found themselves trailing 10-6 midway through the second quarter.
Georgia inched its way back into the game and finally got a break shortly before halftime. After a Blair Walsh field goal brought them to 10-9 with 1:53 left in the half, Georgia’s Quintavious Harrow forced White County native Ashley Lowry to fumble on the ensuing kickoff. Kicker Brandon Bogotay recovered for the Bulldogs, who settled for another 39-yard field goal from Walsh and took a 12-10 lead into the locker room.
“Coming into halftime with a 12-10 lead was kind of scary,” said senior cornerback Brandon Boykin, who intercepted a deep Kentucky pass seconds before intermission. “When you give a team like that confidence, they can definitely do damage.”
But it was Georgia’s defense that was doing all the damage in the second. After the Bulldogs’ offense committed two more turnovers to thwart long drives in the third quarter, the defense took matters into its own hands.
Jones’ pressure on Kentucky quarterback Maxwell Smith forced a fumble that linebacker Christian Robinson recovered at the Kentucky 9.
Georgia’s offense made good on the turnover. On third-and-goal at the 7, Murray found Brown in the back of the end zone for a touchdown and nine-point lead.
“I ran the wrong route,” Brown acknowledged afterward. “I didn’t realize until after I caught. I wasn’t where I was supposed to be. I give Aaron credit for finding me.”
Said Murray: “We made enough plays to win, and that’s all that matters. I’m ecstatic right now.”
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