That sound you heard here Saturday was the chapel bell ringing, a campus tradition after any Georgia victory, but on this night the peals had accompaniment. That sound you heard was the cracking of long-held assumptions — that the Bulldogs are capable of no more than middle-sized wins, that their coach and their quarterback cannot prevail in any Game That Matters.
This game mattered. Had Georgia lost, its chance at the BCS title would have been gone and even the notion of an SEC East championship would have become a flight of fancy. But the Bulldogs — behind this coach and this quarterback — faced down their new nemesis and won the sort of game that can lead to bigger games, bigger victories.
“These guys showed me something,” said Mark Richt, and this coach of 13 years showed us something, too. Seven days after a deflating loss at Clemson, he readied his men and outflanked the Evil Genius.
The 41-30 victory generated a dozen pivot points, but the first was a function of scheming and daring. After Georgia took a 7-3 lead midway through the first quarter, Richt ordered an onside kick. “Coach (Kirk) Olivadotti saw it Sunday,” he said. “They were too wide in the front line.”
Georgia recovered and kicked a field goal, and soon it would lead 17-3. South Carolina kept rallying, but the consecutive possessions left the Gamecocks chasing the game. “Any team you can steal a possession,” Richt said, “that’s momentum.” (It might also have been a bit of inside knowledge: Olivadotti was on Steve Spurrier’s staff with the Washington Redskins.)
Facing a defense fueled by the famous Jadeveon Clowney, the Bulldogs planned around him and amassed 536 yards against no turnovers. Clowney did sack Murray in the second quarter, but Georgia’s response to the reversal was illuminating. Facing second-and-20, Keith Marshall ran around left end — Clowney’s side — for 16 yards.
Over the summer, Clowney averred that Murray was “scared” of him, but we saw early that this game any perceived fear would strike out. Clowney bore down on Murray’s first dropback and laid a mitt on the quarterback’s shoulder, but Murray — far from curling into a ball — shrugged off the hand of Clowney and loosed a pass that Michael Bennett snagged 32 yards downfield.
Having gone 0-3 against the Gamecocks, having presided over only one victory against a top-10 opponent and not played very well even in it, Murray needed this victory to hush some yaps. He completed 17 of 23 passes for 309 yards and four touchdowns, the final two of which were throws not made by the timid. Both times he dodged a hard rush. Both times his time-buying yielded open receivers.
The first of those two was an 8-yard flip to tailback Todd Gurley, probably the best player (Murray included) on the field. The second was a bit of seat-of-the-pants coaching, the sort of thing Spurrier has made his signature.
Third-and-13 at the Georgia 15, Bulldogs up 34-30 with 13 minutes remaining: At this vital moment, offensive coordinator Mike Bobo called a play his men hadn’t practiced all week. “It wasn’t in the game plan,” Murray said. “When he called it, I was surprised.”
Said receiver Justin Scott-Wesley: “Coach Bobo saw something up top. We just exploited it.”
It wasn’t quite that simple. Clowney beat backup tackle Mark Beard to the inside, forcing Murray to run to his left. Near the sideline, he pulled up and threw long for Scott-Wesley, whose 85-yard touchdown gave Georgia all the space it would need.
Asked if this was the sort of victory he — meaning Aaron Murray, singular — was tracking when he chose to return to Georgia, Murray rendered his answer about the Bulldogs, plural. “This is huge for the team,” he said.
Chris Conley, whose catch of Murray’s deflected pass as time expired stands as the memory of Georgia’s excruciating loss to Alabama in December, knew better.
“A lot of naysayers think certain things about Aaron’s character and his desire,” Conley said. “He proved today he’s a true signal-caller. He led his team to victory.”
By winning, the Bulldogs put South Carolina in the position Georgia held the past three seasons — having to wait for the front-runner to lose not once but twice. Said Murray: “It feels good to be ahead after all these years.”
But there was more to it than positioning, much more. This was a prove-it game for the Bulldogs and Richt and Murray, and they all delivered. They corralled Clowney. They stared down Spurrier. They showed us something.
