Filed under: GEORGIA
4/14: G-Day Game: Red vs. Black (1:00 – Free)
9/1: Buffalo Bulls of Mid-American Conference (TBA)
9/8: at Missouri Tigers of SEC East (TBA)
9/15: Florida Atlantic Owls of Sun Belt Conference (TBA)
9/22: Vanderbilt Commodores of SEC East (TBA)
9/29: Tennessee Volunteers of SEC East (TBA)
10/6: at South Carolina Gamecocks of SEC East (TBA)
10/13: BYE
10/20: at Kentucky Wildcats of SEC East (TBA)
10/27: Florida of SEC East @JAX (3:30, CBS)
11/3: Mississippi Rebels of SEC West – Homecoming (TBA)
11/10: at Auburn Tigers of SEC West (TBA)
11/17: Georgia Southern Eagles of the FCS (TBA)
11/24: Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets of ACC (TBA)
12/1: SEC Championship – SEC East vs. SEC West @ATL (4:00, CBS)
Filed under: GEORGIA
After six-win and eight-win seasons over the past two campaigns, it is nice to see the SEC East Champion Georgia Bulldogs back in the final AP poll at season’s end, finishing in the Top 20 no less at #19. UGA was #20 in the coaches poll.
No doubt, Georgia suffered some tough losses that could have easily been wins: 33-30 to #11 Michigan State in triple overtime in the Outback Bowl and 45-42 to #9 South Carolina in Athens, but those go on record as the best Spartans and the best Gamecocks teams of all-time. #2 LSU handily won the SEC Championship game over UGA after being shutdown on offense and burned with early down passing for a half. #1 Alabama made the field goals and played great coverage special teams in the National Championship rematch of SEC West powers, and it is noteworthy that they used the Mike Bobo first half offensive game plan for the whole game and won.
Two-and-one in the last three meetings of this non-rivalry-because-it-is-so-rarely-played border meeting, Georgia won’t get to face Alabama next season as originally scheduled due to an SEC scheduling decision. Look for the Tide instead to roll back on the SEC schedule in 2013 and for Georgia to potentially face them in the 2012 SEC Championship game, if mighty BAMA can finally muster the strength to actually win their football division for the first time in three years. After yielding only eight points per game and after decimating the only opponent that beat them, they deserve the title. But they may not have deserved to play for it at all, in fairness to one-loss Big 12 Champion Oklahoma State.
The least competitive Georgia loss was the Georgia Dome opener to #8 Boise State, when UGA had sixteen first-time regular players. Since D.J. Shockley shocked highly-ranked LSU for Richt’s second SEC Championship, UGA has not fared well in the Dome in Atlanta: losing to an upset-minded West Virginia in the Hurricane Katrina relocated Sugar Bowl and dropping the two games played there this season (Boise, LSU), while upsetting a highly-ranked Virginia Tech in a nice come from behind win in a Chick-fil-A-Bowl.
Richt has been at Georgia for eleven seasons and coached in four SEC Championships and beaten Florida only three times, so doing the math it has been an East title more than 25% of the time, which is pretty good and a Cocktail Party win less than 25% of the time, which is bad. The only things statistically harder for Georgia have been winning the SEC Championship and finishing in the national Top 3. That has happened twice apiece on three total teams (less than 20% of the time each). It is imperative for the continued prowess of the program that Georgia beats Florida for consecutive times for the first time since the 1980s. The other dicey spots on the 2012 schedule are the trips to the Columbias: Georgia opens at sometimes explosive Mizzou and plays at Cocky in the Border Bash midseason. Auburn just added one-time Georgia great defensive coordinator Brian VanGorder and should be improved. A six-of-seven overall win against Aubie on the Plains would probably land the Dawgs back in Atlanta to face Auburn again or Bama or LSU or #5 Arkansas. Georgia has also struggled to protect the house and annually drops a home game, to the dismay of the red-and-black clad faithful. Improving bowl team Vandy and a potentially resurgent pass happy UT Vols pose the biggest threats this upcoming season. Overall, the schedule suggests at least ten wins.
Thank you for reading this season. Next Blawg will be my annual recruiting rundown after signing day, and I will ramp back up briefly for spring football and then shut it down again for the summer until the season gets close. My theory on covering basketball and baseball here is that I only do it when the teams are playing well and the interest is high. In the meantime, I regularly cover all three top men’s sports as the senior writer at The Georgia Playbook magazine, free online subscriptions at www.thegeorgiaplaybook.com. Big Hairy Blawg now has a Facebook page, too; go to Facebook and search “Big Hairy Blawg” and then click that you “LIKE” it to follow.
As always: GO DAWGS!!!
Before the start of the college football season, in writing I called for the Georgia Bulldogs to win exactly ten games and the SEC East and it be somewhat disappointing. I called for Georgia to beat Florida and Tennessee and stressed the importance of beating the four biggest rivals (4-0 for the first time under Richt). By winning ten games in 2011, Coach Mark Richt has simply returned to his average at the University of Georgia. He averages over nine wins throughout his eleven-year tenure as head coach, down from fifth to sixth in the NCAA amongst active coaches with fickle Urban Meyer now back in coaching at Ohio State University.
As I walked and took trains through much of my city on a warm and lightly rainy winter Sunday, it was especially evident to me how much more vast and utterly urban Atlanta is compared to the rest of the South. Though more than four of the over five million so-called Atlantans live far from any centrally dense core, The ATL in actuality is a giant and gorgeous rocket ship of a city. Peachtree Street/Peachtree Road alone skyscrapes all the way from barely above the Braves big house at the south to the way uptown northern edge of Buckhead. And Georgia is the geographically largest state east of the Mississippi River.
The Atlanta Falcons have zero championships and badly lost one Super Bowl. Before the playoff one-and-done run with Matt Ryan as quarterback, they were the only American professional sports franchise to never have back-to-back winning seasons.
The Atlanta Thrashers went the way of the Flames. Oh, Canada. C-AY-N-AY-D-AY.
The Atlanta Hawks historically made and lost early in the playoffs. Then they didn’t make the playoffs for years. Then they returned to making the playoffs, but never even the conference championship. The best Hawks team ever extended Boston in a series that was only for a chance to play in the conference championship round and did not come through with the four wins.
Georgia Tech football has lost ten of eleven to Georgia and has not won a bowl game in eight seasons. They did win in it all in a split championship twenty-two years ago.
Tech basketball is an overly nostalgia remembered mediocre ACC product, with a losing record to UGA since the teams quit playing neutral site games. Hoop Dawgs = not too good.
Georgia Southern is high-quality pee wee college football. Georgia State has football. They both play basketball, as does Kennesaw State, Mercer, etc.
Border crossers Auburn, Alabama, Clemson, South Carolina, Florida, Florida State, Tennessee each have huge football followings in The ATL and in various areas of Georgia. And none have the winning percentage to match Mark Richt’s over the time he has been at UGA.
The only competitor remaining is the Atlanta Braves. They won it all in 1995 for Atlanta’s only pro sports team title (Evander Holyfield also a champ) and won division titles for years. Stopped short in a bunch of World Series runs, they are still a valid and good sports option in the summer. But they have not been a real factor in the National League for years, and a historic collapse this past season was emblematic of their fortitude now that Bobby Cox has been retired for two years.
Mark Richt will coach the University of Georgia Bulldogs, by far the most profitable and the single most popular sports product in the state of Georgia, to at least ten wins next season. He had one bad year (6 wins) following one average year (8 wins) and was squarely on the hot seat. His first year was an eight-win campaign while he got acclimated, and the other eight seasons were either good (9 wins), very good (10 wins) or great (more than 10 wins).
Richt has two SEC Championships and two BCS bowl wins and two national finishes in the final top three in the polls. He has only one unreached goal at UGA: to win it all. Georgia’s schedule and returning talent lines up for me to right now predict that UGA will play for the SEC Championship in Atlanta again next season. Dominating unblemished #1 LSU for a half this year with a team of sophomores and freshmen, UGA showed the potential promise of a bright future. Finish the Drill and the SEC may play for a seventh straight NCAA crystal ball with the Dawgs finally getting a shot. Georgia just may have been the best team in the country by season’s end when UGA finished #3 and #2, but the existing system cost those teams a chance to prove it in a playoff. Looking down Georgia’s schedule, 2012 is as good a shot to win it all as Richt has had or may ever have.
Filed under: bowl games, Cocktail Party, GEORGIA, records, richt, SEC, SEC East, UGA
1. 2nd year: 13 wins, SEC Champs, won Sugar Bowl, #3 in NCAA
2. 7th year: 11 wins, won Sugar Bowl, #2 in NCAA, beat Florida
3. 5th year: 10 wins, SEC Champs, made a BCS bowl
4. 3rd year: 11 wins, SEC East Champs, won bowl game
5. 4th year: 10 wins, won bowl game, beat Florida
6. 11th year: 10 wins, SEC East Champs, beat Florida
7. 8th year: 10 wins, won bowl game, preseason #1
8. 6th year: 9 wins, won bowl game
9. 9th year: 8 wins, won bowl game
10. 1st year: 8 wins
11. 10th year: 6 wins
Filed under: UGA, championships, NCAA, POWER FOOTBALL, richt, bobo, GEORGIA, O-LINE, D, Grantham, Murray, special teams, Crowell
1. Retain Todd Grantham as defensive coordinator. He simply does not have the calm enough demeanor of a good head football coach, yet he is perhaps the hottest D strategist in the NCAA. The Junk Yard swaggering D will have so much talent coming back in 2012. What’s missing? Only a ball control running game to hold leads and keep them off the football field for extended stretches and a solid field goal kicker to consistently convert field position into points.
2. Designate or hire a special teams coach. Notwithstanding one great individual play by Brandon Boykin and often stellar punting by Drew Butler, special teams were the glaring weaknesses of this football team, costing Georgia a bowl loss to Michigan State (33-30 in triple overtime) and causing UGA’s only home defeat, a 45-42 SEC opener against South Carolina. The SEC championship was also flitted away to a dumbfounded and shellshocked LSU team facing its first taste of domination. Way back to the Boise State game, we were missing kicks. Florida, Mississippi, Mississippi State, Vandy could have been bigger wins if we had not made huge special teams gaffes. Look at it this way: If there had been one this season, he would be getting fired. The need is there for accountability on coverage and kicking and returns and punting. No excuse for all the big returns and missed kicks and much worse: lack of adjustments. Mark Richt is responsible, and he must realize his old strategy clearly failed. New kicker, punter and primary returner in 2012 so timing is perfect.
3. Remove play calling duties from Mike Bobo. Aaron Murray has the talent to blossom but needs a full-time quarterback coach who will focus on his development and decisions, not play calling. Murray is way too turnover prone, especially in the biggest football games. Bobo is not an excellent play caller, though explosive UGA talent sometimes compensates for him. Though Richt could again call the plays, it would be much better either to hire or promote someone fresh to do it and insist it be done within the already existing offensive terminology so the young players are not in a learning start over. Handing off from the shotgun formation is a once-a-game trick, not an effective running game strategy. The new play caller better understand that, as Richt and Bobo have way over used that stupid play for years. The other option is for Richt to again coach quarterbacks and just let Mike Bobo go. He point blank should not be calling plays next year, as he is costing us defeats in very winnable games.
4. Develop a mentally tough running back core. Bowl starter Malcome is not and will never be a game breaker. Samuel IV can’t break tackles, and the other backs besides Crowell are simply way too small to be consistently effective. Only two 2012 UGA runners can really play like UGA expects, and they need to get the vast majority of carries. Immature Crowell, when feeling well, did enough to be named SEC Freshman of the Year. The top high school runner will join him. We signed back-to-back best high school running backs in America, with A+ student and speedster Keith Marshall set to enroll early. They must carry Georgia’s offense. Crowell needs a full offseason to heal and toughen up. Marshall may end up number one; both will play.
5. Will Friend has three proven linemen coming back and a bunch of young talented size. UGA better gel at line quickly, as this is where the least returning starters are set to shine in 2012. The talent is on hand and he is the right coach to get this done.
Richt could do all of the above without a huge systematic shakeup. As there are NCAA limits to the number of assistant coaches on staff, some currently on the staff may need to be assigned greater duties and some be asked to move into administration or let go. The facts are that the offensive play calling has not been up to snuff and our special teams appeared to be the worst coached in the conference. This program currently has championship talent.
Filed under: GEORGIA
Last year was worse. Last year was the worst. We lost to Central Florida, our seventh loss. We finished below .500 and scored only six points. But this was at least as gut wrenching, considering. On a day when the Big 10 won no games in regulation for the second New Year’s in a row. On a day when Tavarres King set the single game reception yardage record at the University of Georgia. On a day when Todd Grantham’s defense mostly dominated and had another first half shutout. On a day when a cornerback scored on a safety and a punt return and a touchdown pass and was named the MVP of the bowl. On a day when Blair Walsh became the all-time scoring leader in SEC history. On a day when UGA led 16-0 at halftime. On a day when Georgia’s opponent had a turnover on their first possession of overtime and scored no overtime touchdowns. On a day with so much promise, UGA lost…again.
10-0 against inferior competition with a 10-game win streak and an SEC East title, UGA did not start or finish the drill this season. An 0-2 start and an 0-2 finish leave a sour taste in the mouths of the Dawg Nation. Murray had a second half fumble on a run followed by two interceptions, for a second consecutive football game. Mark Richt has no special teams coach and showed loyalty to a 60% field goal kicker who went one for three in three overtimes. Mike Bobo’s blend of play calling combining shotgun handoffs for huge losses and unnecessarily conservative predictability with flashes of brilliance failed again on a big stage. The other early games were over, as this one should have been. Everyone was watching, as they were when Georgia had faced ranked teams: Boise State, South Carolina, LSU. Georgia somehow found a way to lose a game to Michigan State that should have been won.
Overhyped SEC Freshman of the Year Isaiah Crowell was gimpy again, and the running game was simply not there without him playing well. Murray choked in his home town. Richt idiotically passed on trying for yardage in the first overtime, and the 42-yard kick was missed. In the third overtime, the kick to extend the contest was blocked. For the first time in school history, a Big 10 team beat the Dawgs. And yet the mistakes and missed chances were all too familiar.
Filed under: athens, ATL, Auburn, bama, Border Bash, bowl games, carolina, championships, Cocktail Party, College Football, Crowell, Floor-DUH, GEORGIA, O-LINE, ole miss, SEC, SEC East, SEC West, tech, tennessee, travel, vandy
Last week of the year, so instead of rehashing 2011 it’s time to look ahead. BAMA – mighty BAMA – got dropped from the schedule as the SEC East has seven teams and now only two out-of-division slots. The Dawg Nation was originally looking to cruise the relatively short distance to the Capstone of Tuscaloosa, where we have a two-game winning streak. Georgia has won three-of-four overall versus Alabama. Thankfully, we will continue to play Auburn every year in the South’s Oldest Rivalry, first played in Piedmont Park of Atlanta. That custom simply had to continue, and we have won five-of-six versus Aubie and do not fear playing their next season. Since we played Ole Miss at Oxford this season, they are coming to Athens for the culmination of the home-and-home, in what was once an annual meeting. No LSU, no BAMA, no Arkansas – get used to it for another season, America. The conference plan for 2013 is not firmly set yet, but we know Bama is next up in rotation to play us. I anticipate the LSU series will be pushed back from 2013-2014 to 2014-2015. Out of conference, we will resume the old Clemson series in 2013 with our closest proximate geographic rival (few miles closer to Clemson from UGA than from UGA to Georgia Tech). With the non-divisional conference rotation now so deep and infrequent (seven total teams, six off and one always on, plus one more on for two seasons at a time), the divisional foes matter much more than ever before in the SEC. This is great for Georgia with the East perhaps the weakest it has ever been and 8-5 “Mizzou” replacing a potential loss to a strong SEC West program. When a team rolls off the schedule under the 2012 model (which, again, may be tweaked before 2013), you won’t see them again for a decade outside of a possible meeting in the SEC Championship Game. I was forty-one when UGA played at Oxford this football season. The Ole Miss alum I was playing with on a men’s basketball team at the time decided we should skip our planned trip together since the Rebs were so down. I may not have a chance to tailgate like William Faulkner until I’m in my fifties. But Georgia has a chance to establish itself as THE dominant program in the SEC East. The bye game being moved a week earlier and not immediately before Florida is a disadvantage, as UGA goes for back-to-back Cocktail Party wins for the first time since the 1980s. The toughest game on the schedule next year appears to be at South Carolina, but with this Border Bash moved way back to mid-season our young line will have much more time to gel in preparation for their tough defensive front. By then the rotation at running back should be established, with late season struggling SEC Freshman of the Year Isaiah Crowell welcoming top high school runner Keith Marshall of Raleigh. Our schedule started tough but was mostly manageable in 2011. It looks much easier in 2012, though Vandy, Tennessee, Auburn should each be more mature and better. Florida has some glaring issues and big personnel losses. Winning the SEC Championship Game would be a big challenge, and getting there by finishing ahead of South Carolina looks for a third consecutive year to be the key. Georgia didn’t have the moxie to do it after a bad start in 2010, and the Gamecocks gifted it to the Dawgs in 2011. I think Georgia can win at the South Carolina State Fairground in 2012. Looking down this schedule, Georgia should be favored in every other game.
Filed under: bowl games, championships, College Football, GEORGIA, Moreno, NCAA, records, SEC, Stafford, travel, UGA, Vince Dooley
1. Alabama: 58 Bowls – won 57% – 32 wins (3 ties)
2. Texas: 49 Bowls – won 53% – 25 wins (2 ties)
3. Tennessee: 49 Bowls – won 51% – 25 wins
4. USC: 48 Bowls – won 64% – 31 wins
5. Nebraska: 47 Bowls – won 51% – 24 wins
6. GEORGIA: 46 Bowls – won 60% – 26 wins (3 ties)
UGA has played in the sixth most bowl games of any college program, with only USC having a better winning percentage amongst those in the top six in total appearances.
UGA is undefeated versus active Big 10 member schools in all meetings including bowl wins over Michigan State (2), Ohio State, Wisconsin (2), Purdue (2). Georgia’s last bowl win in the state of Florida came against Michigan State in the Capital One Bowl, in Moreno and Stafford’s last college game. Georgia’s other bowl win against Michigan State was in the Gator Bowl and was legendary coach Vince Dooley’s last.
The Georgia Dream Team of recruits helped propel Coach Mark Richt and the football team at the nation’s oldest public university to a 10-win regular season for the first time since Moreno’s breakthrough season. That year, UGA was an underrated number 2 at year’s end. The next year, UGA finished ranked number 10 with 10 total wins when including a New Year’s Day bowl victory over Michigan State. Moreno and Stafford bolted early for the NFL, and UGA won 8 games with Joe Cox as QB and then only 6 games after a shaky start to the Murray era.
This year the glare of the lights was bright early in the Dome and late in the Dome, and Georgia was simply not a mature enough program to start or finish the drill. In between, UGA was undefeated save a crazy 45-42 loss to Carolina Between the Hedges. Though UGA has faced three highly-ranked teams and is 0-3 in those games, 10 wins is a substantial achievement by any college team any year and is the benchmark for “very good” teams. UGA has beaten no “very good” teams over the past few years that means and is set to face a 10-win Michigan State Spartans squad in Murray’s hometown of Tampa. This would be the best team Murray has beaten if he can find a way to win this game. He wouldn’t even be here playing in Florida on January 2 and Richt would most certainly be facing a change of employment without this year’s class of stellar true freshmen, whom somehow exceeded lofty expectations.
1. RB – Isaiah Crowell – Immature SEC Freshman of the Year will share the load with the top high school football running back in the nation (straight A student and speedster Keith Marshall of Raleigh, N.C.).
2. WR – Malcolm Mitchell – Top wideout in program, would have been number 1 if not injured midyear.
3. LB – Amarlo Herrera – Was a huge difference maker when called on to play early. Physical ballhawk.
4. DB – Damian Swann – May start every game at CB next year and will certainly contribute more.
5. OL – Watts Dantzler – May be called on to start at T in ’12. Must have good year.
6. WR – Chris Conley – Saw action late and is a young playmaker with a bright future.
7. OL – David Andrews – Probable starter at C in ’12.
8. LB – Ray Drew – Highest-ranked recruit didn’t contribute much due to the pass rush dominance of Jarvis Jones and to a lesser extent Cornelius Washington, but it appears Washington will be going pro early.
9. LB/DE – Sterling Bailey – Came to be nearly dominant in practice but redshirted after injury.
10. DB – Corey Moore – Backup S and special teamer.
11. DB – Nick Marshall – Versatile DB and special teamer also will play hoops.
12. TE – Jay Rome – The top TE recruit in country in 2011 may start in ’12 as Orson Charles looks NFL-bound.
13. OL – Someone young will start at one of the G positions: Zach DeBell, Hunter Long, Xzavier Ward, a true frosh perhaps?
My God, Larry
Would You Look At The Stupid Clock
It Says Forty-Two
That’s How Many
Beautiful, Bountiful
Years You Gave
To The Fair Institution
Though No Man Can Be An Island
You Are One, Yourself
Heck If You Ain’t A Legend
Blue, Forty-Two
Set, Hut…Touchdown!
And The Tears Stream
As I Dream Of You
How Can One Man
One Self-Effacing
Gravel-Voiced
Gloom-And-Doom
Radioman
Mean So Much
Mr. Munson, Sir
You Are The Greatest
You Are The Greatest
You Are The Greatest
That Ever Lived
