SB Nation - Shaun Chapas

LSU In Review - Week Five Vs. #18 Georgia

BSD — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 13:00:18 -0000

by John Bazemore - AP

2 months ago: LSU receiver Terrance Toliver (80) is stopped by Georgia's Bacarri Rambo during the second quarter of an NCAA college football game in Athens, Ga., Saturday, Oct. 3, 2009. (AP Photo/John Bazemore)

View full size photo »

Final - 10.3.2009	1	2	3	4	Total
LSU Tigers	3	3	0	14	20
Georgia Bulldogs	0	0	0	13	13

Complete Coverage >

In week five the LSU Tigers traveled to Athens to take on the Georgia Bulldogs in a game that would go a long way toward sorting out the SEC race. LSU had not won between the hedges since 1987, and Les Miles had never beaten the Bulldogs who came into the game with a #18 ranking despite an opening day loss to Oklahoma State.

If you fell asleep right after kickoff and woke up midway through the fourth quarter, you didn't miss much in this game. It was basically more of the same from what we saw out of the Tigers the first four weeks of the season. The defense smothered their opponent for much of the game while the offense did just enough to get by. Then there was a flurry of activity at the end with LSU somehow pulling out a win.

Georgia went three-and-out in their first possession giving LSU the ball at their own 37. The Tigers drove down the field largley on the back of a 34 yard pass from Jordan Jefferson to Brandon LaFell. But on 3rd and 4 at the Georgia 9 yard line, Jefferson threw a pick in the endzone to kill the drive.

Georgia ran the interception out of the endzone and got tackled at the two yard line. They puckered up with their back to the endzone and ended up punting from the five. A 14 yard return by Trindon Holiday set up the Tigers with a first down at the Georgia 43 yard line. By the way, did you hear that Holiday won the NCAA 100 meter dash championship? I'm sure the Capital One Bowl announcers will only remind us of that every time he touches the ball just in case you forget.

LSU drove down the field to get a first and goal at the Bulldog 9. But Charles Scott got blown up on a screen pass on second down for a one yard loss. Then Jefferson sailed a pass over the head of Terrance Toliver and the Tigers were forced to kick a field goal.

On the ensuing possession, Georgia strung together a few first downs and managed to flip the field position, but they had to punt and LSU took over at their own 20. To spark the team a bit, Miles put in Russell Shepard at quarterback, and he gained 26 yards on the first three plays from the Wildcat. The drive ended at the Georgia 22 when Charles Scott got stuffed for a two yard loss on 3rd and 1. Perhaps showing a little sign of redzone desperation, Les Miles tried a trick play on fourth down where LaFell jogged toward the sideline like he was coming out of the game but then lined up in formation. A slight delay in placing the ball by the officials allowed Georgia to spot him and run a man out to defend him. LSU was forced to call timeout, and then kicked the field goal to take a 6-0 lead.

After another Georgia three-and-out, LSU took over at their own 26 and made another nice drive down to the Georgia redzone. But another gaffe would cost them points. Again showing frustration with the redzone problems, Miles elected to go for a first down on 4th and 1 at the Georgia 9. With the play clock running down, Jefferson decided to hurry the snap rather than call another timeout. The quarterback sneak failed, and Georgia took over on downs.

Though LSU completely dominated the first half, they had to be disappointed that the first half ended with them only up by six points.

In the second half it was the Georgia defense that came out determined to dominate. LSU's first possession went backwards as Jefferson was sacked on three straight plays. The Tigers were forced to punt from their own two yard line giving the Bulldogs the ball at the LSU 44 yard line. But Georgia would later miss a 32 yard field goal to cut the score in half. LSU's next possession went three-and-out, and the third quarter would later run out with the Tigers only running six offensive plays.

Georgia took the ball at their own 40 yard line and finally got some mojo. An 18 play drive that consumed nearly eight minutes off the clock ended when Joe Cox found Shaun Chapas for a touchdown pass on 4th and goal at the 1. The Bulldogs took their first lead of the game at 7-6 just as the fourth quarter began.

Both teams traded punts over the next four possessions, and then LSU began a drive at their own 12 yard line and went the length of the field in 12 plays. The drive ended when Scott smashed through the line for a 2 yard touchdown. A two point conversion attempt failed when Jefferson was sacked, and LSU took a 12-7 lead with 2:53 to go in the game.

Georgia responded with a drive of their own. An LSU defensive breakdown allowed a 46 yard pass to Tavarres King to get the Bulldogs in the redzone. Then Cox found A.J. Green who leaped over a defender to make a catch in the endzone. Georgia failed on their own two point conversion when LSU broke up a slant pass, so the Bulldogs took a 13-12 lead with just over one minute to go.

But Georgia shot themselves in the foot with an unsportsmanlike conduct that forced them to kick off from their 15. Holiday returned the kick 40 yards, and another Georgia penalty tacked on another five yards to give LSU the ball at the Georgia 38. Two plays later Scott slashed through the line and took it to the house for a 33 yard touchdown. Then in what appears to be typical SEC tradition, LSU drew an unsportsmanlike conduct making them kick off from the 15. But Georgia's final drive ended with an interception by Perry Riley, and LSU escaped with another ugly win.

It was another game where LSU dominated defensively but couldn't put their opponent away. They outgained the Bulldogs 368-274 in total yards and 154-45 on the ground. Jefferson finished the day 18-of-27 for 212 yards, but he was intercepted once and gave up six sacks, many of which were from him holding the ball too long. Charles Scott was the offensive hero on the day with 95 yards and 2 TD on 19 carries. But remember that 33 of those yards came on the winning touchdown. The two quarterbacks combined for 56 yards on 22 carries for the rest of the yards LSU gained on the ground.

Drive Chart

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Quotes From The Game

"I think our guys wanted to rush the football and certainly prepared last week to do so. I think it’s hard work. I think it’s attitude. I think it’s something that this team pointed at and achieved."

- Les Miles -

"I think our offense has confidence in Charles Scott. I think our offense has confidence in the ability to run the football. We just needed to do it and put it together. I think that’s a piece that we can’t lose. We can’t lose sight of it, and it must continue to grow, but I don’t know that Charles needed that. I can tell you that his team needed him to have that day."

- Les Miles -

"I would like to get some production in the sack area. I like, again, the position that our defense puts our team in and the opportunity to win a game on the road at Georgia. For me to say I need more sacks, I like the pressure that was put on. I like the opportunity to get turnovers. I like the opportunity to stop the rushing game. I thought our defense played well. Yes, I would like to have some more sacks but not at the cost of overall production."

- Les Miles -

"Part of me is tempted to say that Jordan Jefferson had a weak game. He certainly made some critical mistakes, and continues to struggle running the option. He just does not run it authoritatively. He gets too far into the backfield, and too close to the pitch man, making it easy for one defender to cover both him and the pitch, which defeats the whole purpose of the option. In the passing game, he would hold the ball too long, and would end up getting sacked when he could have thrown the ball to an open receiver or at least thrown the ball away to avoid a big loss."

-And The Valley Shook-

LSU Tigers 20, Georgia Bulldogs 13: "I Am Whatever You Say I Am"

T Kyle King — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 00:23:24 -0000

Here, in a nutshell, is my summary of yesterday’s loss between the hedges:

A few days ago, Orson Swindle described Tim Tebow’s injury as a Rorschach test, and the same thing appears to be the case with Saturday’s game in Sanford Stadium. The reactions remind me of a debate held by the Phi Kappa Literary Society in the winter of 2002 regarding the war on terror, in which one of the later speakers on the topic took the floor and said something along the lines of this: "It seems to me that most of you are talking about the same things you were talking about on September 10."

So it is with this. Whatever you thought about the Georgia Bulldogs at 3:30 p.m. yesterday probably had been confirmed for you by 7:00 p.m. yesterday. Consider:

Willie Martinez needs to be fired. Georgia held a 7-6 lead inside the final seven minutes and the LSU Tigers were backed up to their own 12 yard line, yet the Bulldog defense allowed the Bayou Bengals to move 88 yards in thirteen plays to score the go-ahead touchdown. In the course of the drive, a facemask penalty on the Red and Black turned second and eight into first and goal. After the home team went back out in front, the ‘Dawgs gave up a 33-yard touchdown run inside the final minute. The offense had the game won twice, but defensive letdowns allowed Louisiana State to escape with the triumph.

Willie Martinez does not need to be fired. During a first half in which the Georgia offense was accomplishing exactly nothing, the Bulldog defense held the Fighting Tigers to a pair of Josh Jasper field goals when the Red and Black easily could have been down 21-0 at the break. (Compare that to the 2003 effort in Baton Rouge, in which the ‘Dawgs should have been ahead 21-0 in the early going, yet they went on to lose a seven-point ballgame under the sainted Brian VanGorder.) Georgia picked off a Jordan Jefferson pass in the end zone, forced two LSU punts in the fourth quarter, and held the Bayou Bengals nearly nine points below their season scoring average. This was "bend but don’t break" at its finest, particularly from a defense that was on the field for more than 33 minutes of clock time.

Mike Bobo is a poor offensive coordinator. The ‘Dawgs earned one first down and scored no points in the first half. Georgia went three and out four times before the break. The Red and Black continued to try to pound the ball up the middle against a defensive front set up to stop just such an attack; the result was 45 rushing yards on 24 attempts for an average of 1.9 yards per carry. Joe Cox had more rushing yards (8) than Caleb King (7). The usual array of baffling and predictable play calls was evident once again.

Mike Bobo is a fine offensive coordinator. When Caleb King and Richard Samuel weren’t getting it done, Coach Bobo found a way to get the ball into the hands of Washaun Ealey and make some things happen. Georgia’s first second-half drive set up what should have been a chip shot field goal. Georgia’s second drive after intermission was a 60-yard, 18-play masterpiece that ate up nearly eight minutes of clock time and culminated in a shrewd fourth-down pass to Shaun Chapas for the touchdown. Georgia’s fourth drive following halftime moved the ball out and allowed the Bulldogs to flip the field. Georgia’s fifth drive of the second half covered 79 yards in under two minutes and featured a terrific touchdown pass to A.J. Green. The former Bulldog quarterback made sensible halftime adjustments that gave his team a shot at victory.

This team has fundamental flaws that simply are not getting any better. In spite of being a senior, Bryan Evans doesn’t seem to know what he’s doing in the secondary. Penalties at critical junctures made a huge, and perhaps decisive, difference in setting up Louisiana State’s final drive. Cox displayed a Greg Talley-like tunnel vision, frequently failed to find the open receiver, and badly overthrew Green on what ought to have been a touchdown pass. The special teams continue to be a weak point and they are finding new ways to foul up, such as the illegal formation penalty on the final kickoff and Blair Walsh’s missed 32-yard field goal. On top of everything else, after Georgia’s last touchdown, several of the players displayed a lack of discipline by starting off the field, even though the ‘Dawgs obviously were in a position to need to go for two.

The problems that have plagued this team are beginning to be fixed. The Classic City Canines lost no fumbles and Cox threw only one interception . . . and even that lone pick required an instant replay to confirm. The defensive line finally brought some pressure and got some sacks. While it isn’t good to get seven penalties for 59 yards, it’s better than it’s been.

This season is going to be a repeat of 2006. Early close calls against weak opponents proved to be a harbinger of close (and not so close) losses to come when scares against the Colorado Buffaloes and the Mississippi Rebels served as the prelude to four losses in a five-week stretch. The season was only salvaged with wins over ranked yet overrated Auburn and Georgia Tech squads.

This season is going to be a repeat of 2007. The first half of the fall featured a close conference loss at home and a defeat by a wider margin in a lackluster effort against an orange-clad opponent on the road. The Bulldogs somehow managed to scratch and claw their way to a 5-2 record following a road win over the Vanderbilt Commodores, and, after a well-placed open date, Georgia finally put it all together, began playing up to its considerable potential, and went on a 6-0 run to close out the season.

The youth on this team is maddening. Rookie mistakes are killing the ‘Dawgs. Brandon Boykin made a spectacular play on his interception at the goal line, but he caught the ball off-balance and his momentum carried him deeper into the end zone. It was foolish for him to bring the ball out when he should have knelt down, taken the touchback, and given the Red and Black possession at the 20 instead of at the two. Those kinds of youthful blunders are hampering this club on a weekly basis.

The youth on this team is encouraging. Every week, at least one underclassman steps up and proves that the recruiting hype surrounding him was justified. Against the South Carolina Gamecocks, Brandon Boykin and Branden Smith caught our collective attention. Against the Arizona St. Sun Devils, Bacarri Rambo and Rantavious Wooten made their presence felt. Yesterday afternoon, Washaun Ealey began to emerge. There is a ton of young talent wearing silver britches, and those players are only going to get better.

In the end, you saw what you wanted to see and you believe what you already believed. Personally, although I came close (twice) to getting the one-point win I predicted, I feel the same way about this game that I believe South Carolina fans ought to feel about the Gamecocks’ loss to the ‘Dawgs: Georgia almost stole a game the Bulldogs had no business being in a position to win in the first place. The lesson of the season thus far is that the Red and Black aren’t quite as good as teams that are in the top fifteen but are a little bit better than teams that aren’t.

In other words, we are who we thought we were.

Go ‘Dawgs!

Kyle Gets Contrary: Why Mark Richt is Wrong About Moving the Georgia-Florida Game

T Kyle King — Tue, 12 May 2009 19:00:15 -0000

I trust it goes without saying that I am a huge Mark Richt fan. I believe he is, and history will bear him out to be, the best head football coach my alma mater has ever had. However, this does not make him perfect, and there are certain subjects about which I respectfully disagree with Coach Richt. Inasmuch as I intend to address one such subject, it is time to introduce the latest installment of the popular series of postings in which I get contrary.

Senator Blutarsky thought Coach Richt was kidding, and I hope he’s right, but this is what Coach Richt said:

I don’t know what’s going to happen. But when people ask me the question, "Do you really think [Jacksonville] is a neutral site?", I say, "No, it’s not neutral." When you play in the state of Florida every year –- we fly, they drive; it’s hotter for us, it’s cooler for them. It’s played in a stadium that [used to be called] the Gator Bowl. But what the heck? If nothing else, we’ll make Jacksonville pay more to keep it there. . . . I wouldn’t feel bad having a "neutral site" game in Georgia – in the Georgia Dome.

In Coach Richt’s defense, he was speaking to the Columbus Bulldog Club, so it’s entirely possible he was cutting up with the home folks. I know quite well from my professional life as a lawyer that reading a transcript is by no means the same thing as hearing the words as they are spoken. Vocal inflections, facial expressions, and hand gestures are missing, and these form an integral part of human communication. If Coach Richt was joking, and he may have been, then it’s the fault of those of us who read his remarks but did not hear them for failing to get the joke.

However, since none of the other answers quoted in Tim Tucker’s article sounded like they were said in jest, and since the question whether to keep the Florida game in Jacksonville is a divisive one in Bulldog Nation, and since Coach Richt is on record as wanting to move the World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party from the Gateway City, I am operating from the understanding that the remarks were intended sincerely and that, therefore, C&F is right when he writes:

With all due respect to Mark Richt, this has got to be the lamest reason for moving the World's Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party Cocktail Party Cocktail Party away from Jacksonville that C&F has ever heard. For one thing, it's factually untrue -- the temperature in Jacksonville is precisely the same for both teams. Funny how that works. Second, the game is played in late October or early November. It's not usually snowing in Jacksonville that time of the year, but it's usually not blazing hot, either. Is it relatively cooler for Florida players than Georgia players? Perhaps. But -- let's be serious.

While I left a comment in response, the point deserves amplification, so I wanted to iterate what I wrote there and add an extra note or two, as well:

1. It’s not played in a stadium that used to be called the Gator Bowl. The last Georgia-Florida game to be played in the Gator Bowl was in 1993. I know; I was there, sitting in the miserable drizzle while the rain ran down the grooves of the old metal bleachers and seeped up through the seat of my pants until I was drenched from the bottom up rather than from the top down. The old Gator Bowl was built in the late 1940s and replaced Fairfield Stadium. While the 1994 demolition did not take down the old venue in its entirety, the west upper deck added in the early 1980s is the only part of the Gator Bowl that remains in the new N.F.L. arena called Jacksonville Municipal Stadium (nee Alltel Stadium).

For what it’s worth, Cale Conley’s War Between the States reports that Georgia played Florida in the stadium known as the Gator Bowl from 1948 to 1993, a span during which the Bulldogs went 23-22-1 against the Saurians. The Red and Black have gone 3-10 against the Orange and Blue in Jacksonville since the Gator Bowl was demolished. Maybe, just maybe, having the name "Gator Bowl" on the building didn’t have much to do with which team won.

2. The fact that we fly and they drive undercuts one of the most frequently-asserted arguments against keeping the game in Jacksonville. When we discussed the Cocktail Party in a recent installment in this series, Year2 made these reasonable points against the canard that distance is significant:

A) Both teams spend the night before in a hotel
B) 17-21 years olds aren’t affected in the least by a 6 hour bus ride
C) There are plenty of Georgia fans in Jacksonville (and it’s close to all the South Georgia Bulldogs)
D) The stadium is split right down the middle 50/50
E) The stadium is all of 30 miles from Georgia soil

It’s as close to a true neutral site as there is in college football. The only "advantage" Florida has is that its team bus ride is shorter.

To those arguments, I responded:

All good points, but I’m not even sure about the bus ride

Don’t the ’Dawgs fly from Athens to Jacksonville?

I’m pretty sure they do, and, if they don’t, we need to quit complaining about the venue and start asking why one of the most profitable athletic departments in America doesn’t pony up for a charter flight.

Coach Richt has answered my question: Georgia flies and Florida rides. The argument that our team has a longer bus trip to take is false. One of the central tenets of the anti-Jacksonville position has been refuted by the testimony of the most highly-placed proponent of moving the game.

3. It isn’t cooler for the Gators, not even relatively. It gets plenty hot and humid in the Classic City, so I’m not buying that Bulldogs who didn’t wilt on the day of an early afternoon kickoff in Athens in late August are going to wilt on the day of a mid-afternoon kickoff in Jacksonville in early November.

Even if we assume (falsely) that North Georgians can’t take the heat, though, that shouldn’t affect such Red and Black players as these:

Bryan Evans (Jacksonville, Fla.)

Aaron Murray (Tampa, Fla.)

Bacarri Rambo (Donalsonville, Ga.)

John Knox (Statesboro, Ga.)

Vance Cuff (Moultrie, Ga.)

Israel Troupe (Tifton, Ga.)

Carlton Thomas (Frostproof, Fla.)

Kalvin Daniels (Eastman, Ga.)

Nick Williams (Bainbridge, Ga.)

Justin Houston (Statesboro, Ga.)

Shaun Chapas (St. Augustine, Fla.)

Darryl Gamble (Bainbridge, Ga.)

Jeremy Longo (Fort Lauderdale, Fla.)

Tanner Strickland (Nashville, Ga.)

Geno Atkins (Pembroke Pines, Fla.)

Blair Walsh (Boca Raton, Fla.)

Kevin Perez (Miami, Fla.)

Justin Anderson (Ocilla, Ga.)

Michael Moore (Fort Lauderdale, Fla.)

DeAngelo Tyson (Statesboro, Ga.)

Jeff Owens (Sunrise, Fla.)

Once again, it may be the case that Senator Blutarsky is right and Coach Richt was just kidding. However, even if he was, his words will be taken seriously by an element of the Georgia fan base which I believe to be devoted and well-meaning, but with whom I must respectfully and vehemently disagree. I believe there are arguments for moving the Georgia-Florida game from Jacksonville which, while still falling short of sufficiency, nevertheless are better than these. Coach Richt is a great coach and a good man who is right about many, many things, but, if he intended these points to be taken seriously, he is, in this instance, quite wrong.

Go ‘Dawgs!

Georgia Bulldogs 26, Tennessee Volunteers 14

T Kyle King — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 01:30:37 -0000

I enjoy an emotional game as much as the next fellow, but games that are about who is more fired up than whom wind up at one extreme or the other, as evidenced by the last two occasions on which the Bulldogs wore black jerseys when facing Yellowhammer State-based squads between the hedges. Because it is impossible to be emotionally inflamed for every challenging game---and the ‘Dawgs are at the point in the season at which every game is a challenging game---a team has to win some of them in strictly a businesslike manner.

So it was against Arizona State on September 20, and so it was against Tennessee yesterday afternoon. (Let us leave aside for now the fact that both the Sun Devils and the Volunteers now stand at 2-4; the Bulldogs have twice as many victories over Division I-A teams with winning records as our division rivals from Gainesville can claim.) Everywhere except on the scoreboard, Saturday’s Sanford Stadium showdown was a thumping.

How else do you describe a game in which Georgia holds the ball for over 42 minutes and gains 29 first downs to the Big Orange’s ten? How else could you characterize a contest in which the Red and Black converted more than half of their third downs (9 of 17) while holding the visitors to a one-third conversion percentage (4 of 12)?

Matthew Stafford connected on 25 of his 36 attempts for his first 300-yard passing day in a Bulldog uniform. Knowshon Rockwell Moreno became the first running back to rush for over 100 yards against the Volunteer defense this season. Meanwhile, Tennessee tallied a lone rushing yard---one; count it: one---and, even discounting Nick Stephens’s 15 lost yards on sacks, the tailback tandem of Lennon Creer, Arian Foster, and Montario Hardesty combined for 25 yards on 11 carries.

Tennessee twice threatened to climb back into the game, both times due to Georgia miscues (about which more forthwith), but the Bulldogs built up leads of 13-0 early in the second quarter and 20-7 at halftime in the course of amassing 458 yards against a fairly stout Volunteer D while holding the Big Orange to a measly 209 yards of total offense.

The day was far from perfect, of course, as evidenced by the Bulldogs’ 12-point margin of victory. After the indignities of the past two seasons, in which U.T. drubbed the ‘Dawgs once in Athens and again in Knoxville, this game could and should have been, at a minimum, 35-0.

A.J. Green just flat dropped a touchdown pass at the goal line for no good reason whatsoever. The defense missed a couple of shots at contest-clinching interceptions and failed to force a turnover all game. The penalties, which appeared throughout much of the first half finally to be under control, once again got out of hand in the second half, to the tune of 76 yards surrendered on eleven flags.

Stafford threw more interceptions (2) than touchdown passes (1), and both of the Georgia quarterback’s picks ended what would have been Bulldog scoring drives and led to what became the only Volunteer scoring drives; absent those two bad passes, the final score would have been, at worst, 32-0.

While I appreciate, respect, and even agree with the argument that it is better to be beaten deep than dinked and dunked to death, it isn’t any fun watching it happen to your team. My hope for Prince Miller is that he will turn out to be a latter-day Bruce Thornton---picked on unmercifully while experiencing growing pains before turning into a first-class defensive back---but, for now, it is painful watching him struggle in pass coverage.

Not all of the adversity the ‘Dawgs encountered was their own doing, of course. The unfortunate loss of Vince Vance was no one’s fault, naturally, nor was the fact that the S.E.C. officiating crew that sets new standards for incompetence set up the Bulldogs with third and goal on the three after a penalty that is supposed to produce an automatic first down.

In the end, though, there was much more to like than to dislike in Saturday’s performance. Mohamed Massaquoi had a great day and Demiko Goodman had a good one. The forward wall of the Georgia offense kept Stafford upright and able to throw, which was very impressive, considering the attrition in the Georgia ranks and the quality of the Tennessee defense.

In a not unrelated item, Brannan Southerland’s overdue return proved well worth the wait, and, not to be outdone, Shaun Chapas stepped up his game. Asher Allen remains Asher Allen and C.J. Byrd made some nice plays, as well.

While it’s unfortunate that Blair Walsh had to attempt four field goals, he split the uprights on all four of them, even though one of them was a bit harrowing and I’m not altogether convinced that the wind rendered it wise to let the third quarter expire before letting the true freshman try a 41-yarder at the other end of the field. Brian Mimbs returned to the form he displayed against South Carolina and we appear finally to be getting away from this nonsense of placing kickoffs anywhere other than the end zone.

I could have done with a few more touchdowns and I carry some sense of dread that another such effort of dominance on the stat sheet but not on the scoreboard will not suffice against L.S.U. or Florida or, heck, Vanderbilt. Nevertheless, the ‘Dawgs did what they had to do, converting critical third downs and closing the deal when the chips were down.

Clinging to a 13-7 lead and facing third and eight at their own five yard line, the Classic City Canines moved the chains to spark a drive that went 97 yards in nine plays, culminating in a touchdown with nine seconds remaining until halftime. After the Georgia defense later forced the Vols to go three and out, the Red and Black ran the ball 14 times in their next 16 plays, covering 76 yards and tacking on the game-icing field goal after taking eleven minutes off of the clock.

The Bulldogs played good football and moved the ball well on what is still a stout S.E.C. defense. I will admit that I am not unbiased upon this point, since my wife teaches with this particular walk-on’s father, but, for me, the emblematic play of the game is one you probably didn’t notice. On what I believe was Georgia’s last kickoff, Chad Gloer nearly made---arguably, should have made---the tackle that would have left the Volunteers with particularly poor field position, but, having missed his chance the first time, he got back up, gave chase, and made the tackle the second time. It wasn’t perfect, but it showed a refusal to let up and it got the job done.

The final score, while disappointing, was not surprising, particularly if you happened to read this weblog before the game. (Heck, I even picked the honorary game day captain correctly!) If you want to win a football game, you have to out-think, out-tough, and out-play your opponent. Georgia did that, and, anytime you can walk away from an S.E.C. football game with a win in your hip pocket, you’ve had a good day. I, for one, am not going to fret (for now) that the good was merely good and not great. When good is good enough, I’ll take it.

Go ‘Dawgs!