Andy Johnston had it right in Sunday’s Banner-Herald. You’re shocked that Georgia lost to Vanderbilt, but you’re not surprised. The Dawgs had been flirting with this possibility all season, and it finally caught up with them against the SEC opponent against whom a defeat traditionally indicates your arrival at rock bottom.

The praise of Vanderbilt began as soon as the game ended. Georgia coaches and players graciously gave credit to the Commodores for "making plays". Everyone pointed out how Vandy wasn’t as bad as their record indicated and had come really close to such a breakthrough win against other teams. That’s fine, but I also wonder why opposing coaches aren’t crediting Georgia for making plays or out-scheming them or taking it to them. Vanderbilt is a well-coached team with playmakers on both sides of the ball who came up big and a young quarterback starting to make his mark. So what is Georgia?

Georgia is not rebuilding, as Mark Richt confirmed on Sunday. Building implies construction, progress, and improvement. Instead, the Bulldogs have seemed willing to blast the foundation each week and start over. Back before the Tennessee game I wrote, "The offense in particular seems to be frozen over decisions that seem much more appropriate for August than October." Here we are going into Game 8, and the same questions persist. The starting quarterback might change again. The unfortunate injury to Thomas Brown might be the only thing that gives some sort of direction to the running back position. Every time a receiver seems poised to take over a game, he fades back into the shadows. You can’t build – or even rebuild – on top of that.

Coach Richt seems poised to make an announcement on that front today and announce some sort of plan for the quarterback position. Will that be the panacea for all of Georgia’s problems? Not at all, and I don’t expect that kind of effect. If Matt Stafford is named the starting quarterback, and I mean in a more permanent sense than what we’re used to, it might at least offer some younger players a chance to lead this team.

Questioning leadership is an easy target for fans because it’s more or less subjective. Poor results? Must be a lack of leadership. Leadership is a vague concept, but usually it comes down to a context of trust. We trust someone to catch a touchdown pass. We trust them to make a key block or a tackle or a deflection. We trust them to show up with great effort in practice and the weight room. We trust them to show up for class and stay out of trouble. Often upperclassmen become leaders by virtue of their experience, but we frequently see younger players in leadership roles because their teammates discover early on that they can depend on them to make plays.

I think what fans are really asking for is reliable playmakers, and there don’t seem to be many in the ranks of the upperclassmen. The senior at quarterback can’t carry the offense. The senior at tight end still struggles with drops. The senior at defensive end hasn’t been heard from in games. The senior at offensive tackle is a loose cannon. Postgame quotes from senior Ray Gant help to illustrate what is lacking from the upperclassmen on the team.

"We weren’t ready for the challenge that they brought to us, and by the time we did realize it was going to be a fight, it was too little, too late," he said.

That says a ton. Georgia wasn’t ready…for Vanderbilt. After losing to Tennessee and barely surviving two earlier games against unranked opponents, they couldn’t get ready and motivated to respond. Gant continues,

"I thought it was a wrap. I thought it was a wrap," Gant said. "Emotions were high. I just knew it was over from there. Somebody had to make a play, we did it, and I just knew it was over. After that, I don’t know what happened. I guess we melted down at the end."

I’ll be honest and say I also felt a great sense of relief after Taylor’s interception. The Dawgs were back on top and had the crowd and momentum back. But there were over nine minutes remaining in the game. Georgia’s defense hadn’t done much before that interception to stop Vandy in over two quarters. It was far from over. The lack of a killer instinct and no purpose to finish at the end wasn’t just the story for the defense. The offense had a chance to seal the win but couldn’t even after a facemask penalty bailed them out. The coaches played for the field goal and opened the door for Vanderbilt’s winning drive. Offense, defense, special teams, coaching – it was a true team effort when Gant says "we melted down at the end."

So is that leadership? Coaching? Talent? Haitian voodoo? A little of everything?

Coach Richt hesitates to use the "rebuilding" label because there’s still quite a bit of this season left. I’m not ready to write the year off. Even if it’s not a championship season, the current state of the team doesn’t have to be how this team is remembered. "When you start talking rebuilding, you start telling the seniors their year is not that important," Richt said. That’s true, but their senior year is not everything. I’m not one to join the "fire/bench everyone" mobs, but a loss to Vanderbilt (no matter how much you build them up) by a ranked team is usually a sign that something’s wrong and a signal to make some adjustments. The size and scope of those adjustments is up to Richt who has probably earned the most trust of anyone involved in this story. The indication that we might finally be moving past this paralyzing starter-of-the-week loop is a good first step.

PS…I’m not sure if I’ll watch the CSS rebroadcast on Tuesday, but I’m fairly certain that analyst Buck Belue won’t make as much of a horse’s ass of himself as this Miami guy did.

Where are you this morning?

1. DENIAL
2. ANGER
3. BARGAINING
4. DEPRESSION
5. ACCEPTANCE

In what’s seen as a compromise move, a University Council subcommittee has recommended that Georgia’s Fall Break be reduced to a single day, the Friday before Georgia-Florida. The extra day will allow Georgia students to break for the entire Thanksgiving week.

We’ll see how many professors give pop quizzes on that Thursday. Malcolm Adams (no relation) still isn’t happy. “I think it’s ludicrous to have a holiday associated with a football game,” he huffed. The World’s Largest Outdoor Soda and Chips Bash will still go on, we hear.

No word yet on how far Georgia has risen in the U.S. News and World Report rankings after this bold move.

John Clay of the Lexington Herald-Leader writes,

Q: If UK does need seven wins, where might that seventh come?

A: Maybe Georgia. Any team that requires a last-minute touchdown to nip Colorado at home is vulnerable. Mark Richt has quarterback problems. The Bulldogs were blitzed in the fourth quarter Saturday night by Tennessee. No telling what the Dawgs’ mindset might be by the time they arrive in Lexington Nov. 4. It’s a long shot, but a shot.

Ever popular AJC columnist Mark Bradley opines,

For the first time since 2000, Tech has a better football team than Georgia…it’s hard to imagine Gailey’s best team losing to maybe Richt’s worst. It’s hard to imagine anything, even a statewide executive order, denying Tech this time.

I don’t know that you can say either opinion is wrong at this point, but it’s good stuff to have in the bank when those games come around.

A few weeks back, Georgia all-American Tasha Humphrey was arrested for underage possession of alcohol. University rules require an automatic suspension lasting 10% of the season for such an offense, and that’s three games for basketball. Coach Landers decided to double the suspension “to underscore the severity of her actions at a time when there is a school crackdown on alcohol abuse.”

We’re all familiar by now with the crackdown on underage drinking in Athens, and a high-profile student-athlete caught in the dragnet won’t be treated lightly.

The suspension means that Humphrey will miss the first six games of the season including big early-season contests against Rutgers and Stanford.

I’m surprised no one has brought this up. While we’re looking for somewhere to place the blame for Saturday’s loss, we’re overlooking something, and it hurts to say so as a proud American. I can buy the Cherrishinski, and Adams is always a worthy scapegoat, but let it be noted that we’re now a solid 0-2 with an average 41 PPG against us when the U.S. Army Infantry Command Exhibition Parachute Team from Fort Benning (also known as the “Silver Wings”) parachutes into Sanford Stadium.

It was an awesome show, and God love them for their service, but they’ve been omens of doom from above.

Photo: UGASports.com

Georgia governor Sonny Perdue probably thought he was scoring some low-hanging political fruit with Dawg fans by taking the AJC to task over a headline about the Georgia football team. After all, he’s a former Georgia player, a Georgia fan, a reasonably popular governor, and everyone loves to dump on the newspaper guys.

The ploy seems to have fallen flat among the Georgia fans I’ve seen comment. Most recognize it as a cheap attempt to score political points. Many don’t forget the lack of leadership shown by the Governor when it came to the Board of Regents fiasco a few years ago.

Personally, I’m a bit nervous any time a government official sees fit to meddle with the press. Even in a lighthearted (I hope) case like this, it’s not particularly appropriate for the governor to weigh in. He’s entitled to his opinion as a citizen, but a letter sent from the governor’s office about such a trivial matter isn’t a very judicious use of the position.

I write this as a Perdue voter and a Georgia alumnus myself. This is one item that should have been left off the “Sonny do” list.

Like most, I spent most of the weekend trying to make sense of the Tennessee game. For the impartial observer, it had to be a hell of a show. Huge point swings, lots of scoring, big plays in special teams and the passing games…just a roller coaster ride. You can imagine how it was for those of us in the stands.

Obviously Tennessee’s touchdown at the end of the first half was crucial. They ate up nearly the final four minutes of the first half and turned a 24-7 deficit into a manageable 24-14 score while draining much of the momentum Georgia had built up.

From there, we entered the perfect storm of a meltdown. For a collapse this complete, everyone had to contribute. First, there were the kickoff returns to the 5. Then there were the interceptions on Georgia’s own doorstep. Top it off with a complete inability to pressure the quarterback, add in a blocked punt in then endzone, and you have a recipe for a 37-point second half.

Ching thinks Georgia got suckered into a "land war in Asia" strategy. "They let themselves get caught up in a game they had no business trying to play and it caught up with them in the second half." That is, they decided to get into a shootout with Tennessee. I don’t mean to come off like I’m sniping at Ching. He’s one of the few pros who puts something opinionated out there that’s worth commenting on, so he’s often going to be referenced here. I see where he’s going, but I didn’t see things quite that way for a couple of reasons:

• We did throw quite a bit more in the second half as he says, but many (at least eight) of those pass attempts came when it was panic time late in the fourth quarter.
• Though we were in a shootout in terms of the score, the Dawgs generally drove the ball with patience. They only had three (four if you count take-a-knee time at the end of the first half) drives in the first half. That’s chewing up some clock. The exception of course was the first TD drive where Tereshinski threw completions of 46 and 34 yards and nearly half of his 164-yard total. (aside…that 34-yard drive-saving pass to Massaquoi from the 15 might have eclipsed Cox’s strike against Colorado as Georgia’s best pass of the season.)
• While the game was still in doubt in the second half, Georgia relied heavily on the effective twin-tight formation. They still threw from that formation, but the attempt to play power football was still there right up to the point of the blocked punt.
• Poor field position (inside our own 20) makes defenses quite a bit more aggressive, especially against the run.

That said, I think it’s a valid point that Georgia might have believed a bit too much in their passing game. Tereshinski got 107 of his 164 yards on three fist-half passes, and putting the game on his shoulders in the second half led to four fatal turnovers. The rest of his nine completions only netted 57 yards – just 35 in the second half. 12-of-20 for 164 was a career night for him, but let’s never use intangible phrases like "leader who manages the game well" again. Georgia’s leadership and production on offense came almost solely from the running game in the second half when they badly needed to stop the bleeding.

Most disappointing was the lack of pressure on Ainge. Any coverage scheme, zone or man, will break down when the quarterback has all day to throw. Moses and Johnson weren’t much of a factor. If they were double-teamed, then the tackles and linebackers did nothing with the openings caused by the double-teams. Georgia’s defensive players and staff should have to see this quote from Eric Ainge until it is seared onto their eyeballs: "I can’t say that I ever felt the pressure. Football is easy when you have that much time."

I’ll stop there. Every area of the team can be torn a new one over this game. I don’t want to be the guy at your tailgate who got back into the Budweiser after the game and held court for an hour whether anyone was listening or not about who should be fired, who should never suit up again, and why we’ll never be competitive in the SEC so long as Richt does things the same way. I’ll bet we all had one of those at our tailgates. I hope for your sake it wasn’t you.

This has to be how Tennessee fans felt in 2003 after Sean Jones’ fumble return started a string of 28 Georgia points in little more than 15 minutes.

I’d say the Dawgs have two games ahead to get ready for the stretch run at the end of the season, but we know now that we can’t take Vandy or Mississippi State as sure wins. Times like this are when Richt earns his money. Tennessee showed us with the hiring of David Cutcliffe and this season’s improvement in the Tennessee offense that coaching does matter. Richt said on Sunday that "there are an awful lot of things that can happen in this race, and the race is on, and it has really just begun." That’s very true just halfway into the season, but some adjustments and improvements are called for if the Dawgs are going to be able to compete in this race.

I don’t get the people who are treating LSU as a mortal lock against Florida. Though LSU has steamrolled the weaker teams on its schedule to this point, they looked very familiar against Auburn: no running game and no playmakers in the passing game. Florida’s offense has put up over 20 points against both Tennessee and Alabama – quality defenses. I’m not so sure that Florida wins. The biggest key will be their start. They will find it much tougher playing from behind against LSU. I think the Florida defense is getting overlooked. They have as much ability to shut down LSU as Auburn did, and the LSU offense hasn’t looked particularly effective in their last two games against better SEC competition (Georgia last year and Auburn this year).

It’s Friday, and I’m still trying to figure out the reasoning behind naming Tereshinski the starter. A few separate thoughts:

• He hasn’t faced game action in a month. He hasn’t faced SEC-quality pressure in nearly a year except for a single series against SC. There is more to being ready than having a pain-free ankle.
• Even if he knows the playbook better than anyone and can make perfect reads and checks, there is still the question of executing those reads and checks. The same delivery problems will still be there.
• I’ve seen it said dozens of times that Tereshinski "manages the game." What am I not seeing here? What, from his body of work, has been exceptional in the area of managing game situations?
• I also don’t buy the "loyalty" or "nepotism" reasons some have grasped at in an attempt to explain the move. There much be some solid football reasoning behind it. There must be something JT3 is expected to do or bring that gives us a better chance against Tennessee than one of the other quarterbacks. I’m just not seeing what it is.
• I’m really hoping he performs well because I want the Dawgs to win.

So a bunch of students want to organize and wear black to the game. Instead of "blackout", we’ll call it "wearing shirts of color". I’ll be happy if the students are just in the stadium before the Alma Mater. Aside from the utter Gamecockishness of it, I have to appeal to the superstitious nature of sports fans. Why on earth someone would wear a shirt that hasn’t had its good luck thoroughly vetted in prior games to a game of this magnitude is foreign to me. I believe the majority of "(color)outs" fail not because they’re cheesy or a sign of an inferior team putting all their eggs in one basket (OK, those work too) but because thousands of fans willingly leave proven good luck garments at home in order to participate.

Some students we’ve talked to this week with their finger on the pulse defend the plan as 1) a show of "unity" and 2) what’s wrong with students showing some excitement for the game? First, there’s not much more unity than the sea of red at most home games. Black is a move in the opposite direction from unity. Second, if students can’t be at a frenzy for a night nationally-televised SEC game between two top 15 programs without a fresh wardrobe, stay out of the ticket lottery next year and let some serious football fans get the student tickets.

PK Brandon Coutu is out for the Tennessee game – and perhaps longer. He’s one of Georgia’s more powerful and reliable offensive weapons, so his absence tilts the kicking advantage to Tennessee.

Junior Andy Bailey will do the placekicking. Bailey hit 14 of 20 FGs in 2004 before a slump at the end of the season (including a whiff at Auburn) made way for Coutu to take over. Bailey has a big leg, but accuracy has always been a problem. The kid from Athens, Tennessee has a big opportunity on Saturday.

A stat that has been thrown out a lot when talking about the Georgia offense’s struggles is the SEC-worst 29.8 third down conversion rate. That’s awful. As Buck Belue pointed out on Tuesday and others have mentioned, what you do on first and second down has a lot to do with your ability to convert third downs and sustain drives. The stats from the Ole Miss game are an ideal case study on that point.

Georgia had 25 first down plays in the Ole Miss game.

• Three of those plays were either at the goal line or taking a knee at the end of the game, so we’re talking about 22 first-and-tens.
• 12 of 22 first-and-tens were runs. Five were complete passes, five were incomplete passes. Three of those first down incompletions came on consecutive drives in the first half. All resulted in three-and-outs.
• Penalties gave Georgia two 1st-and-15+ situations. They converted neither.
• Georgia gained first down yardage (ten or more yards) on three 1st-and-10 opportunities. All were in the second half. Two runs, one pass.
• Georgia had ten offensive drives in the game. They did not get two first downs in a series until the last drive of the first half. They had at least two first downs in four out of five second half drives. Nice improvement at sustaining things (and no small reason why Georgia took over the game).

Here are the keys:

• The Dawgs gained at least four yards on nine of those plays (41% of first-and-ten opportunities).
  When the Dawgs gained at least four yards on first down, they always sustained the drive with another first down.
  This point applies regardless of run or pass. Georgia had two first down completions (both to Southerland) that led to 2nd-and-7+ situations. They converted neither.
• On the 13 occasions where Georgia faced 2nd and 7 or longer, they ended up with a first down on only four occasions. That’s less than 25%.

The brilliant spotlight on the quarterback situation is keeping another position shakeup somewhat in the dark. What’s interesting is how open and direct the criticism of a particular player is and how well that player has taken it.

Ole Miss was successful in gashing the Dawgs straight up the middle with the running game. Danny Verdun-Wheeler was starting at middle linebacker in place of the injured Jarvis Jackson, and it just wasn’t his night. Several times he was the first guy in the gap and even had a chance to stop the back in the backfield, but he couldn’t finish the tackle or gave up several yards before he could bring the runner down. Coach Richt saw what we did.

"I think Danny Verdun understood what to do pretty much, but when it came to the moment of truth, the human equation, linebacker versus running back, we didn’t knock him back, he knocked us back. It wasn’t just Danny, but Danny was at the point maybe more than some of the other guys were. We’ve got to be more physical tacklers."

He was right. Danny often got himself in the right place to make a play. He’s a good experienced linebacker, and the coaches will tell you that he is the most versatile of any of the LBs. But he’s not the physical presence that we’re used to in the middle. That’s what Richt is hoping for as Jackson returns this weekend. "Jarvis has been the guy I think can really run through ballcarriers," he said. "He tends to really be the big-hit guy for us. I’m thankful he’ll get the opportunity to get back in."

To his credit, Danny responds as you’d hope a veteran would. Ching quotes him, "I was in position, I just missed the tackle. I’ve just got to work hard this week and prepare a whole lot better this week." You hope that the young receivers, who don’t have the benefit of that experience, can take the same approach with all the heat they’re getting this week.

Part of the reason why Verdun-Wheeler is coming off the bench instead of moving back to an OLB position is the play of Brandon Miller. Miller had one of his best games at Ole Miss and was a big factor as the Dawgs eventually limited the success of the Rebel running game. Tony Taylor has been great most of the year. Other than getting frozen in place on a long run by the Colorado QB, Taylor has been a tackle machine.

The linebackers will be a big part of the story on Saturday. Tennessee has had mixed success running the ball. They struggled against Florida, but they’ve rebounded nicely in their past two games. There have been a series of injuries to the backs and the line. Georgia must have the advantage in the running game as they did last year. If Tennessee can run the ball well on the Dawgs, that means less pressure on Ainge, and Ainge with time to throw can be particularly effective. Georgia’s linebackers will also have to be sure tacklers as the Vols have shown a strong ability to turn short-yardage plays into big ones.

The Vols present a different kind of challenge for Georgia. It’s really the first quality passing game Georgia has seen. There have been good players like the Western Kentucky quarterback or Rice at South Carolina, but Georgia’s defense hasn’t seen anything like the combination of Ainge, Swain, and Meachem. That’s why controlling the running game is so high of a priority – defense will be somewhat easier if the Vol offense can be made more one-dimensional. If Coker and/or Foster can have some of the success that Colorado and Ole Miss had running the ball in the first half, it could be a bad day for the Georgia defense. With Colorado and Ole Miss, we didn’t especially have to worry about a potent passing attack.

Justin Young of Rivals.com is reporting ($) that 6’1″ PG Zac Swansey has committed to play for the Georgia basketball team. He had offers from Ole Miss, UMass, and Saint Louis among others.

Swansey seems to be Georgia’s answer at the point guard position after Keegan Bell switched his commitment from Georgia to Vanderbilt. He transferred to Dunwoody from Flowery Branch High School for his junior and senior years, and as a junior he was part of a repeat state AAA championship at Dunwoody.

He is rated the #16 prospect in the state of Georgia by Rivals.com.

Welcome Zac!

The zone on South Campus had already been reduced, and just in time for the Tennessee game the zone on North Campus has also been carved up. According to the revised map on the GamedayGameplan.com site, the North Campus zone is now limited to a space in front of Old College, New College, and the Administration building. The space in front of Terrell Hall, the Chapel, Demosthenian, and the Arch is returned to tailgaters.

Hopefully those who do tailgate in the “reclaimed land” will treat it responsibly and not cause the kind of scene that brought about the restrictions in the first place. Just clean it up!

Nearly halfway into the season, it’s time to borrow some words from that great basketball coach Norman Dale.

"This is your team."

That’s not to suggest complacency or even resignation. It’s just time to recognize and deal with what the Dawgs do and don’t have, and it’s time to put notions built on preseason daydreams aside. The defense is solid if not dominant, but there are questions of speed and tackling. The offense has some promise but seems to have emerged from this early season cocoon as a moth rather than a butterfly. I suppose some kind of major transformation is possible, but it’s more likely that improvements from here on out will be in small pieces and adjustments. So with that in mind, our outlook has to be how this team – this team – can win and have a successful season.

Yes, after all of the hand-wringing, it’s still possible for this team to have a very successful season. They’re already 5-0. Winning ugly but still winning. It’s much too soon to cash in the chips on the season, and it’s absurd to start talking as if this team were already out of the SEC race.

Along those lines, I have to take issue with the usually-solid analysis of David Ching. He suggests that it might be best to have Tereshinski in place for the Tennessee game in order to insulate the freshmen from a potentially bad experience. "If the offense continued to play this weekend the way it has for the last three weeks, the beating Georgia would likely take against Tennessee would be a big shot for the freshmen’s confidence." Ignoring the impact on the freshmen’s confidence of yanking them around and relegating them back to the bench, I can’t imagine that the quarterback for the Tennessee game would be anyone other than the guy with the best shot to win the Tennessee game.

If there is one area of concern for me, it’s this lack of direction. The offense in particular seems to be frozen over decisions that seem much more appropriate for August than October. Kregg Lumpkin, on limited carries, has the first 100-yard game since early 2005, and we still can’t commit to him without the hemming and hawing. The quarterback situation is no less settled than it was six weeks ago. Name the top two receiving targets. If it were Tennessee, that would be simple: Meachem and Swain. Florida – Caldwell and Baker. Georgia? Goodman and Milner? Or Bryant? Harris might be in there one week. Massaquoi was supposed to be the main threat, how about him? Durham?

Ideally, the Dawgs would have taken the last three games after surviving South Carolina to build an identity and go into the Tennessee game with a head of steam. That opportunity has been lost now. This is not an instance where a multitude of options is a good thing – so many options actually mean that you have no options when it comes to a dependable set of performers. With what we’ve seen so far, we know that all of the pieces have been there in some form. The OL played well at South Carolina. Lumpkin played well at Ole Miss. Stafford, Cox, JT3, and most of the receivers have had their moments. Very little of it has come close to happening in the same game – I think South Carolina might be the best effort from the offense.