• When Phil Steele and Vegas tell you top expect a big win, listen up. Steele predicted a big afternoon for Murray and the Georgia defense as well as a 21-point win. His computer predicted “just 17 pts and 240 yds for the Volunteers.” The final numbers? 14 points and 269 yards.
• If there was any doubt, this is Aaron Murray’s team now. That’s not to take anything away from what A.J. Green means to Murray and the offense, but Murray is coming along at a pace that’s ahead of even Greene and Stafford. We’ve come full-circle from the preseason expectation of running a fleet of tailbacks behind a veteran line, and we’re watching Murray make plays with his arm, his legs, and his head.

  Late in the third quarter, Murray completed a 20-yard pass to Tavarres King which set up Georgia’s final score. You’re not going to get a better-looking pass this year. It was placed in stride perfectly beyond the cornerback and in front of the safety and along the sideline. Finding that spot in the coverage 25 yards downfield is a skill many seniors don’t have. One of his best passes was an incompletion – the across-the-body improvisation into the end zone that King couldn’t control.

• Green’s first touchdown at Colorado deserved to be all over the highlight reels. But I’ll go on record that his first quarter catch to set up Georgia’s second touchdown was better. He was hit by two defenders as he was catching the ball – one high and one low. The impact of the second defender twisted his body and snapped his head forward. If you see the replay, you’ll notice that the ball was knocked loose. Green’s direction was changing, and he was shaken up enough by the force of the hit to have to come out of the game. Yet he still had the presence and the athletic ability to regain control of the loose ball and secure the catch. I wore out ESPN’s slow replay of the play…it happened so quickly that it looked like a tough but fairly routine catch. Slow-motion showed it to be about as incredible as Pollack’s split-second strip-and-catch in 2002.
• If there’s a difference in Green this year, it’s his noticeable increase in strength. Murray’s first touchdown scamper was set up after Green took a short pass and stiff-armed the defender on the way to the sideline and a first down. Green’s touchdown reception came on a play where he had a Tennessee defender hanging off of him for the final five yards. It’s concerning that A.J. has had to come out of both games in which he’s played, but he’s also showed the ability to
• A year after Tennessee shredded the Georgia defense with bootleg after bootleg, it was enjoyable to see Georgia give some of it back. Georgia’s use of play action was effective, and Murray often found himself rolling out with several passing options as well as enough green in front of him to make running a possibility.
• I’d still like to know what the coaches were thinking by lining up for the field goal so quickly after Murray’s early third quarter stab at the pylon. It was a call that was likely to be reviewed, and the outcome of the review was a possible touchdown. Even if the play clock became an issue, you’re talking about a field goal attempt from the 6 rather than the 1 if a delay penalty occurred while waiting for the review. Georgia instead came out and got the field goal attempt off with enough speed to make Les Miles’ head spin. Fortunately the officials stopped the play in time. The review spared us from talking about another questionable decision – a field goal attempt on 4th and goal from the 1? Really?
• With plays like the acrobatic interception, Bacarri Rambo shows why he belongs on the field. But with his role in some big coverage blunders, Rambo also shows why the coaches might not have been so stupid with their handling of the safety position a year ago. He’s not alone – Georgia still has issues defending the pass. Talented Tennessee freshman receiver Justin Hunter had his first 100-yard game against Georgia. Matt Simms actually had his highest passer rating of the season on Saturday. Georgia’s job against Tauren Poole though made a big difference. Colorado was able to gash Georgia with some big running plays while hitting some big passes through the air. Tennessee’s ground game never got a chance to get going thanks to Georgia’s big lead and some nice tackling up front.
• Georgia’s biggest defensive breakdowns came in areas we talked about following the Colorado game. Tennessee’s first touchdown came on a coverage breakdown following a missed opportunity at a sack – the same kind of improvisation with which Colorado hurt Georgia time and again. The Dawgs did a better job at getting results from their pressure for most of the rest of the Tennessee game. The Vols set up their second score with the wheel route – as we saw against Arkansas and Colorado, a player was able to get loose from the backfield and get wide open for a big pass play down the sideline. Whether coverage on those routes is ultimately the job of the OLB or the safety, it’s proving to be a consistent hole in Grantham’s scheme.
• Speaking of Colorado, they were shut out by Missouri on Saturday. Against quality teams like Cal and Missouri, the Buffalo offense has been absent. Even Hawaii managed to shut them out for the first half. Georgia should feel good about bouncing back against the Vols, but giving up over 20 points and four touchdowns to Colorado could go down as the low point for the new defense.
• South Carolina’s magical Saturday got even better with the result of the Florida game. Florida can still win the East with a head-to-head win over the Gamecocks, but they can’t afford to drop another along the way. Except for that showdown in Gainesville, South Carolina’s only remaining high-profile game is a visit from Arkansas.
• At this point, you can take about five or six teams and pick any of them to win the SEC. Auburn is the only team to beat South Carolina, but the Tigers were just a field goal better than Mississippi State and Kentucky. LSU needs a miracle to beat hapless Tennessee in Death Valley but gets the job done in the Swamp. I think I’d still have to take the Tide in a rematch with the Gamecocks for the SEC Championship.

It’s about to become the most widely-reported bench warrant in the nation. Caleb King was arrested this morning for failure to appear in court about an unpaid speeding ticket over the summer. Because this is Georgia’s 11th arrest of the year, prepare for this story to develop into full-blown shrieking about a program spinning out of control. The ins and outs of this messy story are being updated throughout the day by the beat writers. It’s not smart of King to have let this ticket slide, and Mark Richt has to be banging his head against a wall over the thoughtlessness. But only at Georgia could the issue of an unpaid speeding ticket prompt talk about kicking a guy off the team.

There’s been message board chatter this morning about Mark Richt’s “new zero-tolerance policy” ever since freshman linebacker Demetre Baker was dismissed following Baker’s first arrest last month. Even the AJC’s Jeff Schultz is parroting the “zero-tolerance policy” line.

Let’s see what Richt actually said:

Richt said Baker “was fully aware of the possible consequences that could result from this type of poor judgment” and is “now paying a severe penalty.”

Richt also had expressed exasperation recently with player arrests, telling a caller on his radio show Sept. 13: “My patience is worn about as thin as it can wear…I can promise you [the players] know that the next guy has got himself some serious issues and anybody after that, too…We’ve all grown very tired of it.”

Asked Sunday evening if Baker’s quick dismissal indicates a new zero tolerance for arrests, Richt paused before saying: “I think all of our guys understand that they need to behave. I’ll put it that way.”

Unless someone can find quotes indicating otherwise, Richt pretty clearly doesn’t have such a policy in place. It’s clear that there’s a short leash, but there’s also plenty of room for sanity. No coach would be stupid enough to create a situation that puts him in the position of having to treat an underage DUI the same as something related to a moving violation. King will face internal discipline and could well be suspended for the Vanderbilt game, but it’s a stretch to think that his future at Georgia is in jeopardy.

I think my ears are still ringing from the nonstop music blared over the Folsom Field speakers last week, so count me among the chorus of praise for Greg McGarity’s preference for a more “traditional” game atmosphere at Sanford Stadium. It’s not even so much the piped-in music – I doubt anyone is complaining about Baba O’Riley as we’re getting ready for kickoff. There are more significant problems with the announcements and commercials that drone on eating up entire breaks in the action regardless of the flow of the game at the time. I really do appreciate learning about the Thornton Melon Professor of Applied Consumer Forestry, but it’s kind of a buzzkill after a big score.

So kudos to McGarity for making this a priority. It’s attention to another detail that gives you a bit of confidence that the larger issues with the football program won’t go overlooked either.

But the biggest degradation to the game day experience has come from the combination of the early starts and the new tailgating rules. I’d throw the performance of the team in there too, but we won’t see the effects of poor play really kick in until next week. The momentum from the rivalry with Tennessee should produce a fair turnout. After that you can expect turnout to drop even with a win over the Vols. If McGarity is going to really improve the game day experience, he’s going to have to look beyond the walls of Sanford Stadium.

Of course there’s only so much McGarity can do in all of those areas. He has only macro-level control over the quality of the team. The quality of the team has much more to do with kickoff times than the influence of the athletic director, and we’re committed to early start times until the final home game of the season. And if McGarity is going to tackle the tailgating experience, he’s going to have to do it with the blessing and cooperation of the University’s administration and president. Seth Emerson reminds us that “Adams was not at Thursday’s meeting, and [tailgating] was an issue that would have to be addressed with [Adams].”

Emerson also noted a comment from Kris Durham that I hadn’t seen reported anywhere. We’ve talked about students not using all of their allocated tickets and the steps McGarity is taking to address that problem. Durham’s comment is somewhat related – the team has noticed students of road opponents getting to games early and “adding some ‘nastiness’ to the pregame atmosphere.” It’s true that the start times have pretty much killed the chances of an early-arriving crowd at Georgia, but it also doesn’t help that over 40% of the students with tickets don’t show up early, late, or at all for a big SEC game.

Phil, or at least his computer, sees a big weekend for Aaron Murray and Georgia’s defense en route to the win.

My QB’s of the week are: Aaron Murray, Georgia, Zach Collaros, Cincinnati and Kevin Riley, California

Aaron Murray, Georgia-The redshirt Freshman has not been the reason the Bulldogs are just 1-4 on the year as he is avg 220 pass ypg (61%) with a 8-3 ratio. This will be the 2nd week with WR AJ Green back in the lineup and I expect them to get their timing down even more against a Tennessee defense that is giving up 254 pass ypg to FBS this year. My computer projects 313 pass yds for the Bulldogs and if Murray gets to that number, he will have a career day.

My Top Defenses of the Week: USF, Georgia and Florida

Georgia is just 1-4 this year and desperately need a win here. They are playing with legitimate revenge year after getting whipped 45-19 LY in Knoxville. Despite the tough start the Bulldogs still have my #25 defense and will take on a #75 offense that is still adjusting to the new schemes of HC Dooley. My computer projects just 17 pts and 240 yds for the Volunteers as Georgia ends their first 4 game losing streak since 1990.

This post over at GTP kind of flew under the radar this afternoon, but by Wednesday evening many of the beat writers were talking about the midweek shakeup on the offensive line.

Hardcore recruitniks knew about Gates when he switched his commitment from Kentucky to Georgia on Signing Day once Georgia had a few last-minute spots open up. Other than what the coaches had to say about him, the most people seemed to know about Gates was that he attended the same school as five-star hoops prospect and eventual Georgia commitment Kentavious Caldwell.

But the 6’5″ Gates was a quality prospect in his own right, and he’s suddenly in the mix on Georgia’s line as a true freshman. He was one of a handful of true freshman to make the traveling roster for Colorado, so he might have been close to getting in the game before now. Anyone who saw Georgia’s final snap on offense at Colorado shouldn’t be surprised that Josh Davis is the odd man out, but there’s a lot more to talk about re: this potentially retooled line.

• You have to like the bookends of Sturdivant and Boling at tackle. The effectiveness of that combination depends on the health of Sturdivant, so it’s promising that he’s been playing an increasing number of snaps as the season goes on. Josh Davis and AJ Harmon are available, but you really prefer Boling and Sturdivant as your tackles.
• Glenn and Jones haven’t been dominant, but they’ve been good enough to remain unaffected by this shakeup.
• In an ideal world, you’d expect the more experienced Chris Davis to be that right guard. Davis has been limited by chronic leg injuries though and might not be near top form yet.
• The moves do bring up questions about other linemen. Why Gates instead of some other yout guards? Many of them are injured. AJ Harmon must be a tackle all the way. Tanner Strickland is the real question mark: he’s even listed as a potential starter on the team’s depth chart.

It’s entirely possible that the media just caught sight of an experiment or even a red herring for any interested parties in Knoxville. The thought of a true freshman getting his first taste of action in an absolute must-win situation isn’t a good one. Still, it’s not like Georgia would be the only team in this game with a true freshman on the offensive line. If Gates can give the Dawgs some minutes on the interior line and allow Boling to take over the beleaguered right tackle spot, it should be a positive for the overall quality of the line.

I know a lot of people are encouraged to see signs of life from Georgia’s practices this week. The key bit of news has been a return to harder-hitting practices with greater emphasis on contact. Richt explained how things got to that point:

A lot of it had to do with the one season when we had 32 guys hurt going into the year. You start out with camp and another one goes and another one goes. There are different schools of thought. One is you have to block and tackle to block and tackle well. The other one is let’s get everybody to the gate healthy and let’s kind of play our way into this game and pick our shots when we do those types of things. We did the least amount of that in camp than we’ve ever done. Is it biting us in the rear end right now? Probably so.

Fair enough. I get the once-bitten-twice-shy factor at work here. 2008 was pretty brutal in terms of injuries, and it’s clearly affected how Richt approaches practice. Better late than never to recognize that and correct it, right?

But in some obscure corner of my head, this all sounded very familiar. And, indeed, it’s an evaluation from Richt that we’ve heard before. He talked about it following the win over Michigan State that closed the 2008 season:

After the regular season, Richt mentioned how injuries took a toll on the Bulldogs starting with their approach in practice. During bowl workouts, Georgia opted for more contact and it helped, according to Richt.

“We practiced different this year, and it was attributed to the number of injuries in camp,” said Richt. “We addressed that in the way we practiced for the bowl. We tackled more in our bowl practices than we did all season long. I think our defense improved in that time frame. They tackled better, had more of a swagger in that game. That’s part of it, practicing the way we need to practice.”

He reiterated the need to change entering spring ball in 2009:

“When a lot of guys get hurt and you’ve got bodies on the ground, you start thinking, ‘If we lose one more guy, our game plan is shot,’” Richt said. “Then you have to re-invent the wheel on Wednesday or Thursday. You start making decisions based on that. It affected our defense in particular. Defensive players need to practice with an edge. When you don’t do that, you can lose some of that team speed and attitude. We had three scrimmages in the fall. But by the second scrimmage we weren’t going at full speed.’ That’s just not football.

“You make those calls in the interest of the team. But in hindsight it probably wasn’t the right thing to do. It’s time to go back to old school.”

So we’ve heard this reflection and pledge to change the approach at the tail end of the 2008 season, going into the 2009 season, and now again in the 2010 season. There’s a difficult balance between practices at full speed with violent contact and being able to field a team on Saturday. It seems to be a balance that the coaches struggled to find for the past three seasons. The pendulum has swung back (again) this week, and eventually we’ll see if it sticks this time or if we’re back here in 2011 reading more quotes about the need to get more physical in practice.

Blutarsky had a post the other day about Georgia’s best chance of the year to get a good pass rush. Tennessee’s offensive line is young and thin, so it’s not a surprise that they lead the league in sacks surrendered. Can Georgia take advantage of that fact? The situation seems tailor-made for Grantham’s aggressive defense, but that aggression has bit Georgia about as much as it’s helped them so far.

The Dawgs shown an uncanny ability to get into the backfield and just miss making the play. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything like it. Houston and Gamble just about lived in the Colorado backfield on Saturday, but the enduring memories will be the plays where Tyler Hansen getting away. It happened on the first drive when Hansen scrambled to convert a third and six and followed that up with a planned QB draw to set up the Buffs with first and goal. It happened when Hansen got a weak pass away just in time to draw a questionable roughing penalty from the oncoming pressure. It happened yet again in the fourth quarter when Hansen got loose to the left on a 3rd and 13, drew in the safety, and hit a wide-open receiver.

Of course bringing pressure accepts a certain amount of risk. It’s not just a question of what happens if the quarterback evades the pressure. You can look at Colorado’s first touchdown. Or the swing pass to the tailback that set up another score. Or the touchdown run following the roughing the kicker call. In each case, an outside linebacker was put in a spot to have to make a decision. Utility back Matthew Bahr was able to slip behind inexperienced reserve Reuben Faloughi for the first score. Cornelius Washington lost the tailback on that long gainer. On Colorado’s final score, the linebacker got caught moving with the play to the left while the pitch went right.

In a lot of these cases, you’re talking about guys who were capable defensive ends but who are now being asked to make these quick assignment vs. coverage vs. pursuit decisions as outside linebackers. It’s probably the biggest adjustment in Georgia’s transition to the 3-4, and that adjustment is still ongoing. You’re starting to see better play around the line of scrimmage, and more traditional linebackers like Dent are cleaning up. One of the next steps in the improvement of the defense has to be better awareness from the converted defensive ends now playing OLB. If Georgia is going to be multiple and aggressive in its pressure, these guys are often the ones left to pick up the tailback out of the backfield or the tight end in the flat that can serve as quick reads for the QB under pressure.

Tennessee QB Matt Simms isn’t as mobile as Hansen, but he’s not a potted plant either. Tennessee called several designed runs for him at LSU, and one of them resulted in a touchdown. He’s not going to be a stationary target. Georgia will be looking to pile on to Simms’ sack total, but they’ll also likely be faced with several more plays where the pressure breaks down and the improvisation skills of both Simms and the Georgia defense are put to the test.

Boulder is a lovely place. It was a great trip…right up until about 5 minutes after kickoff.

A lot of credit has to go to the Colorado Dawgs. They went above and beyond looking after those of us coming in for the game. The huge tailgate party held in partnership with the Alumni Association was a tremendous success. If you can keep 3,000 tailgating Dawg fans well-fed, entertained, and not come close to running out of beverages (fermented or otherwise), you’ve done an exceptional job. Our hosts and everyone involved in the event were prepared, efficient, and professional. Even with a 1-3 team coming to town, the Colorado Dawgs still had an enthusiasm about and pride for their University and their current home that should be a model for any Georgia alumni group.

While we’re talking about fans, I was impressed with the spirit of fans of both teams. Colorado has suffered through several seasons worth of what Georgia is getting, but they (eventually) just about filled their stadium with a good crowd. Their cheers were loud and coordinated whether filled with profanity or not. It’s too bad that I can confirm vineyarddawg isn’t exaggerating the problems with individual Colorado fans. Anyway, the unusual proximity of the seats to the field made the smaller but vocal crowd very effective. What can you say about the Georgia fans? They made a surprisingly good showing for a team off to a 1-3 start (more on the “yeah, but” of that in a second) and made just about as big of an impact on Boulder as they made on Tempe two years ago.

The Georgia fans are already part of the story for the Tennessee game. After consecutive losses to ranked teams earlier in the year, fans could coax out a halfhearted pat on the back. It was still early, the defense was still new, and Murray was still a freshman. Is it fair to say that a lot has happened since the last home game?

The Senator is right to be concerned about how things could turn. Richt’s worry shouldn’t be with the ugly minority that have mocked him and his personality for years. The problem is that he’s losing the rest of the fans. That displeasure won’t manifest itself with ugly message board posts or confrontational call-in shows. Many will just stay home. The disappointment and apathy is already having an impact in Athens. If the crowd for the Tennessee game doesn’t tell the tale, wait for Homecoming. I don’t know how many people I ran into in Colorado who lamented that the trip was already paid for, so why not go?

It would be different if Richt were some jerk that we never liked anyway. Even Jim Donnan was abrasive enough for some to make evaluating his career a lot less of a personal and emotional task. Other than that minority Richt talks about, most of us really want him to succeed and remain at Georgia as long as he likes. So after the initial anger over some of these losses subsides, there’s just a sadness and regret that it’s not working out.

Tony Barnhart is spot on in the observation that it’s to the point that “the team needs to lift its fans.” Most still want Richt to succeed. He’s good for the school in so many ways. A man whose faith is such a part of his character finds himself in the center of a crisis of faith of a different sort. One game won’t end that crisis, but those holding on to some hope that Richt is the man to turn this around need something.

The Red & Black has a story today about how nearly half of the student tickets allocated for the Arkansas game went unused. Only 10,000 out of 18,000 student tickets were used for the September 18 game.

It’s not a new development, and athletic department officials have been watching it for more than a year. Claude Felton explained, “We have data from fall last year and this year until this point. And the students that all have tickets are not all coming to the games.” New athletic director Greg McGarity nails how big of an issue this is. “We’re suffering as a program, as an institution,” McGarity said. “When we’re on TV and they show the stadium, there’s 5,000 or 6,000 empty seats — that’s embarrassing.” If you were at the Arkansas game, you know what McGarity is talking about.

Based on those observations that some student tickets go unused for every home game, Georgia will sell an additional 1,000 student tickets for the upcoming Tennessee game to underclassmen who received a split season ticket package that didn’t include the Tennessee game. The hope is to fill, or at least come closer to filling, the student sections.

It’s a short-term solution, and McGarity is already talking about revamping the student ticket process as soon as next season. His experience at Florida should help, but he also plans to study how other major programs distribute student tickets.

“The intent is to how can we provide a system that will allow enough students in to where we can manage it and know that Thursday at 5 o’clock that we have ‘x’ amount of seats left that we can either put on sale or reissue to students that didn’t qualify for tickets,” McGarity said. “How can we? That’s our challenge. So, we’re gonna benchmark other institutions to see how they do that.”

We all know the current state of the team, but the season wasn’t in the tank heading into the Arkansas game. It’s probably going to end up being the highest-profile home game of the year, but student turnout was abysmal and noticed. The students who were at the game were loud and involved as they almost always are. They helped the crowd that stayed for the entire game make a difference during Georgia’s comeback. They’re not the problem. Even with the team struggling this year, there are thousands of students who would love to go to the games, and I’m glad to see the athletic director making this issue a priority.

Paul voices one of the most troubling questions of the young 2010 season: what the heck is going on with the offensive line? We knew there would be some adjustment on defense given a new scheme and staff. We anticipated a learning curve for Murray as he gained experience. But the veteran-laden offensive line? With one of the best position coaches around?

I don’t have any answers either, but there have been a few ideas that have crossed my mind. I don’t claim any of them to be root causes, and you might even call them excuses. Here goes…

1) Depth. We have enough short-term problems to keep us occupied for a while, but I’m also a little concerned about the future of the line once the current seniors move on. Take Boling, Chris Davis, and Josh Davis off the line and look at what’s behind them. Is the next wave of linemen coming along? Other than Tanner Strickland, who’s seeing much time? All that’s to ask that if one of the starters is hobbled or under-performing, do the coaches have options? Touted young prospects Austin Long, Chris Burnette, and Brent Benedict are all in various stages of convalescence. That basically leaves A.J. Harmon and Trinton Sturdivant whose limited availability is to be expected given the long road back from multiple knee surgeries. Throw in a random bout with mono (Glenn) and a chronic battle with injuries (CDavis), and Searels has about as much to work with as he had when he started. Of course what’s there is more experienced now, but does Georgia have the personnel it needs to be the run-first offense it’s trying to be?

2) S&C. Georgia’s getting pushed around on both sides of the line. Some of the problems on defense might have to do with the fact that the linemen aren’t that big to begin with, but the entire defense got dragged around by Bo Herschel Lattimore and couldn’t stop more of the same against Mississippi State. It’s impossible that the offensive line actually got weaker during the offseason, but grumblings about the conditioning program aren’t out of the blue. If the strength program is a factor, Searels is the wrong person to be looking at.

3) The offense. Is the line catching heat for more general problems with the offense? I don’t mean that we’ve all been blind to a performance worthy of the 2008 Oklahoma line. But if you run a predictable offense into a defense that’s keying on tendencies, it’s just not going to work. The line is also just one element of pass protection or run blocking. Georgia’s offense depends on tailbacks, tight ends, and fullbacks playing a role in blocking. I can’t say that any of those units have been particularly stellar in those roles either this year, and the starting fullback has been injured.

4) Elevated expectations based on what? Our expectations for the line were more or less set by one game: Tech. Georgia then tried more of the same against TAMU and struggled until special teams bailed them out. At best, the line has been inconsistent for a couple of years. The Tech game was amazing. They were dreadful against LSU, Tennessee, and for most of the Auburn games. I grant a lot of that to the loss of Sturdivant in each of the past two seasons and the shuffling that had to go on. Did Josh Davis take a step forward at the end of last year, or was he just playing above himself for a month? We’re just relieved now that the line is no longer a bunch of freshmen with no backups. But does that make them great?

Georgia’s October 9th game against Tennessee has been set for a 12:21 kickoff and will be broadcast by the SEC Network. At this point, both schools should feel lucky that the game isn’t on local cable access. Unfortunately, this pretty much kills any chance of a night game in Athens this year. The Vanderbilt game is Homecoming, and Idaho State will be another early start. With all of that in mind, the Tech game seems to be the last opportunity we’ll have for a kickoff later than 1:00 this year. Michael Adams must be pleased, but it’s not been an enjoyable home schedule.

In other scheduling news, Georgia and Oregon have agreed to cancel the series that was scheduled to take place in 2015 and 2016. It’s unfortunate for those of us looking forward to another interesting trip, but it’s hard to argue the reasoning. This move is one of the first influences of new athletic director Greg McGarity on Georgia’s football schedule. I doubt Mark Richt is complaining. McGarity explains,

“The model that we would establish in the future would have seven home games every year. If you look at the models of other schools that have played for the (BCS) championship lately, there’s always one tough nonconference game.”

Whether you consider the annual Tech game to be that one tough nonconference game, McGarity is speaking from experience when it comes to scheduling for a championship team.

It’s a line you’re going to hear a lot over the next few weeks:

“We just, at times, called a couple running plays just blindly and just said, ‘Hey we’re going to run this no matter what,’ ” he said. “There times when we had success and some times we got hit in the mouth because of the pressures they brought. And again, until you look at the film, it’s going to be hard to say exactly. They did a nice job defensively.”

A coach who built his reputation as the offensive coordinator of one of the most successful teams of the 1990s now has a team that couldn’t come up with a way to out-scheme a first-year defensive coordinator from MTSU.

It’s still September, and Georgia isn’t just out of the SEC championship picture; they’re reduced to the spoiler role with 2/3 of the season remaining.  Everything you and I thought about this program is wrong – even the “Richt’s teams win on the road” meme is done. Of course it’s not just a one-year problem or the 0-3 SEC start.  Georgia is 2-7 in their last nine SEC games and under .500 against their division since 2006.

Back in May, former beat writer David Hale threw a few questions to the masses about Mark Richt’s future.   At that moment far removed from the emotional maelstrom of midseason, it was easy to respond like this:

Will you stick by Richt if Georgia finishes 8-5 again this year, but does it with a more fundamentally sound D, a better approach to kickoffs and a duo at tailback that understands how to play the position?

I don’t outright reject the possibility of another 8-5 season. The defense will take some adjustment. We’ve seen that even Vanderbilt and Kentucky are ready to pounce on a sign of weakness.  You can bet that everyone on the schedule from Mississippi State to Tennessee to Georgia Tech sees the opportunity to take their shot at a program that might be doubting itself a little. You only have to look over at Foley Field to see how the wheels can come off a season when negative momentum starts building. In fact, as Hale notes, the job the team did pulling it together at the end of last season against two big rivals is one of the underrated stories from a year ago (and is what keeps us from adding Richt’s first losing record to the ledger).

At the same time, it would be devastating to go 7/8-5 against this schedule.  You’re trading Oklahoma State and LSU for lesser opponents.  The home schedule is extremely favorable.  Five losses against this schedule would include some very, very bad losses as well as losses to rivals that don’t sit well even in the best of years. Think about which five teams on this year’s schedule you’d accept losing to.  Improvement in relatively obscure areas like kickoff coverage won’t mean much if the offensive line doesn’t live up to billing or if Georgia’s highly-rated starting quarterback isn’t ready for prime time.

Wow.  And so here we are.  I think most of us would be pleasantly surprised if the team can pull it together for 7-5 now. It was a big and exhausting job to regroup at the end of last year, and I have to wonder if there’s enough in the tank to do it again.  The goal of just finishing with a marginally winning record is on the table now.

I’m especially concerned about this line: You only have to look over at Foley Field to see how the wheels can come off a season when negative momentum starts building. Georgia’s in what you would call the soft part of their schedule.  That part of the schedule was supposed to include Mississippi State.  Look back at the 2008 Auburn schedule. They had tentative success early on, but the ugly road loss to Vandy set in motion a collapse that would end with the dismissal of Tommy Tuberville.  Life in the SEC is tough and competitive enough as it is; a team that’s frustrated and doubting and starting to question itself comes into any game at a major disadvantage even against what should be inferior competition.

That’s where Mark Richt and his team are this morning.  Those of us out here are already talking about the big picture and what should be done at the end of the season, if not sooner.  Richt has to throw a team back on the field again in six days.  He wants to “look within” and reassess the program, but there’s just no time over the next two months that lends itself to much introspection.  That’s a big reason why seasons like this are so easy to lose control of – you can’t afford the time away from preparation to really address the doubts and lack of confidence that end up tearing apart what you had prepared.

So you triage.  Stop the bleeding. Maybe A.J. Green is the short-term tourniquet Richt needs.  None of the fundamental problems with the program will be addressed any time soon, but Richt is coaching now just to have something worth saving and something capable of being saved when that time comes.  He’s done it before – famously in 2007 and to a lesser extent last year – but there’s only so much first aid that can be done on a diseased patient.

Hard to think straight with the cowbells clanging in my ear, so we’ll just run down some bullets:

• I really can’t accept this gift. If Mississippi State can point to one thing as the source of its problems on offense, it would be turnovers. The Bulldogs are last in the SEC with 8 giveaways through their first three games. They aided a weak LSU offense with five turnovers last week alone. Georgia’s offense could use that kind of a break, but can the defense come through? After a promising start which generated three takeaways in the season opener, the Dawgs have just one in SEC play – a fumble recovery at South Carolina. Several possible interceptions were dropped against Arkansas. If MSU is willing to be generous again, can Georgia cash in?
• Option defense. It’s not Paul Johnson’s triple option, but Mullen’s spread option offense is a close as you get in the SEC (including whatever Meyer/Addazio are running at Florida). Georgia’s faced the brawn of Lattimore and South Carolina, and they’ve faced a pass-based offense from Arkansas. Now they’ll see a different kind of challenge from the spread option. The option can make an aggressive and overpursuing defense look silly, so it will be a test of how well Georgia can focus its attacking scheme while respecting assignments and discipline. One thing missing from the MSU attack is a big threat at tailback. It’s tough to replace someone like Anthony Dixon, one of the most underrated players in recent SEC history, and MSU hasn’t. They have a trio of tailbacks that split the load pretty evenly, but none has managed more than 39 yards in an SEC game. QB Chris Relf has been the most consistent rushing threat, and at 6’4″, 240 lbs. he’ll be a challenge for a Georgia defense that has struggled at times with tackling.
• Grantham vs. Diaz. It’s a minor point, but new MSU co-defensive coordinator Manny Diaz was mentioned during Georgia’s search for a recruiting coordinator (though never officially a candidate). Both Diaz and Grantham preach an aggressive style of defense, but each has hit a bump or two en route to consecutive SEC losses. Hopefully Georgia’s new star coordinator won’t be upstaged by the new guy on the other sideline.
• Tight ends and creativity. I really doubt that teams are scheming to take away Georgia’s tight ends, but let’s grant that they are. Last weekend we saw two tight ends feature in big games against SEC competition – Arkansas’s DJ Williams and Clemson’s Dwayne Allen. Neither was a surprise to their opponents, but they still managed to lead their teams in receptions. We saw them lined up everywhere from the slot to the traditional tight end spot to the backfield. Seeing Allen in the backfield reminded me of Shannon Mitchell – the H-Back isn’t a new concept, but it’s another way to get a tight end on the field…especially with Georgia’s starting fullback sidelined.
• Return of CK4. We’ll see if it carries over to this year, but the running game looks better with both King and Ealey available. I thought we’d test this theory against South Carolina, but it’s taken two more weeks.

Maryland basketball coach Gary Williams is the latest to suggest that a small stipend for student-athletes could be enough to help ease their financial load while maybe even keeping a few in school longer. (h/t Blutarsky) Anyone who went to college appreciates the need for a little spending money, but I’m never quite convinced that proponents really think through the finances. That’s before we even consider whether a few hundred bucks would keep away the hundred-dollar handshakes and stop marginal players from turning pro.

Williams seeks to limit the financial hit by limiting the stipend to players from revenue-producing sports. There’s a few gotchas with that plan:

• What’s a “revenue-producing sport?” Not all sports are revenue-positive at all schools. Of course Williams means football and men’s basketball, but even those aren’t universal money-makers. Just 68 of 120 Division I FBS football programs make money. Basketball is similar. Using a revenue-positive test, would the significant number of football and basketball programs that lose money be precluded from offering a stipend and consequently put themselves at a clear recruiting disadvantage? Or would they be forced to add that expense and lose even more money?
• Even if an individual sport is revenue-positive at a certain school, that doesn’t necessarily mean that the athletic department is rolling in cash. Only 14 of 120 Division I (FBS) athletic programs are in the black. Athletic departments rely on their revenue producers to fund the rest of the program, and even then most usually come up short. That’s after all of the money from the TV contracts and the basketball tournament has been distributed. Williams should know better: even his own athletic department and his own program has had to cut its budget recently.
• I’m sure the Title IX folks would love a stipend system where the vast majority of payments would go to male student-athletes.

For those reasons, especially the third, I’ve always seen paying student-athletes as a binary decision. Either you pay all scholarship student-athletes of both genders, or you pay no one. After all, football and basketball players aren’t the only student-athletes who often come from poverty or feel the financial pressures of remaining an amateur.

Here’s the math anyone floating a stipend proposal will have to work with: A major program like Georgia has around 500 student-athletes on scholarship. 500 scholarship student-athletes receiving $200 each month is $1,200,000 over a year on top of the cost of the scholarships. It’s $900,000 if you limit it to a 9-month academic year. Even if by some miracle you’re able to limit the stipend to football and men’s basketball players, you’re still looking at around a quarter of a million dollars annually. A few major programs have that kind of cash on hand. Most, including Williams’ own Maryland program, don’t.

Maybe I’m wrong, and perhaps the NCAA is sitting on some huge treasure trove of cash as Williams seems to think. So let’s shift the burden from the schools to the NCAA. Paying $200 monthly to the scholarship student-athletes of the 346 D-1 basketball teams as well as the 120 FBS football teams would take just under $36,000,000. In perspective, that’s just about the entire surplus generated by the NCAA in their last fiscal year. And, again, that’s before the Title IX crowd has had its say.