Any thoughts about the incident at the end of the game are secondary to what happened during the game. Whether it was anger and frustration about dirty blocks or holds not getting called, Grantham (and several other coaches) were boiling well before the end of the game. One of the coaches, I believe Grantham, chased down and had words with an official heading into the locker room at halftime.
The problem is that the players picked up on all of this and let it get to them. The discipline and execution that had led to four straight dominant defensive performances were abandoned. We’ll let the players describe what happened. Ray Drew:
We kind of fell apart (in the second half), let emotions run a little too high, and things started going every which way.
Jarvis Jones:
We were out of position on a lot of plays, which is the mental part of the game, and the quarterback took control of the game.
They’re not reaching for excuses – that all happened. You could see the missed tackles, the personal fouls, the loss of containment, and the gaping spaces left by players out of position. No other way could Vandy roll up 200 yards of rushing.
Unfortunately, there was no one on the sideline able to reel the emotions back in. If someone was trying to get heads back in the game, they didn’t make much progress. After the game Grantham was well within his place to take up for his players, and that will be appreciated in the locker room. During the game though Grantham and the other defensive coaches needed to recognize that their players were caught up in the emotion and get everyone settled down and focused on their assignments. They failed in that respect, and that should bother us a lot more than whatever went on afterwards.
We know that there will be plenty of emotion and bad blood in the next game, and there’s already a history between Grantham and Florida. We love the intensity and refusal to back down, but understand how it affects your players. Emotion can be used for good – the dust-up prior to the Mississippi State game certainly fired up the Dawgs with impressive results. We’ve also seen now how it can get out of control.
Ugly, incomplete, whatever. Georgia held the Vols to -20 yards rushing and their fewest points in the series since 2000. Georgia won on the road in Knoxville after two alarming blowouts in their past two visits – the last of which was against a Tennessee team not much better than this one. A win that ugly would have put the Dawgs in the 2007 SEC Championship game. We’ll take it, congratulate Mark Richt on his 100th win as Georgia’s coach, and get on with winning.
I think the game was as ugly and slow to develop as it was because of the injury to Crowell. Georgia’s offense just isn’t as effective without him. It was a good job just to sustain two long first half drives without him. It was disappointing that Georgia couldn’t get more from those drives, and it was frustrating not to be able to punch it in after stalling on the UT 5 yard line. Crowell was able to suck it up and give Georgia just enough to be the difference in the third quarter. His second touchdown run to the right off the sprint draw was a thing of beauty.
As we expected, tight end Mychal Rivera was a focal point of Tennessee’s passing attack. He led the Vols with 85 receiving yards, and his five receptions were second behind only a tailback – more on that in a second. The Vols used Rivera well in the first half to challenge Georgia’s linebackers, and it worked well. Rivera also made a heck of a catch on that 4th-and-17 to set up Tennessee’s only touchdown.
Why were a tight end and a tailback Tennessee’s top receiving options? Georgia did a great job of taking away the UT vertical passing game. That element is admittedly diminished with the absence of Hunter, but Bray has shown an ability to get the ball downfield all season. The Bulldogs allowed only one pass play longer than 20 yards – it was a short throw to Marlin Lane that Lane turned into a gain of 27 yards, slicing through a series of missed tackles to convert a 2nd-and-25 and keep alive the drive that tied the game going into halftime. Rivera’s longest reception was the 19-yarder that converted 4th-and-17 late in the game. You rarely heard a defensive back’s name in pass coverage – the plays weren’t there.
Though Georgia wasn’t putting up touchdowns in the first half, they were at least moving the ball. That and zero Georgia turnovers meant that Tennessee spent most of the game with average-to-poor field position. The Bulldogs did too, which is why the snap over Bray’s head and the subsequent poor punt changed the game.
With unfavorable field position, an ineffective running game, and downfield passes more or less shut down, Bray and the UT offense had little choice but to move down the field in smaller chunks, getting what they could through short and intermediate passes. That worked some in the first half, and the Georgia defense did well not to break on those drives. But as the game went on, the Georgia defense was able to tighten up to take away even those shorter passes. Pressure was increased, and the Vols – who had no drive shorter than 8 plays and 46 yards in the first half – had no second half drive longer than 5 plays or 20 yards until their last gasp scoring drive late in the fourth quarter. Credit to the Georgia defense and staff for adjusting while maintaining what they were already doing well.
They weren’t especially long or challenging kicks, but it was still good to see Blair Walsh have a 2-for-2 night. Those six points at least bought Georgia some time to figure things out with a hobbled Crowell.
Credit also to Murray for avoiding the killer turnover this week. The beards are safe for another week. Tennessee’s best chance at an interception was broken up on an alert play by Marlon Brown. Brown ended up nearly making the catch himself.
Kudos also to Tennessee for becoming the first team to recover a fumble with an ankle. I’m still unclear as to what went on in the replay booth during that early review.
Georgia is two games over .500 in the SEC for the first time in over two years. The Dawgs began the 2009 season 2-0 with wins over South Carolina and Arkansas but soon dropped consecutive games to LSU and Tennessee.
Moving on, I don’t expect the Vandy game to be a thing of beauty. Mitchell is out at receiver, and hopefully Crowell can be used sparingly. The goal for this weekend shouldn’t be aesthetics. The Vandy offense is dreadful, so if Georgia can avoid turnovers again, they should be able to get out of Nashville with a win. Some rest for our banged-up players would be nice, and then we get the bye week to really recover.
The Vandy game will also be the first time in a while that Georgia has faced what could be called, with a straight face, an upset trap. At Ole Miss, Georgia was determined to get in the SEC win column. Last season’s result was more than enough motivation against Mississippi State. Vandy’s defense is good enough to frustrate, or even score against, teams that are sleepwalking on offense. Georgia has a bit of momentum now, people are talking about them in the SEC East race again, and it’s tempting to look ahead to Florida with the division at stake. It’s been a long time since we’ve had to approach a game this way, but how will Georgia handle their success against a big underdog?
With Mitchell out, it might be a good week for Murray and King to work on their timing. We’ve seen King be an effective deep weapon before – even as far back as his freshman season at Arkansas. King might not have the speed of Mitchell (few do), but he did have a step on his defenders at Tennessee such that better passes would have gone for big gains. This is an element of the passing game that could stand to get a lot better, and when it does, watch things open up for Crowell and underneath routes for the tight ends and running backs.
With a win this weekend and Kentucky still left on the schedule, the Dawgs can just about guarantee the very minimal goals of a winning record in the SEC and bowl eligibility. So that’s nice.
Just as things are starting to get good, the regular season is half over. Can you believe it?
But Bobo going all ultra-conservative again in the fourth quarter frustrated even his boss, who said he wished they’d handled it differently after Georgia got the ball back with just over 8 minutes and only burned a couple of minutes, going three-and-out playing it safe on the ground. That “pretty much put more pressure on the defense there,” Richt said. “If we’re in that situation again, we’d better be able to put it away.”
I know at that point the offense was probably shell-shocked from the penalty disaster on their previous series. Up until that point, Georgia was still throwing the ball quite a bit in the 4th quarter with their lead. The drive that included all of those penalties had been conservative – i.e., no deep passes or trick plays, but it also had strategic purpose. Georgia mixed the run and the pass to get into at least field goal range before the penalties hit. Murray was having success on short, relatively safe passes.
It also didn’t help to have (another) Justin Anderson penalty torpedo this particular drive before it could get going. Richt wasn’t quite as amused with that penalty.
That fourth quarter drive aside, the offensive game plan was solid. Richt made sure to note that the offensive staff “did a good job of putting a plan together” that gave him confidence to be decisive about some of the riskier calls he made. The plan was surely knocked on its heels by Crowell’s injury, but they did a good job recovering.
2nd-and-56 is nothing but an amusing footnote on the game. Even Richt was smirking about the absurdity of the situation. (Perhaps he should have just punted then – at least he didn’t take the safety.) It’s a shame that we’ll just remember those penalties and the ridiculous down-and-distance, because all of it came right as Georgia was playing some of its best football of the season.
Midway through the third quarter, Georgia was pinned down in the shadow of their own goalpost nursing a one-score lead. Bottled up for much of the game, the offense strung together a series of big plays to score on Isaiah Crowell’s second touchdown run. Crowell had been a battering ram on Georgia’s first scoring drive of the third quarter, but he showed what he can do in space on that second score.
Tennessee responded with a kickoff return to midfield – one of the few Bulldog special teams mistakes. There was still plenty of time left in the game, and the Vols had their best field position of the night. Though Tennessee faced a 3rd-and-1 after a Georgia offsides penalty and a 4-yard run, the Vols stalled after a delay of game penalty. The Bulldogs held and forced a punt.
For the second consecutive series, the Bulldogs started a drive inside their own ten yard line. They didn’t instantly flip field position with a long pass this time; instead they moved the ball in much smaller chunks, spreading the ball around to four different receivers. Bennett, Brown, King, and Conley all caught short-to-intermediate passes on the drive. You had to love Bennett going airborne on his reception. It was also encouraging to see a nice, safe pass to Marlon Brown on 3rd-and-1. Yes, with a two-touchdown lead in the fourth quarter, Georgia was putting together a long drive by throwing the ball.
Eventually Georgia drove as far as the Tennessee 23, and they looked almost certain to get at least a field goal that would pretty much end the game. That’s when the hilarity started. 46 yards in reverse and a pair of pointless runs later, Georgia was punting from their own 31. Yes, it was ridiculous. Yes, it cost Georgia a chance to put the game away. Yes, that series of penalties and the late hit penalty on Lynch fired up the crowd.
Still, the drive chewed up 8:21 of clock on one of the longest Georgia drives of the season. It took us from a contested game in the third quarter and awful field position to Tennessee getting the ball back still down 14 with under 10 minutes left to go. It also gained enough net yardage to move the ball from inside the Georgia 10 to a more reasonable spot outside their 30. Even with a good punt return and Lynch’s penalty, the Vols weren’t much past midfield. For a team that had committed three holding penalties and two personal fouls, that wasn’t the worst possible outcome.
Then the defense took over. Rested after over 8 minutes of game action on the bench over two quarters, the defense made certain that 2nd-and-56 wouldn’t let Tennessee back in the game. Michael Gilliard came crashing through on first down, forcing Bray to take a grounding penalty rather than a sure sack. A harmless pass on second down put the Vols in 3rd and long, and the defense forced another punt after a three-and-out that deflated what lift Tennessee got from Georgia’s mistakes on the previous series. With great field position and a reinvested crowd, the Vols actually lost six yards.
It was similar to the response of the defense after the successful Ole Miss onside kick. The Rebels had the crowd fired up after scoring on a trick play, got a huge boost from the onside kick, and Georgia’s defense responded with an interception. In recent years, we’d explain away an opponent’s score by noting the bad position in which the defense had been placed. Even this year, Boise State was able to cash in on a good punt return. Georgia’s mistakes against South Carolina almost invariably led to points. Georgia’s defense isn’t just looking strong when they have favorable field position or down-and-distance; they’re showing resilience when placed in tough spots. To paraphrase Mark Richt, it’s OK to get a three-and-out or to keep a bad situation from ending in points.
I expected to see more about this story this week, but Blair Walsh went to the mountaintop to meet with his kicking guru. Nick Gancitano is a kicker’s equivalent of a swing doctor, and Walsh had worked with Gancitano long before Walsh came to Georgia. With his field goal percentage taking an alarming nosedive, Walsh reached out to his former mentor.
It didn’t take long for Gancitano to spot a minor mechanical flaw that had evaded the notice of Georgia’s star kicker. “I was coming too much in at the ball rather than up-field with it,” Walsh explained. We’ll see if the kicks fly straighter in the games, but Walsh considers the problem identified and fixed.
Grantham walks us through a typical blitz
Be sure to check out this video from ESPN of Todd Grantham explaining a basic middle linebacker/safety blitz from his 3-4 package. But don’t expect to see it much, if at all, on Saturday. It’s not that he’s giving away trade secrets, but Georgia is actually in their base 3-4 a small percentage of the time.
Saving the turnover-battle beards
Shawn Williams’ late interception against Mississippi State was a footnote for many fans already headed for the exits. But it was a big deal to Williams’ teammates. The pick zeroed out the turnover margin for the day, meaning that the team could keep its turnover-battle beards for another week. David Ching explains the deal with must-read commentary by Aron White. If Georgia shows up at the end of the season looking like ZZ Top, you’ll know they’ve been getting turnovers and taking care of the ball.
It’s unavoidable: the Tennessee passing game against Georgia’s defense is the story this week. It makes sense – Tennessee has a quality quarterback, a very good main target at receiver, and Vol quarterbacks have gone 37-of-49 (>75%) against Georgia in the past two meetings in Knoxville. Year2 over at TSK paints the picture of the challenge presented by the Tennessee offense, and Blutarsky responds with a closer look at how Tennessee rates relative to the best passing attack Georgia has seen so far.
As usual, I can’t let it go without a word about the offense. Georgia has been blown out in their past two trips to Tennessee, and lackluster offense had as much to do with it as Crompton or Ainge or Foster. Georgia managed 14 futile second half points after falling behind 28-0 in 2007. It was even worse in 2009. Georgia scored 19 points, but only three of those came from the offense. That game sealed the fate of Willie Martinez, but it was equally atrocious offense. This year’s Georgia offense should have better success against Tennessee, especially on the ground.
Back to this year. It isn’t 2007 or 2009. Georgia’s defense has changed. Tennessee’s coaching staff has changed. Many of the key pariticpants – from Bray to Rogers to Murray to Crowell – weren’t even on their teams for the 2009 game. The identities of the teams have changed. Georgia now leans on their defense. Tennessee now leans on their passing game. That strength took a big hit several weeks ago when leading receiver Justin Hunter was lost for the year.
The Vols have had only one lightweight game in which to figure out life without Hunter, but one name is emerging. Tennessee’s leading receiver against Florida wasn’t the injured Hunter or emerging sophomore Da’Rick Rogers. It was junior tight end Mychal Rivera.
Rivera hadn’t been much of a factor in the passing game before this season. He recorded 11 catches for 112 yards in 2010. He failed to make a catch in the season opener against Montana. But in the three games since, Rivera has recorded 14 catches for 163 yards – already eclipsing his entire production of a year ago. In Gainesville, with Hunter knocked out of the game, Rivera came away with a team-high 5 receptions and 71 yards.
To give it perspective, Rivera’s 14 catches are only two fewer than Orson Charles has notched on the season. Rivera’s numbers would place him third on the Georgia team behind Mitchell and Charles and ahead of King and Bennett.
If you think back to the Boise State game, the Broncos didn’t torch Georgia deep. They used short and intermediate passes, along with tempo, to put the Georgia defense on its heels. Many of those passes came across the middle. Tennessee’s tendencies might be more vertical, and that makes sense when your offensive coordinator comes from the Brees-era Purdue offense. But the emergence of Rivera does indicate some flexibility there. This is more of a concern due to Georgia’s inexperience at linebacker. Two starters – Washington and Ogletree are on the shelf. Another, Robinson, is still working his way back from injury. I wouldn’t be surprised to see Tennessee test the pass coverage of Georgia’s replacements at linebacker.
Of course Bray doesn’t merit Kellen Moore comparisons yet, but he is still an accurate passer when given time. Another big difference is the relative experience and quality of the offensive lines. Boise started four upperclassmen. Tennessee starts a single upperclassmen. Still, this unit has only allowed 7 sacks on the year, 3 of which came against Florida. Georgia can affect Bray’s accuracy, as Florida did, with pressure, but they’ll have to do it with sack leader Cornelius Washington watching from home.
Third downs will tell a lot of the tale of this game. Tennessee comes in with an SEC-leading 62.1% conversion rate, but they managed only 4-of-12 on third downs in their only SEC game to date. That’s going to happen when you get 0.94 yards per carry. Georgia brings their SEC-leading 25.4% third down defense, but they weren’t so hot against a quality passing opponent. We looked earlier in the week at Georgia’s success on early downs leading to manageable third down situations. Mississippi State’s average third down position was 3rd-and-7.5. They’ll do well against Bray if they can get the Vols into similar third down situations. Bray might be a good passer, but the defense still has the advantage when you know a pass is likely.
Georgia won the game with two things: field position and defense. At the end of the first quarter, both teams had 83 yards of total offense. The score was 14-3 in Georgia’s favor. The (Georgia) Bulldogs had two short scoring drives totaling 55 yards thanks to Boykin’s brilliant punt return and a shank on another MSU punt. The visitors had to drive 56 yards in a single possession just to get into range for a field goal. Georgia’s scoring drive of any length was the 8-play, 81-yard drive to close the first half. With the exception of the late second-quarter drive that was ended by Commmings’ interception, MSU didn’t have a drive start with better field position than their own 37.
Georgia’s special teams got attention after last week’s problems, and you could tell. Returns were sharper, and Boykin had an instant impact on punt returns. It was also interesting to see the defense remain on the field for more than a couple of 4th downs – even when distance and field position made the odds of a fake nearly zero. There’s not much to say about Walsh. I’ll buy that he has the yips because I’m not informed enough to spot mechanics issues. I do wonder if he’s overkicking – he’s knocking balls through the endzone on kickoffs more than ever this year, and sometimes greater power comes at the expense of accuracy. The most important consequence is that the coaches, at least in the short-term, should not call plays inside the opponent’s 35 assuming they have three points in their pocket.
And the defense. As Munson once put it, “the beautiful defense.” MSU took a lot of heat for nearly losing to Louisiana Tech, but this was still the same team that ran all over Auburn. We knew what MSU does well – run the spread option and burn you with play-action after you bite on the run. We knew what MSU doesn’t do well – throw the ball in obvious passing situations.
A year ago, MSU was an efficient 7-of-13 on third down against Georgia. They were able to sustain drives, control field position, and pick their moments while the Georgia offense worked uphill. That story was reversed on Saturday. Georgia held the visitors to just 4-of-15 on third down, and a lot of Georgia’s success had to do with their play on first and second down. 10 of MSU’s 15 3rd downs were 6 yards or longer. They converted only one of those – a 3rd and 9 on their first-quarter field goal drive. Otherwise, the Georgia defense did exactly what it had to do – contain the running game on the first two downs and force Relf (and Favre) into uncomfortable third-and-long situations. The average MSU third down was 3rd and 7.5 to go.
My enjoyment in watching the defense is why I had a problem with the second-half offense. The offense was given field position, momentum, and a tired defense put back on the field after numerous short MSU drives and did little with it after intermission. I’m fine with being conservative in that situation, but I’m not so sure that’s what was going on. It’s just that, short of returning a few of those dropped interceptions for scores, the defense couldn’t have done more for their counterparts on offense. It’s not just the lack of production by the offense, it’s the feeling of a wasted gift.
(There is something good to say about the second-half offense. There was still plenty of time left when MSU got their pick-six. A three-and-out and an average punt return could have set MSU up with momentum and the game very much in doubt. Though the offense, and ultimately Walsh, failed to put more points on the board, they at least responded with a nice 9-play drive that ate up 5:32 and let a lot of air out of whatever lift MSU got from their defensive score. Thomas deserves recognition for his role in that drive. In fact, that drive (nine plays, 5:32) and the one before it (seven plays, 4:08) that ended on Murray’s interception ate more clock than all but one of Georgia’s drives. Some points would have been nice, but those drives did their job. We have a much bigger problem with the 3rd quarter offense that failed to eat clock OR move the ball for more than a total of 24 net yards.)
I had to remind myself a few times after the game that this was a one-sided double-digit revenge win over a team that started the year ranked above Georgia. This was a possible trap game. MSU’s offense is about as far as you can get from pro-style, and Todd Grantham’s ability to scheme against the nontraditional offense was still up in the air. I was among several wondering if MSU could make things difficult by attacking Georgia on the edge. Memories of Georgia’s struggles getting in the endzone in Starkville were erased three minutes into the game.
There’s a couple of problems with leaving things at “a win is a win”:
1 – The opportunity to develop the reserves against an SEC opponent was lost. As Brandon Boykin went down with just a couple of minutes left, my second thought – after initial concern for his well-being – was frustration at the fact that he was in the game to begin with. Georgia, though it had dominated the game, still had to worry about the remote possibility of an Auburn/Utah State scenario, and so a fair number of starters were left in to close the game. With Cornelius Washington on the shelf for a while, it would have been nice for Faloughi and Drew to see more action. Of course playing reserves is subordinate to protecting the lead and winning the game. There can be greater value in a game though than just getting the win. Georgia missed a good opportunity to realize that value.
2 – It would be one thing if the second half were really about trying to kill the clock, but I think we’re letting the offense off easy by putting their awful third quarter on ultra-conservative playcalling. Almost a third of Murray’s pass attempts (8 of 25) came during the third quarter in which Georgia managed a grand total of 24 yards. Another pass play broke down. Only two of those pass attempts were completed. The same people were in the game. The offense wasn’t particularly risky in the first half, either – the plays just stopped working after halftime. Georgia’s offense was more successful in the fourth quarter when they really *were* trying to run clock.
With the program placing so much emphasis on finishing games this year, it’s not out of bounds to ask questions of the second half offense in the past two games. The defense has embraced the challenge – they’ve pitched two, make that three, straight shutouts after halftime. The offense has a couple of things working against them:
Their best option at tailback, though insanely talented, is still building his endurance.
The offensive line depth is razor thin. I’m not sure Georgia substituted on the offensive line, and that would make two consecutive games that these five have played all snaps. I understand why that is a neccesity, and hopefully Burnette can be back soon. You also don’t rotate offensive linemen like you might defensive linemen or tailbacks. But a waning Crowell and a line that can’t afford even a series off isn’t the hallmark of an offense built to finish games.
That’s quite a problem to have, isn’t it? Why is Georgia only winning by 14 instead of 24? It’s one of the #firstworldproblems of college football.
The SEC has announced that Georgia’s October 15th game at Vanderbilt will be on FSN at 7:00 p.m. ET. (That’s the same channel as the Mississippi State game.) Georgia’s game this weekend is also a 7:00 p.m. start, but it will be on ESPN2.
Georgia’s 2011 freshman class, anchored by the “Dream Team”, already had pressure on it to do many things for the football program. Replacing the 2010 class wasn’t supposed to be one of them.
The 2010 class was small, especially by SEC standards, with 19 members. It was rated #15 by Rivals.com. Not bad, but also not up to par with programs at the top of the conference. Fortunately there were some gems – Bennett is making an impact. Alec Ogletree is a star. Gates has been a lifesaver.
Every program deals with attrition, but the knocks to the 2010 class have been extreme. Only 12 of the 19 are still with the program, though two others are working their way to Athens via the JUCO route. Three of the 12 are injured, and only Alec Ogletree is projected to play this year. Kolton Houston’s eligibility status is up in the air. So pretty much only 9 of the 19 players from the 2010 class are available to the team this year, and that number is reduced to 8 until Ogletree returns.
Lopping the 2010 class in half is bad enough, but it comes on top of an exceptional amount of attrition across all classes. I’m stealing the work of a friend here, but Georgia has seen 15 players leave the program in the past year with eligibility remaining. This doesn’t even include those who failed to qualify or enroll in the first place. For a lot of programs, this would be the foundation of a really nice recruiting class.
1) OL Brent Benedict, RFr. – Transferred to Virginia Tech
2) LB Marcus Dowtin, Jr. – Transferred to North Alabama
3) TB Washaun Ealey, Jr. – Transferred to Jacksonville State
4) FS Jakar Hamilton, Sr. – Seeking transfer
5) TB Caleb King, Jr. – Academically ineligible
6) WR Logan Gray, Jr. – Graduated w/ eligibility, transferred to Colorado
7) WR A.J. Green, Jr. – Early entry into NFL draft
8) OL A.J. Harmon, Jr. – Transferred to Alabama State
9) LB Justin Houston, Jr. – Early entry into NFL draft
10) DE Jeremy Longo, Jr. – Medically disqualified
11) RB Ken Malcome, RFr – Seeking transfer
12) CB Derek Owens, So. – Seeking transfer
13) OL Tanner Strickland, Sr. – Graduated with eligibility remaining
14) OL Trinton Sturdivant, Sr. – Knee injury, career over
15) S/LB Nick Williams, Jr. – Transferred to North Alabama
You can argue about whether some of those are better off gone or whether others would have ever contributed anyway. You can’t begrudge the guys going to the NFL, and injuries happen. The larger point is that Georgia is coming close to 70 players who signed Letters of Intent. About 23 of those are newcomers. I’ve lost track of the exact numbers, but I would expect that there are no more than 50 scholarship players left on the team who aren’t true freshmen or former walk-ons. Georgia has the talent to weather that situation to some extent, but it really shows up on the depth chart. You don’t have to dig deep to see the effects – just look at tailback or the offensive line or middle linebacker to see where the depth is being stretched pizza-thin and where the coaches are having to make creative (or desperate, depending on your outlook) moves just to fill out the depth chart.
There’s not much to do but sign more players, and Georgia should be able to load up this year. That’s fine, but Georgia now finds themselves under pressure due to the same class size restrictions that were lauded during the offseason. You can’t make up a large numbers gap with one class now, and you’d better make those 25 count.
There’s no question that the realignment underway in college sports is driven by football. But the SEC has had strong programs in many other sports, and its newest member will more than pull its weight after bowl season. As a major state school, A&M funds most of the sports you’d expect. What you might not expect is how established competition already is between A&M and current SEC powers in their respective sports.
The Aggies do not (currently) participate in gymnastics, but they do field one of the nation’s best equestrian programs. In 2011, A&M placed third at the national championships behind Auburn and Georgia. In 2010, the Aggies came in second behind only Georgia. In fact, A&M will face off against Georgia on October 8th.
Texas A&M’s athletics program placed eighth in the 2010-11 Learfield Sports Directors’ Cup. That was tops among Big 12 schools and second only to Florida among SEC schools. How did they get there? Though football, basketball, and baseball are all good programs, A&M is a track school.
How good is Texas A&M track? They’re the reigning men’s national champion. Oh…reigning women’s national champion, too. Want more? Aggie track and field has won both the men’s and women’s national title for three years running. Forget the football matchups – between A&M, Arkansas, LSU, and Florida, the SEC Track and Field championships will just about be the Olympics.
Here’s how A&M looks in some of the more major sports.
Men’s hoops:
Texas A&M comes into the SEC as an above-average basketball program. If you had to place them put them somewhere just below the good recent Florida or Tennessee teams. They might be considered a little “new money.” They’ve played in six straight NCAA Tournaments, but their 2006 appearance broke a dry spell that went back to 1987.
Billy Gillispie is a punchline in the SEC for his belly flop at Kentucky. But Gillispie is the coach that took A&M from a pretty bad place and laid the foundation for their current level of play. Gillispie took the program from 6–24 in 2002–2003 to 24–8 in 2003–2004. The bid to the 2004 NIT was A&M’s first postseason play of any kind in over a decade. Gillispie’s apex was in 2007 when the team earned a #3 seed for the NCAA Tournament – their highest seed ever. 2007 also saw the first top-ten ranking for the program, and their appearence in the 2007 Sweet 16 was only the third in program history and its first since 1980. That strong 2007 season was enough to get Kentucky’s attention, and Gillispie headed to the SEC to be replaced by Mark Turgeon.
There wasn’t much drop-off with Turgeon. The team was right back in the 2008 NCAA Tournament and has returned every year since. What Turgeon didn’t do was get A&M quite back to that 2007 high water mark. The team was decent, competent, and dangerous enough to be an occasional threat to the stronger Big 12 teams, but titles and greater glory eluded them. A&M most recently finished 24-9, earned a #7 seed in the NCAA Tournament, and was bounced in the first round by FSU.
The Aggies are currently in a state of transition. Turgeon was hired by Maryland during the offseason. A&M went into the mid-major ranks for their new head coach, hiring former A&M assistant and recent Murray State head coach Billy Kennedy. Kennedy’s last two teams at Murray State went 54-14 and won consecutive OVC titles.
Despite Turgeon’s relative success, his time in College Station was occasionally rocky. Fans were a bit spoiled by 2007 and grumbled about Turgeon’s inability to get the team back to that level. For Turgeon’s part, he made it clear that he was unhappy with lukewarm and inconsistent fan support. SEC hoops fans and coaches can probably relate. Turgeon’s background in basketball-mad Kansas made it tough to be happy in a football-first climate. He won’t really have that problem at Maryland.
The Aggies play at Reed Arena with a capacity of 12,500 – about middle of the road for the SEC.
Women’s hoops:
What does A&M women’s basketball bring to the SEC? Oh, nothing – just the defending national champs. The Aggies didn’t get nearly the press of UConn and Baylor with their mega-stars, but A&M caught fire in the 2011 NCAA Tournament, finally got past their local nemesis Baylor, and followed MVP Danielle Adams to a thrilling national title win over Notre Dame. The SEC is familiar turf for A&M head coach Gary Blair who led Arkansas from 1993–2003 before leaving for College Station.
Their system is a little unique in that they have a designated “defensive coordinator”, Vic Schaefer, whose sole job it is to break down opponents and develop the Aggies’ defensive approach. If you saw Georgia’s Sweet 16 humiliation at the hands of the Aggies, you know how effective this approach can be. Blair’s current team doesn’t figure to be as strong with heavy senior losses, but he’s a good coach who will have a quality team most every year. Kelsey Bone, a freshman star and rebounding machine at South Carolina, transfered to A&M to be closer to home but will be right back into SEC play in a year.
Baseball:
The Aggies are coming off the program’s fifth trip to Omaha and the College World Series. They’ve made the NCAA Tournament for five consecutive seasons and have won either the Big 12 regular season or tournament title in four of the past five seasons. Rob Childress took over the program in 2006 and has since been named Big 12 Coach of the Year while building the program into a contender.
Many of the SEC’s best baseball programs are used to having strong local non-conference rivals. Florida has FSU, Georgia has Tech, and South Carolina has Clemson. A&M’s rivalries with nearby baseball powerhouses Texas and Rice will only add to the conference’s national slate.
Edge contain. Yes, Ole Miss only gained 34 yards rushing (the running backs had more like 60 on 16 attempts), but the edge players were bailed out time and again by Williams and Rambo. Washington and Vasser had a couple of nice stops, but both sucked inside too often.
As Georgia tries to go above .500 in conference for the first time in nearly two years, I had a similar thought. If Georgia showed a weakness on defense at Ole Miss, it was on the edge. The Rebels didn’t have the players or scheme to exploit it, but the next opponent does. I’m confident in the interior line to slow the dive plays and even the inside zone-reads of the MSU spread option. It’s when the outside defenders bite on the dive and the option develops outside that I get a little more concerned.
You can see a bit of what I’m talking about on MSU’s first score against Georgia last year. (Sorry for the video quality – it’s the only clip of the play I could find.) The inside fake draws in the defense. Though the quarterback is covered, the pitch isn’t, and it’s an easy score.
Georgia’s pursuit on defense can be a blessing, and it’s a big reason why Ole Miss could do so little on Saturday. They got after everyone. It’s a fine line between GATA and overpursuit as we saw on the punt return reverse. Georgia will at least study and practice against the MSU offense this week, so the need to stay at home and pay attention will be driven home a lot more than they would against a random trick play.
At the same time, Georgia’s defense – even with Robinson back – will have a lot of young guys who are seeing these option plays for the first time, and they’ll have to make good decisions all afternoon. Cheating inside leaves you vulnerable on the edge, and watching the edge leaves the middle open for tough runners in Relf and Ballard. Georgia’s objective will be to limit gains on early downs and force MSU into longer second and third downs where the Mississippi State passing game becomes much more predictable and inefficient.
Saturday’s game at Ole Miss was one of those classic Mark Richt games that lets you read into it what you want. Fans who were looking to the game as some sort of benchmark for the rest of the season were left wanting. Had Georgia escaped at the last minute or, God forbid, lost to Ole Miss, the prognosis would have been easy. Had Georgia put up a number in the 40s while holding the Rebels scoreless, we might have enough data points to buy into the belief that the team was getting its act together for a strong push through the rest of its schedule.
But, no, progress is rarely linear. This was hardly a regression, unless you’re talking about some very specific special teams plays. Some of the most important aspects of the team – the defense, Crowell, Murray’s efficiency – were as good as they’ve been all year. There’s definitely much to build on. It’s a double-digit SEC road win, and those are rare even against what might be the worst team in the conference. At least we can say with some certainty that Georgia won’t hold that distinction.
I imagine a few fans had this discussion with themselves after the game…
Georgia was able to hold Ole Miss to 183 yards of offense and outgained the Rebels by nearly 300 yards while holding the Rebels at arm’s length all day. Yeah, but… You’d hope to get more than 27 points and three touchdowns out of such a statistically dominant performance.
Still, they needed trick plays to even make it a game. Yeah, but… Those points still counted. It’s one thing to fall for a fake or turn the ball over, but it’s another for those errors to put points on the board. Two of Georgia’s four opponents to date have successfully used gadget plays for scores, and it’s been a sore spot for the program going back to the 2005 loss to West Virginia.
Ole Miss had two touchdowns called back due to penalties. This game was uncomfortably closer than it should have been. Yeah, but… Georgia’s decisions on offense, especially in the third and fourth quarters, were guided by the situation. We would have liked to have seen more points result from those drives, but Georgia ate up clock and yards, didn’t shoot themselves in the foot, and finished with a second-half shutout.
So Georgia ran over 50 times and dominated the time of possession. Classic ground-based way to manage an inferior opponent, right? Yeah, but… Georgia still showed some punch through the air. Charles’s sideline touchdown reception was pro-quality. White’s route down the seam was perfect, and then he showed a nice move to bounce off the lone defender and turn the play into a score. Mitchell continues to become a player for defenses to worry about. Most encouraging was the continued use of passes out of the backfield. Samuel had a couple of quality catches. Murray’s recognition of a blitz and finding Samuel releasing outside in the fourth quarter is something he needs to file away for future use.
Crowell put up 150 yards – well, at least until he went backwards on those last few carries. Yeah, but… Are we going to have to start a Crowell Durability Watch? He’s playing with injured ribs, then he wasn’t in the right pads, and now 30 carries leaves him winded. Is that good news for a guy who’s clearly a difference-maker when he’s on the field?
Georgia has proven stars in almost all areas of special teams. Yeah, but… With the exception of Butler’s leg, it was not the best day for Georgia’s special teams. There’s no shortage of amateur shrinks trying to figure out what’s wrong with Walsh. Punt coverage was burned once and got bailed out a second time on a penalty. Branden Smith’s Nutmeg Technique of fielding a punt was very nearly a disaster. Poor Marc Deas was all but helpless to defend the onside kick against three or four oncoming Rebels. Even Boykin couldn’t do much of anything with two kickoff return opportunities.
A few other things:
The defense is coming on without two of its most talented players. It will be huge to add ‘Tree and Robinson back to the mix. That said, Williams, Gilliard, and Herrera have done nice work holding down the middle. Noticing a player doesn’t always mean the guy is playing the correct assignment, but you saw a lot of Herrera’s #52 jersey around the ball on Saturday.
The same can be said for the receivers. The emergence of Bennett and Mitchell has been a boon, and the trio of King, Bennett, and Mitchell are a good first group. But the group is still missing a starter (Brown) and an experienced reserve (Wooten). On the other hand, if a depleted receiving corps leads the staff to look more at the tight ends and backs in the passing game, it’s not the end of the world.
I appreciate the late-game strategy to salt it away with the running game, but the offense showed it’s not really built for that. The line is mangled and struggled to make consistent holes against a defense that gave up 281 yards on the ground to Vandy. Crowell is a freshman still building endurance. Thomas isn’t a power back, though he ran well on Saturday. Samuel is often stopped for little gain. Boykin was inserted a couple of times but saw no carries. I guess Ogletree and Figgins aren’t options to carry the ball – if they are, the staff doesn’t act like it.
I have to credit Ole Miss. After the awful loss at Vandy and going down 17-0 to Georgia, they didn’t fold. Of course Georgia was culpable in getting the Rebels back in the game, but the execution on the gadget plays that defined the second quarter and framed the closer-than-we’d-like second half was sharp. There is of course a lot of talk about Houston Nutt’s future, but I saw nothing to show me that he’s lost his team.
Only one Ole Miss player caught more Rebel passes than Bacarri Rambo.
Two games this weekend will give Georgia a look at three of their next four opponents. One took place last night, and one will be the early game on Saturday.
The Mississippi State offense doesn’t look that different from what we saw in Starkville last year, but they did look more comfortable in what they do (as much as one can against LSU). Our challenges will be similar – stopping the option while paying attention to shots taken downfield. I doubt we can count on Georgia’s defensive front to be as disruptive as LSU’s was, but the goal is the same: get into the backfield to make the read difficult, and put the Bulldogs into longer-yardage situations where they become much more predictable and vulnerable. LSU and a few MSU injuries along the offensive line made that look a lot easier than it is.
On the other side of the ball, MSU looked tough on defense. LSU was effective in pounding the ball with a series of wrecking balls at tailback, and the MSU defense gradually softened. I don’t know that Georgia has the kind of running back that LSU used to good effect last night – Samuel is probably the closest. Crowell isn’t slight – any more than Hearst was – but he’s not going to be confused for a power back. That said, it’s not as if Crowell won’t have opportunities. MSU looked tough at home, but this was the same defense that yielded 150 yards to Michael Dyer a week ago.
LSU did provide a useful lesson in the way they used their passing game. Though much of their approach had to do with Lee’s capabilities, they were efficient, patient, and effective with short passes. Georgia found similar success against South Carolina in the second half. Those slants and screens will be there, and the tight ends will have big opportunities.
One other game worth watching, or at least following up on, this weekend is Mississippi’s trip to Vanderbilt. This is the 12:21 SEC Network game, so those of us at the Georgia game won’t be able to see much of it. Two of Georgia’s next four opponents will play their SEC opener, and we’ll get a better idea of the relative threat of these teams. Ole Miss struggled on offense in their opener, but they were in a position to beat BYU. They got a bit of a scare from FCS team Southern Illinois a week ago but avoided a repeat of the Jacksonville St. debacle of a year ago. Vandy, with a win, would move to 3-0 on the season. They’ve already notched a win over a weak UConn team.
Tuesday’s news that DL Jordan Watkins chose Stanford over Georgia brought into focus one of the chief problems Mark Richt will have on the recruiting trail between now and December. The issue isn’t even that Watkins went elsewhere. It’s how any news like this will be reported for the next several months.
Here’s the AJC’s take on the story. It’s reported five paragraphs in that “the Cardinal gained inside position after (Watkins) took an official visit to the California school in July.” Watkins said after the July visit that “I felt like it was the place I really wanted to be.”
But what was the lede? “UGA’s 0-2 start and widespread speculation over Mark Richt’s future may have cost the Bulldogs the chance to land one of the nation’s most-heavily recruited college football prospects.” Really?
It’s not worth dwelling on. Even if Richt’s status weren’t a factor in this particular decision, you can bet top prospects across the region are being beaten over the head with the uncertainty. It doesn’t help that Georgia’s own athletic board is contributing to the fodder. No one is making it up though – 6-7 happened, the program has been in decline for a few years, and Richt’s position is shaky. If the media and negative fans stopped piling on tomorrow, the body of work still says it plainly and loudly enough. Richt can get rid of the gray area by winning games and titles. It’s a losing proposition when you have to waste words about the exact temperature of the hot seat.
With a win expected on Saturday, a lot of people are using the down time to reassess Richt and the goals for the season. Some of them have a lot sharper crystal ball than I do. If he wins these games, if he loses that game, if he finishes with this record…they seem to have the formula down. I can’t see much further than the last game.
It’s an indefensible position to claim that things are better for an embattled coach after another loss and an 0-2 start, but I think there’s a little tone-deafness in how Georgia fans were reported to have taken the latest loss. You’ll find someone to support any claims of “unabating vitriol.” Still, I’ve been surprised with the reaction to the South Carolina game. It’s not unbridled optimism, but the mood is definitely not as black and lynch mob-by as it was a week ago – even after another loss was added on top of the first.
I think the best we can say is that not many minds were changed by the South Carolina game. A loss didn’t cheer those already resigned to the need for a new coach. On the other hand, that wasn’t the kind of game that left you exasperated with the coaches and without hope for the rest of the season. You can’t say that about the opener.
I was disappointed by Saturday’s loss, but even sitting there as the stands emptied I couldn’t wait to see the team back out there again. It was just starting to get good. I want to see what Crowell, Mitchell, Boykin, Jones, and even Bennett will do next. It was exciting and entertaining football by a team that picked itself up from the mat half a dozen times – again, a 180 from last week. That’s certainly no claim that the ship was righted and all of the problems are in the past. It even has little to do with Richt. Whether this is his last year or not, Georgia won’t lack for interesting players, and that makes for fun games.
Of course the progress won’t be linear, and two points don’t make a trendline. We all know what we’d like to see this weekend, but we’ve also all seen mid-day yawners in front of a disinterested half-full stadium before. It’s also wrong to think that things will get easier even if the immediate schedule might not feature many ranked teams. Three of Georgia’s next four SEC games are on the road, and the one conference home game is against a quality opponent that will be desperate for their first SEC win. Mark Richt’s next challenge will be sustaining the urgency and fight the team showed against South Carolina. That game, although a loss, still gave the fans hope that the team has enough to navigate the rest of its schedule. It’s now up to Richt to deliver on that potential.
It was our first game back in Sanford Stadium since the Dawgs sent Tech home with a loss last November. What did you think?
The Scene
Traffic wasn’t bad around town even at 11 AM. Though central campus was pretty thick with tents, we were still able to navigate down Milledge and Lumpkin without much standstill. We must’ve been between the early arrivers and the last-minute crowd. Postgame traffic wasn’t terrible after an hour or so. Downtown was packed since the ~8:00 finish allowed for things to move right into a full evening of Athens nightlife. I saw a lot more charter buses than I remember in the past, and they didn’t help things move through downtown.
It was unfortunate to find the Visual Arts building blocked off for renovation. The College of Environmental Design will benefit from the refurbished building, but it will affect some nice tailgating spaces on the eastern edge of North Campus. Otherwise, I didn’t see many problems in and around North Campus. It was a perfect day for a tailgate and a nice change from the typical blast furnace of a Georgia-South Carolina game.
Scoreboard
I liked the new scoreboard. At a cost of $1.4 million, I hope you did too. The display was crisp, the animations popped, and no one in our eastern perch had a problem seeing anything. The board looked great when it went full-screen. I had to remember to look at the scoreboards rimming the upper deck to see time as well as down and distance when the main display went full-screen, but that’s not a problem. Some constructive criticisms:
If you’re going to run scores, keep them updated. I think there are still 7 minutes left in the Auburn/MSU game. Those running the show must’ve realized the problem because we started seeing the sides of the scoreboard increasingly used for stats, and I prefer that anyway. You have this large screen with its best feature being the dynamic repurposing of areas of the display. Some individual stats mixed in would’ve been nice, too.
The live video on the board was cropped too closely. I tried to watch a bit of the 3rd quarter on the board since it required less looking directly into the sun, but it was difficult with the shot so tightly zoomed in on the QB. Pull it back a bit and let us see the play.
There’s a fine line between augmenting the game with the videos and music and going into ACC territory. I’m not even talking about the blatent ads that pay the bills. Keep Zombie Nation out of our stadium.
Redcoats
I have mixed feelings about moving the band to the west stands. The point was to project their sound to more of the stadium, and that worked. Of course the sound isn’t going to be as strong in my part of the stadium as when they sat three sections over from me, but I think they project well to all corners now. It’s not an ideal arrangement with the visitor’s band so close – the result more often than not was just indistiguishable noise.
Another problem was the separation of the band from the cheerleaders and main block of students. You lose a bit of punch there without the cheerleaders, band, and students in the same corner – coordination starting and sustaining cheers was tough on Saturday.
The new pregame was a welcome refresh. The only hiccup was the attempt to start a GEORGIA-BULLDOGS cheer, but that will work itself out as fans get used to what’s going on. It’s necessary but not good that the band has to exit the field in the east endzone and hoof it along the track all the way back to the west stands. I think it was the midpoint of the first quarter and several series into the game before they were able to play much of anything from the stands. You can only do so much with the congestion of that narrow track corridor, but the pace of getting them back into the stands after pregame has to pick up.
This was a great touch:
The Crowd
For the most part, the back-and-forth flow of the game led to an involved and supportive crowd. Of course there were people around who were overserved or had their minds made up about players and coaches a long time ago (easily identified with the clever and original nicknames they used like “Booboo”.) I can only speak for myself, but a lot of the optimism with which I left the stadium despite the loss came from observing how the people around me handled the events and outcome of the game. If the tone after the Boise game (from those who even bothered to stay) was one of torches and pitchforks, the tone Saturday was one of disappointment tempered by anticipation of what this team and its young stars can become.
L’Affaire Grantham
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