Georgia’s turnover margin during the Richt era, per the NCAA stats site:
- 2009: -16
- 2008: -3
- 2007: +9
- 2006: -1
- 2005: +11
- 2004: -2
- 2003: +11
- 2002: -8
- 2001: +1* (*regular season only)
Richt has never coached a team that averaged a per game turnover margin greater than one – plus or minus – until the past season. And that includes two seasons with a freshman starting at quarterback.
Get The Picture 
Georgia pretty much guaranteed to be #1 on PhilSteele’s “Turnovers=Turnaround?” article this year.
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Richt’s biggest detractors say he can’t make the adjustments. Except from 2008-2009, every year when there was a (-) in turnover margin, there was a signifigant gain in the right direction the next season. Something must be going on right to fix it.
Now this past season was TERRIBLE. So Richt, again proving his detractors wrong, shook up the defensive coaching staff.
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Last year was nauseating with the turnovers… Like Minnesota Vikings, but we managed to do it all season.
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Anyone gonna comment on that number for 2002?
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Overall total for turnovers under CMR: +2. So we were +18 and due for some statistical correction.
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When I looked at the 2002, it made me think about how many nailbiters we had that year. Virtually every big game came down to the wire because of turnovers.
-Clemson returned a fumble for a TD and we won by 3
-We fumbled inside the Cocks’ 10 in Columbia and won on their miracle fumble on virtually the last play
-Greenie’s pick 6 in T-town virtually put the Tide back in a game we had dominated. We won on a Billy Bennett FG
-Shock’s pick 6 in Florida let the Gators take control of the game and we lost by 7
-Pretty sure we put it on the ground in the first half in Auburn…thank you, Michael Johnson.
We finally stopped putting it on the ground and throwing picks and dominated teams. However, even in the Sugar Bowl, Shock’s fumble let FSU hang around longer than they deserved. We were just sporatic. Explosive one minute, tripping over ourselves the next. But…we had the most dependable kicker (outside Duval Co. lines) in the nation, a dominating pash rusher, an attacking D, a 1,000 rusher, 2 deep threats at WR, and a QB w/ ice water running through his veins. That will overcome a lot.
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What I remember most about that first half at AU in 02 was that Sean Jones personally kept us from going down by about 4 touchdowns. I think he had a couple of picks and a long punt return (the passage of time and the diminishment of my already feeble brain prevent me from confidently recalling it all), but whatever it was, he personally got us out of several holes. We kind of came out smoking in the 3rd, faltered late in the 4th, and then broke their ignorant country hearts with 77X takeoff. Thank you, Horace Willis.
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gah, that 2002 number blows my mind. how good was that team?
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Dawg Nation’s four word motto for 2010:
“Regression toward the mean”
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Amen to that.
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It’s a shocking number, to be sure, but I think it’s a little bit artifically inflated. To a certain extent TOs induce a negative feedback loop. You turnover the ball, get in a hole, and you have to throw your way out of it. Cox certainly threw some ill advised balls, but a disproportionate number of his interceptions came in such situations (the Florida game comes to mind, for Gray too).
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Yeah, but it’s not like Georgia was the only school on the receiving end of a beat down or two last season. And it doesn’t explain how they only managed to recover a paltry two fumbles all year.
To paraphrase John Houseman, the Dawgs got that sparkling 118th national ranking last season the old fashioned way: they earned it.
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