At least he didn’t bring up the weather.

During the most recent Bulldog Hotline, a Georgia fan cites the most offbeat reason I’ve yet heard about why Jacksonville isn’t a neutral site game:  “Lance in Uvalda asks if Richt really thinks it is a neutral field, especially with all of the financial impact that the state of Florida gets from it…”

Maybe Lance needs to be reminded how much the city pays Georgia to play there – a lot of Florida dollars flowing back to a Georgia institution.

Mark Richt, bless his heart, goes from diplomatic to honest in his response.

Richt reminds that he doesn’t make comments on that anymore. Says it is like an away game for both teams, with travel and the 70 man roster. Feels like an away game until you get in the stadium with the 50-50 split. Definitely neutral in the that regard.  [Emphasis added.]

I’ll be curious to see if the Jax grumbling dies down in the near term as a result of the winning streak.

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The (post-game) celebration

I’ve got one last observation about what I watched from my seat Saturday to share with you.  It’s very easy to wax cynical about the business side of college football – often, for good reasons – and so it’s also easy to overlook what makes these kids play with the passion they do.

I got a reminder of that after the win.

Those kids have been jumped on by plenty of folks for shortcomings, both real and imagined, and had to be emotionally drained after as intense a game as Georgia has played in a long time.  But you never would have known that from the sheer joy on display as virtually the entire team came over to celebrate with the fans.

Two or three things stuck with me as I watched them.  One was Cornelius Washington, who, you may remember, had a blow up after Crowell’s dismissal that didn’t sit so well with the fan base, sporting a smile you could see a mile away and getting plenty of love back.  Then there was John Theus, sporting the obligatory offensive-lineman-with-a-cut-over-his-nose look and a big ol’ grin.  But the best of all was Aaron Murray and Jarvis Jones talking by themselves on the ten-yard line.  You didn’t need to read lips to know what that conversation was about.

And then there’s the head coach.  Richt’s taken plenty of heat of late.  There were lots of doubters going into the Cocktail Party.  It would have been easy to walk off the field straight into the locker room and celebrate in private.  There are some coaches I can think of who would have been happy gloating.  But say what you will about Mark Richt, that’s not one of his shortcomings.  Instead, he worked his way down to our end of the field before the players did and celebrated – not for himself, but with us.

And then he thanked us.

It’s information overload, PAWWWWLLL.

If Danny Sheridan didn’t exist, surely ‘Bama fans would have to invent him.

Dawg stat watch, Week 9

Georgia’s in the driver’s seat on the road to Atlanta, so it’s time to return to the traditional format.

You should remember the drill.  Below are a set of statistical parameters that have been met by every Mark Richt-coached Georgia squad that’s made it to the SECCG.  So let’s see how this year’s team fares in comparison to its predecessors (all stats via cfbstats.com):

1. Hold opponents under 18 points per game.  As a team, Georgia is yielding 22.3 ppg.
2. Finish at least +8 in turnover margin.  Georgia’s turnover margin is +3.
3. Average better than 380 yards per game on offense.  Georgia’s offense is averaging 460 ypg.
4. Finish in the top five in total defensive yardage.  Georgia’s defense ranks eighth in total defense.
5. Finish in the top three in first downs.  Georgia is fifth in first downs.
6. Finish no worse than third in passing yardage.  Georgia is fourth in passing yardage.
7. Finish no worse than third in sacks.  Georgia is tenth in sacks.

Considering how they got where they are, those stats are none too surprising.  The good news is that if they do have their mojo back, the Dawgs won’t see another strong defense the rest of the regular season (Ole Miss is the best of the bunch, at 48th in total defense).  No opposing team’s offense is as highly ranked as Georgia’s, either.  And check out Auburn’s standing in total offense.

One sure sign of a painful loss

Will Muschamp resorts to an “in the arena” comment.