The big question for this Saturday, of course, is how much the coaches and players will care about the game. As Seth Emerson notes, things are a little weird right now.
John Lilly, one of the symbols of the weird transition going on with the Georgia football team, walked through a hotel lobby here on Sunday night still wearing a Georgia hat. He will serve as the team’s offensive coordinator in the bowl, but he has already cleaned out his office back home in Athens.
Other players and staffers began streaming in on Sunday. It officially was reporting day for Georgia’s final week, but more than a few coaches and players on this year’s team will be no-shows.
The former head coach is in Miami. The new head coach is still with his former team. The interim head coach is only with the Bulldogs one more week until he joins South Carolina. The former defensive coordinator is also back at Alabama, already in his new job. The former offensive coordinator will not be here, nor will one other defensive assistant. The quarterback who started this year’s previous game in Jacksonville has already transferred and found a new school.
All that served as the backdrop Monday as the Bulldogs return to practice, preparing for a match-up with Penn State in the TaxSlayer Bowl that many have deemed irrelevant.
Yeah, just a little.
I don’t think the coaches will mail it in, if only for reasons of professional pride. But I can see how the players might struggle with motivation. If only Penn State had a coach capable of pissing off Georgia folks… oh, wait.
By the way, as a side note, did you know Marshall Morgan has a chance to set a conference career scoring mark? Or that, if Georgia wins, Greyson Lambert would tie D.J. Shockley for the highest win percentage (.833) among starting quarterbacks in the Richt era?
Like I said, things are a little weird right now.