I gave up; you did, too.

“That wasn’t the total plan coming in,” offensive coordinator Mike Bobo said. “We were going to try to be balanced. But I just felt like after the first series, even though we gave up a couple of pressures, I felt like we could get open in their secondary. We just kind of opened it up from there.”

Every Georgia Tech game marks an anniversary of sorts.  I started GTP after the 2006 win over the Jackets.  Every win has been enjoyable, but there’s something more deeply satisfying about today’s.

For one thing, it caps a remarkable year.  After an 0-2 start, this team beat every longstanding rival on the schedule, something it hadn’t done in 30 years, and in the process, nullified the loss to South Carolina.  Georgia is going to the SECCG to face the most formidable team in the country.  I don’t argue that the Dawgs will likely open as a substantial underdog, but I’m not writing them off, either.

And that’s because Mark Richt and his coaching staff have come full circle.  In some ways, that’s even more remarkable than the 10-2 record.  The odds on a major program recovering from a sustained slump under the same head coach are fairly long.  But Richt has done just that.  Georgia dominated its in state rival in a way it hadn’t done in several years and it did so in large part by outcoaching the Yellow Jackets staff.

The quote from Bobo above is indicative of how far they’ve come.  Last year’s game wound up being a nail biter partly because he couldn’t keep his foot on the gas.  That wasn’t a problem this go ’round – all the more remarkable because he didn’t have a full deck to play with.

And Grantham continues to prove that he’s as good making halftime adjustments as any Georgia defensive coordinator in memory.  Against a triple option that gained almost 200 yards in the first half, Georgia came out in the second half and did this with Tech on its first four possessions: three plays, interception; four plays, punt; one play, interception; 13 plays, turnover on downs.

I can’t say I know exactly what sort of progress Greg McGarity was looking for going into this season.  From my selfish standpoint, I was looking for a team that was prepared to compete for a full sixty minutes.  I was also looking for a team that was prepared.  It hasn’t always been a smooth ride, but I can’t argue with where this team finds itself tonight.  And so I find myself ready to believe again.  And, boy, is that a good feeling to rediscover.

Running backs? We don’t need no stinkin’ running backs.

I swear, this reads like a bad April Fools’ joke.

A trio of Georgia running backs have been suspended for the upcoming game against New Mexico State.

As first reported by ESPN, Dawg Post has confirmed tailbacks Isaiah Crowell, Carlton Thomas and Ken Malcome have been suspended for a violation of team rules.

Malcome’s got a helluva sense of timing, doesn’t he?

I guess this week Georgia will be the team lined up in the five-receiver sets.

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UPDATE:  Hmm.  This is kind of interesting.

… There was speculation leading up to the Florida game on Saturday that Crowell was facing a possible suspension, but he played.

Athletic director Greg McGarity said “absolutely not,” this afternoon when asked by The Athens Banner-Herald if discipline was held over until after the Florida game.

“This had nothing to do with the Florida game or anything,” McGarity said. “It was all timing.”

More on men behaving badly

You know, I thought James Franklin’s let’s get ready to rumble moment on the field Saturday night was sparked by him taking offense at what he perceived as dirty play by one or some of Georgia’s players.  I didn’t think he went about his business in the best way, but I could understand his being upset.

But that’s not exactly what set Franklin off.  (h/t SPORTSbyBROOKS)

If you want the transcript of that, here ’tis:

… In video captured by WSMV-TV in Nashville, Franklin talked to Georgia coach Mark Richt on the field about Georgia “rubbing our face in it right after the game. And then your coach when I tell him about it, then he goes after me and the fight starts.”

Richt responded by telling Franklin: “That’s what I thought happened.”

Oy vey.  At that point, Richt’s got to wonder what in the hell he’s gotten himself into.  All he wanted was a nice little “good game, coach” exchange after a too close for comfort win.  Instead, he found himself inserted into a scene straight out of middle school.

I mean, this turned out to be about a head coach at the conference’s most uppah-crust school taking offense at being verbally dissed by a twenty-something kid?  Seriously?  If I’m Mike Slive, I’d be tempted to announce as punishment that Franklin and Grantham are being sent to time-out without supper.

The thing is, though, while I don’t doubt that Grantham foolishly reacted in the heat of the moment, there’s a part of me that wonders if there wasn’t something more calculating behind Franklin’s actions.  And I’m not the only one.

… And what I got out of his “we won’t back down” press conference is that he — very rightly — had his team come into this game determined not to be the patsy. Georgia is a wobbly traditional heavyweight that they could land some punches against, so Franklin wanted to be the aggressor. That was evident from the trick plays, the fake punt, the chippiness, the chop blocks, etc.

I don’t begrudge them that. If you want to take over Vandy and have it be something other than Vandy, then you go hard after a team like Georgia.

I do begrudge the passive aggressive “we’re gonna play with class” posturing after the fact. Franklin wanted this fight and he got what he asked for. It’s disingenuous for him to feign surprise at the outcome.

That’s reinforced by what Franklin was evidently selling recruits afterwards.

… Sealand said he felt like running on the field in support of his future college coach. “Honestly, it got my heart pumping, and I know with a lot of the recruits around me, it got their hearts pumping, too. It gave me a lot of pride about Vanderbilt and made me realize how much I love that school already without being up there yet. Coach Franklin has won his players over, and has already won me over, too.”

East Paulding defensive lineman LaDarius Banks, “Honestly, I liked the confrontation. I’m all for getting after it. At a certain point, though, it’s college football and you’re supposed to conduct yourselves accordingly. As of right now, there are a lot of players on Vanderbilt’s team from Georgia, and what happened on Saturday is going to stir up a good rivalry over the next few years.”

Banks met with Franklin after the game. “I can’t really explain how Coach Frankin was … OK, he was pissed. All the other coaches were trying to calm him down. Everybody was fired up about what happened.”

Come to Vandy:  we may not win much, but at least we won’t take anybody’s shit anymore.  You know, that’s not the worst sales pitch in the world for a program that largely been a doormat for decades.  Matt Zemek’s buying it.

The part Franklin likely didn’t count on, but turned out to be the bonus that made the confrontation so much bigger, was Grantham’s rapid combustibility.  If he’s being chewed out by Richt and McGarity, it ought to be over his stupidity in responding, not his passion.  That’s the life lesson he needs to take away from this.

Particularly because, as Groo notes, the coaches on Georgia’s sideline weren’t doing a good job keeping emotions under control during the game.

… 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.

That, too, reinforces my impression that a lot of this was calculated on Franklin’s part.  That’s not bad coaching, although you wonder how sustainable it is over the long haul.

And don’t take my word for Franklin’s nature here.  Take his:

“I’m not a guy who really has a whole lot of regrets,” Franklin said. “I’m really calculated and pretty thought out in the things that I do, for the most part. I am an emotional guy, as most of you guys know.”

Well, after a home loss, he’s got his team on the map for the moment.  That’s something.  Let’s see what he does with it from here.

And let’s see what Grantham takes from this.

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UPDATE:  Mark Bradley, in throwing the fish bait out, offers this warning:

(An aside here: I’d also be careful about angering this Vandy coach.  James Franklin is going to beat some big names very soon.)

Is it too much to hope that Georgia Tech could play Vanderbilt real soon?  The Bradley column pondering that meeting of coaching legends would be epic.

Mike Slive is all over Todd Grantham.

Uh oh, Grantham got called into the principal’s office.

Georgia Athletic Director Greg McGarity has already met with defensive coordinator Todd Grantham regarding the postgame confrontation with Vanderbilt head coach James Franklin on Saturday and the Southeastern Conference is in the process of reviewing the incident.

McGarity, who was in Nashville on Saturday, said he discussed the situation with Georgia head coach Mark Richt by telephone on Sunday, then met with Grantham face-to-face in his office at Butts-Mehre Heritage Hall early Monday morning. Meanwhile, both Georgia and Vanderbilt have been asked by SEC Commissioner Mike Slive to submit written reports to the league office for review.

Yeah!  Two grown men making asses out of themselves in public.  That’s the kind of crisis Mike Slive can sink his teeth into!

By the way, Grantham is very, very sorry.

… Grantham told the AJC Monday morning he regretted his actions after Saturday’s game.

“First of all, I love my players and appreciate their hard work and investment in our program,” Grantham said. “I feel a responsibility and loyalty to protect and stand up for them. However, I feel it’s important to educate them in all areas of life. While my intentions were genuine, I feel it was unfortunate that things escalated to a confrontation. However, I’ll use it as a learning experience for my self as well as my players so that we all become better men.”

I’m sure he’ll get right on that after he finishes ripping his players a new one over the second-half run defense play.

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UPDATE:  If Mike Slive really wants to channel his inner Miss Manners, here’s something else he can put on his to-do list.

From hot seat to hot hire

Funny, but when I heard the news about Arizona firing Mike Stoops, I had this exact thought pass through my head:

… Imagine Byrne, frantically refreshing ESPN, waiting for news that Georgia has foolishly opted to fire Richt after the Bulldogs go 8-4 in the regular season – let’s say Georgia loses to Georgia Tech to end the regular season. How quickly does Arizona fire up the private jet to hire Richt? All the names on the list would quickly move to the background should he become available; they should, at least. If that came to pass, Georgia’s loss would be Arizona’s enormous gain.

I’m not saying McGarity wouldn’t necessarily be justified in making a move – at this point, who knows yet? – but I’d expect the media to turn on a dime and do a 180 if it happened.

And it sure as hell would mean that he’d have to make a home run hire for a replacement, or get crucified in the aftermath.

The jury is still out.

I get the point John Pennington makes in response to this quote from Greg McGarity –

“What everyone must do at a halfway point — it’s just like the halfway point of a project the halfway point of anything you do — it’s how you finish that really is the key thing that everyone has to focus on right now,” McGarity said. “Once you think you might have it figured out or you may rest on your laurels so to speak, that’s when you have problems. The message that we need to have and the message that everyone needs to have is that each week gets bigger and bigger. To get to certain levels, you have to work that much harder.”

… that the program would be better served by Georgia’s AD reserving comment until the season’s over.  I’m just not sure I agree with it.

For one thing, complacency has been Richt’s Achilles’ heel the last couple of seasons.  I’m not sure McGarity’s doing anything more there than stating a gentle reminder of the obvious.  (And perhaps that message is a public one because it’s intended to be directed more at Richt’s charges than the head coach.)

And as for this,

“Obviously you’re winning the games that really you need to win,” McGarity said. “At the same time, those teams have really struggled. I don’t know if there’s a (conference) win among them. You’ve got to keep things in perspective because there are some big tests coming up.”

… there’s a little more context to it.

McGarity didn’t want to diminish winning at Neyland Stadium “because everybody knows how tough it is to win there regardless of Tennessee’s program.”

Going forward, McGarity says this team “has very good leadership and I think that translates into doing the right things on and off the field.”

To me, McGarity sounds like he’s letting us know he’s in the same place most of the fan base is right now – hopefulness tempered by remembering what’s gone on over the previous two seasons.  Honestly, isn’t that where we want him?

Upon further review: is the hot seat meme on the hot seat?

I never bought into the preseason line of thought that said Mark Richt had to win a certain number of games to keep his job.  For one thing (and to his credit), McGarity refused to judge Richt on that basis.

What I did think Richt would have to do in order for the program to show enough improvement was to re-instill a sense of effort and urgency, things which had been lacking noticeably over the past few seasons.  Given the level of Georgia’s talent and the schedule advantage the Dawgs have over the rest of their SEC East rivals, I thought that if Richt could recover some of the mojo from earlier in his head coaching career, his team would be in the thick of things contending for the top of the division.

And halfway through the regular season, that’s exactly where we find Georgia.  The misgivings from the 0-2 start (which really arose from how unprepared the team looked against Boise State) have given way to cautious optimism based on several factors which were on prominent display Saturday night in Knoxville.

• Pass defense.  Continuing a trend in its conference games, Georgia’s defense forced Tennessee, the SEC’s top passing offense coming in, to its lowest passer rating of the season.  And that was without Cornelius Washington.  The secondary’s confidence grows palpably, and with good reason.  It’s only given up one passing touchdown during the winning streak, on that fluky play at Ole Miss.
• Linebacking play.  They certainly benefited from the improvement on the defensive line, but it’s not hard to be impressed with the way that Georgia has generated depth at this position.  Herrera has been fabulous for a true freshman and Gilliard continued his steady play in Knoxville.  Vasser looked good on run defense, too.  And then there’s Jarvis Jones, who’s been the absolute rock that this defense is based on.
• Defensive line.  Did anyone notice that Jenkins got the start Saturday night?  The reason you may not have is that his play and Geathers’ have become interchangeable.  Georgia’s success stopping the run starts with those two.
• Offensive line.  Yeah, the depth situation remains scary.  But the emergence of Dallas Lee has made it a little less so.  Two red zone rushing touchdowns were a good sign.
• Receivers.  No worries with the tight ends.  It was interesting to see how much the early offensive game plan keyed on King, but some of that was dictated by the Vols’ defensive strategy.  Malcolm Mitchell, quite simply, is a revelation.  With the development of a legitimate deep threat, this bunch can contribute.
• Running backs.  I’m truly amazed by the criticism of Crowell that he’s somehow not tough enough.   He’s fourth in the conference in rushing, despite that offensive line.  And he had a rough night, relatively speaking.  But despite facing a defense that was keyed to stop him (if you doubt that, watch Georgia’s very first offensive play of the game) and getting banged up in the process, he still managed to score those two big third-quarter TDs, displaying both power and speed.  Carlton Thomas is one of the most improved players on the team and has become a legitimate contributor on offense.  The fullbacks are doing exactly what they need to do, block their asses off.
• Aaron Murray.  Yes, he needs to refine his touch on the deep pass.  (Damn, that throw to Mitchell was on the money, though.)  But look at the rest of what he brought to the table against UT.  He only threw one bad ball all night, he displayed good touch on the short and intermediate throws and he had several key runs.  He seems to be learning that he doesn’t have to carry the team all by his lonesome.  That’ll make him a better quarterback.
• Special teams.  Butler had another terrific game.  Walsh seems to be regrouping on his field goal kicking, but didn’t have his usual distance on kickoffs (surely those aren’t related).  Kickoff coverage wasn’t the greatest, but overall, Georgia didn’t cost itself in this department.  That’s an improvement over the past few weeks.
• Coaching.  The final margin may not reflect it, but I thought that was the best coached game Georgia’s turned in this season.  Richt set the tone early with those fourth down calls on the opening drive.  Grantham’s halftime adjustments were VanGorder-like (Tennessee had eleven total yards in the decisive third quarter).  And Bobo did a good job both in taking what the Vol defense was giving him – had they hit a couple more of those downfield shots, the game would have turned into a rout – and in managing his personnel, particularly with Crowell being dinged up.

And so they march on to Nashville.  The Dawgs aren’t out of the woods yet by any means, but at least they’ve got a shot.  Assuming they get by Vanderbilt, the bye week comes at a good time to get several key players some much-needed time to heal.  This could be a formidable bunch that steps on the field to face Florida.  Now if Richt can only get them to realize that…

Lucky thirteen

Let’s see… key high-profile match ups potentially tossed aside, Greg McGarity worried about liquidated damages provisions and coaches complaining about unbalanced schedules and trips to Texas.

Yeah, this whole thirteen-team schedule thingy looks like it’ll be a breeze to put together.  No wonder you’ve already got conference athletic directors undercutting the boss’ message.

SEC, rivalries über alles.

After reading McGarity’s comments about the SEC’s scheduling plans for a 13-school conference, I think if they can devise something that threads the needle between two major considerations, somebody should be in line to win a Nobel Prize in mathematics:

– McGarity reiterated that certain rivalries, such as Georgia-Auburn, will receive a strong push to be retained. He also cited Tennessee-Alabama

“You’ll probably see several A.D.s that will think it’s very important to preserve several long-standing games,” he said. “You’ve got a handful of games there that date back so many years. There’s a definite hope that those games are preserved.”

– Don’t look for a ninth conference game to simply be added to the 2012 schedule. McGarity pointed out that Georgia’s non-conference schedule is filled through 2014.

“You would end up getting out of contracts,” McGarity said. “But I think the eight-game model is probably the one that everybody is comfortable with. But who knows, we haven’t even discussed it yet. We’re not sure what will be on the table to discuss until we meet as a group.”

Honestly, I don’t think they can reconcile the two.  And if they can’t, I know which of the two should matter more.  Excuse me, does matter more.  Unfortunately, my guess is that when push comes to shove, the ADs won’t agree with me.

Even a soulless robot like Nick Saban knows that preserving rivalries is good for the conference.

… Saban only seemed to have one strong feeling on the subject.

“I just hope that the integrity of the rivalries that we have in our league do not get impaired by what’s happening,” he said.

As for that concern about breaking contracts with Directional State A&M, isn’t that what all the new money coming from the “look-in” on the TV contracts should be for?

The rocky week continues.

They polled the fan base about Mark Richt’s future.  The good news is that a clear majority still support Georgia’s embattled head coach.

The bad news, of course, is that anyone felt the need to conduct such a poll in the first place.

But that’s just a blip compared to what came out of yesterday’s quarterly meeting of the UGA athletic association board.

… School president Michael Adams, presiding over the meeting, asked if anyone else had any thoughts.

Tommy Lowhorne, a board member from Columbus, spoke up and looked at athletics director Greg McGarity, who was sitting next to Adams.

“There are many of us who are really concerned about the status of the football program,” Lowhorne said. “Yet we have confidence in Greg McGarity to get us to where we want to be.”

Board member Bob Bishop then chimed in.

“I’ll echo that,” he said.

McGarity responded with a polite smile and slight nod.

I’m surprised that exchange was offered for public consumption.  I’m sure no one will bring it up on the recruiting trail.

The question left hanging is whether it was orchestrated by Adams, UGA’s supreme weasel.  If so, all Richt is waiting on is the dreaded vote of confidence.

It probably wouldn’t hurt to win today.