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Mark Richt’s revived season

Sunday, December 4th, 2011 at 2:02 pm

By Steve Hummer The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Beneath the big top of the Georgia Dome on Saturday, half the building and then some was populated by fans seeking a supersized Southern tent revival.

Glory be, Georgia was back in the SEC Championship game. Just as it was when the Bulldogs were semi-regulars and wholly relevant, making three trips to the big game between 2002-05.

And for Georgia’s coach, making it to Saturday was the proof that he hadn’t left all his good ideas in the past 10 years. Revived along with the Bulldogs season was Mark Richt.

This was an autumn that began with restless grumblings about replacing the man who had been at his post longer than any other current SEC coach. And it likely will be summed up soon with a contract extension for Richt.

Richt’s bunch started fast against No. 1-ranked LSU on Saturday, but a momentary 10-0 lead was unsustainable. The LSU way is to bide its time and then go all avalanche on the other guy. The method worked to ruthless, inevitable perfection in a 42-10 SEC Championship game victory.

Leaving Georgia to try to view what happened Saturday — its first loss in 84 days — as but a picture within a bigger picture.

Richt has processed and survived far worse football calamities. He made it through the 14-12 combined record of the previous two seasons. He made it through a Liberty Bowl loss to Central Florida; followed by losses to Boise State and South Carolina to begin this season.

The coach began the processing immediately after LSU spit out the remains of the Bulldogs. “I’m proud of the season that we’ve had — the regular season, of course. The ability to even get to this game was a great accomplishment,” he said.

In the end — with a bowl-game diversion to go — the story of this season will be more about how Georgia got a bit of its groove back and how its coach endured.

On that latter subject, Richt late last week offered multiple Bible verses when asked how he dealt with the criticism that accompanied him into 2011.

A few verses from Jeremiah were among those he cited. Just replace “heat” with “angry fan blog postings” and “fruit” with “comeback victory over Florida.”

Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose trust is the Lord.

He is like a tree planted by water that sends out its roots by the stream and does not fear when heat comes, for its leaves remain green and is not anxious in the year of drought for it does not cease to bear fruit.

All it took to recover was 10 consecutive wins, incurable anemia throughout the rest of the SEC East and just enough injury/scheduling difficulty to waylay South Carolina.

Once their comeback was certified by clinching the East, the Bulldogs began crafting the theme of a team that always believed it could make it back to the Georgia Dome.

They would regardless of Saturday’s outcome try to qualify as “a special team,” a term used so often by coaches that much of its meaning has been worn down to bare metal. This bunch was in the running, according to Richt’s definition of specialness:

“For coaches, teams are special when the guys work hard, when the guys trust the staff. You have a sense that they’ll fight for you. You have a sense that they care about you and they care about each other. They care about Georgia and doing things the Georgia way. All those things get coaches excited about teams, and I think these guys as a whole are that way.”

Try to remember even in the aftermath of Saturday’s rout that as the victories began multiplying in the regular season how the Bulldogs began to frolic. Richt, the same coach who so often stands accused of being too unemotional, often was the center of some vivid postgame celebrations. There is a thick scrapbook of photos showing him enjoying the moment immediately after one victory or another this season.

He and the team celebrated after Richt picked up his 100th career win against Tennessee. They celebrated after finally beating Florida. After clinching the East by beating Kentucky, the deed was sealed with a steamy postgame kiss between Richt and his wife, Katharyn.

Looking back upon a season that could have been ruinous, Richt instead was able to say, “We’ve had a lot of really special times with this team this year. I’ve enjoyed it maybe as much as any season that I’ve coached.”

Turned out that saving Richt’s job was one bonding agent keeping the team together in the face of the awkward start. Players increasingly talked about that goal as it became more apparent they might actually be able to do it.

“We love coach Richt,” quarterback Aaron Murray said last week. “One of the main reasons I committed here was to have him as my head coach. I want him here all four or five years I’m here. I know everyone on the team feels that way.

“We definitely were playing hard because we wanted to win as a team, we wanted to be a great team, we wanted to be considered SEC champions. We also wanted to win for coach Richt and the coaching staff, to have the security knowing they are going to be here for awhile.”

For his part, Richt said that while he was honored by his players’ sentiments, he was careful not to turn his future into the team’s primary concern. There were no win-one-for-the-three-mill-a-year-coach speeches. “I’d never want to make it about that,” he said.

“Coach Richt never showed a panic side to us, that he was really scared of losing his job,” defensive end Abry Jones said. “All the time he was concerned about us. It wouldn’t be the same for him to see us not having fun playing the game.”

Words weren’t going to save the coach, anyway. Winning was the only sure cure.

The W’s arrived just in time to shore up the ground beneath Richt.

So different was the tone around the coach by December that a news conference Friday opened with a questioner wondering if Richt would be tempted to go out to midfield before the championship game and announce to all his detractors that he had survived.

“No, no, I’m just thankful,” he answered. “I’ve always tried to have a thankful attitude anyway. This year in particular.”

Saturday showed that there still is ground to cover between where Georgia is now and where the elite of its conference stand. This was the season that reinforced Richt’s claim to be the man in charge of closing that distance.

Mark his last words Saturday: “I don’t think we’re that far off. I really don’t.”

Central question for Georgia Bulldogs: How much better are they?

Tuesday, November 29th, 2011 at 1:09 pm

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ATHENS, Ga. — The memory is not a fond one for anyone on the Georgia football team — and especially not Bacarri Rambo.

The last time they played in this high profile of a game, when it was also at the Georgia Dome, the Bulldogs were overmatched by Boise State. And Rambo, a junior safety, could do nothing on the sideline, serving a suspension.

“It grates on me a lot,” Rambo said. “I probably could’ve helped change the outcome of the game.”

BRANT SANDERLIN/Atlanta Journal-Constitution

That loss, televised nationally and hyped for almost a year, was the most recent time that a large chunk of the nation got an impression of Georgia. Three months later the Bulldogs return to the Georgia Dome on a 10-game winning streak, but with only two of those wins coming over FBS teams with a winning record.

So here’s the central question as Georgia prepares to face No. 1 LSU in the SEC championship: Just how different is this team from the one that was beaten convincingly the first time around in the Georgia Dome?

“Totally different team from the first game in the dome,” senior cornerback Brandon Boykin said. “Just everybody has a lot more experience, be able to play in that environment and know what it’s like to play in the big game.”

Coach Mark Richt has said several times that Georgia “wasn’t ready” for that game against Boise State. Georgia began the Georgia had five first-time starters in the opener. That doesn’t include freshmen Isaiah Crowell (Carver High) and Damian Swann, two freshmen who saw extensive playing time.

Sophomore quarterback Aaron Murray said he thinks the younger players will be “more equipped for the big game.” Boykin compared the opener to a bowl game.

“It’s your first college game for a lot of those guys, and then the magnitude of it being in the Georgia Dome and against a top five team. It doesn’t really give you a chance to get adjusted,” Boykin said. “It’s like the SEC game, a big bowl game right in the beginning of the year, your first game. So a lot of people were nervous and kind of had to get adjusted to the game type situation of a college football game.”

Georgia’s defense, which now ranks fifth nationally, was also without two of its best player for most of the game.

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Rambo, who leads the SEC with seven interceptions this season, was out the entire game. And inside linebacker Alec Ogletree broke his foot on the third series. Boise State did not score on its first two series.

“I can’t really say how much of a difference I might have made in the outcome,” Ogletree said. “But the first two series that I played in, I felt like our defense was doing pretty good.”

The offensive line looked like a disaster in the making against Boise State, yielding six sacks with only one player (center Ben Jones) starting at the same position he was at last year. But the front five improved as the season went on.

Georgia has also seen several players develop into big-time players:

Outside linebacker Jarvis Jones (Carver High), who leads the SEC with 13.5 sacks, didn’t get one until the fourth week of the season. He’s a redshirt sophomore who had played in the Dome in high school, but he may not have been fully comfortable in his role until later.

Inside linebacker Mike Gilliard, who stepped in for Christian Robinson in the second game, now leads the team in tackles. He barely played against Boise State.

Nose tackle John Jenkins saw few snaps in the opener, but has found his way and helped the defensive line become dominant.

Murray also pointed to turnovers as an improvement. Georgia only had one against Boise State, but had three against South Carolina, including the deciding one when Murray was sacked and fumbled.

Defensively, Georgia forced one turnover by Boise State, two by South Carolina, but has averaged 2.4 turnovers forced since then.

“Just those little mistakes here and there, I think we’ve cleaned up since those first two games,” Murray said.

Still, the fact remains that the schedule has been much easier.

Georgia has not faced a team the caliber of Boise State, or even South Carolina, since then.

Now it gets another chance, in the same building, to prove it’s not a product of its schedule.

“We’ll definitely be ready to play,” Boykin said.