Interesting article from a Georgia Newspaper, Atlanta Journal Constitution Florida celebration backfiring on Dogs
Well while the celebration probably was one of things that helped Georgia win that game, it's a pretty big stretch to say it's the cause of anything else. Sometimes teams who are heavily penalized are great teams, those old FSU teams of Bowdens were very agressive on defense and got a lot of penalties (as you well remember). But they were so good and had so much talent that it didn't matter. I remember well those Miami teams that were the same way, they were agressive and intimidated you. That Cotton Bowl that they beat Texas they set an NCAA record for personal fouls and it didn't hurt them at all they clobbered Texas. In Georgia's case I think the losses that they have had on the OL are more likely one of the big reasons that they can't overcome the penalties and look worse this year than expected. Inpsite of their problems they are still a pretty good football team, just not great like preseason predictions. But it makes good copy when searching for things to write about. Terry
I don't think you can carry an event like that from last season and impose it onto this year's team. I know that the 'celebration' still sticks in the gut of Gator fans, but the reasons for Georgia's problems this year have nothing to do with last season. Last year, Georgia had an incredibly young OL and avoided the injury bug somehow. This year they have suffered key injuries and they have not had the 'step up' factor they enjoyed last season.
I can't disagree with any of you, I don't really see the connection between last year and this year unless either Richt has more trouble controlling his team or the refs watch them closer. I would hope the latter isn't true. Gipper, yes Atlanta is the home of Georgia Tech but Athens is not far away at all and I think normally they support the Dawgs. I was a bit surprised about this article but remembering all the conversation both ways last year thought some of you might like reading it. As far as sticking in my craw, maybe a little, but I have to also look at things this way, in the SEC we have only beaten Vandy and Kentucky more often than we have beaten Georgia since 1990 when Spurrier arrived and our game changer happened. If you go by percentage, add Arkansas and S. Carolina to the list because Arkansas hasn't beaten us and S. Carolina only beat us once. That means the remaining 7 teams, including Ole Miss and Miss State have done better against the Gators than the Dawgs have. I think we beat them again on Nov 1. But life goes on.
Just in case Rodney is browsing isn't it nice that Meyer has an extra week to maybe throw in a couple of new wrinkles for Georgia? I would settle however for a few banged up starters to be 100% and for last week's superb offensive strategy to be fine tuned for the Dawgies.
Georgia looked pretty good to me against LSU yesterday. If they can stay balanced on offense they might be too much for the Gator defense to handle.