A breather before the big one
By Don Stone - Football Atlanta
This one was looking like another Coastal Carolina
blowout. And, actually, it was. The scores for those two games combined was
Georgia 122, Coastal Carolina and New Mexico State 16. And it wasn't that
close. The Bulldogs were ahead 49-3 against the Aggies and pretty much
played all backups the second half. Even the backups outscored the Aggies in
the second half 14-23.
And UGA was playing without their #1, #2, #3 and
#4 running backs. Number two on the depth chart, Richard Samuel,
(240 yards on 73 carries), suffered
an ankle injury on the final play of the Florida game. He had surgery
Tuesday and will be out for four weeks. Isaiah
Crowell, Carlton Thomas and Ken
Malcome were suspended for this week's game
against New Mexico State. Head Coach Mark Richt
would not discuss the reason behind the suspensions, only that a violation
of team rules occurred. "They didn't do things the Georgia way," he said.
The facts were that they were disciplined for failing a drug
test that was administered last week before Georgia's 24-20 victory over
Southeastern Conference archrival Florida in Jacksonville.
That left redshirt sophomore Brandon Harton,
who made the most of the opportunity.
"It definitely felt like a dream," Harton said. "When I
first came here, I never imagined that I would be starting for the
University of Georgia. Last night and into this morning, I just had to keep
myself focused on the game plan and what I'm supposed to do. I just needed
to come out prepared to do what I needed to do, what my team needed me to do
and what my coaches asked me to do."
Harton cranked out an impressive 15 carries for
98 yards. It didn't seem to matter who Georgia handed the ball off to.
Number six on the depth chart, Kyle Karempelis,
had a 21-yard run on his own. Everybody had yards except Hairy Dog,
who was rumored to be on the sidelines, saying "Put me in coach!"
A total of nine touchdowns were scored by nine
different Bulldogs. Aaron Murray threw
for an amazing five tds in only a half of play.
Needless to say, the homecoming crowd had a fine
time...although half of them had hit the highway back to Atlanta by third
quarter.
The Dawgs got even better news as evening rolled
around. South Carolina lost to Arkansas and dropped behind Georgia in the
SEC East, leaving the Bulldogs standing alone at the top. All they have to
do is win the next two games at home against Auburn and Kentucky, and
they're on the way to the Georgia Dome for the SEC Championship game.
Game time for the big game this Saturday at
Sanford Stadium is 3:30pm, televised on CBS. This will mark Georgia's second
appearance on CBS this season. The Bulldogs' first appearance was against
Florida in Jacksonville. Georgia has appeared on CBS 66 times and posted a
record of 37-28-1. |
