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Five yards shy of national title game, these 2012 Bulldogs joined the UGA elite

Posted on Jan 4, 2013 by Murray Poole  | 

3 Comments  | 

They were five yards and four points short of going where I predicted them to go back in our season preview issue last June but that devastating 32-28 loss to Alabama in the SEC championship game, which kept the Georgia Bulldogs from making the trip to South Beach for the BCS National Championship game Monday, should in no way take away all that this team accomplished in 2012.

In my preseason game-by-game forecast, I picked these Bulldogs to win every regular season outing but one, saying that defeat would come against South Carolina in Columbia. And that, of course, was exactly what transpired for Mark Richt’s football team this past autumn. Please overlook, if you will, that when the week of the Carolina game rolled around, I reneged on my early summer prediction and said that the Bulldogs would indeed find a way to beat the Gamecocks. Of course, as we all know, that didn’t work out very well as Georgia was pummeled by Carolina by 35-7. I should have remembered what my 9th grade teacher taught us – always go with your first inclination.

However, as we all also know, the Bulldogs snapped back from that dismal night at Williams-Brice Stadium and didn’t lose again over the course of the remaining regular season slate. They clicked to an 11-1 record – including a second consecutive victory over the Florida Gators – and rose to a No. 3 ranking in the BCS and a second straight trip to the SEC title game in the Georgia Dome.

But even though the Bulldogs would then play the mighty, 2nd-ranked Crimson Tide off their feet, which caused Nick Saban to remark he thought he was having a heart attack at game’s end, Georgia couldn’t get it done in those last grueling 15 seconds … Aaron Murray’s tipped pass falling into the hands of Bulldog receiver Chris Conley at the Alabama 5 as the final seconds ticked off the clock.

I don’t know many teams that could have come back from such an agonizing loss – maybe the most bitter setback in this proud school’s history – and played well in their next ball game but, this Georgia team did.

Behind great senior and junior leadership, the Bulldogs went back to work in Athens, headed to Orlando the day after Christmas for the Capital One Bowl and on the first day of 2013, after falling behind 24-23 in a shaky first half, came on to completely dominate the final two quarters and shuck a highly-pumped Nebraska Cornhuskers team by 45-31.

So, no, they didn’t accomplish their national championship dreams but the Bulldogs’ 12-2 finish for 2012 should be something these team members always cherish. They put themselves in a rarified atmosphere by joining Georgia’s 12-0 national champions of 1980 and arguably Richt’s best-ever 13-1 team of 2002 as the only teams in program history to ring up 12 victories.

Now, though, it’s time to turn the page to 2013, a football season that looms as a venture into the unknown for the Georgia Bulldogs. I say that because, for one thing, we don’t know how quickly Todd Grantham can reconstruct a defensive unit that is being decimated by graduation and the early jump to the NFL of All-America outside linebacker Jarvis Jones and another junior linebacker who played like an All-America this season, Alec Ogletree. Indeed, with those two along with the likes of Bacarri Rambo, Shawn Williams, John Jenkins, Sanders Commings, Branden Smith, Abry Jones, Cornelius Washington, Christian Robinson and Michael Gilliard all leaving the program, Georgia fans are going to have to study the roster conscientiously to know who’s lining up on defense next fall. And, as of this writing, we also don’t know whether huge junior nose guard Kwame Geathers is going to stay for his senior campaign or also leap to the professional ranks.

But, a quick word of advice: Don’t write off the Dogs’ 2013 stop-em gang just yet. Grantham is bringing back a number of capable players to build around, guys who have already been in the trenches and know what playing defense in the SEC is all about. I’m talking about such names as defensive end Garrison Smith, cornerback Damian Swann, outside linebacker Jordan Jenkins, inside backer Amarlo Herrera, safety Corey Moore, end Ray Drew, and linebacker Josh Dawson, just to name a few of the Bulldogs who should step up, play big and provide outstanding leadership for the rest of the young returning Georgia defenders (such as Josh Harvey-Clemons) and the highly-touted guys who will be becoming Bulldogs on National Signing Day Feb. 6, many of whom are already early enrollees.

And if you doubt as much, listen to the words of head coach Richt in his Capital One Bowl press conference on Dec. 31 in Orlando: “We’ll have very good defensive players sticking around and we have young guys waiting in the wings. I think we’ll be a very athletic, fast defense. It’s just a matter of how quickly can they play a championship style of defense. That’s the big push. Starting this year, we had questions about the offense and people said, ‘Wow, Georgia could be in trouble.’ But we played better than expected. I think the defense can be the same way next year.”

And, added defensive coordinator Grantham immediately following the bowl win over Nebraska: “We’re going to work hard and compete and we know it’s going to be fun because these seniors that we have here now leaving, they kind of went through this a few years ago. The difference is the young players that we have here now have kind of heard it even though they haven’t played it, so they kind of know a little bit. The biggest thing to me is when you watch the transition from Year One to Year Three, that game today wasn’t going great right there, but we found a way to win it. We showed more mental and physical toughness in the second half to win the game. That’s why you win 12 games in a year. That’s what we’ve got to work with the guys coming up to develop that mental and physical toughness to win ball games.”

And hey, even if the Bulldogs’ defense dips down a couple notches next season, Georgia may have enough firepower returning on the other side of the ball that it will be able to win each and every single shootout against its opponents.

The Bulldogs, to put it mildly, are going to be loaded on offense as they return the entire O-line that got better with every outing in 2012; they return all of the wide receivers with the exception of the outstanding Tavarres King and also senior Marlon Brown, who didn’t play the final five games of this season due to a torn ACL; they return their two leading tight ends in Arthur Lynch and Jay Rome, they return fullbacks Merritt Hall, Zander Ogletree and Quayvon Hicks and, of course, the Bulldogs return the two tailbacks, who were the best freshman tandem in the country this past year, Todd Gurley (1,385 yards, 17 touchdowns) and Keith Marshall (759 yards, 8 touchdowns).

Offered offensive coordinator Mike Bobo about his unit’s potential next season: “I think we built a lot of positive momentum from this year. If we’ll take that same mindset into this offseason and if we work to get better every day we’ll have a chance to do some good things next year. If we let a bunch of people pat us on the back and say we’ve arrived, then we won’t.”

But now, the million dollar question is, will this prolific Georgia offense, which erased the school record for points in a season when it averaged 37.8 points per game, have its senior leader back at quarterback?

Aaron Murray has already written the UGA record book as his 3,893 yards passing in ‘012 bettered Eric Zeier’s previous mark of 3,525, and Murray’s 36 touchdown passes topped the existing single-season record of 35, established by Murray himself in 2011. Murray’s 63.7 percent completion mark was the second best in program history and the Tampa native now needs just 20 more TD passes to topple the 114 of former Florida great Danny Wuerffel and become the SEC’s all-time career leader in touchdown strikes.

But again, will Murray be back in Athens to accomplish all that and lead the Bulldogs to possibly the BCS national title game it barely missed out on this season? Or will he be decked out in an NFL uniform this time next year? We don’t know the answer to that at this moment but with the Jan. 15 deadline for college underclassmen to declare for the NFL draft fast approaching, I’m sure Aaron is going to reveal his decision to everyone very, very soon.

With a great supporting cast around him I’m sure, if Murray decides to leave, that rising junior Hutson Mason has the skills and leadership abilities to efficiently guide the Georgia offense in 2013. However, with Clemson, South Carolina and LSU all to be confronted before September has even ended, the Bulldawg Nation would feel much more comfortable with a senior, veteran, record-breaking signal-caller directing the attack.

Regardless, after down years in 2009 and 2010 and question marks swirling around the program, Richt and his assistant staff have put the Buldogs back among the SEC’s elite these past two years with consecutive East Division titles and trips to the SEC championship game.

Look for more prosperity to follow in lucky year ’13.

Tagged: murray poole, georgia football, sec title game, alabama crimson tide, capital one bowl, nebraska cornhuskers, mark richt, todd grantham, jarvis jones, alec ogletree, shawn williams, bacarri rambo, john jenkins, branden smith, sanders commings, christian robinson, cornelius washington, michael gilliard, garrison smith, damian swann, jordan jenkins, amarlo herrera, corey moore, ray drew, josh dawson, josh harveyclemons, mike bobo, arthur lynch, jay rome, merritt hall, zander ogletree, quayvon hicks, todd gurley, keith marshall, aaron murray