Richt implores short memory for ‘Dawgs to avoid bigger letdown
By Drew Laing
Published:
Losing 38-20 is hard to forget.
Losing 38-20 to one of your biggest rivals? Even tougher to put out of your mind.
But that’s exactly what the Georgia Bulldogs need to do this week.
The ‘Dawgs were dominated this past weekend by the Florida Gators, a team many had mailed it in on prior to the matchup. The Gators, who were in the midst of coaching turmoil and a 3-3 record, should have been no match for a Georgia team that was playing its best football of the season.
However, things played out different in Jacksonville, Fla., and the ‘Dawgs were humiliated. Now, they’ve fallen out of first place in the SEC East and no longer control their destiny for the SEC Championship berth. UGA’s playoff hopes? Gone.
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Visions of postseason greatness slipped away with every passing second last Saturday, but not all is lost and Georgia needs to develop short-term amnesia quickly.
The worst thing Georgia can do is let one loss turn into two and head coach Mark Richt says that begins with practicing well this week.
“Not the greatest performance last week, we all know that,” Richt said on Tuesday. “We want to do a good job this week and that starts with practice. Yesterday, I thought they at least had a good focus and their mindset was right. We’ve got to do that [at practice] and do it even better. So that’s where we’re at.”
For UGA, Saturday’s loss was tough. Georgia was in the midst of a five-game winning streak, despite the absence of star running back Todd Gurley. Freshman Nick Chubb had emerged during the last few games as a more than capable featured back, Hutson Mason was turnover-free and the defense finally made huge strides.
Everything the ‘Dawgs wanted to accomplish was right in front of them with only three SEC games left, until the Gators changed everything in a stunning upset. Despite the setback, Richt acknowledged his team’s primary goal hasn’t changed.
“We want to win the East every year and play for the SEC Championship. I feel like if you win [the SEC Championship] you’ve got a pretty good chance of being in the playoff,” Richt said. “That’s what I think, but who knows, we’ll have to see. But I don’t think [our expectations] will change.”
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Georgia may have lost the opportunity to control its own destiny in the SEC East race, but the possibility of still winning the division is still very real.
The Bulldogs have just two SEC games remaining — at Kentucky and vs. Auburn. Comparatively, Missouri still has three SEC games left — at Texas A&M, at Tennessee and vs. Arkansas.
If UGA wins out, Missouri will just need to lose one game to put the ‘Dawgs back in first and on their way to Atlanta. However, that’s not as easy as it sounds, considering UGA has top-five ranked Auburn awaiting them on Nov. 15.
Richt doesn’t concern himself with all of the scenarios, however. He sees only Kentucky ahead this weekend and wants that same mentality across the entire team.
“We didn’t talk much about [winning the SEC East] this time around,” Richt explained. We’re really just trying to win a game this week because, first of all, we know mathematically that that’s still a possibility, but if we don’t win it doesn’t matter.”
“I guess that’s the best way to say it. So let’s just try to win this week. We’ll worry about the rest later.”
Drew Laing will be providing analysis and insight on Florida, Georgia, Missouri and South Carolina.
