I missed the very beginning of the game and as such was unaware UGA had won the toss.

Richt probably believed that the score coming out after halftime would have been a little closer. In expected close games its usually wiser to defer. You might be right though. There are certainly too many hypothetical occurances which could have changed the momentum in this game. If we had not committed a penalty that negated a fumble on that first drive, et seq. We have to credit the way Alabama played, it was quite formidable. This game merely exposed the problems many of us have been worried about and commenting on the whole season.

O-Line Youth, & Experience
Lack of consistent Pass Rush
Kick Off Coverage
Penalties – Please see youth & inexperience

Alabama signified the team that would challenge us in every aspect and you won, but the question I think we all want answered is whether that taught our players & coaches something. May we meet again in December.

Playing defense has usually been the best option as it has taken our offense a while to get going. Some seasons that has changed, but most times not. I don’t know if this is the reason, but if we got the ball, went 3 and out and punted to give you guys good field position and then you scored, things look worse than if you drive 80 yards and then we get the back to strike back.

. . . it was the right call, for the reasons fotodog stated. Don’t forget that, when Georgia got the ball the first time, it looked very much like the Bulldogs were going to march down the field for the tying score and a shootout was in store.

Given how amped up the crowd was, I think it was a good idea to give the visitors the ball and give the spectators the opportunity to get into the game. On comparable nights where the crowd was jacked up—-Boise State in 2005 and Auburn last year—-the result was that the visiting quarterback threw an interception on the first play from scrimmage, and the rout was on.

It didn’t work out as planned, but I doubt whether it made any meaningful difference.

when Bama came out of the tunnel. You guys played great, we didn’t. End of story.

to clarify, Coach Richt said early on in his tenure in the Classic City that he like’s to give the other team the ball first because he wants their offense to have to deal with early game jitters right out of the gate, and because a big defensive stop to open the game gives you a lot of momentum.

I can understand why it would have made sense to go the other way in this game, but that really is just 20/20 hindsight. If you’d asked me before the game, I probably would have wanted to put John Parker Wilson and the ’bama offense on the field first as well.

I also always defer to the 2ndhalf when i play NCAA ’09 :)

I wouldn’t necessarily say that’s so. Any number of good coaches prefer to defer.

I trust that "winners want the ball" line wasn’t a shot at Mark Richt, but, in case it was, I don’t believe there’s any basis for claiming that Coach Richt isn’t a winner, in spite of Saturday’s outcome. His record at this point in his career is better than that of any previous Georgia coach at the same point, and the only laurel separating Mark Richt’s career and Nick Saban’s is that Coach Saban has a national championship. That, though, was largely the luck of the draw: L.S.U. didn’t do anything in 2003 that Georgia didn’t do in 2002; L.S.U. just happened to do it in a year in which there were no undefeated teams.

There was good reason for wanting to put the defense on the field first. The crowd was amped up, so it made sense to give the home fans the opportunity to get loud from the get-go rather than ask them to sit down, calm down, and wait while the offense took the ball first.

Granted, it didn’t work out, but, as you say, there’s no reason to think that affected the outcome in any way.