Georgia 13, Georgia Tech 7: I'd Rather Win Ugly Than Lose Pretty.

We have reached the point in the college football season when teams have an identity.  The Georgia Bulldogs' identity involves playing stingy defense and just enough offense to avoid disaster. At least some of the time.  That was the modus operandi this afternoon as Sony Michel did plenty, Greyson Lambert did no harm, and Jeremy Pruitt's defense was spectacular in downing the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets 13–7.

Lambert completed 18 of 25 passes for 224 yards. He threw no interceptions. He did not fumble. In short, Greyson Lambert was a month late to go trick-or-treating dressed as Hutson Mason.  I am totally fine with that.

Sunny Michel's 149 yards put him over the 1000 yard mark on the season, quite an achievement given that he did not start until the midpoint of the season.  Georgia tallied 178 total rushing yards on the way to 402 yards of total offense.  While Brian Schottenheimer's unit did not get in the endzone nearly as much as fans would prefer, they did sustain drives which kept Paul Johnson's offense off the field. There was even some appropriate use of play action passing and screen passes in situations in which screen passes made sense. I'm not saying he's the next Mike Bobo. I'm just saying he may be learning. This was not Brian Schottenheimer's worst game.

Given the way Jeremy Pruitt unit played, that was plenty.  The Jackets came into today's action averaging 261 yards of rushing offense per game. They were held to 198 on the afternoon.  But for an ill – timed and arguably unnecessary taunting call on Jake Ganus, the defense likely would have shut Georgia Tech out at Grant Field for the first time since 1957.  That is a Bulldog point of pride which I would have loved to be able to point to.

Still, it was an afternoon on which Georgia did what it needed to do.  Mark Richt moved his record against Georgia Tech to 13–2. He has still never lost a road game at Grant Field. If he doesn't own the place, he at least has a 99 year lease with a favorable purchase option clause.  Coach Richt and his staff will now get on the road recruiting, trying to hold together and perhaps build on a class full of impact players.  I have heard the rumors about Coach Richt's job status. I have tried to look into them as much as I could, and as best I can tell no firm decisions were made prior to this game.  But for my part, I have seen Mark Richt and his staff hold a team together which easily could have fallen apart. I have seen them engineer a 9, and perhaps even 10, win season out of what looked like utter disaster. You're entitled to your opinion. But for me, the odds of finding a guy who could do that are slimmer by far than the odds of finding the next Ron Zook. Or Chan Gailey. Or Derek Dooley. Mark Richt is still my Dawg. Until later...

Go 'Dawgs!!!