Georgia Bulldogs

ATHENS, Ga. -- Ken Malcome isn’t necessarily Georgia’s closer, but he has played that role in the last two games.

Although freshmen Todd Gurley and Keith Marshall have replaced Malcome atop the tailback depth chart, the sophomore received the bulk of his carries on Georgia’s final drive in both games and largely delivered positive results.

Malcome ran five times for a team-high 45 yards on the Bulldogs’ final possession in a loss against South Carolina, scoring his team’s only touchdown on a 3-yard burst with 1:55 left in the game. And last week against Kentucky, six of Malcome’s seven total carries (for a total of 19 yards) came on the Bulldogs’ final drive, when they needed to burn time off the clock while clinging to a 29-24 lead.

“Usually at that time of the game, he’s usually a little bit fresher than the other two and he is a very good downhill runner,” Georgia coach Mark Richt said. “As you observe him, he’s usually always getting yards after contact and even when nothing’s there, he seems to be pushing the pile and finishing runs and he’s done a good job of securing the football. Those are things that you want at that time of the game.”

That’s the role Richard Samuel played on the Bulldogs’ game-winning drive last season against Florida -- Georgia’s opponent on Saturday -- but Richt does not predict Samuel taking carries away from Malcome or one of the freshmen in Saturday’s rematch.

“At the tailback position, I don’t know,” Richt said. “We’ve got our rotation right now and I doubt it would change much, although Richard’s always ready to play at the tailback or the fullback for that matter.”

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Georgia coach Mark Richt chats about the stakes this weekend as the Bulldogs take on Georgia, the thrill of the rivalry, the reason Georgia hasn't succeeded in big games recently and more. Listen here .

Georgia senior safety Shawn Williams didn’t hold back this week when he fumed that the Bulldogs were playing soft on defense and without any emotion.

Williams didn’t stop there, either. He went on to say that Alec Ogletree and Amarlo Herrera should be getting most of the snaps at inside linebacker. Christian Robinson and Michael Gilliard have also been rotating in at inside linebacker this season.

Georgia coach Mark Richt wasn’t thrilled with the way Williams went about it, but Richt said the Bulldogs’ defense needed a kick in the pants.

Georgia has allowed 633 rushing yards in its past three games, including 206 last week to Kentucky. Despite a bevy of starters returning, the Bulldogs are ninth in the SEC in total defense and eighth in scoring defense.

Williams had obviously seen enough, especially with Saturday’s critical showdown with Florida looming.

“Sometimes a guy’s got to step up and say something,” Richt said Wednesday. “Now, I don’t think it’s right to necessarily make it as public as it was. A lot of times, there are meetings where players get together and say, ‘You know what? We’ve got to get better. It starts with me.’ I think that’s a good thing for a team. It’s better when it comes from the players and not the coaches.

“Do I think it was a catalyst to help jolt our guys a little? I think so, or at least we’ll see on Saturday.”

Robinson said Williams’ outburst “wasn’t what I wanted to hear,” but added that everybody makes mistakes.

The bottom line is that Georgia simply hasn’t played up to expectations or its talent level on defense.

“I do think the guys (on defense) have an expectation like everybody else, and they know they haven’t met that expectation,” Richt said. “They want to do better. They do care very much, and we do have a good, unified group, even though sometimes even in the family, somebody might say something you don’t like. It might hurt your feelings. But in the end, it was done with the intention of making things better, and I think that’s what everybody is focusing on right now.”

The suspensions earlier in the season and then having to incorporate those players back into the lineup a little bit at a time has clearly stunted Georgia’s development on defense.

“When you’re building the foundation of a defense or offensive line or whatever it may be, you want to start in the spring and take it through the summer, start a certain way in camp and have everybody working together all that time and building those positive reps together,” Richt said. “We were just not able to do that for assorted reasons, and we’re paying a little bit of a price for that.

“We knew the deal going in. We’re not crying about it or making excuses. We just know we’ve got to get better, and that’s what we’re focusing on.”

Note: During this rivalry week, DawgNation will offer you a peek behind enemy lines with links to GatorNation stories.

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Success can be a tricky thing to handle.

Too much, and arrogance can set in. Too little, and depression follows.

For Florida’s football team, success has seemingly come and gone like the tide the past few years. From 2008 to 2009, the Gators stood with the giants of college football with a 26-2 record, a national championship and an SEC title. Then, Florida dabbled in mediocrity for two years with a 15-11 record.

Now, that wave of success has touched land in Gainesville again with the Gators undefeated and No. 2 in the BCS standings. A win against Georgia on Saturday, and Florida claims the SEC Eastern Division for the first time since 2009.

Florida’s rise back to relevancy has been a pleasant surprise, but so much success so quickly can be crippling, especially when players aren’t used to it.

Unlike the weeks -- and years, really -- prior, now all the pressure is on Florida. Win, and the Gators are headed to Atlanta. Lose, and the East is all but lost to one of its biggest rivals. All the work, the road comebacks and the top-10 victories will drift away.

That can be a lot for a team to digest, but senior defensive tackle Omar Hunter, one of the few Gators who has seen this sort of success before at the college level, doesn’t see a change in approach. The same demeanor that got Florida to 7-0 hasn’t disappeared before the season’s biggest game.

“This team is pretty mature compared to where we were last year,” Hunter said. “For the most part, those guys have been pretty focused on what we have to get done and not let stuff get to them.”

What Florida has to do is win, but it faces a team that was expected to be in Florida’s spot. The 10th-ranked Bulldogs (6-1) are almost limping into Saturday’s showdown. They were routed by South Carolina this month and are having an internal war of words on defense.

For a team that had BCS aspirations before the season, the Bulldogs will quietly bus into Jacksonville with a lot to prove. And unlike the Gators, this is familiar territory for the Dawgs.

They climbed out of an 0-2 hole with 10 straight wins to get to Atlanta last season. Going against the odds was Georgia’s specialty, and its hope is that last season’s experience helps it Saturday.

“What we see is if we win out, there’s no reason why we can’t ... do all of the things that we dreamed at the beginning,” senior linebacker Christian Robinson said. “That’s the same as it was last year.

“Right now, we have our backs against the wall, and we have to decide what we need to do.”

First, this team has to come together. On Monday, senior safety Shawn Williams called his defense out for playing “soft” and went on to discuss which players should be playing at linebacker. He left a few names off and hurt some feelings, as players acknowledged that they’d rather keep such talk in-house.

Whether that will motivate players or leave them sulking has yet to be seen, but when it comes to a game like this, Georgia can’t let silly bickering hold it back. Not in do-or-die mode.

“That’s where we’re at right now, so I think the guys understand how important this thing is,” coach Mark Richt said. “It’s pretty obvious. So I don’t think we’re going to have to sit here and try to figure out a way to motivate anybody.”

Just the Cocktail Party’s existence should be motivation enough for both teams, but for the Gators, you have to wonder whether their surprising run leading up to Saturday's showdown has them feeling a little presumptuous. According to their head coach, that isn’t the case.

“Nothing’s changed for us. We’re not working any longer, harder. Practice, it’s all the same,” Muschamp said. “We don’t approach things differently based on the situation, because next week’s important, too.”

The de facto semifinal for the SEC championship could turn the tide for both programs -- one soaring and one stumbling. Pressure and rankings will mean little between those hash marks.

“Any given Saturday, anything can happen,” Robinson said.

“You hope that you have that type of team that’s not going to lay down and die.”

ATHENS, Ga. -- Shawn Williams said his piece after Monday’s practice. On Tuesday, the Georgia safety’s teammates had their opportunity to respond to Williams calling the Bulldogs’ defense soft and saying linebacker Amarlo Herrera should play ahead of senior teammates Michael Gilliard and Christian Robinson.

“Just when you call me soft, I just want to go and show them that ain’t nothing sweet around here,” Gilliard said after Tuesday’s practice. “So the only thing I’m going to do is deliver, and starting today, that’s what I tried to do.”

Robinson voiced a similar sentiment on Tuesday afternoon, saying he was disappointed that his teammate publicly voiced a critical opinion. But Robinson -- who typically plays as a third-down linebacker -- said the Bulldogs can easily turn the situation into a positive.

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