Georgia Bulldogs

ATHENS, Ga. -- Luckily for Mark Richt, he has an opposing coach at an SEC rival to use as the barometer for his Georgia team’s strength of schedule. If the amount of bellyaching by South Carolina’s Steve Spurrier is any gauge, then the Bulldogs must have a tougher schedule on tap this fall than they faced in the previous two seasons.

“We’ve got a tremendous schedule this year, we know,” Richt said. “I don’t hear Coach Spurrier complaining about it this year.”

In truth, Spurrier’s griping was not unfounded. USA Today pollster Jeff Sagarin’s computer rankings last season showed that while Georgia faced the nation’s 27^th-most-difficult schedule, 12 of the 14 teams in the SEC played a more difficult slate than the Bulldogs. And the Bulldogs (12-2, 7-1 SEC) took advantage of that benefit, winning their second consecutive SEC East title thanks to a tiebreaker edge over Florida (11-2, 7-1) and a one-game edge over Spurrier’s Gamecocks (11-2, 6-2), who blasted Georgia 35-7 and promptly lost back-to-back games to LSU and Florida.

If Georgia returns to Atlanta for the SEC championship game again this fall, South Carolina’s coach can’t blame it on the Bulldogs’ schedule. Particularly when Georgia faces Clemson, South Carolina and LSU -- teams ranked 11^th, eighth and 14th, respectively, in last season’s final Associated Press poll -- before the calendar turns to October.

It’s that early-season stretch that will likely determine Georgia’s ceiling this season. And thus the Bulldogs’ coaches aren’t looking far beyond the first two games.

Offensive coordinator Mike Bobo joked at a fan gathering last month that he didn’t even know who Georgia played after the South Carolina game in Week 2. And Richt confirmed that his coaching staff won’t focus far beyond those two games this offseason, either, although that is their typical pattern.

“Right about this time of year, right after our coaches get off the road in recruiting before the summertime, they’re going to game plan Clemson and South Carolina. And so they’re going to have that ready before we even get to the installation of the season [in August],” Richt said at the end of May. “Then we’ve got to decide when do we start actually practicing for the first game.

“Usually by the time we get into camp, we’re really not doing a whole lot for game two. We start with game one, but we’ve already got the plan for game two so that when that first game is over, we’re not just going crazy trying to figure out, ‘What are we going to do now?’ The plan will be there -- at least what we thought a few months ago. You can tweak it if you need to.”

Tweaks are always part of the equation when it comes to preseason preparations. Entering his 13^th season as Georgia’s coach, Richt has had more than enough time to develop a routine for the crucial August practices that will determine whether the Bulldogs are ready for the Clemson game on Aug. 31. And yet Richt admits that he tinkered with his procedures after commiserating with Atlanta Falcons coach Mike Smith at a 2011 clinic.

The change that drew the most attention immediately after Richt’s meetings with Smith was Georgia adopting ideas from Jon Gordon’s book, “The Energy Bus,” where the Bulldogs worked to ward off “energy vampires” who sucked the life from the program with negative behavior. A less obvious change based on Smith’s advice was how the Bulldogs began practicing situations according to the percentage of time they might be in those situations in an actual game.

“Each coordinator knew that we were practicing these plays the amount of times they actually happen in a real game,” Richt said. “And then we tweaked it by anything we felt like maybe we’re, ‘Hey we were bad in third-and-7 and plus, so even though it’s only 6.9 percent, let’s do it 10 percent because we need to get better at that.’ So I think that we really weren’t too far off, but it gave you some peace to say, ‘Hey, I’m practicing these situations about as often as they occur in a game.’ ”

Richt believes the changes helped the coaches maximize their practice time and emphasize the preparations that most needed their attention. If that’s the case, the added efficiency will come in particularly handy this August, as the Bulldogs don’t have the luxury of a lower-division opponent sitting in the first slot on the schedule.

Games against Clemson and South Carolina to open the season are daunting obstacles for a Georgia program that is 2-4 when facing BCS-conference opposition in the first two games of the season dating back to 2009.

That reality isn’t lost on Richt’s players, who insist that there is a different level of intensity within the locker room this summer compared to last year, when the Bulldogs were preparing to open the season against Buffalo.

“You work a lot harder. You’ve got a mission,” junior receiver Malcolm Mitchell said. “Coming into last season when we played Buffalo first, we still had a mission. We wanted to win the game because you don’t want to lose any games. But it’s a little different when you’re playing a much tougher opponent for the first game. You don’t have a warmup game. We’ve got to come in ready.”

A closer look at what Georgia faces in 2013 in trying to get back to the SEC championship game for a third straight year:

Nonconference opponents (with 2012 records)

Aug. 31: at Clemson (11-2)
Sept. 21: North Texas (4-8)
Nov. 9: Appalachian State (8-4)
Nov. 30: at Georgia Tech (7-7)

SEC home games

Sept. 7: South Carolina
Sept. 28: LSU
Oct. 12: Missouri
Nov. 23: Kentucky

SEC road games

Oct. 5: at Tennessee
Oct. 19: at Vanderbilt
Nov. 2: vs. Florida, in Jacksonville
Nov. 16: at Auburn

Gut-check time: Nobody needs to tell the Georgia coaches, players or fans that South Carolina has won three in a row over the Bulldogs. The Gamecocks have never won four in a row in this series. Granted, Georgia has made it to the SEC championship game each of the past two seasons despite losing to South Carolina, but the odds of getting back to Atlanta for a third straight year after losing the SEC opener to the Gamecocks aren’t great. Plus, losing to the Gamecocks is starting to get real old in Bulldog Land.

Trap game: The trip to Vanderbilt on Oct. 19 has “trap game” written all over it. For one, the Commodores should again be an upper-echelon team next season under third-year coach James Franklin, but it will also be Georgia’s fourth straight SEC game in as many weeks. Vanderbilt, meanwhile, will be coming off a bye and playing at home.

Snoozer: After high stakes the first two weeks of the season against Clemson and South Carolina, LSU takes a week off and then tees it up against mighty North Texas on Sept. 21.

Telltale stretch: The Bulldogs had better be on top of their game right out of the gate because the month of September is filled with tough challenges. Nobody in the SEC faces a more difficult season opener than Georgia, which travels to Clemson on Aug. 31. Then it’s back home to face South Carolina the next week, and the month ends with a home game against LSU on Sept. 28.

Final analysis: This schedule isn’t nearly as forgiving as the one the Bulldogs faced a year ago. Going to Clemson the first game of the season trumps any nonconference game the Bulldogs faced last season. Plus, this is an odd year, meaning Georgia travels to Georgia Tech to end the season. The league schedule also has more teeth to it. LSU comes to Athens to close the month of September. The Bulldogs avoided Alabama, LSU and Texas A&M in the West a year ago in the regular season. The middle part of the SEC schedule also features four of five league games that will be played away from home. Ultimately, the month of September will probably make or break Georgia’s season. Then again, the Bulldogs have proven to be resilient each of the past two seasons after losing games early.

Georgia's most important game in 2013 is South Carolina's visit the second week of the season.

ATHENS, Ga. -- Mark Richt had no connection to the SEC when he became Georgia’s head coach in 2001, but he knew better than to let the same be said of his coaching staff. Nearly half of Richt’s first staff had SEC experience -- and Richt readily admits that was by design.

In defensive line coach Rodney Garner, he had not only a former All-SEC player and coach at Auburn and Tennessee, he had a well-connected recruiting coordinator who helped keep Richt’s first signing class intact.

In Neil Callaway, he hired a hard-nosed offensive line coach who played under Bear Bryant at Alabama and coached under Pat Dye at multiple stops including Auburn.

In Mike Bobo, he added a young former Georgia quarterback whose father built a decades-long reputation as a football coach within the state.

And in Jon Fabris, he had a live wire who brought intensity to each practice after playing in the league at Ole Miss and coaching at multiple stops, including South Carolina.

Over the last 13 years, Richt has developed plenty of experience in the league, leading the Bulldogs to two SEC titles and five Eastern Division crowns. Throughout that time, however, the SEC presence has remained on his staff.

Bobo is the lone holdover from Richt’s first batch of hirings, but he now has company from another former Georgia player, running backs coach Bryan McClendon, and a number of other assistants who have played and coached in the league.

Offensive line coach Will Friend was an All-SEC performer at Alabama and once served as a UGA graduate assistant under Richt. New defensive line coach Chris Wilson came to Georgia in the offseason after a stint as defensive coordinator at Mississippi State. And while he never coached in the SEC prior to becoming the Bulldogs’ defensive coordinator in 2010, Todd Grantham worked under the league’s current kingpin, Nick Saban, as an assistant at Michigan State.

In other words, it isn’t necessary to hire a head coach with SEC ties for the coaching staff to still have the league’s distinct flavor. Richt was an up-and-coming Florida State coordinator who ran a high-scoring finesse offense when he accepted the Georgia job and yet his collection of assistants included tough coaches who cut their teeth in the SEC, helping mold differing philosophies into a winning combination.

Few programs have won more consistently than Georgia since Richt took over as the Bulldogs’ head coach, so previous SEC experience might be slightly overrated as a predictor of future success in the league. Richt’s tenure might never have gotten off the ground, however, if he hadn’t initially hired some coaches who understood the SEC’s physical demands and who already developed key recruiting contacts within the state and region.

Multiple philosophical changes that Richt instituted played some part in Georgia’s sustained success, but his tendency to hire coaches who already have a lay of the land within the nation’s most competitive football conference has been one of the most important stabilizing factors of his tenure.

ATHENS, Ga. -- When you’re already an elite high school prospect with a long list of scholarship offers, it’s not terribly important to turn in a dominant performance at a summer camp like the ones Georgia is preparing to host.

But when you’re a player like Bulldogs running back signee Brendan Douglas, sometimes a standout effort in camp is the difference between receiving the offer you covet and having to settle for a secondary option.

Douglas (Augusta, Ga./Aquinas) used excellent showings at Georgia coach Mark Richt’s summer camp and the Dawg Night showcase last year to jump squarely onto the Bulldogs’ radar -- something Richt admits was unlikely to have happened otherwise.

“If Brendan didn’t come to our camps, I don’t think we’d have offered him a scholarship then,” Richt said. “We saw him in camp, we saw what he could do, we saw what kind of person he was. We obviously followed his career and recruited him along the way in case something was going to come available, which it did. But if he didn’t go to camp, I don’t think it would’ve happened.”

Douglas is in good company in that regard.

Richt loves to recap Michael Bennett’s camp performances against elite cornerback prospects whose inability to cover the Alpharetta (Ga.) receiver earned Bennett a scholarship offer from the Bulldogs. Former Bulldogs center Ben Jones developed a Paul Bunyan-like reputation in recruiting circles following intense and dominant blocking performances in camp. And former receiver and kick returner Mikey Henderson likewise used an impressive camp to grab a Georgia offer.

“I don’t think there’s any way we’d have taken him unless he came to camp and lit it up like he did,” Richt recalled of Henderson.

An official offer didn’t come Douglas’ way until the 11^th hour leading up to national signing day, once Georgia’s coaching staff knew that top tailback option Alvin Kamara (Norcross, Ga./Norcross) would sign with Alabama, but Douglas was the next back on the Bulldogs’ board thanks to his impressive camp showings.

Richt’s staff had previously spelled out the situation to Douglas and asked him to keep Georgia in mind, even while he was committed to rival Georgia Tech. And when the spot they had reserved for Kamara came available, they made the offer and Douglas accepted.

“It was [a whirlwind],” Douglas said with a laugh. “Everybody always told me recruiting is a crazy process. I think I got the best of it with the late offer and everything. But it was good. I’m happy with where I’m at right now and happy to be going to Georgia.”

Aside from Georgia Tech, Douglas had scholarship offers from schools like Georgia Southern, The Citadel, Samford and Wofford. Typically that’s an outstanding offer list for someone from a school as small as Aquinas, but Douglas had designs on playing at the highest level of college football. He earned himself the Georgia offer with tough running and a surprisingly quick 40-yard dash time (4.5 seconds) for a player whom ESPN listed as the nation’s No. 4 fullback prospect.

“He had tremendous effort in camp,” Bulldogs offensive coordinator Mike Bobo said. “I always felt like he wanted to be at Georgia, and guys tend to do really well when they want to be there and take pride in wearing the G. Guys like that have always been successful at Georgia in my time as a player and a coach, really.”

Jones and Henderson went on to productive careers at Georgia once they accepted the Bulldogs’ offers. Bennett is in the middle of authoring an impressive résumé of his own, having ranked among the SEC’s most productive receivers last season before suffering a season-ending knee injury in October.

Now Douglas will join them as a scholarship football player at Georgia. And like them, he has an impressive showing at the Bulldogs’ summer camps to credit for the opportunity.

 
Edward Aschoff talks with Georgia coach Mark Richt.

The SEC and Big 12 announced an annual challenge on the basketball court, but colleague Edward Aschoff wondered what it would look like if that challenge extended to the football field.

There are already two games on the schedule this season -- between TCU and LSU, and Oklahoma State and Mississippi State. What else would I like to see?

Let me start by saying that renewing the Texas-Texas A&M and Missouri-Kansas rivalries are a given. I'm omitting those matchups, but I'd love to see them.

Let's get started:

Oklahoma State vs. Alabama: OSU narrowly missed out on playing for the national title back in 2011, and both are among their conference favorites again in 2013. When the BCS "snubbed" the Pokes after the 2011 regular season, OSU coach Mike Gundy half-jokingly suggested these two play for the right to play LSU in the title game. It would be fun to see this one finally played out on the field.

Baylor vs. LSU: Straight up offense vs. defense. That's the Big 12 vs. SEC debate at its heart. Baylor just might be the Big 12's best offense, and LSU will put together another strong defense. These are the matchups we want to see. The Big 12 has faltered on the big stage, helping the SEC stretch its run of national titles, but seeing Bryce Petty sling it around against an athletic defense would be a lot of fun.

Texas vs. Arkansas: Arkansas' exit from the Southwest Conference helped usher in the birth of the Big 12 after the SWC crumbled. Texas has bigger rivals like Oklahoma and Texas A&M, but these two played some of the greatest games in college football history, and as an Arkansas native, I've seen up close how much Razorbacks fans detest the Longhorns to this day. The result would be a great game and a hyped atmosphere.

TCU vs. Texas A&M: Texas A&M fans take exception to the idea that TCU was an on-field "upgrade" over the Aggies in the Big 12. The Aggies largely struggled in the Big 12 after some early success and a Big 12 title under R.C. Slocum. Since leaving for the SEC, the Aggies have gone nowhere but up, and ended 2012 as the hottest team in college football. Aggies quarterback Johnny Manziel has a Heisman Trophy. Could he shred the Frogs? Want to prove TCU is not an upgrade? Beat TCU on the field.

Kansas State vs. Florida: Kansas State is perpetually underrated and wins with a bunch of junior college guys, and high school players overlooked by major programs. Florida won big under Urban Meyer, but has been largely overrated since Meyer left and was whacked by Louisville to end 2012. The Gators would be suiting up an army of recruiting stars, but could Bill Snyder, the Manhattan Magician, grab a win for the Big 12?

ATHENS, Ga. -- In time, a relatively unimpressive stat line against Florida might go down as the turning point in Aaron Murray's career.

By that midseason game last fall, Georgia’s quarterback had already authored a series of subpar performances against ranked teams in his two-plus seasons as the Bulldogs’ starter. He was in the middle of another against the Gators, tossing interceptions on three straight first-half possessions as Georgia took a 7-6 lead into halftime.

Yet Murray was able to regroup, going 8-for-16 in the second half for 116 yards and hitting Malcolm Mitchell for a win-clinching 45-yard touchdown in the fourth quarter that proved Murray is a tougher competitor than it might have once appeared.

“We talked a lot about what being soft is and what being soft isn’t,” Georgia coach Mark Richt said after the 17-9 victory against Florida gave the Bulldogs back-to-back wins against their biggest rival for the first time since the 1980s. “And the thing I mentioned to him and all the QBs is that being soft is if you get hit in the mouth a few times or sacked a few times or throw a pick here and there, you can’t stand back up and go back and play football.”

In Georgia’s next game against ranked opposition, Murray was hit in the mouth again -- literally, by Alabama defensive end Quinton Dial in the SEC championship game -- but went on to prove that he’s anything but soft. In Georgia's games against ranked opponents following the Florida win -- against Alabama and against Nebraska and its top-ranked pass defense in the Capital One Bowl -- Murray flashed resiliency that he might have lacked earlier in his career.

He was a combined 36-for-66 for 692 yards, six touchdowns and three interceptions against the Crimson Tide and Cornhuskers. And in the second halves of those two games, he was even more efficient, hitting 15 of 25 passes for 401 yards, three scores and no interceptions.

“Hopefully he won’t have to hear any of that big-game stuff anymore,” said tight end Arthur Lynch, one of Murray’s closest friends on the team.

Murray will have an opportunity to end that criticism for good when the Bulldogs return to the field this fall. He’ll have a national TV showcase to open the season against Clemson and its high-powered offense on Aug. 31. And he’ll face South Carolina and LSU -- two defenses that created the previous low points in his college career -- before the end of September.

“It’s going to be a huge start to the season,” Murray said. “It’s very similar to two years ago when we started off with Boise State and South Carolina [both losses]. Obviously that didn’t turn out too well. The season turned out well, but we definitely want in any season to start off strong.

“To get those first couple of wins is always tough, to get that train rolling, and we know we have a tough task ahead of us and we have to be ready. It’s not like we can walk in there and have a game or two to warm up. It’s right off the bat and we’ve got to be ready to go.”

Murray and Georgia’s offense set a new school record by scoring 529 points last season. If they can somehow score enough to run the table against one of the nation’s most difficult September schedules, the Bulldogs’ only true SEC road games come against Tennessee and Auburn, who combined to win eight games last season. Survive September and UGA will be in the thick of the national championship conversation -- and Murray could firmly be in the Heisman Trophy talks.

He is already the first quarterback in SEC history to pass for 3,000-plus yards in three straight seasons. By the end of this season, he could own league career records for passing yards, touchdowns, completions and passing attempts.

While setting those records isn’t his primary goal, Murray worked this spring to make himself an even more productive quarterback as a senior. He dropped some weight, down to 207 pounds, to help regain some of the scrambling ability he believed he lost between his freshman and junior seasons. And he visited with quarterback guru George Whitfield -- who previously helped No. 1 picks Andrew Luck and Cam Newton prepare for the NFL draft -- during spring break to refine his technique and add velocity to his throws.

“I think anytime you can go somewhere and get one thing or two things that might help you be more accurate or help you with footwork, it’s good,” offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach Mike Bobo told reporters after Murray’s trip.

Statistically, Murray is going to finish his career as one of Georgia's and the SEC’s top quarterbacks so long as he remains healthy this fall. There is more to a legacy than stats, however, and Murray realizes that winning a championship would ensure he will go down as one of the elite quarterbacks in conference history.

He helped the Bulldogs recover from the first losing season in Richt’s tenure by leading them to SEC East titles in 2011 and 2012. They fell just short of a spot in the Discover BCS Championship Game when a last-minute drive against Alabama fizzled at the Tide’s 4-yard line -- motivating the Georgia quarterback to bypass an opportunity to enter the NFL draft in order to take one more shot at college football’s biggest prize.

“Obviously it would definitely be cool to have those records,” Murray said. “I’m a guy who has based my time here [on] I want to win championships. That’s my No. 1 goal. So to accomplish all of that in one year, I think that would be a great year. That would be a lot of fun.

“But like I said, my first goal and only goal, really, is to win an SEC championship and win a national championship next year.”

ATHENS, Ga. -- Mark Richt made use of the first day of the spring evaluation period by calling the nation’s top inside linebacker. Raekwon McMillan (Hinesville, Ga./Liberty County) said that the Georgia coach spent a while talking to his mother.

“She said she enjoyed talking to Coach Richt,” McMillan said.

According to the NCAA bylaws, Richt will have to wait until Sept. 1 to call McMillan again, but his staff is allowed two trips to Liberty County to evaluate McMillan before the period ends May 31. Now that spring camp is done, the staff is focused on recruiting, and coaches are constantly on the road and on the phone.

Richt was asked recently to give his thoughts on some of the pressing issues on the recruiting trail. For example, what are his thoughts on an early signing period for football? Considering he just landed commitments from the nation’s No. 2 running back, Sony Michel, and the nation’s No. 3 tight end, Jeb Blazevich, a chance to have them sign early would seem inviting. But there is a catch.

“I think an early signing period could solve some issues as far as guys committing, decommitting or if there’s a guy who just knows that he wants to be at your school, he can knock it out … and save us as a staff not having to go back every single week,” Richt said.

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