Statistically Speaking by Dave McMahon

Nov. 2, 2011

Here are some more notes, nuggets and tidbits of information all things Georgia Bulldogs, statistically speaking of course. For the most complete information on a specific upcoming game please checkout the individual sport and game you are looking for on www.georgiadogs.com.

And now for the extra stuff...

FOOTBALL

After losing the first 2 games of the season, Georgia has now won 6 straight. The Bulldogs record winning streak is 17 straight from 1945 to 1947, but they also have streaks of 15 straight from 1941 to 1942 or 1981 to 1983. Here is a list of the longest winning streaks under Mark Richt in each season and what his longest streak is if you carried it over 2 seasons.

2001	4 games	2007	7 games
2002	8 games	2008	4 games
2003	4 games	2009	3 games
2004	4 games (twice)	2010	3 games
2005	7 games	2011	6 games
2006	5 games
overall: 11 games (last 7 from 2007 and first 4 from 2008)

It is always big when Georgia beats Florida, just like it was earlier this season when Georgia defeated Tennessee. Now beating both is extremely big! Both of these things happening in one season has only happened 4 times in Georgia history. Here are those seasons and scores.

1980	def Tennessee	16-15	def Florida 26-21
1981	def Tennessee	44-0	def Florida 26-21
1988	def Tennessee	28-17	def Florida 26-3
2011	def Tennessee	20-12	def Florida 24-20

The way the Dawgs beat Florida was pretty incredible as well. A lot of it was due to great run defense. The Bulldog defense held the Gators to -19 yards rushing. It was the 2nd time this season that Georgia has held a team to negative yards rushing. The other was Tennessee, when the Vols rushed for -21 yards. I already mentioned in a previous article that the -21 was the 3rd lowest all-time in Georgia history. In case you are wondering the -19 is the 5th lowest in team's history and also it destroys the lowest output by Florida in the series in recent times. Here are the top 5 lowest Gator rushing totals when they play the Bulldogs from 1931 to the present. (team stats were not kept as well before that)

2011	-19 rush yards
1985	28 rush yards
1936	31 rush yards
1982	34 rush yards
1981	36 rush yards

Another area of strength was what Georgia did on 4th down. Georgia was 4-of-7 on 4th downs against Florida and are 9-of-15 on the season. Two of the conversions went for TD passes (One to Michael Bennett and the other to Tavarres King). Under Mark Richt, the 9 conversions is tied for the 2nd most in a season and with at least 4 games left that mark could be in jeopardy. Here is what Georgia has done season-by-season under Mark Richt on 4th downs.

2001	9 of 20	2007	7 of 13
2002	9 of 14	2008	6 of 13
2003	7 of 15	2009	8 of 14
2004	11 of 14	2010	8 of 15
2005	7 of 12	2011	9 of 15
2006	9 of 14

As I mentioned those touchdown catches were huge. Both Bennett and King came up big especially with Malcolm Mitchell being out with a hamstring injury. Other players made some big catches in the game including Chris Conley and Rhett McGowan. In a strange note, McGowan became the first sophomore on this season's to catch a pass. Most of the time it has been juniors and freshmen receiving the ball. Here is a breakdown class-by-class.

Seniors	13 receptions
Juniors	73 receptions
Sophomores	1 reception
Freshmen	55 receptions

Aaron Murray is the one who threw the passes and although he didn't have his best day statically passing, he did have one of his best games statistically running the football. In fact he out-rushed the whole Gator team 42 to -19. The 42 yards tied the most he has ever run in a game as a Bulldog. It is also tied for 8th for the most rushing yards by a Georgia quarterback under Mark Richt. Here are the top-10. (the 10th one is tied so technically it is the top-11)

D.J. Shockley	85 yards	2005 vs Boise State
Matthew Stafford	83 yards	2006 at Auburn
D.J. Shockley	71 yards	2005 vs West Virginia (2006 bowl game)
D.J. Shockley	62 yards	2004 at Kentucky
D.J. Shockley	51 yards	2005 at Tennessee
D.J. Shockley	47 yards	2003 at Clemson
D.J. Shockley	44 yards	2004 vs Louisiana-Monroe
Aaron Murray	42 yards	2010 vs Louisiana-Lafayette
Aaron Murray	42 yards	2011 vs Florida
David Greene	41 yards	2001 vs Kentucky
Aaron Murray	41 yards	2010 vs Tennessee

One of the players of the game no doubt was Jarvis Jones. Jones was already on the Butkus Award semifinalist list and now he is one of the semifinalist to the Nagurski Award for the nation's best defensive player. This week he won the weekly Nagurski Award as well as the Walter Camp National Defensive Player of the Week Award, College Football Performance Awards National Player of the Week, Rivals.com SEC Player of the Week and SEC Co-Defensive Player of the Week by the conference itself. He was also the player of the game on the CBS telecast. Jones had 5 tackles in the game- 4 of them were sacks- and he also had a forced fumble. The 4 sacks doubles his season output and gives him a SEC leading 8 sacks for the season. He became the 5th different Bulldog to record 4 or more sacks in one game. Freddie Gilbert is on the list twice. So here are the 6 times a Georgia player has punished the opposition's quarterback 4 or more times in a game.

Freddie Gilbert	5 sacks	1983 vs Temple
Freddie Gilbert	4 sacks	1981 vs Florida
Richard Tardits	4 sacks	1988 vs TCU
Mo Lewis	4 sacks	1989 at Ole Miss
Charles Grant	4 sacks	2001 vs Auburn
Jarvis Jones	4 sacks	2011 vs Florida

As I mentioned above, Jarvis Jones currently leads the SEC in sacks- a Georgia player has led the conference in sacks 3 times previously- Here they are...

David Pollack	14 sacks	2002
David Pollack	12 ½ sacks	2004
Marcus Howard	10 ½ sacks	2007

Also the redshirt sophomore leads the SEC in tackles-for-loss with 14. Also 3 times a Georgia player has led the conference in tackles-for-loss. Here they are...

David Pollack	22 tackles-for-loss	2002
David Pollack	18 tackles-for-loss	2004
Charles Johnson	19 tackles-for-loss	2006

This week is Georgia's homecoming and their opponent is New Mexico State. Georgia has faced the Aggies twice before winning 40-13 in 1995 and 37-0 in 2000. If Georgia notches another shutout it will be the 3rd time in a row that Georgia has posted a shutout in their homecoming game. They won 38-0 vs Tennessee Tech in 2009 and 43-0 vs Vanderbilt in 2010. Georgia has 23 shutouts in homecoming games and some of those happened in back-to-back seasons - once it happened 3 seasons in a row. Here are those back-to-back seasons in which Georgia has shutouts in consecutive homecoming games.

1923-24 vs Vanderbilt and Virginia
1929-31 vs Auburn, North Carolina and Vanderbilt
1933-34 vs New York University and North Carolina State
1937-38 vs Mercer and Georgia Tech (they actually tied the Yellow Jackets 0-0)
1941-42 vs Dartmouth and Georgia Tech
1958-59 vs Kentucky and Florida State
1980-81 vs Vanderbilt and Kentucky
2009-10 vs Tennessee Tech and Vanderbilt

SOCCER

Georgia has a record of 12-5-2 this season and is the number 5 seed in the SEC Tournament, which is starting Wednesday in Orange Beach, Alabama. Georgia squares off in the first round against Florida. The Gators defeated the Bulldogs 1-0 earlier this season in front of 2,337 fans in Athens back on September 23rd. In SEC Tournament action Georgia is 1-6 against Florida. Overall the Bulldogs are 10-13-1 in SEC Tournament action. Here is a breakdown how Georgia has fared against each opponent in SEC Tournament.

Against Alabama	2-0	Against Vanderbilt	1-1
Against Ole Miss	2-1	Against Kentucky	0-0-1
Against South Carolina	2-1	Against Florida	1-6
Against Auburn	2-2	Against Tennessee	0-2

(Georgiadogs.com will have live audio coverage and a live blog as long as the Bulldogs are playing)

CROSS COUNTRY (Men's and Women's)

The SEC Championships were held this week in Maryville, Tennessee and both the Georgia men and the Georgia women had a pretty good showing individually and as a team. The Men's team finished 3rd and the Women's team finished 4th in the SEC and individually the men's team had a pair of top-10 finishers while the women's had one as defending SEC champ Kristie Krueger finished 6th after injuring her foot recently. In the last 5 seasons, Georgia has had their share of top-10 finishers in SEC Tournament. Here they are...

Men's	2011	Matt Cleaver (8th)
	2011	Brandon Lord (10th)
Women's	2011	Kristie Krueger (6th)
	2010	Kristie Krueger (1st)
	2009	Kristie Krueger (4th)
	2007	Sarah Madebach (1st)
	2007	Natalie Picchetti (3rd)

WOMEN'S BASKETBALL

The Lady Bulldogs began their 2011-2012 season with an exhibition win on Tuesday against West Georgia by the score of 72-40. Georgia who is preseason ranked 13th by the Associated Press won the contest primarily on defense. Andy Landers' crew forced 21 turnovers in the game, which is nothing new if you have followed his group. Over the last 10 seasons, Georgia has forced their opponents to commit at least 20 turnovers a whopping 120 times and in those games they have won 103 of them. Here is the Lady Bulldogs' record in each of the last 10 seasons in games they have had forced their opponents to commit 20 or more turnovers.

2001-02	9-4
2002-03	12-5
2003-04	10-2
2004-05	10-1
2005-06	14-1
2006-07	12-0
2007-08	10-2
2008-09	5-1
2009-10	12-0
2010-11	9-1

(The Lady Bulldogs begin regular season action on November 11th vs TCU in Athens)

BULLDOGS IN THE NFL

A few former Bulldogs had some big games last Sunday including quarterback Matthew Stafford as he out-dueled former SEC foe Tim Tebow as his Detroit Lions destroyed the Denver Broncos 45 to 10. Stafford finished the day completing 21 of 30 passes for 267 yards and 3 touchdowns. The 70 percent throwing was the 4th highest of his young pro career. Here are the top-5 completion percentage games that Stafford has thrown in the NFL.

2010 at Bears	11 of 15	73.3 percent
2011 vs Bears	19 of 26	73.1 percent
2011 at Buccaneers	24 of 33	72.7 percent
2011 at Broncos	21 of 30	70.0 percent
2011 at Vikings	32 of 46	69.6 percent

Another player that did very well is Cleveland Browns tight end Benjamin Watson. Watson had 3 receptions for a team-high 64 yards. All 3 of his catches were for first downs. Over his pro career, Watson's grabs have moved the chains a total of 161 times. Of all active tight ends that have played at least 75 games, Watson is 3rd in percentage of receptions for first downs in a career. Here is that top-5 list (actually top-6 since number 5 is a tie)

	1st down Rec	Total Receptions	Percentage
Antonio Gates	394	546	72.2
Tony Gonzalez	715	1,104	64.8
Benjamin Watson	161	258	62.4
Dallas Clark	255	419	60.9
Todd Heap	290	480	60.4
Jeremy Shockey	322	533	60.4

BULLDOGS IN BASEBALL (MLB)

Former Bulldog Gordon Beckham struggled at the plate this season, but he did not struggle on the field for the Chicago White Sox committing just 8 errors in 149 games. Although Boston Red Sox second baseman Dustin Pedroia ended up with the Gold Glove Award, Beckham stats were right there with him. Here are the top-5 American League second basemen according to fielding percentage.

Howie Kendrick	Angels	.992
Dustin Pedroia	Red Sox	.990
Gordon Beckham	White Sox	.989
Ben Zobrist	Rays	.989
Chris Getz	Royals	.988

In the National League, former Bulldog signee Brandon Phillips won the Gold Glove for National League second baseman. Phillips never played for Georgia as he signed a pro contract after being drafted in the 2nd round of the 1999 MLB Amateur Draft by the Montreal Expos.

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