University of Georgia Athletics
Dog Notes: `There's Work To Be Done'
September 10, 2016 | Football
By John Frierson
UGAAA Staff Writer
It was hot, it was humid, the opponent wasn't a household name and the Georgia football team was coming off an emotional, high-profile win last week — all the ingredients were there for a letdown. And none of that should have mattered Saturday.
"We need work and there's work to be done," junior outside linebacker Lorenzo Carter said after a tough afternoon for the Bulldogs.
New Georgia football coach Kirby Smart preaches passion and energy as much as anything, but the Bulldogs seemed about a quart low in both for long stretches of their hold-on-for-deal-life 26-24 win Saturday over Nicholls. An FCS school from Thibodaux, La., Nicholls was picked to finish 10th in the 11-team Southland Conference and has won less than 40 percent of its games in 40-plus years as a program, including just three wins last season.
From the head coach and his staff on down, Smart said, it was a disappointing performance.
"We did not play with the intangibles, the enthusiasm, the passion and relentless energy that we expect," Smart said. "We hold these kids to a standard of excellence and we didn't perform to it today. Very disappointed."
The Bulldogs jumped from No. 18 in the country to No. 9 this week — Smart said he worried about the impact of such a big jump in the polls — after knocking off then-No. 22 North Carolina, 33-24, in a loud and packed Georgia Dome a week ago. It was Smart's first game as head coach, the start of a new era for the Dogs and the return of star running back Nick Chubb from a serious knee injury.
Georgia was far from perfect in that win, but the Dogs rallied from a 10-point deficit, Chubb ran for 222 yards and highly-touted freshman quarterback Jacob Eason made some big plays. It was a full emotional plate, perhaps, and the perfect kind of game to set up a letdown against a largely unknown opponent. But that's no excuse.
"They made some plays and we just figured we'll turn it around sooner or later, and those guys kept playing with us," Chubb said.
The game was Georgia's home opener and Smart's first game in Athens as head coach of his alma mater.
"It was great at the beginning of the game," Smart said of being back on the home sideline.
After that, the anxiety was palpable inside the stadium. Georgia's offensive line struggled to create running lanes, the Dogs turned the ball over three times and they let a hard-nosed team hang around. And Georgia's turnovers — a Chubb fumble, an Eason interception and an Isaiah McKenzie muffed punt return — kept breathing life into the Colonels, who were playing their first game of the season.
"When they get momentum, and start believing that they can play with you, you better hold on because they're playing on an adrenaline that your players don't have," Smart said. "And why don't our players have it? I don't know why. We've got to get it in them, we've got to get them to want to win just as bad as the other team."
Play Of The Game
Chubb has made a lot of big plays in his career, with maybe dozens of runs that would could be regarded as the play of the game. He made the play of the game Saturday, late in the fourth quarter, with a block.
Georgia was facing a third-and-seven at the Bulldog 10-yard line, with 2:55 on the clock and the lead 26-24. Greyson Lambert had replaced Eason on the possession and the snap from center Brandon Kublanow on the play was low. Nicholls blitzed a corner on the play from Georgia's right and Chubb was lined up left of Lambert in the backfield.
As Lambert reached by his right foot and grabbed the ball, Chubb picked up the blitzing Colonel, allowing Lambert to hit wideout Michael Chigbu for nine yards and a first down. Chubb ran hard but had a tough outing, finishing with 80 yards and a six-yard touchdown on 20 carries. It was the first game in his career that he started and finished and failed to rush for 100 yards.
He helped run out the clock in the closing minutes, but the block was his biggest contribution.
"You can always count on Nick to do his job," safety Aaron Davis said.
Smart credited Chubb with making the pickup in crunch time, but added that Nicholls had run the same blitz earlier and his All-American back hadn't picked it up then. More room for improvement.
Topsy-Turvy Day
For a while Saturday, McKenzie, Georgia's dangerous receiver and returner, was almost keeping the Dogs going on his own. He had a 55-yard punt return and a 66-yard touchdown catch that was almost all run.
"I just saw green grass and I knew I had to run fast and score a touchdown," he said of his third-quarter score on a short pass from Eason. He also got a great block from wideout Javon Wims on the play. "I heard it, but I didn't see it."
In the fourth quarter, with Georgia leading 26-17, McKenzie botched the punt return, which led to a touchdown two plays later. On the ensuing kickoff, McKenzie mishandled the return and Georgia had to start its drive at its 7-yard line.
Smart said Georgia did some good things in special teams, like McKenzie's long return, William Ham's two field goals and Rodrigo Blankenship's four touchbacks on kickoffs, but they were largely negated by the mistakes.
Perfect Start
Eason's first drive in his first start couldn't have gone much better. The five-play, 67-yard drive began with a 1-yard Chubb run, followed be a McKenzie 12-yard run. Then tailback Sony Michel made his 2016 debut and caught Eason's screen right for 12. That was followed by a deep ball down the left sideline to wideout Terry Godwin, who made an acrobatic catch at the 6-yard line.
The drive ended on the next play when Chubb run up the right side for the easy score. When you're trying to put a vulnerable opponent on its back heels early, if not put them on the mat, that kind of drive will often do it.
The great Georgia start continued on the Colonels' first possession, when cornerback Juwuan Briscoe made a stellar play on the left sideline for an interception on third-and-long. Briscoe looked back toward the quarterback just as Chase Fourcade let the pass go, and Briscoe was able to slow down, reach back behind him with his right arm and just pull the ball in before hitting the ground.
On the ensuing drive, with some nice momentum, Georgia went three-and-out. Later, after a Dominick Sanders interception, Georgia also couldn't get a first down. Credit Nicholls for responding to their mistakes, as well.
"We don't ever want to have a sense of entitlement and we definitely respect Nicholls, like any opponent that we go against," said Davis, who had a sack and strip that Carter returned 24 yards for a touchdown. "We know that we have to bring it, bring our best, in any circumstances."
What's Next?
The Bulldogs will both begin SEC play and play their first true road game next week when they go under the lights at Missouri, which lost at West Virginia last week and hosts Eastern Michigan on Saturday night.
John Frierson is the staff writer for the UGA Athletic Association and curator of the ITA Men's Tennis Hall of Fame. You can find his work at: Frierson Files. He's also on Twitter: @FriersonFiles and @ITAHallofFame.
