University of Georgia Athletics
Bulldog Offense Never Got Rolling
January 02, 2019 | Football, The Frierson Files
By John Frierson
Staff Writer
NEW ORLEANS — It wasn't the Sugar Bowl that the Georgia Bulldogs were hoping for, it wasn't the ending to an otherwise great season that anyone expected, but the evening of New Year's Day belonged to the Texas Longhorns.
"Hats off to Texas, they came out to play ball," Georgia senior receiver Terry Godwin said in the Bulldog locker room after the game.
Playing in front of 71,449 in the Mercedes-Benz Superdome, in the 85th edition of the Sugar Bowl, the 15th-ranked Longhorns took charge with their first possession and the fifth-ranked Bulldogs struggled to gather any momentum the rest of the way, falling 28-21.
It was the second straight loss for Georgia (11-3), which came up short to top-ranked Alabama in the SEC Championship Game in Atlanta. For seniors like Godwin, center Lamont Gaillard and defensive end Jonathan Ledbetter, experiencing consecutive losses is a tough way to close out a spectacular time as upperclassmen.
"It's been a hell of a ride, a good journey," Godwin said. "Of course it's not the way a senior wants to go out, but I wouldn't want to do it with any other group of guys than the ones right here with me."
Georgia, in its second and third seasons under coach Kirby Smart, has gone a combined 23-5 the past two seasons. The Bulldogs won an SEC championship last season, beat Oklahoma in an incredibly thrilling Rose Bowl on New Year's Day 2018 and lost to Alabama in overtime in the National Championship Game — and that was all just last season.
The 2018 Georgia football season included 11 wins in the regular season, never something to be taken for granted, and another SEC East Division title. That led to another trip to Atlanta for the SEC title game, a No. 5 spot in the final College Football Playoff ranking and then Tuesday's appearance in the Sugar Bowl.
That's a lot of success and a lot of special moments for the veteran Bulldogs, including junior running back Brian Herrien, who made some things happen in the Superdome on a difficult day for Georgia's offense.
In the second quarter, with the Longhorns already up 17-0, Herrien pushed through the line for two yards and a first down. On the next play, he not only rushed for eight yards but ran over a Texas defensive back in impressive fashion in the process. There was a simultaneous chorus of "oohs" from the crowd when Herrien drove his way over the defender.
Later, on second-and-10 at the Texas 17, with Georgia badly in need of a touchdown to try to get back in the game, Herrien caught a pass out of the backfield on the left side. The Longhorns were blitzing on the play and Herrien was left all alone, scoring easily the first receiving TD of his career.
"It was a good play at the time — Texas had a blitz coming from that side and it just made me wide open at that moment. It was a good play call," said Herrien, who finished the game with four carries for 17 yards and two catches for 20 (his second catch also went for a first down).
With the offense struggling to that point, it looked like that scoring drive might finally get things rolling for Georgia's high-powered offense that has been among the nation's most productive all season, ranking No. 14 in total offense, 12th in rushing and its scoring average of 39.2 points per game ranked 13th nationally.
Instead, the struggles continued. Some late success helped Georgia's stats a little, and the Bulldogs did cut the Texas lead to seven in the closing seconds, but when the clock ran out Georgia ended up with 296 yards of offense, about 180 below its average.
"I guess sometimes things don't go the way you want them to go," Herrien said. "We just didn't capitalize as much as we needed to and didn't make the plays. That's just the way the cookie crumbled.
"It kind of lets you know that you've got to go to work every day. This stuff doesn't just happen, you've got to go to work for this stuff."
In a game in which Georgia rushed for just 72 yards (it came in averaging 251.6 per game), one milestone was hit. Junior running back Elijah Holyfield, on his 11-yard run to open the third quarter, passed 1,000 yards rushing for the season, joining fellow running back D'Andre Swift with more than 1,000. And the duo did it one season after Georgia had two different 1,000-yard rushers, Nick Chubb and Sony Michel.
Still, passing milestone markers doesn't mean much after a disappointing end to the season. For Godwin, who had three catches for 45 yards in his final game, it wasn't easy to stand in Georgia's locker room postgame and know that he's reached the end of his red-and-black road.
"This is my family and it's going to be hard to leave these boys, but you've got to do what you've got to do and the time has come," he said. "I'm going to forever love them; I'm always going to remember these bonds with these players.
"Once you actually play the game of football, you'll know these relationships mean a lot more than what people would think. That's not just my teammate, that's my brother."
And Godwin is expecting big things from the brothers that will carry on without him next season.
"These seniors, we instilled a lot in these young guys and we're trying to leave a legacy that we hope they can follow next year," he said, "and I'm pretty sure they'll do it because there's a lot of special talent and hard workers around this locker room."
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.
