The big question facing the Georgia Bulldogs as they prepare for the Capital Bowl matchup with Nebraska is simple — did the Bulldogs learn anything from Alabama?
That’s the 2008 version of the Crimson Tide, not the 2012 version that edged Georgia in the SEC Championship Game.
Mark Richt knows the difference and he knows he has a monumental task on his hands as he tries to get the Bulldogs ready to face the Cornhuskers.
Richt finds himself in almost the exact position that Nick Saban was in at the end of the 2008 season. That year Alabama had polished off a perfect regular season at 12-0 and was a an SEC Championship Game win away from playing for a national championship — just like Georgia was in just before the SEC Championship Game earlier this month.
But in 2008 things went south on Alabama. The Tide was beaten by Florida 31-20 and instead of playing in the BCS National Championship Game Alabama got the bid to the Sugar Bowl to play Utah. After coming so close to getting a chance to play for the national championship, the Crimson Tide was listless in its approach to the bowl game. The Utes, on the other hand, took the Sugar Bowl as an opportunity to make a statement and drilled Alabama 31-17.
Georgia went into the SEC Championship Game on December 1st needing only a win to get a bid to the BCS National Championship Game. The Bulldogs played a great game against Alabama but came up just short in a heartbreaking 32-28 loss as time ran out on the Bulldogs with the ball inside the Alabama 5-yard line.
So instead of Miami and a chance to win the national championship against Notre Dame, Georgia had to settle for Orlando and a Capital One Bowl date with Nebraska.
Now there’s nothing wrong with the Capital One Bowl. It’s a great bowl that puts out the Welcome mat for the visiting teams. The Georgia players will have a wonderful time in Orlando … if they can get over the disappointment of what might have been.
“We fought hard, we had a great plan, we did what we could do that day. We just couldn’t get it done,” said Richt. “We didn’t do enough to get it done, but everybody knows that you have to move on. There are still things that are worth playing for. Number one we get to play another football game. I think our guys enjoy playing football, so I think that in itself is going to be enough motivation.”
Richt knows that his team wanted more but still came away with a pretty good consolation prize.
“I think landing where we landed as far as the Capital One Bowl, being in Orlando in a warm weather climate, knowing we were going to play on Jan. 1 against an outstanding football team,” he said. “I think all those things have been positive. I will be challenging our leadership to finish better than we did a year ago and to solidify the job that they’ve done, because I think they’ve done an outstanding job to this point.”
Richt’s main responsibility is getting his players to put their minds on putting the close call against Alabama behind them and get them focused on playing Nebraska. It might be another matter for the periphery of Bulldog nation.
“Everything has been extremely positive,” he said. “I think the Georgia people, the recruits, our own players — no one likes to lose, but I think everybody felt like we were there in the game that meant everything. Not many people were in a game like that. There were three teams left and we were one of them. We played a great football team and played a great game.
“I’d say the same thing I said after the (Alabama) game. I was extremely disappointed in the outcome of the game, but not disappointed one bit in our players and coaches and how we battled,” Richt said.
“In some ways I appreciate the media saying Georgia got this or Georgia got that, as far as they didn’t get what they deserved and they should be a BCS team and all that kind of thing, but the bottom line is only two per conference can go. Is Florida deserving of an opportunity? I think they are. I think we are, and LSU might be, and South Carolina might be as well. Do we have teams that are good enough to play in BCS bowls? Yes, but the rules say that only two teams can go. I understand the deal, and that’s just kind of the way it is. But I think we landed in a tremendous place. The Capital One is a great bowl, and Nebraska is a great football program.”
The Georgia players appear to have embraced this opportunity.
“I think it’s just another opportunity for us to show that we can finish the season. We haven’t won a bowl game in three years, so I think that if we can do that and go out on the right note and prove that this team is different and win 12 games then that would be a great accomplishment for us,” said Georgia linebacker Christian Robinson.
“We want to be a team that finished, we don’t want to be a great team that just gave up and laid down because their ultimate goal didn’t happen. We were five yards from being somewhere else but we don’t want to show that we weren’t worthy of it by not finishing.”