Legge's Thoughts: Dawgs Kick Vols' Teeth In
KNOXVILLE - Dean Legge wraps up No. 3 Georgia's lopsided win over the Vols.
Kirby Smart wants UGA to start games better. He’s right, but all games are four-quarter affairs, and that’s something that has to be remembered, but often is not.
I fell into the trap, too. I thought, probably like everyone in the stadium, that Tennessee would roll over and die like they have so often of late. But the Vols did effort about the first 29 minutes of the game.
When UT’s Brent Cimaglia missed a 47-yard field goal to the left with 59 seconds to play, Jake Fromm was off - just like when he was running up and down the field for Houston County.
Zoom.
Zip.
50 seconds and 70 yards later UGA George Pickens was in the end zone and the game, even with all of the Rocky Top that goes along with it, was over. Tennessee didn’t score again, and when it got close in the final moments of the game, UGA’s backup defenders earned a goal-line stand.
Georgia might not be explosive in a way Tua and the Tide, Justin and the Buckeyes and Joe and the Tigers are, but they will grind you… all night like a R. Kelly song, who (like the Vols) used to be good in the 1990s, but is in very serous trouble now.
Before that missed FG, UGA had 284 yards, and the Vols had 239. Before that with one score, the Vols could have taken back the lead. After that Tennessee was never within single digits. From that moment forward, UGA outgained the Vols 242 to 104; UGA outscored the Vols 23 to 0.
It was the beating everyone expected from the start… it just happened in the second half. We’ve seen this before - a few times. The only teams to come back to beat Kirby’s UGA teams in the second half have been Alabama, and Tennessee ain’t Alabama.
That Georgia needs to start faster is understood. Then again, every game can’t be the 21-0 buzzsaw that was the start to the Vanderbilt game. Georgia is going to go on runs, but they might not be at the start of games.
The standard that has been set for this program has created a particular expectation for its fanbase. Fans are saying: “Hey, look, I’m traveling to see you pound this team from the start. No mercy. I’m spending time, money and emption on this… I need you to crush them.”
Games are a full 60 minutes. If they were anything less than that Georgia would have at least one more another national title, and another SEC title.
Big picture, Tennessee, as a program, is in big trouble. You take a look around, and things just aren’t right in Knoxville. Jeremy Pruitt certainly seems over his head on this one. The Vols are 1-4 with the only win coming against Chattanooga. Games against Georgia State, the Gators and the Dawgs have not been overwhelmingly competitive.
Neyland Stadium can rock and roll, but as a facility it needs some work. I’ve always thought people overdid how bad Neyland was in terms of an experience, but I recorded Legge’s Thoughts in the stands, and I walked around the concourses before the game.
It has all of the issues of Wrigley Field with none of the charm. Neyland “looks’ old. It really needs a new, solid paint job. But when you are operating at a $6.5 million deficit after firing Butch Jones, you don’t have a ton of money to get things right.
The key to tuning an athletic department around is the football program, and right now that’s not something that looks close to being turned around. It looks worse than when Jones was in charge.