For UGA Patience is a Privilege, too
ATHENS - Feeling a little disappointed Georgia didn’t lay the wood to the Vols?
As I talked about Saturday night, Georgia needs to play better. But two (or even multiple things) can be true at the same time. It may be true that Georgia needs to improve, as Kirby said Saturday night, and it be on the right path at the same time.
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In other words, when you are 5-0 patience is a privilege. And let me tell you that everyone doesn’t have that privilege. Tennessee doesn’t. The Gators don’t. South Carolina doesn’t, either.
Georgia does.
After two weeks of seeing what we’ve not grow used to (although I would argue the result that is back-to-back double-digit wins over SEC foes is about as good as you can get) folks are getting slightly jumpy.
Why didn’t Georgia lay waste to the Vols? Well, they did. They just didn’t look unbelievable in doing so.
“Was everyone hooting and hollering in the locker room?” UGA coach Kirby Smart asked reporters after No. 2 Georiga's 38-12 win over the Vols. “It is a good problem to have when your team acknowledges it didn’t play its best and (won).”
Patience is a privilege.
Truthfully, I think that’s about the best the Vols could have played on Saturday. They slowed the game down. They scored twice. They played physical and relatively smart. They correctly didn’t challenge Georgia’s dynamic special teams players. They limited UGA to “only” 153 yards on the ground through the first three quarters.
Then the 4th quarter happened.
Georgia went for 98 yards rushing, two touchdowns and put the few final turns on the vice they had on the Vols’ head. Tennessee didn’t give up, but they gave out. Kirby’s plan worked… again.
I asked the third-year head coach if it was tough to trust in the long slog of physicality in the first half.
“It is hard,” he said. “If you don’t have success what are you going to do? You have to commit to it. You have to believe in it. I think that’s what good coaches do. Have a plan. Stick to the plan. You are not going to go out there and run for seven or eight yards a clip. It just isn’t going to happen. That wearing down has its effect in the fourth quarter. If you don’t run the ball in the first quarter do we will have that effect in the fourth quarter? I don’t know.”
Patience is a privilege
“You just have to have body blow after body blow until it wears people down,” Kirby added.
In the fourth quarter UGA out rushed the Vols 98 to 23. It outscored the Vols 14-6. It ended the game in the fourth quarter for the second week in a row. Georgia’s 13-play, 75-yard scoring drive that took 7:39 off the clock came in the fourth quarter was the longest and most time-consuming drive of the day.
Georgia waited. It knew that it was just a matter of time before it would break the Vols. And while it wan’t the thumping most UGA partisans wanted, it was a decisive win. More importantly, perhaps, Georgia was true to itself. It won the way it “should” win: by breaking the other guy; by being the bully. Last I checked football games are played for 60 mins. It took about 49 minutes for the Vols to fully break.
Every game can’t be a start to finish blowout. Some blowouts take time.
Patience is a privilege.
