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SPORTS
Seniors show
leadership in
eight-win year
By GRAHAM GARRISON
ggarrison@randb.com
The one thing Georgia coach Mark Richt
wanted out of his players this season was
something he couldn’t coach — faith.
Faith in him and his coaching staff, after
replacing Jim Donnan, who had led Georgia to
a 40-19 record and four consecutive bowl wins.
Faith in the direction of the season, which
three weeks before Saturday’s 35-7 win against
Houston seemed in doubt with the Bulldogs’
second consecutive loss at the hands of
Auburn.
But what Richt saw in his team in the worst
of times was what made this season a success.
“I’m very proud of what happened overall,”
Richt said. “I’m most pleased with the players
and how they played all year long. I’m pleased
with the seniors and the leadership they pro
vided.”
Senior linebacker Will Witherspoon said
that leadership took a lot of soul searching
after Donnan’s firing one year ago.
Many players said they were confused and
frustrated as to the direction their careers had
taken.
“A lot of guys, when (Donnan was fired),
said, ‘I don’t want to go through this again. I’m
not sure I want to stay around for this,’ ”
Witherspoon said.
Quarterback Quincy Carter didn’t. He
jumped to the NFL. Tight end Jason Radar
transfered to Marshall.
Two others, Durell Robinson and Regan
Torbert, left after suspensions in the spring for
rules violations.
Richt’s direction wasn’t always easy to
swallow for a lot of Bulldog players.
It meant discipline. By season’s end Richt
had suspended six players, disciplined two
more for run-ins with the law and kicked sen
ior Jasper Sanks off the team for a rules viola
tion before possibly the biggest game of the
season at Georgia Tech.
It also meant learning an entirely new sys
tem from the one that had them ranked in the
top 25 four years running.
“It could have been so frustrating for them
to the point where they said, ‘We give up,’ ”
Richt said. “But they didn’t do that.”
Not even after an early season 14-9 loss to
South Carolina. The Bulldogs rebounded two
games later for the biggest win of the season at
SEC East champion Tennessee.
The 26-24 come-from-behind victory made
Georgia just the third team to beat a Phillip
FUlmer-led Volunteer squad in Knoxville.
A 24-10 loss to Florida didn’t ruin the sea
son. The Bulldogs still had a shot at 10 wins. It
was after the Auburn loss, however, that the
bottom appeared to fall out.
At 5-3, Georgia still had two tough road
games against Ole Miss and Georgia Tech. The
Bulldogs could have easily been at 5-5 before
facing Houston.
JESSICA M. SMITH I The Red * Buck
▲ Senior Tim Wansley broke his leg
returning this Houston punt Saturday.
Center Curt McGill and the rest of
Georgia’s seniors wouldn’t settle for that.
“We told the team where we could go,”
McGill said. “We could go down and have a ter
rible season, or we were going to finish these
last few games right and go to a good bowl.
The stroke suffered by junior defensive
tackle David Jacobs only made the team more
focused, Witherspoon said.
“We’re going to face a lot of situations in life
that are hard, and you don’t know what’s going
to happen, but you learn to push through it,”
he said.
Said Richt: “There were times throughout
the season where they could have had their
heads down or gotten negative or the team
could have started to divide. Instead we had
tremendous senior leadership like you hope
you would have that kept eveiything together.”
BULLDOG GAMEDAY REPORT
Offense — While sluggish at first, Verron Haynes
had another 100-yard rushing day. Receiver
Terrence Edwards continues his march in the record
books.
Defense — Georgia held the Cougars to just 237
total yards of offense and forced three turnovers
Special Teams — Tim Wansley and Terrence
Edwards ran wild on punt returns, combining for 101
yards on four returns.
Strategy — Dogs didn’t seem motivated until
near the end of the first half.
Overall — Seniors left on a positive note and Dog -
fans got a glimpse of future stars.
— Graham Garrison
Future promising for Dogs
MEGAN LOVETT | The Red a Black
▲ Freshman David Greene is one of many returning
weapons Coach Richt will have next season.
ANA1YSIS
By RUSSELL McLENDON
rmdendon@randb.com
Freshman flanker Fred
Gibson made a good point fol
lowing Saturday’s 35-7 school
ing of Houston.
“This is just the beginning,”
he said.
The future is, in fact, very
bright for the Bulldogs, whose
2002 roster already is begin
ning to glisten. There is young
talent at many positions, and
coach Mark Richt explained to
his team before the game that
the departing seniors have laid
a foundation for next year’s
team to build on.
One of the most promising
aspects of next year’s team is
the receiving corps. Freshman
quarterback David Greene is
looking forward to continued
success next season throwing
to most of the same targets
who caught his 2,789 passing
yards this season.
“It has made my job easier;”
Greene said. “We have so many
threats, the defense can’t key on
one guy. It seems like it’s a dif
ferent guy each week.”
One of those guys is junior
Terrence Edwards, .Georgia’s
top receiver who is close to set
ting several new school records.
On Saturday, Edwards
caught his 19th career touch
down pass, tying him with
Brice Hunter for the school
record. Edwards will inevitably
break that record next year,
and with six 100-yard plus
receiving games, is only one
away from Hunter’s record of
seven.
Gibson is another Georgia
receiver making insomniacs
out of SEC defensive backs. He
opened some eyes his fresh
man year with 772 receiving
yards and six touchdowns in
nine games. In five of those
nine games, Gibson had 100 or
more yards, putting him two
away from Hunter’s record in
only his first season.
He also set a new school sin
gle-game record with 201 yards
against Kentucky earlier this
year. Despite these accom
plishments, Gibson is not rest
ing on his laurels.
“There’s always room for
improvement,” said Gibson,
adding that he would work on
his running over the summer,
as well as bulk up in the weight
room. “We have a lot of
weapons here, I’m just adding
to it.”
Two more weapons are
sophomore flankers Damien
Gary and Michael Johnson,
both expanding Georgia’s
already vast offensive arsenal.
Junior tight end Randy
McMichael hasn’t made clear
whether he will return for his
senior year, but his backup,
sophomore Ben Watson, put
himself on the map Saturday
with a 49-yard touchdown
reception against the Cougars.
High expectations are
sometimes the downfall of
potentially great teams, some
thing past Georgia squads
learned the hard way. But this
team has been able to handle
adversity with an upbeat atti
tude this season, and the play
ers have an air of humble con
fidence about them.
“Expectations will be high
next year,” said Greene after
Saturday’s game. “We’ll just
have to do our best.”
>• Best way to silence your critics: By setting
school records. Terrence Edwards tied the Georgia record
for most career touchdown receptions with a 49-yard catch
in the third quarter.
► Best way to end a career: With a home win,
excluding, of course, a bowl victory. This bunch of Bulldog
seniors was the first to win in its last home game since 1996.
The rest of the classes were riddles with losses to Georgia
Tech and Auburn.
► Best chance to play everybody: Against a
team that’s 0-10. The Bulldogs threw in some very desenring
reserves in the waning seconds of their 35-7 blowout of the
Cougars.
► Best touchdown to reception ratio: Jarrett
Berry, who in his first career reception caught his first career
touchdown. Give this man the ball...
► Best way to get expectations up: Win eight
games in your first season as head coach and return a moth
erload of key players the next year. Mark Richfs going to have
some fun at those Bulldog club meetings in the offseason.
— Graham Garrison
> Worst opponent to play after beating
your in-state rival: How about a team with the sec
ond-longest losing streak in the nation?
► Worst way to open a game: With one-and-a-
half quarters of scoreless ball against possibly the worst
team in Division l-A. The Bulldogs couldn’t get on the board
until midway through the second quarter with a 2-yard score
from Verron Haynes.
>- Worst way to end your career at home:
On crutches. Tim Wansley left the game after a 52-yard punt
return in the first quarter with a broken left leg. Here's hop
ing he can make it for the bowl game, but if not, good luck
in the pros Timmy.
► Worst way to attack Georgia’s defense:
On the ground. Georgia Tech couldn't do it, Ole Miss could
n’t do it, so why did Houston think It could? The Cougars
amounted a measly 46 yards rushing.
► Worst time to start a football game: Try
noon. This crowd needed at least two more hours of drink
ing to get through this ball game.
— Graham Garrison
NCAA Vault Champion, 1
All-American and SEC All-Around
Champion Cory Frltringer
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