Guerry Clegg: Greyson Lambert makes Georgia contender for national title

Through the first two weeks of this season, conventional wisdom held that the Georgia Bulldogs were just one player away from being very good.

A quarterback.

If Georgia's 52-20 win over South Carolina Saturday night provides an accurate read, it's time to consider the Dogs a national championship contender.

On a night when Georgia legends Fran Tarkenton and Aaron Murray returned to Sanford Stadium, Greyson Lambert put on a show that will go down as one of the best in school history.

How could there be any debate about that? Lambert was one incomplete pass away from pitching a perfect game.

Lambert's final numbers were staggering: 25 attempts, 24 completions, 330 yards, three touchdowns. He completed 96 percent of his passes, the best in NCAA history with at least 20 completions.

"That's phenomenal," said receiver Malcolm, the beneficiary of eight of those completions.

And that incompletion -- just over the hands of Jeb Blazevich in the back of the end zone -- was a good throw.

Lambert said the smart decision would have been to hit Mitchell crossing underneath at the 5-yard line.

"Yeah, I got a little greedy," Lambert said.

But here's what Lambert did right.

He saw linebacker Skai Moore closing in on Blazevich from the other side.

So Lambert fired the ball high over Blazevich's hands.

"I wanted to throw it where only our guy had a chance to catch it," he said.

Georgia coach Mark Richt offered playful criticism.

"I can't believe he threw an incompletion," Richt said.

"I'm disappointed in that. But we'll forgive him.

That incompletion came on Lambert's fifth pass attempt and on Georgia's first possession.

From there, Lambert reeled off 20 consecutive completions.

When Lambert lost his starting job at Virginia, he decided to transfer for his final two years of eligibility.

He chose Georgia, in part because it's close to home, but also because he knew the collection of skill players the Bulldogs have.

Outsiders -- yeah, including this one -- figured he would be content to back up Brice Ramsey.

"No, that was never the plan," Lambert said, shaking his head with a smile.

He used those skill players to perfection. Nine different players caught passes. He hit tight ends running across the middle. He hit receivers short and deep. Two of his touchdown passes were to running back Sony Michel. He had two completions to fullback Quayvon Hicks.

It was such a contrast to the week before, when he didn't complete a pass in the first half.

Richt insisted that he never lost confidence in Lambert.

He didn't go out of his way to offer encouragement. He left that to offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach Brian Schottenheimer.

"I left him alone," Richt said.

"I always try to offer those guys encouragement, but I didn't have a sit down with him or a special pow wow. The thing that I learned as a quarterbacks coach is the relationship between the quarterbacks coach and the quarterback, the interaction that they might have, it doesn't need another voice."

So what does this mean for Georgia? Up next is Southern, followed by the big showdown with Alabama.

Lambert's play offers hope that the Bulldogs could be up to their first huge challenge.

But Richt and the players insisted they will stay focused on what they need to do.

"We'll enjoy this win tonight," Michel said. "Then we'll go back to work to get better."

The Dogs still have six conference games remaining and nine overall. They've been in this spot before and not too long ago.

In 2013, they thumped LSU at home. But they lost Todd Gurley to an ankle injury. The next week, the escaped Tennessee with a win but lost Keith Marshall to a knee injury.

That was followed by losses to Missouri and Vanderbilt.

But if nothing else, Saturday's game shows that Lambert has the ability to lead the team.

-- Guerry Clegg is an independent correspondent. You can write to him at sports@ledger-enquirer.com

This story was originally published September 20, 2015 at 8:44 AM with the headline "Guerry Clegg: Greyson Lambert makes Georgia contender for national title ."