Guerry Clegg: The noise level at Georgia drops after victory

ATHENS, Ga. --

Just one game, just one win.

Even Georgia coach Mark Richt made sure to mention that bit of perspective a few times Saturday after his Bulldogs beat Kentucky 27-3. But it was also such a needed win in light of a season -- and possibly the whole program -- that seemed to be spiraling out of control after the worst month of Richt's 15 years at Georgia.

But considering how devastating yet another loss almost certainly would have been, this was not just another win against an overmatched opponent. A crushing 27-3 loss to Florida the week before -- the Dogs' third loss in four games -- fueled rumors that some boosters were turning up the heat on the administration to fire Richt, or at least force him to make staff changes.

"Yeah, it's one week, one game," Richt said. "But it has us moving in a very positive direction. That's what you want."

It was just one game, but far from just another win.

"Everybody wasn't doing back flips or anything like that. But everybody felt good. Everybody felt better," Richt said. "There was a lot of support throughout the week for each other, a lot of support throughout the game. And after the game, there were a lot of hugs and handshakes between coaches and coaches, coaches and players, players and players. It was a good solid victory that was good medicine for us right now. There's still a lot of ball to be played. But this particular week, considering everything that was going on, I think the guys rose to the occasion and did well."

For the first time in weeks, the Bulldogs have real hope that the worst of the crisis might be over and better days are ahead. Certainly things will be much quieter this week as they prepare for Saturday's game at Auburn. That will be followed by games against Georgia Southern and Georgia Tech. So suddenly, it doesn't seem so ludicrous that Georgia can win out and finish the regular season 9-3 and go into the bowl game with a chance for another 10-win season.

All that seems plausible now because the Bulldogs finally figured out how to fashion an offense. They had not scored a touchdown since the fourth quarter against Tennessee. Granted, it didn't start very promisingly. Their first offensive play was nullified by a 15-yard penalty on guard Kolton Houston for clipping. On the first play of their second possession, running back Keith Marshall slipped and felt for a 2-yard loss.

"It probably would have been a big play if I hadn't slipped," Marshall said.

It also wasn't exactly conventional. The Dogs' first touchdown came when freshman receiver Terry Godwin took a direct snap, faked a handoff to Soni Michel and then dropped the football.

No worries. The ball bounced right back to Godwin and he darted up the middle for a 28-yard touchdown. Finally something went right for Georgia's offense.

Altogether, four players took snaps from center -- quarterbacks Greyson Lambert and Brice Ramsey, plus Godwin and Michel.

Nor were the results immediate. They went into halftime with an uncomfortable 10-3 lead, and that Kentucky field goal was the product of yet another Georgia turnover, a fumble by Isaiah McKenzie.

But they scored on their first possession of the second half, aided by good field position when Kentucky chose to go for it on fourth-and-two at the Georgia 48, but the defense held firm. Michel's touchdown on a one-yard run gave the offense a boost. They scored on their next possession when Marshall caught a screen pass from Lambert, burst down the left sideline and then soared over the goal-line pylon. Officials initially ruled him out of bounds a foot short of the end zone, but replay showed that Marshall scored.

The Bulldogs finished the game just consuming clock and shutting down Kentucky.

Afterward, Richt was very candidly relieved, relieved not only that the Dogs won, but that arguably the most bizarre week of his 15-year tenure at Georgia was blissfully over.

Rumors of staff dissension and administrative displeasure reached a boiling point Thursday morning when various websites and social media platforms were reporting that defensive coordinator Jeremy Pruitt had been fired. Richt felt the need to take the unusual step to go on Twitter and deny the rumors.

"Where's this coming from? It makes zero sense," Richt said. "You have players in class going, 'What's going on?' Something happened that morning. I don't know where they got that misinformation, and it's really a shame that kind of stuff is flying around. I felt like, yeah, I need to do something. I could have gone to Claude (Felton) and made a statement, but I figured with the Twitter account that's close to 200,000 people (followers) it would be fairly quick. I counted to about one and a half and it was getting retweeted. So word got out fast."

Other than that, the coaches and players spent most of their week huddled together focusing on getting the offense back on track.

"It feel like it's a great picture -- at least for a week, just for a week -- of men handling things the way they should," Richt said. "And I'm talking about everybody, not just staff. What it takes to put together a game plan, hold everybody together."

In the locker room before the game, Richt reminded the players to enjoy the moment.

"Men, we're about to go into our world," Richt told them. "We get to play a football game. You get to be between those lines in a world where not many people get to play. Not many people get to play football like they do. I mean, a lot of people dream of an opportunity like that. Let's go enjoy it. Let's enjoy each other."

None of the players got together and said anything about winning one for Richt.

"But we all knew what's been going on," said Houston. "All we have are the people in this room, the coaches and players. It's sort of us against the world. We wanted to fight for each other out there. I think that showed today."

At least for one week.

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

This story was originally published November 7, 2015 at 6:41 PM with the headline "Guerry Clegg: The noise level at Georgia drops after victory ."