Brooks: Buffs Better Be Wary Of Desperate Dawgs

BOULDER - Mark this down as a miserable month for Georgia and coach Mark Richt. And on September's final weekend the distress didn't stop, swiftly spilling from Saturday night into Sunday morning.

Not long after his Bulldogs were beaten 24-12 at Mississippi State, dealing UGA its first three-game losing streak since 1990, Richt returned to Athens and was forced to deal with another player arrest.

On Sunday afternoon he dismissed Demetre Baker, of Orange Park, Fla., from the team after the freshman linebacker's arrest early Sunday on DUI and other charges. According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution's web site, Baker, who has not played this season and did not make the trip to Starkville, Miss., is the 10th UGA football player to be arrested this year - unacceptable behavior in Athens in the best of seasons and certainly an added blight as this one unravels.

This is foreign territory for the affable, successful Richt, who lived in Broomfield for about seven years as a kid while his father worked for IBM. Richt, 91-30 in his 10th season, directed the Bulldogs to Southeastern Conference titles in 2002 and 2005. But his teams, which played for the SEC championship three times in a four-year stretch, haven't been back to the title game since '05.

And this season, the Dawgs find themselves foraging for any scraps of success. The loss in Starkville was their first there since 1951 and the first in any venue to Mississippi State since 1974. UGA dropped to 1-3 overall and 0-3 in the conference - a first since 1993.

The previous two league losses were to South Carolina and Arkansas, teams that Georgia historically handle. Prior to Saturday night, Georgia had beaten Mississippi State in nine consecutive meetings, had not lost at South Carolina in 10 years and had not lost to Arkansas in 17 years.

Richt has coached UGA to 10 or more wins in six of his nine seasons and nine consecutive bowl appearances. His resume includes a pair of 11-win seasons ('03, '07) and a 13-win campaign ('02). Last season's 8-5 finish was Richt's worst and marked the first time one of his Bulldogs teams finished the year unranked.

"We're definitely in a position that I've never been in as a player or a coach . . . it's certainly not a good place to be, but we are where we are," Richt said Saturday night.

Sunday afternoon, his mood hadn't lightened. He didn't hesitate in agreeing that on the field and off, this is among the toughest times of his Georgia tenure.

"No doubt it is," Richt said on his regular in-season Sunday teleconference. "The bottom line is we're 0-3 and we've never been there. We've had enough issues off the field, and it's a big distraction for our young men, the program, the university. No doubt it's the toughest bit of adversity since I've been here."

Asked if he could call up anything from his past coaching stops to help him deal with the current situation, he said he had been blessed to be a Florida State assistant (1990-2000) during the Seminoles' long stretch of success.

"The good news is that we know what success looks like," he said. "If this was my first or second year at a place that hadn't had any, we might say, 'What do we do now?' But we know what it takes to get it right. We know we're not far off . . . we need to stay the course, stay together as a team, as a staff."

Richt said any changes, personnel or schematic, that are needed would be made. But he added, "If you try to make wholesale changes mid-stream, you ask for trouble. We're not going to do that; we'll keep banging away."

One change Colorado definitely can expect on Saturday night (5 p.m., FSN) at Folsom Field is the addition of receiver A.J. Green to Richt's lineup. The Bulldogs' best player was suspended by the NCAA for the first four games after being accused of selling his bowl-game jersey for $1,000 to a person classified as an agent. Now, Green's four-game penalty is behind him.

"We're trying to stay away from saying, 'If we had A.J. (in the first four games) we would do this, that or another,'" Richt said. "We're just glad to have him back. He's certainly paid a price . . . (and) now that he has a chance to play we'll certainly find a way to use his talents."

Offensively, Georgia needs him. After averaging 31.0 points a game for the past three seasons, the Bull dogs are averaging 24.2 in their first four games of 2010. Turnovers, penalties and inexperienced quarterback play have stymied Richt's offense.

"You can't turn the ball over, and you can't have penalties," offensive coordinator Mike Bobo said following the Mississippi State loss. "That's coaching. It's our fault."

The Bulldogs tallied their only touchdown Saturday night with less than a minute and a half to play, an irrelevant score that merely underscored the Georgia offense's futility. The Dawgs haven't led in their past three games.

"Points would be good, no doubt," said Richt, who fired three defensive assistants in the off-season and added NFL assistant Todd Grantham (he coached last season in Dallas; his last college job was Virginia Tech in 1989) as his defensive coordinator. "Sevens are better than threes, threes are better than zeroes. It all works together, no doubt."

The Bulldogs likely view Saturday's game in Boulder as a chance to step out of conference, regroup, then return to Athens for a pair of winnable SEC home games (Tennessee, Vanderbilt) that could rejuvenate Richt and his team. More than anything else, though, UGA is desperate for a 'W' - any would do at this point.

After Saturday night's loss, wide receiver Kris Durham said, "Our season could turn into a catastrophe if we don't stay together and work hard."

After a week off, the Buffaloes should be healed and rested. Showing up intense enough to offset the Dawgs' desperation would be advisable, too. Picturing three-loss Georgia as a pushover is an image that's badly out of focus - especially for CU.

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