Georgia’s fans watched in horror yesterday as the Bulldogs coaching staff went conservative with a 27-20 lead late in the Outback Bowl.  Mark Richt had been on the attack all season long with fourth-down gambles and Aaron Murray deep balls.  But with the game on the line, UGA’s braintrust puckered.  The offense went conservative.  The defense went into a prevent zone that allowed Michigan State to march 85 yards in less than two minutes.  Tie game.  27-27.  Overtime.

But in overtime, Georgia caught a break, picking off its third pass of the day from Spartan quarterback Kirk Cousins on MSU’s first possession.  Remarkably, the Dawgs went conservative again.  They appeared to be fine and dandy with a 42-yard field goal attempt from inconsistent kicker Blair Walsh.  Bad move.  He missed.

Overtime continued and you know the rest of the story — Michigan State 33, Georgia 30.

And everything has now changed in the Peach State as a result of that missed potential game-winner.

Up 16-0 at the half on a Top 5 defense, most Georgia fans were saying things like this: “You know, 11 wins this year, easy schedule next year, I really think we’re sitting pretty when it comes to winning the national title!”

After the loss — at least on the UGA messageboards — the talk changed to this:  “You know, we didn’t beat a good team all season.  10 wins against teams we should beat and then another bowl choke.  Nothing’s changed.”

A bowl loss is the worse thing in the world.  Instead of an offseason of positive dreaming, negative grumbling fills the airwaves.  Richt will get his contract extension from Georgia… as he should.

But if the coach’s status were left to fans — after yesterday’s loss — Richt’s seat really wouldn’t be all that much cooler entering 2012.  Especially with the Dawgs’ much-maligned schedule.

His conservatism and a missed field goal will have a lot of Georgians saying that Richt had better win big next season.  Or else many folks will be right back calling for his head.

There’s nothing like the mood swing after a bowl loss.

“Don’t bother penciling the Georgia Bulldogs as favorites to win the Southeastern Conference East Division again next football season.

The SEC did that Wednesday.”

Rimshot!

Indeed, based on the win totals for each SEC program over the last four years, the Bulldogs will have the easiest 2012 schedule.  On paper.  But Georgia AD Greg McGarity doesn’t think the term “easiest” should be applied to any SEC docket:

“I don’t think any of our 14 schools has an easy schedule.  No one really know what teams are going to be like.  A lot of information is based on this year, but I think you can ask any conference schools and they’ve got tremendous respect for all the other institutions. … If you start trying to put things together based on this year’s performances, there would be no way to have a schedule for all teams the same way.  I just know we’re going to have our hands full every week, especially the opening week fo the year (at Missouri).”

“Humbug!” cry thousands of South Carolina fans.

But like it or not, McGarity is correct.  We grade schedules based on past performance, but that’s rarely a solid indicator of who’ll face what a year from now.

Step into the WayBack Machine and rewind to this date a year ago.  Last December 29th, who would have predicted that Florida would need a bowl win to avoid its first losing season since 1979?  Who would have projected six wins and a bowl trip for Vanderbilt’s new unknown coach James Franklin?

Who would have guessed that Auburn would lose half its roster to the NFL and slide to 7-5 (in a year that could have actually been worse)?  Or that Mississippi State would fall from 9-4 to 6-6?  Or that LSU — with a killer schedule and Jordan Jefferson at quarterback — would go 13-0 and win a showdown with West Division favorite Alabama in Tuscaloosa?

There’s truly no telling who’ll be up or down 12 months from now.

On paper, Georgia looks to have an easier path than South Carolina to the East Division crown.  But what if the Bulldogs lose a number of underclassmen to the NFL while the Gamecocks manage to keep theirs in the flock?  What if it’s a Georgia star who goes down to a season-ending injury in 2012 the way that Marcus Lattimore was lost to Carolina in 2011?

The SEC worked through numerous permutations to come up with a schedule that met as many needs as possible.  Regardless of how the league handled things — and remember that each school was represented in the process — there were going to be complaints.

But complaining too long and too loudly about schedule strength eight months before the first kickoff is a waste of energy.  Carolina Steve Spurrier has it right when he says breaks in scheduling are just “the rub of the green.”  More of us outside the lines need to take the same attitude.  Because as of right now, we don’t know who’ll leave early for the NFL, who’ll come aboard on signing day, who’ll get into off-field trouble, or who’ll be bitten by the injury bug.

There are pluses and minuses on each schedule — and we’ll break those down shortly — but to think we can predict next year’s division champions with only a look at next year’s schedule is laughable.  Remember, the media get their SEC champion pick on Media Day wrong darn near every year.  And that vote’s cast in July, not December.

No, it’s not what you think.  He’s not been paying players.  He’s been giving an extra farthing or two to his assistants and support staff.

According to records obtained by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution through the Freedom of Information Act, Richt “made personal payments of more than $25,000 to coaches and support staff due to what he perceived as inadequate compensation for those individuals.”  Richt wrote three staff members checks from his personal accounts after UGA declined to give the men raises.

Richt’s generosity was a violation of NCAA bylaw 11.3.2.2.  That rule is designed to regulate the amount of supplemental pay staff members can receive.

Here’s who Richt provided extra cash to:

* Charlie Cantor, former recruiting assistant, $10,842 in 2010-2011

* John Jancek, former linebackers coach, $10,000 in 2009

* John Eason, director of player development, $6,150 in 2010

All three men and Richt must now go through NCAA rules education.  Richt and athletic director Greg McGarity would not get into specifics on the report with the AD saying simply: “The reports stands on its own.  There’s nothing to add.  We’re moving forward.”

We’ll add only this: If we’d been told an SEC coach was going to get into trouble for being too nice… we’d have put our money on Richt.

UPDATE – It has been reported this afternoon that Richt also paid $15,227 to 10 non-coaching staff members when UGA refused to give them bowl bonuses (due to “difficult economic conditions being experienced by the University”).  He also paid a five-year longevity bonus of $15,337.50 to tight ends coach Dave Johnson who left for a job at West Virginia just before his fifth anniversary rolled around.  In addition, Richt paid $6,000 to fired defensive ends coach Jon Fabris in 2010 when the coach’s severance package had expired and he still hadn’t found a job.

Look up “good guy” in the dictionary…

Heading to the 2010 season, Georgia’s Mark Richt sat on the warmest seat in the SEC East.  His Dawgs finished 2008 with five losses… his worst mark to date in Athens.  A year prior they have failed to live up to preseason #1 expectations.  And the coach continued to lose to Florida.

In 2010, both coaches had their struggles.  Miles was the butt of jokes — and the target of fans’ anger — after his team nearly blew a home game to hapless Tennessee through game-management issues.  Richt saw his team get off to an 1-4 start en route to a 6-7 finish.

But from 2009 to now, both coaches have silenced many (if not all) of the critics demanding their ousters.  As Mike Herndon of The Mobile Press-Register writes:

“Yet, here they are two years later, preparing for the SEC Championship Game in Atlanta on Saturday.  One with a shot at a second national title and the other with his first division title in four years. Patience may be a virtue after all, even in the win-now world of college football…

LSU and Georgia could have gotten antsy a couple of years ago.  They are being rewarded for their patience this week.”

Patience.  It’s an interesting idea considering Kansas and Memphis both fired coaches after two short seasons and, inside the SEC, many fans at Kentucky and Tennessee would like to see their coaches dismissed after just two years, too.

“I mean, everybody praises LSU’s defense, but I know we’ve got a pretty good defense.  We’re not cocky at all.  We’re just going to play.  We do our job and get after it on the field.  We like having fun.  We love playing football.  We’re aggressive.  We play just as well as them.  A lot of people don’t give us credit (for) how we play.  I think we play two different styles.

I think our defense is just as good as theirs, if not better.”

When that line hit Twitter, several LSU players saw it.  Tyrann Mathieu — known for his talking and tweeting abilities – gave it a pass (surprisingly).  But Tiger receiver Russell Shephard tweeted, “is this guy serious?”

So was Jones being serious?  Here’s how the defenses stack up nationally after 12 games:

National Scoring Defense — LSU #2 (10.6 ppg), Georgia #10 (17.8 ppg)

National Rushing Defense — LSU #4 (86.0 ypg), Georgia #6 (94.7 ypg)

National Passing Defense — LSU #6 (162.3 ypg), Georgia #11 (176.3 ypg)

National Total Defense — LSU #2 (248.4 ypg), Georgia #5 (271.1 ypg)

And here’s how they match up in the SEC after eight conference games a piece:

SEC Scoring Defense — LSU #1 (8.4 ppg), Georgia #4 (18.1 ppg)

SEC Rushing Defense — Georgia #2 (72.0 ypg), LSU #3 (92.8 ypg)

SEC Passing Defense — LSU #2 (131.1 ypg), Georgia #4 (177.3 ypg)

SEC Total Defense — LSU #2 (224.0 ypg), Georgia #3 (249.3 ypg)

The numbers are still pretty close, so let’s look at how the clubs faired against six common opponents:

Anyway you slice it, Georgia’s defense is indeed comparable to LSU’s.  And that’s really saying something.

But it’s hard to make the case that Todd Grantham’s unit is actually better than John Chavis’ guys.  The Tigers have outperformed the Bulldogs on the field in just about every category.  Not all and not by much, but they have had the better season.

Of course, on Saturday Georgia’s defense will just need to have a better game than LSU’s.  If the Dawgs pull that one off, you can toss all the stats out the window.

The site also writes: “Sources in the South Carolina/Georgia area say that Richt will pursue outside interests and decide on his own not to return to Georgia.”

Frankly, we’re not buying that one.  At all.  Why?  Well, for one it’s unlikely Richt would put up with an offseason of guff and questions and fan complaints only to climb back to the top… and then step away.

Second, GamingToday.com claims that Derek Dooley and Mike Bobo are “reportedly” top candidates to replace the UGA coach.

Mike Bobo is unpopular among the Bulldog fanbase as an offensive coordinator.  It’s highly doubtful UGA AD Greg McGarity would promote an unpopular coach from within… when many fans want new blood (even it means whacking Richt).

And Dooley, well, Dooley has a losing record during his five-year career and he’s actually got some Tennessee fans calling for his head in just his second year.

Also, anyone with true connections to the Georgia program would know that UGA president Michael Adams is the man who booted former coach and AD Vince Dooley from the Dawg program.  It’s highly unlikely that a Dooley would want to work with an Adams or vice versa.

Anything’s possible and if it turns out the folks at this gambling site have scooped the world, we’ll be the first to send up a mea culpa.  But we’re not buying this one.

Yet some red-and-black’ers aren’t happy.  The ones who had already arrived at the conclusion that it was time for Mark Richt to go don’t want to backtrack now.  In their view — and it’s one they’ve spread far and wide — UGA won the East only because of a creampuff schedule.

We see three problems with this:

1.  Georgia and Richt have no control over UGA’s SEC conference slate.

2.  None of the people ripping Richt for winning against an easy schedule have cut him slack in years past for losing against a tough one.

3.  Have you really compared the schedules of Georgia and South Carolina, the team UGA will top in the East (if it beats UK this weekend)?

Below are the schedules for Georgia and Carolina:

For all the talk of a week schedule, there’s basically one game’s difference.  Even Steve Spurrier admitted as much today when asked if Georgia’s schedule helped them win the East Division:

“We actually had the same schedule except we had Arkansas and they had Ole Miss.  Obviously, Arkansas has had a little bit better year than Ole Miss.  That’s what you call ‘rub of the green.’

We both had a good draw right there, but they had a little bit better draw getting Ole Miss.”

If the difference is one game, then there’s little to complain about.  Until the SEC goes to a full round-robin schedule — and that’s never going to happen — there will always be one or two games of difference between teams’ schedules.

For those who don’t like Richt, they should just say it… because the argument that Georgia’s turnaround shouldn’t count because the Dawgs faced a “weak” SEC schedule doesn’t hold water.

The first play involved Georgia’s Quintavious Harrow.  Over the weekend, he lowered his head and collided with Auburn kick returner Tre Mason.  The second play involved Arkansas’ Marquel Wade and occurred two weeks ago.  Wade has given a full-game suspension for his hit on Vanderbilt punt returner Jonathan Krause.

The two plays were comparable — in our view — because both involved a good bit of helmet-to-helmet contact.  (And with the NFL doling out fines for all manner of helmet-to-helmet hits, questions exist among many fans regarding what is and isn’t a helmet-to-helmet foul in the college ranks.)  While the plays were comparable, we stated that we did not feel Harrow’s hit was nearly as flagrant as Wade’s because a) Harrow’s hit was part of an all over collision and b) Mason was not a defenseless player.

In Wade’s case, the collision consisted almost entirely of the helmet-on-helmet blast and Krause had his eyes turned skyward searching for the punt, the very definition of a “defenseless” player.

We reached out to the SEC for the league’s take on these types of plays in general, and chief PR agent Charles Bloom responded as follows:

“These hits are a point of emphasis for the conference and (have) been a national issue.  The league is concerned about the player’s safety and strives to be consistent in the rulings.  The SEC reviews these hits each week to determine if there are any additional penalties. 

According to the rulebook, helmet-to-helmet contact, in itself, is not a penalty.  If you notice during games, the referee will use terms such as ‘targeting a defenseless player’ or ‘using the crown of helmet to initiate contact.’”

The rules specifically dealing with these hits are as follows:

Rule 9-1 article 3 – No player shall target an initiate contact against an opponent with the crown (top) of his helmet.  When in question, it is a foul.

Rule 9-1 article 4 – No player shall target an initiated contact to the head or neck area of a defenseless opponent with the helmet, forearm, elbow or shoulder.  When in question, it is a foul.

Let’s look at the hit by Harrow again:

Did Harrow lead with the crown of his helmet?  If you pause the play, then yes, it appears he did lower his head which caused the top of his helmet to strike Mason’s helmet.

But did he target and initiate contact against Mason specifically with the crown of his helmet?  It doesn’t appear so.  In fact, it looks like poor tackling technique — lowering the head endangers the tackler as much as the player being tackled — as Harrow dropped his shoulder (and head) and went for the big hit rather than the safer wrap-up.

As for Rule 9-1-4, was Mason defenseless?  Again, we say no.  He had caught the ball, was returning it, and Harrow came into him from the side and front.  This was not a blindside hit.

Nor was it anywhere near as vicious as Wade’s hit two weeks ago.

However, with the NFL (with its fines) and college conferences making helmet-to-helmet hits “a point of emphasis,” the subtle nuances between different hits will no doubt continue to be scrutinized.

And for many, the difference between a penalty and a fair play will ultimately just come down to which color jersey a player is wearing.

“I thought the most impressive play of the game was when Quintavious Harrow had that knock-’em-back, get-everybody-in-the-stadium-excited tackle.  That ignited our football team.”

For good reason.  Harrow’s hit belted Auburn’s Tre Mason into the exosphere.  Of course, the hit was also a pretty clear helmet-to-helmet blow:

So how will the SEC see that play?  Harrow was not flagged by SEC officials during the game.  Perhaps the SEC office will arrive at the conclusion that Harrow leaning in with his shoulder and his helmet and Mason’s motion took him into Harrow’s helmet.  Or maybe the league office won’t view Mason as a “defenseless” player.

While the hit is not as straight-on, no-questions-about-it nasty as the lick that earned Arkansas’ Marquel Wade a suspension two weeks ago, it’s far enough into the same ballpark to draw comparisons:

If Harrow is not given a suspension, you can bet Arkansas fans — some of whom have already been emailing us — will howl (or snort) in protest.

If Harrow is given a suspension of some kind, Georgia fans will yelp.

In the NFL, intent matters little and Harrow would receive a fine for that hit.  But the SEC typically weighs in only on egregious rules violations.  Best guess: The league office will not view Mason as defenseless while it did so in the case of Vanderbilt’s Jonathan Krause, whose eyes were clearly turned toward the heavens searching for a punt.  Mason had the ball in his hands and was returning the kick.

Harrow’s hit was part of a collision.  Wade’s hit was all on Wade as he teed up a punt returner.

But we’ll have to wait and see.  We were correct in expecting a harsh, full-game suspension for Wade, but we were incorrect in believing that LSU’s Tyrann Mathieu would receive a half-game suspension for the blindside clothesline he used on Alabama’s Dre Kirkpatrick a week ago.

In other words… we’re not Mike Slive.

“It looks like Georgia is going to win the East now.  Give Georgia credit for regrouping; it look like they’re going to win seven straight (SEC) games.  You always hold out a little hope (for a Kentucky upset), but Georgia is playing awfully well now.

I really thought before the season if you did go 6-2 and you beat Georgia, that would probably be good enough.  But it… doesn’t look like it is.”

Even in a down year in the SEC East, a 7-1 conference mark is pretty doggone good.  Make that Dawggone good.

This news came on top of preseason rumors that Crowell was having a hard time adjusting to college life and college football.

But Mark Richt says his star tailback — who was prematurely compared to Herschel Walker by some — is far from a finished product at this stage of his life:

“I feel like he is going to grow up from this in some ways and I think is going to be better for it.  Sometimes things happen in life that will help you grow up a little bit quicker.”

The coach also said that his running back is “very remorseful” and that he was encouraged by the way Crowell took his punishment.  “… I think it was one of the better conversations I’ve had with Isaiah since he’s been here.”

Crowell’s high school coach also believes his former pupil has learned his lesson.

Lucky for Crowell his lesson seems to have come in a relatively minor way.  There was no arrest.  There was no violent crime, no DUI.

One failed drug test can serve as a wake-up call.  Here’s hoping Crowell answers that call.

On a sidenote, the AP has now quoted two people “familiar with the results” of the drug test as saying that the tests were administered last Wednesday, but the results were not confirmed until Tuesday, when the suspensions were announced.

Georgia AD Greg McGarity said yesterday, “We don’t play games around here.  For someone to insinuate that we are being selective like that is absurd.  We don’t manipulate things.  We are going to conduct our program with respect and do things the right way.  For anyone to claim otherwise is irresponsible.”

Richt added: “We didn’t know anything until Monday evening.  That’s when we knew we needed to start thinking about what’s going on.”

First, Richard Samuel — who really made a difference in Saturday’s win over Florida — is likely to miss the rest of the regular season after undergoing surgery on his left ankle today.  UGA’s second-leading rusher hurt the ankle on the final play of the game.

“Richard really had probably his finest performance in a really big game and for it to happen on the last play is just sad for him,” Mark Richt said.

The injury to the tailback-turned-linebacker-turned-tailback is especially rough considering the news that broke a bit later in the day — Georgia has suspended three tailbacks for Saturday’s game due to a violation of team rules.

That group includes Isaiah Crowell and backups Carlton Thomas and Ken Malcome.  And that leaves Georgia with two former walk-ons to carry the ball this weekend — sophomore Brandon Harton and senior Wes Van Dyk.

“We have certain standards in all that we do and their actions do not reflect the Georgia way,” Mark Richt said via statement.  “They will serve their suspensions, learn a lesson and I’m sure be better men for it.”

As we always ask in situations like this — Did the players’ rules violations occur after Saturday’s game with Florida?  Or did Richt simply decide to hold off on the suspension until after his team had played its biggest SEC rival?

UPDATE – Rumors had swirled on Georgia messageboards last week that Crowell and other players had failed a drug test.  Some outlets are reporting today that the three players did fail a drug test.  Coincidence?

Marc Weiszer of The Athens Banner-Herald asked Georgia AD Greg McGarity if the players’ punishment had been delayed until after the Florida game last weekend.  “Absolutely not,” he responded.  “It was all timing.”

Well, if the school knew the players were going to fail the test and they said, “Don’t show me the results until Monday,” it wouldn’t be the first time that kind of thing happened in the SEC.

And that’s one more reason — get ready for us to beat our favorite drum — that the SEC should implement a uniform drug policy for all of its member institutions.  Instead, we’re going to be dealing with a lot of questions regarding who at Georgia knew what and when did they know it.  That kind of publicity isn’t good for the conference on the eve of its mega-game between Alabama and LSU.

That’s what we’re left asking ourselves as yesterday a longer clip of James Franklin’s postgame conversation with Mark Richt hit the internet.  In it, you can hear Franklin explain to Richt why he tried to give an earful to UGA defender Shaun Williams:

Franklin:  “36 comes up, after a tough game, talking s— to me.”

Richt:  “Okay.”

Franklin:  “Rubbing our face in it right after the game.”

Richt: “He’s a dumbass.”

Franklin:  “And then your coach, when I tell him about it, then he goes after me and the fight starts.”

Richt:  “That’s what I thought happened, I apologize.  It’s horse s—, horse s—.”

Franklin then complained about Williams’ actions to — it appears — Georgia assistant coach Bryan McClendon.

Our take?

Franklin had a right to be ticked.  I don’t think there’s an adult coach in the country who’d want to be taunted by another school’s disrespectful player.  And as for all of the “he went after our player” nonsense coming from UGA fans this week, you know very well that Franklin’s actions were far, far, far from being Woody Hayes-esque.  He tried to yell at Williams from 10 yards behind him.

That’s when Todd Grantham got involved.  And rather than listening like an adult, he simply went off like he’s got a fuse about two inches long.  In the process, he once again became a YouTube sensation.  Predictably, many Dawg fans are fine with that, too.  (Georgia fans aren’t acting any differently than fans of any other schools fans would act, by the way.  If Grantham had been wearing Kentucky blue, MSU maroon, LSU purple, Tennessee orange or any color in between, he’d be getting praise from the hometown supporters and a finger wag from everyone else.)

Richt handled things as he should have.  He listened to Franklin’s complaint.  He apologized for the over-the-top actions of his player and coach and he made his views on taunting pretty clear.  You can be sure Richt doesn’t want to run a program where players pop off to opposing coaches.  That’s bush league and if a Vandy player had done the same to a Georgia coach, Bulldog fans would still be screaming bloody murder today.

But that part of the story — save maybe a reprimand to Grantham for his actions — is likely history.

As for two players involved in an on-field brouhaha during the game, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that its likely suspensions of some sort will be handed down by the SEC office.

On The AJC’s site you can view the clip — literally — of Vanderbilt center Logan Stewart going low into the back of the knees of Georgia defensive tackle Kwame Geathers.  Talk about bush league.  Stewart’s away-from-the-ball blocking efforts could have left Geathers with a serious injury.

Geathers reacted hotly, of course, but in throwing a retaliatory punch he likely secured himself some time on the bench.  The SEC has a history of sitting players who commit flagrant, dangerous penalties or throw punches.

The AJC’s Chip Towers suggests Williams — the player who taunted Franklin and the Vandy sideline at the end of the game — might face league discipline as well for the two personal fouls calls he brought upon himself during the contest.

If Stewart misses any time, it could come this weekend against Army or the following week — if the league chooses to enforce a suspension during conference play — against Arkansas.

But if Geathers or Williams is placed on the bench, it would come in Georgia’s next game… against Florida.

Of all the people involved in Saturday’s unnecessary dust-up, Richt seems to be the one who was the most calm, cool and collected.  Ironically, he’s also taking a whole lot of heat for his actions.

Some Georgia fans have claimed that Richt never should have apologized to Franklin and should have acted as foolishly as Grantham.  (Yeah, because AD Greg McGarity was clearly happy with Grantham’s behavior.)

Other UGA fans (and a few radio hosts who had me on yesterday) are taking Richt to task for running a program where players taunt and earn personal foul penalties and where an assistant coach can wind up a YouTube sensation two years in a row.

The verdict: There were no winners on Saturday night.  And if the SEC doesn’t act quickly to get this story off the front burner, you can chalk up the league office as a loser in this mess, too.  Time to end the bad pub.

Yesterday afternoon, WSMV-TV in Nashville posted video of the two head coaches chatting at midfield.  The website SportsByBrooks.com then looped the video and posted it.  That’s the clip you see below:

Franklin can be heard telling Richt about the actions of Georgia junior Shawn Williams and defensive coordinator Todd Grantham:

“Yeah, rubbin’ our face in it right after the game.  And then your coach, when I tell him about it, then he goes after me and the fight starts.”

Richt then says, “That’s what I thought happened, I apologize.”  It’s also been suggested that if you listen closely you can hear Richt say, “He’s a dumbass,” while Franklin is describing Williams’ taunts.

Remarkably, the anti-Richt crowd in Georgia is already complaining that Richt should not have backed down, should have acted more like Grantham, etc, etc.

That’s nonsense, of course.  Richt showed class as he usually does.  Subtract the “cl” and you have what Grantham showed.  There’s a reason UGA athletic director Greg McGarity said yesterday that Grantham would “do some things differently” if given a second chance.

It’s believed the SEC could rule on the matter sometime today, but we would be surprised if Grantham (or anyone else) received more than a stern warning not to repeat the actions of Saturday night.

Hopefully we can put this story in the rearview soon.

“I love our players,” Grantham told reporters when asked about the incident.  “I’m going to stick up for my players.  Everybody’s competitive.”

Sticking up for one’s players is fine, but Franklin seemed to be calm and composed while Grantham appeared to go haywire.

In the slow motion video below — which leaves Grantham looking like a cross between Bigfoot and Ed Orgeron — you’ll see the coach unleash a flurry of obscenities at Vandy’s coach.  You’ll also see players separate the two men:

Franklin made it clear in his own postgame press conference how he has respect for Mark Richt.  And how Mark Richt is a classy.  His emphasis on Richt makes it clear he can’t say the same for everyone associated with Georgia.

But what’s more interesting from Franklin’s statement is his declaration that Vandy’s not going to be a pushover any longer.

“At Vandy we are gonna compete with class and we are gonna play with class.  And we’re gonna coach ‘em with class…

I have tremendous respect for Coach Richt and that program.  He’s been a class act guy the whole time I’ve known him and watched his team play.  Let me make sure I address that about Coach Richt…

What happened at the end is we had a very, very tough, emotional game.  And some things were said that I didn’t thinks was appropriate.  I tried to find Coach Richt to address it.  And I couldn’t find Coach Richt and I happened to have a discussion with one of their assistant coaches.  That didn’t go well.  And I apologize that things escalated from there.

But we’re also gonna fight.  I want to make sure everybody understands that.  We are not gonna sit back and take stuff from anybody.  Anybody.  No one.  Those days are long gone and they are never coming back.  Ever.” 

Franklin also went out of his way to emphasize how Georgia’s fans came early, cheered for their team and stayed late.  A message to his own school’s fanbase?  Most likely.

Richt addressed the situation in his own postgame presser.

“I don’t know exactly what happened.  Maybe TV picked it up and we’ll get a better view of what was going on.  But we are grown men and we need to act that way.  But we’re also competitors and we all have emotions and sometimes when you get a little fired up it’s hard to keep from getting in some kind of jawing contest.  I’ll say this: There were times when I was ashamed of some the choice things that came out of my mouth during the game.  So I’ve got to be disciplined, too.”

That’s true.  We’ve been told that Richt was heard muttering, “Dagnabbit” and “Gee willikers” at various points during the contest.

“But the bottom line is when the game is over the game’s over.  You shake hands and you be thankful for the victory.  Just like at the end of a play.  When a play’s over, it’s over.  Go to the sideline.  We didn’t do a very good job of that at times.  It was heated.  It is battle.  It’s not war with real bullets but it’s a war in a sense and it’s very physical.  Tempers do get flared up.  I don’t mind our blood getting hot but we have to be able to get excited or maybe even angry but not foul.”

The Dawgs were flagged 11 times and three were personal foul penalties.  Defensive tackle Kwame Geathers could be punished by the commissioner’s office for what appeared to be a thrown punch during the game.  But it was Grantham whose actions took center stage at game’s end.  (It’s not the first time Grantham has brought negative attention to himself during a game.)

Yesterday, Richt said that he had reviewed the issue on tape and had handled it. 

“I just think that tempers were hot (and)it was a very heated ballgame… for everybody.  When you look at the big picture, it certainly wasn’t a pretty scene, but it really could have been a lot worse than it was.  I thought coaches on each side and even some players did a good job of trying to keep the peace and get everybody off the field without anything really horrible happening…

We all know we want to do things a certain way, and we want to be able to keep our poise throughout the ballgame.  We need our players at the end of a play to not be chirping or anything.  Just go back to the sideline if you’re on a special team or go back to the huddle if you’re still on the field.  Let’s just play football.”

It might be hard for Grantham to deliver that message to his unit since he himself has now twice been caught acting like an overheated, 20-year-old player.

The takeaway from all this: Georgia got the win.  Grantham got some egg on his face.  Franklin set the tone for Vanderbilt’s program with his postgame comments.  And Commodore fans now have a reason to show up early and stay late when supporting their team.

Yep, you’ve seen that happen with angry fans (and media members).

But with an athletic director?

Georgia athletic director Greg McGarity doesn’t sound like a man who’s willing to buy in to Mark Richt’s turnaround of the Bulldog program just yet:

“What everyone must do at a halfway point — it’s just like the halfway point of a project, the halfway point of anything you do — it’s how you finish that really is the key thing that everyone has to focus on right now.  Once you think you might have it figured out, you might rest on your laurels so to speak, that’s when you have problems.  The message that we need to have and the message that everyone needs to have is that each week gets bigger and bigger.  To get to certain levels, you have to work that much harder.  You cannot afford to relax one second and probably have to work twice as hard as you’ve ever worked before not even to maintain, but to keep progressing in the right direction…

Obviously, you’re winning the games that really you need to win.  At the same time, those teams (Ole Miss, Mississippi State and Tennessee) have really struggled.  I don’t know if there’s a (conference) win among them.  you’ve got to keep things in perspective because there are some big tests coming up.”

Wow.  Not only does McGarity continue to talk about the football program on a weekly basis — when he could just say “We’ll talk about it at the end of the season” — but he just downplayed the significance of Georgia’s three straight SEC wins.

Is that a message to Richt?  To his team?

You can bet the Georgia fanbase — especially the anti-Richters — got McGarity’s message: “So what if you beat the duds of the league, you better beat Florida and finish strong.”

That’s a remarkably public — and dumb — misstep by McGarity.  Unless of course Richt’s job really does depend more on the last six games of the season than the first.

If Richt loses to Florida or Auburn or Georgia Tech down the stretch and McGarity retains him, you better believe some of the anti-Richt crowd will hit him with their own “yeah, buts.”  Like this one: “Yeah, but you said the finish mattered more than all those wins over so-so foes.”

Very surprising comments from Georgia’s athletic director.