8.05.2008

The Cincinnati Bengals of College Football


Georgia Bulldogs coach Mark Richt has been a busy man during the early portion of his top-ranked team’s preparation for the upcoming season. Coming off a year in which the Bulldogs ended as one of the nation’s hottest teams, the University of Georgia had some lofty hopes to improve on last year’s season-ending #2 ranking. No team in the nation played better football than Georgia did over the final six weeks of the season where they won each game by an average of over 17 points. With 19 starters returning, the Bulldogs have the opportunity to finish what they weren’t able to last year. Yet managing expectations of a possible national championship for the first time in 28 years, or stressing through a schedule that includes games against Arizona State, LSU, and Auburn on the road haven’t been taking much of Richt’s time, it’s his club’s inability to behave itself.

Already, six Bulldogs have been suspended or thrown off the team altogether since Richt won his second career Sugar Bowl, with junior linebacker Darius Dewberry becoming the latest culprit. Dewberry spent the weekend before his team’s first practice wreaking havoc on a hospital in Athens, which led to a subsequent two-game suspension handed down by Richt. He will also have to serve 20 hours of community service, take counseling classes, and work a job to pay for the property damage. It’s unlikely that his team will really need him in games against Georgia Southern or Central Michigan, but Dewberry and his teammates’ issues insinuate a much larger problem. Transgressions of all sorts have become commonplace for a team that has plenty on its plate to deal with in the absurdly talented SEC.

Snapper Jeff Henson and safety Donavon Baldwin were suspended indefinitely over the weekend, ensuring that their season would come to an end before it ever had a chance to start. Henson was arrested for the second time because of alcohol-related problems, while Baldwin was disciplined after getting into a fight that required stitches. Henson’s first offense came in January when he received a DUI arrest and missed the Sugar Bowl. Baldwin isn’t a first time offender either; he was also arrested for driving under the influence. In all, eight players from the preseason #1 in the coaches poll have been arrested in the offseason, making the Georgia Bulldogs the unofficial Cincinnati Bengals of college football.

These distractions have taken a significant toll on Mark Richt, who spent the majority of the media session at his team’s first practice answering questions about his team’s behavioral problems. “The reputation of this team has been damaged, no question. I don’t think it’s beyond repair and I don’t think the reputation has been ruined, but certainly it has taken some hits,” Richt said. The eighth year coach with the 72-19 (.791) record has been put into a precarious position because of self-inflicted wounds that have shifted the preseason hype away from how talented this team is to how juvenile they are.

Never before has this program entered a season ranked number one, but the exhilaration of that achievement has been overshadowed by the growing number of arrests. Quarterback Matt Stafford has emerged as a skilled signal caller that’s rising up the draft boards, and sophomore Knowshown Moreno is a chic Heisman Trophy pick for the season, but neither is receiving much ink. As the suspensions have accumulated, Richt has stopped being a football coach and turned into a policemen.

On the bright side, there’s a month full of practices for one of the country’s most talented squads. The Bulldogs will ease their way into their schedule, before traveling to face Steve Spurrier and South Carolina, one of two teams to beat them a year ago, followed by a trip to 16th ranked Arizona State. That challenging section of the schedule in late September is only a cakewalk compared to a diabolical four game stretch in October and November. That portion of the year includes trips to Tiger Stadium against defending champion LSU, the World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party against Heisman Trophy winner Tim Tebow and Florida, and the Deep South’s Oldest Rivalry against Auburn. Those games are enough to kill any season, let alone one that has started with as many distractions as top-ranked Georgia has had to endure.

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