Instant Analysis: Chick-Fil-A Bowl

In a tradition-rich bowl with a new corporate name, Mark Richt learned his lesson. As a result, Georgia vexed Virginia Tech in a victory that was a real Peach for Bulldog fans.

The centerpiece of this game on all possible levels--emotional, strategic and thematic--was Mark Richt's onside kick midway through the third quarter in a game his team trailed by fifteen points (21-6). The emotional and strategic elements of the play are easy to understand.

The emotions of the game changed 180 degrees after the play, as the Bulldogs bamboozled Tech in the second half just as the Hokies humbled Georgia in the first half. The abrupt shift in momentum enabled the Bulldogs to dominate the line of scrimmage and produce big plays... just as Tech did in the first 30 minutes of play. Whereas UGA quarterback Matthew Stafford struggled mightily in the game's early stages, the final third of this up-and-down affair witnessed an equally shaky effort from Hokie signal caller Sean Glennon.

Richt's onside kick plainly transformed the tone and tenor of the contest. With his team trailing by two touchdowns and looking for a spark, the strategic element of Richt's gutsy move was clear and pronounced. When Georgia's special teams unit successfully executed the "bunt and cover" version of an onside kick--in which the kicker dribbles the ball straight ahead and then falls on it--the Bulldogs didn't just have the ball back in great field position. They gained belief, self-confidence, and a transformed mindset that stayed with them for the rest of the night in front of a raucous Georgia Dome crowd. Emotionally and strategically, the risky roll of the dice by Richt made perfect sense. It undeniably changed the game and made Georgia's comeback possible.

As big as this onside kick was in an immediate sense, however, the play will linger in the hearts and minds of Georgia fans because it showed that Mark Richt learned an important lesson dating back to his last game in the Georgia Dome.

The last time Georgia played under the big top in Atlanta, the Bulldogs faced West Virginia in the 2006 Sugar Bowl, which was played outside the state of Louisiana because of the damage caused by Hurricane Katrina. Similar to this Chick-Fil-A Bowl against Virginia Tech, Georgia made a huge second-half comeback versus the Mountaineers. Late in the contest, Richt's Bulldogs--down by just three points--put West Virginia into a 4th and 5 just past midfield in the final minutes of regulation. With quarterback D.J. Shockley lighting up West Virginia's secondary, Georgia simply needed to get the ball back to feel good about its chances. Even if they got the ball back at their own 1, the Dawgs would have thanked the heavens; that's what you should do in a game you once trailed by a 28-0 count.

However, for some odd reason, Richt put two men back in a return-based formation. West Virginia head coach Rich Rodriguez saw this numbers advantage at the line of scrimmage and burned Richt with a fake punt that gained a game-sealing first down. Instead of making sure he got the ball back first, Richt got greedy and distracted. A lack of focus on special teams details embarrassed Richt in a game where his heavily-favored team got smoked by a hungrier and better-coached ballclub from the Big East Conference.

The impressive quality of Mark Richt's onside kick against Virginia Tech, then, is not found in its obvious emotional and strategic elements. No, the truly memorable dimension of the play is that it showed--in a rather dramatic but vivid way--that Richt has matured as a coach. The Georgia boss showed that he hadn't forgotten a hard lesson learned in a devastating defeat in the same ballpark nearly one year ago to the day. It's always special when any human being turns one year's dark cloud into the next season's redemptive moment. A sour Sugar Bowl experience at the end of one campaign turned into a Peachy and proud moment for Mark Richt at the end of this 2006 sojourn. That's the stuff great sports moments are made of, and the Georgia Bulldogs are the beneficiaries of their head coach's boldness.