In the television show Friday Night Lights, Coach Taylor and his team chant “Clear eyes, full hearts, can’t lose!” before every game. It is his way of getting his team to play with focus and intensity.
Mark Richt may want to try something like that today to get his Bulldogs to play up to their potential against arch rival Georgia Tech. The Bulldogs can gain a bowl bid and avoid having their first losing regular season since 1996.
But at a program where championships are played for on a regular basis, playing for such minor accomplishments just doesn’t always get the blood flowing. And, despite the intensity of the rivalry, Georgia’s dominance of the rivalry of late may cause the Bulldogs to play with less intensity than they did against, say, Florida or Auburn.
Also, Tech is not having one of their better seasons. Despite gaining bowl eligibility last week against Duke, the Jackets are just 6-5.
However, Richt still thinks the Dawgs will be motivated to play their best this week.
“As far as won-lost record,” said Richt, “to play game 12 and still have a game that’s this meaningful is exciting for me as a coach, because we are always looking for ways to motivate and I don’t think we’ll have to do a whole lot of motivating this week.”
One factor that may help the Dawgs is playing at night in front of their home fans in the final home game for 22 seniors.
“It’s the last time they are going to play between the hedges,” said Richt. “It’s the last time they get a chance to wear the red and black in front of their home crowd, so they want to have a good final memory.”
Georgia fans can only hope that their final memory of this season is a bowl game for a program that has been the mark of consistency for more than a decade. With Aaron Murray and several other key players returning to next year’s team, the future could be bright for Georgia despite two consecutive mediocre seasons.
But next season starts no for the Bulldogs as they will look to build some momentum that they haven’t seen much of in two years.
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