Loran Smith: Right schedule can help make champions

Published 11:33 pm Thursday, October 4, 2012

Threading through traffic on my way home after the Tennessee game, taking back streets and working against the flow, I thought of several positives from Georgia’s pulsating 51-44 victory.  

First, a win is sweet no matter how you earn it. However, it is important to learn from mistakes — which is the central theme for the Bulldogs this week. The conclusion here is that the close game was probably the best thing that could have happened to Georgia.

If anyone needs to be reminded, young kids are impressionable. You are the University of Georgia, averaging 47.5 points per game, you are favored over Tennessee by two touchdowns — and before the crowd can get settled, the lead is 27-10.

With this week’s South Carolina game on their minds, did the Bulldogs become distracted? Did they subconsciously consider that they had the Tennessee game under control?

They would only be human if those were their thoughts.   

But as coach Mark Richt advised his players before the game, Tennessee has outstanding players. They have tradition, they believe they can compete. To win, you have to earn it.

Any championship team has to prevail when it is close. Teams cannot go through a 12-game schedule and not endure outings when they experience close calls. There was no greater example of that than Georgias 1980 national championshp team, which had five games which were decided by a touchdown or less. Georgia won every close game and then defeated Notre Dame 17-10 in the Sugar Bowl.

This is not to suggest that Georgia is on the way to a national championship, but it has a team that could develop into a champion if it continues to win close games, and who would project anything but a tight matchup Saturday night in Columbia? There is no one with the clairvoyance to identify and predict the close games, though, which is why you have to win games when you do not play well — if you are going to compete for a championship.

Every season, I hark back to the philosophy of Gen. Robert Neyland of Tennessee, who held the view that you can get your team up for a peak performance, perhaps, twice a year. In his era, teams usually played ten games.

The peak performance factor is exactly why Georgia has an opportunity to manage its schedule for the best opportunity under athletic director Greg McGarity, who knows how important scheduling is to a football team. When he was hired by Georgia in 2010, he had hardly gotten the bookshelves dusted off in his office in Athens before he moved post haste to cancel the planned home-and-home series with Oregon. Not only is Oregon tough to beat, the long trip to the West Coast and back could very well cost you the next game.

Remember beating Arizona State in 2008 in Tempe and then flying home against the sun, arriving back in Athens at 9 a.m. Sunday morning? Surely that contributed to the dismal first half against Alabama at Sanford Stadium the following week, when the visitors won 41-30.

Back to Neyland — he never scheduled two tough opponents back to back. A coach doesn’t have control of his schedule today, but Neyland’s approach should be followed as closely as possible. Fans understandably complain about having to pay the going rate for Buffalo and Florida Atlantic.

Yet to enjoy the opportunity to contend for a championship, that scheduling pattern is a must. On Alabama’s schedule this year are Western Kentucky, Florida Atlantic and Western Carolina.

That has been the Tide’s scheduling modus operandi for years. Load up your non-conference schedule with heavyweights and you can make a championship contender an also-ran in a hurry. No team can take the pounding physically.

No doubt Georgia will be up for a peak game Saturday night in Columbia. Let’s hope there is an edge in the Bulldogs’ performance.

For the first time this season, the Dawgs will be the underdogs.

Loran Smith is a contributing columnist for The Daily Citizen. You can write to him at loransmith@sports.uga.edu.