Georgia Bulldogs get break after tough stretch

After spending their past four Saturdays in Louisiana, Florida, Kentucky and Alabama, the Georgia Bulldogs are welcoming a break from football.

Georgia improved to 9-2 Saturday with a 17-13 win at Auburn and does not play again until Nov. 29, when the Bulldogs will try to notch a record eighth consecutive win over Georgia Tech. Bulldogs coach Mark Richt said Sunday that his players and assistants are tired and that the timing of this open date is beneficial.

“I wouldn’t normally put an open date before the last game,” Richt said. “You try to space it out every four games or so, but in this particular year and with Georgia Tech running a new system and the type of system you don’t see, it is going to take some time to simulate.”

The Yellow Jackets are 7-3 in their first season under former Georgia Southern and Navy coach Paul Johnson, whose option-based spread offense is again thriving. While Johnson was at Navy, his Midshipmen led the NCAA in rushing offense from 2005-07.

Georgia will not have faced this much option in a game since 2004, when Georgia Southern amassed 294 yards on 63 carries in a 48-28 loss in Athens. The 28 points allowed by the Bulldogs marked a season-high.

“We were scratching and clawing that day,” said Bulldogs defensive coordinator Willie Martinez, who was secondary coach at that time. “It’s a major advantage for a defense to have more time, even though we worked with them in the offseason. It’s a different offense.”

Georgia and Georgia Tech, which hosts Miami this Thursday night, each are bowl eligible for a 12th consecutive season.

The Bulldogs have played six straight games before getting this rest, knocking off Tennessee and Vanderbilt at home before traveling to LSU, Florida (Jacksonville), Kentucky and Auburn. They won in Baton Rouge for the first time under Richt on Oct. 25 but were humiliated the following week by the Gators.

“I was hoping we’d be a team that would be resilient and persevere and do what it takes to win,” Richt said. “It was a tough stretch, and we didn’t win them all, but we won three out of four. After having the tough loss, we played two extremely emotional games and hung in there and finished.

“Once you lose the opportunity to play for the SEC championship, it can make a lot of guys say, ‘Was it really worth it?’ Our guys kept fighting because they care and because they’re high-character guys.”

Though Auburn is 5-6 nearing the end of its season of offensive and place-kicking discontent, Richt considers Saturday’s triumph a great accomplishment. Georgia is the first team to defeat Tommy Tuberville’s Tigers three straight times this decade.

“I can’t tell you how many teams I think are outstanding teams,” Richt said. “I remember Arkansas three years ago went 5-6, and I thought they were one of the finest teams we played all year long. That very next year, they won the Western Division and lost to Florida in the championship game.

“There are some very, very fine football teams that are capable of whipping you but might only have five wins, and I think Auburn is one of those teams.”

Auburn also is off this week before visiting top-ranked Alabama.

“If you just look at individual efforts, we showed improvement,” Tuberville said Sunday. “Of course, that’s not what we’re in this for. We’re in it to win games.”

Odds and ends

Despite the win at Auburn, Georgia dropped a spot to 11th in the BCS standings. ... Georgia players will review film today, lift and run Tuesday and practice Wednesday and Thursday. ... With 98 penalties this season (8.91 a game), the Bulldogs rank behind TCU and its 104 (9.45) as the most penalized team in the NCAA’s Bowl Subdivision.