A year saturated with bad news yielded a bad bottom line.
The Georgia Bulldogs entered 2010 expecting to bounce back from an 8-5 season that ended with a victory over Texas A&M in the Independence Bowl. They wound up worse, finishing 6-7 after an emotionless 10-6 loss to Conference USA champion Central Florida in Friday’s Liberty Bowl.
“We’re all disappointed,” Bulldogs coach Mark Richt said after experiencing a losing record for the first time in 26 years of college coaching. “We didn’t want to finish with a loss. We didn’t want to finish with a losing record. No one probably would have predicted that. It is what it is, though, as they say.”
Georgia’s desire to atone for its ’09 season came into question several times this past year, as 11 Bulldogs were arrested from March to October. The top two tailbacks appeared on the police blotter, with Washaun Ealey getting charged for hit-and-run of a parked vehicle and Caleb King for skipping out on a court date to address a speeding ticket.
Yet the biggest setback of all occurred after the opening win over Louisiana-Lafayette, when the NCAA suspended junior receiver A.J. Green four games for selling his Independence Bowl jersey for $1,000. A stretch of contests at South Carolina, Arkansas, at Mississippi State and at Colorado awaited the Bulldogs, and they lost all four.