It was less than an hour before the game when Isaiah McKenzie, his 5-foot-8 frame composed largely of rubber and assorted space-shuttle parts, finished his stretching and then spontaneously did a back-flip. No big thing.
“I do them once in a while, just whenever I feel like it. It’s like it just comes out,” Georgia’s fun-size superhero said Saturday.
This Georgia season has been short of spontaneous moments of joy and celebrations. The Bulldogs opened the season with the relative fireworks of a win over North Carolina in the Georgia Dome, but there have been too many weeks since when we’ve looked up in the sky, waiting for a buildup to a grand finale, only to see smoke and hear loud duds.
There will be no grand finale (or a return trip to the Georgia Dome) this season. But credit the Bulldogs for not shifting into full-season meltdown after losses to Vanderbilt and Florida buried SEC hopes.
They survived a trip to Lexington against the rare backdrop of Kentucky having more on the line than they did. They won last week over No. 9 ranked Auburn, which still had dizzying thoughts of upsetting Alabama and winning the SEC West.
And then Saturday — with players wearing black jerseys while thousands of Georgia fans seemingly wore shirts resembling empty metal bleachers – Georgia dispatched Louisiana-Lafayette 35-21. They jumped to leads of 14-0 and 35-7 before backups took the shine off the final result.
“Did not enjoy the way the game ended,” coach Kirby Smart said.
No. But he enjoyed almost everything else.
He enjoyed the lopsided leads. (“It was unique.”). He enjoyed McKenzie’s otherworldly feats in the first quarter with touchdowns on a 55-yard run (the game’s first play) and an 82-yard punt return. He enjoyed Nick Chubb looking like his old, young self, rushing for 108 yards and a touchdown and a turning a simple check-down pass into a 49-yard score. (Chubb’s NFL draft stock: up.)
The bowl ceiling is low. But it’s much higher than it was when the Dogs dragged their battered carcasses off the field in Jacksonville three weeks ago with a record of 4-4 (2-4 in the SEC), possibly headed for their worst season in 20 years.
“I thought the No. 1 thing that happened was the leadership of the seniors,” Smart said. “They took an attitude of being positive. It was, ‘OK, we’re going to bounce back from this.’ We had some adversity, but we’ve responded well.”
This doesn’t guarantee success next week in the non-grand finale against Georgia Tech. The Yellow Jackets have pulled two upsets in Sanford Stadium during the Paul Johnson regime and they seem to have found themselves after a skid similar to Georgia’s (Tech is also 7-4, having gone 4-1 since a three-game losing streak). But at least the arrow in Athens appears to be going up.
There were several thousand empty seats. Blame the vacation break, blame the cold, blame losing to Vandy. The players knew it was coming.
“We’ve got to bring our own juice,” Chubb said. “I think maybe the black jerseys did help bring us a little more energy. We knew coming in some classmates and everybody was leaving Friday and this morning (for vacation). But it worked out.”
Even with fewer eyes watching, Georgia needed one of these. They had two other anticipated blowout wins on their schedule, but nearly botched one (Nicholls State) and lost the other (Vanderbilt). Their previous wins had come by 9, 2, 1, 14, 3 and 6 points. They’ve been involved in one blowout — a 45-14 loss at Ole Miss.
Smart didn’t want to talk about the black jerseys thing all week.
“If I make it a big deal, you make it a big deal and the players make it a big deal. And it’s not a big deal,” he said.
Agreed. But neither of us work in merchandising.
But the last time Georgia wore black in 2008, Smart was the defensive coordinator at Alabama. The Tide blew out Georgia in the first half 31-0. So consider this a significant fashion turnaround, like bell-bottoms coming back.
OK, the change in opponents might’ve been a factor. Louisiana-Lafayette had four turnovers in the first half. Alabama didn’t do that.
McKenzie took a toss from quarterback Jacob Eason on the first play from scrimmage and boat-raced the defense to the end zone. The game was 23 seconds old.
The second time he touched the ball was six minutes later and he electrified those in attendance with his 82-yard return. It was his fifth career return for a touchdown, a school record.
Georgia receiver Terry Godwin said he sometimes joins McKenzie with his pregame backflip routine.
“An amazing athlete. He could walk up a wall,” Godwin said.
It hasn’t been the season Georgia wanted, but at least they’re creating some late-season memories.
About the Author
