Outside of coaches receiving regional Emmy nominations, there may be no more offseason-y post than a “what if” five months after the fact.
But Georgia offensive coordinator Mike Bobo shed some light on an interesting angle during last Thursday’s UGA Day meeting Augusta: what would the Bulldogs have done if they had one more play against Alabama in last year’s SEC championship game?
As a refresher, the Bulldogs were driving in the final minute of regulation when Aaron Murray connected with tight end Arthur Lynch to put Georgia at the Alabama 8-yard line with 15 seconds remaining. Instead of spiking the ball to stop the clock, Georgia went hurry-up and Murray’s pass to Chris Conley failed to get into the end zone. Below is the video of the final drive, courtesy of SEC Digital Network:
Hypothetically, let’s say Georgia spiked the ball or Murray threw an incompletion to give Georgia one more play. What would it have been? Bobo explained it would have been inspired by plays from Florida’s SEC championship appearances against Alabama.
Here’s what Bobo said, via the Macon Telegraph:“We had actually gone back to, I don’t know what it was, it was one of the Florida-Alabama games, where Alabama had given up three red zone scores to Florida. It was a play that Florida had actually ran against Alabama. It was an empty set, and had two primary front-side, and a double-slant backside. It was something from ’08 or ’09 that Tebow had completed against them. Because I remember after that game, Kirby was talking about how, ‘We just couldn’t stop them in the red zone.’ So we just studied that hard.
Then Bobo added with some matter-of-fact wistfulness: “We had some plans, we just didn’t have a chance to call those plays.”
The way Georgia handled that final play against the Tide has been a source of debate. If Murray had completed the pass, whether on the hurry-up or one call later, the Bulldogs would have surely played Notre Dame in the BCS championship game. Instead, Bobo and his players are still reminded of what could have been.
“Like probably everybody out here, I don’t think we’re ever gonna get over that game,” Bobo said. “First meeting back with the players back, and the offense, I said: Men, people keep telling you you’ve gotta get over it and get ready to go. The bottom line is you’re never gonna get over it, you gotta learn to live with it, you’ve gotta regroup to play the next game, and get better the next day.”