Georgia’s 33-28 victory over Vanderbilt was interesting all the way until the last play of the game. And then some.
A very hard-fought, emotional game that featured multiple personal foul penalties ended with a skirmish between the two sides instead of the normal handshakes. Specifically, Vanderbilt coach James Franklin and Georgia defensive coordinator Todd Grantham got into a battle of words while other coaches reportedly had to separate players from fighting.
The details of the situation are still pretty fuzzy right now, and Grantham was rather vague in his response to the skirmish.
“I love our players. I’m going to stick up for my players and everybody’s competitive,” Grantham said repeatedly. If you’d like to see a very, very rough (and slow motion) video of the incident, click HERE.
Because of our ability to read lips (in slow motion), the video isn’t something we can show on this site.
“We just had a tough, emotional game and some things were said that I didn’t think were appropriate,” said Franklin. “I went to find Coach [Mark] Richt and didn’t find him, so I found one of his assistant coaches and it didn’t go well. We’re not going to sit back and take it from anyone.”
“I explained to [Richt] what happened,” Frankin continued. “That’s for me and Coach Richt to deal with. Hopefully we’ll learn from that experience. Those things happen.”
Richt said afterward he was unaware of exactly what went on, but plans on looking into it soon.
“I don’t know exactly what happened. Maybe TV picked it up and we’ll get a better view of what was going on,” he said. “But we are grown men and we need to act that way. But we’re also competitors and we all have emotions and xometimes when you get a little fired up it’s hard to keep from getting in some kind of jawing contest.
“I’ll say this: There were times when I was ashamed of some of the choice things that came out of my mouth during the game. So I’ve got to be disciplined, too.”
Georgia has reeled off five straight wins after starting the season 0-2; Vanderbilt drops to 3-3 overall and 1-3 in the SEC.
Obviously, football is a violent, emotional game, and fights are part of the territory. It’ll be interesting to see what, if anything, comes out of the fight.
(Tip o’ the cap: Atlanta Journal-Constitution)