Mark Richt: Tactical Genius. Go Dawgs!!!

[NightWatcher]

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/columns/story?columnist=schlabach_mark&id=3084918



Tacky or tactically brilliant?

When Georgia coach Mark Richt ordered his Bulldogs to celebrate after scoring their first touchdown against Florida on Saturday, he didn't realize his entire team would run onto the playing field at Jacksonville Municipal Stadium.

After watching his team mostly go through the motions during the first seven games of the season, Richt ordered his players to celebrate until officials threw penalty flags. If the Bulldogs didn't, Richt told them, he would "run every one of them at 5:45 a.m."

Richt didn't know how excited his team would get. After the Gators lost a fumble on their first possession, Georgia ran the football nine consecutive times, with redshirt freshman Knowshon Moreno scoring on a 1-yard run to put the Bulldogs ahead, 7-0. Georgia's bench quickly cleared, with nearly 70 players celebrating in the end zone.

"I was envisioning the guys on the field that were on offense to go celebrate until the official threw the flag," Richt said. "I didn't tell the whole team to run off the sideline and go celebrate. I said I wanted it to be a team celebration. I didn't really expect the whole mass to run off the sideline. But when they started running, I was like, 'I guess that is what they heard me say.'

"The entire team took off and I was like, 'Oh boy.'"

Depending on fans' allegiances, Georgia's mosh pit celebration might go down as one of the greatest motivational ploys in recent college football history, or at least one of the most unique.



It worked!!!