Georgia football’s blurred vision

Joker’s wild

After playing and coaching for Knute Rockne and Notre Dame, Harry Mehre served as Georgia football head coach when the Dawgs upset Yale in Sanford Stadium’s ribbon cutting game.  Later, as a columnist for the Atlanta Journal, Mehre said and wrote many times, “You can’t fake a block.”

Print that over Kirby Smart’s office door.

If Kirby Smart’s vision for Georgia football is toughness and physicality, the vision is blurred when tricks are valued in a game’s biggest moments.

After a splendid rock-hauling first quarter ground attack penetrated the LSU 15 yard line Saturday, Georgia asked its most consistent scoring weapon, kicker Rodrigo Blankenship, to perform as a running back. Compounding the illogic, freshman punter Jake Camarda was asked to serve as quarterback and pitch the ball from a kneeling position. The play’s success further required the LSU defense, early in a pivotal SEC home game, to lose focus and discipline.

“You can’t fake a block.”

It did not, and the results were predictably disastrous. Georgia lost three points, rejuvenating the LSU defense and the Death Valley crowd.