Following the Georgia Bulldogs' 42-7 win over the Ole Miss Rebels, first year Ole Miss coach evaluated what happened and where his team goes next. Last season, Golding led Ole Miss to a Sugar Bowl win over Georgia. This year, the Rebels did not score a point until the fourth quarter when the game was well out of reach.
Golding's opening statement after the game
"Yeah, obviously a very disappointing performance, really in all three phases," Golding said. "It started from the first play of the game, and it felt like it never stopped. Not taking anything away from Kirby and Georgia. That’s a really good football team.
"We just didn’t help ourselves. We’ve got to go back and look at everything, obviously, like you always do when you get your butt whooped. But I did not see that coming. I’m
not going to lie to you. I thought we had a good week of practice. I thought the preparation was good, but we didn’t do a good enough job coaching. We obviously did not have them ready to play, and that’s not the product that we want to put on tape. That’s not who we are. So we’re going to have to go back to work and fix a lot of things. But that’s not who we are. Hats off to Kirby and Georgia. That was a butt whooping."
On Georgia's defensive pressure vs. Ole Miss
"I think obviously everybody’s into the seven-up presentation, and you have a plus-one," Golding said. Georgia sacked Ole Miss five times and consistently made quarterback Trinidad Chambliss uncomfortable. "Then you’ve got your zone variations and your trap variations off of it. It’s kind of the fad right now.
"The (Minnesota) Vikings and all that, it’s kind of leaking into college. We’ll see it again next week. Oklahoma’s known for the same thing. That was a big part of their package last year over there. I think obviously everybody’s looking to present the same looks but have a complement to it.
"As you play more games, you continue to build upon that. I think a lot of those looks, like Trinidad mentioned, they’re prepared for. They’re still hard. They have an extra guy. If you don’t run the route on time, you don’t get the ball out, and if the back doesn’t pick up the edge rusher and hit him in the chest and not let him just come by, you’re going to have problems. You’ve got to make guys pay when they’re going to seven-up and plus-one. You’ve got to hit them. I think that was the difference. They got the same look last year at Georgia, right? (Stribling) goes, what, 75? There’s risk and reward to it. They had a good plan, and it was very successful tonight."
On the controversial penalties in the first half
"I’m not sure that it impacted the end of the game," Golding said on the referee decisions that led to Ole Miss fans throwing trash on the field. "I know that wasn’t your question, but it definitely felt like we could never get a rhythm of anything. We couldn’t put positive plays together in any of the phases. It did feel like, all right, maybe here’s a break. Here’s a spark. Great interception, and then here’s the penalty. Then we get them to third down, and you feel like you got another stop. They definitely don’t help.
"Obviously, that wasn’t the end result because of those two things, but we could never get any momentum in the game at any point, it felt like. Even in the second half when we came out, I was like, 'Look, don’t focus on the scoreboard.' Then we go three-and-out, start driving on offense and end up turning the football over as well. We just could never stack anything in all three phases. Really didn’t catch a break and didn’t help ourselves.
"But those definitely don’t help, obviously, when you create a turnover and you get a flag. The hit was clean. The timing of it and all that. I’ll be interested to hear the response. I think it was more of the shoulder driving into the ground, I would assume, is going to be the response. But the target area was fine, and the timing of it was good. We’ll see what they say."
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This article originally appeared on UGA Wire: Ole Miss coach Pete Golding calls loss to Georgia a 'butt whooping'
