Georgia’s ever-growing deficit in turnovers reflects nation’s lowest total of 8 takeaways

Georgia struggles with takeaways and giveaways

ATHENS, Ga. — Rennie Curran has no answer for the statistic which has helped to sink Georgia’s season:

Eleven games. One fumble recovery.

It came Sept. 19 when Curran, the Georgia linebacker, recovered one against Arkansas in the Bulldogs’ 52-41 win. Curran can’t believe that seven games later his play is still Georgia’s only fumble recovery of the season.

“It’s crazy when you think about how much work we put into this and how many hours we put into this,” Curran says. “It’s hard to believe we didn’t get the results that we wanted.”

Georgia has a minus-18 turnover margin to rank 119th — next to last — in the nation. The Bulldogs know they can’t beat No. 7 Georgia Tech on Saturday night if the ugly turnover deficit continues to grow.

Georgia is last in the nation with only eight turnovers gained in 11 games. Every other Bowl Subdivision team in the nation has forced at least 10 turnovers. The next-lowest total recovered is three.

The seven interceptions by Georgia’s defense seem respectable when compared with the one fumble recovery. But only South Carolina, with five, has fewer interceptions among Southeastern Conference teams.

There has been more attention paid to Bulldogs’ season-long problem with giveaways.

But the other side of Georgia’s turnover deficit — the shortage of takeaways — also has hurt the Bulldogs (6-5).

Coach Mark Richt says he has studied the film of each of the 12 fumbles by Georgia’s opponents and says he can’t complain about his players’ effort. The problem, Richt says, is the balls keep bouncing closer to the other team.

Georgia’s season-long turnover problem was obvious last week when four second-half giveaways helped Kentucky rally from a 20-6 halftime deficit for a 34-27 win over the Bulldogs. Kentucky scored two touchdowns off the turnovers.

“It’s tough to get past, but I think we’re trying to move past it,” said offensive tackle Clint Boling. “Going into the second half when we were up 20-6, a lot of us thought we could put the game away with the way we’ve been playing. A couple of turnovers really hurt. We’re trying to move past it and move on to Tech and hopefully we’ll be able to do that.”

For a game and a half, it appeared Georgia had solved its turnover problem. It had no interceptions and no fumbles while picking off two passes in its 31-24 win over Auburn on Nov. 14.

“When they don’t beat themselves, they’re a really good football team,” Georgia Tech coach Paul Johnson said. “Last Saturday night, they dragged Kentucky up and down the field … but they had four turnovers in the second half. They lost the game, just like any other team in America would. No team can turn it over four times in one half and win the game.”

The turning point in the Kentucky game came when freshman Branden Smith fumbled the kickoff to open the second half. The Wildcats took possession at the Georgia 14 and scored two plays later to cut the Bulldogs’ lead to one touchdown, setting the tone for the second half.

“To turn the two-score deficit into a one-score deficit in a matter of seconds sure gets the other team’s juices flowing,” Richt said.