UGA Sports Communications
For Immediate Release
Sunday, November 30, 2008

Athens, Ga. ---With the regular season complete, the 17th-ranked Georgia Bulldogs now wait to learn where they will be invited for their 44th bowl game in school history.

Georgia finished the regular season with a 9-3 mark including 6-2 in the Southeastern Conference. The Bulldogs will be making their school record 12th consecutive bowl appearance somewhere this January. On his Sunday conference call with the media, Georgia coach Mark Richt said the Bulldogs may not know until next Sunday where and who they will play in their bowl game.

"It would be premature to start talking about a matchup, all these things are going to have to wait until Sunday," said Richt. "I believe us and Ole Miss are the candidates for the Capital One Bowl but that's assuming the winner of the SEC Championship will play for the national championship and the loser of the SEC game will be in the Sugar Bowl."

One possible bowl opponent for Georgia is Michigan State. A Bulldog-Spartan contest would feature two of the nation's top running backs that are among the three finalists for the Doak Walker Award. Bulldog sophomore Knowshon Moreno leads the SEC with 1,338 rushing yards and 16 touchdowns. MSU senior Javon Ringer ranks third nationally with 1,590 rushing yards and 21 touchdowns. Richt said a matchup of these two teams would be wonderful if it happens.

"It's important to finish strong, and it would be nice to get that tenth victory," said Richt on what's at stake in the upcoming bowl game. "We'll get one more opportunity to play on national television, and we want to have a good showing. We want our seniors to have a victory in their last game. It's important to win period, we all know that."

Overall, Georgia is 24-16-3 in bowl games including 5-2 under Richt. Georgia's current postseason bowl streak began during the 1997 season under former coach Jim Donnan as the Bulldogs capped a 10-2 season with a win over Wisconsin in the Outback Bowl.

Georgia will take the first part of the week off and hold its first practice on Thursday. Richt, along with the coordinators, will run most of practice with some coaches out of town recruiting. On Saturday, the full staff will be back and the team will practice again. Richt said the bowl practice schedule has not been set yet, and he indicated the team likely would have a five-day holiday break before reporting to the bowl site.

Richt reflected on the regular season and said it has not been an easy one and that the bar has been raised at Georgia. He said he wants Georgia to be in the hunt for a championship every year. Also, he promised that "we're going to do a better job next year...we will critique everything from top to bottom. We have to be open and honest in our evaluations of ourselves."