HOOVER, Ala. - The Tennessee football team never got a thank-you note from the Georgia Bulldogs last season. UT coach Phillip Fulmer didn't get a fruit basket with "best wishes" before the Vols' SEC championship game against LSU.

Such expressions of gratitude are out of place in a conference as competitive as this one. But Georgia knows it owes UT big-time for last October. That came across loud and clear at the SEC football media days.

UT's contribution to Georgia football was an emphatic beating, highlighted by a 28-0 first half during which the Bulldogs looked less competent than any SEC opponent to stumble into Neyland Stadium since Vanderbilt in 2003.

When Fulmer shook hands with Georgia coach Mark Richt after UT's 35-14 victory, he should have said, "You'll thank us later."

Georgia's coach changed. His team changed. And so did the season.

The same bunch that looked like the worst of the SEC East in early October was campaigning for a berth in the national championship game two months later after winning its last six regular-season games. The Bulldogs finished 11-2, second nationally and now are a popular pick to contend for a national title in 2008.

Their reversal of fortune is easily pinpointed.

"After getting beat so bad by Tennessee, I was taking inventory of that game," Richt said. "I was kind of wondering what went wrong.

"As I looked around, I was seeing that everybody was kind of waiting on someone else to do something, coaches and players. I was getting kind of mad at them until I looked in the mirror and realized they were just basically reflecting me. I was sitting there, waiting for somebody to do something."

It's worth noting that Richt has never shied away from self-criticism in a public forum. And when he takes himself to task, his criticism is too specific to qualify as a token gesture.

Maybe that made it easier for him to transform himself and his team in the middle of the season. Motivation also had something to do with it.

"I realized that if we don't play with emotion, which we usually do but didn't that day … I said, 'Something has got to change.' I knew it had to start with me."

Suddenly, a coach who seemed as stoic and thoughtful as Tom Landry on game day was doing his best Houston Nutt imitation. The change in personality wasn't as difficult as you might think.

"There have been people saying, 'March Richt is a true gentleman of the game,' " Richt said. " 'He never gets excited. He's just kind of calm.

"My family members are texting me, saying, 'We know better.' Not that I'm not a gentleman. But I get riled up. I get fired up."

In the past, Richt's play-calling duties on game day forced him to curb his enthusiasm. After delegating those chores to Mike Bobo last year, it apparently took Richt half a season to realize he was a free man.

Once he become more emotional and animated on the sideline, his team followed its coach's lead. Not all of the exuberance was spontaneous.

Before the Florida game, Richt instructed his team: "After the first score against Florida, I want you guys to celebrate so hard that the referees throw a flag."

The Bulldogs followed his message en masse. In fact, the mass was greater than Richt anticipated.

"I'm thinking 11 guys celebrating," Richt said. "Well, somebody in that crowd thought I meant everybody."

"Everybody" included the Georgia reserves, who raced onto the field to join their teammates in celebration.

"When I saw the passion and fire get unleashed that had been dormant in this football team, I got excited," Richt said. "I was fired up."

Only later did he consider the ramifications - a bench-clearing brawl comes to mind.

"In hindsight, I shouldn't have done it," he said. "It could have easily turned into a big, stupid brawl and everything else."

Instead, it turned into a 42-30 Georgia victory - one that might never have happened if not for an embarrassing loss to UT.

Sports editor John Adams may be reached at 865-342-6284 or adamsj@knoxnews.com.

© 2008, Knoxville News Sentinel Co.