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AJC > Sports > UGA > Blog > Archives > 2006 > December
December 2006
Strong finish lifts Bulldog Nation
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Considering how bleak things looked at midseason when the Dawgs had lost four of five, UGA fans have a right to be pretty happy about the way the season ended — three consecutive wins over ranked opponents, including Saturday night’s gutsy come-from-behind victory over one of the ACC’s better teams in the Bowl Formerly Known as the Peach.
If, a year from now, we’re again seeing the Dawgs missing out on a BCS bowl and playing their post-season game in Atlanta, UGA fans won’t be so happy. A 9-4 record and Peach-fil-A win in a rebuilding year is acceptable, despite the bittersweet thoughts of what might (and probably would) have been had our placekicker not gotten hurt (two fewer losses, that’s for sure; probably a BCS bowl, too).
But there’s no point dwelling on what if’s. Major programs aren’t immune from down years (right, FSU and Miami fans?). And despite our joy at the way the Dawgs wound up the year, let’s be frank: Even at 9-4, this was a down year for UGA.
Can the Bulldogs win the SEC and make a run at the national title as early as next year? That’s probably too much to ask, what with the defensive starters we’re losing (even if a couple don’t go pro) and the inexperienced OL we’ll have. But once our talent-loaded offense gets a bit more consistent and our redshirts gain some playing time, the Dawgs should at the very least be in the mix for the SEC East.
MORE CHICK-FIL-A NUGGETS: At halftime, I was thinking it was impossible to judge what kind of a job Mike Bobo was doing in his first game since being named offensive coordinator because the Dawgs had forgotten to bring an offense for him to coordinate. Then in the second half we took a page out of the Beamer Ball book with that onside kick and everyone in the place seemed to know that it was a turning point. It was like you could literally feel the momentum shift. That’s one of the things I love about the college game. … Memo to Danny Ware: If you’re gonna talk about skipping your senior year for the NFL, you need to catch sure touchdown passes when the QB lays ‘em right in your hands. … If Arthur Blank does renovate the Georgia Dome, let’s hope he does something about the absolutely awful acoustics in the upper level. … While the Dawgs’ offense basically put together only one semi-successful drive in the first half, the defense really only had one bad quarter, having dominated VT for most of the first. The second quarter saw the poor tackling and sloppy secondary play of earlier in the season return, but fortunately the D got back on track in the second half. I’m still not convinced Willie Martinez is the man to run our defense, but the last three games of the season showed marked improvement on that side of the ball, and since he got the blame for the midseason collapse, he gets the credit for the rebound. … It was great to see Brandon Coutu back out there doing what he does best. Now, if we can just convince Kevin Butler’s son that a preferred walk-on spot (and likely eventual scholarship) at UGA beats an immediate scholarship at a lesser program. Even if Coutu stays healthy, we’ve only got him one more year. … I realize bowl games are all about sponsors pushing their products, but the constant barrage of commercials on the video screens got awfully tiresome, and the halting of the game at the end of the third quarter for a car give-away (forcing the bands to delay their here-comes-the-fourth routines) really took an edge off the excitement in the stands. … Once the game was over, the “neutrality” of the bowl officials seemed to fall by the wayside, with President Gary Stokan not only letting out a “How ’bout them Dawgs!” but also summing up the late season Bulldogs pretty well: “If that’s not a Top 20 team to end the year and a Top 10 team to begin next season, then I don’t know football.”
Doin’ the Pokie Hokie
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Wow, what is it with the Dawgs and these Peach-fil-A second-half comebacks?
Congrats to bowl offensive MVP Matthew Stafford and defensive MVP (you knew it would be him) … old reliable Tony Taylor.
And aren’t you damn glad our list of school traditions doesn’t include a silly dance like the VT band did at halftime?
They said during the awards presentation that it was the first time a Georgia team had beaten ranked opponents back to back to back.
If that doesn’t get the Dawgs back in the Top 20, somebody’s not paying attention!
More tomorrow.
IT’S GREAT TO BE A GEORGIA BULLDOG ON SATURDAY NIGHT!
Catching up with Coach Dooley
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
“I don’t think you can call it retirement.”
That’s how Vince Dooley, chatting with me one recent afternoon, described his very busy life since he stepped down as UGA athletic director. Between traveling for book signings and other public appearances, serving on various boards and continuing to promote the University of Georgia, the 74-year-old former coach barely has time for his famous garden.
I had e-mailed Coach Dooley to let him know I was writing up his recent children’s book, “How ’Bout Them Dawgs,” for the AJC’s News for Kids page (the article ran Tuesday), and he suggested I give him a call if I wanted to talk more. I did, and I found him as gracious, affable, charming and articulate as he was during his decades at UGA — among the reasons I was always extremely proud that Dooley was our coach and then AD.
Since the children’s book — dedicated to his 11 grandkids (he got Barbara to double-check that he spelled all the names correctly!) — was the original reason for contacting him, we started out talking about his career as an author, which actually dates back to 1969, when his “Developing a Superior Football-Control Attack,” a book aimed primarily at football coaches, was published.
“It’s long out of print, but I still hear from folks who want me to sign a copy,” he said.
When he retired as a football coach, he and Loran Smith did the “Dooley’s Dogs” coffeetable book, which covered his years at Georgia. And when he retired as athletic director they updated “Dooley’s Dogs.”
In 2005, the silver anniversary of the national championship team, Dooley teamed up with longtime Athens sportswriter Blake Giles on “Vince Dooley’s Tales of the 1980 Georgia Bulldogs,” which went through the entire season, game by game, including, he said, “the so-called purloined pig party that ended up sort of bonding that team together.”
Last year he also did another book with the AJC’s Tony Barnhart, “Dooley: My 40 Years at Georgia,” which he characterized as “a rehash of my career in a different way from ‘Dooley’s Dogs.’”
The hardest thing about that book, Dooley said, “was Chapter 11, dealing with the Adams situation. That was the toughest part to write. While I had some opinions, some things I would have liked to say … I had to do what I thought was in the best interests of the university. So I had to be a little more diplomatic. But my wife, who did the foreword, made a few comments that I probably wouldn’t have made.”
(Barbara said in the foreword that she thought President Michael Adams came to UGA “with the idea of getting rid of Vincent,” and she said she couldn’t understand why “nobody in a position of authority,” including the governor, a former Dooley player, stood up for her husband.)
The books have been well received, Dooley said, and he’s enjoyed doing a lot of book signings.
Since Dooley, who got his undergraduate degree in business management, earned a masters degree in history and has been known to audit history courses at UGA, I wondered whether he might tackle a straight history book of some sort.
“I’ve had people ask me that, and also am I going to do a gardening book,” he said, referring to his hobby developing his “semi-botanical” garden at his longtime home on Milledge Circle in Athens. Another suggested book, he said, is “one about Georgia’s greatest [football] plays.”
“I wish I could,” Dooley said. “I wish I had the time. I’m as busy or busier as I’ve ever been. I guess by being at one place as long as I have, in order not to be [continually busy] you’d almost have to move away to California or someplace. I get a lot of requests, and I don’t have as many excuses as I used to.”
I asked what a typical week is like for him, and he said there really isn’t one, but he flipped through his appointments calendar for late November and early December. “I spoke to the Tallahassee Quarterback Club. Then I went to Boise, Idaho, to participate in the Humanitarian Awards. Then to New York for the National Football Foundation and Hall of Fame. Then I did the ‘Allen Hunt Show’ Luncheon. Then I did a book signing. And I had a board meeting. I’m on the board of a bank and on the board of Athens Technical College, where I’ve learned a lot. Then I did another book signing. And did the [UGA football] senior banquet. And next week I’m doing book signings in Tifton and Valdosta.”
Dooley doesn’t play golf and he gave up tennis “five or six years ago when I had a knee replaced,” but, he said, “I’ve got plenty of things to keep me busy. I’m also on the board of the Southeastern Flower Show. I’m still involved in the National Association of Athletic Directors, and the American Football Coaches Association, which I was president of.”
And he does those previews of the Dawgs’ upcoming opponents on the UGA football radio broadcasts, I noted. He chuckled. “I think they were just looking for a way to keep me involved, but I’ve enjoyed doing it. I’m getting to be a living, walking history [of Georgia football].”
Along those lines, I asked Coach Dooley to handicap the upcoming bowl game in Atlanta. “I think it’ll be a good matchup,” he said. “Virginia Tech’s defense is very good. Of course, the ACC is definitely not as strong, particularly this year, so we don’t know [how good].” And the Dawgs wound up the year in a strong way, he noted, “whipping two ranked oponents and strong rivals. It was a good ending after some disappointments this season, but that was mainly the quarterback situation.” On Matthew Stafford, though, Dooley said: “He’s going to be a good one.”
Dooley also takes great pride in the Bulldogs’ MVP award being named after him. “At the senior banquet, I presented the Most Valuable Player award, which is in my name. It was won by Tony Taylor, the linebacker. I expecially was pleased because I coached his dad [Nate], who was on our 1980 team. We called him the ‘Tifton Termite.’”
I asked Coach Dooley whether he gets to talk to the players these days. “Every once in a while they’ll ask me to say something to the team,” he said. “I still go to practice when I can and drop by the dressing room afterward. But I don’t want to get in the way.”
No matter what Adams or anyone else might think, there’s no way Vincent J. Dooley could ever be “in the way” at UGA. Like he said, he’s a “living” history of Georgia football. He should be treasured and appreciated as such.
Whether it’s by putting his name on the field or hyphenating Sanford Stadium or erecting a statue or whatever, it’s high time the University of Georgia honored the man.
The Godfather of Bulldog Soul
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
I once spent a memorable day in Augusta with the Godfather of Soul, James Brown, for an AJC profile, and, of course, one of the things we talked about was his involvement with the Georgia Bulldogs and his 1976 recording of the song “Dooley’s Junkyard Dogs.”
But my brother Jonathan has an even better James Brown/UGA story. The Godfather of Soul danced on Jonathan’s back.
The occasion was halftime of the Georgia homecoming game against Kentucky in 1977, which is more memorable for the non-football festivities since we lost the game 33-0. Prince Charles was there. (“Damn good prince!” chanted the student section.) So was Donna Douglas of “The Beverly Hillbillies.” And at halftime James Brown performed with the Redcoat Band.
My brother was under the stage, handling the sound, and when Brown did his first split during “I Feel Good,” the soundboard jumped in the air, briefly knocking the sound out, so Jonathan and other members of the Redcoats properties crew pressed their backs up against the bottom of the stage above them to cushion the blows and keep him from bouncing the equipment. Fortunately, the sound was working by the time JB did “Dooley’s Junkyard Dogs.”
The untold story of that halftime show, which was called “James Brown Live,” is that it almost turned into a “tribute” to James Brown starring … my brother.
See, Jonathan had been standing in for Brown during rehearsals that week, doing his Godfather of Soul imitation. And he did so again the morning of the game. When Brown hadn’t still showed up an hour past his appointed arrival time, the Redcoats brain trust started making contingency plans to turn the show into a tribute to Brown minus the singer, and they were actually measuring my brother for a jumpsuit so he could do his “James Brown” for the Sanford Stadium crowd.
“I had just been fooling around, making up words and inserting the ‘ow!’ like James Brown,” Jonathan reminisced Monday night after news of Brown’s death at 73. “I was scared because I didn’t really know the words to the song. I don’t know if that plan would have actually come off, but I was so glad when his limousine pulled up.”
Brown did the show with the Redcoats again later that season at the Gator Bowl during halftime of the Georgia-Florida game, and Jonathan remembers Brown calling him “Brother King” as he asked for his microphone.
A clip of that performance was included in AVP Video’s “25 Years of Georgia Football: The Vince Dooley Era,” and someone has lifted it and put it on YouTube.
Man, they don’t make halftime shows like that any more!
Give the Dawgs a home court advantage
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Has Dennis Felton finally turned things around for Georgia basketball?
It’s beginning to look that way, what with the Dogs’ 96-83 upset of No. 16 Gonzaga Saturday at Gwinnett Arena, the biggest win for UGA since the victories over the Jackets and Wildcats in Felton’s first season — and Felton’s biggest win to date with his own players.
With the exception of a couple of brief patches where they got kinda sloppy, the Dogs looked like an NCAA tournament team against the Zags. Of course, there’s a whole lotta basketball ahead for Georgia, including the annual match with the Bumblebees and games against Clemson and Wisconsin. But with a road win over Wake Forest already under their belts, Felton’s Dogs are at the very least likely to be much improved this year and with a few breaks could well wind up being tournament-worthy.
My daughter and I will get our next chance to see them Tuesday night at the Steg against Jacksonville. UGA fans are always saying that they’ll go to basketball games when the Dogs start winning big games.
Chances are, Saturday’s win over the Zags won’t be the last big win for Georgia this season. It’s time for the fan base to start showing up to back them.
BULLDOG BITES: Mike “Big Dawg” Woods, my old Athens High School classmate, was voted this year’s “Super Fan” in the contest sponsored by Lincoln Financial Sports. Mike is the guy in the Bulldog-covered overalls with Uga painted on his bald head who you’ll see whooping it up on the big screen during games and kissing Georgia players on the head after a win. Mike is carrying on a tradition started by his dad, who used to drive the bus for the Bulldogs defense under Erk Russell and who, at the players’ urging, shaved and painted his head after the National Championship win in the Sugar Bowl. … Man, that could be BIG news that Brandon Coutu might be able to handle the placekicking in the Peach-fil-A Bowl. Now, if Neil Callaway would just take that UAB job. …
2007 Season Arrives Early
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
So, Virginia Tech, ranked No. 14 nationally with a 10-2 record and the second bowl pick out of the ACC after champion Wake Forest, is only a 3-point favorite over Georgia, the unranked, 8-4 fifth pick out of the SEC.
Sounds about right.
Yeah, the Hokies have won six straight and are ranked higher than any other ACC team, including the champion Demon Deacons. Hardly resemble the team that got beat like a drum by the Yellow Jackets earlier in the season and then lost to Boston College the next week.
But then again the Georgia team that finished out with wins over two nationally ranked major rivals (including the then No. 5 team in the country and the same Yellow Jackets that embarrassed Virginia Tech) looks a whole lot different than the toothless team that dropped four out of five (a stretch that the poll voters still haven’t forgotten since those two wins weren’t enough to get us back into the Top 25).
Virginia Tech is the national leader in total defense, scoring defense and pass defense, but they’re not barnburners on offense, which probably accounts for it being just a 3-point spread over the Dawgs. And while we don’t want to get too comfortable being grateful for a bowl bid in Atlanta, this is the best scenario UGA could have hoped for coming out of that horrific midseason funk.
We’re playing the highest-ranked team not playing in a January bowl, and we’ll be doing it in front of a friendly crowd (though that doesn’t always mean much — witness the first half of the Sugar Bowl last year).
Best way for the Dawgs to approach it is that the new season begins Dec. 30 at the Georgia Dome, and we’ve got the kind of opening opponent Georgia fans have been hankering for.
BULLDOG BITES: I’m assuming I’ll be at the Dome on Dec. 30 since the Georgia Athletic Association says all season-ticket holders who ordered before Dec. 2 will get tickets (to be mailed out next week). I’m glad to hear Coach Richt and his staff are going to kick it up a notch with pre-bowl conditioning and preparations. The Dawgs looked awfully slow and out out of condition against West Virginia last season, especially on defense. … Meanwhile, the 2007 ticket priority package arrived this week. I see the Georgia Educational Enhancement Fund has been renamed the William C. Hartman Jr. Fund in honor of the late Coach Bill Hartman. A nice touch. But if I’m reading the glossy brochure correctly, they’ve moved up the cut-off point for receiving the Football Media Guide to a $1,000 annual contribution. Seems kinda chintzy for the nation’s most profitable athletic program. … I hate to sound churlish about this, but a couple of the Bulldogs’ postseason honors don’t make much sense to me. I mean, Martrez Milner making the All-SEC Coaches First Team? Sure, he was the Bulldogs’ second-leading receiver and an ace blocker, but he also had a bunch of key dropped passes. That’s good enough for first-team all-conference? And what about offensive tackle Daniel Inman being Georgia’s ONLY representative on the Associated Press All-SEC first team? The same Daniel Inman whose blocking was hit-or-miss and who was prone to drive-killing penalties? AP voters thought he was the most deserving Bulldog? You’ve gotta figure the folks voting in these beauty contests haven’t watched the players involved and are going mostly on pre-season expectations. Either that, or it was a really down year for offensive linemen in the SEC if Inman was one of the best. Hey, if any Georgia players deserved to be singled out for their performance this season, it was hardworking linebacker Tony Taylor (who did make the second team in both the AP and coaches’ lists) and overlooked fullback Brannan Southerland, the most dependable player we have.
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