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AJC > Sports > UGA > Blog > Archives > 2008 > May
May 2008
Playing favorites
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
It was sort of a mixed week in the Bulldog Nation. The baseball team once again continued its strange tradition of falling on its face in the SEC Tournament after winning the regular season championship. Of course, they’re still going to be in the NCAA Tournament, though they didn’t do themselves any favors regarding seeding. On the other hand, UGA picked up an unexpected national championship as the men’s tennis team took the title for the second year in a row. Dan Magill’s legacy continues to shine in the hands of Manuel Diaz.
Oh, and it came out that one of the football players had been arrested on a suspected DUI and likely will miss a game. Not good, but with only two other arrests so far, Mark Richt’s Dawgs certainly are having a less troublesome off-season than had been the case in recent years. Fingers crossed that no more members of the team run afoul of the law this year, but college students being the way they are (and always have been), that may be bucking the odds.
Speaking of football, always on the minds of the Bulldog Nation (with only about 14 weeks left until the season gets under way), a friend posed a seemingly easy question to me the other day that, on reflection, wasn’t so easy. What, he asked, is your favorite Georgia football game ever?
No-brainer, I thought at first. The Sugar Bowl win over Notre Dame for the national championship.
But then I thought about it some more. Certainly it capped my favorite season of Georgia football. And was the most important win by the Bulldogs. But was it really my favorite game? Herschel played hurt for much of the game, and it certainly wasn’t our best offensive showing that season. Perhaps that’s not really my all-time FAVORITE game.
But if not that one, which game would be the favorite? My mind ran back over great days on the gridiron for the Dawgs dating back to the era of Fran Tarkenton, when I first really started following Georgia football at about age 6. The 1965 shocker over reigning national champion Alabama came to mind, of course. Any number of wins over the Gators, too, including Appleby-to-Washington, Buck to Lindsay in 1980, and toppling top-ranked Florida in 1985. Plus 21-0 over Bama in 1976, the loudest game I ever heard at Sanford Stadium before they enclosed the one side; 10-to-9 in Dallas; the hobnail boot in Knoxville; and, just this past fall, that crazy day with the team flooding the end zone in Jacksonville … all favorites.
But I think the biggest rivalry has to come into play in picking an all-time favorite game. And there have been SO MANY great wins over the Yellow Jackets, both the come-from-behind variety like 1997 at Grant Field, and the butt-kickings like that glorious 51-7 afternoon Between the Hedges in 2002.
Then it came to me. My all-time favorite Georgia football game. Thanksgiving night on national TV at Historic Grant Field in Atlanta, and Andy Johnson leading the Bulldogs down the field in the last minute and a half, completing four passes before Jimmy the Greek vaulted over for the score.
Yes, I think that 28-24 win is my favorite, not because it was the greatest game I ever saw, although certainly it was one of the most exciting. No, I think it’s probably my favorite because I went to school with Andy, played touch football with him in junior high, cheered him and the other Athens High Trojans on at old Death Valley, and went through UGA at the same time. And if I were to pick my all-time favorite Bulldog players, Andy would rank way up there.
Those are just some of the intangibles that go into picking your favorite game or favorite team in college football.
And that’s one of the reasons why it’s my favorite sport.
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Doing better than surviving
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Not a bad weekend for Bulldogs.
The baseball team won the SEC regular season title up in Nashville. So continues our baffling great year/bad year rotation … one that hopefully we won’t stick to next year. (It’d sure help if we didn’t lose all our stars to the bigs.)
The men’s and women’s tennis teams have both made it to the NCAA Sweet 16 again. The women’s golf team is in the NCAA finals.
And while it wasn’t an NCAA-sanctioned event, another Bulldog did quite well for herself Sunday night with a national TV audience, as Alpharetta native and UGA grad Parvati Shallow won the latest “Survivor” competition, taking home the million-dollar prize.
I haven’t watched “Survivor” regularly since its second season, but when my son mentioned that the sister of one of his friends was still in the running and that he had met her at her sister’s graduation party in Athens a couple of nights before, I decided to join him in watching the finale. Parvati (who didn’t quite make it to the finals in another “Survivor” a couple of years ago but was one of the fan favorites brought back for this season) proved to be a master strategist and a lot of fun to watch. And it was cool to see her wearing her UGA cap much of the time!
A couple of big woofs to all the weekend’s UGA winners, and especially to the Diamond Dogs and Parvati Shallow on their championships!
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Get used to tough schedules
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Some random thoughts of a Bulldog nature …
Looking at the 2009 football schedule after its completion with the addition of Tennessee Tech got me to thinking: IF this year’s murderous schedule keeps the Dawgs from making a successful run at the national championship and IF Matt Stafford and Knowshon Moreno decide to stick around for another shot at it, the 2009 schedule isn’t going to be a cakewalk either, though at least it doesn’t have that late-season on-the-road marathon. It’ll be another year with only six home games (the downside to upgrading the nonconference schedule) with the Dawgs opening on the road at Oklahoma State. The schedule does have an open date before Florida, though, as well as a 1-AA opponent the week before Auburn. The home games are South Carolina, Arizona State, LSU (the only October game in Athens), Tennessee Tech, Auburn and Kentucky.
As for this year’s schedule, Coach Mark Richt told the Athens Banner-Herald he thinks it will help keep the players’ heads in the right place: “I think our guys are mature enough to know that our league is rough, our schedule is, I think, pretty unbelievable, and we’ve got a really tall order ahead of us.” But Stafford seems to have the right attitude, telling the B-H: “I think it will be really fun. I think it will be really challenging for us. It’s one of the tougher schedules in the country this year. It’s definitely something that’s got our attention right now and it will keep it throughout the season, which is good for us to help us get focused for every game.”
Focus. That’s going to be the key this season. …
An interesting side note to Richt getting a commitment from record-setting Tampa QB Aaron Murray is that one of his Plant High School teammates, tight end Orson Charles, also is considering the Dawgs. Charles is the one who accidentally knocked over Florida’s 2006 BCS national championship crystal trophy, breaking it into a million pieces. Sounds like a kid who’d fit perfectly in Athens! …
I see that the national champion Gym Dogs will be signing autographs before the game and throwing out the first pitch when the Diamond Dogs meet the Yellow Jackets Wednesday at Foley Field. If you’re not like me (stuck at work) and can get over to Athens, this would be a great time to sample the exciting baseball the league-leading Dogs are playing this season. By the way, CBS will show UGA’s win at the NCAA gymnastics championships this Saturday at 3 p.m. …
Glad to hear smoking is finally completely banned from Sanford Stadium starting this season, bringing us in line with even the hillbillies in Knoxville. And just in case you’re thinking you can take a drag (or do anything else against the rules) without getting caught, remember that UGA plans on installing a high-tech video surveillance system by next season in the stadium, thanks to a federal Homeland Security grant of $236,000 that will pay about half the cost. It’ll allow campus police to see and record what happens in just about any corner of the stadium. This is in keeping with the hard line UGA security is taking these days; last season two guys sitting near us got into a dispute and rather than adjudicate who was in the wrong, the cops simply kicked them both out of the stadium. So be aware that Big Brother Dawg is watching you. …
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