A BIG bite of 1980

Cuz when you meet the Georgia Bulldogs you gonna feel the Bulldog bite!


This is the season highlight tape of the 1980 season. It is replete with everything from Run Lindsay Run! to Lewis Grizzard giving a tour of Wrightsville Georgia..."PBR, cold to go!"


It's not gameday today, but this ain't a bad alternative.

courtesy of carlmilton

Some Friday McLovin

Friday's been my favorite day of the week ever since 4th grade when it was widely recognized at Barnett Shoals Elem school as kickball day. By April of 1980 I was frequently being drafted in the top five on the playground. Awesomez!

Now I hear your argument - "Bernie, what about Saturday? There's no work, you sleep in. Plus it's gameday!" Sure, but it's only gameday 12 times (less if you're an ACC school, or South Carolina), maybe more if you make it to the Dome in December. There's just something special about Friday. Weekend plans are being finalized, McLovin has his fake ID ready, sports betting is finding all the winners, steaks are marinating, the bourbon glasses are clean...

Ahhh, Fridays! The best day to listen to my favorite Irish R&B singer. Now for some questions...
- One name? Who are you, Seal?
- Saw there was another perfect game the other day. Isn't the real perfect game 81 pitches, 81 swings and 27 strikeouts?
- So Nkemdiche pledges to Dabo?? I haven't seen a picture of him in front of a tractor holding a wad of cash yet, so we'll see how long this lasts.
- It's been rumored for a while now, and the context within the new contract only strengthens the notion I think. But Michael Booker asks, Is Grantham the head coach in waiting?
- Does Mizzou have enough cash to ante up at the SEC table?
- Back to recruiting and looking ahead to Dawg Night, will the Dawgs turn Reuben's head?
- Which brings to mind another question...I see OL and ILB as the prime needs for the rest of the '13 class. Foster's committed to Bama. Both he and Laremy Tunsil (who is rumored to be leaning towards Saban) will be in Athens this weekend. Who would you rather Coach Richt get a "commitment" from?
- And back to gamedays, Tyler has some crap he's not looking forward to hearing. Can you think of any others?
- Everyone knows there's No Country for McLovin.
- So what's it going to be? You can live your weekend like any other kid with a fake ID, or as McLovin, a 25 year old Hawaiian organ donor. The choice is yours.

NSFW

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Nkemdiche ripple effects

via Tom Hauck, ESPN

Robert Nkemdiche has committed to Clemson. But is the circus surrounding his recruitment over? Likely not. Bama, Ole Miss and LSU will surely stay after the nation's #1 prospect. However Georgia can move on.

Last weekend Alpharetta's Naim Mustafaa committed to Richt. He was #1 on their board at the OLB position. That about tells you all you need to know about the relationship between Grayson's Nkemdiche and the Georgia Bulldogs.

Would Richt and his staff taken the nation's top prospect's commitment for 2013? Of course. He's a superior talent and an absolute freak. But it just wasn't going to happen, and even if Nkemdiche decides to listen to his other suitors moving forward (at which time Coach Swinney's policy of no visits will become big headlines) it's still not going to happen at UGA.

Richt and Co. get the luxury of looking ahead at other targets, ones that are probably higher on the board and that they have a better shot at signing. In fact, Kipp Adams points out several reasons ($) why Robert Nkemdiche committing to Clemson is a good thing for Georgia. It was going to happen eventually. The fact that it happened yesterday to a team not named Bama is like putting extra recruiting hours and resources in Georgia's pocket.


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GATArchives: Dooley's favorite mascot

In 1986 the Georgia Bulldogs faced a number of key injuries, especially in the backfield with the loss of both Tim Worley and Keith Henderson. But the injuries weren't just limited to the field. Uga IV injured a knee as well the morning of the Vanderbilt game. When it was clear that the bulldog wouldn't be able to fulfill his gameday duties officials called on his brother Otto.


Fast forward to what would eventually become known as the "Game Between the Hoses" and Otto is doing quite well. Here carlmilton provides an old tape of a halftime report. Even through Tim Brando struggles with the correct pronunciation of Uga, it's a good look back at one of UGA's greatest temporary mascots.

Wow, those were some bad jokes. Real bad. If you're interested in highlights from the game (which had one of the more chaotic endings in college football history) carlmilton also has those loaded up here.


Back to Otto, he ended up with a record of 3-1 and handed the duties back over to Uga IV by the end of the season. It was clear the temporary mascot had won the head coach's heart as he "came off the bench and got the job done." Which is another reason he reminds me of our current mascot. Although Russ is likely to pass the collar soon, he's been there when the Dawg Nation has needed him, twice now. Like Otto, he really knows how to GATA.

BDB lotto reaches 1,000,000!!

Truth is, I think we surpassed a million page views here a while back. But the service I use to track those kinds of things just crossed the milestone yesterday, despite what Blogger says. But whatevs. Now's as good a time to celebrate. So grab a beer (champagne's for sissy ACC blogs on Tabacky Road) and gather round as I give you one of my most cherished memories as a Dawg fan.


My "You WILL bark like a Dawg" story

Thanks y'all!

I don't think I've offered this to you as yet Reader. I could be mistaken though as I don't recall every word I've written since September 2008. So if I'm repeating myself, get over yourself.


As you likely know by now I'm a product of the Goff years. And being a product of the Goff years comes with many memories, some good and many bad. But it also carries with it some baggage. The heaviest of which (to me at least) is a homecoming loss to Vanderbilt in 1994. It was Goff's 2nd loss to the 'Dores, but the first at home. It wasn't a pretty scene leaving the stadium. It left a feeling in the pit of my gut that festered, then eventually relented, but never fully went away.


Fast forward to New Year's Eve* that same year and we're partying at a local apartment complex. I had already over served myself some kool-aid and had found a comfortable chair to enjoy my stupor in. It was both well cushioned and had thick arms where I could rest each hand; my right grasped a 12 ounce beer that had recently lost 6 ounces of weight, and the left had a half empty plastic cup with some other concoction that may or may not have come from the apartment's bathtub.


Yeh, it was that kinda night. But I was a fairly recent graduate from the world's finest institution of higher education, so I had 5 years worth of schooling with a major in beer consumption and a minor in Garrison Hearst. There was literally little to nothing that could go wrong.


Except that at a neighboring celebration was a little snot-nosed 1500 SAT dandy Vandy twit who had just finished his first semester in Nashville. To this dipshit the world was his oyster. Every year his future alma mater was going to win football games in bucket loads even though DiNardo had just left for Red Stick that was no matter because they were going to be even better at tackle football than they were at basketball which was invented in Nashville and by the way did you know that a tenet is to a theologian as a hypothesis is to a biologist?


Now I'm not afraid to admit that I slept through half my Scholastic Aptitude Test, fortified by the knowledge that I would get enough points by spelling my name right to get me into LaGrange College, where I began my "studies" while Dooley finished his tenure on the sidelines. I'm not so hard up for attention that I have to point out to parties of people how well I can analogize words. Perhaps that's just me, but the end result on this particular evening was that this dillhole was beginning to really piss me the hell off. 


Fred and Nama were kind enough to let me know that he was smarting off yet again right outside in the hallway about how awesomethe'DoreswereOMGtheyreallyoutscoredtheBulldogsbackinOctoberdidyouseetheawesomenesswithyourinferioranalyticaleyes? It would've been wrong of me not to welcome him to Athens GA right? So I did and kindly asked him to shut his piehole, thanks and happy effin' New Year. I returned to my stupor chair.


Once again it was Fred and Nama who interrupted my   r   e   a  l  l   y      s   l  o   w  thought processes to say that Vanderrific Dandy had not left and was now relating the entire homecoming loss for any and all to hear. I like to imagine it went something like this:

"HolyMotherofMary we beat them in their stadium when the sun was high in the sky andjeebuscanyouimaginehowincrediblysexyour(male)cheerleaderswere with their sweat glimmeringandtheirbulging muscles...theMEGAphoneswereSOOOOloud!"

I told Fred and Nama not to worry about him and let's get a game of quarters together..."I'mzzready!". As I clumsily fumbled for a conglomeration of coins deeeeeeeep inside my Levi's they replied that he was also talking about my mom. "What tha frackin' french did you friggin' say just a frickin' minute ago bout that eff'd up gluesniffer and his filthy fluffin' mother effin' mouth?" I quickly realized that they were yanking my chain, and by quickly I mean in the amount of time it takes Drunj Bernie to find a stable table spot for his mostly consumed beer bottle and almost empty cup. "If no one else is going to shut this kid's trap then I guess I'll haveta..." was what I was thinking as I once again stumbled through the door to the hallway.

Once, twice...three times
a douchebag.

I promptly cut right to the chase and demanded everyone else be silent. What follows is the best transcription given to me the following afternoon, as well as the subsequent years in between.


"You...VandyfreshmandouchebagMcSmartsalot...get down on all fours!" 
To which he said, "What?" 
"I said, GET DOWN ON ALL FOURS AND BARK LIKE A DAWG dammitsonsabitches! You donts come down here and talk likth that,...in ATHENS... like yourz the bess thing sins sliced bananaz. So get on all fours and bark like a Dawg!!"


There may or may not have been something added about respect. Regardless, at this point he again passed on my offer and tried to backtrack into a handshake. I refuse again telling him to assume the position of our mascot and give his best impression. I even barked at him myowndamnself so that he would'nt eff that up like he and his university did most masculine things involving more than an ounce of testosterone and fueled by something more than a glass of chardonnay. In the end he never did, but I didn't let him get away completely free. Through my poetically stirred and alcohol slurred speech I challenged him to sit beside me at Stegeman later the next month for the Vandy-Georgia basketball game. His entourage of English Literature majors promptly left and the hall slowly emptied. Tension eased and I made a drunken mental note right then and almost there to attend the Vanderbilt game come hell or high water. It was set in stone and no amount of two-fisting kool-aid the rest of the night would erase the sticky note from my frontal lobe.


I went. He didn't. Durham's Dawgs won, just as I promised him they would. Boom went the dynamite. The pep band played Glory Glory and I belched mightily as I opened Stegman's doors into the cool January air. Somewhere in the distance I could hear the Earth return to its correct tilted axis, which most people who don't sleep through their SAT's will tell you is an exact 23.45 degrees. Whatevs, buncha bastards. Mostly, the curtains closed on this ugly episode in my historical autobiography.


I don't recall the kid's name. In truth, it may have never been offered to me. But nowadays I just refer to him as James Franklin, which is an indian name meaning "talks alot like woman". I once believed the mouth of Stegeman swallowed the little dipshit whole, never to be seen again. But now I like to think he lives in a room over his mom's garage, and gives penance for his words each Fall like a dandy Vandyman should.


Thanks again for Reading all of you Dawg lovers with a dial-up interweb connection. And a special shout-out to a clicker in Savannah yesterday afternoon who became my millionth page view. 


Have a seat in my stupor chair, the beer's always cold.


*It may not have been New Year's. But it was after basketball season had started. So sometime in December. I tend to assume it was New Year's because there were multiple parties in this complex that evening. Unfortunately, as good as beer tastes, it kills brain cells kids. It's the ugly truth to what is an otherwise beautiful swallow of malts and hops.

"The way they’re going to talk about you in the future is for what you do now."

Nice sit down with Coach Grantham by Towers. Even the most avid and educated Georgia football reader is bound to learn something new about the defensive coordinator. Here's a couple good ones:

Football and family

Grantham is a certified workaholic and rarely goes a day without analyzing some football video. But if he's not up to his neck X's and O's, he's probably at one of Oconee County's ballparks. Son Corbin, 11, "loves anything with a ball" and is playing one sport or another every season. Daughter Olivia, 8, also plays softball and enjoys equestrian. So and Paige carry their Georgia "G" fold-out chairs everywhere they go so they can sit back and watch their kids.

"I enjoy watching them play more than anything," Grantham said. "It's fun. Both of them like to fish, too, which is something I like to do. They like to fish because I like to fish."

This reminds me of seeing Grantham after the Missy State game last season. He had a cold beer in one hand, was talking on his phone, all while refereeing a 2-hand touch parking football game with the coaches' kids. It's one thing to be a workaholic, it's something else to be able to multitask.


Reserving judgment

Grantham sounds very Saban-esque when the conversation turns to Georgia’s 2012 defense. The Bulldogs return 10 full- or part-time starters from a unit that finished fifth in the nation in total defense a year ago. But Grantham is very careful to not let the cart get in front of the horse when asked to handicap the team’s ability.

“I think we have good players,” he said. “But the way I’ve always looked at it and this is what I’ve told our guys, ‘Never forget where you come from.’ The reason people are talking about us now is basically because of the things we did last year. But this time last year, they weren’t talking about us.

"I told them, ‘The way they’re going to talk about you in the future is for what you do now.’ So what’s really important is what we do now. Once the 2012 season kicks off, this team has no wins and no losses. It’s what we do in the next 12 weeks that will determine this team’s success.” 


Like I've said before, last season was really good. But it had it's flaws. Our last memory of those returning starters was letting the Spartans take the lead easily in the Outback Bowl's waning moments. Although the coach didn't mention that specifically there, I still think it's sticking pretty uncomfortably in his off season craw.

99 Billion Served...

...at McBama's.

h/t Ron

Brice Ramsey - shutting it down

With Bama and Florida putting on the full court press, Brice Ramsey (4-star Qb out of Camden Co.) is closing his recruitment.

via

“Alabama and Florida have been recruiting me hard,” Ramsey said in an interview Monday night. “A lot of schools have, but my commitment is to go to Georgia, and that's where I will be in January.”

Ramsey had a lengthy videoconference with Tide coach Nick Saban in May. The Gators have been pursuing the signal caller as well – stepping up their attempts to lure him to Gainesville.

But the Elite 11 quarterback said he’s no longer interested in being recruited by anyone besides the Bulldogs.

“I am not planning on visiting any more colleges in the future,” Ramsey said. “My focus is on my commitments for the summer – the opening, Elite 11 and our wing-T camp – and winning a state title this fall with Camden as well as preparing to play in the SEC.”

A celebratory cocktail

It's a lot easier to count the number of times I've left Jacksonville stadium with a smile than the number of times I've left with something else. And few have been a sweeter drink than 2007. Out of the vault carlmilton adds this two part edition to his YouTube library. I'm pretty sure I watched this Mark Richt Show eventually. But perhaps it was all the cocktails that made me forget.


At any rate, good stuff.

Some thoughts:

• I'm sure we've all said it before, but the score was not close to indicative of the game. Usually when one team dominates the line of scrimmage like that there is a much bigger discrepancy in the final totals.
• How soon will it be before we see a Georgia offensive line maul a defensive front like that again?
• Everytime I see that TD pass to Massaquoi I'm just sure it's well overthrown.
• The one player I'll always remember from that celebration clip will be Trinton Sturdivant shaking his ass. Looking over those highlights I'm reminded that his dancing was the second best thing he did that day.

Monday's Meatloaf - Stars, Stripes woven in every generation

Float commemorating the
flag over Iwo Jima

I've recently experience a confluence of experiences, all intertwined and woven carefully into my own patriotic flag. I've always counted myself among those most appreciative of the sacrifices many have made, but so many more enjoy. The last few weeks have humbled me and helped me realize that appreciation can sometimes never be deep enough.


Took the family to see our local Memorial Day parade and was in awe of the number of people being remembered just in our sleepy town. Young, old, men, women...the posters just stretched on down the road. Each one carrying a name of someone who had stood up for the right for me to be there celebrating their life.


Next I received an email about Cody Green. His is the story that fills evening newscasts across the world really; a young boy stricken with an infection that his doctors just can't cure. The fight had been long and full of courage, but it was nearing an end. But not before a local Marine decided to honor the young man in a way that only a Marine could.


Today's Ingredients

• Terrible news out of Auburn yesterday. LHB has the police press conference addressing the murders.
• NCT looks at the conclusion of another great tennis season in Athens.
• With baseball season also in the rearview, Danny looks at the changes Perno announced in his staff last week.
• Blutarsky has an interesting perspective to look at Aaron Murray from in this post.
• Shaq Wiggins isn't just a UGA commit that is working hard at recruiting other top targets, he's also climbing up the charts. Kimberley takes a closer look at the Sandy Creek HS product.
• Corbindawg throws a pity party for bloggers in Iowa without Chick-Fil-A. Violins are optional.
• Speaking of midwesterners, Paschall welcomes Mizzou (and Texas A&M) to the "stingy SEC".
• Earlier last week Mr. Sanchez found a new website that's fun to click towards. You may want to take a pair of shades though.
• Remember that guy Hale? Well, cheez wiz! He might be joining the Big 12 too.
• An one programming note, our buddy Steve has some great new videos up and ready to look at. Now that I'm off the beach I'll post a look at the 2007 win in Jacksonville tomorrow and then use the other as this week's GATArchive. Stay tuned.

Lastly, I finished reading Unbroken by Laura Hillebrand. Sometimes I think I'm the only person in America that hadn't finished it, but in case you haven't Reader...it's a true story of sacrifice, an amazing series of events in the life of one Louis Zamperini, and an epic tale that brings to life the heroic era of the Greatest Generation. I won't relate the entire story obviously, but I will do two things: 1) suggest implore you to read it yourself, just as my wife did for me, and 2) provide you with this excerpt which is my favorite part:

Louie Zamperini (via)

That afternoon, an American navy man dug through his belongings and pulled out his most secret and precious possession. It was an American flag with a remarkable provenance. In 1941, just before Singapore had fallen to the Japanese, an American missionary woman had given it to a British POW. The POW had been loaded aboard a ship, which had sunk. Two days later, another British POW had rescued the flag from where it lay underwater and slipped it to the American navy man, who had carried it through the entire war, somehow hiding it from the Japanese, until this day. The POWs pulled down the Japanese flag and ran the Stars and Stripes up the pole over Rokuroshi. The men stood before it, hands up in salutes, tears running down their faces.

I can't save America from the hands of nations with ill intent. I can't fill a military uniform with an ounce of the courage and heart it takes to wear it. But I can help my kids understand the importance of honoring those who have, and those who still do.


Have a great Monday Reader.


Bernie

Mustafaa thinks he can Groh more with Grantham

*insert "it ain't over til February" disclaimer*

Superstar pass rusher Naim Mustafaa from Alpharetta became Richt's 20th commitment yesterday when he let the Georgia coaches know he wanted to be a Bulldog instead of a Yellow Jacket. Mustafaa's dad was a Tech cornerback who later went on to a decent NFL career. The kid was considered a lean towards North Avenue.

The benefits of this development are multi-faceted. First and foremost Mustafaa is a prime pass rusher. At 6'4" and 235 lbs, he projects pretty well as an outside threat. He had numerous offers, most of which really started flowing in last season. Georgia's recruitment of Mustafaa reads like a roller coaster. Things cooled as quickly as they heated before Garner reestablished connection and Grantham sealed the deal.

And therein lies the rub. Here's a Tech progeny that should've been a slam dunk for Coach PJ BiggerFish. Mustafaa is made for the 3-4 defense, his dad is a former player and they live just up Hwy 400 from "campus".

Is Al "AARP" Groh an improvement over Wommack, his predecesor? How could he not be really. But he's no match for my kid on NCAA Football. Much less Todd Damn Grantham on a visit to Athens.

*insert "this one's a done deal" pronouncement*

Welcome Mustafaa. Say it again.



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