Clean Old Fashioned Hate - turnovers

I mentioned yesterday the importance of winning time of possession. The fact is that last year we won time of possession against Tech, although the second half was a near 50/50 split.

However, we didn’t protect the football, which is part of the reason why our defense was playing that last Tech drive with their hands on their hips in between plays. Our first three second half possessions went field goal, touchdown, field goal. But the last three went punt, interception, interception. (VIA)

The difference this season is that this team knows how to close a game. The coaches know how to make the adjustments and communicate them effectively to the players.

Plus, Georgia is a decently good +2 on the season in turnover margin, while Tech is -4. (VIA)

A lot of people are poking Tech fans over that loss last weekend to Duke. And yes, it was ugly. But it tells me Johnson will have these enginerds ready to play. There’s no game that means more to him than the last of the season.

But the reality is that we are way too talented to lose to Tech. Protect the football and keep the defense rested and it should be a fun one for us to watch.

Don’t do those things, and we should just prepare to gnash the teeth deep into the fourth quarter.

The deafening silence from Butts-Mehre

Watching the post-game after LSU's win - Les singing before finishing his interview, carried off the field, and then using his press conference as a big ol' "take that chumps" - I could only think about what Butts-Mehre is thinking. Hours later, still no vote of confidence and nary a pink slip.

The coaches will hit the recruiting road soon. Sure would be nice to have something said. Something.

Don't get me wrong. Joe Alleva handled this week about as poorly as an athletic director could. But he and the boosters with knives in their hands knew when it was (finally) time to put them down and allow Miles to enjoy the moment and continue to run the football program.

Seems to me like Richt deserves that much, at a minimum. He just beat Tech for the 13th time in his 15 year career. As MaconDawg pointed out, that's as many times as Tech has won the game in my lifetime.

Don't let the cloud linger through the bowl season. Put on your big boy pants and step in with your alternate plan, or pat Richt on the back and give him a vote of confidence his recruits can have faith in.

Sunday Thoughts on not having the balls to kick it deep

Every mistake made inside the five yard line...every fumble...every missed tackle....every failure to cover a free kick....it was all behind you. Hutson Mason had hit Malcolm Mitchell with just 18 seconds left to give you the lead...over arch rival Georgia Tech.

18 seconds. That was all that was left to erase a myriad of mental mistakes, poor blocking, poor tackling. That was all that was left to seal yet another win over the Yellow Jackets.

And you squibbed it.

Two keys to continue Richt's domination

Because we can all remember a time when Kyle Karempelis was in the game to give Carlton Thomas a rest, tomorrow is about the seniors. These guys helped bring the program from the brink of ineptitude. They turned the ship around and have given it their all. I'll get more personal on this topic later, but for now...thank you!

1. Disciplined defense. Stop the dive. Mind your gap. Tackle like grown damn men.
2. Neutralize their linebackers. Use Chubb et al. to keep them honest and then Mason has to throw over them to keep them guessing.

Bonus: from Robert, "come out of the tunnel like we hate those SOB's and they just cussed our mama."

Erk's Legend of MamboGook

As relayed before...

Erk Russell always had a way with communication. Otherwise "GATA!" would've never been born from GTAA, Georgia Tech Athletic Association. Or whatever the hell.

So when the lesson turned to gap integrity, Erk used this story of Mambo Gook to communicate the importance of being where you're supposed to be, doing what you're supposed to be doing. "If you think you're coming my way, that's the wrong hole brother, because you ain't gonna make nothin' here."

So, with that in mind...as promised.

The "Mambo Gook" story goes like this: A young Georgia Tech engineering graduate had been working in the oil fields of Saudi Arabia for around six months. He was about to go stark raving mad because the only women that he had seen in Arabia were those dressed in the long gowns with the veils covering their faces. The women were not very friendly at all. As a matter of fact, he hadn't spoken to one since he had been working there.

He had been used to the feminine pulchritude of Peachtree Street in Atlanta and missed that scenery and his feminine companionship more than anything else. As he was sitting in the little bar at the golf course there in Saudi Arabia, he happened to be seated next to one of the local sheiks.

This particular sheik had spent some time in the United States and conversed with the young engineer as best he could with the little English he could speak. As they sipped on their drinks the young engineer expressed to the sheik that he liked everything fine, except he really missed the feminine companionship that he once enjoyed back in Atlanta. The sheik could get enough out of the conversation to understand what the young man meant. He promised the engineer that he would have, from his harem, one of his wives waiting for him when he got off from work the following afternoon.

Well, the young engineer hustled and worked through the day. He could hardly wait until quitting time. As he approached his tent, he saw this woman standing out front with her long gowns and veil. He figured that she knew why she was there and he surely knew why she was there, so he wouldn't waste any time. He picked her up right there at the tent flap, rushed her inside, threw her down on the cot and commenced to making wild, passionate love to the woman. Immediately she began to shout, "Mambo Gook," "Mambo Gook." She repeated that over and over and over again. The young engineer figured this was an Arabian expression of ecstasy.

Well, it didn't take too long for the young man to finish the first round and as soon as he relaxed his grasp, the woman still screaming, "Mambo Gook," ran through the tent flap and disappeared across the desert, continuing to scream, "Mambo Gook."

The next day the young engineer and the local sheik had made arrangements to play golf and the young engineer wanted a chance to thank the sheik for his courtesy of having the woman there. As they played the first hole, the sheik hit a magnificent shot, straight to the green, the ball hit, bounced and rolled right into the cup. It was a great golf shot and the young engineer wanted to express the greatness of that shot with something more than the usual, "Nice shot," or, "Great shot." The thought of the Arabian expression of ecstasy occurred to him, and he said, "Mambo Gook, sheik, Mambo Gook.".

The sheik turned to him, looked at him with amazement and said, "What do you mean, wrong hole?"

-  pages 50-51, from Erk: Football, Fans and Friends 

Erk hated Tech, therefore, so do we.

From the words of his players, remembering the greatest college football coach to ever blow a goddamn whistle.

I know I've slacked off this week. But before you leave for Sanford Stadium, make sure you read the Legend of MamboGook, which I'll repost here shortly. 

Erk wanted to beat Tech more than any other. If you can't feel that, please stay home.

Guys like Mac hate Tech, therefore, so do we.

I see you there, wallowing in your own misery. Feeling sorry for yourself because Missouri is going back to Atlanta. Some of you are even mad at Arkansas, even though we were first and goal late against Sakerlina...even though we were up 7-0 in the first quarter in Jacksonville.

Wipe those cheap ass tears dumbass. We've got Tech tomorrow!! Our seniors deserve better than your weak, sniveling, pathetic sobs.

I'm an old guy, but young enough that I need to be reminded of a certain rivalry's importance. Mac was kind enough to oblige.

My love with the Georgia Dawgs began way back in 1957 with me attending my first Georgia football game...I was 8 years old.  Our neighbor would load up his Ford station wagon with some 12-14 boys from Cobb Street and off we would go to Athens.  If you were under 18 years of age, you could get in Sanford Stadium by purchasing a high school student ticket for $1.00...sat in the GG section...the Green Grass hill where the flagpole is today.   Even sat on the railroad tracks a few times. I have been attending UGA games for 57 years...have not missed many...even in my Marine Corps years was able to get to many...once all the way from Okinawa.  In this season of my life, I realize I don't have that many football seasons left...but I will always pull for the Dawgs.

57 years has taught me to dislike Auburn and Florida and South Carolina and Tennessee but I genuinely hate Georgia Tech.  And with my memories of the Tech games...I always think of Coach Erk RUSSELL...G.A.T.A.  and  TUCK FECH...Erk was and will always be the original Damn Good Dawg!!!

That's the key. Time teaches us to hate other football teams. Clean Old Fashioned Hate is born right here in our hearts and grown from Georgia's own red clay.

Go Dawgs!

Finish the Fight

Was way too busy with travel, family, and other personal stuff this week to give the Friday Misery justice. So this last video, a fitting tribute to both the 2014 season as well as the seniors that are about to play in their last game at Sanford, will have to do.

Finish The Fight from Georgia Football on Vimeo.

Go Dawgs! Wreck Tech!

TOUCHDOWN!! MASSAQUOI!!

Tyler is right, Paul Oliver should be remembered as one of the greatest of all bug killers. But today is Mohammed Massaquoi's birthday. What better what to say Happy Birthday than to remember that 2006 drive. Go Dawgs!

Tech to faceplant in Sanford again

Two years ago Tree got medieval on a little pipsqueak. You don't want to miss whatever happens this year. So get your tickets here.

"Boooooo bumblebees! Go Georgia Bulldogs!!"

An important reminder from Gabby, one of the Dawgs' most energetic little cheerleaders.

Clean, old-fashioned Love.

Most of you don't know Erin, but she's one of the blog's original followers. She's married to a good friend of mine and when we see each other she always asks how things are going in this little corner of the internet.

I've known her husband Chris since college, even though we went to school some 60 miles apart. He and I are alike in many ways, both true to our school, avid fans of the respective football teams, and always appreciate a good beer. On one occasion in the mid-90s after drinking too much of some good beer, we nearly came to blows over an argument related to our teams' rivalry. His brother Jim was kind enough (and just sober enough) to break it up.

Chris, Erin and their little boy Alex are my favorite Georgia Tech fans. And so when I received word yesterday that Erin is in a fight for her life, I reminisced on the days when the only people that read my words here were people I actually knew. Then I promptly set aside any earthly rivalry, bent my knee and prayed.

Some things are bigger than football. Much. So I humbly ask that at some point during the commencement of the yearly tradition of verbal barbs, online insults, and other words filled with venom, please also take a moment to send a good thought, a prayer, or just a moment of reflection for these good people and the doctors and nurses in Erin's care.

Thanks.

"WHATS THE GOOD WORD?"...Obsession

Yesterday I offered some pretty raw initial thoughts on the annual renewal of Clean Ol' Fashioned Hate. I then spent nearly twelve hours in a car...in the rain and the cold...with three female bladders.

Are we there yet?

So all I'm saying is I had some time to think, and pray for Murray and Scott-Wesley's knees. And avoid dipshits who drink pepsi. I practically wrote friday's misery in my head in the 236 miles it takes to traverse NC in a vehicle on I85...in the rain...and the cold...okay, we've done that already.

Today I just want to ask you not to sink to the bees' hive mind. I get the hate and the ill will and the bad feelings. I wanna beat them like a drum. I was there when Kanon Parkman's knuckler found the air between the goalposts and it was the biggest win I had experienced (at the time). But just listening to people in our neighborhoods and across fence posts and reading the social media trash talk, you come to understand that the nerds are far more obsessed with this game than we are. 

I believe as Dawg fans we are invested in Clean Ol' Fashioned Hate. And I know our team is. Even us old folks that grew up with this game meaning so much. We only have to hate them for a week or so. But they are pathologically obsessed with UGA. They spend an entire year...no!, Check that!...a lifetime hating us. It's both sad and comical really. They're cute the way they get worked up into a lather over ignoring Reuben Houston and exaggerating scooter transgressions and insisting they are the more academic lot. Cute!

I just say, thank God we have a coach that knows how to prepare his team for a little brother with a napoleon complex. Thankful that when a nerd buzzes in my ear I can just point to the absurdly lop-sided series record and realize a life outside of stingtalk and my parents' basement.

Now I'm off to celebrate another year of being awesome and to give thanks for friends and family. Perhaps I'll make a wish that Reuben earns that extra time in the yard, or that they all can learn to ride actual bikes instead of tricycles, or learn to block like a man instead of diving at opponents' knees, or that their school will change its color from piss yellow to something more fitting of a program that once had Heisman himself on payroll...

Nah. I'll just wish for the same thing I always do - another win at Historic Mark Richt Field. Go Dawgs!

Hate week - sexy nerdy time!

Tradition.

Presented without comment....except that this is probably the same guy that's spouting off about fictitious higher academic standards and pretending the North Ave Trade School has never, never ever, never ever ever had a football player arrested and complaining that his mother's tater tots are too cold dammit!! and his character on World of Warcraft could "sooooo rush for a trillion billion yards against Alabama's defense AND Georgia's AT THE SAME TIME!!" and wearing a depends diaper because that increases his "productivity" on Stingtalk and then "OMGHERD!!! PAUL JOHNSON ACCEPTED MY FRIEND REQUEST!!! #theMigration" and "we're going to beat thUGA like it's 2010...oops!, I mean 2008 cuz that's when we beat them so bad by three points OMG I'm gonna write that on Coach Johnson's wall!!" and then it's 10 am and it's time to get ready to clock in at Kinko's....

...before coming home drunk on Mountain Dew and 5hr Energys and doing shit like this...

Sunday Thoughts on Wrecksgiving Day

Georgia Tech is not a very good team. But that doesn't take anything away from the Nerd Fry we saw yesterday.

Flag boy no match for Tree.

• Bacarri Rambo had the play of the game getting the ball out as Tech was marching early in the first quarter. That kind of set the tone right there: nothing was going to come easy for the Yellow Jackets. Rambo finished with two forced fumbles and a pick, which gave him his 16th career interception and tied him with Jake Scott's all time mark.
• Another terrific game for Bobo, Murray, Gurshall and the offense as a whole. Come to think of it, scoring 63 seconds into the game off a four play drive pretty much set the tone for the day.
• Gurley and Marshall each went for two scores and 163 yards combined. Gurley needs just two more rushing touchdowns to break Herschel's freshman mark set back in 1980.
• DickSamIV....all Dawg. And your money is never needed in Athens. (fistbump)

All in all Georgia Tech was clearly out-matched. When Tree came off the snap clean he was practically a one man wrecking crew, ending the game with 15 total tackles. The physicality was good to see heading into our biggest challenge of the season.

Now, the rest of this isn't going to be easy to stomach if you're a student.

The Paint Line called for a blackout. I supported that because 1) it didn't involve a costume change for the players and a gulp of fake juice going against a 6-5 team, and 2) anything that helps get the students/fans in the seats on time is alright by me.

Unfortunately, a large number of students didn't bother coming at all. They were neither on time to cheer on their senior players in their last game at Sanford, nor in the stands at all as Aaron Murray became the only SEC quarterback to pass for 3000 yards in consecutive seasons.

Show me all the calendars with Thanksgiving so close to the game all you want. Cry me a river about family obligations and holidays and dorm rooms and a crappy opponent and noon kickoffs. I don't give a shit. You failed. Those of you that were there should be ashamed of your classmates and I'm very sorry that you're getting lumped into this. You deserve better.

But more importantly, so did the seniors. And so did this team.

Tech - what to look for

If you have a ticket in hand, there's no reason not to be in Sanford early today to tip your hat and heart to these seniors that have poured theirs into the program. Don't meet me there, beat me there!

• Gurshall early and often. At least early I would expect to see a lot of 3 and 4 to test this Tech defense and grind out some yards. Eventually they might break a long one, but giving their defensive counterparts a break form the on field action early will help us to be more physical as the game wears on.
• In the third quarter we dominated Southern's offense and quickly imposed our will by taking them out of their element. Can that be replicated earlier in this game?
• Physical on the edges. Our safeties and corners will need to bring the wood out there and lay some nerd asses out. If you know what I mean.
• Can these special teams officially trend upward? We've had a good couple weeks in the kicking game. We should outmatch the Yellow Jackets on both sides of the ball in terms of the line of scrimmage and the playmakers. The special teams can both complement that and put the nail in their coffin.

Friday Misery - Birthday at Little Bighorn

It’s hate week, so…has Reuben Houston sold Joe Hamilton any weed today?

Of North Ave. and vomit

Yesterday on twitter I got a little nostalgic. The year was 1995. My first UGA diploma was still somewhat fresh in hand only two years old and the Dawgs were invading “historic” Grant Field on Thanksgiving Day one last time. Ray Goff was nearing his end and had helped the team endure some key injuries. Tech was still acting like a friggin' 12 year old over their shared national title five years prior…OMG that was the best team ever and those mutts were delivering our pizza while we celebrated from our dad’s basement!!!1

Turkey carcass, or tech secondary?

We watched as senior kicker Kanon Parkman set up to kick a winning field goal, just as he’d done four years earlier as a freshman, My God!. The snap was good and the hold was true. But the kick was about the ugliest thing you could imagine. I swear it never lifted higher than Coach Goff’s signature ball cap, maybe even lower than his horn rimmed glasses. It wobbled a lot more than it spun. Its magnificence was only confined by its aim, which was true. Kanon’s leg was dead on. It knuckled its way to Glory! I jumped victoriously and sent a heartfelt thanks towards the Heavens...

...then sprinted my happy ass to the truck, jumped in and hustled my way towards some Thanksgiving leftovers. Shortly after escaping Atlanta’s city limits however my stomach began to rumble. The wings I’d had the night before were making their own comeback. I pulled over and left a roadside offering of the food poisoning variety. And by the time I had driven the 300+ miles I was hardly in the mood for turkey and dressing.

But still…I drifted off smiling. Dawgs 18 nerds 17. Holy shit it sucks to be an engiNerd.

This year’s candles

I was born to despise Tech.  Legend has it that on the day I was born Tech sucked even more than on the day before. So it has become my obligation, one of my greatest pleasures in life to hate the wrambled wreck. Every year since that historic day when I took my first breath, looked the doctor in the eye and said “Jasper’s knee will be down goddamnit!”…I have celebrated my birthday in part by blowing out candles towards Georgia Tech’s ineptness, their inability to tackle, their cute little offense, and their eternal virginity.

Custer was Chantastic!

It’s not a task I enter into lightly. When family and friends watch the smoke clear and ask, “Bernie, what’d you wish for?” I simply reply, “Same as every year.” And then later that day, or later in the week, as the time drains from the clock I can simply point to the scoreboard and smile.

Most years that is. There is the occasional Georgia Tech win, that may or may not be vacated. There is the occasional year when our Dawgs are not up to the challenge of my birthday cake’s adornment. They waste a lead and therefore waste my breath. Consequently, my wish is lost like a Jim Donnan gameplan. Or it’s stolen by Al Ford and thrown in the dirt. JASPER WAS DOWN GODDAMNMIT!!!

Despite those hiccups…those fleeting moments of epic nerdom…this series is about as one sided as Custer at Little Bighorn. The candles on the cake put up more of a fight than the teams Tech sends onto the football field. And that's why wishes can come true when your birthday is around the same time as mine. 

Dawgs on top. Wear black. See you in Athens!

Flashback: 1981 beatdown

With commentary from Coach Dooley and the legendary Larry Munson, Dawg19 gives us this epic beatdown of the engiNerds in 1981...44-0!

Bullpups of yesteryear

Pretty cool bit of history that may be news for some of you younger Dawgs. For the rest of us it's a ood reminder of the way things were.

Baby Bullpups vs. Baby Jackets

Flashback: 2004 Tech Fail

For those down moments during the day when you're in between the turkey and the pumpkin pie...for your viewing pleasure.

h/t Dawg19