This is some pretty damning stuff about the insular culture at Penn State under Joe Paterno. In the context of the past month, it provides an understanding (though certainly not an excuse) of why even the gravest of crimes and behavior would be handled behind closed doors.
Much of the rationale behind the Penn State culture probably doesn’t sound all that foreign to fans of college athletics. Here are a few de-personalized excerpts:
The cops would call me, and I used to put them in bed in my house and run their rear ends off the next day. Nobody knew about it. That’s the way we handled it.
“(The football coach) would rather we NOT inform the public when a football player is found responsible for committing a serious violation of the law and/or our student code despite any moral or legal obligation to do so.”
(The football coach) felt that “it should be his call if someone should practice and play in athletics.” He said (the coach) felt the school had “overreacted” by deciding to allow reporting of off-campus incidents, and that the NCAA had gone “overboard” with new rules on academic-eligibility requirements.
You won’t have to look far to find support for those positions around your favorite team and its fans. Are the local cops overbearing? Would this all be better settled with a few 5 a.m. sessions of running stadiums? Is it time to draw the line on admissions committees and higher entrance standards?
It might look like a stretch to go from internalizing traffic tickets and tattoos to the kinds of things alleged at Penn State. Michael Elkon had an interesting piece a couple of weeks ago pointing out that it might not be that far of a leap. He suggests “that athletic departments at major universities are places where the default response to any wrongdoing is to try to handle it in-house and to avoid reporting it to the appropriate authorities.”
That’s probably true of a lot of organizations, especially those with a cult of personality where those charged with oversight have a stake in that cult. College athletics, argues Elkon, are particularly susceptible to “ignoring reality” because they’re already so adept at rationalizing the hypocrisies of amateurism and academic standards.
To that end, it helps if the decision-making can be decentralized to remove or reduce the temptation to abuse authority. Georgia is as at-risk as anyone for falling victim to this culture; just look at Damon Evans’ reaction to getting pulled over last year. Jan Kemp is no fan favorite, and the fallout from her case took years to overcome. It’s often a point of contention among fans, but many decisions have, by design, been taken out of the coach’s hands at Georgia. We’ve lost NFL-quality players to the admissions committee. Discipline for drug/alcohol-related incidents are mandated by the university and the athletic department.
There’s always a risk for those controls and systems to break down, especially if pressure can be brought from powerful coaches, boosters, or administrators. Often those left to make the decisions are villified, and it’s reasonable to expect that anyone who blew the whistle at Penn State might have been run out of town. We might not like the (relative) transparency and its short-term consequences, but operating that way does do a little to stave off bigger – and in the extreme case of Penn State, tragic – problems.
Larry Munson died at his Athens home Sunday night with complications from pneumonia, his son Michael said through UGA.
Shelving what I was writing about the Kentucky game. Can’t think about yesterday or anything else right now. Prayers are with Larry, Michael, and the rest of the Munson family. As private of a man as he was, there is no more public symbol of what it means to be a Georgia fan.
Due to unclaimed UGA student tickets, a limited number of tickets to this Saturday’s football game vs. Coastal Carolina are on sale to the general public…
Due to unclaimed UGA student tickets, a limited number of tickets to this Saturday’s football game vs. Mississippi State will go on sale to the general public…
Whatever the reasons, Georgia students have left tickets on the table for at least half of the games this year. There’s even an incentive to make sure that tickets get used or at least donated back into a pool for redistribution.
An unused ticket on a student account will result in a one point penalty “strike.” Three strikes in a given season deem that student ineligible for post season tickets (SEC Championship and bowl tickets) and the following season’s tickets.
For many students, the first SEC East title they’ve experienced in their time at Georgia is up for grabs. It’s also an opportunity to honor the seniors that have led the program back. It’s unfortunate that the students won’t show up in full force for a game of this magnitude – yes, even at noon and even against a bad Kentucky team. This isn’t what I want to be talking about before such a significant game and accomplishment, but it’s hard to ignore.
Of course not all students are apathetic. The ones who have shown up this year have been enthusiastic and vocal. It might just be a matter of there being too many tickets in the first place. As of 2008, roughly 18,000 seats were reserved for students, and I would expect the current number to be similar. Student seating includes parts of the West endzone and much of the northeast upper and lower decks. Greg McGarity should look at that allotment in the offseason and compare it to actual usage. Fans have recently had to pay in the four figures for new renewable season tickets, and a few more tickets added to that pool could ease some of the surplus demand.
There are ready-made excuses. The opponents suck. The games are too early. It’s Thanksgiving Break (although the dorms remain open until Sunday.) None of those excuses applied a week ago. Even with the biggest home game of the year, a national television broadcast, and a 3:30 start time, guess which sections were still half-full just minutes before kickoff against Auburn?
If you were in an elevator and went 20 flights up and the doors opened up to Hell……that would be UK Football right now.
Truth be told, I believe most of us would rather see Georgia win the East than Steve Superior.
I would never take pleasure in a UK loss but the fact that losing to UofG would ensure Visor Boy and USC wouldnt win the East would take some sting out of the loss. I absolute abhore Visor Boy. I enjoy anything that takes that smug smirk off of his face.
So many directions we could go after such a complete and enjoyable win Saturday. We’ll let others guide our thoughts…
“We’ll see how Georgia plays when they know they have to win. I have a feeling something good is going to happen to us.” – Steve Spurrier, following South Carolina’s win over Florida
Spurrier was right and wrong. Yes, his team’s win earlier in the day and their solid 6-2 SEC record meant that Georgia absolutely had to win its final two conference games in order to advance to the SEC Championship. They would get no more help from the Gamecocks. But what Spurrier missed was that Georgia has played knowing it must win ever since that disappointing night in early September. The program and its coach have been in a must-win situation for almost a year now.
“We all knew how important this game was; we hear what everyone says…You can say you’re not thinking about it, but deep down you know what’s at stake.” – Aaron Murray after the win over Florida
So if Spurrier was trying to apply the screws, he’s late to the party. Pressure is the normal condition for any major program, but the urgency at Georgia has been especially intense since the disappointing 2010 season ended on a stormy day in Memphis. That’s not necessarily a bad thing. The survival instinct that kicked in led the staff to make some difficult but unavoidable changes behind the scenes. As Georgia imposed their will in the second half, I couldn’t help but think about the choices made and the work done in the offseason.
“We’re OK on the run game…” – Gene Chizik, discussing his defense in his interview heading into halftime
Chizik was pleased with his run defense after the first half, but he lamented Georgia’s success on the downfield passes to the outside. True enough, Georgia struck often in the first half on back shoulder routes to the outside that were almost stop routes. Georgia hit one of these routes at the end of the Florida game, and they served Murray well again. Auburn almost always over-ran the routes even when, as illustrated by the CBS crew, there was another layer of coverage over the top.
Chizik’s confidence in his run defense was short-lived. The Bulldogs were successful running the ball right from their first possession of the second half. As a result, Auburn was limited to four drives in the second half. That’s not a good place to be when you’re down four scores to begin with. Georgia’s success on the ground meant that every Auburn drive had to produce points, and of course not one of them did.
The gold standard for soul-crushing drives remains the 11-minute monster that ended the 2002 Ole Miss game, but this weekend gave us something even better: three drives – all 10 plays or more and averaging nearly six and half minutes each. The Dawgs held the ball for over 21 of the 30 minutes of the second half. It might’ve been more entertaining to put up 50 or 60 points, but the act of watching Georgia run over and over for the entire half was thoroughly satisfying.
“I thought I went deaf for a second there.” – Bacarri Rambo describing the noise following his interception returned for a touchdown
I was trying to think of a moment when I’ve heard Sanford Stadium louder. It’s tough. We can debate decibels, but it was one of those electrifying moments we’ve only had a couple of times in the past few years. There was no uniform gimmick. There was no coordinated celebration, just a spontaneous moment of enthusiasm after Rambo’s score.
It was a similar scene last year when Justin Houston scooped up a Tech fumble and scored. Houston’s score opened up a 14-point margin on the Yellow Jackets, and Sanford was rocking. But Georgia couldn’t maintain the momentum, and we were soon back in a one-point game. It was a similar scene against South Carolina earlier this year. Every good play was matched with a catastrophic turnover or breakdown that led to points and, ultimately, to the loss.
I won’t declare all that in the past because we’re only a couple of weeks removed from some pretty big momentum-killers against Vandy and Florida. For one night at least Georgia not only took advantage of opportunities to gain momentum; they also responded on those few occasions when momentum might be lost or even shifted back to Auburn. It started early with a strong response to Auburn’s lone touchdown. Murray was at his best, engineering a drive on which he went 5-for-5. His third down completion to a tightly-covered Orson Charles was placed perfectly, and the touchdown pass to Bennett was as good of a throw and catch as you’ll see.
Georgia remained stingy with what they allowed Auburn. There were no kickoff returns of note – itself a noteworthy accomplishment. Auburn didn’t have a chance at an onside kick after the first quarter. Georgia abandoned any notion of returning punts and gaining field position with their punt-safe defense, but that was the trade-off for closing the door on any potential fake punt. The Georgia defense also held firm after Crowell’s fumbles. Georgia scored 14 points after Auburn turnovers; Georgia’s turnovers turned out to be nothing more than speed bumps.
“You’ve got to make plays on defense this day and age. You’ve got to go stop people. To do that, you’ve got to attack them, be relentless in your effort and prepare during the week. If you do that, you have a chance to go make plays.” – Defensive coordinator Todd Grantham
In a game full of so many big moments, you can’t really say the game turned on any one of them. Some are subtle: a favorable spot on Georgia’s very first series kept the opening scoring drive alive. Others are obvious: Rambo’s interception broke the game open. Though the game was already 35-7 at this point, I really liked what happened just before and just after halftime. If you go back to last year, this was the point in the game where Auburn flipped things in their favor. Trailing 21-14, they tied it up inside of a minute left in the second quarter. The Tigers executed and recovered an onside kick to start the second half, and soon Georgia was the team playing from behind. It was a huge 14-point swing that turned the game.
Late in the first half on Saturday, Drew Butler shanked a punt into the Georgia sideline (‘sup wid dat?). Auburn suddenly had their best field position since their scoring drive and an opportunity to grab a shred of momentum before regrouping at halftime. As Grantham exhorted, Georgia’s defense got the stop and didn’t even yield a first down. The Dawgs also held on the other side of halftime. The kickoff was a touchback. Auburn got 17 yards on one of Dyer’s few productive runs of the night, but Auburn’s attempt to open the second half with a score ended there. Georgia forced a punt and began to dictate exactly how the second half would go. Though Georgia’s drive stalled and ended with a short field goal, the Dawgs made it clear that there would be no huge swing of momentum in Auburn’s favor this year.
“We’ll hold out a little hope, but Georgia is playing awfully well now. You always have some hope. That’s a game we have no control over, so we’re not going to worry about it.” – Steve Spurrier, on his team depending on a Kentucky win over Georgia
We’ll be magnanimous and let Coach Spurrier have the final word. He’s right: Georgia’s job is unfinished. Kentucky might be the SEC equivalent of a two-foot putt, but it’s still a shot that has to be made. It wasn’t nearly against the same odds, but two years ago Kentucky left Athens with their first win at Georgia since 1977. Part of my enjoyment Saturday night was the realization that Spurrier had to sit there and watch it, and hopefully he’ll have an equally-enjoyable viewing experience this Saturday.
The start times for the November 12th games have been announced by the SEC. CBS will have both chapters of a pivotal day in the SEC East. They’ll have the noon game in Columbia featuring Florida’s visit to South Carolina.
Then at 3:30 CBS will broadcast Auburn’s trip to Georgia.
The decision by CBS means that Georgia will know by kickoff exactly what they must do in their final two conference games. If South Carolina beats Florida, Georgia must beat both Auburn and Kentucky in order to win the East. If Florida wins, the Dawgs will know that they can clinch the division outright with a win over Auburn.
With pretty much every Georgia tailback headed to a one-game suspension or to the injured list, we’re faced with the practical challenge of fielding a running game this weekend. The good news is that Georgia is up against the nation’s 111th-best rushing defense rather than an SEC foe. Hopefully the line can create holes that random members of the Alumni Band could run through. But in terms of who will actually carry the ball, reports have focused on these three options. It’s not a stretch to imagine all three being used at some point.
1) Stick with the tailbacks on the roster
Brandon Harton and Kyle Karempelis are the two tailbacks on the roster who could see playing time. Harton is a former walk-on, and Karempelis still is. Neither are especially big guys (5’6″ and 5’9″, respectively.) We’re more familiar with Harton – he had some carries in garbage time against Coastal Carolina.
2) Use the fullbacks
Ogletree and Figgins haven’t carried the ball much, if at all, this year, but they’d be an option to run the ball especially in short-yardage situatins.
3) Look to other positions
Here’s where the fun starts for those of us playing fantasy coach. There are plenty of talented guys on the team who would love a shot at carrying the ball. It’s not likely to be someone from elsewhere on offense. Receivers are thin enough as it is, especially with Mitchell still out. They’re also not likely to waste the redshirt season of someone who hasn’t played yet. So we look to the other side of the ball. A couple have already carried the ball this year. Rambo has been an effective option quarterback for the scout team; we know he can run the ball.
Of the names fans and media are throwing out over the past day, one name – Nick Marshall – intrigues me the most. Follow my thinking here:
I’d be hesistant to use a front line defensive player on all but a couple of carries. You don’t want to risk losing Boykin, Smith, and Rambo if the game can be won with other players. Even Swann is seeing more time on defense, so I’d hesitate to pull him over.
Marshall has already burned his redshirt.
The coaches have already considered Marshall on offense. I know this is mostly offseason recruiting bluster, but Marshall’s possible use in a “Wild Dawg” look was a topic back in May.
Marshall, though a defensive back now, was an accomplished running quarterback in high school who would be comfortable running the ball. This isn’t high school, but it’s not as if he’s going up against Alabama’s run defense on Saturday.
If Marshall gains some experience on Saturday, this needn’t be a one-game experiment. With Samuel down for a while, there’s still a need at tailback going forward.
Most everyone’s thoughts are on the game in Jacksonville, but Georgia’s basketball teams will start their seasons with exhibition games next week. The teams will open the season with a double-header on Friday November 11th (the day before the Auburn football game). We’ll have season previews soon, but for now here’s information about the free exhibitions.
The Lady Dogs and Bulldogs get their 2011-12 basketball seasons underway with exhibition games next week. Admission to both exhibition games is free and all seating is general admission.
Tuesday, November 1 Lady Dogs vs. West Georgia tip-off 7:00p.m.
Friday, November 4 Bulldogs vs. Morehouse tip-off 7:00p.m.
Stegeman Coliseum gates will open 1 hour prior to tip-off of all home games this season, beginning with the exhibition games.
Get healthy. Both Georgia and Florida enjoyed bye weeks last week, and both expect some key contributors to return from the list of the injured. Georgia fans are nervously watching every tidbit about Malcom Mitchell’s hamstring, and Florida plans to have their first-string quarterback. The Dawgs should be as healthy as they’ve been in a while, and they welcome back a first-string linebacker. The big question though is how the healed players will hold up. Will Brantley’s ankle survive a couple of hits? Will Mitchell be able to trust his hamstring at full speed on his deep routes? Can Crowell make it through a game?
Get a hold of yourself. The takeway from the Vandy game wasn’t what happened postgame. It’s that the team, and the defense in particular, couldn’t keep its composure against Vanderbilt. Georgia hasn’t even faced their three biggest rivals. The Dawgs will be poked and prodded for the rest of the season to see if those opponents can’t gain the same edge that Vanderbilt realized. We want the defense to play with emotion, get fired up, and even be a little angry. It’s a fine line – the Dawgs were on the right side of it after the pre-game barking with Mississippi State. It went a little differently at Vanderbilt. The Florida game brings its own emotions and tension. Whether you’re talking about frustration over the streak or digging up indignation over an eye gouge or dancing in the endzone, there’s no shortage of potential powder kegs. It starts with the coaches: Grantham’s fire needs to have a laser focus. He doesn’t have to match the other sideline in the unhinged department.
There’s another angle on composure, and it’s summed up well in this post. Aaron Murray still struggles with slow starts, and that continued with a 3-for-9 start at Vanderbilt before the offense got humming. Murray recovered to throw for 313 yards and lead Georgia’s comeback, but the slow start meant that the Bulldogs played from behind for much of the game. He was a freshman making his first start in his home state, so it’s reasonable that he was overexcited. Offense has come at a premium for Georgia in this series, and they’ll need Murray to be at his best out of the gate. Florida is dead-last in the SEC in turnover margin, but Bulldog turnovers have been one of the bigger stories in the past three meetings. If the beards live on for another week, the Dawgs should be in good shape.
Get in the endzone. We’ve pounded on the lack of offense in Jacksonville for years. Last year was a rarity in the series: Georgia managed to put a fair number of points on the board and still lost. Georgia has scored at least 20 points in every SEC game this year, but Florida will be one of the better defenses they’ve faced. Even in these lean years, Georgia has done well when scoring at least 24 points in Jacksonville. Key will be finishing scoring opportunities. Settling for early field goals has left Georgia with some uncomfortably close finishes against South Carolina, Tennessee, and Vanderbilt. A windy forecast on Saturday is just one more reason to hope that the Dawgs have better results getting 7 instead of 3.
Get rid of the excuses.Bernie has a good point here. Of course it matters in terms of preparation and strategy who Florida puts under center. But almost every year Georgia fans cling to some sort of talisman that will reverse the trend in Jacksonville. Just wait ’til {Lito | Taylor | Wuerffel | Spurrier | Tebow | Urban} is gone. It’s the nature of lopsided rivalries – we’ll take any perceived hope we can get. Now it’s Brantley. Forget about it, and just play ball.
This is best left to the professionals, but it’s worth keeping an eye on – no pun intended.
There is a strong hurricane – Rina – in the northwestern Caribbean forecast to become a major (Category 3) storm within a day. The current forecast is for the storm, albeit a good bit weaker, to be around the Cuba / Florida Keys area by the weekend. Important: none of the computer models are calling for the storm to come anywhere near Jacksonville. Still, tropical systems can have effects hundreds of miles from their center, so any change in the track, size, and intensity of Rina could have an impact on the game or your travel plans. That looks to be a remote possibility right now, and the National Weather Service out of Jacksonville isn’t very concerned yet.
When Sturdivant went down in the spring with his third ACL injury since 2008, it was assumed his playing career at Georgia was over. But Sturdivant told the Red & Black that there is “nearly ‘a 100 percent chance'” that he will return. Sturdivant, who has slimmed down to 255 lb. from his playing weight, would like to return to the team not as an offensive lineman but as a tight end.
Georgia’s tight end position in 2012 looks about as deep as it does this year. Aron White will be gone, but redshirting freshman Jay Rome will be ready to go. Orson Charles might return for his senior season, and Artie Lynch isn’t going anywhere. Sturdivant sees a potential role as “one of the blockers of the bunch.”
It’s not out of the realm of possibilities for a former offensive lineman to have the athleticism to play other positions. Michael Lewis in The Blind Side discussed how left tackles have evolved, by necessity, to become some of the more athletic players on their teams. Many, like Lewis’s subject Michael Oher, were basketball standouts. Sturdivant believes that he has the hand-eye coordination to be an effective tight end that does more than just block.
Given the recent attrition, it’s not really a numbers concern. Georgia should be able to welcome back Sturdivant while signing a full class. He’ll have to apply for a medical exemption that would grant him a sixth year of eligibility, but he’s the classic case for such an exemption. The real question is whether this is a wise move. With three major knee surgeries in his past, does he need to push his luck coming back one more time at a position at which the Dawgs will already have plenty of talent?
Sturdivant, already a graduate of the Terry College of Business, has plans to attend law school. His future should be bright with or without football. He still has to talk to Georgia’s coaches about his plans. It will be a long shot for him to get on the field, but he seems set on the idea. If that’s the case, we hope he has the opportunity to come back and go out next year with his final memory in Athens a win over Georgia Tech rather than crumpled to the ground on the practice field.
We weren’t planning on going to this game, but an opportunity presented itself, and we were off on a wild hair Saturday morning. I’m glad we went; it’s always good to be able to support the Dawgs in person. Nashville is always one of our favorite trips, and it didn’t disappoint.
It’s easy to see why the lights went out in the second quarter. All of the juice in the area was going to power that awful sound system. I’ve been to games inside domes, and I’ve seen games from Neyland to the Swamp to LSU’s Death Valley…I’ve never had a bigger headache after a game than from listening to the strident and distorted sound coming from those frat house-quality speakers.
I’m convinced that some of our fans could find a way to blame Vandy’s kickoff return touchdown on Mike Bobo. Georgia scored 33 points and had a good shot at 40. Murray and the passing game operated well against a dangerous secondary, and the Dawgs were able to put enough points on the board despite a bizarre tailback situation.
Speaking of tailbacks, I’m still trying to find out what happened to Carlton Thomas. He had some nice runs in the first quarter and then…nothing. If he was among the injured, I’m having a heck of a time finding that news. (UPDATE: It looks as if it was an injury.) Did I think before the season that I’d be wondering why Carlton Thomas didn’t get more carries? No, I did not. And I guess Malcome was brought along to look good on the sideline?
My only problem with the offense was on the last series. I don’t question running the ball three times; Georgia was able to run the clock down to 15 seconds. But if Samuel does one thing well, it’s straight-ahead power running. The dumb substitution penalty that started the series was bad enough, but three runs out of the shotgun asked a north-south runner to search for holes several yards behind the line of scrimmage. Why not put him behind a wham formation with Lynch and Ogletree in the backfield, and see how far we can move the pile?
Considering that Vanderbilt blitzed much more often than not, pass protection was solid. Murray took a few shots but usually got the right pass off. Crowell deserves his share of credit for standing in there and doing his role despite his numerous injuries. He had key blocks on Murray’s two second quarter touchdowns, and on the tape you’ll see Richt make it a point to let Crowell know about it.
Murray did get off to another slow start though. He started the game just 3-of-9, but he at least avoided bad mistakes or forcing throws. After that scoring strike to King broke the ice, Murray finished by completing 19 of his final 29 passes. That’s a positive, but it’s also something to keep in mind for the next game: a slow start and an early interception in Jacksonville meant that Georgia was playing from behind pretty much the entire game.
Once he got going, Murray did well to spread it around. It had to take some pressure off of both of them to finally connect with King for a score. The Vandy fan near us was beside himself with how often Bennett found space. And Brown – good for two scores and nearly a third. If he keeps it up, you can add back in Mitchell and Wooten and have a nice set of receivers.
Yes, it would have been nice to have a few more passes to the tight ends, but with Vandy blitzing so much it was often necessary to have that extra protection. The attempted wheel route to White was a good idea, but the defender just didn’t bite. From the reaction on the field, perhaps the tailback didn’t do the best job selling it. Charles did catch five passes.
Three of Murray’s incompletions came on what should be some of his easiest throws: throws behind the line of scrimmage. His first attempt was tipped into the air and nearly intercepted. Another was just barely tipped and landed at King’s feet. A third was a little flare to Crowell – though he’s caught several screens and downfield passes, has Crowell caught one of those flare passes this year?
Had Vandy converted that ugly onside kick attempt in the second quarter, we’d be looking at a very rare special teams cycle: the punt block, the TD return, the successful fake, and the successful onside kick. With poor kickoff coverage in years past, we had a convenient scapegoat in Fabris. With special teams responsibilities spread out among the coaching staff, how can you explain so many things going wrong at once? And after a scoring drive that included a fake punt and a halfback pass, how many people didn’t expect another trick play on the ensuing kickoff?
Are they still considered trick plays if they can be reasonably expected to work?
I’ll give Vandy credit for the fake punt: you don’t see many center-eligible plays. It also helped that the guy who became responsible for covering the pass was a walk-on receiver. Maybe that’s part of the problem with the success of some of these trick plays. Georgia’s special teams stars are generally good at what they’re trained to do, but on a fake you suddenly have a walk-on trying to stop someone like Melvin Ingram. You might’ve noticed that Georgia’s defense remained on the field for Vanderbilt’s next punt.
I’m less understanding about Georgia’s blocked punt. With a timeout to set the protection and aware of the certainty that Vandy would attempt the block, Georgia had no business doing anything but keeping all ten players not named Butler in for protection. At that spot on the field, Butler could have kicked it out of the endzone. Though Georgia ultimately escaped, those kinds of plays and breakdowns can be cement shoes for embattled coaches.
Georgia’s defense didn’t suddenly get bad or get exposed. They did lose their cool, but there was no fatal flaw that leaves you dreading the future. They defended the pass well and got good pressure. There were some really nice things going on. Abry Jones made several big plays – two of them in what could be considered pass coverage. Shawn Williams, despite a couple of dumb penalties, was playing out of his mind. Ray Drew was effective playing with his hand on the ground in more or less the role of a 4-3 defensive end. And when it came down to it, the defense made the stop they had to make when everything else had gone wrong.
A lot of people are looking for recent analogues for this outcome. We escaped Vandy in 2007. Or maybe it was more like the Ole Miss game with the big plays and trick plays keeping it close. Or it was like ugly games last year that were close losses instead of narrow escapes. I don’t disagree with any of that, but it really reminded me a lot of the South Carolina game. You had the early drives ending in field goal attempts rather than touchdowns. The opponent hung close with a fake punt. Without an alert play by Butler, the fake punt nearly became the Clowney sack that all but beat Georgia back in September.
Finally, let me whine about this. It’s the most firstworldwhitepeople problem ever, but being unable to turn off 3G makes the new iPhone pretty useless at an event of any size, even a smallish-SEC game.
Just so you remember…
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