Happy 40th to Dooley's JYDs

Today is a special date in Georgia football history (especially considering the Bulldogs will likely need a Junkyard Dog-like defensive performance this Saturday to beat the Gators): the 40th anniversary of the official release of “Dooley’s Junkyard Dogs.”

If you're a UGASports.com subscriber, you can read the rest of my story regarding October 29, 1975.

Although not the original tune, I discovered the extended vinyl version of "Dooley’s Junkyard Dogs," and then set the more than six minutes of the song to highlights of Georgia’s 1975 defense—the original Junkyard Dogs:

Gator Hatin' Herschel

It's Gator hatin' week... And, there has never been a Bulldog better at hatin', or dominatin' Florida than the legendary Herschel Walker.

Herschel was at his best when facing the Gators. His 649 combined rushing yards in three games versus Florida (1980-1982) was the most Walker gained against the eight common opponents he faced during his tenure at Georgia. Herschel averaged 5.5 yards per carry against the Gators, and also scored eight touchdowns.

The 48 points Herschel scored against Florida remains tied with Georgia's Charley Trippi (1942, 1945-1946) for the most points scored all time in this series, ranking just ahead of Florida's Tim Tebow, who scored 42 from 2006 through 2009.

Speaking of Herschel's career Cocktail Party points, in order, here's every Gator-hatin' 48 of them:  

Forgotten Gators

The "truth" there was a Georgia-
Florida game in 1904. But, apparently,
the Gators can't handle the truth!

An edited re-post of mine from several years ago regarding an era of Florida football which has been disregarded and forgotten by the Gators...

I'm sure like many of you, I've known for quite some time that there is a discrepancy between Georgia and Florida regarding the series record; the Bulldogs declare they have a 50-41-2 advantage while the Gators claim to trail 41-49-2.  The one meeting in dispute was played in 1904 in Macon by a Florida squad, which evidently is not acknowledged by the school as a "true" Gators team. 

Simply, the University of Florida does not recognize any football results prior to the school's move  to Gainesville from Lake City beginning with the 1906-07 academic year.  This means the five Florida football teams from 1901 to 1905, all located in Lake City, are disregarded in the team's history.

Although, just prior to the 1903 football season, the school at Lake City began referring to itself as the "University of Florida," and so the press did as well from that point going forward.  That year, the Florida football team won one of three games. The next season in 1904, the school recorded likely one of the worst campaigns in the history of southern football, losing all five of its contests by a combined 225-to-0 score. That's no typo you see; that's an average loss by a score of 45 to zilch.

To illustrate how bad the 1904 University of Florida football team must have been, it was defeated by Georgia 52-0 in the series' first game and the Red and Black's season opener.  That dismal Georgia squad, who absolutely routed Florida, would play five more games the rest of the year, and lose them all by a combined 68-to-16 score. 

Florida also lost to Alabama 29-0 and Georgia Tech 77-0 in 1904 as well. For what it's worth, both the Crimson Tide and Yellow Jackets, like Georgia, recognize the games in their records, while the University of Florida (at Gainesville) does not. 

In 1905, Florida played just one game—a 6-0 victory over "Julian Landon," whomever they, he, or she may have been.  Upon the relocation to Gainesville the following year, the Gators finally began acknowledging their football history, and thus what Georgia claims is the rivalry's second game—a 37-0 win in 1915 and another blowout over Florida—is what the Gators actually believe to be the first.

In 1941, Jacksonville's The Florida Times-Union identified the 1904 Georgia-Florida game as "the No. 1 game in the famous series."  In addition, Tom McEwen, a Florida graduate and then-sports editor of the Tampa Tribune, wrote in 1974 the book, "The Gators: A Story of Florida Football." For years, McEwen's book was considered the "bible" of the school's football history.  In the back pages, under "Florida's Past Scores," listed are the team's historical results and included are the games from, you guessed it, 1903 to 1905 (and 1901-1902 as well).

Let me add, I have a suspicion that if the University of Florida football team, whether located in Lake City, Gainesville, or any other place for that matter, had achieved, let's say, a 7-2 mark instead of its actual 2-7 record from 1903 to 1905, the results might be counted by the school, including the 1904 Georgia game.  However, since it's somewhat of a gray area and those early Florida teams were absolutely dreadful, the Gators have picked and chosen what to recognize and what not to recognize.

Personally, and I might be somewhat bias, but I side with the late, great Dan Magill when, in acknowledging Georgia's win in 1904, said, "That's where Florida was back then.  We can't help it if they got run out of [Lake City]."

Furthermore, although the Florida players and coaches from 1903 to 1905 have long past away, I'm sure they would want their efforts (or lack thereof) to be recognized.  These men sweated and bled while playing under the "University of Florida" name, so their games should be counted by the school instead of merely dismissed.

Finally, it wasn't too long ago when the Gators were enjoying a one-sided 18-3 run against Georgia. It was then Florida followers were often quick to instruct Bulldog enthusiasts to stop living in the past.  

Nevertheless, apparently for University of Florida football, part of its past actually never occurred.

Blowing It

In no attempt to "pile on" with the Mark Richt naysayers, I want to post a portion of my "Daily Dawg Caller" at UGASports.com from yesterday. 

For "Pat's Weekly Stat (You Won't Find Anywhere Else)," I hated to bring up the debacle from Saturday afternoon in Knoxville. But, beginning late in the second quarter, Georgia enthusiasts began to witness a historical milestone unfold right before their very eyes—not historically good, but historically bad.

The Bulldogs’ 21-point blown lead marked the second-largest lead in the history of UGA football which resulted in an eventual loss—and, we’re talking a lot of history. In 122 seasons of football and 1,251 games, including 413 losses, Georgia has lost just nine games in its history when it led by at least 14 points during the game:

22—1978 Bluebonnet Bowl (vs. Stanford): led 22-0 in 3Q, lost 25-22

21—2015 vs. Tennessee: led 24-3 in 2Q, lost 38-31

17—2006 vs. Tennessee: led 24-7 in 2Q, lost 51-33

16—2008 vs. Georgia Tech: led 28-12 in 3Q, lost 45-42

16—2012 Outback Bowl (vs. Michigan State): led 16-0 in 3Q, lost 33-30

14—1967 vs. Houston: led 14-0 in 4Q, lost 15-14

14—1991 vs. Vanderbilt: led 17-3 in 2Q, lost 27-25

14—1994 vs. Alabama: led 21-7 in 2Q, lost 29-28

14—2009 vs. Kentucky: led 20-6 in 3Q, lost 34-27

Notably, five of Georgia’s nine blown leads of two touchdowns or more, which are in bold, have resulted during the Coach Richt era. Granted, an argument could be made that teams seemingly score more points nowadays than before, thus it’s easier for a team to allow its opponent to rally from a large deficit. And, indeed, scoring in major college football in 2015 is up more than 15% from 20 years ago in 1995, roughly 45% from 1975, and more than 80% than 1945.

However, another argument could be made that if it’s easier to score nowadays, and a team is more susceptible in allowing points, it should have an easier time counteracting its opponents’ scores by scoring points of its own. More so, whether it’s 2015, 1945, or 1895, routinely blowing a big lead when it rarely occurred in the past is head-scratching, and perhaps inexcusable.

Although A Loss Is A Loss, Two In A Row Renders A Season Lost

From DAWGTIME.com: Athens, Ga.—Following the Bulldogs’ 38-10 thumping they received from Alabama at Sanford Stadium, and with a road date against Tennessee looming this Saturday, it seemed wherever I turned this week, I heard or read—ad nauseam—a similar statement I recall from last year following Georgia’s 18-point loss to Florida, and maybe even in 2013 after its 15-point setback to Missouri: Beginning in 2006, for 10 years now in a row, Coach Richt has lost at least one game each season by more than 14 points.

Ugh, I say!

The annual-lopsided-loss statement was even directed at Richt this week during one of his press conferences, and the head coach responded rightfully so: a loss is a loss, no matter how big the loss.

“Well, I think that the good news is [the Alabama game] only counted as one loss,” Richt said. “I mean that was enough of a game where it could have counted as two. But, it was one loss.”

I’ll admit I’m one of the first people to point out flaws in the Georgia football program over the last decade—and, there have been plenty of them. However, I believe the big-loss-every-year assertion is just another, convenient way for an unsatisfied fan base to “pile on” its head coach without having enough knowledge to fully support the statement. In other words, by doing a little research, you can find that Richt’s lopsided losing tendency is not all that unique.

What other football coach suffered at least one lopsided loss on an annual basis?

There have been plenty of them, like nearly the entirety of the two coaching regimes at Georgia prior to Richt. Under Ray Goff and Jim Donnan for 11 seasons from 1989 through 1999, the Bulldogs lost at least one game, and more so two games, by more than 14 points every year except one (1992).

For all 22 seasons of the Wally Butts era (1939-1960), besides the undefeated season of 1946, Georgia lost at least one game by at least 13 points. And, Coach Butts is in the College Football Hall of Fame; there’s even a building on campus named after him.

Even Vince Dooley suffered at least one loss by 14 or more points 11 of 12 seasons from 1968 through 1979, including nine in a row (1971-1979). And, Coach Dooley is a legend, regarded as one of the greatest coaches in the history of the SEC.

Speaking of the SEC, from 2006 to the present, other schools in the same boat as Georgia is Auburn, which has won a national championship and played for another the last decade. The Tigers have lost a game by more than 14 points in nine of 10 seasons with the one exception being their undefeated national title team of 2010. South Carolina which, overall, has done rather well since Steve Spurrier’s arrival in 2005, has also endured a lopsided loss every season except one during the same time period. And then, there’s Missouri, a program which has nearly the exact same winning percentage as Georgia since the start of the 2006 season… As far as the Tigers’ consecutive seasons of losing at least one game by at least two touchdowns, I started counting backwards beginning with last year, got to 20 straight seasons, and decided to quit counting.

During his press conference, Richt added that even with a loss—no matter the margin—a lot can be accomplished by his team.

“How many SEC teams have won the league undefeated in the last 10 years?” Richt asked. “I mean, that would be a good stat to check out. Not many. Not many. It's just hard to go undefeated in our league, for sure.”

I decided to check out that stat as well, and discovered the head coach was indeed correct.

In the previous 10 seasons (2005-2014), only three times did an SEC team win the league undefeated, whereas it resulted on just four occasions the previous 16 years.

Despite the four-touchdown loss to Alabama, Georgia has a lot to play for. The Bulldogs still control their own destiny of possibly winning the SEC, and earning a spot in the four-team College Football Playoff. And, it all begins with a victory over Tennessee in Knoxville.

“We feel like we have to take advantage of this week,” offensive lineman Hunter Long said on Monday. “We have to come out and show that last week [against Alabama] was not us, and we have to show the country what we’re really about.”

What the Bulldogs absolutely cannot be “about” is suffering a defeat to the Volunteers. With another loss, any hope for a conference championship this season is likely dashed, while a possible spot in the playoffs assuredly disappears. And, with another loss, a portion of the Bulldog Nation, many of which are those I described earlier—those that have already began to “pile on” Richt—will simply jump ship.

Therefore, the question arises, considering the magnitude of this Saturday—a game which is actually more significant than last week’s meeting with the Crimson Tide—is Georgia’s preparation this week more intensified than before? Has the coaching staff demonstrated an increased sense of urgency?

“It’s just like every other week,” offensive tackle John Theus claimed. “The guys give it their all, and the coaches have been equally as intense.” Defensive tackle James DeLoach agreed with his fellow senior teammate: “Our coaches come hard each and every day, and I don’t think there was a difference compared to previous weeks,” he said.

With Georgia facing a must-win following a loss—no matter how lopsided—it was evidently business as usual this week in regards to its on-field preparation. However, as far as their off-the-field, or mental preparation for Tennessee, the same cannot necessarily be said; the Bulldogs fully realize back-to-back setbacks would devastate what was a promising 2015 season.

“Although I don’t think [preparation has been] amplified, we do know the importance of this game,” Theus added. “We are fully aware of that.” 

Visit DAWGTIME.com.

Beating ‘Bama: Pulpwood Should Know

BROXTON, Ga.—With one of the most anticipated Georgia football games in recent memory looming against Alabama, I decided to take a different approach from the customary “beat story.” I reached out to a true rarity—an individual who not only could provide insight on a much-heralded game pitting Georgia and Alabama, but someone familiar with the series firsthand, having produced one of the greatest offensive outings ever by a Bulldog against the Crimson Tide.

“Where I’m from, playing a rival like the Florida Gators is a really big deal,” Andre “Pulpwood” Smith informed me from his home in Broxton, a small town in South Georgia located just outside of his hometown of Douglas. “As far as Alabama, I respected them, but never looked at them as a rivalry of Georgia. So, when we were about to play Alabama in ’84, I didn’t see it as a big-time game.” READ THE REST OF THIS DAWGTIME.com STORY...