And it was well worth it

Look, I’m a realist.

Do you really think that Ludacris was going to show up to do a show in Athens out of the goodness of his heart?

Well, in this week’s tale of the offseason college football news cycle, the its a major news item that, for the first time in a while, the gang in Butts Mehre has the audacity to *gasp* actually SPEND some of its financial intake.

Is $65,000 a lot for 15 minutes of work? Sure. It’s on the level of NASCAR teams that collect last-place prize money for running 10 laps and loading up on the trailer.

The anti-football communists and ones who are ok with UGA reverting back to the Goff era may not like the idea of throwing $65,000 around, but that’s a small price to pay for its already proven impact.

The atmosphere at G-Day created an unreal atmosphere for recruits – either in Athens or watching. The program grabbed the attention of the college football world by the horns – oh, and has also reaped immediate windfalls on the recruiting trail.

$65,000? A small price to pay.

Go Dawgs!

Lugnut Dawg

 

Is a big helping of patience in order?

I’m a big fan of winning. It’s better than losing.

Of course, the UGA Athletic Board has the same line of thinking by and large – that’s why Mark Richt is in Coral Gables and Kirby Smart was called to come home to Athens.

In a perfect world, the Smart regime would surpass anything Richt has ever done. But there’s an old saying I once heard – that you cannot make chicken salad without the chicken.

The steal a phrase from Smart’s old boss, ‘it’s a process.’

Georgia may not appear in the mold of how Kirby wants it in September. But will it be toward what he’s envisioning in a three-year plan by the time Auburn comes to town? I’d say odds are good.

There are depth issues at places like running back and inside linebacker. Yes, there’s young talent, but even when you’re in the fire of competition, it’s a learning curve, regardless of the ability.

And make no mistake – if Georgia has a similar record to the end of the Richt era (when Georgia was blessed with an easier schedule than it will face this year), the fans of The University of Mark Richt will be loud boisterous.

But there’s a reason why Georgia pulled the trigger to bring Kirby to Athens.

My prediction is this: It may not show with the record – but Smart will have this program headed in the right direction by November.

Go Dawgs!

Lugnut Dawg

 

 

 

A different meaning of the Georgia-Auburn game

For a long time, especially as a result of calling the Peach State home, the Auburn game was usually circles on the calendar. When you live in and around Auburn fans and other supporters, it’s hard not to get your blood going for The Deep South’s Oldest Rivalry.

Georgia and Auburn is like two siblings going against one another. The thing about siblings is, you don’t always have to like them. That’s the case with the Bulldogs and the Wartiglesmen.

But for me, the Auburn game means a lot more, and something different.

It all started back two years ago, really in the final minutes of the game.

On the late-game pass thrown by an Auburn quarterback that Georgia had the audacity to dismiss for stealing from his own teammates (I refuse to refer to the fluke play by name), when the ball was deflected in the air, I just knew…maybe from the perpetual heartache of being a Georgia fan, that it would not end well. And course, it didn’t.

Now, like everyone else, I was devastated. Our dog, a 45-pound pit mix, was probably also nervous from all the yelling at the TV from the late-game turning of events.

So, of course, a few minutes go by. And then, Mrs. Lugnut Dawg decides that something is needed to make me feel better. At that moment, she tells me that we’re expecting our first child. All I know is that if Georgia would have won and our daughter would have been born a boy, his name would have most likely been Aaron!

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Flash forward to 2014.

On the Friday morning before the game, I was primed and ready to go, already making plans for what time to head to Athens on Saturday for not only the Auburn game, but Todd Gurley’s return. That all changed around 2 p.m.

While at work, I got the call that few want to receive. It was one informing me that our daughter’s trip to see her pediatrician was much more serious, and that the next stop was a trip straight to the ER of the local Children’s Hospital.

21 or so days later, she was out of the hospital and has improved in multiple areas since then.

The funny thing is, when telling Georgia fans about the initial trip to the hospital, usually say, ‘well, it was the weekend of the Auburn game…”

In a way, our daughter has been defined by the Auburn game.

Either way, she’ll be decked out this Saturday from our home in red and black cheering on the Dawgs with us!

Go Dawgs!

Lugnut Dawg

One group to be very happy for

Sure, Saturday night’s game was probably only fun to watch for people with a football appreciate like Gene Stallings, and Georgia very likely set offensive back to the stone ages, but there was a very important group within the program to be extremely happy for.

The defense.

I don’t care who you play. Any time that you hold an opposing offense an entire game without a score – especially when they START a drive at your one-yard line? That’s a heck of a night.

As much as this team’s offense has been maligned as of late, the defense has bore a heavy load of it as well. Except in their case, they were supposed to be a cornerstone of this team along with its now-injured potential Heisman Trophy Candidate.

It hasn’t been fun for this defense the past two weeks – and two pretty good offenses exposed some weak spots during that time. And yes, I know Mizzou’s offense is not on the same level. But a game without a TD is a game without a TD.

Going into an off week, momentum is everything. This group has it on defense.

I’m not guaranteeing they will slow Florida down…but they’ll at least head to Duval with a strong wind at their back.

Go Dawgs!

Lugnut Dawg

And we still don’t know

On Saturday, before everything hit the bed, myself and few of my other tailgating comrades in arms were mushing over so many aspects of what we thought may or may not happen on the field at a sloshy Sanford Stadium.

One comment that was said still sticks out…”we don’t know how good we are.”

Honestly, I’m still not sure how good…or bad this team is.

This team isn’t as good as it looked against South Carolina. As we’ve seen, bad teams make other teams look great, and Spurrier’s bunch are a very bad football team that may not win four games. One concern that I had Saturday was, ‘what if Lambert looked good because USC’s defense is that bad?’ That turned out to be right, in a way.

At the same time, this team isn’t as bad as it looked on Saturday. A very motivated Alabama team had something to do with that. Bama came out of the corner swinging desperate punches like its life depending on it, and it showed. Why Georgia didn’t show that desperation? That’s another post for another time. Alabama found some holes in Georgia’s defense and exposed them (vulnerability to covering the tight end finally caught up), and Lambert’s first look at a top of the line defense exposed how to easily rattle him.

Still, there is something to be said about how much field position and Georgia having to go away from its running game turned things on Saturday.

It’s a broken record, and I tire of saying it, but despite the loss, all things are still in reach for this team. Is Georgia as good as it looked against USC? No. But it’s not as bad as it looked on Saturday as well.

Lugnut Dawg

This was for you, Ray Goff

Few head coaches at The University of Georgia have been as maligned as Ray Goff, who had the unfortunate circumstance of taking over as head coach of a handstrung program that at the same time became a glutton for punishment at the hands of the Ol’ Ball Coach, especially when he hung half a hundred on the Dawgs in 1995 in Athens.

I wasn’t in Sanford that day – but know plenty who were. If you had to endure that day, Saturday night was especially sweet.

1966 was a lifelong torture. 1997 was sweet revenge. Last night? That was an undressing. Georgia has a good team, and showed it. USCe is down, and Georgia exposed it in a big way.

Detractors – you know they are out there. They’ll pull out the fact that, “but…USC is a bad team. That win isn’t that big.”

Not hardly.

How many times has Georgia played an inferior team and slopped its way to an ugly win. I’ll eat crow – I expected it on Saturday. But what we saw on Saturday is what championship teams do – take care of business and make a statement – do what you are there to do to start with.

Will this team play on that level the rest of the year? Probably not. You cannot expect that over the course of a season. In a perfect world, you could bottle up the emotion of Saturday and sprinkle it around each week. We remember all too begrudgingly the 2004 LSU win followed up by a flat loss to Tennessee…even the 1997 Florida win followed by laying an egg against Auburn.

But if this team plays at a fraction of what we saw Saturday – executing on both sides of the ball and a lack of special teams gaffes…for the most part…bigger things could be in store later down the line.

Go Dawgs!

Lugnut Dawg

This Saturday Could Be Heaven or Hell If You Hate Spurrier

The way I see it, Saturday can go one of two ways. And it’ll carry two very different emotions with it.

On one hand is the fact that it could be one of the most revered wins in Georgia history. Stay with me here. Any true Georgia fan HATES Steve Spurrier with a passion. Now there are some, like Kensington Dawg and myself that enjoy his wit and one-liners, but you cannot be a true UGA fan and hate the coach that is Spurrier.

Thing is – the feeling is mutual. Spurrier detests Georgia, and it shows. That’s why Saturday could be a very sweet victory. It’d rank up with the other two big Georgia wins against the OBC – tarnishing his 1966 Heisman season and preventing Florida from going unbeaten and the 1997 streak-breaking route of the Florida in the WLOCP.

If Georgia wins Saturday, it will more or less raise the warning flags up that perhaps Spurrier’s time has past even more and would mark the beginning of the end. It’d also put USCe at 0-2 in the conference. Think about it – Georgia can put the Gamecocks into the ground barely into the season. Talk about a dream come true if you hate Spurrier.

But there’s the other aspect of Saturday, the one that worries me.

Here we are with a chance to embarrass and humiliate a rival. Sound familiar, anyone? Heck, USC even has a quarterback that recently bagged groceries…which of course is an awful flashback to the WLOCP last year. It’s well known of course. Spurrier hates Georgia, and would like nothing more than to pull off another win in Athens and send the UGA program into chaos, as we has done before.

Go Dawgs

Lugnut Dawg

Five Sunday Morning Thoughts

– It’s almost a dropkick to the stomach. You wait all spring and summer for the season, and lightning stops and later shortens the opener. Still, it was all in all a good day. The offense did a lot of good things, nobody got hurt and points got put on the board by not having to crack the playbook open. As nice as it would have been to play those final 9:51, that’s also 9:51 that injuries could not occur.

– Man. How great was it to see Keith Marshall carry the ball and get into the end zone? A healthy Keith Marshall, as we saw back in 2012, makes a pretty good 1-2 punch…or in the current case, 1-2-3.

– Lambert wasn’t spectacular, but he made some nice throws when needed – which is what he needs to do, for the most part. The chatter from camp about his football IQ showed. Lambert not only didn’t turn it over, but you didn’t really see any balls thrown that should have been picked off, either.

– One of the things that would drive you nuts about Bobo was at times underutilizing the tight ends. How nice was it to see the first TD pass of the day to a tight end?

– It was disconcerting to see all the pass completions by ULM, but some of that may have been the very basic packages that Pruitt was running and also some first-game rust from the secondary. That’s something that can easily be fixed before road tripping to Nashville next weekend.

Go Dawgs

Lugnut Dawg

A return, and way too early look at the schedule

Well, after a rather long hiatus, we’re back. Due to some real-job goings on and Little Lugnut Dawg having to go into the hospital the weekend of the Auburn game and having some after-effects, it’s been awhile (update on Little Lugnut coming at some point down the road).

At any rate, this is the least favorite time of the year. There’s too much time, as Munson would say, until the season gets here. All that’s left to do is think ahead to preseason camp and pray to all things holy that no UGA players do anything knuckleheaded off the field. It doesn’t help that the offseason will drag by at a snail’s pace with the looming trainwreck that is the Braves (thanks for the screw job, Frank Wren).

Speaking of that schedule, there’s a lot of time to mull over how it may shake it out. Here’s how it could turn out, week to week.

Sept. 5, Louisiana-Monroe

Should be a steady diet of getting things in sync and hopefully, time for Ram-Bau-Park to get a good feel for the offense

Sept. 12, at Vanderbilt

Nice scheduling break here, getting a first SEC road game for a new QB against a lower-rung team of the conference.

Sept. 19, South Carolina

This’ll be a war, as always. No beating around the bush. USCe’s offensive holes do make you feel a tad better until you realize the HBC is on the other sideline.

Sept. 26, Southern

Are they bringing their band?

Oct 3, Alabama

Possibly the most anticipated home game in Athens since many of us 30ish Dawgs were in diapers. The shot at Bama for the first time since five yards short? The first trip to Athens since a darker shade of jersey out? The atmosphere itself will be worth being in Athens for.

Oct. 10, at Tennessee

This has trap game all over it, being on the road and a week after what will be a charged game against Bama.

Oct. 17, Mizzou

Who’d of thought four years ago that Missouri would be a game with heavy SEC East implications riding on it?

Oct. 31, Florida

Given the rebuilding in Jortsville, Georgia should win. We said that last year, too

Nov. 7, Kentucky

Scrappy Kentucky team could prove to be a speed bump in between a pair of rivalry games.

Nov. 14, at Auburn

I’m more worried now that Bobo is not around to counter Muschamp. Take away the UF game last year, and Georgia had an apparent advantage. Not so sure now, although that could change.

Nov. 21, Georgia Southern

With GSU no longer running a true option, this game is less of an advantage preceding Tech. Georgia Southern now has a bunch knowing they can hang with big-time teams and be in the game. That could be scary for Georgia, especially if it is banged up or deshoveled after a loss to Auburn, if it happens.

Nov. 28, at Georgia Tech

Only thing worse than losing to the NATS? Losing to them twice in a row.

Go Dawgs!

Lugnut Dawg

You’re a DGD, Coach Landers

I’m not naive. I know that to many, Georgia women’s basketball is either a casual interest or niche sport, for the most part. But when you say Lady Bulldogs basketball, the first person to come to mind is Andy Landers.

He’s a only full-time coach that UGA has ever had – let that one sink in and marinate for a minute.

If you only judge a coach by championships – Landers was not successful. But that’s the thing – success is an entire body of work, and that is what Landers embodied during his career.

31 NCAA Tourneys

20 Sweet Sixteens

11 Elite Eights

5 Final Fours

7 SEC Championships

4 SEC Tournament titles

He had the highly unfortunate fortune to be in the same conference as the great coach in women’s hoops, Pat Summit. Put Landers in a different conference or region, and who knows what would have been.

No shortage of tremendous women’s greats have played for Landers – the Miller twins, Teresa Edwards (perhaps the most decorated women’s basketball player of all time), Katrina McClain, among others. But they came to Athens for one reason – the program that Landers built from the ground up into an elite operation.

Happy trails, Coach Landers. You’ve earned every bit of it.

Go Lady Dawgs!

Lugnut Dawg