Every Dawg Has Its Day...And This is Ours.

 
    

January 1, 1981 is a day I will never forget.  The scene was the Sugar Bowl in the Louisiana Superdome in New Orleans. Georgia 17 Notre Dame 10.  The win meant the Bulldogs were the undefeated, undeniable, undisputed National Champions.  As the clock ticked down, I hugged the buddy with whom I attended the game. I high fived a game warden from Statesboro and kissed a girl from Manchester square on the mouth.  There was great excitement that day among all the Georgia fans with one exception in the form of a girl from Manchester who was looking for mouthwash.  My buddy and I left our seats and stormed on to the floor of the Louisiana Superdome. 

I fully expected a string of championships would follow.  We had Herschel Walker.  We had Coach Vince Dooley.  We had Coach Erk Russell running our defense.  A championship would begat more championships.  This was going to be a new age of Dawg domination. Yet, that was not to be at least, for forty years.

I graduated from the University of Georgia in 1983.  Surely more championships would follow for me to celebrate as an alumnus.  Surely in forty years Georgia would win another National Championship.  Florida won three, Clemson won three, FSU won three, LSU won three, Auburn won one,  Tennessee won one and I won’t name how many Alabama has won because I’m afraid I’d miss one in the counting.  Even Georgia Tech won half a championship. Yet, none for my Bulldogs. 

Oh, we’ve had some great moments in the last forty years.  The Sugar fell out of the sky in Auburn one day.  It’s still 10-9 in Texas.  Kevin Butler kicked one a hundred thousand miles to beat Clemson.  We thrashed number one Florida in 1985.  I remember breaking the drought against Florida in 1997. Who can forget the comeback against Purdue in the Outback Bowl in 2000? “We stepped on their face with a hob-nailed boot” one day in Knoxville. 

 There was Pollack tacking the ball away from the quarterback in South Carolina for a touchdown on a stormy day in Columbia.  It was cold for David Greene to Michael Johnson in Auburn.  We had a classic last drive to beat Tech in ’06.  We all remember the whole team storming the field after scoring the first touchdown against Florida in ’07 and the Blackout against Auburn two weeks later.

It was spectacular seeing Gurley, Chubb and Michel running wild in the second-half against Clemson in 2014.  The takeover of South Bend and beating Notre Dame in the shadow of “Touchdown Jesus” was something I thought I’d never witness as a Georgia fan.  Georgia played and won the most dramatic Rose Bowl. That electric night in 2019 when the Fighting Irish came to Sanford Stadium was a wonder to behold.  We were champions many times along the way winning the SEC in 1981, 1982, 2002, 2005 and 2017.   Great moments all, but no National Championship.

As Larry Munson says in the “Battle Hymn” video played every Saturday in Sanford Stadium “Heroes have graced the field before us.” Herschel Walker, Buck Belue, Lindsay Scott, Scott Woerner, Kevin Butler, Tim Worley, Rodney Hampton, Eric Zeir, Garrison Hearst, Hines Ward, Mike Bobo, Champ Bailey, the Stinchcombs, Musa Smith, David Green, Odell Thurmond, Thomas Davis, Knowshon Moreno, David Pollack, Todd Gurley, D.J. Shockley, Aaron Murray, Matthew Stafford, Nick Chubb, Sony Michel, Roquan Smith, Jake Fromm.  There was even a tough-as-nails free safety from Bainbridge named Kirby Smart.  I wonder what happened to him? The list of Bulldog greats goes on and on. I’ve seen them all over the last 40 years.

As far as National Championships go we’ve had our close calls.  The ’81 team had a shot.  The ’83 team had a shot.  We were pretty stout in ’92.  The teams in 2002 and 2007 would have made the playoffs under the current format had it existed then.  The 2012 team was in the mix. The 1982 team and the 2017 team played for the title but came up short.

All in all, I’ve had a whole lot more to celebrate as a Georgia fan than to lament.  I’ve traveled all over the country watching the Dawgs play but the joy of a Saturday in Athens is indescribable.  A great tailgate under our oak tree on Lumpkin Street.  The walk to the stadium.  The fellowship with friends old and new.  I’ve sat with the same folks year after year, tailgated with the same folks, cheered and laughed with the same folks.  Dare I say it, I've grown a little older with the same folks.   They call it the Bulldog Nation but really it is more like the Bulldog Family.

All that joy and yet it was incomplete.  Let’s be honest.  The 2021 season began with high hopes. Those hopes were not just hope but were reality it seemed.  There was the toppling of Clemson in the opener and the glorious last two minutes of the first half against Florida.  All of our rivals, Auburn, Tennessee, South Carolina, Georgia Tech, were vanquished.  

We watched the running of Zeus, James Cook and Kenny McIntosh.  We were in awe of this new freshman tight end named Brock Bowers.  We saw Jordan Davis pray with his mamma and then move like a man half his size.  Nakobe Dean played middle linebacker like a man possessed.  Nolan Smith got after quarterbacks.  Travon Walker rung a few bells.  McConkey, Burton and Smith hauled in the passes.  Stetson Bennett or J.T. Daniels at quarterback?  It didn’t matter.  The Dawgs finished the season 12-0.

Then came the setback.  Alabama soundly whipped the Dawgs in the SEC Championship.  Doubt crept in. Even so, Georgia made the playoff and was Orange Bowl bound.  The Michigan Wolverines awaited.  The game was never in doubt.  Georgia 34 Michigan 11.  The Dawgs were bound for the National Championship game.  Alabama stood in the way yet again.

In 2007, Georgia beat Alabama in Tuscaloosa in overtime.  It was Nick Saban’s first year coaching the Crimson Tide.  The history with Alabama had been pretty ugly ever since.  The idea to wear black jerseys against the Tide in 2008 was a debacle.  The 2012 SEC Championship game against the Tide broke a lot of hearts.  A loss at home to Bama in 2015 was a part of the unraveling of a season that saw the firing of Bulldog coach Mark Richt. 

 That free safety from Bainbridge had been the defensive coordinator at Alabama.  In 2016 he became the head coach of the Georgia Bulldogs.  Yet, the frustration against the Tide continued.  The 2017 Dawgs had the National Championship game in hand but somehow, someway Alabama won in overtime.  There was a near miss in the 2018 SEC championship and a regular season loss in Tuscaloosa in 2020 and then the aforementioned loss in this year’s SEC Championship. 

Would Bama deny the dream again?

As I took my seat among the Bulldog partisans in Indianapolis, I thanked the Lord for indoor football.  The temperature outside was in the low teens.  I was strangely confident yet nervous as the game began. 

It was a street fight through the first half with neither side breaking the end zone.  Alabama led 9-6. The second half began.  More punch you in the mouth football followed.  I promise, I really thought as I watched “The first team that scores a touchdown will win this game.” Then the Tide was driving; yet, they could not find the end zone.  Another field goal attempt. Blocked. The Dawgs blocked it.

The very next play James Cook breaks off a sixty-seven-yard run for the Dawgs.  The Dawgs were in business.  Moments later Zeus (aka Zamir White) crashed into the end zone and the Dawgs are up 13-9.  The third quarter ended and the Redcoat Band played the Krypton Fanfare.  The Georgia fans lit up Lucas Oil Stadium and then the real drama began.

The Tide kicked another field goal and it was 13-12.  A Stetson Bennett fumble (?) led to an Alabama touchdown.  The Tide missed the two-point conversion and led 18-12.   This seemed to be the usual Georgia-Alabama script.  However, the Dawgs chose to flip the script. 

On the very next drive Stetson lofted a pass into the waiting hands in Adonai Mitchell and the resulting touchdown gave the Georgia the lead.  8:09 was left in the game.  A rather exuberant and probably over-served Dawg fan seated in front of me screamed to all in earshot, “8 minutes and nine seconds to a championship. I’ve got the eight minutes if y’all will take the nine seconds.”  The truth be told the whole Bulldog delegation was as wild-eyed and raucous as I’ve ever seen them and was ready for it all.

The Dawgs stonewalled the Alabama offense and took possession again.  It was a thing of beauty.  Georgia ran the ball with skilled precision.  Zeus showed how he earned the name, chewing up yards and chewing up clock.  Third down one yard to go at the Alabama fifteen-yard line.  Bama crowds the line hoping to force a Georgia field goal.  Instead of handing off and running the ball the Dawgs pass.  Bennett swings it out to Brock Bowers.  Touchdown Georgia. 26-18. 

Pandemonium would be too mild of a word for the ensuing reaction.  However, the clock showed 3:33 left in the game.  Bama could tie and force overtime with a touchdown and a two-point conversion.  As they drove down the field I screamed at the top of my lungs, “Somebody has got to make a play.”  Well, somebody did.

With fifty-four seconds remaining Kelee Ringo intercepted a pass from Bryce Young, he of Heisman Trophy fame and ran it back to the end zone.  33-18. Pandemonium took a back seat to total mayhem.  Forty-one years ago I had no wife to kiss but this time I did and I kissed my wife for all it was worth. Incidentally she has no connection to the town of Manchester.  I did hug some total strangers and of course shed some tears. The Dawgs had done it.

What did it mean?  It is still hard to find the words.  Here is what I know.  I know other championships should follow.  That free safety from Bainbridge is a heckuva coach and recruits great players.  All the ingredients are there to create a dynasty. Yet, I also know that may not happen.  College football is a fickle sport that sometimes devours its own. 

So, what will I do?  I will cherish the ride we’ve been on since Labor Day weekend.  I will relish a cold night in the heart of Indiana.  I will simply say “How Bout Them Dawgs” and sing “Glory, Glory” to my heart’s content.  Every Dawg has its day and this day is ours.