Still I Look to Find a Reason to Disbelieve: An Aggie Explains Why a Georgia Fan Should Not Be Confident of Victory in the Independence Bowl

by T Kyle King on Dec 24, 2009 3:00 PM EST in Football

Bear with me, because this is going to take a moment to explain. My wife, Susan, has a sister, Jeannie. A little over a decade ago, I fixed Jeannie up with my friend, Travis. Travis and Jeannie were married in 1999. I refer to him as my brother-in-law, although, technically, he's my sister-in-law's husband. You with me so far? Good.

Anyway, Travis has a sister, Vera. Vera is an alumna of Texas A&M University, where she met her husband, Neil. Neil is the actual brother-in-law of the guy I refer to as my brother-in-law who isn't really my brother-in-law. (If you're my age, you should be thinking of a line from "Spaceballs" right about now.)

In any case, Neil, being a Texas A&M alumnus, is a dedicated Aggie fan. (How serious are Neil and I about our football? I named my daughter Elizabeth Rose King; her initials spell out the name of my favorite Bulldog defensive coordinator. Neil named one of his daughters Maggie, so his alma mater's mascot appears in his daughter's name. I don't care who you are, you have to admire that.)

Anyway, Neil read my conclusions about the Independence Bowl and he sent me a Facebook message in which he stated the following:

I think your conclusions are pretty accurate, however, the Aggies are a very young team, and they improved greatly as the season went on. Both of the games you are comparing are from the first half of the season. Our offensive line gelled toward the end of the season and true freshman Christine Michael started to carry the ball more. In the Texas game we had 190 yards rushing to go along with 312 yards passing. Texas is no slouch against the run, so I would say we are not the same running team we were against OSU and Arkansas.

Our real problem is we play like a young team. Sometimes the wheels fall off and we look absolutely terrible (KSU and Oklahoma), and sometimes we play way above our heads (Tech in which we rushed for 321 yards and Texas).

I'm glad I'm not a gambler, because I really have no idea which of either of our teams are going to show up.

I am grateful to Neil for those cogent insights, partly because they provide legitimate context to my admittedly limited examination of the games against the two opponents common to both the Georgia Bulldogs and the Texas A&M Aggies, but mostly because they undermined any slight scintilla of confidence I had allowed to creep into my thoughts regarding this game. In the almost two years since the shelling of the Hawaii Warriors in the Sugar Bowl, faith in any Red and Black squad not coached by Suzanne Yoculan inevitably has been the prelude to disappointment, so being given cause to doubt the 'Dawgs is the best Christmas gift I could have been given.

Go 'Dawgs!

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I am actually pretty positive about the game

For one, as I am going to the game, it would be horrible not to be upbeat about it. But, for deeper reasoning, I actually think CMR running the whole game is a good thing. He has always been stronger when he is more hands on. Seeing him run all three parts of the game really gives me a sense of belief. Normally, this would kill a coach, but given the time to study both sides of the game thoroughly, I think he will do fine. For the players, I am pretty confident we have better athletes across the board. And as we discussed before, they can choose to shut the door on this game and man up to the fact they played poorly this year, or they can think it beneath them and not show up ready. But if they are hungry and motivated, with their skills and CMR’s coaching – I feel we should win, not handedly, but solidly. The question will be which UGA shows up,

"Sometimes, you just can't get rid of a bomb." - batman

by tankertoad on Dec 24, 2009 5:12 PM EST reply actions

Indeed.

Through a completely separate set of connections, I am an acquaintance of Neil’s as well. One of his good friends got married to one of my best friends, to whose children my wife and I are godparents. (Oh, I’ll go ahead and say the line… “So what does that make us?” “Absolutely nothing!!”) I’m not sure that he’d remember my name, but we’ve met a few times.

I know that Neil has been closely following Aggie football as long as I have been closely following Georgia football… which is to say, all of his life. So, I also really appreciate his take on this year’s Aggie team. His comments make me think that if Georgia doesn’t jump out to a commanding lead, we could definitely be in trouble, and might even get embarrassed. (And, really, other than when we played a 1-AA team, when did we ever jump out to a commanding lead this year?)

by vineyarddawg on Dec 24, 2009 5:19 PM EST reply actions

I refuse to be optimistic about this game.

I’m bound and determined to expect the worst and suck it up and watch the whole thing regardless of how much it hurts. I’m sitting at home under the first ever blizzard warning for the Metro Tulsa area – for someone who just doesn’t do $n0w – I can see nothing to be positive or optimistic about.

"Never refuse to do a kindness unless the act would work great injury to yourself, and never refuse to take a drink- under any circumstances." Mark Twain

by podunkdawg on Dec 24, 2009 5:53 PM EST reply actions

its way worse here than Tulsa - 60mph winds....

"Sometimes, you just can't get rid of a bomb." - batman

by tankertoad on Dec 24, 2009 10:51 PM EST up reply actions

You have my deepest sympathy.

I do NOT do $n0w

"Never refuse to do a kindness unless the act would work great injury to yourself, and never refuse to take a drink- under any circumstances." Mark Twain

by podunkdawg on Dec 25, 2009 2:09 AM EST up reply actions

You and Neil have the same relationship I share with another devoted Dawg fan, the proper term in our opinion is “peter-in-law”. With that settled, I agree with Neil, there is no reason for any Dawg fan to feel cocky about this match-up. While I am confident we can win bowls are often weird, favoring underdogs for some reason. If the Dawgs show up, they win a shootout, but Texas A&M enjoys the motivational edge, and has a talented, mobile QB. This could go either way, but I will bet on CMR finding a way to get our guys off their butts and not leaving us miserable over the long winter. Weather forecast looks good for this one.

Dawgs 38 Texas A&M 27

by Suthndawg on Dec 25, 2009 12:18 PM EST reply actions