Gym Dogs Right the Ship in Home Win Over Kentucky

… so hopefully I can add a little color to the conversation.

As Mrs. VineyardDawg and I were filing into the Stegosaurus (which seems to get crappier every time I enter, as unbelievable as that may seem), I was already in full tankertoad mode. I not only was open to the possibility that Georgia could lose this home meet to an inferior SEC foe, I was convinced they would. (I virtually admitted as much after the last debacle meet when I referred to Jay Clark as the gymnastics version of Johnny Griffith, who was easily the worst Georgia football coach of the last 100 years, and arguably the worst full-time coach ever. He was also a proverbial “trusted assistant” that took over when a legend left.)

I think the Gym Dogs’ highest score of the year is made all the more impressive by the fact that the judging on the whole was very tight, in my opinion. After Kat Ding’s bars routine, I remarked to my neighbor that, “If that ain’t a 10, nobody’s getting a 10 tonight.” Sure enough, one judge gave a 10 and the other a 9.95, setting the tone.

My first impression, though, was that of the Bulldog crowd. I may be remembering raucous crowds that accompanied meets when I was in school against rivals like Alabama and non-SEC national powers like UCLA, Utah and Michigan, but the crowd at the Steg was absolutely dead at the beginning. Losing 3 straight meets will do that to the crowd for a defending 10-time national champion, though, and they picked up significantly as the Dawgs’ performance did.

Kentucky actually had a very impressive start on the bars and vault, and was only 0.325 points behind after the first 2 rotations. It was at this time that Georgia was getting ready to move on to the dreaded beam, and I was feeling like tankertoad’s twin brother.

In the first routine up, Cassidy McComb was shaky and clearly lost her confidence after a cheer-inducing moonwalk followed by an almost-fall, but still managed a 9.825. Then, on the third routine, Kat Ding fell. I was fully expecting the other gymnast shoe to drop from that point on, but on the very next routine, Shayla Worley absolutely brought the wood (and the house down) en route to a 9.925 that I thought was far too low. The very next gymnast, Grace Taylor, was absolutely robbed of a 10 (she got a 9.9 from one judge and a 10 from the other, for a 9.95), and the rout was on from that point. Kentucky inexplicably collapsed during the same rotation on the floor, and the result was never in doubt from that point on.

After such a massive comeback on the beam, I was pleased to see the “killer instinct” return to the Gym Dogs, as they absolutely stepped on the gas on the floor (the final rotation), and performed with a confidence and skill that has clearly been woefully absent thus far in the campaign. Courtney McCool was the victim of a theft this time, since her final performance of the meet was easily the best, cleanest floor routine I’ve seen in a long time. If that wasn’t a 10, my friends, then they don’t give ’em out anymore.

In the end, the Gym Dogs got back to the level at which they’ve become accustomed, and while the judges could have done a better job in my opinion, Georgia still managed a score of 197.20. It won’t win a national championship, but the whole idea is to improve as the season goes on, and this squad made a huge stride in the right direction tonight. Of course, Johnny Griffith’s Georgia teams never lost to Clemson or South Carolina, and defeated Miami (FL) in 1963, so one result does not a successful coaching career make.

As Mrs. VineyardDawg and I drove home, however, I told her that at least I understood how great it could feel to be a Dawg again after you have been pleasantly surprised and your team has demolished a solid SEC competitor. Let’s hope Georgia’s most successful athletics program continues the good run it started tonight.

I think that was the longest and most informative comment I’ve ever taken the time to read! Geez, you had to take notes or have a heck of a memory. :)

. . . Qualify you for some sort of official title, like “DawgSports Correspondent At-Large” (the “at-large” isn’t really necessary but it sounds cool).