Friday Morning Dawg Bites: Thirst for More Edition

When I write the Friday Morning Dawg Bites every two weeks, I try to bring some of that individuality out with my short diatribes before we get to the links. I plan on doing that very thing this morning, but the links I want to bring you are going to be slightly different than most weeks. The reason I'm pointing this out is because I'm going to go a little different route this week than most. I hope that sits well with you reading from home, work, or a mobile device of some sort.

This week on the podcast, Kyle and I spent a large portion of our conversation hashing over Auburn as a school and fan base, and took very little time dissecting the X's and O's that will (hopefully) lead UGA to victory Saturday night. The reason is because the rivalry with Auburn has reached a fever pitch of sorts with the events of the past three years. In 2010, Aaron Murray was literally avoiding injury on every play en route to an Auburn victory on the way to a crystal football. In 2011, revenge was taken, and now, in 2012, Auburn can play the spoiler and put a huge damper on an otherwise pretty successful Georgia Football season.

As I struggled to find a diatribe for today's Dawg Bites, I kept thinking about if UGA was focused this week more on winning the East, or beating a long-standing rival. That lead me to thinking about whether or not the fan base was doing the same. So, to buck tradition a little bit, today's Dawg Bites is dedicated to reminding all of you (in the off-chance you've forgotten) how the East should take a back seat to the idea of how glorious it is to beat such a worthy rival.

With that, I present to you my most memorable moments of the UGA/Auburn rivalry of the Mark Richt era (at least the ones for which I found videos):

2002: 70x Takeoff

2003: Greg Blue lays the wood

2004: Junior Rosegreen nearly kills Reggie Brown

2006: Tra Battle has a career day

2007: The Blackout

2010: Nick Fairley renews the hatred

2011: Georgia gets revenge

So you see, over the course of Richt's 12 years in Athens, you have at least seven moments that are memorable enough to warrant placement on YouTube. That's not counting Jasper's 2001 failed run or the thriller of a game that was 2005. Out of twelve years of Mark Richt, nine of the games against Auburn (at least) have been worthy of this incredibly storied rivalry.

When you get prepared for this weekend. Don't just think about winning the East. Think about what it means to beat Auburn, rejoice in that, and thirst for more.

Until next time kids.

Be safe (and Go Dawgs!).