When you devote as much time as I do to thinking about University of Georgia athletics in enough detail, and with enough coherence, to write about the subject more or less on a daily basis, you find yourself dealing with a fair number of stray thoughts, many of which pass by unremarked, find fleeting expression on Twitter or in a radio interview, or get buried in a lengthy comment thread. In order to lend a greater degree of permanence, and call a heightened level of attention, to some of these random ruminations, I thought it best to cobble together a handful of these idle notions for your consideration and comment.
These are they:
During Jay Clark’s brief yet interminable tenure as head coach of the Gym Dogs, we here at Dawg Sports frequently compared him to former Georgia Bulldogs head football coach Johnny Griffith. (I am fond of this analogy, because it allows me to believe that Danna Durante, a solid yet largely unheralded hire, could be analogous to Vince Dooley.) It occurs to me, though, that other Georgia skippers are subject to similar comparisons. David Perno, for instance, is the Phillip Fulmer of the Diamond Dogs; both were alumni who served the school well as a player, an assistant, and a head coach, even once being a part of a national championship run, but the ability to rest on those increasingly distant laurels allowed both coaches to hold on well past the prime of their respective careers. Are we setting up the Georgia baseball program for a Tennessee-style multi-year rebuilding project?
Likewise, I have come to believe that Mike Bobo is Georgia’s Mike Leach. Many, I know, will find that comparison galling, because (a) Coach Bobo is a nice guy, and (b) Coach Leach is an offensive mastermind. I concede that the two Mikes’ personalities could not be more different, but I believe the two play-callers are analogous because Mike Leach’s achievements between the white lines are vastly overrated; yes, his offenses put up pretty numbers, but they had far less to show for it on the field than on the stat sheet. If eye-popping averages are your thing, Mike Leach is your guy; if using offense intelligently to win football games is a big deal to you, though, the obnoxious pirate-wannabe is not for you. So, I would argue, it is with the Bulldogs’ offensive coordinator, though Coach Bobo at least has the virtue of being able to behave like someone whose mama raised him right.
Now that we have a playoff in major college football, can we officially retire the silly designations “FBS” and “FCS,” and formally go back to “Division I-A” and “Division I-AA”?
I’m glad Larry Munson pursued a career in broadcasting, because he would’ve been lousy as an operator at a suicide hotline. “My girlfriend left me, and I was laid off from my job, and I’m about to lose my apartment, but I want to get my life turned around.” “But there’s no time! There’s just no time!”
Isaiah Crowell has something in common with Herschel Walker: Both Georgia tailbacks left Athens with an undefeated record against the Florida Gators.
I’ve joked that I’m afraid the ‘Dawgs will go 0-12 in 2012, but that isn’t really my greatest fear. My greatest fear is that Georgia will go 12-0 through the regular season, win the SEC Championship Game, and receive a bid to the BCS Championship Game to face, say, Lane Kiffin’s USC Trojans or Urban Meyer’s Ohio St. Buckeyes, then, during the buildup to the game, a story will break shortly before Christmas that all 22 starters for Georgia’s opponent have been arrested on felony charges, forcing an announcement on December 20, 2012, that all 22 opposing players have been dismissed from the team, virtually guaranteeing that the Bulldogs will win the national championship . . . and, on December 21, 2012, the Mayans will be proven right and the world will end. That would be just our luck.
Go ‘Dawgs!