Cocktail Saturday: G Day Edition

If it's G Day and there remain tons of unanswered questions about your Georgia Bulldogs, you could probably use a drink. I can help.

I never came up with any Mark Richt-themed cocktails in this space. I think you can imagine why. It might have perhaps seemed a bit . . . . inapt. However, unless I miss my guess (and I seldom do in these matters), the Bulldogs' new skipper probably has enjoyed a frosty barley pop in his time. So I figure he's fair game as an honoree this week.

I don't know if Kirby Smart will be a success in the long term as head football coach at his alma mater. No one really does. The answer will depend on a variety of factors, not the least of which is sheer luck. At some point he's going to need the ball to bounce his way. He's going to need Butch Jones or Jim McElwain to do something thoroughly incompetent at the wrong time. He's going to need a questionable call to fall to the good guys. That's how this thing works. You have to be good enough to be hanging around and give luck a chance to happen.

Maybe Kirby Smart will have that special sauce. Maybe he won't. But today it won't matter. To win today, Smart needs to show the right degree of enthusiasm. And for Ludacris's mic to work. And it wouldn't hurt for Jacob Eason to throw a couple of zingers. If all that happens, he'll be a smashing success.

And what drink should you raise to toast the new top 'Dawg's first appearance on the Georgia sideline? A Kirby Smash. It's a riff on the traditional whiskey smash, with a bit of a twist.

You'll need two thick lemon slices (peeled), four mint leaves, two ounces of bourbon, and eight ounces of ginger ale. Muddle the lemon and mint in a rocks glass. Top with crushed ice. Then add the bourbon and top with the ginger ale and give it a stir. Enjoy.

We'll be back shortly with an open thread for this afternoon's game, until then, enjoy the closest thing we'll have to a college football Saturday for another four and a half months.

Go 'Dawgs!!!