Wednesday Morning Dawg Bites Wonders if the Dawgs Have Turned A Corner

Good Morning fellow Dawg Fans, it’s Hump Day, which means we’re only 3 days away from Georgia Football. I don’t know about y’all, but from my seat it felt like last Saturday was filled with pretty boring games, We only get so many Saturday’s of College Football a year, and I’m all about cherishing them, but last week felt a bit empty without UGA on the screen. I’m eager to see what the Dawgs will look like post-Notre Dame.

The bye week provided plenty of time to ruminate upon the Dawgs, and the same thought keeps coming up for me,,,

In our most successful seasons, Georgia seems to have a pattern of winning a big game that seems to turn the team into a full-blown wrecking crew in following weeks. In 2002, it was either the 13-7 win on the road over South Carolina, when Pollack made the incredible sack-fumble-interception touchdown in the end-zone, or the “Man Enough” game when the Dawgs beat Alabama in Tuscaloosa for the first time. The 2005 SEC Championship team really got rolling after the close 17-15 win over South Carolina. In 2007, the season totally turned after the Dawgs 42-30 win over Florida. 2012 gave us the 17-9 victory over the #2 undefeated Gators. Most recently, after 2017’s clutch win at Notre Dame, Georgia went on a string of blowout victories.

Was this year’s win over Notre Dame one of those games for the 2019 Bulldogs? Only time will tell. What I do know, is that each season’s team is unique, and comes with its own different dynamics and personalities. A team can know it’s well-prepared and talented, but until those players have been in a moment of struggle, where the game can fall either way, they don’t know how they’ll respond. These Dawgs have been in that moment, and looked the other men in the huddle in the eyes. Fight looked back, and the team raised their game to a higher level. They know they can get it done in the big moment, and that’s going to come in handy down the road. My gut tells me this was one of those games that sparks a special run. I hope when we look back in a few months I’m right...

In other news, it’s good to see that Solomon Kindley and Tyson Campbell were back at practice Tuesday. Kindley and Campbell are key contributors, and while they aren’t back to full health yet, the fact they’re making progress is a good sign.

Nakobe Dean is reportedly fully healthy after injuring an ankle during preseason camp. Kirby Smart continues to give rave reviews of the true freshman, and we might see him make a bigger impact as the season goes on.

Speaking of Dean, the AJC ran a great feature on Georgia’s College of Engineering, and how the program’s merits weighed heavily in Nakobe’s college decision. Dean never made a B in high-school, and has aspirations on a career in engineering after football. Georgia having engineering programs with an increasingly excellent reputation is, of course, hilarious. The folks at the North Avenue Trade School have had only one thing to claim over UGA fans in recent years, but it appears Georgia is now coming after that too. If Tech fans can’t use their engineering programs to create a false sense of superiority for each other when getting blown out by Georgia year after year I don’t know where they will turn. Tech fans may finally be left with absolutely no reason to feel good about themselves, and in related news I have great hope for the future of our World.

Also, we’re sending positive thoughts and hope for healing to UGA great Roquan Smith. Nobody seems to know what personal issue Smith is struggling with, but we hope he gets whatever help he needs.

Lastly, there’s more trouble on Rocky Top ahead of Georgia’s matchup with the Vols. Despite Jeremy Pruitt having a 1-3 record and struggling mightily at his own job, he apparently wants to tell the Knoxville Police Department how to do theirs. Two days after UT linebacker Jeremy Banks had two interceptions in the Vols win against Chattanooga, Banks was pulled over and arrested for having an outstanding warrant. The warrant was due to his failure to appear in court for a previous traffic ticket. Banks went on to make many problematic comments to the arresting officers, and told a female intern who was in the car for a ride along, “Ma’am, you don’t wanna be an intern because where I’m from we shoot at cops.”

That’s rough on its own, but the bad look for Tennessee doesn’t stop there. Before being put into the police car, Banks called Head Coach Jeremy Pruitt and handed the phone to the officers. Pruitt offered the following to the cops...

The optics of this are awful for Pruitt, but from the UGA perspective I have to wonder if he was paying attention during his time in Athens. Did he never ask his players what it was like to drive a scooter down Lumpkin Street? I’m not here to suggest that the Athens Police should be run by the UGA Athletic Department, but I’m pretty sure the last 20 years of Georgia Football would look a bit different if Pruitt’s claims were true.

If there’s any silver lining for Pruitt, maybe this type of incident will impress his current boss. They don’t call it The Fulmer Cup for nothing, y’all.

As always, GO DAWGS!