From Athens - Game Day Friday # 11

yankeedawg1 wrote: Good Morning All,
I spoke about how amazing Athens was after the win over UF, the win over Assburn was even better.
It was the Gator win in HD!

Those who have been around this board for awhile know about my early posts on the subject of passion.

That which you have a passion for you will do well at in life.
CTG has a passion for what he is doing; his coaching style is more mentoring and teaching than just drawing up plays.

This is why he loves the college game over the pros.

If paid a fair market salary I think he will be very happy to remain here in Athens.

Without question he and his family love the area and UGA.

Give him an extension and pay boost and let him do his thing.

CMR and CTG make one hell of a recruiting team.

I have also spoke about how I have heard from more than one source that while CTG was the fifth person to be interviewed by CMR, but he was Mark’s first choice for the job.

CTG was still coaching with Cowboy’s who’s season had not ended. There was heavy back channel work being done that to this date has not been revealed to bring CTG to Athens.

CMR wanted an NFL guy and we should be glad it worked out the way it has.

Remember our spring game this year?

Questions about who was going to step up and fill AJ’s production.

I spoke of a MB a white guy with Jerry Rice hands who knows how to run routes and will go and get the ball.

I was down on him for the drop in the Ole Miss game but he made up for it in the UF and AU games for sure.

Our receivers will cause major heartburn for our opponents DC for seasons to come.

Speaking of route running.

We have spoke about what fine jobs various coaches have done this year and rightly so IMO.

Time to step up and acknowledge Receiver Coach Tony Ball.

I counted at least three back shoulder sideline fade routes that AM was spot on in the Auburn game. Well done Tony!

I don’t think for one minute we will overlook UK.

This week it will be back-to-back-back-to-back-to-back-to-back-to-back –to-back- to-back-wins.

Same about taking another ugly win-love it!!

Just win baby!

I sat in a three hour traffic jam trying to get off the island in the wee hours Sunday morning. A great problem to have!

To prevent his from happening this Saturday I have asked Mayor wlayton that no private cars will be allowed on the island this weekend.

Parking on the mainland with shuttle buses departing every 15 minutes.

Free Kool-Aid will be available on the buses.

Time for all Dawg fans to hunker down in the sand and enjoy what has turned into a wild ride of a season!

What has happened in the past month?

Touchdowns and not FG’s

Going for it on 4th down ! several times…..

The “Bag” is gone.

Wins over UF & AU

A pass to our FB for a touchdown!

Offers to buy rounds of kool-aid, which we now know is code for beer!

All the members of the Dawg Nation calling Fla. Home have been set free. They all walk with a new bounce in their step.

Even a little love for CMB was felt! Yes he did call two very good games UF & AU.

These are some of my recent flashbacks, what say you?

There is still noise about we need not be as giddy as we really did beat anybody except Auburn this year and the east is a weak bunch anyway. The world is flat also.

Your dime your choice. Fault or favor?

I see big picture you get the method and means correct and the results will come against any competition.

Buc calls this process coaching them up! We have improved with each game. Love it.

It is what it is; I am enjoying this team that has pulled itself together.

I don’t think anybody is in a big hurry to add the Dawgs to their schedule in the near future. This team is becoming scary good!

I underline the word TEAM!!!

More bodies coming 2012 signing day that will raise the bar even higher. Bank It !
Buc I hope you enjoyed your wings and BM’s ,you are so right when saying with some wins you want to savor just a bit longer than others. This was one of them for sure. We will visit it again this winter for sure!

It took to until Tuesday for Georgia to get over her Treat overload for this past weekend. She will be ready to go by Saturday!

Her pearls of wisdom for this week:

Play like it was NMS,get an early lead,no injuries and play everyone who dressed out. Then get ready for the nerds.

Huge thanks to our seniors during their last home game- DGD’s all!

Pause and give thanks

Have a great weekend and a safe week.

Mayor wlayton,please save my spot on the beach !

It will be another great night to bark at the moon.

As always “Go Dawgs”!!

Great post as usual yd1. I'm sure I'm not the only one, but as a relavite newcomer to the site, reading your Friday morning posts have become an "unofficial start" to my game-weekend. Keep up the good work!

I think you summed up this team/season in one word..."passion." It's been a while since we've seen true passion on the sidelines between the hedges. Passion is infectious...it starts with one and spreads like wildfire to others. Grantham, Friend, Tereshinski, Murray, Jarvis Jones, Ben Jones, Boykin, and many others...all passionate individuals. The passion started there and has spread throughout the team, into the stands, and all the way through the Bulldawg nation. Yes we still have a ways to go before realizing our ultimate dream of another NC, but having the passion back in the Classic City is a great way to start the journey!


Let's go boys...put on your suits and come our ready for business tomorrow...a trip to the Dome awaits if you do. GO DAWGS!!!!

yd1......will "break-in" to my Kool Aid test kit that's in the frig and drink one to ya in preparation for tomorrow as well.

Tell Georgia I'm bringing DJ (my bulldawg) to play on the beach.

Btw......averagedawg is providing all of us a vacation mountain home to come to.....outstanding and generous. DGD.

Never hurts to add a little taste of history to UGA football. Wish all on this board could have witnessed the feelings that Erskine Russell had for his players and UGA and the fans and alumni.

I honestly believe that history might be repeating itself with the "teacher" that is employed as Defensive Coordinator at UGA now. Anyway, for those that like history and background and facts, good read. This article was printed in 1981-82. God Bless you Erskine Russell.

There's just no question that Erskine Russell—"Erk" to his public—has been the biggest thing to happen to Statesboro, Ga. since Sherman burned the courthouse. Until last spring, Russell was Vince Dooley's right-hand man at Georgia, coaching the national champion Bulldogs' defense; now he's playing midwife to the football team-to-be at Georgia Southern College in Statesboro.

At the moment the Eagles are only a group of freshman walk-ons, and they won't play their first game until Sept. 11, 1982, but the town's agog anyway. Says Jimmy Hines, who, with his father, Jake (a star halfback for GSC's predecessor, Georgia Teachers College, from 1932 to '36), runs the Spee Dee Dry Cleaners across the street from the practice fields, "I wake up in the morning, and I still cannot believe that Erk Russell is coaching football in this town."

In his 17 years as defensive coordinator for the Bulldogs, Russell became known as the heart and soul of the program; certainly he was one of the most visible, and idolized, men in the state. He can't help but be visible. As bald as Mr. Clean, he patrolled the Georgia sideline in black pants and a lucky black windbreaker with cut-off sleeves. He used to get his defensive unit in the right mood during pregame warmups by butting heads with them. They wore helmets and he didn't, which meant that Erk often had rivulets of blood trickling down his shiny pate.

Variously known as the Underdogs, the Wonderdogs and the Junkyard Dogs—all Russell-supplied monikers—they toughed out four shutouts in 1971 and '76 and three in 1967, '69 and last season, when they also shut down Notre Dame 17-10 in the Sugar Bowl to clinch the national title.

Russell may have looked ferocious, but, says a secretary in the Georgia athletic department, "Erk is just as sweet as a pot of honey. I told him I'd just shoot myself if he left." Asked about his days as an offensive guard under Russell (1966-68), Bruce Yawn, a co-owner of Snooky's Restaurant, just across the parking lot from the Spee Dee Dry Cleaners, says, "He ran my butt off day after day, but I was never mad at him. All I could think about was how much I'd like to rub his old bald head."

And it seems everybody in the state feels the same way. As Jimmy DeLoach, an Eagles follower, put it while watching the fledgling Eagles practice the other day, "There was always Dooley on the sidelines with his tie and all, but to most everybody Erk was what Georgia football was all about—getting down in the trenches and buttin' heads."

A year ago it looked as if Russell would become head coach in Athens. Auburn had offered Dooley a reported five-year, $1 million contract to return to his alma mater. "It was pretty cut and dried that I'd have the head coaching job at Georgia," says Russell. "I never really thought the guy would take the Auburn job, but as time wore on and things built up, I could visualize myself as head coach because I had to. I wasn't surprised or disappointed when Dooley chose to stay at Georgia."

Down in the southern half of the state, GSC was preparing to join its neighbors, West Georgia and Valdosta State, in bringing collegiate football back to the area. Since taking over as president of 6,800-student Georgia Southern in 1978, Dr. Dale Lick had heard two questions at every fish fry from Brunswick to Hinesville. One concerned a rural nursing program—the area has a shortage—so Lick saw to it that GSC instituted a program to train nurses. The other question was, "What about football?" Lick ( Michigan State '58) had to ask himself the same question. In a region that had produced Herschel Walker, it seemed odd that folks had to drive four hours to see a college football game.

David (Bucky) Wagner became the Eagles' athletic director last Jan. 1. Ten days later the GSC advisory committee voted to approve efforts to raise $250,000 to field a Division II team, the school's first football team since the 1941 season. "All of a sudden," says Wagner, "here I am without a program, without a stadium, without any scholarships, staff or equipment trying to please a townful of fans who want to beat the 'Dawgs in '83. Now how am I going to get a coach?"

Russell heard about Southern's plans and expressed an interest in the job. Once Lick was convinced that Russell was serious, he asked him straight out, "How can you leave Georgia?" Says Erk, "The challenge of starting from scratch had a particular appeal to me, and the more I thought about it, the more I wanted to do it."

Awesome read Buc-Thanks a bunch for pulling this nugget out from the archives! I was just a toddler when Erk last patrolled the UGA sidelines but I remember him being revered by my extended family down in Coastal GA (Pembroke, Waycross, Savannah areas) who were die-hard Ga. Southern Eagles fans (as well as Dawg fans). He really put Ga So. football on the map & although I wish he would've had his day as Head Coach at UGA, I am a firm believer that all things happen for a reason & Erk simply answered a "calling" to move South & build a powerhouse in Statesboro.

I also share his last name as my first name so even though I never remember seeing Erk Russell in Red & Black, he's always been one of my favorite Dawgs.

Goose, reading your posts and threads, can see where you would appreciate this piece of history. Erk was a beautiful person, never put himself ahead of anyone. Loved the University of Georgia, heck of a coach at Grady High School in Atlanta.

Here I go Brother . . . . I see some of the same things in Grantham. Won't be on campus as an assistant for 17 years, that is a fact. Just somehow hoping that he does not get away. When Grantham says he is not concerned about his contract, I believe that, I believe he is dead set on winning the football game against Kentucky tomorrow.

I believe that he cherishes the thoughts of playing against any team that comes out of the West side. Also believe he will have his defensive troops ready for Tech. UGA has grown up in a short time under some of the coaches that now practice teaching in Athens, Coach Grantham is one of them.

Tomorrow's game should be interesting. Looking forward to the 12:21 p.m. kickoff. Kentucky has nothing to lose, should make for a good old fashioned slobber knocker.

I Love UGA football . . . .

yankeedawg1 wrote: Buc, Never fear about adding to my threads. You can write 10 pages and I would read them all,twice. Your knowledge and feelings for the history of UGA football is a a special gift to this board. Thanks...

wlayton.. Wow a plaque I hope that is nothing like a headstone,way to much kool-aid to drink and shrimp to peel.

Georgia says thanks for the doggie treat tent,me I think you have been getting calls from her treat agent - Buc. No mater I can't and don;t want to win!

Buc, I have heard the same info about VaTech and Beemer being linked to CTG move to UGA.

Like you said we may never know all the workings just the results which is fine by me.

Go Dawgs - I will be running Kool Aid test this evening making sure it meets with the Mayors approval for game time.

You are a good man CharlieBrownyankeedawg1 . . .