Welcome to Tuesday, Bulldog fans! Yet there is a sense of impending… something. Things are definitely stirred up – a hurricane in the Atlantic (no word if it is a cross-fire hurricane), the false fall is gone and summer tries to bake us one more time, beloved and despised coaches are on the verge of being fired, and Indiana looks like an established football program. To top it all, an evil empire descends unto Athens this weekend, bringing all manner of bad mojo and questionable choices in elected
officials. Is this another harbinger of doom? Let’s ask the experts… Ladies & Gentlemen, The Rolling Stones!
Yeah, we’re not going with the Paint It Black. Been there, been hurt by that.
Now let’s turn to news and notes of the Georgia Bulldog variety:
ESPN College GameDay is not coming to Athens this weekend. Are you upset? Of course you’re not, you’re a Bulldog. Yet the #1 ESPN/ABC broadcast team will eschew the other top matchups of the weekend, and will pontificate from Sanford Stadium to a degree that I’m sure will draw the ire of some (and possibly most). They called the same 2024 matchup in Tuscaloosa, so maybe we can get the 2H Fowler/Herbie and not the 1H version.
According to Kirby Smart, the extra time and even this week’s preparation for Alabama is no different than most weeks. In his weekly pre-game press conference, Coach Smart emphasized points such as “we work on everything”, and that Georgia has worked on teams other than the Crimson Tide with the off week. I urge you to watch the press conference, if only to see Coach Mark Richt talk about his 3rd Annual Dawg Bowl charity function coming up next month. DGD. Period.
Since it’s only been about a month since we last visited the topic, time to start cranking on the ol’ “Who are UGA’s biggest SEC rivals” machine. Tonight the Southeastern Conference will release 2026-2029 conference game slates, detailing the 9 conference games for each program and which will then tell us the 3 annual rivalry games for each team. If you trust Twitter, this post by Chris Low says we keep Auburn and Florida, and pick up SCjr. I don’t think that is a surprise. LSU and Alabama however are not what I was expecting.
Coach Mark Richt was not shy about showing affection to his main squeeze on the Bulldog sidelines during his tenure. So what is the big stink everyone is raising about the same at the 2nd oldest state chartered university? They just can’t beat us to the punch in anything. Maybe the difference is Mark Richt’s muse was his lawful wife Katherine, who was a similar age to Coach, and she actually worked on the sidelines as a water treatment engineer.
Humility is only a week or so away. And now we know how we can watch it. The Bulldogs second straight home SEC game is to host the Kentucky Wildcats, and broadcast by ABC in the noon slot. The October 4th tilt is late enough in the season to not be unbearably hot (most likely – cue DaveTheDawg and his meteorological forecasting skills), and also not late enough for UK fans to have given up on football and turned to basketball. But I’m sure they’re happy about Bruce Pearl’s retirement.
It is only fitting that Alabama returns two key pieces of their team from injury just in time for our game. We want to beat them at full strength, leaving no questions or doubters. (Actually, I would be quite satisfied with a win even if they all caught a mild, non-threatening GI virus, were hungover from the Athens social scene, or if they suffered multiple key offsides and roughing penalties. I’ll take whatever I can get.)
In some Dawgs on Tour action, 3 of the 24 players competing in this week’s Ryder Cup are former Georgia Bulldogs. Harris English and Russell Henley will don the stars and stripes, and Sepp Straka represents Europe in the biannual match play competition, held this year at Bethpage State Park in NY. And it won’t hurt to have former ‘Dawg Kevin Kisner as a US Assistant Captain neither. If it wasn’t Alabama, my eyeballs and ears would definitely be hunting some golf coverage. At least the day’s play will conclude before Georgia kicks off Saturday night.
It isn’t hate week, but maybe it’s dread week? I’d like to see the Bulldogs get some shelter with a comfortable win, otherwise we’re gonna fade away. The game, children, is just a shot away. And as always…
GO ‘DAWGS!!!
