My Bulldawg Bruthren and Silver Britches Sistren(?):
I want to start by saying: Mistakes happen. We all make 'em, and we're not here to put any more pressure on the young men we pull for each fall Saturday. However, if you see a problem, true leadership requires that you bring a solution to the table. We are here to help, and I suggest that we haven't been doing all we can as loyal fans of the Red and Black. That's right...as SuperFan would likely say, it's
our fault.
After seeing
Ben's recent email (see bottom of this post) regarding the "coaching up" of our WR's, I had a brainstorm and went straight to the one resource that may help us:
The lunar calendar.
http://aa.usno.navy.mil/data/docs/MoonPhase.htmlFriends, there will be a
Full Moon at midnight
(that's 12 o'clock in the AM) Saturday Oct. 7th, just in time for the Arrival of the Great Pumpkin, pictured here:
Actually, this is what happens when you leave Athens with a loss. It might be the Vol Walk, for all I know/care. But, I digress.
This full moon will also mark
our last shot this season as true Dawg Fans to correct one glaring problem before the Really Big Games hit our schedule: the
DropsiesIn olden times,
dropsy was a medical term for swelling of soft tissue due to the accumualtion of excess water. Usually, this was a physical symptom of something more serious, such as congestive heart failure. For our purposes, it is the immediate rejection of a tempoary skin graft of pigskin by the soft tissue of the hands. It presents in unusually high pressure situations as well as second and 3 while up by 21, and is generally thought to be psychological in origin.
I am not calling specifically for UGA Psych majors to help. If you ever parked illegally in the Psychology Dropoff/Pickup lot between East Campus and Baldwin St., you can put this experience to use to help our receivers' ailing paws.
Now, without piling on or calling out any names, a little history on the affliction. It has plagued us ever since the end of the '94 Bammer game in Tuscaloosa: We needed just one first down to run out the clock... there was a Zeier bullet right to the gut of a Dawg receiver--dropped. The dropsies most recently appeared in this past Saturday's opener, right there in the end zone. You might think we're leaving someone out in this little trip down memory lane, but we'll get to him shortly. To be perfectly fair, we have seen some mighty big catches made by our beloved Dawgs: The "hobnail boot", the 1996 catch at the end of regulation w/Auburn that sent us to overtime, the even bigger catch at Auburn in 2002 that propelled us to the SEC Championship. We're just looking for consistency on balls that
should be caught.
Here's where we step in:If anyone on the Dawg list can take care of the following items, I think we can help our WR's. This may seem a bit drastic and possibly harsh, but an ounce of prevention towards the start of the season is better than a pound of cure later (more on that below)
- One live chicken (or a bucket of chicken from Weaver D's)
- Unpaid UGA parking ticket from Psychology parking lot. (Bonus points for citations in President Adam's personal parking complex)
- A 30-second loop recording of Munson trying to pronounce "Massaquoi" . Edit in bites of Munson's pleading, "Run, Lindsey!" from 1980.
- A lock of Terrance Edwards' hair. You know, we better include a couple of his fingernail clippings, too.
- An empty bottle from a previous "Dawg Pound", preferably one before the SEC Championship game
- A rosin bag used by Greg Maddux while an Atlanta Brave. (Why Maddux? Did you ever see any hard hit ball get past him? The man is like a cat)
- That voodoo lady from Savannah that was in "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil"
- Have voodoo lady stop by Sonny Seiler's house on her way out of town and get UGA VI to donate some Dawg-slobber. A couple ounces should do for prevention, don't you think?
At the aformentioned appointed time...midnight under the full moon, a select few Dawg fans and the voodoo lady will gather by the cemetary just across the Oconee River from Sanford Stadium. The Munson loop begins...the gathered items (excluding the voodoo lady)are slowly consumed by fire...the group chants, "5, 10, 15, 20! 25, 30!" By now, the chicken is good and warmed up, so everyone eats a piece and goes back to the hotel for a likker drink (or to the tailgate spot to sit in the car lest the Adams Tailgate Patrol arrest you for Thinking Ahead)...
While it would be better for the mojo to get inside the stadium, post-9/11 who really thinks stadium security will believe your story that you just wanted to re-enact "Munson's Greatest Calls" by the light of a small bonfire on the 50? To make things worse, Munson pronouncing "Massaquoi" over and over would probably sound like Arabic...
The "pound of cure" nobody wants? Ask UGA how he got house-broken.
Ben's Analysis
I've been biting my tongue on this QB thing for months now, but it's starting to hurt too much so I have to chime in real quick. Simply put, I feel there are 9 wins on our schedule with virtually any of our QB's. However, the potential for a tenth maybe an eleventh win should we get a couple breaks in a key game rest with the QB's with a greater potential and play-making ability. Joe T appears to be an efficient game manager and should be perhaps even more error-free than a couple of the youngins for awhile. But the key games on our schedule (TN, Aub, and Fla)will require the QB of choice to make a play at somepoint to turn the game. I do not see that eminating from Joe T's ability level. If CMR's plan is to continue to start him in games until the youngins separate themselves in a pecking order, that is understandable. I just sincerely hope that by the TN game, Stafford or Cox have reached the level needed to be the starter. Because that is what will be required should we be looking to return to theGA Dome for anything besides the Peach Bowl. Maybe it was just me, but did anyone else see a difference in the QB's when they took the field? When Stafford took the field, you could just see he was looking to make something happen and move the ball. That was his primary focus, to go out and move the team. With Joe T, it seemed he came out to keep things "safe", not mess up, play the percentages and manage the game. That's all great for 8 or 9 teams on our schedule. But we're not going to be judged in those games- we'll be judged in the handful of games that will test us and require us to really make some plays and come out of the "safe" mode. Aub will eat us alive with that mentality. If we're going to lose to Aub- we need to leave all our bullets on the field at least and know we got beat. But lining up with a"Chan Gailey" at QB ain't going to get the job done this go-round.
On a better note- for the first time ever, our secondary is exciting to watch. Even the backups have the play-making ability. That is what is required to contend for titles. Our defense as a whole looks very strong and deep at most positions. As always though, if we could find a way to coach our receivers up- we'd be in the upper echelon of teams year in and year out. Our RB's are deep, our OL will come around to be solid by mid-season, but every player on our team responsible for catching footballs has problems (short of Mo Mass). Coach Eason is one of the smartest criminals around for continuing to find ways to receive a paycheck. Was there anything at all in the game Saturday (against a joke AA team no less) that looked good from our WR's ?? I can't think of much outside of a couple nice blocks for our RB's down field. This is the fifth season now that exposes our lack of development at the position. Our best receivers coming out of camp were Mo Mass (obviously) and a cornerback converted to WR. What does that say about how we've handled the position the last fewyears ? Still a glaring problem and will affect the offense this year yet again. All the more reason to have a QB that can make a play and have a serious impact on the play of our WR's. Just one man's opinion of course.
Ben