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♦ SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 9, 2006
Former GSU coach Erk Russell dies of stroke
By Donald Heath
Morris News Service
SAVANNAH - He had that
‘lt.’
You can’t always describe
‘lt’ - that intangible qual
ity which makes a person
almost bigger than life.
You just know former
Georgia Southern football
coach Erk Russell had ‘lt.’
And a university, a com
munity, a sport and a family
prospered from his presence.
Friday, Russell died of an
apparent stroke before crash
ing his car in Statesboro,
according to Bulloch County
coroner Jake Futch.
“It’s hard to believe we’re
talking in the past tense
now,” said former Georgia
Georgia Tech cautious heading into /trap game’
By Adam Van Brimmer
Morris News Service
ATLANTA - Georgia
Tech’s schedule lists Samford
as this week’s opponent.
Yet tailback Rashaun
Grant said the Yellow
Jackets must remember to
read the fine print.
“We call that a trap game,”
Grant said. “When you get a
team like Notre Dame and
all the hype one week and
then you play a team where
there is not as much hype,
you have to refocus.”
Samford-like teams
ambushed a couple of
Georgia Tech’s peers last
weekend. Duke and Colorado
UGA ready for tough crowd at Williams-Brice Stadium
By Metre Weiszer
Morris News Service
ATHENS - The annual
South Carolina State Fair
won’t be held in Columbia
until next month, but recent
experience • has taught
Georgia that its trip to adja
cent Williams-Brice Stadium
every other year can be as
stomach-churning as any
rollercoaster.
The 12th-ranked Bulldogs
are prepared to buckle up
and brace for another bumpy
night at the place where they
escaped with victories in two
previous trips under coach
Mark Richt but were pushed
to the limit.
“We go to Columbia, and
we struggle mightily,” Richt
said. “We’ve been very for
tunate to win the last two
times we’ve been there.”
The third and fourth larg
est crowds in Williams-Brice
Stadium history came to the
last two Georgia games, with
more than 84,000 on hand at
each, making the seventh
largest SEC stadium to rival
LSU or Tennessee for pump
ing up the volume.
“It was so loud in there
one time that it seemed like
the building was swaying,”
said Georgia defensive end
Quentin Moses, who played
as a sophomore in 2004.
“It’s pretty crazy,” run
ning back Danny Ware said.
“The stadium’s really not
that big, but there’s so many
people in there the way it’s
built they can get to you and
scream at you even better. It
seems like the sidelines are
right behind you. No matter
if you’re in the game or on
the sidelines, they’re always
screaming at you and you
can hear them clearly.”
It gets cranked up with
the music of “2001: A Space
Odyssey,” considered by
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Southern quarterback
Raymond Gross. “He was
genuine. He was the father
a lot of guys never had. He
was the mentor a lot of guys
needed. He was the coach
everyone wanted to play
for.”
Russell established a lega
cy as a college coach. He took
Georgia Southern’s football
program from scratch and
won three Division I-AA
national championships in
eight years before retiring
after an undefeated 1989
season.
His reputation among
great coaches, however, had
already been cemented while
coordinating the University
of Georgia’s Junkyard Dawg
defense for 17 years under
lost to Division I-AA oppo
nents on the season’s open
ing Saturday.
A similar upset at 3:30
p.m. Saturday in Bobby
Dodd Stadium is unlikely.
Georgia Tech’s 14-10 loss
last week to then No. 2
Notre Dame should sharpen
the team’s focus, head coach
Chan Gailey said.
“I think we realize we
don’t need to take anything
for granted,” he said.
Assuming the Yellow
Jackets avoid an emotion
al letdown this weekend,
Samford is a perfect non
conference opponent. The
Bulldogs run a wide-open
passing offense that will
some among the best entries
in college football.
“The atmosphere there is
electric,” Richt said. “The
way they open the game gets
people real riled up.”
Georgia fell behind 16-0
in 2004 before rallying with
two second-half touchdowns
to pull out a 20-16 victory.
The Bulldogs did not score
an offensive touchdown in
2002 in a 13-7 victory. David
Pollack made a play that will
live in Georgia lore with his
end zone interception.
“We will have to match
their intensity,” Richt said.
“If we give them any kind of
excitement early on, wheth
er we turn it over or they get
a touchdown pass or what
ever it might be, it will light
them up even more.”
South Carolina’s history
is one of mediocrity as coach
Steve Spurrier pointed
out this summer when he
cracked: “Our trophy case
has got an Outback Bowl
championship in it, and
that’s the biggest one.”
No matter, Gamecock fans
show up faithfully.
“It doesn’t matter if
they’re 10-0 or 0-10, their
fans are always going to be
excited and really loud,” said
quarterback Joe Tereshinski,
who will make his first start
in an opponent’s stadium.
“Going into that environ
ment, it is hostile for that
team and then you throw
Coach Spurrier into the mix.
He’s the guy you want to
beat when you’re growing
up in Athens.”
Georgia has won four
straight in the series, but
the Gamecocks have given
Georgia fits home and away
under Richt, except for a
31-7 Bulldogs win in 2003
at Sanford Stadium. The
Gamecocks dealt Richt his
first loss at Georgia, 14-9,
Coach Vince Dooley.
He won numerous Coach
of the Year awardfe and was
inducted into the Georgia
Sports Hall of Fame in
1987.
But Russell’s ‘lt’ didn’t
remain on the football field.
His bald head made him
stand out from afar and his
personality brought people
together. He made the sport
fun for everyone, even tak
ing digs at himself.
“I’ve been in Georgia so
long that my picture gets in
the paper a lot, so I’m bound
to be recognizable. But I
don’t consider that a compli
ment. Hell, Frankenstein is
recognizable,” Russell once
said about his baldness.
“I think everyone is going
test a Jacket secondary that
needs experience.
Samford played three
quarterbacks who complet
ed passes to eight different
receivers in a 37-7 win last
week against Miles College.
Georgia Tech cornerback
Pat Clark said the Bulldogs
won’t change their modus
operandi this week.
They will throw and throw
and throw again, much like
Notre Dame’s Brady Quinn
did last Saturday. Quinn
attempted 38 passes.
“We are expecting that
from every team we play,
considering everyone thinks
we have a weak secondary,”
Clark said. “But that’s not
in 2001, and Georgia was
pushed in a 17-15 victory
last year in Athens.
Georgia is 19-2 in an
opponent’s home stadium
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SPORTS
to miss him,” said Navy
coach Paul Johnson, who
coached on Russell’s staff
for three years. “I don’t
know anyone who didn’t like
him. He gave me a chance to
get started. I probably owe
almost everything to him.
Not many people could have
done what he did at Georgia
Southern.”
Russell’s arrival in
Statesboro came a year
after he helped the Bulldogs
capture a national cham
pionship in 1980. Georgia
Southern athletics director
Bucky Wagner learned that
Russell was looking for a
new challenge. Wagner sold
the Eagles’ new program as
a challenge.
Southern, which discon
going to do anything but get
us better and prepare us for
the teams down the road in
the ACC.”
Georgia Tech’s offense
could use the work too. The
Yellow Jackets ran just 52
plays last week and have
some kinks to work out in
offensive coordinator Patrick
Nix’s scheme in the next two
weeks.
The Jackets face Troy next
Saturday before opening up
Atlantic Coast Conference
play Sept. 21 against
Virginia.
Georgia Tech rolled up
yards early last week. The
offense totaled 188 yards
and scored 10 points on its
under Richt, losing only to
an LSU team that won the
BCS national championship
and an Auburn squad that
went 13-0.
125 Plantation Centre Dr., Ste. 250 * IVlacon
tinued its football program
in 1941 because of World
War 11, kicked off its first
game in 1982. Three years
later, the Eagles were the
darlings of college football,
celebrating a national cham
pionship with a come-from
behind 44-42 victory over
Furman.
“He taught the game of
football, but it wasn’t until
later in life that you realized
he was teaching you some
thing that could be applied
in every day life,” said
Eagles former kicker Terry
Harvin. “His favorite saying
was, ‘Just One More Time.’
That’s what you think every
day you wake up.”
For Gross, ‘Just one more
time’ came true twice. His
first five possessions against
the Irish.
The Yellow Jackets strug
gled after halftime, though,
once Notre Dame keyed
its defense on wide receiv
er Calvin Johnson. The
Jackets gained just 71 yards
and failed to convert a third
down.
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HOUSTON DAILY JOURNAL
late fumble inside the 10-
yard line was a key play in a
17-12 loss to Furman in the
1988 national championship
game. Russell hugged Gross
and his mother after the
game and said the Eagles
would be back next year.
Southern won titles the next
two years.
“I remember when we
came back against Maine
and everyone was asking
what did Coach Russell say
to the team at halftime,”
Harvin said.
“He didn’t have to say
anything. He just had that
‘lt’ about him and we knew
we let him down and there
wasn’t anyone in that lock
er who wanted to let him
down.”
“There’s no doubt we can
go out there and execute,”
Nix said. “It’s our job to
score more than 10 points.
It’s my job as coordinator to
get more than that.”
Reach reporter 'Adam,
Van Brimmer at adam.
vanbrimmer@morris.com or
404-589-8424.
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