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The Red and Black
Saturday, November 14,1981
Pag'
;e 2
The game people just hate to lose
Today’s game between Georgia and Auburn is one which
players don’t have to get psyched for — they hate each other
anyway. It’s kind of difficult to look across the line of
scrimmage and eye a Temple Owl and say, ‘Tm gonna
gouge your eye and knock the fool out of you, mistah, 'cause I
hate your guts.”
I’m sure there will be plenty of fighting in the trenches
today.
Aubum-Georgia is the oldest rivalry in the South, and
players on both teams hate to lose. Fans of both teamffhate to
lose.
And because there have been so many migrations from
Athens to Auburn and vice versa, the transplanted people
hate to lose to the other school from whence they came. An
example: Vince Dooley is an Auburn alumnus. Auburn Head
Coach Pat Dye is a Georgia alumnus. Dye, in fact, played on
the 1959 Georgia team which beat Auburn for the
Southeastern Conference championship. It was the last time
a Georgia team won a Southeastern Conference cham
pionship in Athens. Since Dooley became head coach at
Georgia, the Dogs have won four SEC titles — in 1966, 1968,
1976 and 1980 — and all have been won at Auburn.
Pat Dye would like to see that bit of irony remain un
changed.
The Dogs, however, have been rolling since the fourth
game of the season. And they should win the football game
today if they don’t turn the ball over nine times.
Incentives, as usual, abound.
Sure, Georgia can collect its second consecutive SEC
championship and keep its national championship hopes
Mack Browning
alive. And Georgia can win for itself a trip to New Orleans on
New Year’s Day.
But did you know there are other incentives?
Remember back to 1979 when Georgia was trying to upset
its way into the Sugar Bowl. You’ll remember that they
couldn’t beat the Atlantic Coast Conference, but could beat
every SEC opponent That is, everyone except Auburn.
Auburn had a superior team, and the Tigers ran Georgia
off the field. Joe Cribbs and James Brooks provided enough
horror for the Bulldogs. But the Auburn fans were atrocious.
After the game several Auburn fans charged the hedges,
and with no skill at all, proceeded to trim the hedges
surrounding the playing field. They didn’t do a good job. The
gashes in the neatly trimmed hedges were an insult to injury
on a day as miserable as it was.
Perhaps I can offer an explanation for the Auburn fans’
behavior. In their ecstasy they must have decided to take
some shrub home with them to brighten up their God
forsaken plain.
But they should have asked.
Already that year, ACC fans had scribbled messages on the
Sanford Stadium walls. Some are still there: Virginia 31,
Georgia 0. That one hurt, so Auburn’s folly was the one that
broke the camel’s back, so to speak.
After today’s game I’d like nothing better than for Auburn
to go home wishing they had never heard of hedges
And you probably could have guessed that Auburn folk
aren’t good mathematicians.
Back when Georgia-Auburn games were still played in
Columbus, and Auburn had good football teams, an Auburn
man would keep the statistics for the game. For every five
yards a Bulldog carrier would get, the statistician would give
the runner two yards. For every three yards he would ac
tually run, he would be credited for only one. During the
course of the game, Georgia would be cheated out of 80-100
yards in total offense while Auburn’s defense would rack up
high marks in the national defensive statistics.
It’s time to regain those lost yards.
But more importantly, it's time for the Georgia football
team to get down to the business at hand — and that is for the
Bulldogs to win today and capture another SEC cham
pionship.
Auburn’s offense should play right in to Georgia’s strength
— its defense. And Herschel Walker should get more yardage
than the 77 he accumulated last year at Auburn. The final
looks like Georgia 28, Auburn 0.
Mack Browning is sports editor for The Red and Black.
SEC teams grade out mediocre in 1981 season
Mike Christensen
Something happened to the Southeastern Conference
schools on their way to the head of the class of college foot
ball.
They quit listening to their teachers.
They quit studying for their exams.
They quit doing something that they did last year when
they compiled the best out-of-conference record of any of the
major leagues of college football.
The 10 SEC schools were a collective 34-19 against non
conference foes a year ago. And the league sent four teams to
bowls (with a deserving fifth team left out) and produced the
national champion for the third consecutive season.
The SEC was arguably the best balanced conference in the
nation during the 1980 season and promised to be just as
tough, if not tougher, this time around. But something went
wrong.
The 1981 season has not been a good one for SEC schools by
any stretch of the imagination. The non-league record
currently stands at 26-22-1, only three SEC teams are really
deserving of post-season invitations, and only one team has
even a remote chance at claiming the national cham
pionship.
In fact, if I were to pass out grades to the SEC schools at
this point of the season, I would be hard-pressed to award
more than a few grades above C — that curiously acceptable
standard of mediocrity.
I’d have to give the only A to Georgia. Sure I'm biased, but
when you consider the Bulldogs' pre-season expectations and
their performance to date, 1 think that grade is justifiable.
1 don’t have to tell you about all the seniors (20 to be exact)
who graduated off the national championship team, or all the
worries — not wholly unfounded — that eternal pessimist
Vince Dooley had before the 1981 season began.
But the Bulldogs have compiled an 8-1 record going into
Saturday’s clash with Auburn, stand No. 4 in both the wire
service polls and have shots at both another SEC title and the
national crown.
The Dogs passed a major exam last Saturday in
Jacksonville, coming from behind to beat Florida, and all of
the other wins have come pretty easily.
The only blotch on the record, of course, is that dreadful
nine-turnover job against Clemson, a team that has proven to
be one of the country’s best. The undefeated Tigers are
ranked second in both polls.
So give the Dogs an A, A-minus at the lowest.
The rest of the league's report card:
ALABAMA: I can’t see giving the Tide anything higher
than a B. Sure they’re 7-1-1 overall, 5-0 in the league and
ranked sixth in both polls, but they have not even roughly
resembled Bear Bryant’s championship teams of a couple of
years ago. The offense has struggled most of the year against
a slate of teams whose defenses are not among the nation's
best, to put it kindly. Throw in the fact that 'Bama lost to a
pitiful Georgia Tech team and was tied by Southern
Mississippi, and the grade of B seems appropriate. (A win
over Penn State Saturday would certainly boost the Tide’s
score.)
MISSISSIPPI STATE: The Maroon Bulldogs are 6-3
overall and 3-1 in the conference, which ain’t that bad, but
better things were expected of this team. (One poll had them
ranked No. 4.) The Bulldogs have shown a tendency to
“play” every other weekend or so. Whip Florida, fall flat
against Missouri and struggle past Colorado State. Beat a
good Miami team, get lucky against Auburn and then lose to
Alabama and Southern Miss. Not A-type work. Give 'em a B.
AUBURN: I’d have to give Pat Dye’s first Tiger team a B-
minus, taking into account what he’s had to work with this
year, which wasn’t much. They’re 5-4 overall and 2-2 in the
league with wins over LSU and Florida and tough losses to
Nebraska and Mississippi State. OK, so they lost to Wake
Forest and will probably drop their last two (Georgia and
Alabama), but the Tigers rate a high mark for exceeding
expectations.
FLORIDA: A tough team to grade. A problem student, so
to speak. The Gators appeared in a few of the pre-season Top
20's and figured to contend for SEC honors, but they’re only 5-
4,2-3. Three of the four losses were to quality teams (Miami,
Mississippi State and Georgia), but unfortunately those three
are the only quality teams the Gators have faced. A season
ending win over Florida State would help matters, but as of
today the Gators get a C-plus.
TENNESSEE: C, a low C. The Vols are 5-3, 1-2, but like
Florida, they’ve failed their only major tests (Georgia,
Southern Cal and Alabama) and failed them miserably.
Who’ve they beaten? Try Colorado State, Auburn, Georgia
Tech, Memphis State and Wichita State. Need I say more?
Tennessee may well finish 8-3, but don't be deceived. This is
no honor student.
Staff photo/l-arr) C'utchall
Bulldogs have rolled since loss to Clemson
LSU: One of the biggest disappointments of the year, the
Bengals (3-5-1, 1-3-1) get a D. The Tigers were ranked in a
few Top 20’s (Sports Illustrated for one), but they’ve been,
well, terrible. The only wins have come against patsies
Oregon State, Rice and Kentucky.
KENTUCKY: I’ll give the Wildcats a D simply because 1
don’t have the heart to fail anybody. Kentucky wasn’t ex
pected to do much this year, but the Cats (2-7,1-3) have done
virtually nothing. After an opening win over North Texas
State, the Cats lost seven straight before upsetting — yes,
upsetting — Vanderbilt last Saturday.
VANDERBILT: The Commodores, not one of the league’s
most talented teams, have put forth a good effort and deserve
a C. They’ve found an offense and a quarterback in Whit
Taylor, and only a porous defense has kept them from better
than a 3-6,1-4 record. Vandy has a good shot at finishing 5-6,
lofty stuff for this school.
OLE MISS: The Rebels (3-5-1 and 0-3-1) have done about
what people figured they would. They won their first three,
including a win over South Carolina, but then quarterback
John Fourcade was struck by injuries and they’ve gone
downhill. How ’bout a C-minus for the Rebels.
Mike Christensen is assistant sports editor for The Red and
Black.
msmm ran hi®©!
Charles H. Bussell, General Manager
Mack Browning, Section Editor
Steve Beard, Production Manager
David Baines, Advertising Manager
Nancy Shepherd, Photography Editor
Contributors: Charles Aaron, Mike Christensen, Jackie
Crosby, Lenny Daniel, Steve Frankel. Bill Krueger, Jim
Mansour, Brian Moersch
Production staff: Sonya Bolton, Karleen Chalker, Brenda
Cleveland, Lisa Morgan, Joy Pennington, Dara Sawyer
Cover art by Steve Beard
Between the Hedges The Hed and Black guide to Georgia football is a supple
ment to The Red and Black, a student new spaper serving the University com
mumty "Between the Hedges" used by permission of Jesse Out la r (author of
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