Glory, Glory...HALLELUJAH!!!!

My first trip to Jacksonville since the victory in 2004 proved to be victorious this time around. I guess that means I am going to have to make the trip every year. I don't care how ugly the victory was, it was still a victory. And in this series, that is all that matters.

I will only spend a little breath on the bads, because we all know them. Special teams...WTF. Blair needs to see a shrink or something. The kick coverage was horrible too, even though I noticed a few more starters like Ogletree and Samuel out there. Murray made some great passes, but missed a couple of easy wide open throws. No where near as bad as last year, but still. Everything else wasn't perfect, but we won, so they are forgiveable. Now, onto the bright spots.

• People can give Todd Grantham crap all he wants about being a hothead, but he is one hell of a defensive football coach. He has turned this team into one of the best in the country in just two years. After the first play of the game that went for 72 yards, Florida had a grand total of around 160 yards. That is phenomenal against ANY team. The blitz worked well and we did exactly what you are supposed to do to a quarterback with a gimpy leg, make him feel uncomfortable.
• Jarvis Jones has been in beast mode all season, but it really showed. Man, I wish he would have came to Georgia straight out of high school. Grantham gets a lot of the credit for the defensive improvement, but I think Jones deserves a little bit as well. He is the play maker we needed to make the rest of the scheme work.
  
• Ogletree. Bad ass. All I need to say.
• Crowell had another solid game but the injuries keep biting him. I was proud to see him come back on the final drive and pick up a huge first down. People seem to be a little down on him right now, but come next season, injuries and conditioning will not be a problem.
• Coach Richt and Mike Bob deserve a lot of credit as well. The offensive game plan was pretty damn good. If Murray had not been all over the place with a few passes (and Walsh could actually make 30 yard field goals) this game could have been very one-sided. The play calling was very good.
• Hello Christian Conley! A couple of huge catches and one key PI call. It makes me giddy to think about the wide receiver position next season. King, Mitchell, Brown, Bennett, Wooten, Conley, and 6'7'' Lonnie Outlaw. That's a lot of size an experience for Murray to throw to.
• My final nod of the week goes to the much maligned Richard Samuel. He may still fall over way to easy when hit from the side and may never live up to the 5 star recruit he was out of high school, but Saturday this kid wanted that game and it was his determination that keyed the strong second half from the Dawgs. He ran hard and put his head down on every carry and showed the kind of emotion that has been missing in the Georgia backfield the last few years. When he crossed the goal line to give Georgia the lead, his excitement made me finally believe we were going to win the game. 17 carries for 58 yards may not be an impressive line, but this kid had one hell of a football game. It has been a long time, but in honor of Samuel's first touchdown since September 19, 2009, I present to you the return of the RICHARD SAMUEL TOUCHDOWN PYGMY GOAT (for more info, read this)

This was just a great weekend. A gritty, gutsy effort for the Dawgs. This is the type of game that Georgia loses in this series, but we somehow found a way to win. The celebration was great and my favorite quote came from Georgia receiver Michael Bennett:

"I've never seen so many drunk people in my life. I jumped in crowd and all I could smell was whiskey."

And in victory, what a glorious smell that is!

GO DAWGS!!!

Richard Samuel and His Pygmy Goat are moving to Linebacker!

Coach Richt announced today that Richard Samuel will indeed move to linebacker under Todd Grantham's 3-4 defense. Coach Richt said Samuel was anxious to make the move and I think this will definitely help turn his career around. While Samuel had some decent plays at running back, I think he always had the mentality of a linebacker. This play will go down as Samuel's most memorable on the offensive side:

When Earl and I went and saw him play at Cass in '07, he was definitely more impressive on the defensive side of the ball. We were there to witness what people simply called The Play, when Samuel blocked a 20 yard field goal attempt at the end of the half by jumping over the Sandy Creek offensive line. He then picked the ball up and ran it back for a 96 yard touchdown. If Samuel can bring plays like this one to Georgia's defense over the next two years, he will make himself one hell of a linebacker.

Of course, with Samuel moving to defense, it means he will not be scoring too many (if any more at all) touchdowns. With that, I am retiring the Richard Samuel Touchdown Pygmy Goat:

Give 'em hell on defense, 22!

GO DAWGS!!!

The Pygmy Goat strikes again!

Richard Samuel broke off this 80 yard run against the Hogs last night:



Pygmy Goat Touchdown Count = 2

I'll be back later with my complete thoughts on the shootout victory over the Razorbacks.

GO DAWGS!!!

Richard Samuel and the Cass High School Pygmy Goat

Over the years, Earl and I have taken a number of trips to high school stadiums to check out future Dawgs in action. We've seen Caleb King run for nearly 280 yards and 4 TDs against Grayson, Washaun Ealey lead ECI past the semifinals in the Dome in 2007, and Christian Robinson man the linebacker position for GAC. But, out of any trip that we have taken over the years, the best experience we have ever had visiting a future Dawg was our fall 2007 trip to Cass High School in Cartersville, GA to see current Georgia running back Richard Samuel.

Cartersville is home to one of the largest Budweiser Breweries in the Southeast.

We arrived at the Cass High School stadium expecting a good game between the Cass Colonels and Calvin Johnson's high school team, the Sandy Creek Patriots. Samuel was being recruited as an athlete because he played both linebacker and halfback for Cass. We didn't have to wait long to see the talent that made him a five star recruit. Earl would describe Cass's first offense play of the game to a friend in an email a few weeks later:

"The best was the first play of the game for Cass, though, when he lined up at FB on an off-tackle play, and absolutely killed the LB. I have never seen a harder hit in a HS game in my life. We were confused when he lined up at FB, but holy hell. It was one of those, "Whoa", moments. I love football.

While Samuel was clearly the best player on the field, Sandy Creek was clearly the more dominant team. With Sandy Creek on the verge of going up 20 - 6, Samuel made what would simply be known as "The Play" amongst recruiting websites. On a short field goal attempt, Samuel jumped over the offensive line, blocked the field goal, and proceeded to go 97 yards the other way for a touchdown. You can check out the play here for yourself.

Samuel was clearly the best player on the field and he had just turned 16.

While the first half ended on an amazing play, the most memorable part of our trip to Cass High School took place during halftime. After Cass kicked the extra point and the teams left for the locker rooms, the Cass announcer came over the speaker.

"Ladies and gentlemen, keep your seats as tonight we announce the winner of our raffle contest. The winner of the raffle will take home the Cass High School Pygmy Goat!!!"

I'm not making this up.

As Earl and I looked at each other in amazement, out onto the field the walked a tiny goat with a little Cass blanket over its back. They were really giving away a goat as a raffle prize. The winner of the goat ended up being the principal at the local middle school. The announcer joked that if he did not claim his prize that night, someone would be over at his house at 6:00 AM the next morning to deliver him his new goat.

After the game, all the talk was about the potential for Samuel at linebacker and the ridiculousness of the Pygmy goat. We were shocked to hear the news that Samuel was being recruited as a halfback as opposed to a linebacker, but after this past weekend, we have seen where his hitting ability can come in handy.

In honor of Richard Samuel touchdown this season, we will now present the Official Richard Samuel Touchdown Goat!

Let's hope we see many more of these at Bubba N' Earl this fall.