SB Nation User Blog: vineyarddawg

... in which I bash Ole Miss fans and administrators

vineyarddawg — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 16:22:50 -0000

I first saw this story in the Athens paper last week and thought to myself, "This will not end well." Sure enough, Dan Jones, the newly-minted Chancellor of the University of Mississippi ordered the marching band this week to stop playing the popular song From Dixie With Love at all athletic events.

Now, don't get me wrong... I actually like Ole Miss. I also would like nothing more than to see Ole Miss football rise to a high level again, because that would mean more TV exposure, and you can never get enough TV time for the ladies of the Grove. (I actually mean the ladies of the grove... that's not a backhanded slap at the football team.)

From Dixie With Love combines Dixie, the de facto Confederate Anthem, with the Battle Hymn of the Republic, which we are all familiar with, and which was one of the most popular Union civil war songs. The furor and outrage has come because during the Battle Hymn portion of the song (at the point which Georgia fans would yell "G-E-O-R-G-I-A" or, possibly, "To hell with (insert team currently being played here)), many Ole Miss fans yell, "The South will rise again."

This chant can be heard in the following video (props to Paul Westerdawg for "braving" the Grove to get this):

Of course, this issue is highly-polarizing, but I would like to chastise both parties here. First, to Dan Jones. Shame on you, Mr. Jones, for inciting this conflagration. I understand that you likely have a Michael Adams-sized need to establish your absolute unquestioned authority as the dictator of Mississippi... most University leaders these days have such a requirement built into their character, it seems. And the easiest way to establish yourself as Il Duce is to arbitrarily knock off a beloved icon or tradition at your school. To claim that a song being sung in jest by the fans is a major threat to the image of the university is simply ludicrous, however. It's clear that the fans are joking, and if you ever actually were present for a performance of the song, you would see Ole Miss fans smirking and laughing every time the words come out of their lips. Do you honestly think that the vast majority of Ole Miss fans, while singing that song, are thinking anything other than, "Ole Miss will rise again" when those words roll across their lips?

Now to the Ole Miss fans. Don't be ignorant. The south has already risen again. Four of the last six Presidents have been from the South. In that same time, no presidential candidate has won an election without taking at least three southern states. Carmakers have relocated and/or opened up new manufacturing facilities in the south. Technology companies have flocked to the south (especially Texas, Georgia, and North Carolina) in incredible numbers. And most importantly to virtually all of us, the SEC is collectively the undisputed king of the college football world.

The fact that the SEC apparently hasn't lifted the state of Mississippi football along with the rest of the conference is your own fault, not ours. I mean, you had Tommy Tuberville and let him leave. Then you brought David Cutcliffe into town, only to ride him out on a rail after coaching the best Manning ever to play at your school. At this point, I'm putting the over/under on Houston Nutt's welcome at 3-4 more years. He's bound to mouth off at exactly the wrong time and tick somebody off, which will tick somebody else off, and it'll probably coincide with one disappointing season, which will be all it takes. You need to get used to the fact that, right now, you're not the Yankees screwing with Joe Torre and Billy Martin. You're more like the Chicago Cubs screwing around with Dusty Baker and Lou Pinella.

Ole Miss fans, change your chant and yell what you really mean... "Ole Miss will rise again."

Let's re-examine this thing for a minute

vineyarddawg — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 16:18:37 -0000

I figure it's now time for a post along the lines of, "we looked good beating a 1-AA team last week, so let's revive some hope for the season."

Not really, of course, but if you look at Georgia's position in the newly-mediocre SEC standings (and potential bowl destinations)... it's really not that bad unless we keep losing.

Georgia's SEC record is currently 3-3, which is good for sole possession of second in the SEC east. (Tennessee also has 3 losses, but only 2 wins thus far.) That speaks to how weak the SEC East is this year, obviously, but even if we were in the SEC West, we'd be tied for 3rd place with... you got it, Auburn.

So, if Georgia manages to pull it together and somehow beat Auburn and Kentucky, we'd be 7-4 and have a final record of 5-3 in the conference. Nothing any of us are going to be writing home about, but not shameful, given where we are now. If we lose to Tech, as I think we will, that puts us at 7-5. Florida and Alabama will both go to the BCS, which leaves a 2-or-3-loss LSU team for the Capital One bowl and a huddled mass of 7-5 teams for the remainder of the top-tier SEC bowl choices. (Auburn would be 7-5 if they lose to Georgia and Alabama, S. Carolina will finish no better than 7-5 in a best-case scenario, and neither will Kentucky or Ole Miss. Tennessee just might, but they're the only ones.)

So, Capital One goes to LSU, and the Outback selects the next East team. They'd probably take Tennessee, since the Vol fans would be more likely to travel in greater numbers to Tampa to play some ~~sucky~~ middle-of-the-pack Big 10+1 team than Georgia fans this year. The Cotton Bowl takes a West team... Auburn or Ole Miss... and that leaves the Peach-Fil-A Bowl. A 7-5 or 8-4 (if we manage to beat Tech) Georgia team would be attractive to the Atlanta Bowl, mostly because they know they'd be virtually guaranteed a sellout. And if you told me at the beginning of the year we'd end up second in the East with an 8-4 record and a Peach-Fil-A Bowl birth... I would have taken it.

Nobody would be happy about it, and I imagine there would be quite a bit of hand-wringing about whether or not this would save Willie Two Thumbs' job (I don't think it would), but at this point, it's our best-case scenario.

What about a worst-case scenario, you say? No thanks... I'll stick with my very-guarded optimism until the result of the Auburn game is known.

Georgia baseball player seriously injured

vineyarddawg — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 20:25:27 -0000

Georgia baseball player seriously injured

It's heartbreaking to hear about accidents like this. I've got family connected to this kid, and from what I've heard, his career is over, and he'll be lucky to walk again.

Also, Mark Richt took the time to visit his hospital room last night, even though they're in the throes of the final few hours before traveling to Jacksonville... now that's class.

The Precipice

vineyarddawg — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 19:24:43 -0000

First of all, let me state for the record that I believe Georgia will win on Saturday in Jacksonville. That has long been my position, and I've no reason to stray from it at this point. Second, let me state that I hate Florida. I hate Florida. What follows is not meant to question my firmly-held belief in an upcoming victory by the Red and Black. Rather, this is a realistic assessment and acknowledgment of what has been circulating through my neural pathways for the last 2 3 weeks.

Come on, be honest... you've been thinking it, too. It's been swirling around in the back of your mind for days, or maybe weeks, if not months now.

What if Florida crushes the Dawgs in Jacksonville again? In spite of all the circumstantial factors that tilt in the Dawgs' favor... the long Mississippi road trip for Florida, the off-week for Georgia, the Dawgs' 7-1 record against defending national champions since 1965, Florida's recent spate of absent offense... what if, in spite of all this, Florida comes waltzing into Jacksonville Municipal Stadium and waltzes out with a 56-3 victory?

In my view, Georgia finds themselves on a very dangerous precipice this weekend. I deign to use political analogies in a football post, but it's not unlike the precipice on which the Democratic Party found themselves in October, 2004. At that time, the Republican Party had maintained control of both houses of Congress for over a decade, and one of the most unpopular Presidents in modern history not only defeated the Democratic candidate with relative ease, but they also picked up seats in both the House and the Senate. People were asking, with incredible sincerity, "Is this the beginning of the end of the Democratic Party?"

As we know, the Democrats turned it around pretty quickly, and a short 5 years later, the Republicans will be finding themselves faced with the same questions if the elections 12 months hence do not turn out well for them. The Democrats found themselves upon a precipice, and instead of falling/jumping off the ledge, they found a way to change, reformulate something about what they were doing, and used it as an opportunity to get both new and old talent to step up to greater things. (Whether you agree with their political views is not the point... simply the situational similarity. Personally, I dislike both of 'em.) What if instead of sweeping the 2006 elections, however, the Democrats found a way to lose further ground? What would have happened then?

Georgia finds themselves in much the same situation in Jacksonville on Saturday. Kyle has mentioned many times the multi-year cycles in this rivalry, which Georgia is inevitably poised to flip back in their direction. (A position, by the way, that I agree with.) The question must be asked, however... what if they don't? What if, instead of showing up and playing an inspired game, they turn the ball over 7 times, get burned over and over by Tim Tebow's newly-found ability to complete a pass over 10 yards, and end up losing by 30+?

My friends, we in the Bulldog Nation do not want to contemplate the horror, angst, and (mostly proverbial) bloodshed associated with an era that such a beatdown could usher in. To be fair, we've already been living part of it in 2002, 2003, and 2005, when Georgia clearly had better teams than the Gators, but still came out on the short end. To fail at this point to even compete successfully against a rival that is practically begging to be knocked from its lofty perch, however, sets a very dangerous precedent that will be more difficult to overcome psychologically than any of us now want to admit.

Don't get me wrong... I am not calling for any coaches to be fired (in this post). I'm not saying that the sky is falling and that the program is an embarrassment (which it most certainly is not). All I'm saying is that if we lose ugly this weekend... you might just want to avoid the entire state of Florida for a few years.

Why I like David Hale... and so should you.

vineyarddawg — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 15:00:58 -0000

Why I like David Hale... and so should you.

This has got to be one of the funniest things I've read in a while. David closely tracks Stacy Searels' movements for his furlough day yesterday (Monday).

The ACC police "bust every football player" patrol strikes again

vineyarddawg — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 16:10:20 -0000

Just read this article stating that Vance Cuff has been arrested and suspended, so he won't be at Vanderbilt. Now, no one can justify driving on a suspended license, which is just a dumb thing to do, but look at the reason he was pulled over (emphasis mine):

Georgia backup cornerback Vance Cuff has been suspended from Saturday's game at Vanderbilt after being arrested Tuesday on misdemeanor charges of driving with a suspended license and emerging from an alley.

...

The arrest occurred after Cuff, riding a scooter, exited an alley next to UGA's Butts-Mehre athletics building and rode down Rutherford Street, which is temporarily closed because of construction. He was stopped for using the closed road and arrested when it was discovered he had a suspended license.

Now, a critic would look at that quote and say, "Well, he was driving down a closed street and the cop stopped him... what's wrong with that?" Well, if the cop stopped Cuff because he saw him driving down a closed street, how would he have known that he "emerged from an alley?" And what the (redacted) kind of crime is "emerging from a (redacted) alley," anyway?

My point is that we've repeatedly seen evidence that the Athens-Clarke County police specifically target athletes and try to "get them" as often (and repeatedly) as possible. I have multiple friends and acquaintances who are law enforcement officials, and I fully support and defend virtually every action they take, because theirs is an incredibly dangerous profession, and they far too often are subject to an "assumption of guilt" that those who break the law are not. Because I support the honest and hard-working "good" cops, though, it fires me up that much more when you see cops abusing their authority and targeting specific groups of people like ~~the~~ a portion of ACC cops clearly do to athletes.

I mean, come on, people. If someone were tailing you every minute of your life in college (as these cops clearly do to athletes), how many times do you think you would have ended up in the paper?

A little perspective

vineyarddawg — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 03:35:17 -0000

A little perspective

Ok, yeah yeah, I know nobody cares about soccer on this board, so just shut up VineyardDawg... but as we're carrying on with the wailing and gnashing of teeth over losing a few ball games, I just wanted to share this link.

Charlie Davies is to US Soccer what Freshman Mohamed Massaquoi was to the 2005 SEC Championship team: an up and coming star, with incredibly promising (though young) talent. He started in last Saturday's game for the U.S. that cliched a World Cup birth in 2010.

Early Tuesday morning, Charlie was a passenger in a car that crashed in Washington DC, killing the other passenger and seriously injuring him and the driver. Davies suffered a broken femur, broken fibula, broken elbow, multiple facial fractures, and a lacerated bladder.

In one fell swoop, this young man's life has been changed forever, and it's likely it will never be the same player again. Certainly, he's lucky to be alive at all. (And certainly, all soccer fans hope he is able to come back, though it seems petty to voice such a hope right now.)

Hopefully, this serves to give us a little perspective on how fragile human life is, and though this diversion of sport is very entertaining and can be all-encompassing to some, there are far more important things in life. Not to mention simply having life and enjoying it to the fullest...

My post-emptive strike

vineyarddawg — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 00:47:20 -0000

I wrote this before the Arkansas game to try and preempt what I thought would be a wave of wailing and gnashing of teeth after getting housed by what had been considered a "lesser" opponent. After losing, but certainly not getting "housed," to an opponent that in no way can be considered "lesser," I sitll see much wailing and gnashing of teeth. In accordance with my original intention, I offer this reply.

I was going to update this to reflect the now-current record of Coach Richt, but I think the original holds more emphasis, since you can see that, no matter how either the Arkansas or the LSU game came out, we're basically in the same boat.

Ok, whatever derogatory comment you're about to make about Mark Richt and/or the coaching staff and/or how horribly embarrassing Georgia has now become... just stop. Hold up for a minute, and consider the following facts:

Mark Richt is still Georgia's winningest head coach (by winning percentage). CMR is 83-24 in 107 games as Georgia's head coach, for a winning percentage of 77.5%. The only other two coaches who have lasted this long before at Georgia are Wally Butts and Vince Dooley, and neither had won as many games or had winning percentages as high in their first 107 games as Georgia's head coach. Neither coach ever asked to leave Georgia, either... both retired and lived in Athens for the rest of their lives (unless Dooley decides pull up and move to Ruston, Louisiana). So, just get used to the fact that Mark Richt is here to stay... and not only is that a good thing, that's a great thing.
The past 8 years have been the most successful 8-year-span in the history of a Georgia football program that does not lack for a historical record of success. (I mean, we're not Florida, which is tied for the second-most zero-win seasons in its history of any current SEC team, and which had won 0 conference championships before 1991.) People always argue that Georgia plays more games now than teams played in Butts' and Dooley's eras, which does drive Georgia's per-season win total up more. The top 10 in the AP poll did exist, however, during the entirety of all 3 coaches' tenures. During his 21 years at Georgia, Wally Butts' teams finished in the top ten 4 times. During his 25 years at Georgia, Vince Dooley's teams finished in the top ten 8 times. Mark Richt has been at Georgia only eight years, but has already had teams finish in the AP top ten 5 times.
Georgia's early season schedule this year is one of the most brutal early stretches in recent memory, and certainly is the most difficult of the Mark Richt era. All of our first four opponents either have had more than one week to prepare for Georgia or played only 1-AA teams and Sun Belt teams before their date with the Dawgs. In fact, some of us predicted a 1-3 start to this season. (Ok, it was just me.)
THE SEASON IS NOT OVER. Georgia has another "bad-situation game" next week, but after that, the schedule evens out, and we actually have an off week before we play the hated Gators (who, right now, I know you think will pummel us like Charleston Southern, but are now far more likely to be overlooking us). As long as the team stays unified, we still have an excellent chance to end up 8-4 and make a trip to the Chick-Fil-A Bowl. Now, I know that makes you recoil in horrir, because at the beginning of the season you were hoping for an unlikely D.J. Shockley-esque SEC Championship run; but an objective look at the facts in the preseason would have shown that expectation to be completely unreasonable.

So, please sit back in your chair, have a beer (or perhaps a nice Rennie Curran kool-aid to help you forget today's game), and try to remain calm. Mark Richt is still a good coach, Georgia is still a great program, and even though we are having a "down" season this year, we will return soon to the success with which we have become so accustomed. (Remember when 8-4 was a good season in the '90's, or even normal in the mid-late 80's?)

Hey, it could be worse... you could be an Ohio State fan.

Wishing you good mental health... and Go Dawgs!

My preemptive strike

vineyarddawg — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 21:06:26 -0000

I think that there's a better than average chance that the Bulldogs will fall in Fayetteville this weekend, dropping Mark Richt's road record when the opponent has more than a week to prepare to 4-5.

If such an event does occur, I feel confident that many TV's in the Empire State of the South will be in grave danger of being defenestrated, and there will be widespread wailing and gnashing of teeth by Dawg fans that have become spoiled by our previous 8 years of incredible success. What follows is my attempt to strike pre-emptively against such panic and knee-jerk reactions.

If you're reading this, and Georgia has just won: Go Dawgs! Bring on Arizona State! (You may ignore the rest of this post.)

If you're reading this, and Georgia has just lost: Please keep reading.

Mark Richt is still Georgia's winningest head coach (by winning percentage). CMR is 83-24 in 107 games as Georgia's head coach, for a winning percentage of 77.5%. The only other two coaches who have lasted this long before at Georgia are Wally Butts and Vince Dooley, and neither had won as many games or had winning percentages as high in their first 107 games as Georgia's head coach. Neither coach ever asked to leave Georgia, either... both retired and lived in Athens for the rest of their lives (unless Dooley decides pull up and move to Ruston, Louisiana). So, just get used to the fact that Mark Richt is here to stay... and not only is that a good thing, that's a great thing.
The past 8 years have been the most successful 8-year-span in the history of a Georgia football program that does not lack for a historical record of success. (I mean, we're not Florida, which is tied for the second-most zero-win seasons in its history of any current SEC team, and which had won 0 conference championships before 1991.) People always argue that Georgia plays more games now than teams played in Butts' and Dooley's eras, which does drive Georgia's per-season win total up more. The top 10 in the AP poll did exist, however, during the entirety of all 3 coaches' tenures. During his 21 years at Georgia, Wally Butts' teams finished in the top ten 4 times. During his 25 years at Georgia, Vince Dooley's teams finished in the top ten 8 times. Mark Richt has been at Georgia only eight years, but has already had teams finish in the AP top ten 5 times.
Georgia's early season schedule this year is one of the most brutal early stretches in recent memory, and certainly is the most difficult of the Mark Richt era. All of our first four opponents either have had more than one week to prepare for Georgia or played only 1-AA teams and Sun Belt teams before their date with the Dawgs. In fact, some of us predicted a 1-3 start to this season. (Ok, it was just me.)
THE SEASON IS NOT OVER. Georgia has another "bad-situation game" next week, but after that, the schedule evens out, and we actually have an off week before we play the hated Gators (who, right now, I know you think will pummel us like Charleston Southern, but are now far more likely to be overlooking us). As long as the team stays unified, we still have an excellent chance to end up 8-4 and make a trip to the Chick-Fil-A Bowl. Now, I know that makes you recoil in horrir, because at the beginning of the season you were hoping for an unlikely D.J. Shockley-esque SEC Championship run; but an objective look at the facts in the preseason would have shown that expectation to be completely unreasonable.

Hey, it could be worse... you could be an Ohio State fan.

Wishing you good mental health... and Go Dawgs!

An open letter to all the haters

vineyarddawg — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 18:37:01 -0000

An open letter to all the haters

I might change a word or two from this letter, but not much.

The level of dumbassery surrounding Saturday's loss by a (hopefully small) very vocal contingent of Georgia fans is really starting to get to me more and more frustrated.