Bill King has a post up at his AJ-C blog in respose to the USA Today article on the golden eras of all the D-1 football programs.
USA Today points to Georgia’s stretch from 1980-3 as its golden era. As Bill notes, it’s hard to argue with this legacy:
… when Vince Dooley’s Bulldogs were 43-4-1, Herschel Walker won the Heisman and the undefeated 1980 Dogs took the national championship.
But there was something else in play back then, more intangible in nature. You didn’t want to leave a Dooley team hanging around, because those squads possessed an uncanny ability to pounce on a key error and convert it into a win. The post-Herschel, post-Erk 10-9 Cotton Bowl win over Texas is the best known example of that Dawg resilience.
It’s something that we’ve seen crop up under Richt on occasion, but never to the level that we grew accustomed to in the first half of the 80’s. That’s what I most fondly remember from that period.
And that’s why, after all this time has passed, one game from that time continues to register the greatest shock to me as a Georgia fan.
I still remember how stunned I felt sitting in the stands after that game. My best friend looked at me and said, “that’s the end of the Dooley era.” He didn’t mean it in the sense that Dooley was going to be ousted as head coach. He simply meant that the old magic was gone. And he was right.
Get The Picture 
Is the first and only time Shula looked like Snake Stabler the start of the punishment section of today’s program?
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Lot of similarities between that game and the Hobnail Boot game. What goes around comes around.
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we rushed 4 against a large OL and it appears our DB’s were playing not to give up the big play.
And they didn’t. They gave up several small ones which resulted in the winning TD.
This was indeed the end of the ole time magic.
Good thing is (PAY ATTENTION) is that no program, no matter how invincible they may seem today, will carry the torch of lady luck forever.
FWIW – Florida will one day have luck become their most cancerous enemy.
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It should be noted that, even in the Urban Era, the Gators have had some hilarious pants-soiling moments, from Urban’s meltdown after LSU ’05 the not-even-the-refs-can-bail-you-out-now ending to the South Carolina game later that year to Tebow meekly attempting to pick up a fumble before being obliterated by Ellerbe to Wendy’s Pierre-Louis XIV making Stafford the #1 pick in the NFL Draft. It’s just that, yeah, they’ve won some titles in there too.
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“FWIW – Florida will one day have luck become their most cancerous enemy.”
The above two quotes are hilarious. Especially, “It’s just that, yeah, they’ve won some titles in there too.”
I guess you’re right, it’s just a couple of titles. The 2005 LSU and 2007 Georgia losses were a waaay bigger deal, and we still can’t get over it. We absolutely grind our teeth down thinking about those two all the time, even when watching highlights of all the other ass-whippings of Georgia, Ohio State, etc. while surrounded by championship trophies. I mean, when you think about it, Florida has only won twice the number of Georiga’s titles in just 3 years because they are in a high water period of luck. You really put us in our place with your sobering reminder. Now you’ve got me all worried about when Florida’s “luck” will run out. I have been served.
Will Florida win forever? Of course not.But luck one way or the other will not turn the entire fortunes of Georgia, Florida, or any other program, at least certainly not for a period spanning years or decades. A pathetic display by the last two posters.
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Thanks, troll!
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We’re not the ones saying that the losses are a big deal. Corch used those exact words “big deal” to describe the 2007 GA loss. Do you think he called his timeouts in the 2008 game to avoid penalties, or because the 2007 loss keeps him up at night because it’s such a “big deal?” We’re not the ones who cry after losses like Corch and GPOOE.
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ugh, that was a tough thing to swallow after getting back from lunch
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Georgia had an excessive celebration penalty? Will they never learn?
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Scott,
that is exactly what I thought. How careless!
We gave them the equivalent of one, maybe two, first downs which was the difference.
An additional 10 yards would have likely run out the clock……….
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WTH was Willie Martinez doing coaching the defense in 1985!
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Exactly how I felt. UGA has NEVER, in my memory, gotten a penalty for unsportsmanlike conduct following a score where the other team didn’t get all, or part of, those points back. It has been uncanny. I have become so paranoid about this I am hesitant to get excited until I see there is no laundry on the field. CMR and I have even exchanged ideas on how to best prevent this. We had this problem well before Penn Wages and Meyer overreacted. Now we have a target on our backs and should be even more aware. This Bama win was definitely a gift from the penalty (and I don’t feel a team celebration from enthusiasm should be more than a delay of game….much different from a taunting/showboating event.)
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one of the most soul crushing losses I can recall.
Alabama had kicked our asses up and down the field all night, but we managed to stay within a TD. And, then, like the Cotton Bowl game a couple of years earlier, we capitalize on an Alabama mistake and grab the lead late. It seemed like a classic Dooley win….hang tough, hang tough, force an error, cash in, pull out the win.
What that game said to me wasn’t so much that the Dooley era was over, as that Bill Lewis had finally, truly, and completely destroyed Erk Russell’s defensive tradition. I began to hate Bill Lewis at the Dan Marino Sugar Bowl. My hate for Bill Lewis intensified after Todd Blackledge and Greg Garrity burned us deep for what would prove to be the winning score. It was this game, however, that proved to be strike 3 for me with Bill Lewis.
Serves Tech right that they hired him. I’m only sorry they didn’t hang on to him longer. Although, it’s hard to see how our record against them could be much better than it is, even if he’d stayed a few more years.
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I know the Blackledge to Garrity score was the next year’s Sugar Bowl after the Marino debacle. My apologies for not making that clear; having to relive the horrors distracted me.
oddly, while I hated Todd Blackledge for a long time, I think he’s a great analyst, and I feel that he’s always been very fair to UGA in particular and the SEC in general. Have to say, I like seeing the guy call a game. I guess I can’t hold it against him for exploiting Bill Lewis’s lousy defensive schemes.
Marino? Always hated him, always will. Some things, you just can’t forgive.
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Man, Keith Jackson was the best wasn’t he? Who was the other guy? He was great too.
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Frank Broyles.
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Yep, Keith and Frank were always the voices of college football to me.
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“A great ath-u-lete Kieth.”
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Gosh, I remember we retired #34 that night, too. Labor Day. I got back in the middle of the night and I think my parents made me go to school. It was dreadful, as I lived among a bunch of Tiger and ‘Cock fans in SC. I still can’t believe we lost it.
As for Bobby Gator up there, luck just always turns around, as long as you do your fair share to keep luck on your side. Florida has gotten some daises the last few years. It won’t always be that way. And the line between 11-1 and 10-2 and 9-3 is razor thin.
See you on Halloween. We ain’t scared. And we never will be as long as you keep wearing all that ridiculous blue and orange polyester. Tebow is one of the greatest of all time, but we have a chance to do what few do, and that’s have a winning record over him. Right now, he’s 1-1 vs. UGA. Jeff Owens plans on making it 1-2.
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That’s absolutely right!
We’re ready right now!!!
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Like I said, Florida isn’t going to beat everybody forever. I don’t even know what’s going to happen this year. And what Florida or Georgia does doesn’t make me better than you or you better than me. We’re not playing the games. But for that guy above to dismiss TWO NATIONAL TITLES while trying play up a loss to LSU 4 years ago I thought was pathetic.
Halloween is going to be fun. The whole season’s going to be fun. See you all there.
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Reasonable comments Fenton. Thanks for sticking in there.
On the other hand, fall wouldn’t be as much fun without fans who feel their strength is the strength of ten because their hearts are pure, their cause is righteous, and their school has more character just because! ! And the deeper they get in the bourbon bottle the truer those words become.
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I think DN Nation wasn’t trying to diminish how awesome the 2 national titles in 3 years is.
“It’s just that, yeah, they’ve won some titles in there too.”
The “, yeah, ” part speaks volumes.
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