I intended to take a look at the matchup that the Dawgnation probably dreads the most this week – Willie Martinez versus Gus Malzahn – with this post, but woke up this morning to find that MaconDawg already blazed that trail. So, instead, you’ll be treated to another round of seemingly unrelated observations about Georgia, because, as you should know by now, I just loves me some bullet points.
- First off, you really should take the time to read what MaconDawg has to say about that Martinez/Malzahn death match. He not only got there the firstest, but also with the mostest. I will say that Arkansas and Kentucky managed to slow down the Auburn attack and if those two defenses could do it, it’s certainly not out of the realm of possibility that a Georgia defense could pull something off. On the other hand, as Jerry Hinnen pointed out in a comment yesterday, “… [Auburn] also went to Knoxville and handed the elder Kiffin’s defense its worst outing of the year in both total yards and yards-per-play…” So maybe an attitude of quiet despair is best after all.
- Danger, Will Robinson: A loss to Auburn puts Richt on a four game losing streak against Georgia’s biggest rivals, with a game against an ascendant Georgia Tech coming in two more weeks. Ask Jim Donnan how that works out over the long haul.
- When you read posts like this, you wonder how sturdy the team’s psyche is right now, Tennessee Tech shutout notwithstanding. As rallying cries go, “It’s the best we can do. We want to be 8-4 and see what happens after that” isn’t the most inspirational.
- It’s week eleven for a fifth year senior quarterback, and he’s still figuring things out. “I probably should have (run) it more,” Cox said. “That’s one thing I said last week is, if I don’t like how it looks, I’m just going to take off and run. So I’ll probably end up doing that more but just make sure I take care of the ball.” With quotes like that, it’s not hard to understand why fans get frustrated sometimes.
Get The Picture 
I read that Cox quote about learning things, too. I would be frustrated with it, but the guy never got any mop-up time last year since our prolific offense was always bailing out the porous defense in shootouts that never should have been.
Now if Cox was a fifth year senior who was a fifth year starter and was saying these things, I’m pretty sure the pitchforks and torches would be ready by now.
Also, I wouldn’t get too worked up about that “Rivalry Driving Dawgs this Week”. If the prospect of redemption from the LSU game didn’t fire them up to beat UT and the chance to put a blemish on UF’s record this year wasn’t enough to make them show up for 60 minutes in Jax, I’m going to be very surprised to see the Dawgs even split these two with Auburn and Tech.
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Cox deciding he needs to just take off and run more has disaster written all over it.
Unless you’re the Michael Vick of the early ‘Aughts, a QB is supposed to find an open receiver and get the ball to him.
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Here’s a factoid to digest: Georgia’s Senior QBs in the past 30 years against Auburn:
2005 DJ Shockley Lost
2004 David Greene Lost
1997 Mike Bobo Lost
1994 Eric Zeier Tied
1988 Wayne Johnson Lost
1987 James Jackson Lost
1983 John Lastinger Lost
1981 Buck Belue Won
1979 Jeff Pyburn Lost
I may have that last one wrong but can’t remember if Buck was starting in late ’79.
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In 1979, Auburn broke Buck’s ankle in the endzone on the first series.
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Can’t remember if Pyburn was starting in late ’79 either but can remember he was our last QB who had a great nickname, Bam Bam, even though it came from his power hitting and nothing he did on the football field.
http://www.e-yearbook.com/yearbooks/University_Georgia_Pandora_Yearbook/1978/Page_151.html-
and from a Bill King blog re favorite games –
“By spike
May 25, 2008 10:43 PM | Link to this
Mine is the 1978 game against Tech. It was a cold day and people had been camping out on the bridge since Thursday night. We were down when Buck Belue replaced Jeff Pyburn. Heck, there were people on top of the Chemistry building. Belue brought the ‘Dogs back along with Amp Arnold to beat Tech 29 to 28.”
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Jeff Pyburn and his dad were SO bad. Fortunately, Dooley’s good sense finally overcame his loyalty, and Jim made the call to U-Haul. We know what happened the next year with a young QB. Hopefully, Richt will do the same with Willie.
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An Auburn friend thinks the conference office fix is in with the officials, but with an interesting twist. He thinks the officials will do what they can for Georgia Saturday, because Auburn is already bowl eligible and Georgia needs a couple more wins to get there, ka ching, ka ching. You know it fits the narrative nicely.
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At this point in the season I’d be okay with that, frankly. I feel like Georgia hasn’t gotten a dose of good luck since the Vanderbilt fumble in 2007 that it’s about damn time some good karma shined on the good guys in Red and Black.
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Boy, I hope he’s right. As long as the fix benefits us, I’m all for it.
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Shame, shame. All I want is a straight up, competently called game. The Dawgs will do the rest themselves if given an fair chance.
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I say UGA by 2 TDs
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