Oh, to have been a fly on the wall for this meeting (h/t Michael Carvell).
“I went to the University of Georgia,” Sanders said. “On my recruiting trip, Vince Dooley is the head coach. I had just witnessed them getting their butts kicked against Georgia Tech.
“They got their butts kicked, and I went to Vince Dooley’s office. And he says, ‘Well, I’m sure you’re going to contribute for us. I want you to redshirt and learn the system.’ And I said, ‘Redshirt?’
“And that was it. He’s talking about redshirting, and I know what I’ve got. So that was it. I crossed him off the list.”
You know, it’s not like Dooley hadn’t started a true freshman with other-worldly talent before. You’d think he’d have known how to phrase his sales pitch better.
Get The Picture 
I dunno . . . can’t say that missing out on a lifelong association with Deion Sanders is something that’ll be keeping me up nights.
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I think I’d have taken my chances. It’s not like the Dawgs had overwhelming talent in the waning years of Dooley’s coaching career.
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The ’88 team was actually very good. It should have tied Auburn for the SEC title. The Kentucky game that year is still mind-boggling.
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Senator, I always heard Deion profess to love “the Jewry.” Is he one of God’s Chosen People? We certainly could have used a little schtickel of coverage back in those days. Meh.
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He is talking about when he was criminally charged, had a trial and the “jewry” let him go. That’s why he loves the “jewry.”
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Indeed. At the time of his resignation as HC, word had it that Dooley had grown very tired of recruiting and it showed. Maybe he wanted to get out of coaching before his accomplishments were sullied by several bad years.
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Or maybe he just felt dirty because of what he had to do to recruit in the modern era. I know I would. (But then some like Urban Myer love it.)
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That was one stated reason why Meyer got out. Whatever gets you through the day Mayor
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Maybe Vince had come to the same conclusion.
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I dont know, Doug. Our lifelong association with Will Muschamp and Kirby Smart isnt exactly warming my heart. At least Deion could play.
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Believe Deon Sanderas at your own risk.
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“The cafeteria was like the Golden Coral, which is one of my favorite restaurants.” -Deion Sanders
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Mines too!
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That sucks. I would have loved to hear what Athens-related rhymes he would have worked into his rap LP, which a friend of mine bought for $1.09 recently on a discount rack.
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He paid too much.
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Oh, I don’t know. On the scale of unintended comedy, it ranks as “Epic”.
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I stand corrected. Worth every penny.
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Just wondering…who else would’ve been in that hypothetical secondary with Deion?
Ben Smith…?
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Yup. That team also had Mo Lewis at linebacker and Bill Goldberg at the nose.
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Would’ve overlapped with John Brantley and Richard Tardits too if memory serves.
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And of course the amazingly named, Wycliffe Lovelace.
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People kill me about Deion, they either love him or hate him and most of them seem to hate. Say what you will…but how can you dislike anybody who can back up all the trash they can talk. The two best cover corners to date – Deion and Champ…we got one, how cool would it have been to have had both?
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Deion Sanders doesn’t redshirt. It’s beneath him. He did, however, make me smile when he dumped water on Tim ‘IN MY OPINION’ McCarver.
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Ah, that was classic. And well-deserved.
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One of Deion’s shining moments actually.
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Redshirt should never be mentioned during a discussion with any recruit. I hate Meyer, but I loved his take on Redshirting. Prove it on the field and any freshman can play on day 1.
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+1.
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I wonder how many folks said when he crossed us off the list, “We don’t need that kind of player anyway.”
Deion was a beast, and I would’ve loved for him to have played at Georgia…attitude or not.
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Me too.
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He wanted him to redshirt AND wasn’t getting him a car.
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The Black TA must have been spoken for.
Agreed with hailtogeorgia, Deon was an awesome player who like it or not had a plan to make alot of money at a young age. He suceeded in those goals.
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I get the redshirt misgivings, but he didn’t consider Florida because there were two 10 jerseys at a recruiting event there? That’s getting into George Carlin what’s-not-a-sport territory. Next thing you know he’ll tell us he didn’t get involved with gymnastics in high school because Romanians are good at it.
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“So that was it. I crossed him off the list.” And moved him to the list of former coaches to be planted in the Greater Gulf Shores/Orange Beach Metropolitan Area
http://www.thewareaglereader.com/2011/08/pat-dye-buried-in-sand-in-gulf-shores/
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Vince is lucky he got Herschel. Without him, his career has a different look entirely. I still blame him for hiring Goff and ruining my fall Saturdays in college.
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You can blame Vince for some things if you’d like (like the Deion example above), but he didn’t hire Coach Goff. That was the Athletic Board. remember – Coach Dooley had retired from being coach and AD initially, and CRG was hired in the interim.
Once a school gets turned down by a couple of candidates (coughDickSheridancoughGlenMasoncough), they sometimes wind up in situations where they are stuck with the fourth or fifth choice (or even an unforseen entry) – see Shula, Mike; Dooley, Derek; Goff, Ray; Torbush, Carl (IIRC). That’s why changing coaches is a risky proposition sometimes.
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That’s correct. Dooley did not hire Goff.
I crashed the press conference in Jacksonville when Goff was hired. Dooley looked none too pleased. If I can ever find the negatives (remember those?) of the photos I shot, I’ll post it and you can see his expression for yourself.
Then again, if that guy can ever find his cellphone, maybe they can nail Cam Newton.
Oh to have had Erk as our head coach …
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Actually, Dooley claims he made the decision to hire Goff.
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Wow – that’s a different account that what was in the press back then, but it’s good to learn what really happened. Thanks Senator for the info!
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Actually, Goff got the job in large part because his wife had been so popular at UGA (she had been a cheerleader, I believe, and I think also may have been homecoming Queen–in any event she was a real doll). She had stayed in touch with her sorority sisters and other friends after graduation. When Ray’s name was being considered she, using a “telephone tree” system where people call multiple people, organized a massive letter writing campaign where literally 10,000 letters showed up at the UGA Athletic Department urging that Goff be hired. They used the fact the CVD was young, like Goff, when he was hired as their main argument. It worked–and set back UGA football at least 20 years. I do not believe that the program has recovered even now as the WLOCP losing streak (and attendant “inferiority complex” about that game) started for UGA under Goff.
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“as the WLOCP losing streak (and attendant “inferiority complex” about that game) started for UGA under Goff.”
And continued…with a vengeance..under Donnan and Richt.
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GFY Gayturd.
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Sanders is like the kardashians – say or do anything to get press coverage. Win with grace and dignity? – forget it! Glad he was never a Dawg, and I’m sure Vince isn’t losing any sleep over it either. There’s a lot to be said for team players like Champ, who do their job as good as it can be done and don’t make asses of themselves off the field. In sanders case, he made an ass of himself both on and off the field plenty of times.
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No, Deion’s not like the Kardashians, because he actually backed up what he said. He’s one of the greatest defensive backs to ever play the game, and if you say you didn’t want him at Georgia, you’re lying. Might you have not liked his attitude? Sure…but I guarantee that if he’d been at Georgia, everyone would’ve loved him. Take the celebration in 2007…if that had happened against us, we’d have had a fit, but because it was a Georgia team that did it, everyone remembers it fondly.
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To each his own. All I can say in response is I wouldn’t spend 10 minutes with sanders. Maybe a great athlete, but a jerk as a human being. By the way, the kardashians DO back up what they say – I’ve seen some of the videos.
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Nicely done.
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that and Champ didn’t mind laying the wood on the ball carrier!
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I don’t buy it. Those are silly reasons to eliminate a school. I think Deion has been so full of $#%t over the years and says this kind of stuff just to get a rise out of people. He probably just didn’t like UGA. No big deal in my book. I recognize the talent, but Deion is a major douche.
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How is not wanting to redshirt a silly reason to eliminate a school? He wanted to play immediately and knew he had the ability. I don’t see the reason for the venom that’s being spewed here.
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Who knows if that’s even true? This is Deion we’re talking about. A cocky, arrogant ass that thinks his excrement doesn’t stink. The guy who put down Atlanta and its fans when he came back to play at the dome. He’s mellowed some in his old age, but I still don’t believe a thing he says. He’s an attention whore with a big mouth.
Did you even read the rest of the article?
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Yes, I did, but I’m not sure how any of it calls into question what he’s said. Sure, he’s cocky and likes attention. Big deal. He was damn good, he knew he was damn good, and he didn’t want to redshirt. BFD. I still don’t understand the venom you’re spewing. On the Atlanta point, Atlanta fans haven’t been traditionally great fans anyway (understandably so, at times).
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Deion couldn’t tackle for shit. He would have been the forerunner of some of UGA’s” bump ’em down with a shoulder” defenses we’ve seen recently.
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+1. While Deion was a great cover corner I question how well he would have done in run support in the run-first SEC. He might be able to bump a receiver out of bounds after a catch but I wouldn’t want to have to depend on him tackling somebody like, say, Bo Jackson on a sweep.
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Speaking of which…
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I just love the internet. Speak and proof of what you said magically appears.
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