I’m not sure what I find myself more flabbergasted about by the latest Stewart Mandel Mailbag – that there are people who “regularly request” Mandel to revisit one of the more incoherent things he’s written, or that Mandel thinks it’s a good time to give them what they want.
And, no, it has nothing to do with being a permanent enemy. It has to do with very little of what he says making sense. Maybe that’s a Western thing. If somebody from Montana could explain why Miami is a king and Tennessee is not, I’d be most grateful.
And while you’re at it, oh wise one from Montana, do you really not recognize this little fella?
Get The Picture 
Or Nebraska or Florida State or Penn State…
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Or Notre Dame. I don’t mind us being in the “baron” group except when the “kings” in this silliness are as arbitrarily-selected as kings of the past.
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After a five-year hiatus, Mandel shows off by remembering the names of chess pieces
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Kings – I’m counting six that, looking ahead, I wouldn’t trade places with. Wonder how many folks in Montana can name the head coach at Miami or Penn State?
My only guess on Miami holding that King status over Tennessee is the number of championships. The Canes national title is also more recent.
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How do you write for Montana sports fans so well, Stewart? “I think of other fans, and I take away reason and accountability.”
Take away stats and history, and he wants to use the helmet recognition test to measure aura. By that reasoning, he puts Duke way down the list. Sure, they’re not a football power, nobody would argue with that. But wouldn’t anyone (even in Montana) recognize their helmet based on the success of the basketball team over the last 30 years? It’s the dumbest thing in the world. Yeah, I’d recognize USC’s song girls. They’re the hot chicks with “USC” on their fecking sweaters, right? God, what a dumbass.
Jeez, I’m an ordinary fan, and I think I’d recognize the helmet of Montana and Montana State. Maybe in additin to making better chicken sandwiches, we’re smarter football fans down here, too.
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+1 for the reference. That line is a personal favorite.
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Nice to know we’re as good as West Virginia and UCLA, huh?
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Let me start by saying that I somewhat agree with Mandel and probably differ from some here at least to the point that it’s debatable whether or not UGA falls into the King category. As pointed out though it’s not his premise as much as his dumbass logic behind it. His because I say so and I know what I’m talking about condescending attitude about the whole thing is what is so annoying. I get that he thinks he knows the average football fan better than anyone else but this is a guy who if I understand correctly by his own admission didn’t become a college football fan until his freshman year at Northwestern when Gary Barnett was on that magic carpet ride to Pasadena. Then he’s probably what mid thirties now? That’s a fountain of exposure to college football right there. As someone who travelled for work for years and many times donned a red cap with a big black G all over the country I would say he would be shocked the number of folks who recognized it and even the non die hards seem to know it ‘because it looks Green Bay’ so it stands out to them.
Anyway as the late Dalton said in Roadhouse “opinions vary”. I’ll just quote the ESPN Encyclopedia of College Football. This 1600+ page wealth of information has info on each and every team and the introduction for UGA reads thusly.
“Several schools have won national championships and fielded Heisman winners. And these accomplishments go a long way toward making a program eligible for “elite” status in the universe of college football. But a few teams have gone even further and become iconic. To get to this level, you need to have been coached, at some time, by a man whose name is mythic — like, oh, Pop Warner. You need a stadium that doesn’t even have to go by its proper name, so when the team is at home, you could say it plays “between the hedges.” You need a mascot that everyone in the world recognizes — an English bulldog would do nicely. And you need a war cry that has been appropriated all over the football world but resonates best in the original, “How ’bout them Dawgs!”
One team, of course, has all these things and, thus, an undeniable place in the pantheon of college football programs. It is impossible, in short, to imagine college football without the University of Georgia. “
PS.
I don’t know if the author is from Montana or not.
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This may be the most entertaining thing I have seen on this blog in months. Also,GREAT handle. My compliments, sir.
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I was in Boston this past weekend and ran into three folks wearing the Red G hat. We exchanged hearty “Go Dawgs!”.
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After graduating UGA in the spring of ’02, I took a trip to visit family in Seattle. I got a LOT of “Go Dawgs” cheers whenever I went out in my UGA gear. And then, as we took a trip over into Canada, the kid directing cars onto the ferry the crossing said he was a big Dawgs fan when he saw my hat and hoped to go to UGA when he graduated high school. Then, on a glacier in Canada, I met two fellow Georgia grads wearing some very warm looking Georgia coats.
Maybe news just doesn’t get to Montana.
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Has anybody asked around in Montana to see if anyone there has ever heard of Stewart Mandel? I’m betting “no.”
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I lived in Montana for a few years, and I can attest that folks there know the UGA logo and Uga (although they often pronounce it “ooh-ga” for some reason).
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I miss Ooga.
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Let’s shove a couple of pieces of Mandel Bread down his throat. He won’t be able to speak for a week.
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While reading this article, my 1st thought was why the helmet test? Why not the mascot test?
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And what aspect of each of those tests do the Song Girls fit in?
Journalism 2012 equals shooting from the hip, not something like, say, actual polling or focus groups.
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Mandel is a douche.
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A good test would be whether the school is mentioned in “Comin’ to your Cit-tay.”
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