Of athletic board members and great UGA season
by Murray Poole
Wow, what a football season it’s been!
No, these 2012 Bulldogs didn’t make it to
Miami and the BCS National Championship tilt, as
we predicted back in August that they’d do, but
when you come this close to winning the Southeastern
Conference title and playing for all the marbles
against top-ranked Notre Dame and have a
chance to close out the season at 12-2 with a bowl
victory, then I’d say Mark Richt’s current Georgia
squad will always hold a prominent place in all the
hearts of Bulldog Nation.
But, more about the Dogs a little later in this
space.
If you’ve been able to catch our Bulldawg Illustrated
issues dating back to this spring, you have
noticed the profiles of the members of the UGA
athletic board we’ve run in this column. We all see
what’s played out on the football field where, every
Saturday, Richt and his Georgia assistant staff and
of course the players themselves put their work on
display for 92,000 people to judge, both favorably
and unfavorably. Yes, that gigantic fish bowl that
envelops Sanford Stadium doesn’t allow the Bulldogs
and their coaching staff to keep anything from
view; there’s no place to hide a mistake, and how
many of us in our jobs today are as closely scrutinized
as that? We all make errors in judgment on
a near daily basis but we’re able to correct them
without thousands of people critiquing our every
move.
So I know what the Georgia athletic teams
do, good or bad. And such is reflected right there
in the Bulldog teams’ won-loss marks. But what I
didn’t know, when I began this athletic board series
during spring practice with veteran board
member Bob Bishop, was what all went on in the
UGA athletic department away from the playing
arena. And what these men and women brought
to the table in their ongoing efforts to make the
Georgia athletic program the very best in America,
which it arguably surely is right now.
I didn’t really know many of these board
members when I started this series but as I
recorded their comments, as I delved back into
their childhood, where they grew up, their education,
their families and discovered how excited and
honored they are to serve on the board of directors
of the Georgia Athletic Association, and the expertise
they’re able to bring to the table in the building
up of the university’s athletic program, I
continually gained a sense of pride and thankfulness
for what these people are doing for the Georgia
Bulldogs.
From the faculty members of the athletic
board I interviewed – UGA president and chairman
Dr. Michael Adams, vice chairman/provost
Jere Morehead, secretary David Shipley and treasurer
Tim Burgess; to the appointed faculty members
– vice-president of student affairs Dr. Rodney
Bennett and professors Anne Sweaney and Gregory
Robinson; to the faculty elected by the university
council – professors Jeff Dorfman, Jennifer
Samp and Luke Naeher; to the alumni reps on the
board – Bill Archer, Mack Guest, Pat Pittard,
Swann Seiler and Bob Bishop, and to student representative
Ryan Scates, all of these dyed-in-thewool
Bulldogs were a pleasure to talk with. All
were most cooperative and from every one of them
– despite the fact I’ve been covering the Bulldogs
some 47 years now – I learned something new
about the University of Georgia.
And as he heads into his much deserved retirement
as UGA president with the conclusion of
the 2012-13 school term, a special shout out goes
to Dr. Adams, who has guided this university to
new and greater heights during his term in office
these past 16 years while also presiding over the
athletic board with a firm and steady hand.
OK, enough of the slaps on the back for all
these able people behind the scenes in UGA athletics.
Let’s go back now and talk about this special
football team that, entering the Jan. 1 Capital One
Bowl in Orlando against the Nebraska Cornhuskers,
has stormed over 11 opponents while
coming up short against only two. And you know
full well which games those were. But what a contrast
in those two Bulldog defeats … a dismal night
in Columbia, S.C. where absolutely nothing went
right in a 35-7 setback to the Gamecocks to a
nearly historic night in the Georgia Dome where
third-ranked Georgia went toe-to-toe with mighty,
second-ranked Alabama the night long before absorbing
the agonizing 32-28 setback. As I wrote in
my SEC championship game story on our website,
it was “Heartache by the Numbers” as the Bulldogs
came up five yards and four points, and mere seconds,
too, from the conference crown and a trip
to the national championship game.
Sure, this team encountered some other
bumps along the way – less than impressive performances
against Buffalo, Florida Atlantic and
Kentucky, a bit of a defensive meltdown against
Tennessee and having to rally like crazy to beat a
Missouri team that struggled mightily in its first
year in the SEC, but from the week senior safety
Shawn Williams called out his defensive buddies
for being a little “soft,” the Bulldogs went into Jacksonville,
beat the hated Gators and never looked
back. They pretty much played lights out over the
final six games, including the title loss to the Crimson
Tide.
Now, it’s time to finish strong against the 10-
3 Cornhuskers – and I’ve called it the Bulldogs by
31-17 elsewhere in this issue – and then begin
making ready for 2013. I tell you what, if one
record-breaking Aaron Murray returns for his senior
season, Mike Bobo’s offensive team is going to
rank among the very best and most explosive in
the land. The entire O-line comes back and Will
Friend should develop them into a bigger, stronger
and quicker-striking unit; all of the talented receiving
corps returns except for the talented Tavarres
King and Marlon Brown, and that includes the
team’s top receiver prior to his injury, Michael Bennett,
and of course I don’t have to tell you about
how good “Gurshall” is going to be. Todd Gurley
is the best true freshman tailback at Georgia since
the legendary Herschel, and the mercurial Keith
Marshall seems destined to rank right up there
with Mr. Walker when it comes to breaking off
long-distance touchdown jaunts, before he plays
his last game in a Bulldog uniform
Of course, Georgia’s biggest question mark
next fall will be on the other side of the ball where
some eight or so outstanding starters will either
graduate or make an early jump to the NFL. But,
that said, I’ve got to think all those talented young
guys under Todd Grantham’s tutelage – the ones
who saw some starting or backup action this season
or who have been patiently awaiting their time
to get on the field – will step up in 2013 and make
the Bulldogs a much better defensive team than
any of the college “experts” will be predicting. And
Georgia will have truly outstanding kickers for the
next three years in punter Collin Barber and placekicker
Marshall Morgan.
Yes, indeed, a splendid football season it has
been, and that Aug. 31 opening kickoff in Clemson’s
Death Valley next year can’t arrive soon
enough.
