1998 Flashback

Before I go back in time, the paper is reporting that Thomas Brown has the starting tailback spot. Now we can go in any number of directions with this, but first and foremost, I have to simply stand amazed at the kid from Tucker. By all accounts, the ACL injury, suffered October 14, should be an 18 month thing, especially for a tailback. Guys who come back after a year seem to take most of the next season to get back to full speed and full movement. TB cuts that time in half and goes full tilt. Gotta love it, though I'm sure we'll get plenty of the dreaded rotation. Here's hoping for a 1,000 yard back, and wouldn't it be a great story if that were Thomas? Heck, since it's August, let's target 2,000 yards between the three. We see that and I'll shut my mouth about the rotation - (I'll also quit preaching about needing senior linemen cause we don't have them)

I have my Tivo set to pick up anything Georgia football, and I wake up at 5 this morning to find the 1998 GA/KY game on Classics. My first thought, "Geez, we made the Classics with Kentucky? How bad must that have been?" Then, the past came back to me, notwithstanding the fact that we just lost to them in Lexington.

In 1996, Everhart and I were over at Auburn and unfortunately did not prove to be very good dates. Aside from frequent cigarette breaks, the Braves were eliminated by the Yankees in a terrible, gut wrenching series that forever changed baseball. They were getting ready to crown the Braves the team of the decade with no end in sight and NY came in and reversed history, then continued to do so. That was also the last night the Dawgs lost to KY, up till 2006, a game which mercifully, I did not see.

So, I knew we won the game in 1998, but was it Corey Phillips game where he threw for a billion and Fatboy threw for a billion? No. If memory serves, that would come later, in 2000 and I was at Auburn cheering on Central Florida. This was the Wildcat team of Whelan, Yeast, and the great Tim Couch, led by Hal Mumme's imported Valdosta State offense. Aside: I always thought Hal Mumme looked like a porn star and his name should've been 'Lance'. Maybe that's my issue.

Anyway, this was QC, freshman season, in which he was still revered by Dawg fans. We had one loss, that debacle at home against UT where we finally got the world's attention only to fall flat on our faces. But we had beaten LSU in BR (some of you fellows were with me down in that God-forsaken swamp!) and things were on the up. And KY was as high as they'd been in years.

Anyone remember ... KY up 10 early and going for it on 4th and goal. Couch bootlegs out to the left only to be brought down from behind by none other than Orantes Grant. This was the only play I remembered well enough to call it before it happened. Quincy made mince meat of the KY defense, running for close to 200 yards, though in context, the offense was a stinking mess! Quite literally, it looked like we would A - run the toss sweep or B - snap the ball and run around like a nut until something occurs to #17 or C - look for Champ and throw it to him. So much talent, such little to show for it. The game ended on a long field goal try in which the snap was a bit off, but the holder, Mumme's son, mishandled it and they never got to try the kick. KY would go on to the Outback and we would go to Peach and beat Virginny in a great comeback. Everyone was pissed because we had the same record, and won head to head, yet KY got the better bowl.

Here's what I took from the game.

1. Cutoff jerseys - I didn't know they were still around that recently.
2. Black helmet stripe - Hated it
3. White shoes - hated them
4. Shadow jerseys - really hated them
5. Olandis Gary splits time in the backfield with ... Ronnie Bradley???
6. Wiggins was just coming on, Larry Brown, with hands of concrete, was maybe the last of the inept GA tight ends.
7. Our pass rush SUCKED but this was before we turned into DE University

It is hard to really describe, and I don't want to overstate bc I really liked Donnan and think he had a decent offensive gameplan, but we looked like a bunch of Katzenjammer kids, even in victory. Like, here you had these incredibly talented players, but the program just felt second rate. Maybe that's because the qb was coked up, but I think it was bigger than that. It felt like ... well, like Donnan was over his head, not as a football guy, but as the leader of an Elite SEC football program. Then again, maybe we weren't.