Traveling to Columbia, Again? Mid-Week Linkapalooza (UGA vs Mizzou)
By: Scott Duvall | @JawaviFilms
I like to refer to the yearly UGA vs Mizzou matchup as Georgia’s forced rivalry.
Much has been made on this podcast (mainly by me) in the past three years about my disdain for having Missouri in the SEC, or SEC East for that matter. I get it. Greater exposure for the conference because of the St. Louis market, more revenue for schools because of the SEC Network, etc, etc. But the truth of the matter is that in most fans’ eyes, the SEC was doing just fine prior to 2012 before Texas A&M and Missouri were invited to join the party.
I am not one to complain about much of anything, really. And, when it comes to issues in the world of sports, this one only bothers me when I think about it. But, not for noting, I particularly enjoyed the yearly matchup of Ole Miss. Oxford is a great place to visit every other year. It has gone away. That traditional SEC West rival for the Dawgs was sacrificed when Missouri showed up to our conference. I also miss the four year rotation of playing the other traditional SEC West schools of Alabama, Mississippi State, LSU and Arkansas (since 1992). Now they’re on a 12 year rotation and that’s the way it has been for six years already and Georgia has yet to even play Texas A&M (next year though).
We pick our issues to gripe about, focus on, and pontificate over and this is one I choose to dig into whenever the topic arises on our podcast. It’s definitely not a true hot button issue with most fans and that’s fine with me because I’m not real big on Twitter fights. Maybe it’s just the whole geography thing? Columbia, Missouri is farther west than Little Rock and Baton Rouge, so why are they competing in the SEC East? I know, there’s probably a very good explanation by the SEC powers at be, but I’ll sit that one out.
You can listen to our WSLS Podcast UGA vs Missouri Preview show here.
On to this week’s Links!
Today is Wednesday, September 19, 2018. On this day in Georgia Bulldogs history:
09/19/15: Grayson Lambert passed for 330 yards on 24/25 passing. His 96% passing completion set an NCAA record and at one point Lambert completed 20 passes in a row, which set a UGA record. Many people, including us at this podcast believe that this was the game that solidified Steve Spurrier’s decision to hang up the visor. Spurrier quit on his team less than a month later. Listen to our postgame podcast where I kinda sorta interviewed Coach Spurrier after the 52-20 Georgia victory.
09/19/09: In another record setting performance, Joe Cox passed for 375 yards and 5 touchdowns versus the Razorbacks in Arkansas. The Dawgs and Hogs combined for 93 points in this shootout and fell just short of the SEC record for combined points in a non overtime game (FWIW, USCjr beat Miss State 65-39 in 1995).
09/19/98: I’m amazed how hard it is to find actual statistics or recaps on the internet regarding games played 20 years ago. Anyway, Georgia beat Wyoming 16-9 on this day during the Jim Donnan administration. Pretty sure Champ Bailey scored on a tunnel screen in that game.
09/19/92: Growing up in Atlanta, I was only a mild observer of Georgia football. My dad went to Emory and my mom went to TCU, so naturally I wasn’t groomed to be a UGA fan. However, on September, 19th, I attended my first ever Georgia game at Sanford Stadium. The Dawgs won 56-0 over Cal State Fullerton and Garrison Hearst, Eric Zeier, Andre Hastings, Will Muschamp and company eventually went on to finish 10-2 overall. The Titans were so bad that year (2-9), they elected to disband the football program.
Will Muschamp (30) rushing the passer vs Cal State Fullerton in 1992 - via UGA Athletics
Best Videos of the Week
Hard to think that a Linkapalooza will go by without sharing what the guys at SEC Shorts have produced. Coach O and his LSU Tigers went into Jordan-Hare Stadium last week and pulled out a last second victory over Auburn. And, suddenly, a coach who at the beginning of the season was on the hot seat had his team still undefeated, ranked #6 in the AP Poll and looking towards a showdown with Georgia in a few weeks. Naturally, Coach O’s hot seat is up for sale :
Georgia Bulldogs Sports Marketing provides a Kirby Smart All Access video that’s published every Sunday. Do you realize the amount of work and editing and producing that goes into each one of these episodes?!? It’s crazy tough and the video recaps they put together are insanely well done. Props to everyone involved in filming and editing this show. The only reason I’m not embedding the video in this post is that the Georgiadogs.com video player is set to auto play and runs incessantly when someone reads the Linkapalooza, so we’re just going to do a text link. Watch it here.
One of our long-time listeners, Jim Wood sent me a Tweet this morning suggesting a topic for the Linkapalooza. He shares in this video tips on how to sync Scott Howard and the Georgia Bulldog Radio Network with the tv broadcast. Seemed to work for him during the UGA vs MTSU game. Check it out for yourself.
It’s not exactly a video, but this gif of the Seattle Seahawks’ rookie punter, Michael Dickson is something to see. When was the last time you saw a dropkick in an NFL game? Of course, Dickson is an Aussie and we all know what goes on down under with their brand of Aussie rules football - they drop kick it all the time. Surely this is not the first time he’s ever dropkicked a weirdly shaped ball. Shout out to Will’s former company, Deadspin for this story breakdown.
Best Reads of the Week
Former Georgia Bulldogs beat writer for the Athens Banner-Herald and current Forbes contributor, David Ching provides a stellar breakdown of the SEC’s 2019 schedule, which was released yesterday. In this piece, Ching goes through every team and shares in great detail what he thinks is the toughest stretch of the season for each one. We all know that Georgia’s November 2019 schedule is a murderer’s row, but click the link to see what else he has to say about teams coming off of bye weeks that play the Bulldogs. Sheesh. Oh, and enjoy this downloadable 2019 UGA schedule that our graphics department (me) made.
2019 Georgia Bulldogs Football Schedule - a gift for reading the Linkapalooza
Our friends over at the Chapel Bell Curve Podcast brought this interesting article to our attention. Brian at MGOBLOG, which is a Michigan Wolverine fansite wrote an article titled, “We Have To Talk About Why Attending Games Kinda Sucks Now”. In it he references the Wall Street Journal piece talking about the disparity between sold tickets and announced attendance at games, but makes the point of the ridiculous amount of time for tv timeouts and the rising cost of tickets to get into the actual game among other solid points.
Last, but certainly not least - North “Freakin” Texas
“The Amazing Football Play That Gamed the Rule Book” by Will Leitch for New York Magazine. Did you see the college football play of the year when North Texas punt returner Keegan Brewer faked out the entire Arkansas special teams unit? Well, it wasn’t just Brewer going rogue and deciding to do something either incredibly savvy or incredibly foolish (he could’ve gotten lit up and super hurt). Our colleague, Will Leitch who also writes a weekly sports column for New York Magazine shares a fascinating insight into what exactly went on for that play to happen and be successful. Oh, and Chad Morris, might want to make sure those Arkansas fans aren’t trying to purchase Ed Ogeron’s hot seat.
Good luck to the Dawgs this week and let us/me know if this Link post is something you’d like to see more of or not? Also, please feel free to Tweet me any interesting links, videos or articles you come across for next week’s Linkapalooza post.