Welcome to the Sugar Bowl?
2006: Hawaii at Alabama
-- Bama won 25-17 in the season opener. Colt Brennan went 30-44 for 350 yards, 0 TDs and 1 INT against a pretty solid Tide defense. The 2006 Tide squad which couldn't score in a Whore House during the Dentist Convention in Vegas out gained the Warriors 378 total yards to 372. Hawaii was held to 22 yards rushing. Key to the game: Bama had zero turnovers, and they forced Hawaii into 3 turnovers. An 11-3 Hawaii team couldn't beat a 6-7 Bama team.
2003: Alabama at Hawaii
-- Bama lost 37-29. The Tide was banned from bowls, but they found a loop hole which allowed them to finish their season in Hawaii. The NCAA let's (or used to anyway) you play 1 extra game per season in years that you go to Hawaii. So the Tide scheduled two games at Hawaii (2003 and 2002) to function as bowl games for the probation stricken team. Bama went 4-9 on the season in a transition year that saw Mike Shula take over after Spring Training was already completed. In typical "Don't Play Games In Hawaii b/c the Refs will KILL You" fashion, Bama had 10 penalties to the Warriors 4. Total yardage was identical, but the Tide had 3 turnovers to Hawaii's 1. Bottom line: A very bad Bama team lost to a pretty decent Hawaii team in an anti-climatic post-Auburn debacle.
2002: Alabama at Hawaii
Alabama won 21-16. Much like the 2003 game, this was played after the regular season was complete so that they probation riddled Tide would have a de facto bowl game. Bama ran for 280 yards as they finished the game with comparable net total offense yards. Much like the 2003 game the penalty flags fell to the benefit of the Warriors (12 Bama Flags to 5 Hawaii Flags). The "Don't Call us Rainbow" Warriors had 5 turnovers to Bama's one. Bama finished the season 10-3 while Hawaii finished with 7 wins. Bottom line: A good Bama team barely beat a mediocre Hawaii squad in front of wildly partisan officials.
The Moral of the Story:
We can't just throw our helmets out there and expect to win. We have to play smart and protect the football. If we do, we'll win a game that has the ball moving up and down the field at a brisk pace for both squads. Frankly, this game should be very entertaining. Our DBs aren't exceptional and their passing game (gimmick or not) is effective. The Warriors will score points on us, but we have the talent and offense of our own to win by 10+...if we take them serious.
I'm looking forward to this.
PWD
22 comments:
Thanks for all the recent postings tonight. They helped keep me sane. Two thoughts: 1. I guess the only constructive application of our poll frustration would be motivation for this game and next season. 2. Along those lines, can y'all find a list of "how they voted" in the coaches' poll? The AJC has a few, but the comprehensive one might be fun for next season.
I'm glad someone is excited
We aren't playing those jokers in Hawaii and their hometown refs can't help them. They are a good team but can be had by 2 td's or more if we're aggressive.
Richt needs to communicate to the team that this game is as much about next year as it is this one - not slighting the seniors of course.
Considering the options, I would much rather have a shot at playing an undefeated Hawaii team with the ability to smack them back to reality, than a team like ASU who we'll play next season.
Besides, who says that the Dawgs will even need to throw a forward pass?
Go Dawgs!
Agreed with the reference above as to setting the table for next year....at the end of the day, we probably got about what we deserved (if we take a deep breath and try to have an objective view of things -- difficult I know), especially when factoring in the reality that is the rigid and antiquated selection methodology applied by the Tournament of Roses octogenarians.
This is not a game where we can go out there and sleep walk for a quarter and half, if that happens, and we all know that we are capable of such, we will look up to a scoreboard that that is on fire.
CWM needs to have his troops motivated and scheme ready to lay the wood to the Flaming Rainbows from the first series and relentlessly degrading their will to live -- play after play after play. On the flip side, if the Offense can keep the TOs to a manageable number, there should be some flashy numbers put up.
This really is a statement game for the BCS/Media/etc., for this 2007 team as well as for what is in store in 2008. If we could somehow walk the dog here (i.e. keep 'bows to 20 pts or less and hang 50 on them), we will have ended the season as the hottest team in CFB, with everyone coming back, secure a top 4 finish and be assured of a top 3 ranking going into '08.
As an Alabama fan and someone that has watched a lot of Hawaii football the last few years, I can say with 99% certainty had the '06 game been later in the season, Hawaii would've killed us. They got progressively better that year and we got progressively worse.
Don't forget to vote for Hairy Dawg in the Capital One mascot contest. Hairy Dawg has made the semi-finals.
http://www.capitalonebowl.com/
Biases aside, I think we all pretty much agree that the current BCS system is far from perfect.
We always think that 'nightmare' scanarios will 'blow up the BCS', but here we are in Bizzaro Season, with possibly the most controversial BCS Championship match ups/selections ever and nothing will change. We all know that money talks and mass boycotting of the BCS (but that truly means all of College Football) is the only way to make a financial impact large enough to make a difference, but no one, much less people en mass are willing to give up something they love so much to force anyone's hand.
So, what are we to do?
This isn't about just UGA fans, and I don't mean to encourage anyone to boycott aka not support our Dawgs on Jan 1. For the players and coaches, they need to focus on the game and beat the snot out of Hawaii - that's their statement. But what is the fans statement?
This is about making college football better. This is about how to prevent what happened to Auburn in 2003 from ever happening again. This is about not having powerful people in funny coats having the final say so on what we all value so much. This is about making a change for the good of the sport.
What, realistically, can we as fans do aside from not being fans anymore?
http://docgoku.com/footballhuddle/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=6913
Time to empty the playbook, CMB. CMR, don't ever let your foot off of their throat. Let's hang a hundred.
We should not have a problem as long as we get to have our own refs like during the year. Otherwise we might get trounced.
Any damn system that has, on the last week of the season, a team ranked #1 that gets their ass kicked again by a team that has already kicked their ass once this year and...........another team ranked at #2 that loses to a 28 point dog at home while dressed up like bananas...well, that system clearly is a joke and not to be taken seriously.
Sure it is the only system we have but that does not mean it is not horseshit.
Just knowing that the National Champion is about to be an SEC team that has already lost to two other SEC teams is good enough for me.
Georgia will just have to remember that even one loss during the regular season does them in.
It is as simple as that.
If Georgia had won the SEC championship the two losses would have doomed us. The pundits would have taken either Kansas or Oklahoma. The only reason LSU gets three shots at it is because the pundits had picked them from the start.
All that is left to do is go and turn the Rainbow Warriors into Haupia.
I have a few thoughts here, and they've been chewing me up all day.
First of all, I'm not sure I'd be as outraged if OU had jumped us into the title game. That I would understand. What REALLY irks me is how "UGA is the hottest team in America" for two straight weeks according to the ESPN talking heads, and then when they have egg on their face about LSU and Les Miles they end propping the Tigers up as world beaters and the #2 team in the land. Something doesn't add up.
Also, if the game WAS NOT in New Orleans, is it possible that LSU would even be there?
Seriously, this has been the strangest college football season in recent memory, but OSU (who should be banned for a year after last year's disappointment) and LSU (a preseason favorite) still end up there? What gives?
This whole system just stinks of corruption, and our fantastic finish is going to be topped off with a lose/lose situation unless we run them clear back to the Islands.
The entire system is a stinking, pus running sore.
The only joy will be seeing OSU stagger out of Louisiana after losing by about 28 points.
And watching the Fighting Illini stagger out of California after losing by 35 points.
And choking the Hawaiians to death with their own flower covered lei.
It's all Macadamia nuts! I hope we Lei a 'whuppin on 'em! Here today, gone to Maui!
The real problems I have with this BCS selection is that OU jumped us. Come on you hypocrites! Oklahoma has already played for the NC when they didn't win their conference. I guess the Big 12 gets it both ways (kinda like Tommy T but not quite.)
Also, it was sickening to listen to the same talking heads who argued for Michigan last year saying that UGA shouldn't go because UGA didn't win the SEC.
Anyway...GO Buckeyes! Up LSU!!!
Tangweasel
Someone asked, but I didn't see a reply. Here's the coaches' poll broken down. It's actually pretty neat. It's also worth noticing how deranged Howard Schnellenberger is when you see his ballot.
http://www.usatoday.com/sports/
graphics/coaches_fb_poll_2007
/flash.htm
It's been said by a few, but we need to take this season and past week as a lesson. Use the Sugar Bowl to make a statement about what kind of program we are (team and fanbase), and remember next season that we need EVERY SINGLE game. This wasn't even supposed to be our year. Next year, it's a different story - let's take advantage and kick some arse.
I feel compelled to write because, well, somewhere along the way somebody said it might serve as some sort of catharsis and I see everyone else is taking their hack at it, so here goes:
1. Les Miles can, as one writer so artfully stated in the comments section of this blog in the last week: "eat Cajun shit." He can also blow a donkey without his big white hat falling off. I'm glad he stayed at LSU so that we can beat the ever-lovin hell out of him, personally, next season. "I'm the HEAD coach! And I give DONKEY HEAD!"
2. Kirk Herbstreit can, and will, go straight to hell.
3. Is everybody AFRAID of Herbstreit on espn, or is it just me? Oh, where have you gone Trev Alberts?
4. Lou Holtz is a chicken-necked faggot who would never, under any circumstances (even if we fired Mark Richt and hired Lou Holtz to coach the football team), ever, ever, ever say the word "Georgia" in a sentence and not say something negative about the word "Georgia." ASS-hole.
5. The BCS is complete bullshit. I only wish that the English language could be changed so that whatever words were used to create the acronym "BCS" instead spelled "BULLSHIT." Because then, it would make sense. My WIFE even thinks this whole thing is bullshit.
6. I think we ought to be super-duper excited about playing in the Sugar Bowl because it is unbelievably awesome and not one single DAWG coach, player, or fan thought we would sniff the BCS ("AKA BULLSHIT") after the Tennessee game. Pun intended.
7. I'm going to 'Nola with my aforementioned WIFE and partying like I've never partied before - in a good way.
8.We better choke-slam that punk-ass Colt Brennan or we might get beat.
9. How bad is FOX with college football? They've got bigger morons than espn. Wait, no they don't.
10. GO DAWGS!
I am feeling better today about going to the sUGAr bowl. I mean if you would have told me at the beginning of the season we would be 10-2 and going to a BCS bowl, I would have been ecstatic. We need to beat down hawaii and maybe then we can get the love (a la LSU last year after the beat down an inferior ND) that will allow us to lose multiple games and play for that national title. Seriously, tickets are ridiculously cheap on ebay and I am sure the scalpers will be begging you to take tickets at the game. There is no reason why that place shouldn't be 90% dawg fans at least.
I hope UGA gives Hawaii to end the season ona high note and to potentially start next year in the top 5.
I hope that LSu gives OSU a beat down to send them to 0-9 vs the SEC and will once again prove the lameness of the system that got them to the game in the first place .....
Does anyone know if there is a helmet schedule for the bowls like the SEC one? I had the SEC Schedule in my office all year and it was a big hit. Would love to track the bowls the same way....
Let the game be played. Does Hawaii's offense posse a problem? Yes. Can Georgia's secondary handle em. Though not the most outstanding unit, their SEC speed should help them hold there own. Hawaii will need to stop the run... something they have been good at all season but not against a team like UGA. Georgia has stopped at least one good pass happy team but Hawaii is relentless like no other. Let em play. Go Hawaii and good luck and respect to both.
After reading these post's I assume Georgia will "walk the talk" I hear the THUNDER, however,
Hawaii will produce the "LIGHTNING"
Hawaii will dominate,and in SEC territory.Don't you HOSSES ever play outside your Southern zone?
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