The Georgia Celebration: Putting The Issue to Rest

of the game if the officials were of a different mindset that day. There was also the risk of a brawl, which I am about 90 percent sure would have happened if Richt did that against a Ron Zook-coached Florida team. It will likely go down as a unique event in college football, never to be duplicated.

 

Was it the reason that Georgia played well the rest of the season?

Yes and no.

Yes, in that it was the first spark of the fire that Georgia showed the rest of the season. The Bulldogs looked lifeless against South Carolina, laid down and took a beating from Tennessee, and needed a last-second field goal to beat Vanderbilt. Something about Richt’s motivational formula had gone stale.

A win over Florida, given the one-sided nature of the rivalry since 1990, probably would have been enough without the celebration, so in that sense it wasn’t even necessary.

Was it the reason Georgia played well the rest of the season? In truth, we don’t know. Richt did other motivational things throughout the rest of the year, most notably when his team took off its red jerseys to reveal black ones just before the home game against Auburn.

The celebration against Florida probably played a part, but it was by no means the only thing, as other actions by Richt and the team sustained the high level of excitement and motivation.

 

Is Urban Meyer jealous he didn’t think of it, and will he retaliate?

Urban Meyer’s offense and recruiting tactics (texting a lot and his Friday Night Lights camp) might be “new school,” but philosophically he’s very much an old school guy. Thanks to growing up in Ohio, he’s a disciple of Woody Hayes and even has a picture of Hayes hanging in his game room. Earle Bruce, the head coach when Meyer was a grad assistant at Ohio State, is still very much his mentor.

That is why there isn’t a chance in the world that he’s mad that he didn’t think of that celebration first. Hayes and Bruce would never have pulled a stunt like that. That’s just not the way you did things back then, and that’s not how Meyer does things now.

He never would have thought to do that, and he’s not going to try to do it to Georgia this year either. Any payback will be administered solely with football, not theatrics.

 

What about 2008?

After what happened last year, the SEC will probably tell the officials before the game to be extra-vigilant towards unsportsmanlike conduct. In officiating parlance, it will be a “point of emphasis.”

That fact is why I don’t expect there to be another stunt by either team. The refs will probably have their thumbs on their ejector seat buttons, and Mike Slive might already have the paperwork ready for fining either coach is something premeditated happens.

It will be a close, hard-fought game: nothing more, nothing less.

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