Blog: Dooley answers your questions

Since we’ve last talked, we celebrated two birthdays in the Dooley family. Mine was September 4, and we were in Montgomery where our son Derek’s team was staying and we had dinner with our three grandchildren (his three children) and his wife Allison. He has a tough job at Louisiana Tech, playing teams like Auburn and LSU, which are totally out of his league but are “money games” for the small school. I am confident he will do as well as could possibly be done at Louisiana Tech.

The great news about my birthday being on the 4th is that it reminds me that Barbara’s birthday is on the 8th of September – which is much more important. She celebrated a big one by checking in to the Ritz-Carlton in Atlanta with our two daughters and they spent two days shopping and getting pampered. My son Daniel and I came over for a big birthday dinner, so it was a great, big (I won’t say how many) birthday celebration.

I still find myself with speaking commitments. I was in Atlanta last Thursday speaking to the annual meeting of the Action Ministries at the Dunwoody United Methodist Church. The next night I was in Birmingham speaking to Sanford University’s fundraisers. Their football coach is Heisman Trophy winner Pat Sullivan, who we know well, and their mascot is a Bulldog. Needless to say, I felt quite at home in that regard.

I just returned from Montgomery where I spoke to their Quarterback Club, and there was a good delegation of Georgia Bulldogs that came out, including two of my former players – Lawrence Craft, who caused a big fumble on the Florida quarterback to preserve the 10-7 upset victory over Florida on the famous Appleby Washington end around pass. I think that was one of the greatest upsets we ever had over Florida. Also Randy James, a walk-on and is now a prominent attorney, was there. Prior to the meeting I visited the Alabama Archives & History Center, where I had spent some time as a student working on my Masters in History thesis. I also had a memorable time visiting the gravesite and museum of country singer Hank Williams, who was my favorite in high school and college. Many of his hits are still popular today.

Now I’m back in Athens, catching up and getting ready for the big one this weekend. Just as a reminder, I am on the Legends Poll which consists of 17 retired football coaches – most all of them in the College Football Hall of Fame. Some of the members are Lavell Edwards of BYU, John Robinson of Southern Cal, Don James at Washington, George Welsh at Virginia, Frank Broyles at Arkansas, John Cooper of Ohio State, Pat Dye at Auburn. We watch games around the country, have a conference call every Monday discussing the teams around the country, and then vote each week in what is called “The Legends Poll”. The poll is picked up by Sporting News Magazine.

Ask the Coach:
Hello all! Like I said in the previous blog post, I am staring a new section of my blog where your questions will be answered by me. Please submit your questions by commenting on this post and I will try to answer them in the next edition of Dooley’s Blog. I may not be able to answer some questions, but I will answer as many as I can.

Here we go:

Kathy Farmer Hobgood writes, “Any new books for the 09 Christmas Season?”Kathy – The answer is no, but the good news is that the second edition of the newest book, Dooley’s Playbook: 34 of Georgia’s Most Memorable Plays, will be available in bookstores by next week. Just as a reminder, I am working with Steve Penley, the talented artist, on a gardening book entitled In Dooley’s Garden, a Horticultural Journey of a Football Coach that will be out this Spring.

Wade Alford asks, “You enjoyed a lot of success in Jacksonville, but what is your personal opinion about potentially moving the Florida game to a home and home? Do you feel UF has an advantage playing there?” Well Wade, we were fortunate to have a lot of success in Jacksonville, so if there is a home field advantage, it didn’t bother us. We always felt that Jacksonville was just an extension of South Georgia. Nevertheless, the fact remains that we have not done well in Jacksonville in the last 2 decades. While I have some personal opinions in that regard, I don’t think it would be appropriate for me to state publicly my feelings about the future of the game in Jacksonville. I do know the game has been a great tradition for over 70 years and has been very important to the Bulldog Nation.

From Aaron Jones, “Everyone talks about all the great games (1980 Florida, ’78 Tech, ’76 Bama) and great plays like the Shoestring play at Vandy. Any vivid memories from games that people don’t talk about? For example, what was it like taking the Dawgs to VMI in 1966?” Well to start with, 1966 was a generation ago. However, it was special to those that remember since it was the first SEC Championship that I was associated with that took place in my 3rd year at Georgia. I recall that the game against VMI, which was played at Roanoke and maybe was given a promotion name of “The Harvest Bowl”, was not the best experience that the team had that year. I recall that VMI took the opening kickoff, drove for a touchdown, missed the extra point, and the 6-0 lead lasted exactly 9.4 seconds. That was the amount of time it took Kent Lawrence to return their kickoff for a touchdown, which (after the extra point) put us up 7-6. We won the game easily, despite the fact that the lighting was not too good in the stadium which probably helped us on certain plays since the ball was hard to find. I also remember the locker room being less than adequate, and on a cool night in October, it was tough on the team taking a shower with no hot water. Suffice it is to say, that was the last Harvest Bowl that we ever played in. While talking about a generation ago I should add to the special highlights the flea-flicker, which we called it at the time, was the play that upset Alabama, the national champions, in the first game of 1965. That play is better described today as a “hook and lateral” from Kirby Moore to Pat Hodgson to Bob Taylor. Come to think of it, that play didn’t win the game but put us in position to win the game with a two-point play from Moore to Hodgson in a victory 18-17.

Drew Garverick and Janet Davis sent questions about the defense after the first couple of games of this season. There is no question that there is a real concern with the defense, and there are a lot of corrections and improvement that need to be made. But one correction that does not need to be made is the fighting spirit of the team and the defensive unit. They have hung tough in the last 2 games, particularly around the goal line, and actually dominated the fourth quarter in the Arkansas game – twice sacking the very talented Arkansas quarterback, Mallett, who had been unstoppable for 3 quarters.

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