Welcome to Tuesday, and to October, Bulldog fans! The first Tuesday in a while without a victory to celebrate. But this is no time to sulk or crawl into a hole, for Hate Week is upon us! No, you didn’t sleep through October and wake up in early November for the traditional Auburn schedule slot. After Greg Sankey and Jere Morehead negotiated to give Auburn all kinds of kit glove schedule treatment in return for consecutive National Championships for UGA, we’re once again forced to get used to facing the Toomer’s School for Me Talk Pretty One Day much earlier in the season.
While you’re working up your morning disdain for all things Opelika-adjacent, let’s take a minute to remember Pete Rose, former Macon Peaches and Luther Williams Field star. The somber news came late Monday that Charlie Hustle passed away. My first Atlanta Braves game at Fulton County Stadium featured the Big Red Machine in 1976. I remember the score (Reds won 6-4) and my dad pointing Rose out to a very young version of myself. I don’t know if The Hit King and Bart Giamatti will meet in the afterlife, but that would be an intriguing reunion.
And on the good news front, the Atlanta Braves clinched a victory from the jaws of the Injured List, and have made the post-season. They had to beat the Mets to do it, which was sweet. The only thing better would have been a sweep of Monday’s double-header to send the Metropolitans home.
The sun rose yesterday and today, and the Monday press conference occurred as usual with Kirby Smart at the lectern. I appreciate Bulldawg Illustrated for the good camera work. I do think they should ask the reporter beside them to type more softly. In one of the memorable moments for me, Coach was asked if anything on the Alabama game film jumped out at him. He said yes, but nothing he would share. Personally, I would buy a lot of Hartman points to witness our head coach watch and react to that game film.
If I lived in Athens/Clarke County and covered sports for a living, I’m not sure I would be as bold as this. The Op-Ed piece makes some points, but both the headline and the closing sentence (of that subject) are really saying it with the chest.
Grading sport team performances are nothing novel. There are several media outlets, both national and local, that provide this same service. I’m just partial to the intrepid young folks at the Red and Black for their weekly report card. Based on some of the Dawg Sports game thread comments, many of you will stand applaud the ratings, especially for Carson Beck. And on the whole, I’m in agreement with what was handed out.
Sprinkles are for winners, so we don’t have any weekly conference awards to hand out. To make matters worse, the performance Saturday appears to have hurt the draft stock of one highly regarded Bulldog prospect.
The betting must be getting hectic for Hate Week, as DawgNation is reporting Georgia as only a 20 point favorite. But I’m also still seeing 24 points on other sites. I do enjoy seeing the Gators as underdogs at home against the Fightin’ Malzahn’s.
Gametime and broadcast partner for the Bizarro Bulldogs tilt next week has been set. Sheesh, you lose one close game and you’re relegated to Taylor Zarzour and Matt Stinchcomb (allegedly and hopefully).
Those of you who like to look further into the future will be interested in the proposed meeting between the SEC and Big Ten conferences. It is expected that the joint advisory group will discuss alignment of interests such as more automatic bids to the playoffs (only for themselves of course). With the current format only good through next season, it appears they want to get a jump on influencing the next iteration.
That should get your Tuesday going. Feel free to hit everyone with any updates, or anything else you’d like to get off your chest. Just remember to hate Auburn – it’s probably the easiest thing you’ll do all day. And as always…
GO ‘DAWGS!!!