One Old Dawg and no time for a pity party

One Old Dawg took it better than expected.  

“Well the Crimson Tide rolled in and flooded us out before we knew what hit us. Last Saturday was as hard a day as I’ve had in long time. But as someone, I believe it was Eric Zeier, on the post game radio show said: ‘Let’s not let Alabama beat us two weeks in a row. We can mourn for twenty-four hours but then we have to forget and move on. We play Tennessee in Knoxville in one week.’”

And with that, he regrouped. “That’ all I have to say on the subject.”

Now, he turns his thoughts toward what happened in 1965 at this point in the season.

“In 1965 we limped out of Tallahassee licking the wounds from our first loss of the season to FSU. We were riddled with injuries going into the game and came out even worse including the loss of our all-star running back, Bob Taylor to a broken leg. Kentucky was next on our schedule. They had high hopes for that season because of two players: quarterback Rick Norton and running back Roger Bird. Both were drafted and played several years in the American Football League. After big wins over Missouri and Ole Miss they were ranked number six. A close loss to Auburn knocked them out of the top ten but they rebounded with a win over FSU. A second loss to LSU made them desperate to win in order to save their season and we were next on their schedule. I have not been able to find one article detailing this game either in the pile of clippings my mother saved or on line, so everything from here on, except the score, is memory from fifty years ago.”

It gets a little scary from here. Whenever One Old Dawg relies on memory alone, we lean heavily into our caveat here, “Mostly true Bulldog lore.” So we’re open to gracious corrections as needed. We’re looking at you, 1965 team.  

 

“As I recall, we held our own except for the second quarter. I will never forget one play, which may have been their first score. It was a pro set away from me and our defense was a blitz with man-to-man pass coverage, which I hated because I had to cover the running back, the previously mentioned Roger Bird, who was much faster than I was. My worst fears were realized when the play came my way and Bird crossed the line of scrimmage and broke toward the sideline. I had to scramble to maintain coverage. Man, he was fast.

“Then he planted his right foot and turned straight up field. I tried to do likewise, but I had over-committed to the outside route and could not make the cut. My feet slipped out from under me and I hit the turf, looking up just in time to see Bird catch the ball and waltz about sixty yards to the end zone. We were bombed three more times in less than ten minutes. I’m not sure when we scored our ten points but it fell short of the twenty-eight they scored in the second quarter and we suffered our second loss of the season.”

One Old Dawg takes a deep breath as he considers the implications of that devastating loss in 1965. “I wish now I had known and believed Psalm 55:22, ‘Cast your burden upon the LORD, and He will sustain you; He will never allow the righteous to be shaken.’ I don’t know about all my teammates, because we did not share our inner feelings that much, but I was shaken. I felt like I was carrying a 150-pound barbell around all the time. I needed someone to cast that burden upon. We were doing so well and had such high hopes!  But our coaches were good at forcing us to leave the past behind and move on. With four more games to play, there was no time for a pity party, as we  still had a shot at a good season and a bowl game. North Carolina and Ken Willard were still ahead on the schedule. More about that next week. Now back to the present.”

 

One Old Dawg turns to his weekly prediction.

 

"Do not let the Vols’ 2-3 record lull you into complacency. These guys are for real. Tennessee is back.

“Yes, they have lost three games but the games have been close and they are hungry for an SEC victory. And of course there will be more than 75,000 orange-clad mountain maniacs in the stands screaming Rocky Top at eardrum-breaking pitch.  This means they are extremely dangerously. We need to be at the top of our game. In the end, I’m sure Ole Smokey will find out a hound dog is no match for a Bulldawg, and he’ll limp from Neyland Stadium with his tail tucked between his legs. Go Dawgs, sic ‘em.”

If you're just joining us here and would like to check out some of our other posts at One Old Dawg, please consider visiting our blog site by clicking HERE.

Until next week, Go Dawgs!