One Old Dawg and bottling up the opponent

One Old Dawg has had a smile plastered on his face for days thanks to the Bulldogs decisive win over the Missouri Tigers last week.

Ahead, Georgia plays Arkansas on Saturday. In 1964, Georgia didn’t play Arkansas. But they did play North Carolina around this time in the season.

Finding commentary on the 1964 Georgia-North Carolina game has proved a bit of a challenge. It seems defensive coordinator, Erk Russell was one of the few who committed his thoughts to paper. In Erk, Football, Fans and Friends, he wrote, “North Carolina had one of its better teams in recent years led by Ken Willard, their All-American fullback. During our film study we saw that on Willard’s best play, a quick trap up the middle, the center always blocked back on our defensive guard so the trapping guard could pull. We told middle linebacker John Glass to see the center and when that happened, to simply step forward and tackle Willard. It worked. Willard wasn’t a factor and Glass must have made 15 individual tackles. On that day he was the All-American. We won, 24-8.”

 

One Old Dawg says this, “We were really concerned about Ken Willard and justifiably so; he was a leading rusher in the ACC and big for back in those days (6’1” 220 lbs). He was sure to get All-American honors at the end of the year. He was actually the number two pick in the NFL draft in early 1965 and had all-star career as a pro, so our concerns were not ill founded.

“But Coach Russell had convinced us we could stop anybody, particularly between the hedges, which is exactly where we had Ken Willard. All we had to do was play smart, fundamentally sound football. By fundamentally sound I mean that we would use the proper techniques in playing our position and in tackling. By smart, I mean we would study our opponents to find and exploit their weaknesses. 

 “Many of us studied game films of or opponents more than our school work. The defensive staff had us well prepared and came up with a great game plan so we were able to bottle-up Ken Willard and stymie that Carolina offense.

“We had learned the truth that fundamentals are critical to being successful which is also true in our spiritual life. Hebrews 5:12 (The Message) tells us :  “By this time you ought to be teachers yourselves, yet here I find you need someone to sit down with you and go over the basics on God again, starting from square one—baby's milk, when you should have been on solid food long ago! “ We can’t live the Christian life successfully without practicing the spiritual disciplines of prayer, worship and Bible study anymore than we can be successful at football without practicing the fundamentals of blocking, tackling and position technique.

“The Razorbacks have us in their Hog pen this Saturday and they would like to send us back to Athens with our tail tucked between our legs.

“When pigs fly!

“I saw something in the Missouri game that makes me think we will keep the Hawgs grounded, wallowing in the mud. I saw a lot of fundamentally sound football from the Dawgs; aggressive defense as it is supposed to be played, and brutal offense that demoralizes the opposition. Arkansas does have two backs that have over 500 yards rushing already this season and average more than six yards per carry. That should concern any wise student of the game, but I believe the Dawgs have a plan and will bottle them up – just as we bottled up Ken Willard in “64.

 “Woooooooooo, Pig ! Sooie!  Sic ‘em Dawgs, woof, woof, woof!!!"

 

 

Spelling and Grammar check has no suggestions for that last sentence from One Old Dawg, so we’ll just leave it as is and trust our readers get the idea.

 

The Bulldogs have a bye next week, so One Old Dawg is taking a week off, too. We’ll see you back right here at One Old Dawg in two weeks for the Florida game and mostly true Bulldog lore. Did anyone say “gator tail?”

Until then, Go Dogs!