It has become customary in recent years for the leading football schools to open the season with a team perceived to have little or no chance of winning these so-called cupcake games.
However, you may recall that Appalachian State in the opening game Sept 1, 2007, upset Michigan at Ann Arbor, 34-32. Not only did the Mountaineers cash a $400,000 check, but they also pulled off, perhaps, the greatest upset in college football history. Certainly, one of the greatest of all time.
Power 5 teams hosting lesser teams for a big payday still takes place, but I remember what Mountaineer coach Jerry Moore said about playing the Wolverines pre-season: “Opportunity of a lifetime.” Not sure if he had a premonition about the game or not, but Las Vegas did not post a line for this game.
There is seasoned sentiment for playing such games. It is a long season, and the tougher the schedule you play, the more taxing it is on your personnel.
Younger players get experience right out of the box, and fans get to celebrate and gain momentum for the rest of the year. It is always favorable when your fans are in a good mood, anticipating a successful season.
Since 1980, Georgia has lost only 7 opening-season games, with three of them being on the road—LSU, Clemson, and Oklahoma State.
One of my favorite games in UGA history was the opening game in 1959 with Alabama between the hedges. Bear Bryant was in his second year as the Tide head coach, coming off a surprising 5-4-1 record in his rookie coaching year in Tuscaloosa in 1958.
Georgia had a fresh face on the coaching staff, Coach J. B. Whitworth, who may have been the biggest factor in Georgia’s upset of a school that had fired him two seasons prior. He was a proven line coach and a masterful communicator. The players loved him and would tell you today that had he not passed away in early 1960 from a heart attack, things might have been different in what turned out to be Coach Wallace Butts’s final season.
The 1959 Bulldog team was led by Fran Tarkenton and Pat Dye, who had performed notably as sophomores in 1958 on a team that went 4-6, perhaps the best team in the country to lose six games.
It was the loss of a familiar face that may have been as key to success as Whitworth’s leadership. Dave Lloyd, a brute of a man as a center/linebacker, certainly had the potential to earn All-America honors, but he had no problem punching out a teammate if he didn’t like the way he said hello.
The coaches, especially Coach Butts, lamented the loss, but the team cheered his departure. The absence of Lloyd’s intimidating ways allowed for a bunch of happy campers. The seasonal results certainly reflected that it was not a loss in any respect.
The bonding for a serendipitous season began when the trouble-making Lloyd, who had been drafted as a “future” by the Cleveland Browns, left early for training camp.
Whitworth, the Erk Russell of his day, underscored team concepts across the board. Pudgy B-teamers who were not likely to make a big play, nonetheless, were allowed to dress out for home games—a great boost to the morale of the team.
In an era of browbeating, he offered silver-tongued inspiration, which led to this team playing over its head much of the time. Make no mistake, he, as Butts’s first lieutenant, coached hard-nosed football, but he found a way to inspire his charges. He was one of the premier line coaches in the country.
From that auspicious start before a sold-out crowd of 40,000, these Cinderella Dogs would go undefeated with only an off day in Columbia, S.C., that kept them from having an undefeated season.
There was much to enjoy and appreciate, however. The Dogs beat Tech for the third year in a row, 21-14, on Grant Field; they slammed Florida in Jacksonville, 21-10; defeated Kentucky in Lexington, 14-7, with two defensive gems, a blocked punt and an interception return for touchdowns.
By coming from behind in dramatic fashion against Auburn between the hedges with a 14-13 victory that clinched the SEC title, one of the most heroic plays in UGA history—Tarkenton completing a 4th and 13 pass to Bill Heron, followed by the extra point kick of Durward Pennington. Icing on the cake came in the Orange Bowl when Georgia defeated a good Missouri team, 14-0.
What was so enriching to Bulldog fans was that the heavy favorites pre-season were the defending national champions LSU, Ole Miss, and Auburn. Billy Cannon’s 89-yard run in Baton Rouge on Halloween night eliminated Ole Miss, 7-3. The next week in Knoxville, LSU—after a week of partying—was ripe for the picking, and Tennessee stopped Billy Cannon on a goal-line plunge on a two-point play, which gave the Volunteers a 14-13 win.
Georgia won the SEC title with its classic performance over Auburn in Athens. No one knew it, but that opening game victory over Alabama signaled that these Dogs were ambitious and, most of all, opportunistic. These were Serendipity ‘Dogs.
