No. 18 - Bulldawg Illustrated XVIII: UGA vs. Vanderbilt, 10/15/11
Peering Into the Crystal Ball
I took Annabelle and Andrew to the Kennesaw Mountain Battlefield before the Vanderbilt game. I figured some Civil War history would do them well. But I learned, a tenth of a mile into a mile-long hike, that a three-year-old could care less about a history lesson taught by good old Dad.
Even though our trip to Kennesaw was a bust, I’m glad to say the last several weekends have been the opposite. Watching our Dawgs win five in a row has been exciting, meeting Rhett Butler was a life-altering event, and attending a polo match with Annabelle was a blast. But nothing holds a candle to hosting the 3rd Annual Brad Evans Celebrity Golf Tournament.
I’ll cut through the you-know-what and admit: we’ve never had a celebrity, we’ve never done anything charitable, and judging by the company I keep, we never will. My annual tournament is nothing more than a bunch of old friends getting together for an afternoon of golf-course debauchery. On a brighter note, the winner receives a green jacket and an invitation to the club (my house) for the annual Champions Dinner. (If a member of Augusta National is reading this, I apologize for lifting my traditions from the Masters and would be more than willing to visit your club to discuss the matter… I’m confident we can come to a solution over 18 holes.)
Anyway, after realizing I should have listened to my wife and taken the kids to a regular park (where children are and cannons are not), I packed up the tribe and headed home to watch South Carolina eke out a pathetic win over Mississippi State. I’m not a gambling man, but I’d bet the farm on Arkansas when Spurrier & Co. come to Fayetteville on November 5th—helping our chances of getting to the Dome four weeks later.
Now here’s where I’ll get a little cocky: I’d bet I have a better chance of getting Herschel Walker to attend my Celebrity Golf Tournament than the Dawgs losing to Florida.
My worry lies with the War Chickens coming to Athens. Why? Because their two losses are to Clemson (7–0, ranked 8th) and Arkansas (5–1, ranked 10th). I wouldn’t be surprised if they left Baton Rouge with a win this weekend.
I looked into my crystal ball (bottle of Blanton’s bourbon), and this is what I saw:
1st – South Carolina will lose to Tennessee and Arkansas, and beat Florida (5–3)
2nd – Florida will lose to UGA, beat Vanderbilt, and lose to South Carolina (3–5)
3rd – Georgia will beat Florida, lose to Auburn, and beat Kentucky (6–2)
So that leaves us winning the East and paying two hundred bucks for a nosebleed seat to see a reenactment of the 2003 SEC Championship Game—just with a much higher spread.
And that will be fine with me, because a good old-fashioned butt-kicking at the Georgia Dome in December is a long way removed from an 0–2 start in September. More importantly, Richt will have convinced Bulldog Nation that he can win another hundred games.
P.S. I’m serious—if you’re reading this, Mr. Augusta National member… we need to discuss my improprieties. Have your people call mine.
Editor’s Note: Brad Evans is a guest blogger for Bulldawg Illustrated. He writes from the perspective of a UGA alumnus and suburban dad who longs every weekend to be in Athens. Instead, he ends up watching the game at home in a red and black bow tie, bourbon in one hand and cigar in the other, alongside his wife—an Auburn grad—and their three-year-old daughter and three-month-old son, both caught in the middle of mom and dad’s football loyalties.
