Live from the Dome: Favored Bama meets hungry Dogs!
That famous jokester Nick Saban leaves Mark Richt in stitches Friday. (AJC photo by Brant Sanderlin)
At the SEC Coaches’ Luncheon at the Hyatt on Friday, emcee Dave Neal asked Nick Saban if it was easier to keep a team motivated as a favorite, or if being an underdog was preferable. Whereupon Mark Richt said, “What does he know about being an underdog?”
Saban’s Crimson Tide is favored today by eight points over Richt’s Bulldogs, but an awful lot of folks — this correspondent included — are picking Georgia. Still, this matchup couldn’t have caught Saban unaware.
“Last summer I was at the lake (Burton, where every big-name college football coach has a summer house) and I was fooling around in the yard, and two guys rode up on JetSkis,” Saban told Richt at the luncheon. “One of them was your quarterback Aaron Murray and the other was your center (David Andrews). And they said, ‘We’ll see you in the SEC championship game.’ ”
And here both teams are, Alabama ranked No. 2 to Georgia’s No. 2, Alabama favored but not nearly a lock, Georgia trying to seize its biggest football moment in three decades. But you knew all that already. So enough of me talking.
I’ll be here until someone is the 2012 SEC champ, and I’d appreciate it if you’d join the fun and frolic. And I thank you, as ever, in advance.
By Mark Bradley
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2,729 comments Add your comment
Al Bundy
December 1st, 2012
5:32 pm
Get some!!! Get some!!!
Orange12
December 1st, 2012
5:32 pm
Unbeleivable!
Roll tide!
December 1st, 2012
5:32 pm
TD Bama……………………..
Bama14
December 1st, 2012
5:32 pm
About damn time!
phil
December 1st, 2012
5:32 pm
Oh well……
Put in Timeout by Ken Sugiura,Filtered by Mark Bradley, Banned by Bill King, Chip Towers & only slightly loved by Jeff Schultz.
December 1st, 2012
5:32 pm
EVEN…………………….
Tampa Gator
December 1st, 2012
5:32 pm
That was too easy there. It might come down to who has more depth…..because both teams are beating up on each other in this one.
Tide Rising
December 1st, 2012
5:32 pm
Dawgs can only play on pure emotion for so long before we begin to break them. You cannot stop our running game. We are going to wear your asses out. All we have to do is run right at you. Get ready cause here we come.
True_Crimson
December 1st, 2012
5:32 pm
That’s what I’m talkin’ about!
RTR!!!
Knockahoma
December 1st, 2012
5:32 pm
There it is.
aaron ashmore
December 1st, 2012
5:33 pm
Bout Time!
Mark Bradley
December 1st, 2012
5:33 pm
Tied with 1:59 left in the half. Have to try to score here.
And Georgia gets the ball first in the second half.
phil
December 1st, 2012
5:33 pm
Fire Grantham!!
Pathetic.
Tide Rising
December 1st, 2012
5:33 pm
Your defense will wilt in the 2nd half. You will.
Tampa Gator
December 1st, 2012
5:33 pm
That was one weak effort by number 36 for Georgia on that run
Roy
December 1st, 2012
5:33 pm
7-7. Game over. Here come the haters.
bravesilove
December 1st, 2012
5:33 pm
AT WHAT PT U THINK UGA IS SCARED BRING IT
Brownies for everyone
December 1st, 2012
5:33 pm
Just like last year.. A score before half.. This year however is different.. I believe we prevail..
Bama14
December 1st, 2012
5:33 pm
We’ve been impatient. Our running game is our strength…
Orange12
December 1st, 2012
5:33 pm
UGA needs to keep their heads here and not turn it over before the half.
Ric Flair
December 1st, 2012
5:33 pm
What is the difference between football and SEC football. Are there different rules that I’m not aware of?
Woooooooooo!
Jimmy Crack
December 1st, 2012
5:34 pm
Time for Gurley to return a kick.
Knockahoma
December 1st, 2012
5:34 pm
Mental Toughness vs. Emotion
Afraid mental toughness usually wins. I hope I’m wrong.
rivercard
December 1st, 2012
5:34 pm
What took Bama so long to stick with run? McCarron not very good and GA run defense weak at best.
00mpa L00mpa dawg
December 1st, 2012
5:34 pm
Here comes the Beatdown!
Roy
December 1st, 2012
5:34 pm
Georgia can only play on emotions so long.
Mark Bradley
December 1st, 2012
5:34 pm
On the one hand, Alabama has to feel good that it’s tied after two turnovers. On the other hand, Georgia has to feel good that it has proved it can play with Alabama.
phil
December 1st, 2012
5:34 pm
I’m sure Bama was holding, chop blocking, lined up illegally, etc…..
Cheaters, one and all.
Tide Rising
December 1st, 2012
5:34 pm
Like I’ve been saying. Run right at them. We are bigger, stronger, meaner. We will break them like a twig in the 2nd half.
Tampa Gator
December 1st, 2012
5:34 pm
Folks…..7 to 7…..about right. Heavyweight battle. Who can go 15 rounds?????
CANWE?
December 1st, 2012
5:34 pm
missed tackles, missed tackles, missed tackles…man, this is suddenly feeling very familiar–we better score in our first possession of 2nd half or…
True_Crimson
December 1st, 2012
5:34 pm
Georgia has had more big plays than has the Tide, but Bama is playing well down to down.
It’s a 60 minute game boys — better strap it on tight!
RTR!!!
bravesilove
December 1st, 2012
5:34 pm
UGA PUNCH BAMA IN THE MOUTH AND WE NOT BACK DOWN
Buckeye
December 1st, 2012
5:35 pm
Nominate you dog most likley to be arrested before sun up here
Jimmy
December 1st, 2012
5:35 pm
Gotta answer here.
Tampa Gator
December 1st, 2012
5:35 pm
phil…..
you are very funny
Kyle
December 1st, 2012
5:35 pm
The game is over Roy. The Falcons are the only team who can still come out alive when they don’t put teams away like they should but even that will catch up with them in January.
Tide Rising
December 1st, 2012
5:35 pm
Ya’ll notice the dawgs D looked tired on that drive.
Al Bundy
December 1st, 2012
5:35 pm
Now we got a ball game! To great teams going at it!!!
Decatur Joe
December 1st, 2012
5:35 pm
Great game!
CANWE?
December 1st, 2012
5:35 pm
Yeah, Mark, that’s what they said in the locker room last year vs. LSU…remember half #2?
Major
December 1st, 2012
5:36 pm
A defender standing up the runner while another defender tries to rip the ball out is punk. As bad as flopping on the basketball court.
Good to see the touchdown run. Karma
Tampa Gator
December 1st, 2012
5:36 pm
Georgia needs to move the ball here
Brownies for everyone
December 1st, 2012
5:36 pm
I say let’s play safe here and get ball first in second half.
Mark Bradley
December 1st, 2012
5:36 pm
Slip screen to Malcolm Mitchell for 14.
Buckeye
December 1st, 2012
5:36 pm
Bama knows they can
dogs hope they can
Jimmy
December 1st, 2012
5:36 pm
Everyone knows we are running that screen.
Mark Bradley
December 1st, 2012
5:36 pm
Murray to King to midfield.
80sDawg
December 1st, 2012
5:36 pm
Offense has to string together some drives in the second half to rest the D
phil
December 1st, 2012
5:37 pm
Tired?
Lololol
Keep hoping.