Final Feelings: Dawg Post likes UGA over Notre Dame
Matt’s Final Feelings
It’s finally here.
Georgia and Notre Dame. Athens, Georgia. Primetime. Top-10 matchup. One of the biggest games of the 2018 college football season.
And we’re just one day away.
First, I need to talk about the 2017 game.
The Dawg Post crew, including myself, Dean, Dylan and Wes, drove to Lexington to catch up with ole Fletcher on Thursday before the 2017 game. We went to a dinner and a brewery, having a solid time overall. The next day we drove from Lexington to Chicago. We drove through the state of Indiana and stopped at the worst White Castle in the entire world. I’m sure I remember it worse than it actually was, but it was the trashiest place I’ve ever seen. Birds flying around in their “dining room”, yellow tables, spider webs, a broken restroom, a 63-year old cashier that couldn’t stop coughing. It was classic Indiana, and it was awful.
Anyway, we finally made it to Chicago and started throwing down beers at the Dawg Post gathering. Some of ya’ll reading this were there. Dean really hooked that up. Beers after beers. It was awesome.
We ended up stumbling our way to Wrigley Field. There was a sea of red Georgia polos and jerseys walking around all over the place. We grab a couple beers, make our way into the stadium, and realized a couple Georgia fans were sitting in our seats. Wes wasn’t in the best mood and ruined that couple’s night. Pissed off Wes was ready to sit down after driving 6 or so hours and just wanted to chill.
The game itself was awesome but I don’t remember a ton of it. It flew by pretty quick and the Cubs ended up losing 2-0. There were Georgia fans all over Wrigley Field that night, calling the Dawgs in the restroom and giving a “Go Dawgs” to just about every other person. I ran into two high school buddies at Wrigley that night that I haven’t seen in years. They live in Atlanta, but it took the Georgia Bulldogs traveling north for me to catch up with them. In Chicago of all places.
Then we go grab pizza. I’m not sure Dylan remembers this part. We waited a long time, but that pizza was incredible. Maybe it was because we waited an hour. Maybe it’s because we split a couple pitchers of beer. Maybe because it was just that good. Whatever it was, I still remember that being some of the best pizza I’ve ever had in my life.
After that we finally make it to the hotel. The next morning, we drove over to South Bend. Like the rest of the state, the surround area of South Bend didn’t look all great, but the closer we got, the nicer it got. The stadium was great. The place is iconic. They’ve got a top-3 press box in my eyes. I still believe that stadium was 50/50 for kickoff. It looked like Christmas with all the red and green in the stadium.
So the game itself didn’t start until close to 9. Georgia stepped up and won the game 20-19 thanks to a game-ending sack fumble by Davin Bellamy.
When we finally got our work done, it was close to 2 AM. It might have been later than that. We took some pictures, gathered our gear, and then hit the road again. We then DROVE to Indianapolis. In the middle of the night. Dylan passed out, Dean started uploading pictures (his favorite post-game job with the old system), and I just chilled.
So we get to the hotel in Indy, sleep for 2-3 hours, then DRIVE BACK to Athens. We were on the road that entire day. In the end, it was totally worth it. The Cubs game, the beers, the pizza, the memories, the beers, the game, the post-game beers, all of it. It was one of my favorite sports memories of all time.
That was 2017. Thankfully, this game is in Athens.
I don’t know how good Notre Dame is. They, like Georgia, haven’t played anyone. I do know that Georgia will run the football with success. The Irish have had trouble stopping the run, and that’s exactly what Georgia does well. I think the staff will get Jake Fromm going early on, opening up some of those holes for the backs to take advantage of. The Bulldogs will have no trouble putting up points.
Can Notre Dame run the football? That doesn’t seem likely. If they can’t have success on the ground there’s no way they can win this ballgame. Ian Book isn’t winning this game by himself. He’s certainly not going to out-score Georgia if he doesn’t have a run game to rely on.
The more I think about it, the more I really like Georgia in this game. They are better in the trenches, they’re playing at home, they have a veteran quarterback, they’re got an experienced defense, and they look great so far on special teams.
I just don’t see Georgia losing this game. I’ll take the Dawgs 35-21.
I’m really excited to watch some of the other games this weekend. I think Florida will take care of business against Tennessee. I’m expecting a very ugly, low scoring game. I think the Vols will play hard and keep it close for the first half, but I think the Gators take over in the second half. I don’t see the Vols putting up a lot of points on that Gators defense. Florida rolls 24-6.
I don’t know why, but my gut says Michigan covers against Wisconsin. Both programs tend to fold in big games, but obviously one of them has to step up and win this one. I think Wisconsin is a good team. I’m not sold on Michigan. Wisconsin destroying Michigan at home makes too much sense, so I’ll take the Wolverines in the upset.
I’ll take LSU -24 against Vanderbilt. The Tigers are for real.
Give me the Aggies -3.5 against Auburn. I don’t see Bo Nix going into Kyle Field and winning this game. Not a ton of points in this one. Quite a few turnovers.
Dylan’s Final Feelings:
Im not here to blabber this week. I’d like to, but it’s too serious a week to do so. With that in mind, let’s jump into it:
The Pac-12 mascot debate ends here. There are really only a few contenders for who could win this fight. There are some solid ones in there, no doubt, someone that could maybe take out one opponent or so, but they’re not winning the whole thing. Then there are the jokes of the group - you already know who they are.
But what would happen if they were all dumped into a stadium, we’ll say, The Colosseum in Los Angeles (it only seems fitting). Here’s how it would go down:
The Oregon duck is panicked from the getgo. It’s trying to fly away, but it isn’t nearly powerful enough. Trying to establish dominance early, the Husky of Washington goes quickly for the duck. At first, it seems like the duck may get away, he keeps good distance and is able to stay high enough in flight to stay out of the reach of the husky. But the duck is getting tired, it can’t sustain flight much longer. Looking for water to land in safely, the duck comes up empty-handed.
11/12
Stanford Tree is sitting there, square in the middle of The Colosseum. No one is really sure what to do with it, so they all just let it be. All of them except for the Beaver of Oregon State. It knows that it’s got one path to making it far - a dam. The beaver sneaks on over to the tree while the rest of the participants or duking it out in chaos around them. Nibble, nibble, nibble. No one notices the small beaver, and no one cares about the tree. Until it tumbles over.
10/12
As the only humans present, the Trojan of Southern Cal and the Ute of Utah immediately go for one another. They are the dominant human of the group, they both think to themselves. But one has superiority when it comes to battle, and it isn’t the Ute.
9/12
Raphie is running loose. He has no idea what is happening, but he is scared. He won’t stop running, no matter what’s in his way, whether it’s a wildcat…
8/12
Or a husky...
7/12
His recklessness is too powerful. The Bruin of UCLA and the Cal Bear see one another as rivals, but they understand they must come together to stop Ralphie from hopelessly trampling his way to victory.
6/12
It wasn’t easy, but the two took down the buffalo. Tired, the two sit there, panting, catching their breath. It’s then that the Sun Devil pounces. It sees two of its strongest opponents in a moment of vulnerability and knows it must strike now with its firey trident.
4/12
Finally, in the last four, the Cougar of Washington State comes out from a crevice it found within The Colosseum. It goes for its closest foe, a now horse-mounted Trojan. It takes the horse out, bringing the Trojan to his feet. He gets a few good claws in, but the Trojan is too quick to be taken down.
3/12
The beaver is still building its dam with the wood remaining. But that doesn’t matter. The beaver can wait until after the prime-time fight of the night, Sun Devil vs. the Trojan ($90 on pay-per-view). Sword and shield vs. trident and flames, the stage is set. The Sun Devil brings on the flames of hell and throws it the Trojan’s way, but the shield protects him, saves him, honestly. The blaze keeps coming his way, and he just sits there and takes it. When the Sun Devil loses juice, the Trojan makes his move. It’s a fair fight now, steel-on-steel. In close combat though, the trident isn’t nearly as effective as the sword.
2/12
The Trojan has effectively claimed victory. He sees the dam, but knows once he gets to the top, the crown is his. He begins his journey, climbing up the tall pile of wood. He climbs and climbs. The Trojan gets to the peak, releases a loud sigh of relief, unsheaths his sword and says, “Let’s get this over with.” But to his surprise, there is no beaver. In fact, there’s no living creature up there, only a note that reads “;)”.
It was all a setup. Sitting atop, the Trojan begins to panic, and rightfully so. The Beaver pulls out a single twig from the bottom, where he’s been posted up now since Ralphie went down. And seamlessly, the whole dam begins to crumble.
1/12
As for actual football, give me Auburn (+3.5) against A&M this weekend, Texas (-6) over OK State and Wisconsin (-3.5) over Michigan.
Lastly, I’ll take the Dawgs with the spread this weekend. I’ve had a lot of friends from Texas ask me for betting advice for this weekend, and I’m feeling pretty safe with that bet. Notre Dame is going to struggle to run on Georgia, and, inversely, going to struggle to stop the run against them too. I’m taking Georgia to win 28-10.
Dean’s Final Feelings:
Much to discuss in this space - I will try to be as focused as possible. Big weekend ahead for the Dawgs, and for Notre Dame as well. That the Irish are coming into Athens as the No. 7 team in the country and as a two-touchdown dog really shows how good Vegas thinks the Dawgs are.
And I think Vegas is right. I’ve only really watched Notre Dame in the game with Louisville. They played better than they were given credit for, but Georgia seems to be on another level. I think Notre Dame is walking into a major problem on Saturday night.
First, I’m not sure many folks are going to score on Georgia. How you play is almost as important as anything else for me in my book, and Georgia is playing better than anyone else in the country on defense - maybe Clemson is in that same ballpark. I’m not sure I would say that about Alabama right now. I would not say that about LSU. I certainly wouldn’t say that about Notre Dame.
Georgia’s defense is going to be Notre Dame’s real issue on Saturday night. As individuals the UGA defense has flaws. It’s just hard to pick on those flaws because it has been impossible for teams to get the run game going. Running in the middle has been pointless. Running to the outside means you have better get to the edge before UGA’s pursuit gets there.
All of that make me wonder if we are going to see some misdirection from the Irish. Something has to make Georgia’s defenders have pause.
Second, Ian Book is legit. Now that’s the truth. But the last time one player beat a Kirby Smart-Georgia team by himself was never. I don’t like the matchups for Notre Dame coming into this thing. Book is going to have to get a lot of help from his teammates.
I was talking with Marc Weiszer earlier in the week about Notre Dame’s talent level vs. Georgia’s - he told me that Notre Dame had one five-star player on their roster. That’s not going to get it. Again, when was the last time UGA lost to a team that didn’t have multiple five-star players? 2016 Vanderbilt?
Does this feel like the fall of 2016 when the entire program was figuring itself out?
Nope.
Again, I might be coming on too strong here. That is always possible. But I don’t see a reason to hedge. If Georgia doesn’t win this game something has gone very wrong - or Notre Dame is so much better than I think that we’ve all - everyone - misjudged them.
Part of my bias here is not being able to get out of my brain watching Clemson destroy Notre Dame in December. The Irish, in fact, were not one of the top four teams in the country at that time. Keep in mind that Notre Dame score three points on Clemson.
Three.
No one else on Clemson’s 2018 schedule scored fewer points than that. Southern Cootlunbia scored 35 on the road.
It was obvious to me that night in the “party suite” at the Sugar Bowl that Notre Dame wasn’t in the same ball park as Clemson (-10.5). Now they are 14-point dogs in Athens, meaning Vegas views 2018 Clemson and 2019 UGA with the “same” basic advantage over the Irish.
And before you get your Larry Munson on - Georgia has lost twice as 14-point favorites in Kirby’s time at Georgia. But Kirby Smart is 27-2 straight up as a double-digit favorite. Math would dictate that of the 30 games UGA has played as a double-digit favorite they should have lost “about” 2.5 games in that time.
So maybe this is the game Notre Dame pulls Georgia back down to the averages that should take place. Still, the Dawgs are about where they are supposed to be on double-digit games. That means, within reason, you should expect UGA to win another eight or so games as a double-digit favorite before losing again.
Not that any of that has anything to do with anything when Nolan Smith is bull-rushing your tackle and D’Andre Swift is getting around the corner on you.
Take UGA, and take them to cover the 14. And, by the way, Notre Dame is probably a ten-win team.
Meanwhile, I went to Kaaboo in San Diego last weekend after watching Georgia’s dismantling of Arkansas State. Several thoughts on that deal.
First, lots of beautiful people out there in southern California. Short shorts are certainly in vogue. Lots of very fit people watching the concerts. It was pretty laid back. I have to say that I have officially ended my relationship with Uber in surge situations. I mean, that was a train wreck.
I’m in crowds a lot, and being one of the few non-intoxicated people at this event made things even worse for me. Uber is a great service. But it can really be bad in certain situations. I have learned that post concerts is the exact time not to use Uber.
Still, lots of acts to go over… and yes, I will be reviewing everyone I watched. If you don’t want to read about it its time to get your edible on and take a trip elsewhere because we are about to do this thing…
Kings of Leon - Solid. Not the best band of the weekend because they were going up against some serious competition, but quality Friday night headliner.
Wu-Tang Clan - Method Man was not having it with the sound guy. And Wu-Tang just plain sounded bad. I don’t think it was them. You could barely hear them on the mic. It was a very disappointing 25-year reunion. CREAM was solid - that’s probably Wu-Tang’s biggest single - at least the one they are most known for. But they saved the day with Triumph. They killed that song.
“Domino effect, arts and crafts; Paragraphs contain cyanide.”
Compete.
Method Man looks better now than he did in the 1990s. He had a point about the fans near the front of the stage not being about hip hop as their true fans. At the same time Boyz II Men was the lead into Wu Tang, and those two are not at all the same thing.
Snoop Dogg - Killed it. Snoop didn’t have the sound issues that plagued Wu-Tang. Honestly, I think much of the crowd really didn’t know much about Wu-Tang beyond the Dave Chappell skit about Wu-Tang financial. Again, Wu-Tang is very serious Hip Hop.
Snoop is a star. Has been a star. And continues to be a star. Just watching him, it is obvious he understands what he is, and he does that. Strippers on the stage? Check. Minute-and-a-half songs? Check.
Snoop was in and out. The entire crowd was totally into him. He’s a performer. He’s natural. He was one of the best acts we saw over the weekend. Smile (Living My Best Life) was his best performance of the night. Needless to say much of the set was at least R rated, and that’s what you should be getting from Snoop.
REO Speedwagon - I’m not a big REO Speedwagon guy. That’s a little before my time, and I don’t think there were a lot of REO fans in DeKalb County when I was growing up. Take it on the Run was their best song, but the crowd responded most to Keep on Loving You.
Dave Matthews Band - Always good. Forbes reported in 2009 that DMB usually makes about $1M a night for performing. They’ve played 51 shows already in 2019, and they played about 80 last year.
You can do the math on that deal.
DMB was solid as usual. Ended with Ants Marching… great song. Classic. I had some moron who was standing to the right of me tell me: “I don’t want to hear any of the mainstream hits.”
Bro, you are at a Dave Matthews concert… they have a lot of mainstream hits. Please leave, you are brining me down of this serious contact high I’ve got going right now.
One Republic - Apparently the lead singer has written a ton of songs for other artists and played them for us as proof over Saturday night. But they were good. Good life was a big song for them - as was Stop and Stare. But the closed with their most known hit Counting Stars, which was the right move. They were better than I expected.
Bryan Adams - I overheard someone saying as we were talking into the venue that this was the first time Adams had played in several years. Said lots of these folks were there to watch him.
SMH. Come on man.
Heaven is his best song, but I think he closed with Summer of ’69. Let me tell you - I heard enough of that song in 1988.
Sublime - California to the max. I’m still looking for Sancho myself.
“Daddy's got a new .45.” - Aggressive.
Mumford & Sons - OK, I only saw the close, and this was the third time I was around them, so I skipped the show. And I am OK with that if you are OK with that. Lots of black and white on the stage. They are very talented. I just chose to go in a different direction.
Sheryl Crow - She was good. One of my idiot friends said she was no better than an act at the local county fair. Lots of rage and hate, which was the opposite of Crow. She was very good. Every Day is a Winding Road. If It Makes You Happy. Can’t Cry Anymore. I really didn’t realize she had as many true “hits” as she did. She ran about 15 songs deep, and they were pretty much all songs I knew.
The Bangles - I left the Bangles early for Edie Brickell. That was a mistake. I didn’t get to hear A Hazy Shade of Winter because of leaving early. Some covers are better than the original - and in this case The Bangles are better at that song than Simon & Garfunkel… now think about that. Those two are no chumps.
Yes, Susanna Hoffs looks as good as ever.
Manic Monday. Eternal Flame. I'm OK without Walk Like an Egyptian. In You Room was awesome. The Bangles certainly rocked it out.
Edie Brickell & New Bohemians - I’m not aware of too many things, but I know that if you don’t close with you biggest hit I’m going to be pissed. And what I am is pissed.
Duran Duran - Couple of things. These guys stole the weekend for me. The crowd was bigger for them than anyone I saw besides Dave Matthews and Mumford. It was worth it, too.
Who does Rock and Roll better than the British? No one does glam rock better than Duran Duran.
So.
(Expletive).
Good.
They hit all the songs. Hungry Like the Wolf. Notorious. I’m OK without Wild Boys. Girls of Film. The Reflex was AWESOME. Union of the Snake. New Moon on Monday. Come Undone. Ordinary World.
And of course Rio.
Loved it. It was great. I watched it by myself because my in-laws were about Mumford. I get it. But I will probably never see Duran Duran again, and I wasn’t letting this deal slip away. I made the right call on that one. I only went to the bathroom during Wild Boys.
Duran Duran’s biggest song was probably Rio. But Save a Prayer was a big hit, and a little before my time (I was five). But they did it right in San Diego. I forgot Is There Something I Should Know?
Hit after hit after hit. And there were these 40-somethings girls/women who knew every single word of each song dancing to the right of me for about two hours. Amazing. I’m not overselling, either. They were good.
Final Rankings for Kaaboo 2019
1. Duran Duran
2. Snoop Dogg
3. Dave Matthews