Final Feelings: It Can Always Get Worse for the Vols (and Braves)
ATHENS - The Dawg Post crew tell you what to look for this Friday night and Saturday, and their final takes, views and predictions for this weekend.
Matt’s Final Feelings (Written before the Braves’ Game)
Oh man. Final Feelings Time.
It’s been a pretty wild week for me as I was able to travel around a little bit.
The Wednesday after the big win over Notre Dame, I flew out to Colorado for little bro’s bachelor party. It was one of my favorite trips of all-time. We flew out there the morning of September 25th. After driving through Denver a little, we drove up to Boulder and stayed the night up there. We ate some special flavored gummies, then found a cool spot to eat downtown. I forgot the name of the place, but the food and beers were spot on. We walked around the University of Colorado campus, saw the football stadium and indoor practice facility. It was impressive, but obviously not on an SEC-level. After that we hit up a couple more breweries and called it a night.
The next morning, we ate more special gummies, drove up to Estes Park and through Rocky Mountain National Park. Some of the coolest views I’ve seen in my life. I met a Georgia fan right in the middle when we stopped to take some pictures. With all of the views right in front of us, that dude, I think his name was Dale or something, just wanted to talk about the Georgia Bulldogs. He started going on and on about the Notre Dame game and his thoughts on Georgia’s national title hopes. That was only the second Georgia fan we had seen at the time.
My cousin used to live in Silverthorne, so we drove there and made our way to Breckenridge where we stayed on Thursday night. Breckenridge was cool. Smaller than I thought. On Friday morning, we drove over to Vail and spent the day there. Vail is crazy nice. Very proper. Lots of money. I could probably live there if I had too. The mountains out there were wild. Lots of color going on. Blue trees. Yellow trees. All types of trees.
Our last full day was Saturday, so we drove out to Denver from Vail and got to walk around a good bit. We stopped at a couple breweries that I’ve forgotten the names of and watched some college football. That’s where we saw more Georgia fans. Just a couple former UGA graduates and now Denver natives watching college football downtown in Bulldog polos. It was almost like I was back in Georgia.
But yeah, Denver was cool. Super chill. Saw Coors Field. Went to Oktoberfest and drank some beers. Very cool town.
So that was Colorado. On Monday, I tried to write a couple stories before my next little road trip. My girlfriend is a middle school teacher and they had their fall break this week. She’s been begging me to take her up to Asheville, so that’s where I was on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Yeah. Asheville is a little too weird for me. I’m a normal dude. Completely average. The girlfriend and I, straight out of Forsyth County, stuck out big time. No tattoos, No nose rings, no purple hair, and no gauges in our ears. We were way too normal to be walking around Asheville on a fall evening.
The breweries were cool. It’s hard for me to ever say a bad word about any brewery. The food wasn’t great. They try to make their food just as weird as their locals. It’s just too much. Maybe we went to the wrong places, but I think I’m right on this one. It was disappointing.
The people watching was great, though. A band called “Motionless in White” was playing in town. Look up those weirdos on YouTube. Wow. Think Marilyn Manson meets Green Day. Nobody in that concert line has seen the sun in about 10 years. Black hair, black skinny jeans, face tattoos, face piercings, black make-up. It looked like 200 Severus Snape wannabees. It was wild.
We did the Lazoom Haunted Comedy Tour on Tuesday night and I would highly recommend it. If you’re ever in the city and want to learn about history and all that jazz, give that tour a shot. Funny, informative, and you’re allowed to throw down a couple beers on the trolley. It’s a good time.
So now I’m back home and getting back into football mode.
Not a lot has changed on the recruiting trail this past week. The Bulldogs continue to sit in a great spot for multiple five-star prospects including Darnell Washington, Kelee Ringo, and Noah Sewell. One five-star who continues to trend away from Georgia is Marietta (GA) star tight end Arik Gilbert. He still hasn’t been to Athens in quite a while. Right now, I believe this is an Alabama/Clemson battle.
We’ll see what happens with Zach Evans. I still think Georgia has a great shot to land him in the end, but I don’t see him making a public decision anytime soon. I don’t think this one will be over either way until Signing Day. Georgia running backs coach Dell McGee went to see him play last week, so the interest in Evans is still clearly there.
Now onto Tennessee.
How can a program like Tennessee be THIS bad? It’s bad for college football and it’s bad for the SEC. This was a once respectable program. Now, they’re the laughing stock of the entire sport. Well, them and Georgia Tech. Could you imagine a game between the Vols and Jackets right now? Now THAT would be hysterical.
Back to the Vols. Two years ago when the Bulldogs shut out Tennessee in Neyland, I thought that could be the lowest point in their program. I was obviously wrong. I never thought the Vols would be worse than they were in 2017, but this 2019 squad is terrible. Their QB play is a joke and their defense can’t tackle or cover. It’s going to be another blood-bath in Neyland on Saturday night. Georgia is going to win this game 44-7.
Auburn is going to beat Florida on the road and cover. This Auburn team is better than I originally thought and I’m still not sold on the Gators. I’m expecting a low scoring game with lots of turnovers. Both can play defense and both have inexperienced quarterbacks. I think Auburn wins an ugly game in the Swamp, 20-13.
The Braves play tonight (Thursday night) and I’m terrified. The Braves SHOULD take care of the Cardinals, and they’re good enough to PUSH the Dodgers in the NLCS. That’s what I’m expecting. I’m not expecting a World Series appearance, but if this team is playing well they certainly have a shot. Step 1 is St. Louis, and while the Braves are 100% a better team, the “Atlanta sports fan” in me is expecting to get my heart broken. We’ll see how it goes. I’ve been drinking a lot less the past couple of months, but today I’ll be drinking the nerves away until 5.
Dylan’s Final Feelings (Written during the Braves’ game)
I’m going to cut straight to the chase here guys. I’m worried about Matt. It’s the bottom of the ninth as I write this and I’m literally sitting here praying that the Braves pull out a win.
I’m not really a Braves fan, personally. Hell, I’m not really a baseball fan at that. But I’m a Matt DeBary fan, and more specifically, I’m a fan of a mentally-healthy Matt DeBary.
If the Braves choke this home game away, I don’t know what Matt’s going to do. When we recorded our podcast earlier, he told me he had been having a few “nervous” beers to help calm himself down. What kind of beers is he going to be drinking if they lose this shit? Angry beers? Sad beers? Sangry (sad angry) beers?
Oh God, Cardinals just put in two runs as I was typing this.
Honestly, it isn’t Atlanta’s fault this is happening to Matt. As former Texas Governor George Bush once said, “There's an old saying in Tennessee — I know it's in Texas, probably in Tennessee — that says, fool me once, shame on — shame on you. Fool me — you can't get fooled again.”
Matt, how many times are you going to get fooled before you don’t get fooled again? It’s time to get out of town, start a new life somewhere else. We’re worried about you. I hear the Macon Bacon had a really successful season last summer. They’re always looking for more fans. And they don’t get the national coverage (and embarrassment) that Atlanta sports give you.
Oh shit. They’re just piling it on the Braves right now. 7-3, sheesh. Matt, I’m so sorry.
But let’s move on to college football:
The Sooners have a real tough challenge this week in Lawrence, Kansas. I think after a rocky start for Les Miles that included a loss to Coastal Carolina and a one-score victory over the might Indiana State Sycamores, this is the week that Les finally becomes more.
Nottttt. They’re going to get their brains beat in.
I do actually believe in Michigan this week over Iowa. Maybe that’s just me being a sucker, but I think UM still has the chance to be OK. At least when they’re at home.
I also expect Auburn to go into Gainesville and cover the spread at -2.5. I think it will be a close game for a lot of it, but I bet Auburn we’ll pull away in the fourth quarter to win by 10.
As for the Horns, they should just beat down West Virginia in Morgantown. That WVU team is 3-1, but they are not that good. They barely beat James Madison University and Kansas, both programs that the Mountaineers have throttled in the past few years.
And the Aggies got a bye-week this week. It will be a tough fight for Texas A&M, but I’m going to take the underdog in this one. Give me bye-week (+500) to beat the Aggies at home.
Lastly, I don’t care what Kirby or Jeremy say about this Tennessee team - they are not good. You can’t trick me like Atlanta sports fool Matt. Georgia is going to hammer the Vols again at home, 38-6.
Dean’s Final Feelings: (Written after the Braves’ game)
One of these days I am going to explain to this audience, in further detail, about my long and disappointing relationship with the Braves. I can assure you its not like most people. Because most people didn’t clean up Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium in the summer after Braves games in the 1990s like me.
Ugh.
Poor Matt. Why does he do this to himself? I will admit that I watched, sparingly, as the Braves choked out another playoff loss. I wasn’t surprised. I won’t be surprised with a sweep. I will be surprised with the Braves winning the World Series.
And yet Matt does this to himself early and often. He’s like that Robert Palmer song:
“You like to think that you're immune to the stuff.”
“It's closer to the truth to say you can't get enough”
“You know you're gonna have to face it, you're addicted to (suffering while your favorite team gets its ass dismissed in the payoffs each October)”
Stop investing emotions in the Cobb County MLB franchise. I can promise you that while you might have to find more things to do on summer nights when you used to watch them, your time would be better spent parading around Colorado, or Vegas, or wherever it is that you can go and not watch this replay.
I’m not sure it Matt is more pathetic than my poor brother-in-law Wesley, who, like Matt, gets geeked up to watch the Vols play the Gators each year only to scream at the TV as the predicted result happens each year.
“YOU COWARDS!”
I’ve witnessed him watching the Alabama game, one the Vols haven’t won since Nick Saban arrived… that doesn’t get better.
“That’s right… just roll over and die for Alabama like to always do.”
SMH.
He still fantasizes about the “Dobbnail Boot” and Tennessee’s win in 2009 over the Dawgs that featured Jonathan “City of Crompton” doing bootlegs all game and Willie Martinez not adjusting to it.
That 2009 game might have been one of the low points in Mark Richt’s time at Georgia. That defense wasn’t even close to being ready to know what they were doing. They were on the field bickering. It was a mess.
A lot of Georgia folks really hate Tennessee. I have to say that I don’t really care. I do think it is a shame that a program that’s as big and with a base of fans that are so passionate that Tennessee should be ashamed of the situation they find themselves in.
Who is running the show up there?
Every state and institution has its fair share of disfunction, but the Vols are putting the fun in disfunction in ways I really didn’t think was possible. I talked with someone up that way who knows the SEC and the Vols pretty well. He don’t see how Tennessee can fire Jeremy Pruitt right now.
“That would be the the sixth head coach in 12 years,” he said.
The Vols have had four winning seasons in the last 11 years… this year ain’t looking too hot, either. Tennessee has as many 7-loss seasons since 2008 as Georgia has has since 1953.
Harrison Bailey, alone, isn’t fixing this. We’ve got life-long fans peeling power T logos off their cars in front of TV crews. I know I am generally an optimist, but I also think things can always get worse…
Meanwhile, I’ve got Auburn over the Gators on the road. Obviously, that’s a huge game for the entire league and the playoff picture. The Gators are about to hit a really difficult stretch. After surviving Miami and Kentucky, who are a combined 4-5, the Gators get Auburn, LSU and the Dawgs, who are a combined 13-0.
Should be challenging.
I’ve got Georgia winning big, but I don’t know how big. I don’t see the Vols scoring more than a touchdown on offense. So take that into your calculations. I also think this will be the largest contingent of UGA fans in Knoxville ever.
It can always get worse. 1-4 is worse than 1-3.