Trey Dennard

Aloha, from the Superdome. The intrigue created by the mystery surrounding this Hawaiian team was just too much. A New Year's road trip had to happen, so Big Al of T&A Sports and myself packed a cooler, threw some black and a little red in our bags and drove to New Orleans to ring in the New Year and watch the Dawgs play some football.

I have not been here since the football season Before Katrina (BK). The After Katrina (AK) New Orleans 21/2 years later seems to be rebounding and rebuilding steadily in the downtown areas quite well. Lots of restaurants, hotels and retail open, but as you drive out towards I-10 and the levee, there are still thousands of empty homes and lots of road construction into Mississippi, where the damage is still shocking and widespread.

After a crazy and eventful regular season, this down time between the final rivalry games and the bowling season has proven just as exciting. The excitement started with the championship games and all the crazy wins and losses.

But before I get to the part on how it came to be that the Dawgs are playing Hawaii in the Sugar Bowl, lets go over a couple of other things.

Despite the fact that I write this all-powerful syndicated article in this widely-distributed publication, I still haven't received my "Hypesman" ballots or BCS ranking ballots.

What a great Thanksgiving holiday — lots of turkey and fixings and four days of great football.

I haven’t mentioned another team I have been following all season but, since the Dawgs were playing in Atlanta, I’ll take this opportunity to mention my nephew, Dillon, who is playing on a 1-A team in its infancy — the Fellowship Christian School Paladins. FCS has assembled a coaching staff second to none, and it is paying dividends this year, in only their fourth year of play. The staff is made up of coaches who have all coached and/or played in Division 1 college ball and in the pros. They have definitely gotten the most out of their players this year and are hosting a third round playoff game this coming Friday. So Go Big 'D,’ we’re all proud of you.

Back in Black was the song that rocked Sanford Stadium for this 111th showdown between the Dawgs and the War Eagles of Auburn.

The word was out for all Dawg fans to leave their traditional red on the hangers and wear black for this game on a crisp, perfect fall football day.

The fans answered and blacked out Sanford Stadium. The senior Dawgs lobbied all week for the black jerseys for this game, but Coach Richt never would commit and sent his team out for warmups in their traditional red, home-game shirts. After warmups, the team always gathers in the locker room for quiet prayer in the dark. When the lights came on, the staff began passing out the black jerseys — causing an eruption of cheers and firing the Dawgs up into a frenzy. The Dawgs then ran out of the tunnel and blacked-out Sanford Stadium exploded. I’m sure the cheers echoed all the way to the plains of Auburn.

Saturday, a perfect fall day in Athens and a perfect day for a homecoming game.

After last week’s domination of those swamp lizards, I wasn’t sure the young Bulldawgs’ helmets would fit on their heads. The Dawgs invited “that guy Troy” to Sanford Stadium for a fun game between the hedges. But “that guy Troy” had upset on his mind.

The fun came to an end with the Dawgs’ first play from scrimmage, when the usually sure-handed Knowshon Moreno fumbled the ball deep in the Dawgs’ territory. That guy Troy recovered the loose ball and was poised to take a 7-point lead early, but the Dawgs’ tenacious “D” stiffened and forced that guy Troy to a field goal. This small victory was short-lived after the Dawgs’ offense once again coughed up the ball and that guy Troy recovered the fumble again. Two fumbles in five plays. Maybe their helmets were too tight!

Let me go ahead and take an unsportsmanlike penalty for excessive celebrating right here in the first sentence!

I think Coach Mark Richt’s challenge to his team to rush the end zone and take a celebration penalty on the first score will go down as one of the great calls in this colorful and hated rivalry. What a creative way to fire up your team, by deliberately taking a penalty involving the entire team, especially from the man who stresses control, exudes calm always, and is a stickler for obeying the rules. This was a much better call than the time out by Urban Meyer in the final seconds of the Auburn game.

With Georgia having the week off, I decided to take things easy with this week’s column and run some old favorite jokes about the Gators as we head toward the annual border war this weekend.

Why did Florida choose orange as its team color? You can wear it to the game on Saturday, hunting on

Sunday and picking up trash along the highway the rest of the week.

How many Gators does it take to fix a flat tire? “Just one … unless it’s a blowout, then they all show up.”

What do you get when you cross a Gator with a groundhog? Six more weeks of bad football.

It was another wild weekend of college football, with lots of games decided during the final ticks of the clock and upsets by the perennial homecoming guest teams, right W.D.?

The Dawgs took on Vanderbilt Saturday night and played just like a homecoming guest should in the first half! The Dawgs played the first half the same as they’ve played most first halves this season — uninspired, just sort of going through the motions and giving up a few big plays. The Dawgs go in to the locker room at the half down by 10 points. Dawgs 7, Vandy 17.

Once again, we have the tale of two halves. The Dawgs answered the bell for the third and the offense took their opening drive in for a touchdown, cutting Vandy’s lead to only 3. The Dawgs’ defense also came out inspired in the second half, pitching Vandy a shutout.

I just can’t seem to wake up and get started writing this article. I’m just flat, I can’t seem to find the energy to smack around one of our orange enemies even after the other orange enemy falls on the same night. Maybe I’ll show up by the time I get half my allotted words on paper. This is just how the Dawgs played Saturday against the rival Vols in Tennessee. Just like the week before against Ole Miss and also in the South Carolina game, the Dawgs seemed to be sleepwalking through the first half.

You would think the players would have been as pumped up and ready as the fans (minus the liquid excitement), with an SEC title hunt rebirth, but it wasn’t to be. The Dawgs’ youth, especially on the line, once again reared its baby face. The Tennessee lines punched the Dawgs’ youthful lines right in the pacifiers all day. Not to pick on one player, because the entire offensive and defensive lines got pushed around all day, but in the first half, No. 77 on Dawgs O-Line pretty much single-handily stemmed every hopeful drive by committing some sort of penalty on seemingly every positive play. I think he should get the Pampers 24 pack award for his efforts cause he played like poop.

Watcha got Loren? A great Saturday of college football.

For once, I was glad not to be in the Top 10.

It was almost a perfect Saturday if you were a Dawg. First, the Dawgs won. Then, the Gators lost at home. Here is where the “almost” fits in: Georgia Tech won. Usually, we Dawgs pull for a Tech loss, but if they must win one, at least they beat a team ranked slightly higher than us. So, it was almost a perfect Saturday.

I didn’t travel to Athens this weekend to enjoy the fall weather and the Dawgs’ win over Old Mrs. I stayed here to catch up on some work I’ve neglected. Our game also wasn’t televised, so I got to listen to Larry Munson on the radio, just like old times. He really is the best. You can just picture each play, and all the atmosphere, with his one-of-a-kind color commentary. I still find it hard to fathom that the networks would choose LSU versus Tulane or the biggest losers, Notre Dame, versus anybody over an SEC matchup. So what if it was the Old Mrs. and their Colonel Sanders look-a-like mascot? They gave the mighty Gators all they could handle the week before.