WHY VANDY BEAT GEORGIA
BY DAN MILLER
October 17, 2006
Two days before the big game, I officially declared that Vandy would surprise Georgia this year.
I felt secure in my prediction because of six words spoken on Thursday.
In hopes of getting a useful, interesting quote, media representatives gathered around coach Bobby Johnson and several players, asking questions about the upcoming game against the highly ranked, heavily favored Georgia Bulldogs.
And many things were said.
Things like, "we have to be solid on defense"..... "we'll be ready".... "we cannot fumble the ball".... "hopefully our strengths will come together"... "we'll go there intending to win".... etc....
But the words that caught my ear came from Hamilton Holliday, Vanderbilt's junior center from Marietta, Georgia.
While being interviewed, he talked about traveling down to his home state, and about the friends he had at the University of Georgia, and he said: "They have a great stadium, great crowd, and" ---
Then he added the words that let me know Vandy would win the game --- he said, "it'll be a lot of fun."
There you are..... "it'll be a lot of fun".....
Isn't that the real, original reason we all played football and other games when we were kids?
In my old Georgia neighborhood, my young pals and I would assemble in fields, or yards, or parks, even parking lots.... and play for one simple reason.... it was a lot of fun.
Usually we played in a place we called The Field, or Anderson's field.
It was actually nothing more than a big weed-filled clump of scruffy land behind Anderson's Florist near our homes in Augusta.
The sidelines of our playing field would be trampled down weeds in a semi-straight line...
And the goal was usually an imaginary line between two trees.
Occasionally, there might be 4 or 5 players on each team.... but more often it would be a game of one-on-one, with each side running complex one-man plays, or tackling the other guy.
I don't recall a single final score, (though a few remarkable passes or trick plays still hang in my mind half a century later).
No, we did it for fun.
In these days of coaches throwing body slams on players in youth leagues.... and parents being arrested for violence against umpires and referees.... and other parents being barred from games for being disruptive..... and young players signing with high power agents to secure their lucrative pro contracts.... and other players transferring schools so they'll get more playing time and exposure to the scouts.... and other players being fined and suspended for violence in and away from the game.....
How nice it is to hear a young college player say he's looking forward to a big game because, "it'll be a lot of fun."
No matter how big and important the game.... and no matter who the experts say will win....
and though the setting is certainly bigger and fancier than the old field behind Anderson's Florist....
it's still a game....
And it should be fun.
That's what makes magic happen.
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