"Old School" is the College Football FanHouse's irregular look back at the rich history of college football, usually through the medium of embeddable flash video. Check out the Old School archive for more famous plays and infamous hair.

Old School usually consists highlight clips of relatively recent games, but thanks to the University of Georgia's media archive department the entire 1947 Sugar Bowl is now online and streaming:




That, obviously, is not the entire game. Hoo-boy, those would be some pissed of guys in hats if it was. This is the entire game. If you dig the era when "football" was defiantly pronounced as two words, coaches regarded the forrward pass as deadly poison, and guys like Georgia's Charley Trippi played quarterback, receiver, running back, punt returner, kick returner, linebacker, and punter, this is your jam, man.

Georgia would beat North Carolina 20-10, finishing a perfect 10-0 but losing out on the national title to Notre Dame. Georgia's official site takes a distinctly non-'Bama tack when discussing the potential screwjob, highlighting the team but setting Georgia's two "consensus" national champions apart.

One would think Congress would get the lesson that spending valuable time investigating trivialities like sports is a waste of the public's time. It's not like the public has fully embraced the drawn-out inquest into Barry Bonds and Rogers Clemens, Senator Arlen Specter's crusade against the Patriots, and so on.

But no. Three misguided members of Congress now seek to interfere with college football, all in the name of pandering.

Three members of Congress want the Justice Department to investigate whether the Bowl Championship Series is an illegal enterprise.

Representatives Neil Abercrombie, Democrat of Hawaii; Lynn Westmoreland, Republican of Georgia; and Mike Simpson, Republican of Idaho, introduced a resolution saying the B.C.S. restricts trade because only the largest universities compete in its games. The resolution would require the Justice Department's antitrust division to investigate if the B.C.S. violates federal law.

The measure, if it passes, would put Congress on record as supporting a postseason playoff.

Hawaii? Check. Idaho? Check. Georgia? Check. No pandering going on here! Hilariously stupid quote of the month goes to Hawaii Democrat Neil Abercrombie:

"Who elected these N.C.A.A. people?" Abercrombie said at a news conference Thursday on Capitol Hill while gripping a souvenir University of Hawaii football. "Who are they to decide who competes for the championship?"

Never let facts get in the way of a good time folks! Imagine, private - not public like Congress - interests such as the NCAA determining how their own organizations are run? This is apparently scary stuff for the closet fascist the great people of Hawaii have elected. Best of all Abercrombie doesn't appear to realize that "those NCAA people" aren't deciding who competes for college football's championship, nor should they. It's in the hands of the institutions and the conferences themselves.

Exit question: What, no co-signature from any of Alabama's representatives?

His career line is fairly pedestrian so far, but when your team's getting championship talk and you play in the SEC, your fans inevitably end up doing oddball things.

The motif: Shaft. As seen at DawgSports - can you dig it?

Who's the white quarterback
Who's a pass machine for the Red and Black?
Staff!
You're damn right!

Who's the man who can beat the Gators
Then hoist a keg at Talladega?
Staff!
Can you dig it?

Who's the cat who won't hand off
When he can put Michael Moore in the running for the Biletnikoff?
Staff!
Right on!

They say this cat Staff is a bad quarter---
Shut your mouth!
I'm talking 'bout Staff.
Then we can dig it!

He's a complicated man to all the haters,
But no one understands him but his coordinator.
Matthew Stafford!

"Old School" is the College Football FanHouse's irregular look back at the rich history of college football, usually through the medium of embeddable flash video. Check out the Old School archive for more famous plays and infamous hair.

It's 1982 in Georgia, and the most popular things are Herschel Walker, the colors red and black, and porny mustaches. But don't take it from me, take it from this assortment of Herschel Walker, suited dudes, horrifying clown-women, and spaced-out students:



Behold the dignity of fandom!

PORNY MUSTACHE GUY: What does it ["Bulldog Fever"] do for you?
HERSCHEL WALKER: For me? It doesn't do anything.

Woooo!

Why not?

Nothing too spectacular here, but that's just how Georgia likes it on offense. Toss left, toss right, bounce it outside and easy does it for Georgia's new offensive star. As a redshirt freshman (why in the world did they redshirt him!) Moreno rushed for 1334 yards (5.4 average) and 14 touchdowns.

If past is precedent, the sampling below hints at the encore.

(H/T: Get The Picture)

Mercifully this cannot be blamed on the usual bogeymen: global warming and President Bush

"In our league, more and more people are spreading out (on offense), and I think it's happening pretty much around the nation," [Georgia coach Mark] Richt said. "The more (offenses) spread, the less (defenses) play their Sam linebacker. You could play Sam and play a certain team and play maybe 15 snaps or something. And then if you have two Sams who are ready to play, you are splitting time like that."

When offenses spread out their formation, defenses have to replace the Sam linebacker with a defensive back, a player who is expected to be faster and better in pass coverage. With a linebacker in the game against a spread offense, Martinez said, quarterbacks and offensive coordinators know the defense will be playing zone defense, giving the offense an advantage.

"They know a linebacker is not going to play man (coverage)," [Georgia defensive coordinator Willie] Martinez said. "He's going to play zone."

Cry not for the SAM backer, Argentina. We're talking evolution here, not extinction.

From now on, the head coach said, Georgia's strongside linebackers will have to be able to either play defensive end in passing situations or play more than one linebacker spot to ensure themselves playing time.

"You are going to see us more and more where that guy is a jack of all trades," Martinez said. "No doubt, it's a special kind of guy. You want the strength, you want the power, you want the size, but at the same time, you don't want that guy out there in space, trying to defend the spread."

Just the same, the position's changing and wise high school coaches, parents and players will adjust accordingly. This is the trickle-down from the change in the quarterback position at the college level.

Exit question: how long before these changes in the college game manifest themselves on the pro level? The NFL is stuck in its one way of football and has been for the better part of 30 years. Can it continue to resist the changes happening at the college level?

(H/T: Get The Picture)

Georgia has upped the salary of football coach Mark Richt $800,000 to $2.8 million. Here's guessing Georgia's athletic board was willing to pay him much more, but sent a bit of a message with this raise.

Note the coaches ahead of him in pay: Nick Saban, Les Miles, Urban Meyer and Tommy Tuberville. Three of the four have won championships and Tuberville arguably fielded a championship team in 2004.

Now don't get me wrong, Richt is revered around the state right now for making Georgia a consistent top-10 program and few can criticize what he's done. But the pay level is veeeeeeery interesting you gotta admit. I'm no brain surgeon but I think there was a bit of a friendly message sent to Richt here - deliver the goods and we'll pay you like a champion.

His boss, Athletic Director Damon Evans almost admits as much:

"There are some institutions out there that have coaches who have won a national championship, and when you get to that level, that is a different level,'' Evans said.

He'll have that shot this year, with a team expected to be either preseason #1 or #2 in the fall. In the meantime, you can bet he's thrilled with the $2.8 million in cash. He's one of the SEC's true good guys and you won't find many people blinking at this news.

Previously at FanHouse
Recruiting: Mark Richt, Ping Pong Master
Michael Adams' Stupid Playoff Plan is Stupid

Few things in life are as heartwarming as a lifelong bond between father and son. Playing catch in the backyard. Going fishing. Hell, getting a little homework help. But then young men eventually grow up and gain independence and make decisions that take them away from their fathers.

Nowhere is that more public than in the recruiting game. Many times a player will stick with his father (see Luke Bellotti playing at Oregon for his father Mike Bellotti or quarterback Cody Hawkins heading to Colorado to play for his old man). But while blood may be thicker than water, sometimes blood doesn't have the pull it should.

Last year, Georgia coach Mark Richt's son Jon Richt pledged to play quarterback for Clemson over his fathers' Dawgs. No doubt a tough decision for a closeknit family like that. The separation continues this year as it is rumored UCLA defensive coordinator DeWayne Walker's son Kevan, a receiver prospect, will not stick with dear old dad at UCLA but instead play for the Oregon State Beavers.

The upshot to all of this is that while recruiting is a competitive, sometimes nasty business, coaches recruiting a fellow coaches' son must tone down his pitch which can only help but improve relations between coaches.

One of the more recent trends in college football recruiting has been for coaches to bring groups of players to their homes. Those visits tend to involve leisure (time at the family pool, perhaps), recreation, dinner and time with the coach's family and maybe several assistants and their families.

Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz is a big practitioner of this recruiting method. Others I'm aware of doing so include Florida's Urban Meyer and Georgia's Mark Richt. The goal, perhaps, is for coach and recruits to all get to know each other a little more in a relaxed setting. It also probably helps quiet the alarm bells in concerned parents' heads who would rather their boys be staying out of trouble and in the care of adults than spending a night out on the town.

This also blends well with the more sanitized world of official visits detailed earlier. And so sometimes the most *interesting* stories emanating from formerly lurid trips is talk of a coach's prowess at . . . ping pong.

consider the wildest part of the biggest visit weekend at Georgia this recruiting season. On the night of Dec. 6, some of the nation's top players gathered at the home of Bulldogs coach Mark Richt and played ping-pong. That's right, ping-pong.

"[Richt] is pretty dominant. He didn't lose the entire night," said Bryce Ros, a Kennesaw, Ga., tight end who will officially sign next week to play for a coach who apparently is the best American table tennis player since Forrest Gump.

So there you go. Mark Richt will own you in ping pong. I'm not sure that's a good thing when trying to stroke the 17-year-old ego and encourage him to commit to your school, but it's safe and right in the wheelhouse of a sensible and decent coach and man like Richt.

Previously at FanHouse

Recruiting Tag
NCAA Recruiting Tag

Hey, you know what college football doesn't have enough of? Government sticking its nose in. But the great state of Georgia is trying to fix all that. The Georgia state House of Representatives recently passed a resolution calling for the NCAA to implement a playoff system in college football. The bill states:

WHEREAS, the greatest disappointment of the 2007 college football season was the dysfunctional system, known as the Bowl Championship Series or BCS, the NCAA has implemented in order to determine a national champion; and

WHEREAS, the teams chosen to play in the various BCS bowl games are selected through mathematical computations, politics, and corporate and television influences that rarely relate to determining the best football team on the field;

The resolution is on its way to the state Senate, where somebody might want to work on the wording; because like the computers or not, mathematical computations used in the BCS rankings are, in fact, directly related to determining the best football team on the field. Also, the irony of politicians complaining about politics in sports is open to second-guessing, eye-rolling, and conjecture.

As a resident of the state of Georgia, my initial indignation that my tax dollars are being spent on passing such an inane resolution while the state grapples with a water crisis and overcrowded roadways has passed. Now I'm just amused at the thought of this legislation being a part of Georgia's (and not the state's, but UGA's) growing inferiority complex.