On Saturday, many of you read a WABAC Game Day Post and correctly identified the proposed WABAC game…the descriptions and hints were pretty easy to pick up on:

Converted DB to RB – Robert Edwards; Journeyman DC – Joe Kines; Back up QB/RB as a wide out – Hines Ward

The game was our season opener against South Carolina, with the infamous Kid Rock, er, I mean, Steve Taneyhill under center for the Gamecocks. I can distinctly remember when he beat us at home in 1993, how he delightfully put two middle fingers in the air at us sitting in the student section. He effectively burst our post-1992 bubble with a 23-21, last second win in Sanford. Suddenly, an ass was born.

On to the game:

Ah, 1995. Alanis Morissette had dropped Jagged Little Pill, Coolio was talking to Michelle Pfeiffer through Gangsta’s Paradise, and we needed a freaking break after the Oklahoma City Bombing and war in Eastern Europe. The OJ trial was in full swing and we were nearing a verdict after Cochran’s famous “if the glove don’t fit, you must acquit” statement from the summer of the proceedings.

This game was a touch of optimism, a touch of hope, and a lot of “please, God, let’s be better than last year”. 1994’s defensive coordinator was the Swamp Fox himself, Marion Campbell, and we had finished 69th of 107 possible teams in points allowed while being 13th in scoring. Despite having Eric Zeier behind the offensive helm, we got killed in a rare trip to Gainesville during the Gator Bowl (note: 1995 would bring the Gators to Athens, and the result was no better).

I was a junior at UGA, and I had been religiously reading the sports section of the Red and Black while dining at Creswell Hall and I knew we weren’t optimistic about our running room. Rumor had it that a converted DB was going to be RB1, and everyone was skeptical. Bobo had shown some skills after the Zeier injury in the 1994 Georgia Tech game, but there was no bowl game to confirm if the results were tangible past the rivalry contest.

But on this day, we left with the highest of hopes, and the resulting season was a footnote in Georgia football history of “what could’ve been”…on to the game notes:

• The top of the broadcast quotes Goff as saying if you looked up “significant improvement” you’ d see his image there. Based on this game, he was doing that. 1994’s lone highlight was a tie at Auburn, which I remember vividly because, as a Redcoat, we were threatened with losing funding as one of our members hit Goff square in the head with a cup of water at halftime of the 1994 Georgia-Florida game. He spoke to us on Monday after and asked who it was, jokingly saying he wanted to know because he would employ them as a quarterback. He apologized for the Gainesville showing and promised us something special was coming, and delivered with a tie to the undefeated Tigers the week after. He was, if anything else, a good motivational speaker and a good guy. Very humble.
• Dial the video up to the 23 minute mark, and you see why this game is significant…it’s the start of the Kirby Smart era at Georgia, with his first sack of Taneyhill. Dude was scrappy. I counted six sacks on the day, and three came from Kirby (he almost has a fourth at the 2 hour 14 minute mark).
• 24 minutes – Chris McCranie returns a kick for positive yardage. My only memory of him from those days (hazy, at best) was running out of bounds or fair catching. I was shocked.
• 26 minutes – Juan Daniels. Damn, he was good, and he catches his first touchdown with busted coverage. He was so open, he could’ve built an IKEA desk, written a dissertation, and cooked waffles in the space he was left in. TD Georgia.
• 29 minutes – I’m a Clayton County guy, so seeing Corey Johnson de-cleat someone is awesome. From Forest Park to Athens, he was in a short list of badasses to come from Clayton after Andre Hastings and was accompanied by Hines Ward, to boot. Games at Tara Stadium were fun in the early 90s, to say the least. Side note – my mom taught both Hines and Corey and Babb Middle School in Clayton, so I’d like to think that she swayed them there because she (not my dad) was our household diehard Georgia fan from my birth. Thank you, mom.
• Interesting notes from the broadcast – George O’Leary was debuting across town at Tech; the JP Team mentioned USC as a “program on the rise” under Brad Scott (that wasn’t the case).
• I heard two names early that made me smile – Whit Marshall and Randall Godfrey. God bless them, they were great.
• USC’s Offensive Coordinator was John Eason, who would coach with Richt at the turn of the century and eventually work at Butts-Mehre for the rest of his career.
• 41 minutes – a foreshadowing of the hedge removal for the 1996 Olympics. That’s a story for another time, as it was closely tied with my lone brush with the ACC law.
• 42 minutes – listen to this, an interview with Bobo. Lord, I immediately thought, “that’s the kid from Sling Blade.”
• Marisa Simpson sighting around the same time…but his name is not “mah-ris-uh”, it’s “mar-say”.
• Three names that I heard around this same time that made me smile – Olandis Sims, Dax Langley, and Kanon Parkman.
• Brad Scott was interviewed – said “it’s not the plays, it’s the players” in regards to Pritchett…damn that sounds catastrophically familiar.
• 51 minutes – Hines Ward catch and Larry Bowie catch…Bowie played in the NFL, for what it’s worth.
• 65 minutes – Edwards coughs up the ball at the goal line…significant, as if he had punched it in, he would’ve hit a touchdown record that would never be eclipsed.
• Halftime – USC is up 17-7, and has 257 yards to UGA’s 140. That would change, quickly.
• 95 minutes – Good Lord, look at the rope on Bobo’s arm…
• 95:30, Edwards finally hits pay dirt. This is the start of something fun. The hole the O-Line opened up was Red Sea worthy, and it would continue throughout the day.
• 99 minutes – Ronald Bailey, ladies and gentleman, with the sack.
• 100 minutes – Kirby Smart with another sack. Before NIL, he had no money for a haircut, so he was kicking ass while looking like Lloyd Christmas. Nowadays, he has the money, and doesn’t care. Kirby came to win championships and get haircuts, and it looks like he has a set of clippers at home, so enjoy the back to back Nattys, Great Clips of Athens.
• 102 minutes (1:42) – deep pass to Hines Ward. Lovely stuff.
• 1:44 – This, to me, was the start of the most fun 20 minute period of time at Sanford I experienced in my short life. It started with Brice Hunter getting his hat knocked off, and I can remember like it was yesterday seeing his face. We were clear across the field, but his look communicated that he was in a fiddle battle with the devil and he came to get a fiddle of gold, come hell or high water. He was a man on fire. This was the start of what would become about twenty minutes of pure hell on earth for South Carolina, and just what the doctor ordered for Georgia fans and faithful.
• 1:46 – Edwards hits pay dirt again. Frank Watts sacked Taneyhill shortly after.
• 1:55 – another Hines Ward deep pass. We were entering a euphoria that hadn’t been felt in years.
• 1:56 – Edwards hits his third touchdown, mutual orgasm achieved at Sanford. 80 thousand plus never were happier in the same place, at the same time, in 1995.
• 1:59 – The chaos continues, as Kirby hits his third sack.
• 2:00 – Ronald Bailey with the interception.
• 2:01 – There have been movies made and books written around seeing a dead man. On this day, 30 years ago, I saw a man get killed. Hines Ward cracked back on a trailing defensive back, sending the Gamecock flailing to the ground. Edwards took a short pass the distance for his fourth touchdown of the day. Edwards could’ve moonwalked, back stepped, or wormed his way to the endzone…trust when I say no one from Carolina would’ve dared touch him after what Hines just did. The slow motion is showed after, but it doesn’t do it justice. What I saw was a grown ass man “stand on business” as the kids say nowadays, and Hines Ward solidified his place in my heart on this play. I distinctly remember Hines waving his arms in the air in celebration, as though “are you entertained” was a thing at the time. We were, for fucking sure. I swear, by Jesus, that I could see his signature ear-to-ear grin from my spot in the student section as he did it, too. Check the celebration with Bobo after.
• 2:06 – Torin Kirtsey, ladies and gentleman. I loved the day when running backs were called “Scat Backs”. He was prototypically that.
• 2:14 – Sixth sack of the game, and Kirby was almost there, would’ve had four on the day.
• 2:18 – Field goal block – not sure if I was sober at this point, with or without alcohol.
• 2:27 – Edwards’ fifth touchdown, his best of the day, where he shed defenders on his way and became a Georgia legend in the process. He finished with 30 carries for 169 yards at 5 total TDs, matching Walker’s record of four rushing touchdowns and setting a new Georgia record for touchdowns, which wouldn’t be matched until Ealey’s 5 in 2010.
• 2:35 – Philip Daniels with a fumble recovery…he spent 15 years in the NFL, just for reference.

As much as I had wished the 1995 season would replicate the USC game, it didn’t. One game later, Edwards would break his toe in Knoxville against a Tennessee team that would finish #3 on the year. A costly Brice Hunter drop late in the game allowed the Volunteers to escape with a win, despite playing our asses off the entire game. My buddy and I sat in Neyland until we were literally the last people there, an odd spectacle but the last time I ever set foot in Knoxville, too.

Bobo would go on to get high/lowed at Ole Miss and have his knee destroyed which forced Brian Smith into action, and Bobo wouldn’t really bounce back from it until the miracle Auburn game of 1996. My one positive memory of 1995 outside of this game was when we would go to Clemson and win, behind a strong showing of Torin Kirtsey, Hines Ward, and Smith. We ran onto the field, grabbed some Clemson orange grass that I still have today, and sat next to Loran Smith as he gave Larry the “call from the locker room” while sitting on the emptied sideline and not, factually, in the locker room.

Edwards would return in 1996, but his close to 400 yards in 1.75 games in 1995 averaged 7.8 yards per carry, a testament to how well he was doing in the Tennessee game that year. He would go to the NFL, destroy his knee in a Rookie beach game at the Pro Bowl in Hawaii, and then come back and play after, earning the Comeback Player of the Year award in 2003. He finished out his career in the CFL.

Ray Goff would be fired that year, following a Peach Bowl loss where Georgia amassed 525 yards offense to Virginia’s (the Senator’s other beloved institution) 256 yards with Ward at quarterback. We tied it late, only to watch the Cavaliers return a touchdown on a kickoff. Kines would be retained as a DC for Donnan. Sadly, Wayne McDuffie, our offensive coordinator, would shoot himself in this chest a few months after being let go.

Time and chance happens to them all…the swift, fleet of foot, etc. This team had more time and chance than they could handle. Still, glad I could witness it, as this stands in my memory as one of the most talented Georgia teams to accomplish so little that I can remember, and the Carolina game of ‘95 was one of my favorites as an undergrad in Athens.