by Rex Robinson
Posts tagged Buck Belue
Georgia-Florida, Then and Now
Oct 28th
It’s that time of year again. The air is crisp, the leaves are changing and Jacksonville, Florida is the center of the football universe. The fact that the “WLOCP” falls on Halloween this year means the crazy meter might reach an all-time high, but that would take a lot. It is the one game where the amateurs are encouraged to stay home and let the professionals do their thing.
I was fortunate to play in four Georgia/Florida games. The good guys went 3-1 and ended the era with one of the most famous games in the series; the 1980 game. It does not matter if you wear red and black or jorts, you remember this game. It’s the game where Georgia QB Buck Belue hit WR Lindsey Scott with a short pass and Lindsey raced 93 yards to totally deflate a previously euphoric Gator sideline. It was 3rd and 11 after all, with 1:03 left in the game. There was no way Georgia could win. But miracles do happen and believe me, this was a miracle.
Georgia may need another miracle this week if they are to beat a superior Gator team. Florida is 8-0 and ranked number 1 in the nation by the BCS poll. But let me ask you this. Do you know what dogs do to polls(poles)? That’s correct. That’s what Old Coach Erk Russell used to tell us every preseason. It was great motivation for us to exceed expectations.
Many of you have only heard about the recent history of this series where Florida has dominated 16-3 in the last 19 contests. It’s as if college football was invented in 1990. Well, it was not, and even with the impressive run that the Gators have enjoyed, the Dawgs still lead the series.
Good Guys- 47 Bad Guys – 38 Ties – 2
What’s that you say? That’s impossible Mr. Robinson?
Oh no, I’m not lying. We used to spank that armor plated fanny on a regular basis. Do the math. That would mean at one point it was 44-22-2. Ouch! Georgia’s series with the Gators ranked right up there with the Vanderbilts, South Carolinas and Kentuckys of the world. Yep, it was that good.
But then Florida hired freakin’ Steve Spurrier aka “The Ole Ball Coach”. Man, I knew as soon as it was announced that he was going to be trouble. He took Duke to an ACC Championship. Nuff said. Back in the day everyone acknowledged that Florida had talent, it just never had the teams you thought they could have. The rest, as they say, is history and with the advent of Urban Meyer and Tim Tebow, Florida has truly reached their full potential.
Two eras, B.S.S., before Steve Spurrier and A.S.S. after Steve Spurrier….as different as they could possibly be. Georgia dominated the first three quarters of the series and Florida has dominated the last quarter. If Georgia wants to stem the tide, they must do everything better.
Recruit better…Coach better…Play better…It’s just that simple.
Go Dawgs!
Dirty Harry Was Right
Jul 17th
Clint Eastwood is one of my favorite actors and he’s an even better director. I could do an entire blog on the great one liners he spouted over the years. From Dirty Harry to Josie Wales he has always had just the right words for any situation he found himself in. This kind of wisdom is hard to find and certainly words to live by.
“A man’s gotta know his limitations”…Dirty Harry
Consider this blog my attempt at an intervention of sorts. An old friend and former team mate has exercised less than good judgement in his professional life and if I don’t say something now, I will regret it for the rest of my life. He was a two sport star in college and even splits time between radio and TV now. But Buck Belue is no triple threat. He can’t sing.
I am on the road alot with my job(selling sporting goods), and even though I did not listen to 680 the Fan or Buck and Kincaid in the beginning, I listen consistently now. I have seen and talked to Buck more in the last year than the previous 25 combined. He contacted me last year about doing some clinics and we now have done a total of four in the last year. It’s been fun. We will probably tweak some things and try again next year, or after this post maybe not.
If you listen to Buck and Kincaid you probably know what I’m talking about. Buck likes music and actually alot of the same music I love. Maybe thats why I feel led to draw attention to his intermittent outburst into song. It happened again Thursday. The Black-Eyed Peas did a song a couple of years ago called “Lets get it started”. Great song. He sang a little bit at the beginning of the show today, apparently trying to get Kincaid fired up for the show. I am so glad I have heard the song many times before and like it. Otherwise, I would never want to hear it again.
I don’t think Buck considers himself a great singer, I just don’t think he cares. You have probably seen people like that at karaoke, but it’s one thing to go to a sports bar and do karaoke. It’s another to cause a pile-up on I-285 during rush hour. Both Buck and Kincaid join together to sing their rendition of Meet the Mets when the Braves beat New York. It’s called Beat the Mets, and the disharmony rivals my first marriage. That’s bad.
I’m pretty sure Buck does not read my blog, but even if he did I think he would take this post in the spirit it is intended…please quit singing!
Buck Belue to Lindsey Scott, the greatest play I never saw
Jun 7th
It’s Saturday morning and I am driving up Georgia 400 to see my old team mates Buck Belue and Lindsay Scott. We are having our third and final Champions Clinic of 2009 at Forsyth Central High School this morning. Here it is, 29 years later and we are still a team, working together. How different things might have been if not for the greatest play I never saw.
Nobody expected 1980 to be a special year. Most predicted Georgia to finish in the middle of the pack, maybe barely above average, and those were the ones that liked us. Yet here we were, 8-0 going to the “WLOCP”…shhhh, and ranked number 2 in the country. We arrived in Jacksonville, just like every year, with electricity in the air. Little did anyone know that history was about to be made.
I always loved the Florida game; it was like a rest stop 2/3 of the way on a long road trip. There was nothing like it. It was neither a home or away game, it was THE game. A game we usually won. But Florida was waiting for us this year.
I always prepared especially hard for the “F”, because of Chris Collinsworth, the Gators great wide receiver and return man. I hated giving him a chance to return kick-offs against us and most of the time I succeeded by kicking it deep. Chris and I had actually become friends at the Playboy All American week-end in early 1980.
Howard Richards(Missouri)
EJ Junior(Alabama)
(The Blogger)
Chris Collinsworth(Florida)
Let’s get back to the game. It started off well enough, with Herschel bursting up our side-line on the fourth play for 73 yards and a touchdown. But Florida kept coming back and at half-time I told my holder Jim Broadway, “Be ready, we may have to win this thing with a field goal”. I was a senior, but Jim was a sophomore in his first year of varsity action. He had done a great job, but we had not faced this kind of situation all year.
When the drama unfolded late in the game, Florida had gone ahead 21-20 on a Brian Clark field goal. Then on our last drive, a Florida punt had pinned us back inside our 10 yard line. As everyone in the Dawg Nation knows by now, we actually lost a yard on one of our first two downs. Third and eleven from our own seven yard line. I think there were 63 seconds to go in the game, as Larry would say. As the play began, I could see the ball in the air, Lindsay caught it and turned up field…I thought, “He’s going to get in field goal range, I have to get my tee”! So as I turned to go get it, everyone else was jumping up and down cheering, but I had my back turned and missed it. I was actually trying to keep it together for what might be coming up.
As ole Lady Luck would have it Lindsay kept running, thanks to Larry’s encouragement from on high. He might still be running if not for the “bowl” in Gator Bowl. I was happy to see it all on the news the next day and about a thousand times since on video. “The Play” was the last great springboard to the National Championship, as we moved to number one in the country the next day(Thanks Tech!).
Chris and I just moments after Belue to Scott…He was not happy…heehee.
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