In fact, the Gamecocks might have even been on Madison County High School's short list of opponents that they wanted to include on their 2000 non-region schedule. But somewhere, Ray Goff is laughing. Georgia has had a recent legacy of this disappearing act in contests where they should be up by five touchdowns by halftime and be putting in the water boy as quarterback in the fourth quarter. The Carolina game should have fit this template, but the 2000 team, who Donnan claimed he had waited 55 years to coach a team like them, gave giddy South Carolina fans another reason to tear down some more goal posts. Georgia strutted into the contest in a hostile environment, put up seven points and thought it would be enough to get the job done.
Reality can be cruel sometimes.
I hate to toast the enemy, but Carolina played with something that has been absent from the Georgia program for well over a decade - heart. I really don't want to dwell on the past, but something should be said of the vintage years of Georgia. I am envious of how things used to be. Those guys hit, scratched, clawed and fought their way to bowl games and SEC titles. The ghosts of Dawg glory past flicker across the screen as the old Junkyard Dawgs dominated the SEC wars.