Kenny Clyde 'Bear' Yarbrough Picks the UT-UGA Winner.
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| Kenny Clyde calls the game |
I've known Kenny Clyde for 30+ years. He hails from Birmingham, the cradle of the SEC, where he grew up in the shadows of Legion Field. We've logged many a mile on our annual Third Saturday in October pilgrimages to either Knoxville or Birmingham. I've met his kin including all 49 cousins: Jim Bob Clyde, Forest Clyde, Billy Joe Clyde, Scooter Clyde, Danny Ray Clyde, Leon Clyde...you get the picture; all very nice and all very Crimson Tide. Denzil and Ann, Kenny Clyde's folks, welcomed me into their home, and over time I got use to the small cot in the garage. His dear aunt Maggie (former Homecoming Queen of Fort Deposit,AL) once told me to go to hell when she discovered I was a Vol. Fortunately I won her over by offering her some of my Black Jack and a can of snuff.
Despite being an English major from Bama (I know that sounds crazy), Kenny Clyde can still structure a sentence or two. More importantly, he knows the passion of Southern football.
Please welcome Kenny Clyde Yarbrough.
When Dr. Woolard asked me to do a guest host pick I
was elated! When he asked me to do it for UT/UGA, I kinda threw up a
little in the back of my throat. Of all the great teams to pick, why
those two????
I'm from Alabama. Besides the Cheatin' Fig Newtons on the Plains, there's no better rivalry for Bama than Tennessee. UT is the Harvard of the Smokies. You can get a degree in banjo.
That Third Saturday in October decided a ton of SEC and national champs over the years. As Bear Bryant said, "you aren't a man till you've played in the Bama/UT rivalry." (Perhaps that's why he always passed out victory cigars after a win in Knoxville.) Dr. Woolard and myself had some good years during our youths in that series too, but that's a story for another day. With whiskey.
Then one day I moved to Atlanta. For you Texas A&M fans, that's in Georgia.
Suddenly surrounded by barking grown men, wearing bulldog hats, bulldog shirts, driving bulldog cars, hitting bulldog golf clubs.....it was about 100x too much. I mean, what's UGA got to crow about? Two championships 40 years apart, with the last one led by freshman Herschel Walker? Hell, Herschel is eligible to collect Social Security this year!
If the damn bulldogs are so good, why couldn't they win again with Herschel, or anybody else over the last 32 years? Not that it bothers them. Every year starts out "Georgia's Year." Best recruiting class EVER! Home field advantage "between the hedges". And what happens? They throw up on their shoes in a big game, or they choke their guts out to some underdog directional school. And they want to fire everybody from the head coach to the coordinators to the guy that clips the bushes.
Oh, well. I gotta pick one of 'em.
Realistically speaking you got UT who is still trying to find somebody to write up Coach Dooley's playbook (it's only been two years--hard to find a literate between Johnson City and Chattanooga). Georgia is fresh out of a "play the coaches kids" whippin of poor old Vanderbilt. Plus you got the mojo of the 3:30 national time slot on CBS, Dooley returning to the stadium where he learned to walk, and all of Georgia's delinquents finally off house arrest.
I'm thinking that this may be one of those games that Georgia loves to lose. Big conference rival, big stage, coming in 4-0 and high on life. Could be the day when Dooley's UT charges finally decide to play together for 60 minutes. I'm going 17-16 banjo pickers. It just isn't fall in Atlanta 'till you hear the "Fire Richt" chants...
I'm from Alabama. Besides the Cheatin' Fig Newtons on the Plains, there's no better rivalry for Bama than Tennessee. UT is the Harvard of the Smokies. You can get a degree in banjo.
That Third Saturday in October decided a ton of SEC and national champs over the years. As Bear Bryant said, "you aren't a man till you've played in the Bama/UT rivalry." (Perhaps that's why he always passed out victory cigars after a win in Knoxville.) Dr. Woolard and myself had some good years during our youths in that series too, but that's a story for another day. With whiskey.
Then one day I moved to Atlanta. For you Texas A&M fans, that's in Georgia.
Suddenly surrounded by barking grown men, wearing bulldog hats, bulldog shirts, driving bulldog cars, hitting bulldog golf clubs.....it was about 100x too much. I mean, what's UGA got to crow about? Two championships 40 years apart, with the last one led by freshman Herschel Walker? Hell, Herschel is eligible to collect Social Security this year!
If the damn bulldogs are so good, why couldn't they win again with Herschel, or anybody else over the last 32 years? Not that it bothers them. Every year starts out "Georgia's Year." Best recruiting class EVER! Home field advantage "between the hedges". And what happens? They throw up on their shoes in a big game, or they choke their guts out to some underdog directional school. And they want to fire everybody from the head coach to the coordinators to the guy that clips the bushes.
Oh, well. I gotta pick one of 'em.
Realistically speaking you got UT who is still trying to find somebody to write up Coach Dooley's playbook (it's only been two years--hard to find a literate between Johnson City and Chattanooga). Georgia is fresh out of a "play the coaches kids" whippin of poor old Vanderbilt. Plus you got the mojo of the 3:30 national time slot on CBS, Dooley returning to the stadium where he learned to walk, and all of Georgia's delinquents finally off house arrest.
I'm thinking that this may be one of those games that Georgia loves to lose. Big conference rival, big stage, coming in 4-0 and high on life. Could be the day when Dooley's UT charges finally decide to play together for 60 minutes. I'm going 17-16 banjo pickers. It just isn't fall in Atlanta 'till you hear the "Fire Richt" chants...
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