The South and family traditions go hand-in-hand. When it comes to the University of Georgia’s live bulldog mascot, keeping it in the family is part of its uniqueness.
In 1956, Uga I made his first appearance at the football home opener, and 49 years later, his great, great, great, great grandson, Uga VI, continues the tradition going into his sixth season.
Earlier this month, Coach Mark Richt told The Idaho Statesman that he cannot compete with Uga’s celebrity.
“We just had picture day the other day,” Richt said. “People were up at 6 a.m. trying to get the right to get a picture of Uga. They showed up five minutes before the event to have a picture with me.”
The mascots have all been pure white male bulldogs that wear spiked collars and jerseys.
Over the years, they have graced the pages of “Time” and “Sports Illustrated,” including the “Sports Illustrated” cover of in 1997.
Uga IV was the first mascot invited to the Heisman Banquet in 1982, which Bulldog tailback Herschel Walker won.
The first five Ugas are deceased, but they are not forgotten. All are buried near the main gate in the wall of the stadium’s south stands with epitaphs inscribed in bronze.
During the game, Uga VI has a permanent air-conditioned doghouse on the sideline, where he rests on bags of ice to beat the heat.
The football team passed its own torches this season with three departed starters on offense and four on defense.
“We’re going to have some new personnel on the field, but our goals will remain the same,” Richt said in the team’s media guide. “We want to put ourselves in position to compete both for the Southeastern Conference and national championships.”
The most notable change is at quarterback, where senior DJ Shockley replaced David Greene.
After four seasons, Green left the Bulldogs as the NCAA’s all-time leader in victories by a starting quarterback with 42 and the SEC’s all time leader in passing yards and total offense.
Greene was primarily a pocket quarterback, but Shockley brings Richt another dimension to the offense with his legs.
“We already have some things in the offense that DJ does better that David, so we’ll put the emphasis on those,” Richt said. “We’ll look at doing things if we can help the offense by taking advantage of DJ’s athleticism.”
In his first three games of the season, Shockley has thrown six touchdowns and two interceptions, and has rushed for 159 yards and three scores.
“To say I wasn’t nervous wouldn’t be accurate because I was extremely nervous when the game started,” Shockley said of his first start in a news release. “But after I saw [tailback] Thomas [Brown] run right, run left and get some yards and we started moving the ball, that kind of eased my nerves.”
The offense also has to replace both starting receivers from last season. Senior Bryan McClendon and junior Sean Bailey are listed atop the depth chart.
“Sean is the No. 1 receiver right now at Georgia,” Richt said. “He’s always been a smooth route-running guy, but he’s stronger and blocks with more of an attitude. From a knowledge point of view, he rarely makes a mistake.”
The most experienced areas of the offense are the line, tight end and running back positions.
Senior guard Max Jean-Gilles heads an offensive line that returns all five starters from last season’s team.
The line has only allowed two sacks through their first three games, and in their second game of the season against South Carolina, the Bulldogs rushed for 238 yards and two touchdowns.
The recipients of the line’s blocking are sophomore tailbacks Brown and Danny Ware.
Brown rushed for a career-high 144 yards and one touchdown against the Gamecocks. Redshirt freshman Brannon Southerland is the team’s starting fullback.
The Bulldogs also have a weapon in First-Team All-SEC tight end Leonard Pope, who caught 25 passes for 482 yards and six touchdowns last season as a sophomore.
The defense also replaced several mainstays with the departures of senior David Pollack and juniors Odell Thurman and Thomas Davis.
Despite the loss of Pollack on the defensive line, the unit is still strong with senior defensive tackles Kedric Golston, nose tackle Gerald Anderson and defensive end Will Thompson.
Junior Quentin Moses and sophomore Charles Johnson shared time at end to replace Pollack, and have combined for three sacks in the Bulldogs first two games.
“People don’t pay attention to the back-ups when you have a great guy like Pollack,” Anderson said at the SEC media days. “But we have Quentin Moses now, who has the potential to be better than Pollack if he works hard.”
The secondary returns three starters lead by senior free safety Greg Blue, who has a reputation of being the hardest hitting safety in the SEC.
Blue played rover, which is the equivalent of strong safety, last season but has since moved to free safety to replace Davis. Blue is the team’s top retuning
tackler from last season.
The Bulldogs also return their starting cornerbacks from last season in seniors DeMario Minter and Tim Jennings. Junior Tra Battle has taken over Blue’s rover spot.
The linebackers are lead by junior Tony Taylor, who returns to the field at middle linebacker, after sitting out last season with a knee injury.
Junior punter Gordon Ely-Kelso and sophomore place-kicker Brandon Coutu both return as starters.
Sophomore cornerback Thomas Flowers is once again the primary punt returner after averaging 15.1 yards per return last season.
Brown and McClendon are handling kickoff returns.
Contact Clinton Duckworth at [email protected]