Throw a flag! Do it! I dare you! Throw a flag now!

A very late recap of the Arkansas/ Georgia game

After taking a few days to think the game and watching it again online at http://www.secdigitalnetwork.com/ (you can watch all the SEC games there for free after they’re played – check it out), I’m even more shocked that those people we called “referees” that night even stepped out on the field. I didn’t realize how fragile and sensitive these “referee people” were, so I definitely applaud them for their bravery to walk out on the field.



Ok, maybe I’m taking this to an extreme since Jerry Franklin did give a UGA player a one arm shove after the play was stopped. I’ve seen much worse in almost every single game and it never gets flagged, but I could accept this one penalty if it stopped there. HOWEVER immediately after the initial flag, another flag for 15 yards was thrown when Franklin backed into the flag throwing referee. Even though the ref admitted he didn’t see Franklin brush his back, he still knew it was Jerry Franklin and ejected him from the game. From my perspective at the game, I didn’t see anything and neither did anybody else around me. Watching the replay online, the referee went way out of bounds on these calls. To make the referee look even worse, during a time-out Petrino asked the so-called referee how he could toss Franklin from the game when he didn’t even see who touched him and the ref threw another 15 yard penalty against the Arkansas bench. At that point, I was seriously waiting for Georgia to be awarded a touchdown during the next time-out and thats never happened before, so we were very close to making some real football history.

Needless to say I was terrified later in the game when Ryan Mallett helped a ref off the ground who had been knocked down during the play.

On to some positive news for the day - The first home game atmosphere in Fayetteville was explosive. For those of you not familiar with the Great Stadium Debate of Arkansas, there is an ongoing battle between Fayetteville and Little Rock in terms of which stadium has the loudest hog fans and the best tailgating. Even though it was raining all day leading up to the game, Hog fans in Fayetteville were tailgating in full force with live bands in The Garden tailgating area (south side of Bud Walton Arena for people who haven’t been on campus lately) and there were tents set up as far as you could see around the stadium. There wasn't an empty seat in the house and all the fans were ready to go - just what you would expect in the SEC even if it was cold and wet. Little Rock has some work to do if they want to remain competitive and keep games in the central part of the state.

Even though the Hogs lost this one, I see dramatic improvement in every area of the game from last season and expect the team to improve as the season goes on. Petrino didn’t have much to work with last season and he already has significant depth built on offense, but the wait will be a little longer on the other side of the ball. Its amazing to see what a coach can do when he doesn’t recruit players or celebrate wins/moral victories at the local Sonic drive-in….

I don’t remember ever being around UGA fans and not many of them made the trip to Northwest Arkansas, but the ones who did were a pretty good group.