Has the marching band been banned?

The marching band: A necessary and traditional piece of the college football puzzle. The marching band can set the stage for Saturday battles and provides the theme song for the home team, as well as most of the background music for the game, creating an atmosphere of drama, joyful victory, bitter defeat, or beats fo' gettin' down:

We all remember the glorious days of 2007, when the Dawgs rose from their own garnet and orange-stained ashes and fought their way through highly ranked rivals to end up in a blacked-out Sugar Bowl to put a whooping on an undefeated brosef (with a record).

Woah, dude! I'm glad you're on offense! Just kiddin', I'll be fine. LoL.

And those days were great indeed, as we all remember how Soulja Boy became a hit between the hedges, almost the theme song of the year. Remember how the marching band, like they should, took up the song too and played it for everyone?

Strangely, I can only remember the band playing that song once, maybe twice. Why? We all know that whenever that song was played in any form, our players would get into it, and the entire stadium would follow. At the Sugar Bowl that year, I remember throughout our entire destruction of the Rainbow Magic Fairy Warriors that we never heard our beloved Redcoats play that song. Why? Where is it?

I remember hearing rumors that they weren't allowed to play the song anymore, maybe because of the explicit (yet cryptic) lyrics in the song (even though the only thing the band or loudspeakers played was the music, not the words). Some said that UGA's president himself demanded that this song no longer be played. Others mentioned top ranking administrators in the athletic association, or even the band directors themselves, who decided not to play the song.

Then came 2008, where it soon became apparent that "Put on for My City" by Young Jeezy was the new song.

That video to me is pure bliss. But remember how we heard less and less of that song, and that celebration, throughout the season?

Now surely, that is due to the fact that the people in control of the sound at Sanford Stadium simply didn't play the song, for whatever reasons, whether they were told not to, or maybe they just didn't find too many bright moments to play it through the rest of 2008 at home.

But why didn't the band ever pick it up, even earlier in the season? I honestly don't remember hearing our marching band EVER play that song (at least at the home games), which truly befuddles me. Everyone was seeing the fun that erupted between the hedges whenever "our song of the year" started playing, yet nothing was done to make it happen at some times when we needed it most.

And this leads me to the worst part: the embarrassing loss to Georgia Tech.

Yes, what you saw above just now was Georgia Tech's marching band playing the aforementioned song. In celebration. In our stadium. After beating us.

In fact, as I recall, they played that damn song every five minutes during that game, as soon as they managed to claw their way past apathetic shoulder bumps back from a 16 point deficit to take the lead.

Now before some Tech fans get all uppity on me, I know that your band was playing that song earlier in the year. I think I first saw them playing it on TV against Miami, the week before the game at UGA. When I saw it then, too, I thought, "Hey, Tech's band is playing our song. Why hasn't our band played our song? Is it really that hard to learn?"

I know it wasn't really "our song," but we understandably felt that way.

So let me conclude here:

It was pretty sad to be sitting there in Sanford Stadium, watching Tech's band play "our song" and their players dancing to it, while everyone in red and black in the stands just sat there. Even when we were up by 16 points and everyone, including most Tech fans, thought the game was over, I didn't see too much celebration on our sideline, and maybe that's what partly led to the lack of effort in the third quarter. I honestly think, as silly as it sound, that sometimes that music that we play in the stadium really gets everyone excited. It gets the players hyped up, the fans hyped up, and the whole stadium goes crazy. Needless to say, when the atmosphere is like that, it's much easier to for the players, especially the defense, to play with more energy.

Now, I don't know why the sound people at Sanford didn't play the song either, but I can't really reach them as easily. So my question is: Where was the band in all of this?

Why didn't our Redcoats learn this song at the beginning of the season, as soon as it became apparent how big it was, and then use it appropriately to hype up the stadium and the players? I'm sure that our guys could have done a much better job playing the song than the Tech band too (not to mention our players are SURELY better dancers).

Now let me by making it clear that I am not trying to condemn the marching band here. We all love the Redcoats, know how necessary they are to Georgia tradition, and to making the excitement happen on Saturdays between the hedges. I've even got some friends in the Redcoats currently, and I'll be sure to send them this question as well.

But where were the Redcoats last year? Were they not allowed to play that song? If they were, why didn't they?
I just want to figure this out, and the long offseason seems like a good time to bring up such a strange topic.

But I truly believe that the Redcoats can make a difference in the stadium atmosphere, and thus the game being played. So any Redcoats out there, or those who have inside information, please get back to me on this one. I know that we all love to hear the band play, and we especially want to hear new and fun stuff that gets everyone excited, along with of course the classics that we need.

PS: If it turns out that the Redcoats did play this song, and played it frequently, including during the Tech game, and it turns out that I am deaf or stupid, then please ignore this entire post.

PPS: If anyone has any idea why Blogger is shrinking my photos down to thumbnail size, please let me know. The pictures are small enough in size to fit the middle column, but it still keeps shrinking them. Hooray.

Concluding on the last forbidden question

First off, I know it's been a while since I've posted on here. My last topic caused some fuss over at the Dawgpost on scout.com, and I guess I should have seen that coming. Aside from it being a very controversial topic that no one really wants to think about, it also had a couple of overlooked flaws. As some pointed out, if Georgia was to lose only one game next season, then it surely would not affect our winning of the SEC East if we lost to only one West team (because then, of course, we assume we'd win out in the SEC East, which would give us an automatic trip to the SEC Championship).

Therefore, perhaps Arkansas could... maybe be less devastating than a loss to OSU in the season opener. Or at least this is what some pointed out on the forums. Arkansas will be an away game, and relatively early in the season, which gives us a couple of the criteria I proposed before. Only problem is that Arkansas will likely be unranked when we play them, and it is an SEC game, but in hindsight and as explained before, that shouldn't matter. BUT, Oklahoma State will have a lot more eyes watching it, and a lot of hype going into it. Losing that game would surely have a greater stigma in the eyes of the media and fans than would a "fluke" loss to Arkansas (which would perhaps be seen as similar to UF's loss to Ole Miss last year, or USC losing at Oregon State).

Nevertheless, this is a pointless discussion. Of course we all want UGA to go undefeated, and we hope and expect to win every game.

I just thought it would be an interesting hypothetical question, but I still don't have a perfect answer. If you dare to explore such a disturbing, terrible question, which would you choose? A highly ranked Oklahoma State in the season opener on national television? Or an unranked Arkansas? Or some other?

Reply if you want, but as far as I'm concerned, no more posting on this topic. Moving onto new controversial things now.

Could Oklahoma State be the best game to lose in 09?

I figured I'd go ahead and put this out here since I've started seeing discussion about predictions for next season. I can't believe we're still 6 months away from college football becoming the main topic again. But nevertheless...

I haven't yet written down my predictions for 09, but I will sooner or later, because even though it's likely a huge waste of time, it's fun to look back and see what you thought would happen.

But one thing I have thought about extensively is the idea of "if UGA had to lose one game next season, who would be the best team to lose to?" Now I'm not saying that I necessarily think that Georgia will only lose one game next season. I haven't really thought through it much, but that would be a pretty bold prediction. But assuming we were to lose one game only, who should we lose to?

I'm thinking Oklahoma State.

Strange right? Our first game could be the best to lose?

Here's why.

1. It's a well known fact that it's always better to lose your games as early as possible in the season. This way, not only do the voters forget about it after a few weeks, but you also have plenty of time to win big games and work your way back up in the rankings. Oklahoma State happens to be our first game of the season, therefore you can't find an earlier game to lose. It would be best to get 1 loss over with, assuming we only have one loss.

2. It's also well known that when you lose a game, you usually want to lose to a highly ranked opponent (as opposed to an unranked team). This one is pretty obvious. We know that Oklahoma State will be at least ranked in the preseason top 25, likely in the top 20, and possibly in the top 10. Given that this is the first game of the season, we luckily don't have to worry about OSU losing to some D1-AA team the week before us to take away from our game or the strength of our opponent (as happened last year with Arizona State and South Carolina). Don't forget that losses tend to look better when they are away from home, especially long distances. It also doesn't hurt that Oklahoma State got a lot of hype last year, and so did the Big 12 (which is going to be continually argued as perhaps the best conference). But this doesn't all guarantee why OSU could be our best game to lose.

3. Finally, we want to win the SEC. We know by now that the only possible chance we have at playing in the National Championship game is to win the East, and then win the conference. With likely very strong competition from a weak-scheduled Florida, and maybe some surprises from other usual suspects (UT, USC, UK), we need to win EVERY SEC game we can, including the ones against West teams. Nothing speaks more highly of a team than winning the SEC, especially if a team goes undefeated in the SEC. Therefore, if we want to lose one game, it almost surely should be against a out of conference opponent.

So, according to the critera, the best loss would be:
1. Early in the season
2. Against a highly ranked opponent (and away from home)
3. Against an out of conference team

In other words: Oklahoma State

The only problem I can see with this is that the game should get plenty of attention, so a loss will be well noticed by everyone. But as I said before, with a long college football season to follow that, probably with Georgia facing multiple top 25 opponents, we'll have a good shot to climb back up in the polls (and, if we get it done on the field, play in the SEC championship).

I'm well aware that some of these criteria occasionally don't matter. For instance, Florida's loss last year to Ole Miss (at the time an unranked opponent). Remember though, that UF's loss was relatively early in the season, and one SEC loss didn't really affect them in the conference race. Another example would be LSU in 2007, who lost 2 conference games, including an end of the season at home loss to Arkansas. Well, needless to say, the Tigers were pretty lucky that the SEC West was so down that season, and they got to go to the big games. But this is surely an outlier and unusual.

End Note: Once again, I'm not predicting one loss for Georgia next season, nor am I predicting that we will lose to Oklahoma State. For that matter, I hope we don't lose to Oklahoma State, or anyone. I just find it interesting that perhaps the least harmful game we could lose this coming season might just be our first.

What does everyone else think?

Of Blog Starts and Jerseys

Well, here is the brand new, likely to be a disaster Dancing in the Endzone blog debut. I find myself spending way too much time making long, analytical reports to post on Georgia football message boards, only to find my posts become thread killers and disappear into the archival wastes. Now, with this blog, I can waste my time putting those posts somewhere I can keep track of, and hopefully, people will come on here to comment and discuss some in depth Georgia topics. So please do leave some words in the comments section. Other than that, I don't know what else to say other than welcome....

But let's just jump right into the good stuff.

The other day, I found myself walking into the UGA Bookstore (on campus) to buy some staples for a mini stapler. Interestingly enough, little tiny boxes of staples can be found in the very back of the store, which is about a mile walk. But that's not the point.

The point it, I noticed all of the old #7 and #24 jerseys gathering dust on the racks. I couldn't help but wonder, "When are they going to take these old ones out and put some new ones in?" But then I thought, "Wait... which jersey numbers are they going to replace them with?"

Will #14's show up in a few months, after our fearless new leader Joe Cox puts on a great performance at the G-Day Game? Maybe #8's seem like the most likely, considering AJ Green already has cemented himself in freshman phenom lore. Could #4 or #6 show up in the fall, depending on the playing time and what we see from Caleb King and backup QB Logan Gray? Or will some other number, that no one has noticed as much, become the new trend for the Bulldog Nation, as a new leader and Bulldog icon will rise forth before 93,000 cheering fans?

Interesting questions that only time will tell. I'm curious to see what others think.