Vince Dooley

Nick Saban, Mark Richt, Nick Saban.

He was around Vince Dooley during his days at Georgia.

So he's got the pedigree and just this extraordinary long list of incredible coaches.

And I think kind of with that, he's been able to piece together things he liked about the way all those guys did things and come up with this great menagerie and plan of how to run a program.

I mean, despite what some of the fans said, I mean, Georgia was always successful.

Not Kirby successful, but successful.

And Georgia obviously had success under a guy like Vince Dooley, What did Kirby Smart see? What did he do differently than those guys did to put them on the level where they are now, where every year going into the season, you have to talk about them as a national championship contender?

Well, I think it's a situation where good can be the enemy of great.

But I felt like at the time in covering Tennessee on a day-to-day basis, the Florida fans were just really, really sad to see Steve Spurrier coaching South Carolina rather than them.

Otherwise, I think you have to look at the fact that Vince Dooley was from Auburn and Pat Dye was from Georgia, and those two coaches coached their opposite teams.

biggest rivals you know old fact good old fact deep south's oldest rivalry or whatever it's called so um there's there's precedence for this in the sec alone but those are the only ones that come to mind in terms of similar storylines or similar magnitude but there's nothing that compares to the drama and the histrionics that we'll see this weekend

You mentioned sad, John, and that gives me a segue to a game I want to touch on briefly before we make our picks.

But I, I felt like at the time in covering Tennessee on a day-to-day basis, the Florida fans were just really, really sad to see Steve Spurrier coaching South Carolina rather than them.

Otherwise, I think you have to look at the fact that that Vince Dooley was from Auburn and, um, Pat Dye was from Georgia, and those two team, or those two coaches coached their opposite biggest rivals, you know, old-fashioned, good old-fash- Deep South's oldest rivalry or whatever it's called.

So, um, there's, there's precedence for this in the SEC alone, but those are the only ones that come to mind in, in terms of similar storylines or similar magnitude.

But there's nothing that compares to the drama and the histrionics that we'll see this weekend.

You know, I know a good friend of mine and a guy that I know fairly well, but a guy you know even better.

One of the biggest names this side of Lawrence Smith with the University of Georgia is Vince Dooley.

Lawrence, when did you meet Coach Dooley, and what was your first conversation that you can remember having with him?

Well, he was hired in December of 1963, and it took place at the Georgia Center for Continuing Education, a campus landmark, the first building on campus to have central air.

He's quiet, soft-spoken, but you could tell he was very smart, very intelligent, and that was what sort of set him apart.

He later on distinguished himself not only as a football coach, but he could have been a professor teaching history.

You know, we don't find coaches like Vince Dooley today, obviously from the attire on the sidelines where he was a business corporate leader type with a tie on, and sometimes he had a coat and tie on.

But, you know, I just remember Coach Dooley being – such a gentleman such a leader such a i mean you know he he had some times where he obviously got a little upset but for the most part he was just such a motivator and he would say a few words and that would put you right back in a good space when you're playing for him i can only imagine uh you know what he'd uh you know compared to what we uh what we're seeing today with kirby kirby's completely opposite however at different strokes for different folks but the mild demeanor of coach Dooley and not just his coaching abilities when his speeches, you know, with his family, uh, what do you think that's, what's that in the test to, uh, Lauren?