redandpewter55
Bench Warmer
Another round of hugs from Herschel to Knowshon had to wait. First, Mr. Walker, as in “He’s running over people!†and as in the most passionate former Georgia player you’ll ever meet, had to get something off his considerable chest.
It involved Walker’s version of Steve Spurrier sucker-punching everybody in the Bulldog Nation. “Did you hear about this?†Walker said over the phone, still smoldering over Spurrier’s critique of the entire Georgia team rushing onto the field en masse last month in Jacksonville. To the dismay of Spurrier and those into professionalism, coach Mark Richt ordered his Bulldogs to get an unsportsmanlike-conduct penalty while celebrating their first touchdown during what became a victory over Spurrier’s old Florida team.
Anyway, Spurrier took a break from his current role as South Carolina coach to become as equally unprofessional. He said he would have sent one of his third-stringers into that Dog pile to create a fight. As a result, Spurrier said the Gators would have prospered in the long run since the SEC would have delivered a slew of suspensions to Georgia players.
“Well, you know, is that not insulting? That’s totally insulting for a coach of his stature to say something so stupid,†said Walker, getting angrier by the syllable. “So my question I say to him is, if he’s got that much guts, why don’t he step in a ring against me? You don’t say something that silly, because you’re going to get somebody hurt. Georgia was punished, because that’s a penalty. They didn’t go out to hurt anyone. [Spurrier] talks about hurting somebody. How much guts do you have? Step in a ring with me, and then we’ll see.â€
A slightly calmer Walker was at the Florida game, but he left long before halftime to catch a flight to Southern California. He was off to de- velop a reality television show (“I can’t tell you about it yetâ€) with Hollywood types. Until then, the Wrightsville native will continue to run his profitable food-service business of more than a decade from two cities. There is Dallas, his hometown since his Cowboys days of the latter 1980s, and there is Savannah, where he located with the mind-set of hiring Georgia folks, with Bulldog connections or otherwise.
The man bleeds red and black, which is why he bemoans the fact that his eternal traveling often keeps him from between the hedges. “I really have a chance to attend more away games than home games,†said Walker, who witnessed Georgia’s victory at Alabama this season in addition to parts of that Florida game. Even so, he will be in Athens on Saturday for the Kentucky game, and he plans to be at Bobby Dodd Stadium the week after that. So Walker will have more live chances to study Moreno, the twirling running back sensation for the Bulldogs who is creating nearly as much of a buzz around Georgia as a freshman as You Know Who did.
“I tell you what. He runs extremely, extremely hard for a guy his size,†Walker said of the 5-foot-11, 207-pounder from Belford, N.J. “I knew a little bit about him when they redshirted him, and I told a lot of people, wait until they see this guy play, because he’ll get a chance to make it to that next level. I mean, don’t the guy for Dallas right now [Marion Barber] and Knowshon look like the same guy?â€
Yep. Barber also is an accomplished spinner during runs.
If nothing else, Moreno is as efficient on the collegiate level as Garrison Hearst, Rodney Hampton, Tim Worley and all of those other Georgia backs after the post-Herschel era in the 1980s. “When I came to Georgia, USC had its stable of running backs, but Georgia has taken that over,†Walker said. “One thing you gotta be able to do at Georgia is catch the ball. Not only do they always have one great back who can do those types of things, they usually have two or three, like Moreno and Thomas Brown now.â€
The Bulldogs also have Matthew Stafford, their sophomore quarterback who is improving and impressing. “Being in Dallas, where he’s from, I’ve seen him grow up, watching him play in high school, and he’ll get even better than he is now,†Walker said. “That’s why, even though people said I was crazy, I picked Georgia at the beginning of the year to go to the SEC championship game.â€
Then again, Walker is a little biased, and he knows it. He laughed, adding, “If you’re true Georgia guy like I am, it really don’t matter if they ever do something bad. It still looks good to you.â€
I love Herschel! :dance:
