We will always remember a UGA season and voices that we cannot forget

INDIANAPOLIS – Dear Peter,

Somewhere while moving house, I lost an old cell phone with your last message (where you sarcastically praised me for finally setting up voicemail), but I heard your voice many times during Georgia’s biggest football season in four decades.

That glorious campaign, Dad, embodied your lifelong fandom – dominant defense that clogged the barrel, the most polarizing quarterback situation in program history, sheer rivalry destruction, and sweet revenge against Alabama.

After years of your annual August proclamation – I think they’re good enough to win the whole damn thing – you would finally have made it this time. And one of your favorite preseason claims – the tight ends will be tough to work with – also clicked thanks to the record breaking production from Brock Bowers.

These Bulldogs beat the teams you hated the most – Florida, Georgia Tech, Tennessee, Auburn, and Clemson – with a combined score of 164-37.

I know what you would have said, sarcastically as always, after telling you the Gators only signed 10 recruits in December after Dan Mullen’s sacking: I really, really hate this for them.

I heard you most of this fall during the endless debate between Stetson Bennett and JT Daniels. We would have argued about it and I know where you would have been. Of course you never wavered with Mike Bobo, David Greene, DJ Shockley, Matthew Stafford or Aaron Murray.

But you got involved in a positive way with Joe Tereshinski III, Joe Cox, Zach Mettenberger, Hutson Mason, Brice Ramsey, and Greyson Lambert.

Every spring, in your opinion, every quarterback was elite. And you loved reminding us that Hines Ward did a pretty good job making him play QB, a nod to any situation too desperate to discredit you.

During our conversations, I always advocated the largest arm and the prototype size. It would take courage and courage and, let’s face it, whoever was playing, for whatever reason. We argued about today’s losing quarterback and you always ended it by advancing tomorrow’s potential.

I know you would have supported Stetson and then doubled down on Daniels if Kirby had ever switched. Anyway, I know what came after Bennett’s 40-yard go-ahead touchdown pass in the 33:18 win on Monday to finally break free of Nick Saban and Alabama’s bale.

Told you

Equally upbeat about quarterbacks, when victories and seasons went by, your negativity was a combination of angry words and rhetorical questions. I could feel the change in your tone during the second quarter of the Southeastern Conference championship loss to Alabama.

What are you doing? Damn tell me how does this happen?

But you would have been back on board when Georgia rolled over Michigan at the Orange Bowl in preparation for Monday’s coronation.

Five years after you died, Pete. I took you for everything – got married, made it to a job in the NFL for the Cincinnati Enquirer, moved near Athens for the third time (we can’t stay away), your first grandchild is coming in June. What I miss the most between milestones is the casual way we started every phone call, I answered “what’s up” and you always answer: you tell me.

When I was covering UGA, I told you everything I knew before it was reported, all about recruits as silent commits, newbies living up to the hype in practice, what to expect before the season kicks off. When I left Athens to look for other jobs, based on thorough research you filled me in on the message boards.

You took a vacation by the sea in the summer of 2017 and have never come back. You missed a special season for Georgia this fall, even though the next four Georgia v Alabama encounters would have resulted in new combinations of swear words from your back porch watch. You would never stop ranting about calls the referees made or not made.

Until Monday.

I’m still looking around the house for the old phone. I don’t have to find it.

After 40 years of hoping, Georgia finally won the whole damn thing. I can already hear you talking about the future. Bennett could return for another season. Who knows what Daniels will do. You wouldn’t mind if they both left.

I think we’re fine with Brock Vandagriff as quarterback. You can win the whole damn thing again next year.

Seasons that we will always remember and voices that we cannot forget.

Fletcher Page is the editor of the USATODAY sports group based in Georgia. His father Stephen “Pete” Page was a pillar of the Young Harris, Georgia community, husband, father, Air Force veteran, and die-hard Georgia Bulldog and NASCAR fan. He died in 2017.

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