"Men, Georgie is a fine football team. Georgie is a very fine football team." He refused to pronounce the University's name correctly. While he had no trouble saying "Georgia Tech" he always said "Georgie" when referring to our cross-state rival. The Bulldog nation was not amused, and we loved it. He continued, "Make no mistake; this bunch is bigger and faster than you are. They are probably a little tougher than you are.
"Now let me tell you what is going to happen today. That Georgie team is going to come running out of the tunnel screaming and crying. They will be foaming at the mouth and smashing one another upside the head just to get warmed up. A couple of them will throw up on the sidelines for good measure.
"We will not do any of that. I do not want to see tears in your eyes. While they are wasting energy we will conserve ours. We will direct our energy into constructive action. I have told you they are bigger, faster, and tougher than you. All that is true, but we do have one advantage. We are smarter than they are."
The incredible thing is that we were stupid enough to believe that.
He would pause for effect, and cast his spell, "When the game starts they will come out with great enthusiasm, and they will knock us around because of their size and toughness. They will probably get ahead, but remember, we are smarter than they are. They will not get very far ahead. Play field position, play great defense, make no mistakes on offense, be great in the kicking game, and keep it close. As the game goes on they will start to get tired because they wasted so much energy. We will have plenty, and at some point in the fourth quarter they will make a mistake. When they make that mistake we will get the football, and when that happens I'll think of something and we will win."
It was uncanny. Most weeks we played teams that were superior physically. They would outgain us, but lose the field position battle. The score would be something like Tech 7, Opponent 6. The "experts" called it Dodd Luck. It was not luck, unless one's definition of luck is a deep understanding of one's people, and the odds of a given game. Dodd understood his men, his game, and perhaps more importantly understood his opponents better than any other coach in the history of the game.
