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An old wooden barn with a rusted tin roof and weathered pine boards sits on a patch of red clay near the Georgia state line.
The barn is owned by the family that has operated a 2,500-acre farm for more than a century. For the last 21 years, the barn has served as a barometer for how the University of Georgia's football team is playing.
The idea came from Waylon, the father of James and Jonathan, when they were convinced that the Bulldogs were playing the wrong quarterback.
"Why don't you paint the barn and let people know how you feel?" Waylon said that.
The brothers and Smith bought a few cans of spray paint and let the world know how they felt about Quincy Carter starting over.
Smith said that they were more critical when they were younger. We put a lot of aggressive messages up there. You didn't know how far it would go. People were taking photos and texting them.
Thousands of Georgia football fans pass by the barn every season as they travel south for the rivalry game against Florida or the home game against Athens. Smith and the Hitchcock brothers used to update the sign every two or three weeks, but now they change it two to three times per season because of their families and careers. "Attack the Day," "We're Not Going Anywhere," and "You're Either Elite, Or You're Not" are some of the memorable messages.
Georgia fans who've spent the past 20 years painting slogans on this old barn can finally put up a new one.
Georgia fans might have just saved their paint and left the same tired message: "Wait 'Til Next Year."
After a victory against Notre Dame in the 1980 Sugar Bowl, Herschel Walker, now a candidate for the U.S. Senate in the state, led them to a victory against No. 1 Alabama on Monday night. Georgia fans have drowned in a sea of disappointment for 41 years, as evidenced by the fact that Moses was in the desert for 40 years.
How long has it been? It has felt like they've been unable to solve the cube since they last won a title. CNN opened its doors in Atlanta. The last time they won it all, they played over 500 games. They won 368 and lost 140. They'd won a lot of big games over the last four decades, but not the one that mattered most.
Athens was the drinking town with the football problem. If Georgia turned out defensive tackles like the state produces country music stars, the state would have ended its dry spell a long time ago.
"You just feel like at some point, your time is going to come, especially a program like Georgia," one of those musicians, said on Monday. "As a lifelong fan, I think it's just getting the monkey off our back." You kind of have the expectation that this is our year, as a fan. We've been close, and Alabama seems to be the one that's always standing in our way.
Georgia hadn't won a national championship since 1980. It was worse because it seemed like every rival had won at least one in the last 41 years. Georgia Tech won half of one, but Alabama, Florida State, and Florida claimed three. The last kid in the kickball line was felt to be the bulldogs.
The scene in the Louisiana Superdome when Walker led Georgia to its first national championship in 38 years was described by the late Southern humorist and columnist Lewis Grizzard. It meant a lot. Men cried. A man kissed a bald coach on the head. Erk smiled. I saw a man get down on his all fours and try to bite someone.
Georgia fans couldn't get on the field at Lucas Oil Field on Monday night because of how hard they tried. They traveled to Indianapolis from Athens, Augusta, Columbus and Carrollton, and every little Georgia town in between, because they believed their team's time had finally arrived.
Men and women cried on Monday night. They hugged everyone as they celebrated wildly. They barked and sang "Glory, Glory to old Georgia" all night. Someone called the cops on Georgia fans at the St. Elmo Steak House in Indianapolis on Sunday. It's a mean machine. There probably isn't enough paddy wagons in Indiana for what was going to happen.
AP Photo/Darron Cummings
There's going to be a lot of property torn up in Indianapolis tonight. Kirby Smart mentioned a famous call from 1980 by the team's legendary commentator, the late Larry Munson.
The last one was more important than this one because there were so many close calls. The top-ranked Georgia lost to Penn State in the Sugar Bowl when Walker won the Heisman. A Georgia fan confronted Todd Blackledge in the press box after seeing the Penn State quarterback in the game.
"You're done with it now, aren't you?" Blackledge asked him.
The Georgia fan told him not to.
The recent close calls against Alabama have been even more painful. In the last seven years, the Tide had beaten the Bulldogs seven times in a row, three of which were in the SEC championship game. Georgia lost the 2012 SEC championship game because it caught a pass at Alabama's 5-yard line and time ran out in a 32-28 loss. Tua Tagovailoa threw a 41-yard touchdown pass to DeVonta Smith on second-and-26 in overtime to give the Tide a 26-23 win over the Hurricanes in the last national title game.
The program had never had a defense that was as good as the one they had this season. The Tide defeated Georgia in the SEC championship game. Young threw for
Georgia football has created more scar tissue than a surgeon, so its fans had to know that the long-awaited title wouldn't be easy. The teams traded field goals for most of the first three quarters, but the Bulldogs finally took a 13-9 lead on a 1-yard run by Zamir White with 1:20 left in the third. The Tide kicked a field goal, and the next thing you know, every Georgia fan was thinking, "Not again."
Georgia faced third-and-8 at its 27-yard line after holding a 13-12 lead. Bennett dropped back but couldn't get away from Harris. Harris knocked the ball out of Bennett's hand, it fell 14 yards up the field, and safety Brian Branch grabbed it just before stepping out of bounds. Smart argued with officials that the pass was incomplete, but instant replay upheld the on-field ruling of a fumbled ball. Alabama scored five plays later. Georgia fans have seen this movie many times before.
Play.
The College Football Playoff championship game was won by Georgia when Kelee Ringo picked off a pass from Bryce Young.
Georgia fans still held their breath even after Bennett redeemed himself with two touchdown passes in the fourth quarter to put the Georgia ahead, 26-18. There was a lot of time left in the game. The Georgia fans in the house were probably screaming "Get down!" when freshman defensive back Kelee Ringo ran down the right sideline after intercepting Young's pass. Get down! The program's biggest win in nearly a half-century was put to a bow by Ringo, who took the pick to the house.
Bennett knew that the turnover wouldn't stop them from winning a national championship. I wasn't going to be the reason we lost.
Bennett was one of the reasons the team won. He was named the game's most outstanding offensive player after completing 17 of 26 passes for 224 yards and two touchdown.
They're going to write a lot of songs about Bennett.
Sometime in the next couple of weeks, Smith and the Hitchcock brothers will deliver another message to Georgia fans, one they've been waiting to paint for a long, long time: National Champs.
Smith said he had been waiting 21 years to paint that one.
The fans of the team have been waiting for it for a long time.
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