The Morning Memory: Pulpwood Sinks The Commodores
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Few Georgia football players have ever been so legendary and at the same time so lost to the sands of history as Andre “Pulpwood” Smith. The bruising fullback out of Coffee County emerged in the post-Herschel days when Georgia was definitively “Running Back University.” Smith ran with a combination of bruising power and blazing speed that made him seem like the next great UGA backfield star.
That may have never been more evident than when Georgia took on Vanderbilt in 1984.
That electrifying touchdown run was vintage Pulpwood, and it keyed one of the most explosive offensive efforts of the Vince Dooley era in Athens. Dooley’s offenses were never known as point-a-minute affairs.
But on this afternoon in Sanford Stadium they couldn’t stop finding the endzone. Vanderbilt began the 1984 season on a tear, going 4-0 to start the season, including beating Alabama in Tuscaloosa and rising into the AP poll for the first time since 1958. But on an October afternoon they ran into an absolute buzzsaw in Red and Black.
The Athenians would run over, around and through the Commodores, piling up 562 yards of total offense and lighting up the scoreboard to the tune of 62 points, the most they would ever score in Dooley’s 26 seasons as the top ‘Dawg.Interestingly the game was actually tied 21-21 with three minutes to go until halftime. But Georgia put three touchdowns on the board before intermission, then two more in the third quarter, including that Pulpwood jaunt, to put the game out of reach. Unfortunately Pulpwood’s Bulldog career would come to an end just when it looked like it was about to take off.After leading the team in rushing in 1984 with 655 yards (an impressive 6.0 yards per carry) Smith was dismissed from the team for academic reasons. How great he could have been remains one of the biggest unanswered questions in UGA history. Until later…
Go ‘Dawgs!!!
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