Sanford Puts On Its Britches

GEORGIA MONEYBALL — Saturday, September 26, 2026

Georgia stripes the stadium red, white, and black for Oklahoma's visit, and the afternoon may just live up to the outfit.

ALBANY, GA — · By the RFA Sports Desk

They are dressing the stadium in Athens today. WSB-TV reports Georgia's second annual Stripe Sanford is on for the Oklahoma game — north stands in red, middle stands in white, south stands in black, so the whole bowl mirrors the stripe down the silver britches. The Row Sixty podcast started the tradition, and fans can look up their section's assigned color before leaving the house. I have known men who would not change shirts for a wedding, and today those same men will consult a chart to make sure they clash properly with the fellow one section over.

The occasion deserves the wardrobe. Oklahoma arrives carrying the fourth-ranked scoring defense in America, allowing 7.7 points a game, while Georgia leads the whole country in scoring at 59.3. That is the irresistible force and the immovable object, or possibly the other way around, and the betting men have settled the argument at Georgia by 13 and a half, with a 3:30 Eastern kickoff. Something has to give this afternoon, and a stadium striped red, white, and black will be leaning forward to see what it is.

I have known men who would not change shirts for a wedding, and today they'll consult a chart to make sure they clash properly with the fellow one section over.

The Sooners' end of the bargain rests with quarterback John Mateer, who kept his starting job this week despite a Yahoo Sports preview describing him as hesitant, late, and too easily rattled when the structure breaks — not the sort of thing a man wants read aloud at his own pep rally. All six of his touchdown passes this season have covered at least 20 yards, which means Oklahoma scores the way a man wins at the track: strictly on longshots. Between the hedges, longshots have a way of pulling up lame.

Meanwhile, Georgia's center has been paroled. DawgNation reports fifth-year captain Drew Bobo will play Oklahoma without the bulky protective club he wore on his injured hand for the season's first three games. 'I'm excited to be un-clubbed,' he said, which may be the most Georgia sentence uttered all week. Kirby Smart called him relentless, and linebacker Justin Williams called him one of the toughest people he has ever met. Snapping a football one-handed for three weeks will earn a man that kind of testimony.

A word of caution before anybody spends those 13 and a half points: favorites have been dying ugly deaths lately. Kentucky walked into College Station last week and beat ninth-ranked Texas A&M, 31 to 21, the upset of the week by acclamation. Friday night, fifth-ranked Indiana needed every snap to get past Northwestern, 29 to 23. Georgia handled Arkansas 45 to 17 last time out and looks every bit the better team today. But Saturdays in this sport do not read the program. That is rather the point of them.

The Notebook

• THE BIG NOON: The Longhorn Steers visit the Volunteer Riflemen at 12:00 Eastern, Texas favored by 5 and a half. The desk calls it a coin-flip, which is Latin for don't bet the truck.
• SURE THINGS DEPT.: Notre Dame lays 27 and a half at the Boilermaker Welders, and Miami gives 41 and a half to Central Michigan. If either one loses, cancel church.
• UNDER THE LIGHTS: The evening card sends the Aggie Cadets to the Bayou Bengals, LSU by 8 and a half, while the Webfoot Ducks and Trojan Horsemen settle a genuine coin-flip out west, Oregon by 3 and a half.

Written in the tradition of Lewis Grizzard, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 1946–1994.

Hear the desk read tonights report on Radio Free Albany, WPFQ 96.7.