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his teammates who will be getting sized for a ring will be Malik Herring, former Bulldog defender, who was injured for last year’s victory over the Eagles. Hewascredited with a tackle and an assist against San Francisco.

This was the 23rd straight year a Georgia player participated in the Super Bowl. The first former Bulldog to win a Super Bowl ring was Zeke Bratkowski, who was the backup quarterback to Barr Starr in Green Bay’s defeat of the Chiefs in Super Bowl I.

Three former ‘Dawgs have been named MVP of past Super Bowl games: Jake Scott, 1972; Terrell Davis, 1998 and Hines Ward, 2006.

John Rauch, former Georgia quarterback under Wallace Butts coached in the second Super Bowl as the head coach of the Oakland Raiders.

He had two assistants: John Madden was the line coach and Bill Walsh was the backfield coach.

I was fortunate to interview both of these great NFL personalities, on two different occasions. Madden said that John Rauch was the only coach he ever knew who could actually coach every position on the team.

Walsh said the “genesis” of the West Coast offense began with Rauch andthatRaidersteam. It is easy to conclude if that was the case, then the roots of the West Coach offense really had its beginning on the practice fields at Georgia where Rauch learned the basics of offensive football from Coach Wallace Butts.