Forty-five years ago, nearly to the day, as Georgia opened its fall camp of 1975, renowned defensive coordinator Erk Russell curiously announced to a gathering of media: “There isn't anything meaner than a junkyard dog.”
The term “junkyard dog” had first been widely circulated two years before in Jim Croce’s song, “Bad, Bad Leroy Brown,” whereby Leroy is “badder than old King Kong and meaner than a junkyard dog.”
“[Junkyard dogs] aren't good for nothing except for being mean and ornery,” Russell added. “That's what we want our defense to be."
And with that, to inspire spirit and toughness, Coach Russell had bestowed a moniker upon his defenders: Junkyard Dogs.
Whether it was by way of a nickname, or something else, it was evident the Georgia defense of 1975 needed some sort of inspiration considering the makeup of the unit. From the season before, the Bulldogs returned just two defensive starters—and one of the returnees, Rusty Russell, son of Erk, had moved to linebacker, a brand new position for the senior after starting at defensive end.
Granted, the '74 defense had ranked dead last in the SEC by yielding approximately 24 points and 357 total yards per game. What’s more, according to Russell, the Bulldogs allowed the opposition to convert on third and fourth down a staggering 60 percent of the time. Perhaps Georgia’s top assistant sensed an addition by subtraction was in store following the surprisingly dismal defensive campaign of 1974.
Instead of dismal, Russell desired a defense with "players who are fundamentally sound" and "who play with intelligent fanaticism," the defensive coordinator seemingly created a new term, “with a little more emphasis on the fanaticism.”
To align with his desire, Russell had switched Georgia's defense in the spring from a 5-2-4 alignment to a formation no other major college program was using at the time, the Split-60, which featured a six-man front with spacing gaps outflanking the opposing offensive tackles.
"We will be shifting people around to get the best 11 in there,” Russell had said of his defense that spring.
And he wasn't kidding. By mid-August, Georgia was still shifting and shuffling its defensive personnel, and had determined just four of the 11 starting positions with less than a month remaining until the season opener against Pittsburgh in Athens.
Finally, the Bulldogs opened their campaign with a starting defense consisting of "three walk-ons, four [former] quarterbacks, and three [former] running backs," according to Russell. The original front four of Lawrence Craft, Jim Baker, Jeff Sanders, and Dicky Clark averaged less than 210 pounds per man, which was considered minuscule even back then. The linebacking corps was recognized as "a bunch of runts" by Russell, while eventual starting safety Bobby Thompson wasn't even listed on the three-deep depth chart in early August.
Still, what the '75 defense lacked in experience and raw ability, it more than made up for it with intensity and an aggressive style of play. Simply put, the unit, which consisted of six starting sophomores in the end, played like a bunch of junkyard dogs.
Granted, the Georgia defense would often bend, so to speak. In a time when the average college team averaged less than 325 yards of total offense per game, the Georgia defense yielded more than 400 yards in a loss at Ole Miss, 382 to Florida in Jacksonville, and even 360 to lowly Richmond on Homecoming. For the year, the Bulldogs ranked just 7th in the 10-member SEC in total defense.
Nonetheless, the acclaimed defensive unit would rarely break. After Georgia allowed five foes to score 31 points or more in 1974, the young and small, but feisty and determined Junkyard Dogs allowed no regular-season opponent to total more than 28 points, as the Bulldogs achieved a surprising 9-2 record and a second-place finish in the SEC after being preseason picked to finish in the bottom half of the conference.
By November of that season, the term which derived from “Bad, Bad Leroy Brown” had inspired its own song, “Dooley’s Junkyard Dogs,” which was regarded as the first rock ‘n’ roll song about a college sports team. Sung and recorded by the “Godfather of Soul,” James Brown, the tune would become so prominent at Georgia that, according to The Red and Black, it replaced “’Dixie’ as the most popular song of the football season.”
Forty-five football seasons later, the origination and success of the Junkyard Dogs could be regarded in UGA football lore as notable as some of the program’s greatest players, plays, coaches, and moments.
Moreover, the scrawny but scrappy Bulldogs, who were given little chance to succeed, demonstrate that almost anything can be accomplished when an extraordinary leader of men is paired with a hungry group—a mean and ornery group of Junkyard Dogs.
