In this program, Tony Barnhart will give his annual preview of the fall 2023 football season with a focus on SEC and ACC teams and a forecast about the teams most likely to be in contention for the national title.  Will Georgia win its third straight title or will some other teams have a chance to take the crown away from them?  Joining Tony in this program will be Bill Curry, former coach at Georgia Tech, Kentucky and Alabama and NFL player for ten seasons.  Among his many accomplishments, Curry played on three NFL and two Super Bowl Championship teams.  Tony and Bill  will discuss the revolutionary challenges facing college football and college sports generally.  They will also discuss Tony’s new book, The 19 of Greene: Football Friendship and Change in the Fall of 1970 for which Curry wrote a moving introduction.  The book is about the Greene County Tigers first integrated football team and the unifying power of sport in the face of social turmoil.

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Location:  CLE Lecture Hall

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Presenter: Tony Barnhart, a 1976 graduate of UGA’s school of journalism, has covered college football for 47 years.  This includes 25 years as a columnist and reporter for the Atlanta Journal Constitution and stints with CBS Sports and ESPN.  Tony is currently an analyst for the SEC Network and a columnist for TMG College Sports.  He is the author of five books on college football, including biographies of Vince Dooley and Larry Munson.  Among his honors:  named Georgia Sports Writer of the Year in 1999 and inducted into the Georgia Sports Hall of Fame in 2021.

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Presenter: As a player, Bill Curry learned the game from such legendary masters as Bobby Dodd, Vince Lombardi, and Don Shula. He was a two-time Pro Bowl center and a three-time NFL Champion, including victories in Super Bowls I and V.  As a coach, Bill restored the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets to national prominence. At the University of Alabama, where he was named Bobby Dodd National Coach of the Year, Bill led the Tide to an SEC Championship and to berths in the Hall of Fame Bowl, the Sun Bowl, and the Sugar Bowl. At Kentucky, Bill led his Wildcats to their first bowl game in nearly a decade. In 2008, Bill became the first head coach at Georgia State, who played its inaugural season in 2010.