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There will only be one iconic mascot in attendance at Darrell K Royal Memorial Stadium for Saturday’s highly anticipated SEC showdown between Texas and Georgia.
Charles Seiler, who is the handler for the Georgia mascot Uga XI, told David Eckert of the Austin American-Statesman that the English Bulldog will not be making the road trip to Austin, Texas, because of difficult logistics.
Uga XI also missed the team’s road trip to Kentucky earlier this season.
“That’s a lot of wear and tear on the dog,” Seiler said. “…Those games way out in the middle of the country are hard for us to get to. This dog that we have—well, he’s not new—but he’s only two-and-a-half, and we haven’t flown him yet, and he hasn’t been on a team bus yet.”
Notably, Seiler explained the decision was not made because of any worry about an interaction with Texas’ live mascot, Bevo.
There was an incident at the Sugar Bowl in 2019 when Bevo charged through a barricade and toward Georgia’s previous mascot, Uga X:
Fortunately, things didn’t escalate, and the Longhorns ended up winning the game 28-21.
The two teams are now in the same conference and will face each other with plenty on the line Saturday.
“The dog usually misses a few games a year, and the 17-hour drive did us in on this one,” Seiler told ESPN’s David Hale. “We’ll be watching on TV. It’s sure to be a good game.”
The undefeated Longhorns are No. 1 in the country, while the No. 5 Bulldogs are looking to bounce back from a September loss to Alabama. There is more room for error with the expanded 12-team College Football Playoff, but Georgia already has that one defeat and still has difficult games remaining against Tennessee and Ole Miss later in the season.
Another loss would put the pressure on the Bulldogs as they look to avoid falling to the playoff bubble.
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