Getty Image
The University of Georgia’s beloved bulldog mascot, UGA XI, will not travel with the football team for its showdown with the Texas Longhorns on Saturday.
UGA XI’s owner, Charles Seiler, told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that the trip to Austin was just too far for the 2-year-old bulldog, who also goes by the name of Boom.
“This dog hasn’t been on a plane yet and hasn’t been on a bus yet,” Seiler said “He is really young and immature and crazy as he–, and this game just wasn’t a good fit for us.”
But there is also another element to the story.
The last time Texas and Georgia played one another was in the 2019 Sugar Bowl in New Orleans. Georgia’s previous mascot, UGA X, did attend that game. As did Texas’s legendary Longhorn mascot, Bevo.
The handlers for both mascots attempted to arrange a pregame meetup. But as you can imagine, it went poorly.
UGA And Bevo Have Generational Beef (Pun Intended) Dating Back To 2019
Bevo XV, who is also the current Longhorns mascot, apparently had enough of UGA’s trash talk. The Longhorn charged the Bulldogs and threatened to gore him before UGA’s handler pulled him out of the way to safety.
One of the photographers who captured the incident even sued Bevo’s owners after suffering injuries.
“People who’ve been in the mascot business, we don’t like to have problems with the mascots,” Seiler recently told ESPN about the incident. “But I can’t say they lost control because my butt was headed in the other direction.”
Bulldogs, as the name implies, were initially bred to fight and corral bulls for sport. So UGA wasn’t scared. But as you can see in the video, Seiler turns and runs and lifts UGA X nearly a foot in the air to pull him away.
Thankfully, nobody was seriously injured in the incident. But it was enough to make sure that UGA XI stays far away from the 1,700 Texas mascot.