According to various accounts, Jake Scott and Vince Dooley had a falling out years ago and hadn’t talked in awhile. But on the occasion of the announcement that Scott was being inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame, Dooley praised Scott as one of his best-ever players – and said he and Scott have been back on good terms for several years.
“He had been back to Athens a time or two for some golf tournaments, and chatted with him,” Dooley said Tuesday afternoon. “I talked to him on the phone one time. He was out in the middle of the ocean trying to catch marlins. He’s not your normal football player. He’s a little different and has always been that way. You could say that’s Jake.”
Scott wasn’t available for comment – for me or much of anyone else. Georgia wasn’t able to reach the somewhat reclusive former Super Bowl MVP to get a comment on its release about Scott’s Hall of Fame selection.
Scott and Dooley reportedly had an icy relationship after he left Georgia a year early. Scott signed with the CFL rather than play his senior year, but eventually went on to a successful NFL career.
Scott now lives in Hawaii. But his mother still lives in Atlanta, according to UGA spokesman Claude Felton. Scott will come back to Athens for games, but doesn’t make a big deal about it and the team only tends to find out he was there after the fact.
Dooley recalled on Tuesday how he once banned players from using motorcycles after Scott rode his onto the top of the coliseum. But Dooley has warm feelings for his former player, saying his ability rivaled that of Herschel Walker.
“If you take all-around, certainly Herschel was the most productive, but in all-around football player, in every phase of the game, he was as good as it gets,” Dooley said. “He could do it all.”
The best all-around player he’s coached – and the most interesting.
“Very much so, yes,” Dooley said. “He was indeed interesting. He was Jake. …
“I’m really happy for him. Actually he could have gone in earlier into the Hall of Fame, but being Jake, he wasn’t ready to accept that accolade. But I’m pleased to know that he is (being inducted) and I’ll look forward to seeing him up in New York at the induction.”
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
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2 comments:
This induction is way late, through no fault of the CFHOF, but I’m happy for Jake that it’s finally here.
Jake Scott is one of the greatest Georgia players ever, and certainly the greatest safety. And that’s saying a lot because Charley Trippi played safety, and Trippi is probably the best all-round CF player EVER (he also played Wingback, HB, QB, etc.).
Like all truly great safeties, Scott was smart and had great instinct. But he had more of all that than any safety I’ve ever seen play. And boy could he make plays, leaping one-handed interceptions were no big deal. And of course, he knew what to do with the ball in his hands.
All this and he only played 2 years. Had he come back for his senior year, he would be much better known in the CF world than he already is.
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I had never heard of Jake Scott before this seems he disappeared a decade before I was born. But I stumbled upon this. http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/2006-11-19/sports/sfl-spjakescott19nov19_1_noonday-breeze-defensive-lineman-manny-fernandez-front-porch . What a badass.
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