AUSTIN, Texas — Uga XI will not accompany the Georgia Bulldogs to Texas. The trip simply was too far to make, according to Charles Seiler, who owns the famous English bulldog known as “Boom.”
“This dog hasn’t been on a plane yet and hasn’t been on a bus yet,” said Seiler, reached at his home in Savannah on Friday morning. “He is really young and immature and crazy as hell, and this game just wasn’t a good fit for us.”
Seiler denied reports that Uga’s absence was the result of the family feud with Bevo, Texas’ longhorn mascot, which charged Boom’s father, Que, on the sidelines before Georgia and Texas played in the Sugar Bowl on Jan. 1, 2019.
Seiler was joking, of course.
“I’ve had to answer a bunch of questions about that the last two weeks,” he chuckled.
Boom, the 11th in the line of Georgia’s bulldog mascots, is 2 years and 2 months old and weighs 70 pounds. Seiler said they would have had to either drive to Athens then fly with the team or make the 1,200-mile drive directly from Savannah.
“He looks like a puppy, but he’s big,” Seiler said. “He’s a great dog and we love him, but he tends to be a bull in a china shop sometimes. Hopefully he’ll grow out of it.”
This will be the second Georgia game Uga has missed this season. He also didn’t make the trip to Kentucky.
“Nobody asked me about that one,” Seiler quipped.
Uga XI did make the trip to Tuscaloosa for the Alabama game Sept. 28. Seiler said a decision has not been made yet about whether Uga will accompany the Bulldogs to Ole Miss on Nov. 9. Otherwise, the mascot is expected to be at the rest of Georgia’s games this season.
“Typically, we miss two or three a year,” the 64-year-old Seiler said. “When Georgia plays these away games, I’ve got a five-hour drive up to Athens and a five-hour trip back after. So it can be quite an undertaking for me and for the dog. The school gives me full authority as far as what to do with the dog, and sometimes these trips are just not safe for us.”
