Legendary UGA Defensive Coordinator and the first Head Coach of GSU back in the 80's coined the phrase. It means to "Get after their arse."

If you don't know who Erk is then you have truly missed out on one of the finest coaches and personalities to ever be around NCAA football. Do a little reading up on him and I'm sure you'll like what you read if you like a man's man that head butts his helmeted players to the point he is bleeding on the sidelines to fire them up. He has gone to the green fields of heaven now and is surely missed but his legend lives on.

The Railroad Track people he was referring to were these folks that got a free view of the game from this vantage point. When Sanford Stadium was enclosed in '81 that tradition of rowdy and colorful fans were lost from the Georgia tradition.

FROM WIKIPEDIA:

quote:
Russell was notorious for his communication and motivational nature among his players. He was known for sending out calendars to his players over the summer, reminding them to be in shape for the start of practice and suggesting a humorous workout regimen that would include entries such as: "Run three miles, hate Georgia Tech four times."

He also came up with all sorts of folksy sayings that somehow seemed to work on the younger generation. Russell was the one who coined the phrase "Junkyard Dawgs" for Georgia's undersized defense. He came up with T-shirts that had "TEAM" printed in large letters and "me" in small letters. And he always told his players, "If we score, we may win. If they never score, we'll never lose." Erk Russell other inspirational quotes consist of, "The best way to win a game is not to lose it." and "The brotherhood of football ... is the strongest brotherhood known to man as far as I'm concerned."

During a road game at Georgia Tech, Coach Russell saw a Yellow Jacket trainer in a sweatshirt reading "G.T.A.A."---"Georgia Tech Athletic Association"---and came up with the idea of rearranging the letters to produce a memorable slogan: "G.A.T.A."---"Get After Their Asses".

Perhaps the most lasting impression was Russell ramming his bald dome into a helmeted player to celebrate a turnover or key play, leaving his forehead drenched in blood.

Coach Russell was a master motivator who did not forget that, as someone who molded young men in a university setting, he was a teacher first and foremost. He passed along life lessons, and not just defensive techniques, to his players and he knew how to get his message across to them.

While Vince Dooley was still contemplating the dismissal of several Bulldogs after the infamous hog incident of 1980, Coach Russell was the one who saw how it could be used to bring the team together. When Len Bias died of an overdose in 1986; as head coach of Georgia Southern, Coach Russell conveyed the dangers of drug use by throwing a rattlesnake on the floor in a team meeting to make sure his analogy would be remembered.

This post was edited on 11/20/15 at 1:35 pm