Why Georgia mascot Uga X won't be at national championship game in Los Angeles
College football's most well-known live mascot will watch the national championship on television this year.
A trip to Los Angeles was too far for Uga X, Georgia football's beloved bulldog mascot.
At 9½ years old, Uga, known as Que by his Seiler family owners, is too old to make an extended journey like he did for the 2017 Rose Bowl.
The Seilers would have had to drive from Savannah to Athens before driving to the Atlanta airport. They'd then have taken a 5½ hour flight to L.A.
"That Rose Bowl trip took nine hours, and he’s trained for four hours," said Uga owner Charles Seiler. "We were pushing it the first time, and the first time I didn’t know how long it would take."
Seiler and Uga flew from Savannah to Indianapolis for last year's title game, which made their trip just over three hours.
He said there were options this year to fly with the team, with the Redcoat Band and on the university president's charter plane, but they wanted what was best for Que.
Uga is considered a senior dog by Pedigree.com's calculator, putting him at 68 years old in human years.
Seiler is concerned about the stress for Uga when it comes to using the bathroom on such a long trip.
"He’s a modest dog, and he won’t even pee and poop if there’s somebody looking or even if he thinks somebody is looking," Seiler said. "I know that he would try to do everything he could to hold it, but it would put him through absolute hell. Rather than put him through that, we figured it was best not to put him through it."
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Monday night's 7:30 p.m. ET game will be the fourth one missed this season by Uga. He didn't make it to a noon game at South Carolina because of the heat, and night games at Missouri and Mississippi State were too late.
"People might think that the dog is always at the game," Seiler said, "but he’s not."
Instead, Uga X will sit at home and watch along with Seiler. In another room, Uga in training, Boom, Que's son, will be watching in front of another television. Seiler will put a sweater on the 6-month-old while he watches.
"We separate them, because male bulldogs will fight," Seiler said. "One will be in front of one TV in the living room and another will be in his regular room watching, so they’ll watch it and they’ll listen."
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While Boom is currently with the Seilers, Charles said that another pup, 1½-year-old Mac, is a second dog in the running to become Que's successor.
"We’re not sure which one would work out when the time comes, but I’ll tell ya, this young one is a handful," Seiler said. "He’s eaten every toy that we’ve presented, and I came home today and he’d eaten a hole right in the middle of his blanket. We’re working on him to kind of calm down a little bit."