Former University of Georgia head football coach Vince Dooley features in a new campaign ad for his former star player, Georgia Republican Senate candidate Herschel Walker.
In the ad released on Thursday, Dooley, who won 201 games during his 25-year coaching career at Georgia, touted Walker’s drive and discipline as reasons why he will make a great congressman.
“Herschel has always been challenged about doing things that people thought he wasn’t capable of doing. He wants to be the best than with this incredible drive and self-discipline,” the 90-year-old former football coach says.
Dooley, who recently recovered from a battle with COVID-19, previously dabbled in a U.S. Senate run as a Democratic candidate in 1985, but ultimately decided to keep coaching, according to the New York Times.
Walker spent three years at the University of Georgia, leading the Bulldogs to the 1980 National Championship in his freshman year.
“He has achieved mighty things. He loves the United States of America. He also is realistic that it can be better,” Dooley says in the ad. “There is need in this state for somebody like Herschel, he will make a great United States senator.”
The new advertisement comes as Walker is neck-and-neck with incumbent Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.) in the closely watched Senate race, which could prove crucial to determining which party control the Senate.
Walker has faced a series of scandals and gaffes in recent weeks, but it has had little apparent impact on his polling numbers. Last month, reports emerged that he paid for his then-girlfriend to have an abortion in 2009, which he denies.
Warnock has also mocked Walker for his claims of past work with law enforcement, leading Walker to pull out an honorary sheriff’s deputy badge during their lone debate earlier this month, drawing a warning from the moderator.