I read the same quote that Mark Richt gave the AJ-C’s Tim Tucker that Groo cites in his post here, but thought Richt was being somewhat facetious. At least I hope he was.
On whether the Georgia-Florida game should be played in Georgia sometimes: “I don’t know what’s going to happen. But when people ask me the question, ‘Do you really think [Jacksonville] is a neutral site?’, I say, ‘No, it’s not neutral.’ When you play in the state of Florida every year –- we fly, they drive; it’s hotter for us, it’s cooler for them. It’s played in a stadium that [used to be called] the Gator Bowl. But what the heck? If nothing else, we’ll make Jacksonville pay more to keep it there. . . . I wouldn’t feel bad having a ‘neutral site’ game in Georgia – in the Georgia Dome.”
I mean, seriously, “it’s hotter for us, it’s cooler for them”? Please tell us you were kidding, Coach.
Get The Picture 
Let’s just say it’s hotter for us. Many times temps. from north Georgia to north Fla. can be as much as 10 degrees difference. I don’t buy the cooler for them.
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I wonder what Dooley must think we he hears those comments?
I wonder if ERK would ever utter those words?
It is now clear that our coach lacks the intestinal fortitude (and balls) to beat Florida consistently.
People say he is so damn competitive – well you know what coach?…….our biggest problem with beating Florida has not been Florida. It’s been YOU.
And with those comments, you have solidified that fact.
Flat out pathetic.
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Given our road record under Richt, he should just embrace it being a road game and run with it. But these comments about the Dome just keep the mental bloc up – and it is the last thing we need.
Jim
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You’re right sir. Have said the same many times. Since it’s viewed as a “road” game, what’s the problem with winning in Jax more often?
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Guys, Guys, Guys….
Hot? Cool?….so what?
Wins? Losses?…such a deal.
Look at the landscape…Coach Richt is obviously a better person than most of the gentlemen he coaches against.
Is that not what is important?
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nope, not when he’s screwing up the party. The game is secondary.
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As a Dawg trapped in Jacksonville I can tell you that it is cooler for the Gators. Gainesville is land locked; Jacksonville is a beach and river community–there is usually a breeze.
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There are few things I cannot support about mark Richt as our coach, but his attitude about Jacksonville has been wrong, even before the more recent comments. Unlike the other poster, I don’t think CMR has been the problem but I do feel he can help by re-thinking his approach to the game’s location.
I will never forget a long conversation with Steve Spurrier when we first met about Jacksonville. He said the boosters pulled him aside before his first season and told Florida could not beat Georgia in Jacksonville, that he had to move the game. His reaction was totally different than Richt’s, and he proved them wrong. I think Richt should stop listening to whiney fans who, I think, led him astray early on. Let’s man-up. The location has nothing to do with the outcome, but a down-in-the-mouth attitude makes the job much harder. I never want to see a home and home with UF. If it is too physically taxing on 20 year olds to make a trip from Athens to Jacksonville we need to recruit differently, or get a new S&C coach. Man up fellows! Win this fall and we are 3-3 for the last six games and will have stopped the momentum UF enjoyed when they had a talent advantage.
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yes. rather than attacking the problem and finding solutions like Spurrier, our Coach looks for excuses and whines like a bitch. Of course, Spurrier whined alot, but he beat UGa alot too and that’s what matters.
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Richt needs to shut up. Every time he complains about Jacksonville, it comes off like him crying about how unfair it is that he is getting his ass kicked almost yearly there.
The temp has NEVER been hotter than 90 during gamedays and has been in the 70’s several times (per WeatherUnderground.com) since 2001
So, what the hell are you talking about, Richt?
Do yourself a favor and start winning the games more consistently instead of finding ways to make excuses
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mmm
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For what it’s worth, I can report from experience that G’ville is hot as a horned-frog’s ass and as humid as a bag lady’s privates.
And everyday from April to October, it rains at 3:15 p.m., amping up the steam effect.
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Really, guys? I think Mark Richt knows what he’s doing. I think averaging 10 wins gets you the benefit of the doubt. I’m on both sides of the issue. I love Jax, but see that it’s not the same as it was. Every season of Vince Dooley’s 25 year tenure, Florida played Auburn 7 days before they played UGA. That stopped in 1992 with divisional play. I believe Richt has played Florida 3 times when they haven’t had an off week before the Cocktail Party and has beat them 2 of 3.
The landscape is different. We used to travel down early and get acclimated to the weather and the atmosphere. Now, academics are a little more important, and we head out around midday Friday like any other road game. And Florida used the be a joke. They’re not anymore. But I love the tradition, and I love beating them down there.
But I’m pretty sure that no one on the planet wants to beat them consistently more than Mark Richt. He’s brought me 3 Sugar Bowls and 2 SEC Titles, so I just trust him. Shouldn’t we all. The dude went to Miami, coached at FSU, and is the coach at UGA. Nobody hates Florida and wants to beat them more than Mark Richt.
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What most of these “Richt needs to shut up and have some balls” comments fail to address is the fact that there may actually be something to the claim that Jacksonville carries with it certain advantages for the Florida Gators. And since the whole point of a neutral site is to eliminate (and not just reduce) advantages, there may actually be reasons to reconsider Jacksonville.
Now, would it show more “balls” if we could just dominate the Gators DESPITE whatever advantages Jacksonville might bring them? Sure. But then, why not just play in the Swamp? I mean, if Mark Richt REALLY had some balls, he’d just march into Gainesville and beat the hell out of ’em, right?
Jacksonville’s nice and all, but this is about havin’ some BALLS, right guys? So let’s just play every year in the Swamp. And while we’re at it, let’s not sell any tickets to Georgia fans. And the Georgia players have to play blind-folded. If we could beat Florida blind-folded, without any fans in the stands, in Gainesville, that’d REALLY show some balls! Yeah!
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Funny how those “advantages” of which you speak were somehow nonexistent when you guys were kicking our butts every year. Now the shoe is on the other foot and all you can do is whine about neutrality?
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Skip the fact that the average temperature in Jax that time of year is almost identical to the temperature inside the Georgia Dome.
And never mind that all this concern over perceived advantages and disadvantages is nothing more than idle speculation, that nobody knows if a change of scenery really will have a favorable impact on Georgia’s fortunes in the series.
Here’s what I’d like to know: what do the players in the here and now think when they hear their head coach make these kinds of excuses? Does it affect their mental preparation for the game when they see the assertions that they’re already behind before they step on the field?
Maybe some of that explains the attitude in the locker room at halftime last year.
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Exactly. Even if CMR feels this way, taking the public stances he has on where the game is played has not changed it, but may impact our team’s attitude going into the game.
I don’t question Mark Richt’s competitiveness, or resolve to beat Florida, but his judgement on not working behind the scenes to change things seems ill-advised to me. For the record, I still give him an A as our head coach as this may be the biggest disagreement I have with his philosophy. I think our own fans’ whining about this may influenced him. It just doesn’t fit with his attitude regarding other issues, imo.
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To answer your question: I can’t speak for anyone else, but if I were a (Georgia football) player, Richt’s comments would, if anything, only fire me up to play harder whenever I’m in Jacksonville … like, you know, in an attempt to overcome whatever advantages my opponent MIGHT have. But that’s just because I’m a competitive person.
As competitive as I am, though, I generally try to avoid fighting unfair fights. Throwing punches when your opponent’s got a gun isn’t competitive; it’s stupid. So, as a player (or a coach, or a fan, or even just an interested bystander), I’d also be concerned to make sure that my opponent — be it a cupcake or the defending national champions — doesn’t have any advantages that my team didn’t at least have the opportunity to have for itself as well.
Suppose that, for reasons outside of Richt’s control, Georgia was forced to start playing Auburn in Jordan-Hare Stadium EVERY year. Would there by something wrong with Richt making comments to the media about the non-neutrality of the location? Should he keep those thoughts to himself for fear of hurting his players’ (apparently quite delicate) feelings?
And for the record, there’s a difference between (a) speculating about the neutrality of the site of a sporting event and (b) making excuses for your team’s poor performance. You’re welcome to assume that Richt is doing the latter, but, for now, I’ll reserve judgment until I can start reading his mind.
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I don’t understand your point here. Are you saying that the players aren’t competitive like you are?
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I took your original question to imply that Richt’s comments might affect the “mental preparation” of his players in a negative way — like, e.g., “Well, if we’re ‘already behind before [we] step on the field,’ then why bother giving 100%?”
My point, then, is that whatever effects Richt’s comments might have any given player will likely depend (and certainly ought to depend) upon that player’s will to compete. If hearing your coach speculate about the neutrality of the site of one of your games actually threatens to keep you from playing as hard as you’re capable of playing, then maybe a competitive team sport like football isn’t really a good fit for you.
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I wasn’t implying anything. I’d genuinely like to know if his public comments have any effect on the players’ game mentality. I have no idea one way or the other.
By the way, I don’t take Richt’s comments as speculation at this point. He sounds like he honestly believes he’s at a competitive disadvantage playing in Jax.
The only speculation is whether a move would have a positive impact on the record.
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TF,
I’m old enough to clearly recall Florida players saying (paraphrase), in regards to the GA game,”We knew we were gonna lose the game the moment we got off the bus”.
Pell, Hall, and those before them didn’t see the advantages. They were famous for whining about playing UGA in Jacksonville b/c GEORGIA was the team with the “clear advantage”.
Florida coaches and fans saying UGA had an advantage. Can you imagine that?
I’d like to know what that perceived advantage was. But since I don’t know, I can pretty much assume it’s because we beat the shit outta them every year. THAT was our advantage.
Dooley took the damn team down, even in years where Florida was ranked higher or better on paper, and whipped them. See 1985 when Florida was #1.
I don’t want to hear how “you” would interpret Richt’s comments re: this issue. We’re all competitive chief. You ain’t the only one- I can guaranfckingtee you that.
Another thing I can guarantee you isn’t happening is that our coach is not approaching this game with a “come hell or high water, we will win” attitude. His moaning and whining about centigrade and travel time is weak sauce and WILL affect our players mental prep. Make excuses for losing and you will continue to lose. STOP making excuses and good things will happen.
I love the guy, but Richt is just plain wrong.
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Maybe, just maybe, the advantage we had for all those years was that UF played it’s second biggest conference rival the week before they played us, while we rested and got healthy.
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That advantage was schedule related (AU) and had nothing to do with the venue. Spurrier was smart enough to fix that. He knew the venue had zero outcome on the game.
Still doesn’t.
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Right, but maybe the venue has ALWAY been inherently unfair, but that scheduling related disadvantage plus the fact that pre-1990 UF couldn’t get out of its own way allowed UGA to win more down there than we should have expected to. Now the programs are on a much more level playing field, and any advantage-real or imagined-no matter how small, can make a difference.
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As hard as it may be to believe, Florida, like any other team in the history of sports, will take a breather and revert to mediocrity. Every team does it- see Notre Dame, FSU, and Nebraska.
I believe this reversion will take place sooner than later, with Murphy’s law saying it happens right about the time the Cocktail Party is moved to Atlanta. Yes, it gets moved and we start winning. Not b/c of the venue, but b/c Florida stinks.
Worst case is if it moves and Florida wins the inaugural Atlanta cocktail party. And that scenario is very unlikely.
Would suck, wouldn’t it.?
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