This is the idlest of speculation, but, is it possible, with all of his talk about the neutral field, travel and weather, that Mark Richt is sandbagging us about this year’s Florida game? That all this focus on whining is just a smokescreen?
I ask this in response to an e-mail I received from a reader whose mom just attended the most recent Football 101 clinic the team hosted. She found the following poster plastered all over the weight/locker room:
GATA, boys!
So while he’s got us wringing our hands over whether we need to keep making the trip to Jax, he’s got the team getting after giving the GPOOE™ a reason to make another one of those teary-eyed, post-game motivational speeches.
I like it. Needless to say, a win this year has the potential to rank right up there with the 1985 game in terms of personal satisfaction.
If he pulls it off, we’ll need to come up with another persona for the man – Sneaky Richt? Devious Richt? Mr. Misdirection?
Get The Picture 
I must be missing something here. Can you explain further. I know what GATA means, but what’s the reason for the sign, why big and little print and what does it have to do with Jax in particular.
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I presume it’s the locker room equivalent of circling a game on the calendar.
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OK, what game, why UF?
GATA means Get After That ASS. We’ve used it since Erk was here as he came up with it. What does it have to do with the Gators in particular?
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The “GATA” comment is my own – again, I presume that the coaches have decided that this game deserves special early attention from the team. Given that the Dawgs play a road opener against a top 10 school, I find that focus interesting.
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OK, I’m still at a loss. We use GATA, we’ve been using it ever since Richt took back over and wanted to really delve into the UGA tradition. We have GATA in the locker rooms and weight room. Wouldn’t surprise me one bit if it was there last year. It seems in your entry, you’re saying it has something to do with the Gator game, now you’re saying it has something to do with the OSU game. I’m confused.
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No, I’m saying that for the coaches to turn attention to the Florida game when they have a big time opponent to start the season is indicative of how important they think the Florida game is. I like that – a lot.
GATA is simply my personal exhortation to the troops. If it makes things easier for you to understand what’s going on in the locker room, just ignore it.
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This is what I’m asking….
you say…..”So while he’s got us wringing our hands over whether we need to keep making the trip to Jax, he’s got the team getting after giving the GPOOE™ a reason to make another one of those teary-eyed, post-game motivational speeches.”
Specifically this “he’s got the team getting after giving the GPOOE™ a reason to make another one of those teary-eyed”
Are you telling me this is your own conclusion?
If so, how did you come to it?
I thought you were saying that there is something hidden in the signs meaning that points to the UF game. If there is, I’m just asking what it is. Thought I may have missed something from the past. Like maybe the Gators saying “GATA boys” after they kicked our ass last year or something.
Just saying this ain’t exactly as evident as doing 42 push-ups or posting pictures of us celebrating in their endzone all over their locker room.
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I’m sorry, normally I get your point when you comment here, but it’s not clicking with me today.
As for it being my conclusion, I thought that was apparent with the first six words of my post.
As for there being something hidden in the sign, it lists the teams and the date of the game. As I understand it, there aren’t any signs like it up for the other games on the schedule right now. Why do you think they’re hanging everywhere the players can see?
And as for what’s “evident”, maybe Richt doesn’t feel that he has to motivate his players the same way that Meyer did last year.
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“Just saying this ain’t exactly as evident as doing 42 push-ups or posting pictures of us celebrating in their endzone all over their locker room.”
To me, it looks like the bottom of a squat rack in the weight room. I would guess it’s a decal that’s been placed on every station in the room. So it is “like doing 42 pushups”. When they’re busting their tail in the offseason, they see “Georgia-Florida, 2009”. That’s what the 42 pushups were for. To think, year round, “Georgia-Florida, 2008”.
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Dude….how do you not get this?
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Dude, you were too late.
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I don’t think we’re seeing the picture/poster you intend. All I see is a fuzzy blow up of a GIF icon.
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kckd…have a cup of coffee, man, then log back on. Senator, there might be some confusion because the picture is not showing up, at least not on my screen, so all I see is your exhortation of GATA. I assumed the picture I couldn’t see was florida-specific and went with it. I’m pumped. Bring on the Go Gator. Richt knows what he’s doing. We should have learned that after 8 seasons. And he hates losing.
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It doesn’t show up even as an image that won’t load on my computer, just looks like he typed it in big font and little font.
BTW, the last thing I need is coffee. It’s 9:22 p.m. where I am.
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I don’t need a cup of coffee. That’s the problem, is there is some confusion in what he thinks we’re seeing and we actually see. I don’t see dates or lists of games. Just GATA, boys, GATA, boys. I would’ve understood better if the things that he says are there, were actually there.
I’m not angry at anyone, just thought SB had some info that I didn’t have.
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Crap – are you guys looking at it in IE or Firefox. I’m in the latter, and it shows just fine.
What do you see when you click on this:
http://mail.google.com/mail/?ui=2&ik=9b53c5d810&view=att&th=121c10d81e49cacd&attid=0.1&disp=inline&zw
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We get an error message from Gmail… We’re sorry, but your Gmail account is temporarily unavailable. We apologize for the inconvenience and suggest trying again in a few minutes.
If the issue persists, please visit the Gmail Help Center »
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And I’m on Firefox.
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same as fitz and I’m on Firefox as well.
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ditto
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How about now?
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Works now. And sorry about the confusion. Like I said, all I saw was the print.
I’m glad we’re circling the game, but I hope we don’t forget the rest. That 2004 UT loss following LSU was maybe the most difficult loss in the Richt era.
Some may point to the games last year, but Bama didn’t take away our conference hopes and put them in someone else’s hands. By the time we got to UF we had an idea things weren’t exactly right.
We went from Mt. Everest to Death Valley CA in one week in 2004.
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I humbly apologize for that.
Next time, just whomp me upside the head with a “dumbass, I can’t see the sign you’re posting about!” 😉
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The problem was you assumed I saw it and I assumed you knew what I was seeing. I couldn’t tell you I couldn’t see the sign cause I thought the sign was “GATA, boys” and nothing else.
But, I linked your entry over to the DV because a guy overthere feels we don’t circle the game.
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2004 UT was tough, for sure. But, NOTHING tops 2002 UF for heartbreaking losses. I can literally remember down to the smallest detail about that game. It was like a slow motion car wreck.
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That would’ve been for me, but we still had a shot at the SEC even after that game if we won the rest. It cost us a NC shot, but it had been so long since we’d won the SEC I can honestly say I don’t know if I’d felt any more elation over winning the NC that year. As much, but probably not more.
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Yes, the 2002 Cocktail Party was heartbreaking, but I was given 51 reasons to forget about it for a while at the end of that month. I hope 11/28/2009 is circled somewhere in that locker room.
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Amen.
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LOL. These interwebs are tricky at times.
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For a tyro like me, especially when it comes to pictures. I still think my greatest accomplishment at this site is getting the Brown/Dooley banner to fit at the top.
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The James Brown/Vince Dooley banner is the best thing ever!
If that is the only thing you ever accomplish in life, my friend, you’ve left your mark on this world …
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Awesome. I love that Richt seems to have finally had enough of the team being scared of Florida and seems to be forcing them to acknowledge that it is the most important game of the year (sorry, I still have no respect for Tech).
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After the drubbing last year, I’m liking this. It’s weight room motivation for their summer workouts at this point, I don’t think it is all consuming direction for the season, but the importance of this game is being taken head on. Richt is not trying to massage it, he’s not trying to treat it like any other game, and I think that’s important. Florida circled it last year, now it’s our turn.
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It shows up on Crackberry browser this AM.
Also…when the defense scored the game winning INT pick six against the offense at the football 101 clinic Martinez sent his ladies into the end zone to celebrate. Even Searles laughed.
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That is funny as hail! … LOL!
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Yep … that there is funny!
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Shows up fine on Safari….
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I get it … circle the game … I’d like it better if the score was posted too. If it pissess the players off then hang a farkin Mission Accomplished Banner on Milledge!
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btw … I vote for Machiavellian Richt
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CLARIFICATION – I sent in the picture and got some clarification from my Mom. They have a different one of those showing different teams they play at every station in the weight room.
BUT.. this one is the most prominant and the biggest.
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NO! They’re all the same size. I have the same one on my phone that is UGA vs. Tech. They’re not placing any more emphasis on one or the other.
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Signage seems a little understated and more of a Save the Date kind of thing.
Recommend addition of following extended motivational haiku, also in honor of Kill Bill, to the Save the Date signage:
Find bang stick.
Find gator.
Kill gator.
Skin gator.
Feed gator to UGA.
Cut off gator head.
Stuff gator head.
Mount gator head on UGA’s cage.
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I saw 36 comments and perked up 😉
“The most important game is the next one”, yeah right!
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wouldn’t that be “Mr. MisdiRichtion”
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I bet Kerwin Bell still checks under his bed every night to make sure Greg Waters isn’t there.
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Ain’t that the truth – Waters might as well have huddled with the Florida offense. It would have saved everybody time.
I love that game.
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They have one of these mats for all the games. I have seen one for the OK St game as well. Nothing to see here.
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I wish they WOULD put last year’s score up in the locker room. If they get themselves pumped up to where they are good enough to beat the Gators, they will be good enough to beat everyone on the schedule. Period.
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Van Halanger should be hitting players in the face with those planks.
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I’ve also seen posters pointing to the oSu game near the weight racks.
Just saying.
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