Georgia and Oregon cancel their 2015-6 series.
“The model that we would establish in the future would have seven home games every year,” McGarity said. “If you look at the models of other schools that have played for the (BCS) championship lately, there’s always one tough nonconference game.”
We welcome our new cupcake overlords.
Get The Picture 
Sadly, I agree with your assessment.
But why let it bother you? Nobody who matters (poll voters) gives a flying shit.
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Aww c’mon, he’s just trying to find Derek Dooley a win. 😀
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If it leads to more wins……
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I see no reason why we’re going to be competing for national titles in the near future, so why not at least let the fans have some cool trips while they go watch us lose? For instance, I’ll be watching a Rockies game, fishing for three days, and only having to watch two horrible football teams duke it out for one day of the trip.
It would have been a lot of fun to go out to Oregon and watch us lose between windsurfing outings.
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Personally, I was looking forward to getting shitfaced at a few winery tastings.
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I was looking forward to finally seeing the northwest, seeing a game at Autzen…
*sigh*
Gonna live it up this w/e. Are you going?
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Nah – couldn’t get rid of some previous obligations this weekend.
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Too bad, would have been a marquee game on the national scale
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“Gatorization” would require UGA to actually win some games and we all know that’s not going to happen.
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touche…..
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Did anyone see the Ford F-150 commercial with Saban and Richt? As I remember it (and was a little tipsy at the time), Saban come on screen and proceeds to real off SPECIFIC qualities that make a good football team and a truck. Richt comes on says “you gotta finish the drill” and then something about a tent. My jaw dropped and my wife who cares little about football, said “Wow, the Georgia coach doesn’t seem very smart.” I’ve looked for the commercial online, but haven’t found it, and I would really like to see it again, because I’ve gotten it stuck in my mind as a metaphor for what’s going on with the program.
Over-generalizing by using tired meaningless cliches is just lazy, and serves to cover up the fact that you probably don’t know what your talking about. Our players are a work in progress, and they need specific and detailed instructions on how to play their positions. I think this is the disconnect we are witnessing now. Instead of “coaching up” and properly preparing these players, they are getting “Finish the drill” and “You gotta want it”.
I’m not drawing Richt’s intelligence into question here, but I don’t like the Bowden-esque “coach as CEO” organization, and I think it does allow for lazy coaching from the CEO. I’m willing to give Richt the benefit of the doubt if he regains control of the offense for the rest of the season. Here’s your chance to shine Mark, take charge and turn things around, that’s what a good coach would do.
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It’s a truck commercial.
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+1
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Truth in advertising?
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Metaphor: a figure of speech that constructs an analogy between two things or ideas.
Sorry I didn’t give you the definition before.
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Also in the Sublimely Metaphorical Truck Commercial: Saban looks absolutely childlike next to the F-150. Like he just learned to drive. I’m sure this means….something.
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Are you serious, dude?
Richt is doing poorly because of what he said in a truck ad?
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Like he actually wrote the copy or had anything on earth to do with it? Like he actually gave a flying flip what came out of his mouth for that six seconds?
Yup.
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I’m gonna raise something I actually think is worth a snot regarding this western travel situation:
Mark Richt was pissed about having to haul out to play Arizona State in Tempe in 2008 and then come back the next week to face Alabama. We all know the story: UGA ranked #3, blackout, national tv, disastrous penalties.
Not that long before Richt took a bit of a beating in the press after the end zone celebration. Or, even if he didn’t get beaten, he squirmed a lot. Not the kind of attention he wanted.
So flashing forward to 2009, Richt opens the season talking about how nice it is NOT to start out the season ranked so high–you know, how nice it is to be OUT of the spotlight, OFF the radar.
UGA has not been the same since that Alabama game. I know it’s all speculation, what of this isn’t, really, but I think the Richt psyche was damaged by the highly visible twin hits of the end zone fiasco and the Alabama-ranked-high-wear-your-black-shirts-after-a-week-on-the-west-coast-and-get-your-ass-handed-to-you fiasco.
And then he started chirping about how we don’t wanna play in Jax and we don’t wanna be ranked high and we don’t wanna go out west.
And now we’re where we are. Seems to me the messages coming out of CMR’s mouth have been very consistent recently, and they have nothing to be with being a winning program and everything to do with being a whining loser.
I’m not necessarily a fan of the OOC scheduling DE had in place, BUT…I would have never, as leader of an organization of impressionable young fellas, made excuses about it.
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And excuses have been fast and furious these last few years. It’s like CMR begand to think that, with those dumb penalties and dancing and black shirts and end zone celebrations, that he needed to pull back from having an out-of-control, overly aggressive team. And he pulled back to the point of really being the milquetoast everybody’s always accused him of being.
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I do not buy the amateur psychoanalysis rbubp but I do think you are right about one thing. The UGA football program has not been the same since losing to Bama (particularly the way the team lost) in 2008. Prior to that loss UGA had been 11-2 (final ranking #2) in 2007 and had won 5 in a row in 2008. The Dawgs also won the last 4(?) in a row in 2006. That’s 20-2 before losing to Bama in ’08. What has the record been since? 14-9 by my count (could be slightly off but not much). What caused that loss to Bama? Traveling to Phoenix, playing a night game in Tempe, flying back and arriving at 6 a.m., then having a short week to get ready with everybody jet-lagged for 2 days, then having to play the best team in the SEC West. Who caused that? DE, that’s who.
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everyone just seems to gloss over the absolute ass-pounding that we received from a mediocre Ufk team during our “glory run” of 2007.
The program was already in a tailspin long before that Alabama game.
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I’d say that Richt saw the sluggishness from SC, UTK, and Vandy that year and decided to let people dance on the logo at midfield if they wanted to.
And they did want to. They ramped up the aggressiveness to pre-2005 levels, and we know what happened.
The aggressiveness had a backlash, though (penalties, arrests, being pre-season number 1), and Richt apparently liked the backlash–and the pressure, consarn it–less than winning by one score against overmatched teams and not being everyone’s big game, so he dialed it back. WAY back.
He’s dialed it so far back the team is unrecognizable.
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Mayor, the thing is that the players are learning to deal with adversity. Are you gonna teach ’em that the referees are out to screw you? That the other team had more seniors? That they couldn’t be expected to play well because they had to fly back from Phoenix?
What the coach says matters. How the coach approaches challenges matters even more. That’s my only point.
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Maybe the coach shouldn’t say anything. But f*cking up the schedule with a trip to the west coast for a night game the week before playing Bama has consequences. That’s my point.
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Heck, I’m just sorry that no one ever explained the concept of video editing to you.
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“Richt comes on says ‘you gotta finish the drill’ [10 side-straddle hops and 5 push-ups] and then something about a tent.”
Which is what you’ll need when the battery on that Prius dies if you use that as a getaway vehicle instead of something Ford-tough like the F-150.
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The current global athletic department strategy of scheduling cupcakes in order to win an MNC is disheartening at best.
Is scheduling cupcakes in order to make more money the best thing for the school/students? Or is scheduling against relevant competition the best thing for the school/students?
I say the latter. Nobody remembers the v. ULALA game from 1983 – not even students.
The BoiseStatification of college football has begun.
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On the other hand, we remember the USL n/k/a ULALA game from this year because it’s our signature win thus far.
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It will be the only be the signature win until we play Idaho State later this year. Actually it will be the only win of any sorts until Idaho State.
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Unless Idaho State is a trap game.
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They’re all trap games these days.
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The job of the AD is to put his team in the best possible position to win. McGarity is doing that and he will have the Dawgs football program going in the right direction soon, one way or the other. Be glad. Thank goodness for red panties.
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I am, in more ways than one.
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Why don’t we just join the ACC while we’re at it.
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B/C the ACC has improved dramatically since the time CMR was there.
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James Madison would put up a good fight to that one.
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Wow. We’re scared of Oregon. Georgia football, ladies and gentlemen. This way to the ticket booth.
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No, we’re scared of being wiped out for our game the following week after flying across a continent. As McGarity points out, UGA would have essentially lost a day of preparation due to getting back so late Sunday morning. Also, note that Oregon was just as eager to cancel the game due to the long flight back.
I’d still like to still see some good out of conference games, but nothing west of the central time zone.
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No. We’re scared of Oregon. Deal with it.
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Man, that’s a great argument. I mean, I thought he made a couple of decent points, even if he did ignore the scheduling issues down the line for Oregon. But you really trumped him with that, “Deal with it.” Bravo, sir.
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I apologize. I’m in a foul mood.
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No worries. I was probably unnecessarily snarky, which is unfortunately my default setting.
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Is Oregon also afraid of UGA?
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I don’t know, they have been playing at the same time we have the last few weeks, so it’s possible they haven’t seen us play and are still afraid.
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Georgia Southern, Georgia State, Kennesaw State, Georgia Tech.
Thanks for the great OOC slate, McG.
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At least we might go .500 against that slate.
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Horrible. This sucks and isn’t making me reconsider my decision to not renew my tickets for next year (and on down the road) in the slightest. So far, I’ve been entirely underwhelmed by the McGarity administration.
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For all 26 days of it? What did you expect him to do in the first month?
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Not be a gigantic pussy would be a good way to start. More shitacular games that I’m not going to travel to see. Fewer awesome games that I would travel to see.
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I’m mixed on either scheduling practice. I think it’s fun to play cross-sectional games against BCS conferences, but it does put you at a competitive disadvantage if everyone else isn’t doing the same.
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+1.
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My feelings exactly.
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I don’t get the bitching from fans. For God sakes, we can’t beat Miss St & you wanna travel to Oregon? What a load. Take a vacation then, but there’s no reason to to schedule that game. I’d much rather have 7 home games in the most glorious city in Georgia. Plus i kinda like winning & the SEC is tough enough. Boise St needs to worry about upping their schedule-we don’t.
Rex Robinson (’80 UGA kicker) said it best: “Greg McGarity’s first step toward a championship. No value in playing OOC games like Oregon. Win the SEC & great things happen!” http://is.gd/fwxGA
Since he actually played the game, he knows what he’s talking about better than some of you whiners.
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Those of you bashing this move, did you read the article? It says it was a mutual decision. This game was never going to happen once the PAC-10 expanded.
I’d prefer that we actually play this game, but let’s not go overboard with the bashing on this one discrete issue. (There are plenty of other things to bash.)
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+1 And no, they didn’t read the article. It’s far too easy to just bitch about UGA first & figure out the facts later.
Reading is hard.
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If you actually believe it was a “mutual” decision, you believe in the tooth fairy. PAC 10 teams generally are not afraid of “long trips”.
Funny isn’t it. Oregon is too far to go for a road game but Jacksonville isn’t for a “home” game. In the rest of the world this is ridiculous.
And for the Bama/Arizona State nonsense….well, that might have some merit if we hadn’t been blown out in Jacksonville that year. What long road trip caused us to get blown out in Knoxville in 07 or 09 or Jacksonville again last year. And we sure seemed to win against Carolina last year after playing in Stillwater. Excuses…and talk about whiney.
As for Rex….love him big time. But he was a kicker. Give us a break.
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If you can’t understand the logic with McGarity’s decision, then you just don’t understand college football. I’m sorry to sound so snooty on the issue. McGarity’s job is not to provide you and I with ‘fun’ experiences in Boulder and Eugene, it’s to help his program lift that crystal football, and this is the model. If you want to play those games, you’ve got to fix 2 things: Jacksonville and Georgia Tech.
Every other year we only play 3 home SEC games. Every other year we HAVE to play one non-conference game on the road. If we play another non-conference game on the road, that leaves us with only 6 home games, while the likes of Auburn and Tennesee play 8 home games. McGarity is doing this because he has a brain and wants us to win a national championship. Not having that home game costs us $2 million. That’s $2 mil. more to throw at a new coach.
I go to every game. Saturday was my 50th straight and I’ll be on a plane to Denver on Thursday, but these trips are too much. Too much on the kids. Too big of an expense to the fans. And too much of a cost to the university budget.
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I didn’t say I didn’t understand the logic.
That doesn’t mean I have to be happy about shelling out another $80 for the pleasure of watching Charleston Southern come to town every year.
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I get that. But I go to all the games (and I ain’t loaded, by any stretch). It’s a lot more expensive to fly to Boulder than get my tailgate together for Charleston Southern. Plus, that’s one less game to take all the young kids to and get home in time to see all the late games.
I’m just thinking we could use a week this week to have Arkansas St. or UL-Monroe on the schedule.
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Wait a minute, Senator…you are saying we don’t have enough good teams on our schedule now….in the conference, and with Tech which has an offense that cannot be stopped?
I am confused, and I don’t even play the strong corner.
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Who’s making you shell out $80 bucks Senator? If you don’t want to buy the tickets (season tickets included) then don’t buy them. Somebody else will gladly take your spot, i can assure you.
But don’t bitch & complain about losses then bitch & complain when a damn good AD tries to get us on a path to a Championship.
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I understand the logic behind the decision. I really do. It’s just that I’d prefer to have a program good enough that such a tradeoff is irrelevant.
Thanks for helping to lower my expectations.
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Well stated. I think you are 100% right on the money.
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+1. The average UGA fan needs to be given more opportunities to see the Dawgs play, not less. Even for fans who can travel (many cannot afford it) there are only about 8,000 tickets or so compared to 100,000 or so in Athens. That means more than 90,000 Dawg fans get cut out of seeing their team play in person every time the Dawgs play one of these OOC away games.
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And exactly whose fault is it that we only have 3 home SEC games on alternating years? Please enlighten us with your expertise on that one.
We choose to play our home game an hour from the Swamp. No one is holding a gun to our head except for those who are more interested in partying and getting drunk. They love it.
I say again, you can point to the Florida model all you want. They advanced to the BCS title game in 06 and 08 because they were CLEARLY the best team in the best conference. LSU advanced in 07 because they played and BEAT a quality OOC team. Without that win, they have ZERO chance of playing for the title. And lets not get started on Auburn. They for unbeaten and had caught OU in the polls the week after they beat us….and fell back again when they struggled a week later and the voters had a chance to see The Citadel, Louisiana Monroe and Louisiana Tech.
But it is done. And I am so glad for you that you get a chance to see us play another garbage team. After all, the atmosphere in Athens for those games is so electric. Sure it is.
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Bob, you are preaching to the choir. I have advocated on this blog for months that UGA needs to stop playing the WLOCP game in Jax. I am on record as favoring alternating between the GA Dome and Jax, but home and home is just fine with me. The reality is the “partying and getting drunk” crowd (your words, not mine) have successfully squashed the effort to change the venue of that game. So now we have to do the best with what we have. Do not compound one f*ckup with another.
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While this is disappointing news, if it really was a mutual decision based in part by Pac-12 conference scheduling difficulties, it stings a little less.
But it will be quite a step backwards if Georgia falls into permanent cupcake scheduling just to get 7 home games a year, without any interesting regular season matchups for decades.
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Just so we’re all aware, in the 5 games so far against Colorado, Okie St. and Arizona St, we have either lost the game outright or lost the following week to a big time SEC opponent.
’06 – beat Colorado, beat Ole Miss
’07 – beat OSU, lost to FakeUSC
’08 – beat ASU, lost to Bama
’09 – lost to OSU, beat FakeUSC; beat ASU, lost to LSU
In the meantime, UF is resting it’s starters…
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yep. Would anyone give a shit that they didn’t get to see Oregon in Athens in 2015 if Harbaugh wins us the national championship?
By the way…I live in Denver, wishing the dawgs weren’t coming to town this weekend so I could have saved $200+ Bones.
It sux that it’s not even Oct and I’m done with College Football.
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Oregon doesn’t like winning easy football games?
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It has been a tough weekend. Disappointed and frustrated about the team. Sick of another DUI. And now this….exactly what I feared getting this guy from Florida. Wow…now we all get to have another Idaho State on our home schedule. Really exciting isn’t it?
We could easily have a 7th home game if we had any guts on moving the Florida game to home and home. So now we get La Lafayette, Idaho State and Kennesaw State for home games and we are supposed to be happy. Pathetic and cowardly is much too nice.
I can see it now….Georgia drops Clemson for Presbyterian and Tech for Georgia State. That ought to be right up McGarity’s alley. This sucks.
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Bob, I appreciate what you are saying, particularly about how the FLA-UGA game should be home and home. If that happened UGA could have another home and away OOC game (although I would hope not on the West Coast). But since the WLOCP is staying in Jax there simply isn’t room on the schedule. DE did it anyway and UGA ended up with only 6 home games this season when every other SEC team has at least 7 home games and some have 8. I hope you appreciate what a disadvantage that is to the UGA team, having fewer home games than our competition. FLA has 7 home games plus the WLOCP (which is in reality a home game for them) which really gives them 8. Look at the schedules. How are we supposed to win the SEC East when we only have 3 SEC home games and FLA has 5 SEC home games (counting the WLOCP as a home game for them)? Plus UGA has to do this CO thing mid-season. If you really want to analyze things, this whole UGA football problem we have now got started with having to go to play ASU, then come back and play Bama in ’08. UGA was undefeated and ranked #1 in the nation until getting whacked by Bama following that ASU trip. The team hasn’t been the same since. That beating by Bama (which I lay at the feet of Damon Evans) made the guys on the team realize that they were not invincible like they believed previously. It changed the direction of UGA football and we are still paying for it.
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Maybe McGarity hates hippies.
I was in Eugene this summer and I assure you it is crawling with dirty hippies. Not the creative townie types we have in Athens, but the real grimey/begging/hackey-sack-playing/white-person-dreadlocks hippies.
http://www.southparkstudios.com/clips/103809/?searchterm=die+hippy+die
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Sounds just like the northward migration of the offspring of the real grimey/give me your money/needle-and-spoon/mean/white-person-long hair latter-day Haight-Asbury hippies.
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If you’re going to Boulder you will probably get to see them again. The “Die Hippie Die” South Park episode was based on their experience at CU.
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Yep…and phish is coming to town right after the game. It’s going to be Dirty Hippie Heaven.
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HA Wow. It will indeed. Back when I was at Georgia Southern, Widespread Panic came through. The hippies set up a makeshift thrift fair out of the backs of their microbuses in one of the parking lots .
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No, F that. You don’t want to play that team. Go about 5 blocks down the road and you’ll see a Torino with no wheels on it. Inside that Torino is a crappy football team. You tell that football you’re my boys and you’re looking for a home game and they’ll come play you. This ain’t even my neighborhood. I’m from the north side of Atlanta here on Vacation.
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I can confirm there is no shortage of scary-looking individuals out here. But the good far outweighs the bad. This would have been a great trip for the UGA faithful. As much as I despise the Ducks they have a great gameday atmosphere. It can get pretty intense in their stadium. Plus there is an abundance of microbrews and wineries. But yes, many stinky hippies.
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I’m almost more upset about this than Miss St.
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It wouldn’t even be close if you had been on that bus. PW
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Good to see that our new AD has been able to drop the Oregon Ducks from the 2015 schedule that our prior politically correct AD penciled in 2006. Last time we went across the continent to play we were toasted by Bama at home.
Yes, McGarity learned a few tricks at UF while the #2 guy. If you are a coach in the men’s programs, I’d be reading between the lines with this quick move. The Circus in Athens is over, and it is down to business. Good deal!
Those trips are costly and only helps ESPN’s game day extravaganza. In the long run 7 home games with 98,000+ in R&B is better.
Good move AD. Would you mind placing a call over to the practice field with a few offense scheme suggestions for the beleagured O coaches. Their game plan is to look a little deeper inward. Maybe you could find a magician to pull a rabbit out of the hat for them. Watching Russ chasing a rabbit around Sanford grass would be more fun and exciting than the current O squad.
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Agree with the Senator about the extra $80 to see a crap team. It’s great if you schedule those teams and win Championships but if not it either
A) Looks like a cash grab to get more money out of season ticket holders for a worthless game
B) Looks like you’re scared to play tougher competition an you’re record is inflated due to crap team (ie- the Kansas State effect)
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First, I’m disappointed because the upgrade in the scheduling was the way to go in my opinion. I think it could have been done better with more strategic use of open dates, but it’s dead and buried now. You know, unless Louisville counts?
I hope downgrading the schedule pans out. McGarity is making the assumption that Georgia is closer to Florida than it is to Auburn in the eyes of the folks who decide who plays for the crystal ball. I’m not sure he’s entirely correct in that assumption.
ESPN drools all over the Gators and Bama and LSU, but I don’t think any of us remember when they thought Georgia was legit. UF doesn’t need to schedule big OOC since ESPN already loves them. Does ESPN love Georgia too? We’re going to find out.
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If LSU had played Virginia Military in 2007 instead of Va Tech, they would have been left out of the BCS game. Simple as that.
Florida has gone because they were clearly better than other national competitors…not because of their sorry OOC scheduling.
Maybe some of you are thrilled with 3 Idaho State’s in one season. Sorry, that is pathetic and if this is what some of you look forward to to get a W, I feel just as sorry for you as I do our courage challenged new AD.
For the first time I am truly embarrassed to be a Georgia Bulldog. And it has nothing to do with Saturday night in Starkville. Shameful
Next it will be Presbyterian for Clemson and Kennesaw State for Tech. That ought to make some of you guys happy….more Ws and thrilling home game atmosphere.
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I certainly understand your frustration because scheduling cupcakes is kind of lame, but I think you may be jumping to some conclusions about k-state and presbyterian. The sky is not falling. The Earth is not ending. We will go on, and maybe our schedule will get a little easier down the road.
Compared to the past few years I don’t think that’s necessarily a bad thing.
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Arizona State, Oklahoma State, Colorado are not killers. Scheduling 3 in one year was not good, but overall this scheduling was very good. And now we are going to get 3 home games for the same damn price as a Bama or LSU or Tennessee game. And Winder Highschool would provide more opposition than any single one of those teams.
Sorry, the best thing about the CFB season is the greatest regular season of all. And now almost half of our home schedule will consist of garbage…please lets not refer to them as cupcakes because cupcakes are good. We are going to play 3 Idaho States a year and we should be proud of this stuff?
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“…please lets not refer to them as cupcakes because cupcakes are good.”
True dat!
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Don’t be frontin on the WB Bulldoggs.
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If we had played Arkansas St. instead of Oklahoma St. in ’07, we’d have won the national championship.
Just sayin’
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I don’t think your hypothetical proves anything. Maybe winning against S. Carolina and Tenn. in 2007 gets us closer to that objective. Or maybe winning those games makes us complacent and we don’t finish the season strong.
If football teams are such wussies that filling the entire schedule with legitimate teams will hinder their chances of winning then they don’t deserve to be champions. I’d rather watch the team practice than play a team expected to lose by 30 pts. Or just shorten the season to 1 OOC game. This is football, damnit. You either want to be the best or play the best.
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The difference is we get to Florida and Auburn every year more banged up because we end up playing more 4 quarter games. If you think that doesn’t make a difference, you’re crazy.
An intriguing factor is that AJ should be fresher than any elite player in the country, so he could be fun to watch down the stretch.
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PNWDawg…well stated and yeah you are right. I cannot for the life of me understand how anyone can get excited about playing 3 Idaho States a year.
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The cost of the football program has to be trimmed. It is expensive transport a team, coaches, managers, trainers, and equipment those distance. Non conference games at home against Louisville, Coastal Carolina, New Mexico State are better than going to Colorado. Glad there is no return game to Boise State.
It is tough enough with the current conference schedule. Dawgs go to Jax every year. But you can bet Florida does not have our cost for that trip.
Merchants in and around Athens should welcome more home games.
What is good about this decision is how quick McGarity made it. UGA athlete program has run well financially. If kept that way it is easier for changes.
How many players will get to see “Colorado” this weekend. And how many alums and supporters will be in attnedance.
In the end it is better for the players who are locked into a program that is demanding of their time. Any long distance travel is rough on players and coaches.
Not many players are recruited under the banner come to UGA for frequent flyer miles and see the USA. They come to win and play in champsionship games. Think not ask one if they signed a LOL to go to Colorado this weekend.
The best part of this is McGarity. Not sure about the coaches, but maybe the new AD is someone looking to have a first rate men’s program. He left one. And Florida was not like that in the 60s, 79s and 80s.
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Seems to me to be a tradeoff. What would you rather have, an OOC game out west which we could possibly lose and given the turn around time possibly lose the next game also. Or schedule the easy games have a chance to possibly go the SEC Championship game and possibly the MNC.
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Some of the silliest arguments I have heard yet. First, we beat Oklahoma State in 07 so that had zilch to do with us playing for a National Title.
Scheduling this garbage may please some of you but some of us are embarrassed by it. It is a joke. Why not just ask permission to play 3 Red and Black games? We get zilch out of playing 3 of these crap games at home each year. Who gives a damn about them?
And please, enough with the money bs. We already know that this is and has been a profitable program. While LSU, Bama and Tennessee go out and play interesting opposition the University of Georgia crawls into a hole and schedules Presbyterian, Idaho State and the like….not twice but three times. Our schedule will become a national joke.
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“The cost of the football program has to be trimmed. It is expensive transport a team, coaches, managers, trainers, and equipment those distance. Non conference games at home against Louisville, Coastal Carolina, New Mexico State are better than going to Colorado. Glad there is no return game to Boise State”
Right. Except Louisville would not play in Athens without a return game at their place. And if you are so enamored with NM State and Coastal Carolina, I am absolutely thrilled for you. Your level of expectations are a bit lower than mine.
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Bob, forgive me Dawg brother, but you’re not that dense. I just know you’re not. LSU, Bama & UT are terrible comparisons. They play 4 conference home games each year, and they have 4 OOC games to ‘play with’ because their in-state rival is a conference game (except for LSU, which doesn’t even have one of those). That gives them to freedom to schedule a sexy OOC opponent and still have 7 home games that season.
We play 3 home SEC games every other year. In the years we have 4 SEC home games, we have an OOC road game because our in-state rival is not an SEC game. The truth is, Tech is our sexy OOC game. We just happen to play the same team every year. Bama played VaTech last year and Penn St. this year. In case you were wondering, Tech actually won the conference VaTech is in. And we played Okie St. and ASU on top of that.
It’s crazy to ask our team to do something that NO OTHER TEAM in the conference is doing. We play our arch-conference-rival in their home state every year. We play an OOC rival at their place every other year. We’re losing $2 mil for every OOC game that isn’t played between the hedges. The truth is, Damon didn’t help us get a national stage, he put us at a competitive disadvantage, particularly in ’09. This year we are playing 10 BCS conference teams. Almost every other team in the SEC is playing 9. Some are playing only 8. Do we really need to get in a ‘mine is bigger’ contest w/ the rest of the world by proving something with our scheduling. Schedule in a way that is going to get us ready for the SEC schedule.
This isn’t basketball. Losing early and getting beat up physically knocks you out of the national title game. I know you love the Dawgs, but, for the life of me, I can’t understand the logic that doesn’t see this as the best move for our program.
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+1. The best and most cogent explanation I have seen on this subject. My compliments, sir. Now, will people who have their minds already made up without understanding (or caring about) the facts wake up now that you have explained things? Not a chance!
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I know full well that we have a disadvantage playing Tech every year. I have discussed this issue for years on blogs when the question of Georgia and SEC scheduling has come up.
But a couple of points here. First, I am not advocating we go out and schedule Ohio State, Texas, Oklahoma, Penn State, Nebraska etc. I am fully aware that playing those IN ADDITION to Tech is asking a bit much because so many SEC teams play one or fewer BCS level OOC teams. I know that. And that is why I thought playing mid to decent level teams like Okie State, Arizona State, Colorado, Louisville and Clemson fit the right mix. Good opposition, without going overboard.
But just because our competitors play garbage, why do we need to emulate?
And as I mentioned above, whose fault is it that we have only 6 home games. Carolina plays Clemson home and home. UK plays Louisville home and home. And Carolina has played only one less OOC BCS opponent than we have in the BCS arena and that is only because UNC cancelled on them this year.
The difference is that these other teams don’t play a so called neutral site game every year. It never ceases to amaze me that we can come up with all these bogus excuses about the “tough” traveling we have to do, yet sit up on these blogs and defend going to Jacksonville every year to play a so called home game 1 hour from the Florida campus. Why do we do it? So called tradition? So we can party hardy for the days before? Because we used to win there all the time?
So please, stop with the “we only have 3 home SEC games on alternating years” stuff. That is self inflicted and more than 40K of your season ticket holders cannot make it to that home game because of that nonsense.
I have used your very argument with Vol and Tide and Tiger fans when the schedule comes up. We do have to play Tech and so they have no right to talk about our OOC scheduling when we don’t get the real big boy.
Now, if you want to see a real impact on recruiting….look at the advantage Bama has gained since they started playing a real big boy every year….especially the ones they play in the Dome in our own home state while we are busy trying to schedule the Louisiana Directional School Conference.
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See what I mean sUGArdaddy?
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I know, Mayor. Bob, I understand your point. The only thing I can say is that I’m trying to deal in realities. We are going to keep Tech on the schedule every year. And we are going to play in Jax every year. So, McGarity’s job is to deal with what’s left. That’s what he’s doing. And it is, by far, the smart and right call.
I care about winning a championship, and the best way to do that is to win the SEC, and the best way to do that is to be healthy in the key pivotal games at the end of the season, and the best way to do that is to play less physical games in Clarke Co. in which our starters get to take the 2nd half off.
The 12 game schedule made the season more brutal and took away an off week. Why wouldn’t we want to add another “bye” week in during which we actually play a game?
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Good. I would rather be 1-0 against a cupcake than 0-1 against a good team
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And that speaks volumes doesn’t it. William and Mary coming up.
Well, I am done with the issue. Nothing those of us that really want a quality schedule can do about it anyway. How soon before our colors become Orange and Blue?
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All this talk about cupcakes has made me hungry. Oh by the way we have become a cupcake, so playing them is about all we can do.
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Maybe we could get Arkansas State and some of the other Sun Belt Conference teams to leave their conference, join us and form a new league. We could call it the Cup Cake Conference (“CCC”). But with our luck the CCC would hire Rogers Redding as Commissioner and Marc Curles to be the Chief of Officiating and we would still be screwed.
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