We’re getting close to the end of the dog days of the preseason, which means we’re getting close to that time when we get to obsess over every little tidbit that creeps out of practice. Before we get there, I wanted to indulge my curiosity about… well, about you, readers.
I’d like to get a picture of who drops in to read and comment at GTP, so I’ve devised a series of poll questions to find out something about you. It’s all anonymous. And as I get some folks to stop by here who aren’t necessarily Georgia fans, you’ll see that the questions are written a little more broadly to reflect that.
You’ll be able to see the results, too. And any comments are, as always, welcomed. Here we go.
Thanks for your participation.
Get The Picture 
Two observations:
I find it interesting each question has a different amount of answers, particularly the age question being low. It’s anonymous.
Also, I find it extremely ironic the leading decade people started seriously following college football is the 90s. I think our gator friend Mike voted more than once.
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😆
No, I voted for the 70s. The good Senator and I are of similar ages. BTW, if football started for Florida in the 90s, using the same “logic,” I guess then football ended for Georgia in the early 80s.
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http://www.footballfanatics.com/COLLEGE_Georgia_Bulldogs/Nike_Georgia_Bulldogs_White_2008_Allstate_Sugar_Bowl_Champions_Locker_Room_T-shirt/partnerID/3389
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The 90’s thing is because of the age of the fans. Mostly 30-50 somethings and I would say that a majority of those are closer to 30 than they are to 50. How serious of a fan could you be when you are still in high school until the end of the 90s.
Also explains why we dont have the ballers on here with most spending less than a stack and seeing less than 6 games.
But this place is a sausage fest, ser.
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You beat me to it, I’d like to see the breakout of age 30 – 40 and then 40 – 50, and I agree the 30-40 is probably going to have a lot more people (I fall into that, and have a bunch of buddies who read here as well). I graduated high school in ’95, and I’ve always enjoyed college football, but didn’t start being passionate until high school.
However, I had a similar thought as Puffdawg when I saw the results, I thought “Wow, what are we, a bunch of Gator fans?” 🙂
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A shout out to all my class of ’95’ers but I started really digging in about the time John Kasay put it thru the uprights to beat Arky in the Liberty Bowl. That was a big deal b/c my dad let me stay up late to see the whole game. I was 10 so it was probably about 11pm when the ball went thru, but it was a big deal to me at the time. Heck, it still is. I was watching before that, but been seriously hooked ever since.
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I was a pretty serious fan from age 6 on. By junior high I was memorizing crap from “Clean Old-Fashioned Hate”. And I’m in the closer to 30 range of 30-50.
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ditto for me… I’m 34 but have been a Dawg fan since I knew better. I am a third generation graduate from UGA and have always rooted for the Silver Britches. It didn’t hurt that Herschel was running wild by the time I was three years old and the first game I went to was the 44-0 a$$ whooping we put on the gators. I must have “predicted” Herschel diving over the top for a touchdown 3-4 times that day ( I know he scored 4 tds that day but he had to have busted a long one, right?). I was only 6 yrs old but that will never leave me.
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I can’t believe we have 2 women readers
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You should have included ‘None’ as a choice on the sex question.
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Or “Yes”. 😉
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Or, “No, I’m married”.
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With respect, sir, this isn’t a Tech blog…
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Yeah we definitely need some more ladies on this blog. 🙂
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No Transgender option?
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Damned if I’da told that, son.
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Down with the heterocracy!
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Your site is the home page on my browser. Has been for 2 years. Fresh content is king and I can usually count on something new on the site whenever I fire up the PC.
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These results seem to line up pretty well with my expectations. I’d think that people in my bucket, the 20-30 year olds (granted I’m in the closer to 30 than 20 side of that) would be more likely to get news and sports updates through the internet since most of us had regular and computer access starting in middle/high school all the way through college. It also makes sense that the bulk of us became serious college football fans in the 90’s (my first continuing memories of being a college football fan was talking with my grandfather about Mike Bobo’s injury in 1995 and the 1996 Fiesta Bowl when Nebraska demolished Florida).
Personally, this was the first year I’ve been far enough along in my career to have enough disposable income to make a decent contribution to the Hartman Fund so it’s not all that surprising to see the amount of coin being spent in the <$1k range considering the bulk of the answers so far indicate us to be in the 20-30 range. All in all, I think the results speak to the quality of individual that seems to peruse here. Most of us have an attachment to UGA, whether it be having attended for a few years or having earned degree(s) and this confirms that.
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This Old Dawg was happy to see that he was not alone. I also believe that most of the comments I agree with consistently come from readers that have been Dawg Fans for a long period of time.
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Would have liked to see a “currently attend” option for the last question. I just put that I have a degree. Hope I don’t have to eat crow on that one..
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Same here
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I started to reply “Outside the US” but I’m not sure Texas is officially outside the US. It’s not the South, I know that much.
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As a resident of the People’s Republic of Austin (a republic within a very different republic), I had the same confusion.
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Ditto…but since we lean secessionist, I figured we are in the South. Plus, we know bbq is a noun, not a verb, even though they don’t know it’s pork around here.
P.S. I’d spend more on the Dawgs if I was closer!
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Senator, “serious fan” is pretty relative. I mean, my mother was eight months pregnant with me in November of 1968 when she attended the UGA/Auburn game that year in the cold rain, but I didn’t really understand fandom until the eighties probably, so I split the difference and said the seventies.
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I can remember how I found it but, I have been a loyal reader of your blog going on three years now. I figured I would break my silence and comment because I am such an outlier in your statistics. Born in Knoxville, raised by a family of Tennessee grads, graduated from Virginia Tech in ’08 now living in New Jersey. Also I am a girl.
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I’m impressed. And appreciative.
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Though by luring me to break my silence with talk of statistics may lead you to believe I am more similar to populace of the other Tech, I assure you that is not the case.
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Kate,
As a resident of Roanoke, I can assure you – the difference between “girls” at NATS and “women” in Blacksburg could not be wider.
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… and Hollins is a different animal altogether, I reckon.
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The eye-opening stat to me was about how many games one attends in a year. The Boise game will be my 60th straight game. I’ll pass the 60 and 70 straight threshold this year, hopefully. I’ve missed about 7 in Richt’s tenure. That makes me sound like a football snob, but those experiences color my opinions greatly.
Players and coaches don’t play games on TV. They play them in stadiums. I’m addicted to the atmosphere. Commentators are often very wrong in how they see a game, but when you watch it on TV, you can’t help but be colored as to how they view a player, play, coach, decision, or game. But it makes me understand why people have the opinions they do. If you see a game on TV or the stadium, it shapes your understanding.
3 games from Matthew’s career stick out.
-The ’06 Kentucky game was not on any TV. We lost and Matthew got beat to death that game, but he played like a champ. Even though we lost and people were doubting if he really had it, I knew after that game that we were gonna be alright with that kid. And I think the team felt it, too. I really believe that game was the turning point in his career where the team came to trust him.
-The ’07 UT game. That place was like a morgue pre-game. Every fan in orange on the way to the stadium to me “Y’all take it easy on us today.” They were down on their team. Fulmer felt that and prepared like no other. And I really think the mood in the stadium made our guys feel even more like they were just going to walk out there and the Vols would hand us a win. They handed us something, but it wasn’t a win.
-‘The ’07 Florida game. People who said we’d have won anyway without the celebration simply weren’t there. Our side of Alltel (or whatever it’s called now) was pandemonium after the celebration. There was a jolt of energy and attitude into the fanbase like I haven’t seen in a long time. I’m a grown man, and all of a sudden I was dancing, too, and thinking, “We’re going to run it down your throats, and then we’re going to dance on you.” #24 did, indeed, do just that all day long.
But, if you’re not there, you see things differently. And you get to see plays in HD and in slo-mo, which I don’t, and that changes your opinion, too. I guess it just helped me realize why I think like I do and why others think the way they do sometimes.
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Ricky disagrees. Much better on TV.
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sUGArdaddy says;
“’The ’07 Florida game. People who said we’d have won anyway without the celebration simply weren’t there. Our side of Alltel (or whatever it’s called now) was pandemonium after the celebration. There was a jolt of energy and attitude into the fanbase like I haven’t seen in a long time. I’m a grown man, and all of a sudden I was dancing, too, and thinking, “We’re going to run it down your throats, and then we’re going to dance on you.” #24 did, indeed, do just that all day long.”
I was also at there, (haven’t missed a Florida/Georgia game in a long, long time), but I was down at the other end of the stadium. Because of that, I did not really get a chance to see what happened until well after the conclusion of the game. Given that perception, I did not think the game “turned” on the celebration. I thought the fumble of Florida’s first drive was huge. Florida was moving the ball, got into Georgia territory and then fumbled. Georgia took the change of possession down for a score and then the dance happened. That was a long, long day. Florida could not stop Knowshon, could not Florida protect Tim and got beat in every phase of the game. Georgia played as complete a game that day as they ever have. No excuses from this Gator fan.
I was also at the game the next year. I can tell you that every Florida fan, every Florida coach and every Florida player truly appreciated the time outs. The Georgia fans did not mind too much either, as there were very few of them left to witness the event. Mark Richt did not seem to appreciate it much also, as he was caught on camera shooting Urban a bird. I will always treasure that day, as it “was a big deal, and we handled it.”
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Well, you’re a Florida fan, Mike. I wouldn’t expect you to get it. The celebration infused our team and fanbase that THAT year was going to be different in Jax. We weren’t scared. We weren’t going to pee down our leg. We were going to be brash.
What would have happened is what we don’t know. What we know did happen was that we danced, Knowshon rolled and we sacked Timmy 6 times. Would we have blocked, ran and rushed the passer w/ the same vigor w/o the celebration? It’s easy to say, “of course.” But you just don’t know. What we do know is what DID happen, and I believe it was crucial to the psychology of that day.
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Too bad for Georgia fans that it turned out to be fake juice, it’s intoxication only effective in Georgia players for one game.
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Not fake juice Mike. UGA won the rest of its games that year, finished #2 in the country and if the WWL doesn’t do a negative sales pitch on the Dawgs probably is BCSNC that season instead of LSU. Like most FLA fans you only think about you–and no, the world does not revolve around you.
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Mayor wrote;
” UGA won the rest of its games that year, finished #2 in the country.”
How did that work out for your team next year?
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I don’t know. We haven’t played next year yet. We’ll just have to wait and see.
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I was there as a Ga fan on the Fl side. In my opinion, giving the ball to Knowshon every play that drive meant more than the celebration after. You felt each run as a punch in the gut and the Fl fans around us felt it too. That and sacking Timmy 7 times.
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I was a divider during that game, Row 20 or 21, dead center of the goal posts in the celebration endzone. I had UF fans on my left and UGA fans on my right, and I didn’t feel the celebration mattered at all. The 188 yds and 3 TD from KM and the sacks were the winner. Thats the only UGA/FL game ina long time were I felt the scoreboard was closer than the actual game. From the kickoff I never felt that game was close.
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BTW I’m with you. I go to all the homes games (and I’m not in day trip driving range like Bluto), several aways per year, and the one neutral. Used to do all aways until young children came along. From the building anticipation at tailgates all the way through exiting the stadium and witnessing post game reactions by fans (some classy, some not so classy). There is nothing like experiencing an SEC football game live. TV just cannot do it justice.
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Yeah surprised that folks on here dont go to the games. While I dont have much of a streak, I havent missed a home game in a while and manage 1-2 away games each season.
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I have mixed feelings on the whole TV vs Attendance thing. When I lived in Greensboro, NC, I drove to every home game (~5 years) and select away games. I would still be doing that, but from St. Louis, MO, it’s a little far… So, I’m quite happy to be able to watch on TV. I am probably more intense while watching TV. At the stadium I feel more a part of what’s going on and in front of the TV, more of a helpless observer.
I’ll agree, that the stadium offers an experience that doesn’t quite make it through the TV. I remember a night game in Athens vs UT (2000 I think.) We hadn’t beaten UT in a while, but the whole night the stadium was electric and you just knew we were going to win. I’m not sure anyone sat down that night…
Sometimes the experience does make it through… It was quite easy to get caught up in the atmosphere of the 07 Auburn blackout in front of the TV!
I don’t necessarily agree about being affected that much by the announcers. I guess it has more effect if you’re a casual fan. But if you know your team, you know when the announcers have some insight or when they’re just full of crap.
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I’m a little different. Mon went to Southern and dad was a huge Clemson Alumni. So naturally I grew up follow Clemson football. In eighth grade my mom took me to to visit her god daughter at UGA. I spent the day tailgating at the Kappa house looking at all the pretty ladies. I was hooked!
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Ahhh. Sorority row. Putting smiles on faces since puberty. My favorite “little known” secret about Athens was the week or two before the fall quarter/semester during rush week (I believe it was rush week)… I went to school year round so I always made a point to head down Milledge street on my way home from working at Harry’s Bissett’s, lunch shift to see all the recruits during rush week. It was the long way home but the scenery was worth it!
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Yes, Bid Day as it was called. I had a friend who had an apartment right across the street from the Kappa house, and we would allways get a keg and enjoyed the view and all the crazy shenanigans that happened down Milledge. Ahhh, memories!
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I started graduate school at UGA in the fall of 1980. It was Herschel’s freshman year. We won a by-God National Championship and it was over for me. I’ve been a barking fool ever since.
I’ve been reading this blog religiously for several years. I’m too old to be considered a “girl”, I suppose, but I am of the female variety!
My husband of 27 years & I rarely miss a home game. We have a great tailgating crew! Go DAWGS!
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Thanks for doing this SB. I have always wondered about the demographics of your readers/posters. I have friends that are fans of other SEC teams that read your blog on a regular basis because of the good mix of topics/humor concerning college football in the south and overall. Just to be clear…Ward Eagle is not one of those friends. My friends typically don’t use phrases like “butt-hurt” and “Whaaaaaaa” when discussing college football.
They may lurk on here and not post but I do miss some of the old Athens Banner folks like Lady, Mac and….gulp….Rolo.
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Some of them have migrated over to this board.
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30-50 years old
Male
In Georgia
70’s
More than $2,000 a year
4-6
I have a degree from the school I root for
You’re welcome for my participation 🙂
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Gator fan here that loves this site. EDSBS and GTP are in my mind the two best CFB sites around. I don’t post (once maybe a few years ago), but do read every day.
Went to UF from 86-90 for the record. Ah, the Galen Hall/Gary Darnell years…
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How we Dawg fans miss the Galen Hall years…
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BTW, I thought Galen was 2-1 against Georgia? At worst, perhaps 2-2?
Anyway, I thought Florida fans might miss Ray Goff. As it turns out, both Donnan and Richt have became Florida fan favorites too.
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Enjoy it while it lasts, Mike. It won’t last forever.
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You can’t choose who you love. I watched UGA games from the RR tracks as a 4-6 yr. old (Dad was a UGA grad student at the time) and have loved the Dawgs ever since that time. I was one of Erk’s “people”. The family moved to PA and fortunately I graduated from a Div. III University where the football program wasn’t a huge deal and you weren’t considered a traitor for rooting for a Div. I program. I’m one of the rare North-of-the-Mason-Dixon fans.
The reason I come to this site is simple…thoughtful and intelligent blogging, and generally the same can be said of the responses.
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From GA but went to a small private college out of state and stayed here. Pops went to UGA and took the fam to 3-4 games a year so I grew up a Dawg. After school I used to go avg 2-3 games a year but kids have put a damper on that. The all day nature of going to a game (it’s a 3-4 hr drive one-way) makes it difficult. I probably average 1 a year now depending on the schedule/location. HD/Big screens have improved TV so much it really doesn’t make sense for me to spend all that time and $$ on travel/tickets/food/booze etc. I’d rather take my kids to the park or pool or something and then enjoy the game on the TV.
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Not that anyone gives a crap, but (out of order)
1.) I am over 50
2.) I become a college football fans in the 70s
3.) I spend more than $2,000 per year on college football
4.) I live in Georgia, but presently work in Jacksonville, Fla
5.) I earned an MBA from the University of Florida
6.) I go to almost every game where the Florida Gators compete. I might miss one or two road games per year, but go to most home games, save for the occasional noon game and the 1-AA match-ups
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I found this poll to be enlightening. I seem to be in the plurality of every category with the exception of my residence. I admit that I often find the people who comment on this blog to be more level headed than some of the others I read. I guess after seeing these results that I am the senator’s average constituent.
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You should have asked about occupations. You could have three options: Lawyer, Accountant, or Other. I bet each would snag a fair share of readership.
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I was pleasantly surprised to see many UGA fans here that seemed to have gone to UGA at the same time I attended after answering the poll questions. Best blog for UGA out there; period.
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Enlightening indeed. I am 40 & reside in Columbus. A ’92 graduate, I have been a dawg fan since conception, as both my parents went to Georgia & raised me in the bulldog tradition. Hard to believe that most of the folks started seriously following football in the 90s. Leads me to believe, they may be closer to 30 than 50. Great work as always Senator. Thanks.
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My eldest son was born in St Mary’s immediate to publishing my graduate thesis.
Saw most of Dooley’s early years’ games that have great plays ( were not UGA scoring plays) freshest to the memory:
A punt of almost 90yds by “Spike” Jones.
Bill Stanfill dumping Steve Spurrier 3 times for FU’s only loss in the SEC the year he won the Heisman. Stanfill was voted Best D-lineman in the US by winning the Outland Trophy.
Jake Scott setting the SEC record for interceptions and personally throttling FU in the most one-sided game and the wildest storm ever played in J’ville.
Tommy Lawhorne from Worth Co (Sylvester) and Varnado from Lowndes Co (Valdosta) going helmet to helmet over the middle to prevent a Miami td and that left all 3 unconscious or semiconscious. Lawhorne was announced as receiving a post graduate scholarship to some school in England after having been accepted to Georgia Medical School that year.
May I live to see that great and unselfish football play again. Them were the days and they were the men.
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I am just over 40 and both my parents are UGA grads. I went to the University of Colorado and Vanderbilt for my degrees, however. 1980 was the first year my father had season tickets. Good timing huh? Obviously this is when I became a serious fan.
When I lived in Atlanta and didn’t have kids I didn’t miss many home games and typically attended 1 or 2 away games a year. Now with two small boys and living over 3 hours from Athens I only attend about 3-4 home games a year plus either Tech or Auburn away now. I did manage to make it out to Boulder last year to cheer on the Dogs against my alma mater.
Thankfully in a few more years my boys will be old enough to start taking them on a regular basis and I will start attending more games in person again.
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File this one away for a rainy day senator…letting commenters talk about themselves is off season blogger gold.
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This has been the biggest response to any blog poll I’ve run here, by far. And I like reading a lot of the responses about fans’ histories with the program.
So, yeah, I’ll try to think of a variation of this when things get slow next summer.
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Will hit 75 this season..Dad was class of ’31…grew up around the radio and Dawg games..THWT…as a veteran of four years service walked on at Ga..Don Soberdash’s warning: “If you love football then don’t go out here!” ..Butts and crew, except Trippi were ass holes…Quinton Lumpkin, Sam Mrvos kept me inspired…farmed out to GMC soph year…recalled by military where I played and coached ’til late 30s..still get choked up when I hear the Redcoats and walk into Sanford..still live and die with my Dawgs and will until my last sprint in life. Your blog is my favorite…Go Dawgs, GATA
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Did anyone else count beer, food and lodging when estimating what you spend per year?
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Oh, yes. I probably unconsciously underestimated the amount I spend on booze.
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30-50
Boy
In GA
90’s (special thanks to Bud Adams)
$1000-2000/year
>6 games/year
M.Ed. ’00; Ph.D. comps in a month (gulp)
I came to Georgia late. My first game was homecoming 1997 vs. UK. I wasted my early football fandom on the Houston Oilers. I was a student-athlete at a Div. I-A school but we didn’t have football. Still, we were more interested in NFL, probably because we competed every Saturday in the fall and Sundays were off-days.
If one gets season tickets, plus any away games (CU last year, Vandy and Boise are extras for ’11 – maybe Jax but the wife doesn’t know about that yet) and hotel rooms, gas; it ain’t hard to hit a grand. I’m lucky I live in the Athens area, so it’s not a burden to get to games. I don’t know how y’all that have to drive in from ATL or points further do it.
I missed a home game last year (Idaho State) but that was the first since the start of the ’98 season. My longest personal streak (home/away/bowls) is 15 (@Auburn 1998 through @Georgia Tech 1999) pre-wife and pre-children. I’ll never hit that again. I love going to games, hanging out before and after; but I can see a day where I stay home. There are fewer things better than when UGA’s open date falls on my wife’s off weekend and we just park it in front of the TV nonchalantly watching games in which we have no emotional investment from noon until we pass out watch Hawaii. It’s so … relaxing.
Sorry for the tmi, but I’m trying to avoid reading.
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The first game I remember was the Sugar Bowl against Penn State. All I remember was the gold coins they threw in the stands. The next year when we played Texas in the Cotton Bowl my parents couldn’t make the trip (Dad is a UGA alum and Mom is a Texas alum). I remember them watching the game in separate rooms and me going back and forth. That game cemented me as a UGA fan at 6 years old. Most of my college buddies became diehard fans at UGA, for which I give them a lot of credit. We had to deal with the end of the Ray Goff era, losing to Southern Miss (and only scoring 6 points) as Donnan’s first game, then losing to Tech 3 years in a row. People who became UGA fans in the 2000s were lucky to have had mostly good years…
Something I just thought about (disclaimer – I’m an Independent voter) is that going back to at least the late 70s it seems that UGA does better when a Republican is in the White House. Curious if the Senator can expand on this thought…
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I’ll be the first to admit I’m a 2000’s hardcore fan…but subliminally I’ve always been a fan…I’ve got a picture when I was a baby of me in a Georgia outfit that my parents dressed me in (that would be the 80’s). I also felt a weird allegiance whenever I visited my Grandpa’s house in Waycross growing up. He had a statue of Uga, the UGA Tervis Tumbler cups (still my all time favorite cups!), and always played golf wearing red and black. I grew up as an Army brat so I didn’t move to GA until 2000. The first time I set foot on the campus was in Fall 2003 for a Senior Visit and I fell in love with the place…left a little piece of my heart there and kept leaving parts of my soul there from 2004-2008. I’ve been away for 3 years now (in Colorado now) but I long to go back each and every day. I took advantage of the slow demand and low cutoff score and snagged season tickets for the first time this year…i may make it to just one because of multiple weddings this fall (including my ex-roommate’s on the afternoon of the South Cackalacky game…who does that??) but family and friends will reap the benefits!
I love the blog and I visit multiple times a day…keep up the great work, Senator! Go Dawgs!!!
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1. I am over 50.
2. I am not a Mark Rhetor-Richt Apologist
3. I believe that the Dawg Nation is more important than Coach Mark Rhetor-Richt.
4. I do think this is the easiest schedule Mark Rhetor-Richt is going to have for the next several years.
5. I do think averaging 3 + Conference losses per year for five years is unacceptable.
6. I do think that Senator Blutarsky and the Mark Rhetor-Richt Aplologists should leave when CMR leaves and go with him to his next adventure. They can make a burnt offering at markricht.com.
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Oh, c’mon, man, fess up. You’d miss me if I were gone. 😉
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I must have missed the 5-part question that asked about fans’ feelings toward Mark Richt.
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Yep. I’d continue to follow Richt and the Senator. In fact, I’d be the last thing the Senator would pick up before departing–the smallest cactus in the smallest pot.
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