This is directed to those of you who advocate discontinuing the Georgia-Georgia Tech series. Take a look at this chart:
Mark Richt is 5-0 against a major conference opponent that’s 31-19 (62% winning percentage) against all other power conference opposition over the past five seasons. That record includes Richt’s two worst teams in thirteen seasons, mind you. As we enter an era when strength of schedule becomes more important than ever, other than to gain a temporary moment of smug satisfaction, why on earth would you want to give that away?
Bonus question for the subset that wants to schedule Georgia State or Georgia Southern instead: are you out of your damned minds?
Get The Picture 
Hey now, we should schedule a game with Georgia State… in basketball.
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Senator, we need to beat Tech unmercifully until we break the only meaningful record they have in the series (the Drought) and they beg for mercy to end the series. The more painful the loss, the better. Long live, 6:09!
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I grew up during The Drought. It was real. Very real.
We have five straight wins now. To get payback for The Drought we have to win the next 4, through 2017. That would give us the longest winning streak in Series history, set the series in its proper historical perspective, and toss Georgia Tech into a hole they will never get out of.
But it’ll be easier said than done. Mark my word.
~~~
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No doubt about it. I couldn’t have imagined being a Georgia fan during The Drought. If we hadn’t messed around with them and given the game away in 2008, we would have done it. I would love to get that done. The senior class that did it would hold a special place in Georgia football history.
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I’m still not over the 2008 game, something of which you might be aware.
Not only because of the loss, and the way it was lost, but it was also my 50th anniversary game. The game was played exactly, to the hour, 50 years after my first game in 1958, which Georgia won 16-3. That was a very big game too, being in Athens, and only a year after breaking the drought in Atlanta.
~~~
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The losses are harder to get over, for me at least. I still have memories seared in my brain of Reshad Jones, who couldn’t be bothered to wrap up anyone that day, shoulder bumping ballcarriers, to no effect whatsoever.
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You and I are brothers, in that regard, from here to eternity. It wasn’t just Reshad (Bonehead), but he was certainly the worst of what it means to be a Georgia Bulldog that day.
In 100+ years, it doesn’t get any worse than that. The only question is, is it worse than it was in 1995, under Goff, when the team just gave up because it had no chance? Because both of those are the low points in Georgia history in my lifetime.
The thing is, we now have a bonafide secondary coach, for the first time in a very long time. I don’t think Reshad Jones would have lasted 10 minutes under Pruitt. Nor do I think he would have lasted any longer under BVG, as I said at the time.
So we’ll see. Thanks for the thought.
~~~
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Well said regarding Reshad Jones and the ’08 team. So much potential totally unfilled for that team. I wonder what Coach Richt thinks about when he thinks about that season in retrospect.
Regarding ’95, that team didn’t give up totally. Remember Bobo and Edwards got hurt early. Even at their lowest, that team still beat Tech and played hard in the Peach Bowl against Virginia led by a freshman named Hines Ward (still one of my true favorite DGDs).
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Georgia Tech is the gift that keeps on giving. Play ’em forever!
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P.S. I think we ought to seriously consider adding other ACC teams (UVa, Wake and NC State immediately come to mind) as an OOC game on a rotational basis, taking the place now occupied by Clemson. Such games should not be the first game of the season, however. They are better quality teams but UGA should still win games against them. Of course, since they are ACC teams those games would have to be home and away.
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Rather than always go with an ACC team, we should carefully schedule an OOC with a school from one of the other power conferences and/or ND. Perhaps an ACC team is included, but I think moving forward TPTB on the playoff will look favorably on us if we have a permanent game with Tech along with an OOC game with a Big10, Big12, Pac12 team. It doesn’t have to be TOSU, Mich, Oklahoma, Nebraska, Oregon, UCLA, or Texas (although I would be fine with those game because I think UGA could more than hold their own.) If you want to make it a more winnable game, schedule the middle of the pack teams. Hey maybe we even get a game with …Louisville.
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I have no problem with UJack’s idea. The reason I prefer the ACC is travel–they are near us and we don’t want mid-season games on the other side of the country ’cause it screws up practice time.
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I’ve long thought we should look at our history, find the schools we have losing records against (say, Pitt), and get the record right.
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I saw every one of those Georgia-Pitt games. Tony Dorsett was on the Pitt teams that came to Athens and that the Dawgs played in the Sugar Bowl in ’76. The first was a 7-7 tie. The game that Georgia lost 19-9 was a lot closer than it appears. The score was 12-7 in favor of Pitt when the Pitt center snapped the ball over the punter’s head who wisely picked it up and ran through the back of the endzone making it 12-9, Pitt. The Dawgs got a free kick but couldn’t move, punting to Pitt which took over deep in its own territory with plenty of time left in the game. Pitt then ran out the clock with Dorsett scoring with less than 30 seconds left in the game, making the final score 19-9. The 1982 Sugar Bowl was a classic also, with Dan Marino throwing the winning TD pass on 4th down with 30 seconds to play. Yeah, bring Pitt on. I’d much rather play them than Clemson.
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The teams from other conferences have some say in whether we schedule them. We know that Delany and Scott were critical of the SEC for not increasing to nine conference game schedules and both said they recommend to their conference schools that they not use one of their three non conference games to schedule an SEC team. Likewise ND now has to play five ACC games and it wants to keep its traditional games against Stanford, USC, Navy, and Purdue. Those games take nine Saturdays leaving three plus two weekends of rest. Hard to match available weekends with other prospective teams’ available weekends. Quit playing Tech and you will be disappointed when these dream match ups don’t fall from the sky.
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Are there any major conference teams that would come here for a paycheck rather than a home and home? If so, sign ’em up right now! Otherwise, we should only schedule home and homes with teams that have a high fame/proficiency ratio, teams with large fan bases and lots of ink that have weaker recruiting bases than ours than ours and who should, in most years have a little less talent than us. Nebraska, Michigan, Notre Dame, and Penn State come to mind. I think McGarity sees this too, hence the discussions with the Irish.
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Speaking of Tech, did y’all realize that yesterday was 2000 days since Tech beat UGA?
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Meh, let me know when it’s been 20,000.
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54 years, I hope I live to see it.
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2000 days….isn’t that something like 5 years 5 months and 9 days…or something like that? I bet a Techie could calculate that.
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Of course they could calculate that, unless they are “riding the M-Train”
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The Clemson game was one of the best CFB games of the year, and one of my favorite games growing up. I’d like to see us play them every year we can because once the SEC goes to a 9-game schedule, I don’t see it happening.
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Exactly. How short our memories have become. The reason why UGA ended the Clemson series was that the SEC moved to an 8 game conference schedule. While at that time there were only 11 regular season games, with Tech home and away and the WLOCP in JAX every year B-M determined that it didn’t work schedule-wise to play Clemson any more (hard game, home and away, etc.). Now there is a 12 game conference schedule so we can play Clemson (some want other big-time teams instead). But if the SEC goes to a 9 game conference schedule we will be back to where we were before with the “11 regular game season with 8 conference games” schedule problem–no more Clemson type OOC game on a regular basis. Peeps, we can’t have it both ways. Either 9 SEC games, or 8 SEC games and playing a Clemson or other good OOC school. Georgia has actually been the best in the SEC about doing the latter and there was a post by the Senator on that very thing a couple of weeks ago.
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As long as I don’t have to go to that cesspool of a town, sure, let’s play the Clemmers.
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For all of Grantham’s faults, after a few years he knew how to defend Tech’s offense. (Tech knew it and that’s why they got away with throwing the ball early in last year’s game.) With Pruitt at the helm, we could see this series get a little more interesting. Tech actually does give teams fits as you can see from above. They’re always a wild card in a Bowl Game where the opponent is unfamiliar with them.
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I agree with the gist of your post. Tech’s offense is a puzzle for teams that haven’t seen it, but Tech is 1-8 in their last nine bowl games (not all under Johnson, obviously), and their only victory in that stretch was over a USC team which had utterly quit on Lane Kiffin.
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Don’t mean to be Buzz Killington here, but am I reading that graph wrong? It looks like Tech’s record is 31-24.
And having grown up in South Carolina a Dawg fan, I’d much rather play Clemson every year. Similar fan base, better tailgating atmosphere, and only an hour away.
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Those 24 losses include the five to Georgia.
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Man, our ACC alma mater really sucks at football.
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Sigh. I know.
It’s like the early-mid ’70s all over again.
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I’m all for keeping the Tech series, here is a fun fact on CPJ’s incompetence: Since the night of Clean Old Fashioned Hate 2009, Georgia Tech is 22-27 if you eliminate wins against non-BCS conference teams.
They were riding high that night, and the trash talk pre-game was as intense as I can ever remember over there. 49 games later things sure have changed.
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As much as anything Johnson’s recruiting ineptness is the cause of the 22-27. Keep up the bad work , Paul.
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I don’t know why those who advocate maintaining the status quo get frustrated by those who would like to move on to something we consider more exciting. I understand tradition(s), and why you want to keep it going, I just don’t like the game versus selecting more interesting opponents. The reason for scheduling shouldn’t be because you are dominating them, we can find many teams we can do that against.
I now find the game uninteresting on an ongoing basis, and GT has become pretty irrelevant in CFB. Would much prefer to play the NDs, Ohios, Texas, USC, Miamis, etc. and a home and home earlier in the year. Just an opinion from an old fogey who still supports maintaining meaningful traditions.
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Um… why do I have to ditch GT for one of those games you’d prefer? Why not one of the usual Sun Belt suspects instead?
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Senator, following up on a suggestion that we try to play Tech in Athens every year (I know, I know) couldn’t we pay them enough to make it worth their while to do it? How much profit does UGA make on a sold-out home game? So we agree to give Tech $1 Mil–that’s more than they make at Bobby Dodd with a half empty stadium. If we could get Tech in Athens every year that solves our WLOCP-created home game schedule problem right there.
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Not gonna happen, Mayor.
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I occasionally find myself siding with you over Bluto, Mac, but not this time. Maybe I’m blinded by tradition, but the game against Tech is a very important part of the schedule to me. And that would be true regardless of the record.
Is your opinion based primarily on UGA’s domination of the series? If the teams had split the last 20 meetings, would your opinion be different?
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No, not entirely based on that at all Gravidy. My falling back off the GT series is more based with them leaving the conference combined with their lack of relevancy in CFB. And that grows more every year. Why afford them such a “high place” on our scheduling? Play them every few years, and primarily at home, say 2 of every three in Athens…at least.
It doesn’t do us near as much good as a home and home with Clemson, or it would be with adding other premier programs like those I mentioned. The game benefits them more than it does us and is expected. If they win one of every five I would say they get more from that one win than we do from four. And, it doesn’t add near the excitement of playing those teams I mentioned, and that didn’t include Clemson, or an Oklahoma, or Penn State.
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That’s fair enough. I don’t agree that the series should be dropped, but I understand your position now. Your position reminds me of Alabama’s attitude toward playing at Auburn back before that series went home and home.
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Great points Mac. We don’t get near as much mileage out of the Tech game as most of the people here think we do. People outside of the state of Georgia DO NOT think of GT as a major program.
This game doesn’t even come close to South Carolina’s game with Clemson and Florida’s game with Florida State.
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I just don’t get you Mac. You say you want better OOC games but you don’t want to move the WLOCP to home and away to free up the schedule for better OOC teams (we have to play one cupcake at home to balance the schedule because the WLOCP is in Jax every year, eliminating a possible home and away with a quality team). You base that on “tradition” grounds saying that the WLOCP is a big game played at a traditional venue against a big rival, FU. But at the same time you advocate dropping arguably our biggest traditional rivalry game against our in-state rival, Ga Tech.
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The WLOCP should never be moved to a home and home series. It is a major thing that makes UGA’s schedule special. Only the RRS compares.
I wish UGA would schedule a big OOC game with the opposite home/away schedule as GT. If GT is in Atlanta, UGA should play ND, Az st etc at home and away when GT comes to Athens. As other posted GT does not help UGA’s schedule like Clemson or FSU does for their in state rivals.
The biggest thing about dropping GT would be listening to them tell us UGA backed out. If not I had rather see GT dropped than the Auburn game or the WLOCP moved to home and home.
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Otto you’re not texting. You can spell things out. CMR, GTU, PDQ, WTF. Please. My mind is too feeble to decipher all that code.
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Thanks, Hogbody…made me spew my coffee laughing…I see what you did there, throwing that WTF in at the end.
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What the fudge Hogboy? Do you like to sit the entire football game?
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Otto, you’re not taking into account the SEC schedule. The years we get Tech at home are the years that we only have 3 SEC home games because of the WLOCP. We can’t do what you are suggesting without having only 5 home games. That’s why B-M pays a cupcake–to fill that slot with a home game without having to have a return engagement away.
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We should never drop Tech – they should be the ones that say we can’t take it anymore. Beating Tech never is uninteresting to me. I love 9:18 and 6:09, and I love beating them at the last minute like 1997, 2006 or last year.
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I don’t think we should drop the Tech game. I think we should drop the Tech excuse. We use them as an excuse not to schedule other non-conference teams, and based on Mark Richt’s record against them, I don’t see why. I get the scheduling issues, but it can be worked out. We should have played Clemson at home last year and away this year to offset the Tech game. Instead we got both away and both at home. That seems like it wasn’t planned out all that well.
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The reason we set it up that way (home and away) is because we play SC right after it. Last year we would’ve played Clem and SC at home while this year both would’ve been on the road. Granted this year there’s a cupcake in between but the mindset is still there.
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Beat tech in atlanta is an awesome experience every other year. tailgate at the varsity, cook a prime rib roast, strut around like you own the place and then beat those sad sack nerds in football. like it should be. If you dont love that you dont love college football.
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I will never tire of beating the inferiority complex stuffing out of their smug little busy-bee-hyperinflated-sense-of-their-own-smart-pants backsides while giving them their annual metaphysical wedgies. Never.
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I’ve said it many times, we can’t beat Tech bad enough or often enough to satisfy me. This is just one more reason why.
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I’m with Comin’ Down the Track on this one. Make Tech cry “Uncle” and make them ask us not to lay anymore. Then give them a wedgie and take their lunch money.
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Honestly, I’d happily rotate Clemson/Georgia Tech series playing Tech’s “home” game at the new Falcon’s stadium.
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Great idea. I’d try for Navy and Houston. No home and homes to get these teams though.
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Somehow the post I was replying to disappeared. The poster said we should play teams we have an all time losing record against, such as Pitt,
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Tech is the ideal regular OOC for us, both for SOS reasons and also because it’s to our advantage to prop them up as the other major conference team in Georgia. They almost never successfully compete with us for recruits. I’d hate to see Southern or State get to the point where they could be seen as an alternative to us.
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Does that winning percentage count the games against middle Tennessee State and byu? Just curious, because gtu was annihilated by those two teams lately.
The only thing playing gtu does is give them a chance at relevance by beating uga and subsidizing their athletic department every 2 years. It also takes up a spot on our schedule which could be used for a big time opponent or cannon fodder, depending on which we need more.
At best, the game is a regional rivalry with zero national relevance. Beating them means nothing anymore except healing the wounds of a crappy season.
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Tech is cannon fodder. 12-1 UGA against Tech in the CMR era.
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I dont want to stop people from dumping on tech, but most years beating tech is more valuable than beating Vandy, Ole Miss, Kentucky, or Miss St,
They are clearly one of the top 4-5 programs in the ACC.
Now please resume dumping on tech. Those awful sucky nerds or nerdington.
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You cannot seriously mean that a win over Tech is more valuable than a conference win. If so, you are way too caught up in the influence of the lone neighbor or co-worker that is a Nerd. I grant you the few fans they have are more obnoxious than the others but come on, you wouldn’t trade that Vandy loss last year for the Tech win? You wouldn’t trade the last two times we lost to Kentucky for the Tech wins? Tech fell below those schools in importance when they left the SEC. I hope I never hear another UGA fan put Tech above an SEC game, they just aren’t all that.
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In terms of an addition to strength of schedule, I do think in most years Tech ranks above those programs. I believe that Troy is going to be ranked higher than Kentucky this year, so that cupcake win over troy is going to help us more than beating kentucky.
But I am going to stop defending tech now. They suck. They will always suck and I am glad to beat them every chance we get.
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Strength of schedule? Maybe, some years, but I count our success on what we do when we play SEC opponents. Those schools scratch and claw more to get a win over UGA than the Nerds, who are basically irrelevant in CFB. Record in conference is how I judge where we are because those games matter to everyone in the SEC.
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A win doesn’t mean more but a loss is a sign that something is wrong in Athens.
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Those who want to drop Tech aren’t following the same Georgia Bulldogs I am. The reasons to keep the series begin and end with how enjoyable that game is. Year in and year out, it’s a terrific and satisfying win, and who cares what’s Tech record is otherwise? They’re our in-state rival, our blood rival. It’s a one-of-a-kind experience, and college football is all about historic tradition. Should we change from red as our primary color? Change mascots? Tech is part of our DNA, and those who want to drop the game are more than history-challenged–they don’t get the present either.
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The way things are going, I worry that those things might, one day soon, happen. Or maybe we go with a red, artificial field. Innovative. The recruits might like that.
~~~
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“They’re our in-state rival, our blood rival. It’s a one-of-a-kind experience”
I agree with everything you said, except I wouldn’t call it a one-of-a-kind experience except for Tech fans; it’s their BIG game. UGA also has the UF and Auburn games. Yes the WLOCP doesn’t have the history of UGA v. GT…but for the vast majority of the living, it does.
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Since VD first arrived in Athens in 1964, to date, Georgia has played Georgia Tech exactly 50 times. The record: 38-12 in favor of Georgia. This is domination similar to what Georgia has over Kentucky and Vanderbilt. Spanning more than a half century. With multiple HCs on both teams. Why would true Georgia fans EVER want to stop playing Tech?
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