While wandering back to reminisce about one of the two worst home game experiences I’ve had as a Georgia fan, Patrick Garbin compiled this rather astounding chart:
… And, as far as point spreads, which are considered “reliable” beginning around the mid-1960s, a loss to the Volunteers—an 18-point underdog—would have indeed ranked as one of Georgia’s biggest upset losses since a lot of us can remember:
>Losses by Georgia since 1964 as a two-touchdown favorite or more
-20 over Vanderbilt, 1994 (lost 43-30)-18 over Wake Forest, 1979 (lost 22-21)-17 over Vanderbilt, 1973 (lost 18-14)-16 over Kentucky, 1996 (lost 24-17)-15½ over Vanderbilt, 1991 (lost 27-25)-14½ over Tulane, 1970 (lost 17-14)-14½ over Vanderbilt, 2006 (lost 24-22)
That’s a lot of Vanderbilt there. And that doesn’t include losses like last year’s debacle, or close calls, like the game in 2012, 2011.
So when people stubbornly insist that Georgia should never lose to Vandy, history doesn’t bear that out.
Get The Picture 
This isn’t a Vandy team from the past. This could easily be the worst. If UGA looses, FIRE EVERYBODY!!
😉
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History can be interpreted, and it does suggest we should never lose to them because we are obviously always better–much of the time by very, very much. Reality, however, tell us that since the 1960s we win only about 86% of the time (45-6-1).
Which means we really should never lose to Vanderbilt.
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Garbin omitted what I consider to be the worst loss in Georgia football history–the 31-0 pasting Virginia put on the Dawgs in Athens in 1979. Furman Bisher had written in the Journal-Constitution earlier that week that the Cavs were “human garbage.” I don’t remember the point spread but the Dawgs were heavily favored.
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I think that was 1977, and it was in front of Prince Charles.
BTW, that 1979 loss to WF was to Mackovic’s Meatballs, and I remember Mackovic after the game spouting his outrage at the mock article. It was from some “Leonard’s Losers” type tongue in cheek article, but he obviously took it to heart. He was a putz at Texas, too.
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no 79 I watched with my Dad and his Frat brothers-I had just graduated the past spring—-the worst ever–the good old song—over and over
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We lost to KY when the Damn Good Prince was in town.
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Interesting that Southern Miss was only an 11 point dog in ’96. That was also a pretty rough day to be in Athens.
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Remember always, the thoughts of Sammy Burke’s grandpa Ed Burke.
“Those who are ignorant probably will continue to be ignorant.”
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I’ve had depressingly few opportunities to actually attend games in Sanford Stadium. I can count them on one hand. And one of them was Vandy 2006. Ugh.
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Man, I was at that 94 Vandy gameFIRERAYGOFF!!
Sorry that just jumped out. Didn’t know I had some of that still left in me.
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I attended that game as a student, not good. From what I remember some players pretty much had quit in that game.
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For years, since the early ’80’s, I’ve told people Vanderbilt always plays Georgia tough. Especially in Nashville. Gotten a lot of crazy looks, too. That was just from personal experience, and Dooley used to talk a lot about it.
Of course there’ve been times when that wasn’t the case. But I had no idea the trend was as strong as it was.
~~~
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Part of the deal here is that we get Vandy early in the season, before injuries deplete an already thin roster. Vandy always played the Alabama schools tough for the same reason.
We are still playing them pretty early in the year but as yet that has been no advantage for the Anchors.
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Great point. Perhaps the same is true for South Carolina over those years, because that game has always been tough for the most part, very similar to Vandy.
~~~
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Sure, South Carolina WAS the same…Spurrier has pretty much eliminated the numerical advantage Georgia had over South Carolina way back when.
The South Carolina of then is a far cry from the South Carolina of now.
Vandy? Not so much.
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So when people stubbornly insist that Georgia
shouldcan never lose to Vandy, history doesn’t bear that out.Fixed.
Of course it’s well within the realm of possibility for Georgia to gag one against the Commodores, just as it’s possible for them to screw up and accidentally book their charter flight to Columbia, South Carolina, for the Missouri game. But should they do either of those things? Nope.
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That 1994 Vandy game was the first time I ever saw a Georgia team quit. I don’t boo at games, but if there was ever a time for it, that game was it.
Coach Dooley should have fired Ray Goff before he got to the tunnel to go back to the dressing room. Goff was a DGD on the field but a disaster on the sideline.
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And it wasn’t the last, Thomas. It continued on into 1995. It was awful.
~~~
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I wasn’t a fan of Coach Goff (loved him as a player), but I do always fondly remember his last game at Tech when he just basically said “F$&% it” and kept passing trying to run up the score on the Maggots. Almost started a brawl. It was great! The man bled red & black, and hated Tech and Spurrier (heard him call Spurrier a prick at an Orlando Bulldog Club meeting back then).
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Yep, Ivey. Once Bobo and Edwards got hurt in ’95, you could tell Goff was a dead man walking. That Florida game was another lowlight from the end of the Goff era.
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I remember the 1995 season well … and not fondly, I might add. IIRC, the only team we beat with ease was USCe to start the season. Got drummed by Bama, UF and Auburn. And to top it off … we toyed with beating UVA in the Peach Bowl, but ended up losing that one too.
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I still don’t consider the Vandy game last year as a loss. it goes under the list of pure thefts….right beside the GT 1999 game and LSU 2009. I understand the game in Nashville last year shouldn’t have been so close that a totally blown targeting call, even overturned, should get them a W but I consider that we were only 7 days from the carnage of the TN game in Knoxville and had not adjusted to the limited offense.
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We gave that game away, beginning late in the 3rd quarter. That’s why we lost.
~~~
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A combination of what Mac said and what you said.
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Senator, I went back and looked and (unless I miscounted) since the arrival of VD in Athens, Georgia is 46-5-1 against Vandy. That’s domination. When Vandy wins it is basically like getting hit by lightning. Last year (not to make excuses) that win was in large part because of a bad call by the officials using a rule that has now been changed to eliminate the unfair result that cost us the game. This year’s version of the Commodores is the most inept team I have seen come out of Nashville in….forever. Not wishing to incur further ire from stuckinred (see his post on a thread below this one) notwithstanding, the new Vandy coach looks like a terrible hire and Vandy appears to have squandered whatever progress they made during the Franklin years. No way Vandy wins today. Zero chance. Nada. Statistically untenable.
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“Vandy wins it is basically like getting hit by lightning. ” LOL…that’s good shit, Mayor.
Thing is, when lightning does strike, we sure as shit remember it, even if it only happens once in a century.
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Well said; I’ve got a friend who got popped in a lightning storm, and I’m sure he remembers. I remember where I was for the 2006 game (on board a plane, thinking that if it crashed it wouldn’t be the worst thing to happen that day), the 2013 game (with my brother wondering how something like that could happen), and the 94 game (when, I think, Vandy insisted they didn’t want to be Vandy anymore; that we should call them ‘Vanderbilt’; am I alone in that remembrance?)
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Sorry, but I’m going to continue to stubbornly insist that Georgia should never, ever, under no circumstances, on the penalty of death, lose to Vandy.
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All I can say, is that we should never count anyone out. Not when Bobo is calling the plays. His inexplicable brilliance and obvious stupidity in even the same set of downs is a cautionary limiter on my enthusiasm for us putting anyone away. You can always count on Mike to keep giving the ball to Gurley, even when it is obvious that (a) the entire Milky Way knows TG is getting the ball and is ready to blow the play up and (b) if we spread our ball carrying duties out ( see Clemson) we set our opponents off balance, make our selves far less predictable and give us chances to make plays. Plus, do we actually HAVE a tight end? Because if we do, it seems Bobo has forgotten about him.
I will never, ever, count any game as a W in advance. Never. And hence, the discussion will always continue, are we a possible national championship team? We need coaching that knows how to make that one call that counts and separates us from the pack. Bobo does not have that in his DNA. Face it. If he did, we would have seen the progression forward to a higher level. And, we haven’t.
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Oh, I knew before opening this that..well..Vandy ’94.
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UGA is capable of losing any game no matter how heavily favored on any given Saturday, or any other day for that matter, while Richt is the head coach. It can even happen to Saban or the OBC, or any other coach, but not on as regular a basis as we have seen with Richt. As we used to say in the Army, Sxxx happens.
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Good points, but in Athens in 2012 we won 48-3. Not a close call. 2011 in Nashburg was the close one.
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D’oh! Thanks for catching today’s brain fart.
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