Gotta love Coach Richt. He’ll never give up on WLOCP issues like the weather.
… Nice to practice in heat today to be more like the weather in Jax, forecast is for mid 70’s at gametime. Normally we practice in cold then go down and play in heat, so this is good for us this year to get in the heat.
Average October temperatures in Athens, Georgia: from 77°F to 69°F over the course of the month.
Average October temperatures in Jacksonville, Florida: from 83°F to 76°F over the course of the month
Yeah, that arctic weather in Athens is a total bitch. It’s a good thing the strength and conditioning program has stepped up.
Get The Picture 
Oy vey. Are we heading down this road again?
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It ain’t the heat, it’s the humidity…
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As someone who spent 6 years in Athens and 8 years in Florida, I can attest to the huge difference in climate between the two areas. Jax is not only 6-7 degrees warmer, but the sun is stronger and, most importantly, the humidity is much greater.
Late October in Athens is absolute heaven, with beautiful fall weather, crisp mornings, and relatively low humidity. The Jax area, however, still feels much like summer most days (with somewhat rare cold fronts that start penetrating that area around that time of year). Just to compare, the average high/low for Athens for Oct 31st is 70/47, while Jax is 77/62. A big difference overall, regardless of sun and humidity.
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Exactly.
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I head to Florida for races / training a couple of times a year. I agree it sounds silly, but it takes a few days to acclimate to the difference. The temperature isn’t as important as the dewpoint. That’s when your sweat will evaporate so your body can cool itself. Endurance athletes who haven’t acclimated should expect 5/6 seconds more per mile heading from GA to FLA this time of year.
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Great point regarding dewpoint. I’m a fairly casual road biker, and I naively assumed Florida would be a breeze compared to Georgia, particularly since the summer time highs in Athens are 5-6 degrees hotter than coastal areas of Florida (where actual highs rarely exceed 90).
As those who have experienced Florida during the warmer months, you know first hand how different of an animal the climate is down there. By the way, when you get accustomed to cool mornings (like Athens’ 40’s temps this time of year), then suddenly get thrown in a stadium with an average high of 77 in the middle of the day, higher humidity, much stronger sun and an on-field temp in the low to mid 80’s, believe me its a rude awakening to your body.
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They’re not practicing at the crack of dawn, man. And how long has it been since a Georgia-Florida game went into the fourth quarter with the sun beating down on the teams?
Relative October humidity in Athens ranges from the mid-fifties to the mid-nineties. For Jacksonville? Mid-fifties to mid-nineties.
Besides, while all this dewpoint talk is great, all Richt said was that it’s cold in Athens.
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I agree with you roughly 90-95% of the time, enjoy your blog immensely and love the work you put in to this great site. But if you honestly believe the overall difference in average climate this time of year between Athens and Jacksonville is quite negligible, well, I just don’t know what to tell you.
Better yet, I have a palm tree farm just outside of Athens that I’d like to sell you.
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Let me put it this way: I don’t think there’s enough of a difference to make it an excuse for poor play.
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Great point. Go down there and play solid fundamentally sound football and we’ll win the game. Go down there without focus and the game won’t be so positive.
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Has zilch to do with an excuse for poor play. It is a very, very small factor. Just like the travel crap is a very, very small factor. Just like Florida previously always getting a bye was a very, very small factor. They are all small factors, but they are factors and it belies the rumor that this is a totally neutral site simply because half the fans are in orange and blue and the other half in red and black. They are indeed very small advantages but they happen every year.
And oh yeah…this arrangement is mainly responsible for being on the road from 4 October-15 November. Not sure any team in all of college football goes that long between home games. And just because we are in red Saturday doesn’t make it a home game.
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So which is it? 😉
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Well said on all points.
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😉 Did you know?
We are the largest palm nursery in Atlanta area with the biggest selection and variety of palm trees. Come visit us at 1664 Peachtree Pkwy, Cumming, GA 30041
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And on that point, I have absolutely sweated my ass off sitting in Sanford Stadium at home games that come this time of year too. It’s not like we are taking a trip from Fairbanks to the Bahamas in mid-January.
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Honestly Sir I think he’ making another point for an indoor practice facility. We know that’s been on his wish list for a while, and it’s not like he’s the type personality that will just come out and say in Spurrier fashion ” Well if we had an indoor practice facility the weather wouldn’t be an issue, but I guess someone who knows more about footbáll than me gets to make that decision.” If Spurrier says that nobody in the Gamecock Nation is gonna be second guessing why a 5 degree difference matters. Mark is not gonna say that. He’s just gonna keep sticking these little soft reminders in when the opportunity arises. That’s my take anyway. Either way it’s nice to see he has the time to worry about this petty stuff. I take it as a sign that Bobo and Pruitt are doing their jobs.
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UGA is one of just two SEC schools that doesn’t have an indoor practice facility, McGarity told the board. UGA baseball, track and other teams will also use the indoor facility in addition to the football team, he said.
http://onlineathens.com/sports/college-sports/2014-09-19/uga-planning-huge-indoor-practice-field-football-other-ncaa-sports
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The other one? FU.
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It ain’t the heat or the humidity, its the travel. Just takes it out of you. Its all the way in another state! And its a home game for them.
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We always get their best shot, too
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Is that you Mayor? Always have to laugh at his “home game” comments, or having to travel and stay in a hotel the night before the game, as if we do that for every home game anyway. Next complaint we hear from him might include the different insects we will be faced with.
But I agree with the comments above, growing up in Savannah I can attest it is a much bigger difference than the average temperatures the Senator provided indicate. But with the off week, just add some extra conditioning drills. Our depth is fine and we are doing a much better job rotating players in this year so that shouldn’t be a huge factor. It has been cooler in October this year so sweating it out yesterday and today can’t hurt.
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As a fellow Savannahian, I completely agree.
I’ve lived in north GA for the last 20 years (14 in the ATL and the last 6 just outside Rome) and I can absolutely tell the difference when I get out of the car at Mom’s house in Savannah. It just FEELS hotter…
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Moved back to Atlanta last year after 10 years in Savannah. Savannah feels like Tegucigalpa in the summer and most of the fall. I would go for runs at 6 AM, take a cold shower afterwards, and still sweat until noon.
I’m not trying to say that weather in Jacksonville should affect play, but I do agree that there is a noticeable difference in the humidity and sticky factor between Jax and north GA.
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My wife always said to me, well it is 95, or whatever, here and Savannah isn’t any hotter. I told her she just didn’t understand until she was there in the summer (I refuse to go back in the summer. We had to when mu mother was sick one time and I had her go outside around midnight in July and you still couldn’t breathe the air was so hot and thick with humidity. She looked at me and said, I think I understand now. As I told her, it was miserable when you woke up in the morning, and was still that way when you went to bed, no relief. Should close it down from late June until October. I never had a desire to live there after I moved away to North Georgia and NC.
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The low for Athens is expected to be in the mid thirties on Saturday. Jacksonville 43. Mid 60’s by game time would seem about right.
And a h/t to Senator Blutarsky for helping me out with my post yesterday. Runs a business, writes a great blog and still has time to deal with my glitch. I inadvertently included an email address with a cut and paste you tube I wanted to post here. i really didn’t need that address posted on GTP. Bluto handled it quickly. That’s impressive to me. I will pay a lot closer attention to my you tube posts in the future. We can’t all be DIF. 😉
Just sayin’
My son sent me this yesterday. I’m a Dylan and Murray fan. Kinda reminds me of what Cojones would be like on his back porch. lol.
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We’re lucky that the first real arctic cold front of the season will be pushing through both regions just in time for the weekend, in which temps in Jax will be much colder than normal. Here in Virginia, some reports are even calling for snow in the mountainous areas in the NW part of the state, which is unreal.
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Good God peeps, it’s Ga-Fla. I’d go to this game in a snow storm.
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When we get the IPF these worries will be over. Just go in there close the door crank up the heat and voila — instant Jacksonville.
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Grew up in Sav too! 912!
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He didn’t want to talk about the Long Snapahh, that was Dooley’s bit. So what else can you ramble about without be specific on anything, coach speak?
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Such weird weather down there. Been when it was in the high 30s and been when it was in the 90s. It’s never the same year after year.
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In the 70’s we were told it was the coming ice age. Now it seems to be global warming.
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Careful. The ‘Publicans will claim their science shows that global warming is good in that it is fighting the oncoming ice age.
“Smok’em if you got’em” could become a natl cry to help postpone the ice age. OK, I’m in.
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No, got to love the loonies on this new “climate change” tactic. For once they have a marketing term that doesn’t result in ridicule, we can all agree that facts support cyclical climate variations. But damn, all that hurricane protection everyone bought after we were told the 2003-2005 hurricane uptick was just the beginning of the end of days. The west coast moon beamers were as credible as those “experts”. Hasn’t been much more than a one club wind since.
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Wait a minute? What are these October football games in Athens of which you speak? We’ve only had two in the past 4 years.
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And zero night games this year. Anyone wonder why the geniuses at the SEC office have a cupcake game scheduled at noon this Saturday and two interesting contests scheduled in conflict with GA/FL and Ole Miss/Auburn? They could have gotten a lot of eyes on the noon game by simply rearranging the timing.
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We have run out of something to bitch about. GATA!!
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Don’t bet on it.
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