Mark Bradley looks back at the last quarter century of Georgia-Georgia Tech football and wistfully acknowledges that it hasn’t been as promising for the Jackets as he once foresaw.
While Georgia remains the biggest game of every year for the Jackets, Tech is the biggest game for the Bulldogs only those years when Georgia fans are afraid their team will lose. Only a couple of times since Mark Richt arrived and George O’Leary left have Bulldog backers had cause to fret — in 2006, when Tech won the ACC Coastal and Georgia had four games, and again in 2009, when the Jackets were ranked No. 7 and the Bulldogs were 7-4.
Tech’s 2006 loss in Athens was the beginning of the end for Chan Gailey. (The wretched 9-6 flop the next week against Wake Forest in the ACC championship game hastened the flow.) It marked Gailey’s fifth consecutive loss to Georgia; on Nov. 26, 2007, two days after Loss No. 6, he was fired.
Paul Johnson arrived from Navy talking big and, sure enough, he beat the hated Mutts in his first try. A Georgia team that began 2008 ranked No. 1 led Tech 28-12 at the half. Seven minutes and five seconds into the third quarter, the Jackets led 35-28. (This astonishing surge came without benefit of the forward pass; Tech’s one completion of the rainy day came on its first snap.)
And Tech was even better in 2009. For 364 days, a rivalry gone cold saw Georgia fans get all hot and bothered. Those folks might deny it now, but back then Bulldog Nation lived in fear of what Tech and Johnson might become.
Oh, yes. We lived in fear of a new era, Dawgnation. And what was the result? “We run this state.”
It’s been all downhill since then for Bradley.
When a rivalry gets skewed, we start believing the dominant side will lose only after it has actually lost. I’m convinced Tech will stand a very good chance against Florida State, unbeaten over two calendar years and the reigning national champion, in Charlotte on Dec. 6, but I have a hard time thinking the Jackets can beat a Georgia team that will be playing without Todd Gurley and was, only this month, overwhelmed by Florida, which has since fired its coach.
If you’d never seen a Tech-Georgia game in person, that wouldn’t make much sense. But I’ve seen 25.
Here’s my theory for the last thirteen years. It’s not about Dawgnation’s fear. Or Bradley’s (failed) hope that Paul Johnson’s genius would turn the series after the 2008 game. It’s something simpler that all that: Mark Richt wants to win this game more than Paul Johnson does. As long as that’s the case, well, Georgia may not win 12 of every 13 games played, but the Dawgs will win a damned sight more than the Jackets ever will. I’m okay with that.
Get The Picture 
If I remember correctly, I think we were actually 6-5 going into that 2009 game against Tech. We lost to OK State, Tennessee, LSU, Florida and Kentucky. That was without a doubt one of my favorite games against the bees.
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Yep, and it was right after that horrible Senior night loss to Kentucky.
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/vomits in mouth
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And how.
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Obviously Richt completely owns Tech, but here are some fun reference points for just how deep the dominance has gotten. Richt has 12 wins vs. the Yellow Jackets, Tech’s last nine coaches combined have 12 wins against UGA. With a win Saturday, Tech will have fewer wins in their last nine head coaches combined than Richt would have.
With one more win this season, Richt will achieve his ninth season with at least ten wins at UGA.
Georgia Tech has eight seasons in their entire history with ten wins or more. Obviously with the expanded schedule, achieving ten wins today is easier than in the past, but the fact that Richt could get Georgia to nine different ten win seasons before Tech gets to their ninth in history is funny to me.
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Good stuf DiB!
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To expound even more, Richt is 21-1 against Georgia Tech since he began his coaching career. Unfortunately Miami never played the Jackets when he was there or the record could be even more overwhelming.
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What’s ironic DiB is that Tech, even if it loses to Georgia this weekend, can still win 10 games this season and have one of it’s best seasons ever. Tech can actually get to 11 wins, even with a loss to Georgia, if it wins the ACCCG and its bowl. How many times has Tech won 11 games in a season? Not many.
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Georgia has better atheletes, coaches and plays much better competition. It is the superior program..in the superior conference. I think the game means a whole lot to PJ, but he won’t bring himself to admit it because he’s not gracious enough to. When and if he wins it will be a big deal to him..believe that…and Georgia fans know it and that is why Georgia must win.
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Didn’t they hand out rings to players the one and only time gtu has won? I think this is a huge game for them, but they try to downplay it so it doesn’t seem so embarrassing.
But everyone at gtu knows what people are thinking when they pass somebody on the street: “There goes another one of the Dawg’s bitches”.
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Especially when they show their ring.
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Bradley was unbearable during the 1998-2000 stretch when we lost to Tech three years in a row. I’ll never forget how he reverently called O’Leary “Big Bee”. Since Richt showed Bradley has had a sad.
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You said Richt wants to win this game more than Johnson does. So can we extrapolate that the Florida Coaches (Spurrier, Zook and Cryer) minus Muschamp have wanted to win it more. I know that is the case with Spurrier. any doubt in anyone’s mind that Spurrier beats Dabo again this weekend, i didn’t think so.
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Sort of. I think Richt’s mindset for Florida has, at least until recently, been different than it has for GT. I don’t think it’s that way anymore, though.
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Senator, all coaches want to win. I don’t buy that Georgia beats Tech all the time because Mark Richt wants to win more than Fishfry. The real answer, over time and coaching changes, is that the Georgia football program is better than the Tech football program. A lot of that is because of mismanagement of the Tech football program by Tech. Back when Tech had a great coach (yes, Bobby Dodd was a great coach) and smart people running Tech’s AA, Tech was a formidable team. Since Dodd retired Tech has had 1 excellent–not great– coach (Bobby Ross) which it couldn’t keep and one good coach (George O’Leary) which it couldn’t keep. Fishfry is just the latest in a string of mediocre Tech coaches. I figured out the other day that in the last 50 years Georgia is something like 38-12 against Tech. That is over a period of 4 different head coaches at Georgia and about 10 head coaches at Tech (sorry, I can’t count them all). This is an institutional thing, not one head coach wanting to win more than another head coach.
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Bottomline – Jim Donnan was fired for losing to the nerds (and for being an a-hole). Coach Goff stuck around because he only lost to the nerds. Richt’s job security if fine until he loses two in a row to the North Ave trade school.
Tech people might have higher GPA’s but deep down they are just like Bryan Allen, but their jello stains are yellow and not orange…
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Sorry forgot the last part re: Coach Goff “…lost to the nerds twice and then rattled off 5 wins.”
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Forgot or not, I really have enjoyed your posts of late. Might you be a lab science type? Or do you just have a large beak? or is it punctuated correctly as “beak ‘er dawg”?
It’s refreshing to see a moniker that doesn’t have “balls” on the end, like “Goat Balls”, “Texas Balls”, “Odd Balls”, etc. Don’t know why anyone would identify that they are located generally between a dickhead and an ahole. Just don’t get it.
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No science unless we are talking computer science.
No to a large beak.
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Forgive my ignorance but doesn’t the word “cojones” have something to do with “balls” in Spanish? Just sayin.” 🙂
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I see where your going and that’s kinda close. And I realize your teasing. But for the record and because of my Filipino, Cuban and Costa RIcan influence… Cojones generally implies: “man that took cojones, or man he carries his cojones in a grocery cart. Implies macho guy. Now if someone signed on as Huevos you would be spot on. ie Texas Huevos (testicle- unless your ordering breakfast). ;-)…. no offense T. Baller. No one would think of calling you Texas Testicle.
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Gosh I didn’t realize that, Mayor. 🙂
Look at my last sentence again.
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I don’t like playing GT as much as others here but I am mystified how every year Georgia, and all other teams on Tech’s schedule, have to worry about losing key defensive linemen due to dirty, chop blocking techniques. The NCAA rules committee spends a great deal of energy pretending it is concerned about player safety yet ignores this obvious danger. There are a lot of DL players who have ambitions of playing football for a career in the NFL but are continually exposed to a blocking technique that makes it possible to lose that dream. If an OL player’s head goes low and is followed by throwing his weight below the waist on the interior line, a referee should throw a flag and eject that player from the game. I realize it would have to worded differently to define the actual enforcement but the fact is the problem is discussed openly around the nation and nothing is ever done about it. I heard it discussed several times this week regarding the problems both UGA and FSU will face in preparing for upcoming games with GT. We call penalties for blocks in the back above the waist, and hands to the face (neither of which represents a danger to players) but not for throwing 300 pounds at a players knees. Makes no sense if you are concerned about protecting players.
P.S. Who actually reads Mark Bradley, and how is he considered a serious “journalist” when he so obviously takes a position in favor of one team over another? Let him apply for SID at Tech, otherwise maintain some professionalism in your chosen “profession”.
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EXCELLENT post about what the NCAA should do to prevent crippling knee injuries, Mac. This is at least as big a problem as head injuries and the NCAA is doing nothing to stop it.
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Just as soon as we ask that the refs pay attention to chop blocks they will drop flags on Georgia for what looks to them as a chop block against tech. Oh… you can bank on that.
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As I recall, they did exactly that on a Gurley run last year…
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At’s why Paul has to win also, Ug. Don’t you just love that the off week for Tech occurred before our game? Don’t you love his innuendo that it just occurred, much to his surprise? Talk about whistlin’ thru the graveyard…..and exiting while agape.
Johnson’s very being (and his wished-for contract) will be on the line. Yeah, ho hum, it’ll just be another game for him. Riiigghhtt.
Let’s see, with that extra week, do you think he may have installed some trickeration? Look out for the fake kick at the end of the game if they are leading because Paul wants some talk to occur that would erase the perception of his vapid personality and lack of passion for this game. Pulling off such a shitty unsportsmanship stunt will cement over his failings since 2009. If he can just hump one last win that snubs UGA in some manner, he will do it to save his career and extra money in a new contract. Our mission will be to set his ass on fire and piss-miss him when he tries to get us to put the flames out.
His fake attitude, bye week timing and gloss-over of his past failings vs UGA are all suspicious to me as an attempt to avoid the harsh reality of what can happen in this game, plus, attempt to endear himself to the gt fan base. He is a skunk in wolf’s clothing and not to be trusted one moment in this game. Since he lost a RB last week , he hasn’t slept much while planning to spring an FU on Pruitt, who I happen to think is waiting for his slippery shit. He sure can’t win straight up so look out for the chop-blocking bravado he brings. He is not to be trusted. My recommendation for Pruitt is to review all Paul’s game film, including Navy years, before sending his D out to apply insecticide.
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Can it not just be as simple as UGA has been better roughly 4 out of every 5 years? That seems the simplest explanation. Yech upset UGA in 2008, and UGA upset them in 2009. Other than those, I can’t really think of a game when the better team didn’t win with the possible exceptions of 98 and 99, both of which Tech lose with replay.
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Not quite. The correct expression would be that they get lucky one out of five years
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I don’t agree that ’09 Tech was better than the ’09 Georgia team, tri. That 8-5 Georgia team had just about every bad thing happen that could happen. The Dawgs that year had a great come from behind win stolen from them by crooked refs (LSU) and at least 2 games that should have been won kicked away by bad coaching decisions at the end of the games (Arkansas, Colorado). There was also the miscommunication whereby the RB (Washaun Ealey) thought a hand-off to him had been called when actually a pitch play had been called which caused a fumble at the 1 yard line and prevented Georgia from tying UK and forcing OT (which I believe Georgia would have won as the home team). That ’09 Georgia team, as bad as the D was under Willie, still could easily have won 10 or 11 games if some things had gone the other way.
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You’re mixing up years. Those Arkansas and CU games were 2010. 09 we got jobbed vs LSU and gakked against Kentucky, but the other 3 we lost pretty handedly, plus needed a blocked FG to beat ASU.
No shame in giving 2009 Texh their due. That’s what made that win so sweet. Even then, Willies D got shredded in the 2nd half.
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Damn–you’re right! My apologies for my advancing senility. 🙂
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I forgot to erase the “nom d’plume above.
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By the way, has anyone noted that this will be the only yearly scheduled game that Hutson will ever be able to say “Two years in a row and never defeated by the NATS.”?
The Ky game doesn’t qualify because he didn’t start.
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Let’s make one thing very clear, this is not a rivalry, this is a series. A rivalry is where both teams are competitive and the winning percentage hovers around 50%, tech is neither of those things, they simply show up every year for their beating. I hate Tech, with a passion. But i also recognize that my hatred for them stems from their obsession with us and the classless punk way that they carry themselves. Think about, if it weren’t for their perpetual little brother complex we would think about them like we think about vanderbilt or kentucky, as in not very much. Which on a deeper lever makes them even more pathetic, Tech fans are effectively saying that without their hatred of UGA, they would have nothing to root for because their team has been irrelevant for so long. Being kicked around by UGA on an annual basis is what gives them a shred of legitimacy. Beat Tech. Forever.
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So what does that make Georgia-Florida?
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a rivalry,
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Richt is 5-9 against UF and 3-2 in the last 5; a far cry from Tech’s 1-12 against him and 0-5 in the last 5. Also, UGA leads that series overall.
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Until about four years ago, I personally think that UGA had become to UF what GT is to UGA. This year’s shit show in Jacksonville aside, I think it’s safe to call the UGA-UF series a real rivalry again. They’ve split the last eight games, so it’s pretty nip and tuck now.
I know UGA still has a decent lead in the UF series overall, but the past 25 years have been pretty hard on Dawgs fans (even including recent improvement). I’m just grateful that I came of age when beating UF was an expectation, not just wishful thinking.
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+1.
~~~
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