With Stingtalk closed to the public, this is the best I can come up with.
“It’s been humiliating. Even when I try to turn the conversation to basketball they have only reminded me that we are 7-7 and they are 10-3, including their 21-point domination of us in December. Maybe they really do run this state. Can we move to Alabama?
@b_n_lucas”
Bless their hearts… and, again, remind me why you’d want to end this series?
Filed under Georgia Football, Georgia Tech Football
I can’t believe he actually went there.
Filed under Georgia Football, Nick Saban Rules
If, like me, you’re not quite ready to let go of that Rose Bowl buzz, enjoy Matt Wyatt’s breakdown of every touchdown scored in that game. For obvious reasons, it’s about nine minutes long.
Filed under Georgia Football, Strategery And Mechanics
… According to StubHub, more than 50 percent of the ticket sales have come from within the state of Georgia, compared to 4 percent from Alabama. According to TickPick, another ticket marketplace, the number is 66 percent in Georgia compared to 6 percent in Alabama. “Mama is giving up her shoes to go to this ballgame,” said Randy Cohen, the CEO of TicketCity.
The demand started in earnest. Georgia fans crashed StubHub’s site not long after the culmination of the Bulldogs’ double-overtime victory against Oklahoma in the Rose Bowl on New Year’s Day. StubHub spokesperson Cameron Papp said the site went down for 20 minutes. Since then, it has been selling tickets at high levels, as a suite went for $94,000 and the highest single ticket went for $12,080. Face value for the tickets range between $375 and $875. The lowest price to get in the game on the secondary market is $1,250.
No one has realized the demand of Georgia fans more than Alabama fans, who are savvy in the market from the Crimson Tide being part of six of the past nine national title games. The theory in the ticket industry is that Alabama fans, sensing the ability to make a profit, are putting their tickets on the secondary market to exploit the lust of Georgia fans. Georgia hasn’t played in a national championship game since the 1982 season.
While the secondary market sellers can’t specifically identify where the tickets are coming from, TickPick director of client relations Jack Slingland said there’s “a lot of rumblings within the industry” that Alabama fans are exploiting the demand. “There are Alabama fans out there receiving tickets from the school,” Slingland said. “They’re a little more willing to sell.” He added about Alabama’s championship fatigue: “It’s something that’s always going to creep in. That’s always a factor in these.”
Well, now. I was already interested in seeing the makeup of Monday night’s crowd. If “championship fatigue” — what a concept! — is really a thing and that’s reflected in the stadium, I can hardly wait to hear what Saban has to say about that. Especially if Georgia wins.
Filed under Alabama, Georgia Football
… to Jalen Hurts.
I am no strategic genius, but I’m not missing what Job One for Mel Tucker is Monday night, am I? It’s got to be to make Hurts beat you throwing the ball… or, more accurately, make Hurts beat you throwing the ball while bracketing Calvin Ridley in coverage. Right? Right?
Filed under Alabama, Georgia Football, Strategery And Mechanics
There have been a few pieces this week on the topic of what might have been had Georgia managed to pull out the 2012 SECCG. The one I found most interesting is by ESPN’s Alex Scarborough, for two reasons.
One, the story told of that play by some of the kids on the field:
The clock showed 16 seconds and no timeouts as Lynch fell to the turf on the Alabama 7-yard line. The offensive line hauled tail downfield. Guard Chris Burnette and center David Andrews looked at one another and realized they were making the same gesture to spike the football. But Murray wasn’t on the same page.
“He’s looking at the sideline,” Burnette recalled. “He’s not responding to me, to David, anybody. He just says, ‘Get lined up.’ He doesn’t call a play, doesn’t give us protection or anything. We get to the line, and we’re panicked. The ball gets snapped, and we’re rolling.”
The rest unfolded in slow motion. Murray took the ball and knew exactly where he wanted to go with it, turning to his right where Cris Conley had a step on his defender in the flat. But Alabama linebacker C.J. Mosley broke into the backfield like a blur, leaped over the right tackle and got a hand on the pass, slowing it down just enough. The ball fluttered to Conley like a knuckleball, where he cradled it in his gut as he went down at the 5-yard line.
“When he fell, it became clear like, ‘Oh my gosh, the clock is going to keep running, he’s not going to score,'” Burnette said. “… We were just standing there looking at it. I remember it going from 0:03 to 0:02 and just dropping my head, and I remember seeing Arthur Lynch dropping his head and just walking off. It sunk in that quickly. It was all over.”
I know how he felt. The funny thing is that, just like us, the players are split over whether Murray should have spiked the ball.
To this day, it’s all anyone wants to talk about from the 2012 season: Should Georgia have spiked it? Burnette says yes. Lynch says no. Linebacker Amarlo Herrera is somewhere in the middle.
“We should have spiked it, but I thought it was a great call,” Herrera said. “Everybody was sad because we knew they got away with one.”
The other part of Scarborough’s piece worth paying attention to is the realization, even by the players, that it was time for a change.
But for all the players Richt produced and all the games he won — he averaged 9.7 wins in 15 seasons — there was a missing ingredient. Fans grew restless from coming so close and never breaking through.
It hurt, Herrera said, to see Richt ultimately get let go.
“It wasn’t his fault,” he said. “People just weren’t excited, and you need that. I don’t think there was energy there anymore.”
Lynch saw it, too, and it wasn’t just people outside of the building.
“The cancer to life is complacency,” he said. “And I’m not saying we got complacent at Georgia, but some things were being done that were just good enough and we weren’t exceeding the expectations. And I’ll be the first to admit it because I was a part of it.
“Had we won in 2012 against Alabama and won the national championship, does Coach Richt get fired? Probably not. But once we didn’t win it, we kind of hit a little lull and people higher up wanted a new face of the program and new juice.”
That is some painful honesty right there. And it gives this observation more credibility.
Lynch was skeptical at first. In fact, after Georgia lost to Florida last season, he got in some hot water when he tweeted that they might be looking for a new coach soon if they continued losing games like that.
Then he visited campus for a scrimmage this past summer and watched Smart up close — not the plays he called, necessarily, but how he dealt with players.
“It was a totally different take from the way Coach Richt coached,” Lynch said. “It was very hands on. It was super intense. It was attention to detail.
“It doesn’t surprise me that he could turn it around so quickly after seeing that scrimmage. Really seeing that kind of detail and the way he presents himself on and off the field, it screams a little bit Saban.”
Filed under Georgia Football
Great reminder from Seth Emerson about how special this season has been.
The Georgia football team plays a fairly important game on Monday. Win or lose, though, it’s already been an amazing season. From the play on the field to the support off of it, the experience as a whole has been remarkable:
- Trips to Notre Dame ― where Georgia had never visited ― and the Rose Bowl ― where Georgia hadn’t played since World War II ― in the same season. Not to mention, victories in both games.
- The first SEC championship in 12 years.
- The first chance to win a national championship since 1983.
Throw in an epic beatdown of Florida en route to a sweep of the SEC East and you’ve got all the elements of a magical season.
I’ve spent more money on Georgia football this season than I can ever remember — by a wide margin — and it’s been worth every penny and then some.
Wandering in the wilderness for decades makes that first step into the promised land that much more incredible. Enjoy this very special ride, folks. We’ll never pass that way again.
Filed under Georgia Football
Let’s see… Georgia is playing for the national championship, Phil Fulmer hath arisen in Knoxville, Les Miles is out shopping himself and Hugh Freeze as a package to gullible ADs, broke LSU is handing out money to Coach O’s assistants like it’s candy… and now this.
Thanks, football gods. I don’t know what I’ve done to deserve this bounty, but you have my undying gratitude.
Filed under SEC Football
Get The Picture 