War Eagle, baby!
UGA fans will now STFU and go back to being the Prozac Nation.
Nasty loss for us for sure. Totally outplayed in every aspect it pains me to say. Most of us in the Bulldog Nation found ourselves in a state of disbelief that we were ranked that high in Kirby's second season, but we were cautiously enjoying the ride, albeit a brief ride. Most folks knew both our lines were extremely suspect and that was found to be true. Congrats to Auburn and best of luck with Bammer. You guys have a very strong and well balanced team. Hope to face you again in the conference championship.,
We are not there yet, but we are pointed in the right direction for the future. Hatari, from your comments you must be a Tech fan. If so I can see why you don't understand SEC rivalries. See you guys in Atlanta. Can't get here fast enough.
No, not a Tech fan. I'm actually a graduate of the Medical College of Georgia, as well as Auburn University. 51 weeks per year the Bulldogs are fine with me. 52 weeks per year I root against Alabama (in SEC games). That's the point of my post.
I take it Mr. GoDogs, you've been around since '57, so you should understand what I'm about to explain very well, IF you'll put your fanatical love for your school done for just a moment. Auburn vs. UGA is the Deep South's oldest football rivalry. 122 years worth, and after all those years the record between the schools is about dead even. There have always been a bunch of kids from Georgia that end up at Auburn. The school is 90 miles from Atlanta, 35 miles from Columbus and LaGrange. Many of the kids that play at both universities played with and against each other in high school.
Growing up in Georgia in the Wally Butts, Vince Dooley era, the rivalry was a friendly one. You wanted your team to beat the other, but there was no lingering animosity that spilled over beyond the 2nd Saturday in November. UGA icon Buck Belue summed it on the radio one day when he was criticized for saying something complimentary about AU. "We don't hate Auburn. Playing Auburn is like playing your cousin. You want beat them for bragging rights, but we don't hate them. Tech, we hate. Florida, we hate, but not Auburn." I found that a pretty fair assessment of the rivalry.
Sometime in the late '90s, that all changed on the Bulldog end, and not just with the AU rivalry. Meet a Bulldog fan and suddenly it was "Auburn sux! Phouc Auburn! Go Dawgs! Woof, woof, woof!" Huh? Where did all that come from?
No coincidence that was about the time Spurrier changed the UGA-UF dynamic. Georgia ruled that game in the 70s-'80s, but the Ol'Ball Coach changed that right up. UF has won something like 22 out of the last 26 right there. Ga Tech went to the ACC, and that took some of the meaning out of that game. Most years Tech is pretty mediocre, and UGA has dominated them for years. The luster is low on that interstate rivalry.
So what's with the hatred for UT? I mean AU plays the Vols, but we don't hate them. None of this Munsonesque "stepped on their face with a hobnail boot stuff". Clemson? Seems like my team has played Clemson a bunch more than your team in the past 10 years, but we don't hate Clemson. Y'all hate Clemson. I know, Georgia fans tell me all the time. You can't stand the Gamecocks. Was it Spurrier that caused that too?
I've listened to UGA fans play this manic depressive scenario for the past 20 years or more. Pre-season high ranking and you'd think it was 1980 all over again. "Woof! Woof! Woof! Y'all suck. Go Dawgs!" is the incessant cry that starts in August. Early season success intensifies this fervor to an unnatural peak that comes crashing with the first SEC lost. During the Mark Richt years, the fans would start blowing up the call in shows "Mark Richt can't win the big ones!" Doesn't matter that he was 10-2 ever every year, the fans were disgruntled. Come the 2nd SEC lost, and the conversation invariably turned to "Mark Richt is a good Christian man, but he needs to go do his ministry and we need to get somebody in here that can WIN!". BTW, Richt is 10-0 at Miami this season.
With the second SEC loss, UGA fans will start this "They broke my heart again!" stuff, and go into a collective depression. It's not anger. When Bama fans threw a brick through Bill Curry's office window, THAT was angry. No, it's a resignation that the football world has not been focused on Athens, Georgia since Jimmy Carter was president and that is eating them up from the inside. UT, AU, LSU, UF, Bama all have National Titles in the past 20 years. Mizzou joined the SEC and promptly won the East twice.
I suppose it's not fair to characterize all Dawg fans like this. Most of my long time Dawg buddies are still rational, but not all of them. The anxiety that many have over the football program is unhealthy and irrational. I thought football was crazy in the state of Alabama (and it is an alternate universe to be sure), but witnessing the UGA faithful is something else.
To be more blunt, fans of other SEC schools seem to agree on one thing about UGA fans: they have become increasingly obnoxious over the past 2 decades. They are not the hospitable hosts they once were and are loud and belligerent on the road. You don't have to like the message, but when fans from 13 other SEC schools get together and pick UGA fans out as "the ones" again and again, time to face the facts. You can't point fingers at 13 other schools and claim they all suck and you don't. That's a 13-1 ratio.
Look, LSU fans are loud and rowdy. They'll talk trash and get in your face. However, they'll invite you to their tailgate and feed you good stuff while they talk trash. After game day, it's over for another year. Auburn has a 24/7/365 rivalry with Bama. We share the state with them, and have to live with the fact that Bama struck gold with finding 2 Hall of Fame coaches over the past 60 years. They have a dozen legit national titles and another half dozen they made up. Still, it's a great program and the rivalry is the classic in state rivalry. With that, Bama fans don't hate UGA, UT, MSU, LSU or anyone else. Because of their success, all other schools want to beat Bama, but other than envy don't HATE Bama.
So there you are Mr. GoDog. Step back and take that in. I'm the just the messenger. I have ties to the state and to the program. I loved the Dooley - Erk Russell days. Didn't like Jan Kemp or the Ray Goff hire. Jim Donnan got shown the door at the right time. Richt did a good job and was their a long time. Kirby Smart is a good hire and will be successful. The perception of the fans is need of rehab. If you want to see the difference, go to College Station when UGA plays A&M. There you'll see a fan base that loves their school, and has traditions like no other I've seen. They will treat you well and are proud to share their school with you. They hate Texas and only Texas. I went there and was never accosted with "Your team SUX!" once. Never had that from Bulldogs in the old days either. Times have changed.
