College Football
New Coach Chant
By: Robert Craft
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
Florida State University fired head football coach Willie Taggart following the Seminoles 27-10 loss to Miami.
The buyout for Coach Taggart is more than 17 million dollars. Florida State will end up paying more than 20 million to buy out the whole staff at the end of the year. This will mark one of the biggest buyouts in college football history.
Florida State looks to hire their next head football coach. Here are my thoughts on 7 coaches who could land the job in Tallahassee.
Bob Stoops is a bit of a surprise. After 18 years coaching at Oklahoma, Stoops is currently the coach and GM of the Dallas XFL franchise. Stoops is a perfect person to bridge the gap for 3-5 years. He is a proven winner and there is no buyout.
Matt Campbell is the current head coach at Iowa State. Campbell was named the Big 12 Coach of the Year twice (2017 & 2018). Campbell has a very large buyout. He has been successful at two stops Toledo and Iowa State. Cambell record is 59-37.
Mark Stoops is the current head coach at Kentucky. Stoops is in his seventh season with the Wildcats and served as Defensive Coordinator at Florida State from 2010-2012. Stoops record at Kentucky is 40-34.
P.J. Fleck is a popular choice on everyone’s list of candidates. Fleck known for his “Row the Boat” quote. Fleck is a proven program builder in the Midwest.
He spent four years at Western Michigan with a record of 30-22. Currently, he is coaching Minnesota to an 8-0 record and in three seasons at the Gophers helm he is 50-35.
Fleck just signed a seven-year extension with Minnesota. So, you can take his name off the board.
Mike Norvell is the current coach at Memphis. This 38-year-old is a hot name anytime there is an opening. Norvell is 34-15 in his fourth year on the job. He is also rumored to be the leading candidate if or when the Arkansas job comes open.
Mike Leach, the Washington State head coach and offensive wizard is a fan favorite. He’s weird, but he wins football games. Leach, a former Valdosta State assistant, almost took the Tennessee job in 2017.
Josh Heupel is the current head coach at the University of Central Florida. In two seasons at UCF, Heupel has a record of 19-3. Heupel already has recruiting ties in the State of Florida and he is an offensive guru.
Here are a few other names you may hear: Tom Allen-Indiana, Scott Satterfield-Louisville, Jeff Scott-Co-offensive Coordinator Clemson, Brent Venables-Defensive Coordinator Clemson, Sony Dykes-SMU and Urban Meyer-Former Florida and Ohio State head coach.
This is a big-time job! Florida State has some obstacles to overcome in hiring their next football coach.
Florida State has an interim Athletic Director and a lame duck President. Both are in their last year of their respective contracts.
Firing a head coach before his two years are up means you have some problems that may have deterred some coaches.
Florida State is a program built to win a national title. Florida is a talent rich state in recruiting, FSU plays in the ACC, and the logo still has clout.
This is an important hire for the Seminoles. If you get the hire right, everything else will fall into place. If you get it wrong it set your program back ten years (just ask the Florida Gators).
The random internet rumor generator will have a different FSU coach hired every day until one is found.
The firing of Willie Taggart had to be made. The Seminoles have shown no improvement in two years, and even worse, have regressed this season.
Defensive Line Coach Odell Haggins will serve as interim head coach the remainder of the season. In Tallahassee there is already a garnet billboard with a big gold “ODELL” written on it. It appears the locals are happy.
FSU President announced today that he wants a coached hired by the end of the month.
Coaching search rumors are entertainment like no other.
Who is next at FSU?
Taggart Time Over
By: JJ Lanier
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
So, who had a year and a half in the “Taggart’s Time in Tallahassee” office pool? I had three years, so once again, I lose.
If you’re wondering why Taggart’s tenure at Florida State ended as soon as it did, there’s a picture making its rounds on the internet that sums it up pretty nicely.
The photo is one of a Miami Hurricanes player about to score a touchdown with a pair of Seminole defenders trailing on the play, both of whom seem either more interested in yelling at each other, or are in the midst of an intense game of “1,2,3 Don’t Blink”, than trying to make a play.
The picture really does encapsulate just about everything you need to know about what has taken place since Taggart’s arrival. Losing to an in-state rival? Check. Losing to a less than mediocre football team? Check. A complete lack of discipline? Check.
And if you’re curious as to how desperately they wanted Taggart out, Florida State was able to raise the more than $17 million dollars needed to buy him out, mostly from donors and alumni, quicker than Don Draper’s marriage vows when a beautiful woman walks by. (Sorry, I’m binge watching Mad Men at the moment.)
While the immediacy of Taggart’s dismissal may have come as a bit of surprise, I don’t think the ultimate outcome is. I don’t recall too many people feeling confident in the hire when it happened as much as taking a wait and see approach; not exactly what you would expect from a program like Florida State.
In fact, Taggart’s hire kind of reminds me of Cardale Jones and Mitch Turbisky. What I mean by that is scouts and analysts were fawning over how Jones should’ve entered the NFL draft after he led Ohio State to a national title, although he had played in only a handful of games. Instead, he returned to the Buckeyes the following year and people realized they were a little overzealous about his abilities after seeing a larger sample size.
And Trubisky was the first quarterback drafted in his draft after starting for only a year, even though there were more accomplished quarterbacks available. Now, it seems pretty obvious that he may only be the fourth best quarterback in that draft class.
In Taggart’s case, he did well at South Florida, but only spent one mediocre season at Oregon, so there wasn’t really much of a coaching history to justify the hiring at a school at Florida State, outside of just thinking he might be successful.
As to where Florida State goes from here, I have no idea. I vaguely remember them having difficulty before finally bringing in Taggart- something that certainly could explain his hiring- and I doubt his firing will make things more enticing than they were a year and a half ago; the product on the field certainly isn’t.
However, they are still Florida State and due to the timing of Taggart’s termination they will have ample time to hone in on one or two coaching candidates, making sure they are the right fit, before announcing a hire.
Right now, that Miami photo is only indicative of the Taggart years. If the Seminoles happen to miss on this upcoming hire, that picture could represent their program as a whole. And it may take less than three years for them to get there.
Dropped The Ball
By: Kipp Branch
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
The 2002 Georgia Bulldogs finished the season as SEC Champions for the first SEC title in 20 years for UGA.
UGA beat FSU in the Sugar Bowl and finished ranked #3 nationally. This was Mark Richt’s best football team in his 15 years at UGA, but the only blemish on the schedule was at The World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail party. Here is that dreadful day through the eyes of this writer.
November 2, 2002 was a beautiful day in Jacksonville.
Weather was great and Georgia fans were in Jacksonville in force.
UGA was unbeaten, Spurrier was gone to the NFL and Florida was down. They were coming into the game with three losses for the first time since the 1980’s.
This was going to be the year that UGA put UF in its place and took control over the series again.
UGA fans had been beaten into submission by the Evil Genius before he took the Washington Redskins job. Spurrier had gone 11-1 against UGA in his 12 years in Gainesville.
Ron Zook was the Florida coach and UGA came into this game very confident that they would blow out Florida.
I was supremely confident also. You could tell early in the day that the Gator Nation was nervous, and we smelled that and it was like a hungry football team attacking an all you can eat country buffet.
The game was the first and only night game at the Cocktail party. I have never talked so much trash at a football game in my life.
I just knew unbeaten UGA was going to blow out the Gators. I had my best trash talk lines ready like “Shreveport in December at the Poulan Weed Whacker Bowl, you better have a winter jacket Gators”, or my favorite “The Grand Ole Opry at Christmas time is the highlight of a Music City Bowl Trip”.
We knew well because UGA was just there the previous season, but when talking trash facts do not enter into the mix, and it’s UGA/UF and we had an 8 hour tailgate experience and who cares Georgia keeps Florida from falling into the ocean on any map or atlas you can purchase.
We started the walk from our tailgate spot to the stadium looking like Ric Flair making a championship match entrance and talked down to just about every Florida fan that would make eye contact.
We got to our seats and settled in, thankfully. Drink of the day was Jim Beam and 7-Up.
Fred Gibson was hurt and could not play. Billy Bennett missed 3 FG’s and Rex Grossman threw the WR screen pass 237 times that day and UGA just could not stop it.
At halftime I talked Scott Spence out of walking back to the truck. When UGA struggles Spence will head to back to the vehicle in a New York second. Then it happened trailing 20-13 in the 4th quarter Terrence Edwards dropped a wide open TD pass that would have tied it and reality starts creeping in.
Well UGA blows the game and a National Championship appearance to UF, and in classic Gator form they were waiting on us on what seemed like 10 mile walk back to the truck.
One lady yelled in my ear “Same ole Georgia” It escapes me what my response was back. One guy was standing on top of a planter yelling “I heard a lot of crap coming in here today, but I don’t hear anything now”.
We labeled the one hour trip back from Jax to the Golden Isles as “The Trail of Tears”. I fired Mark Richt after this game. 5th straight loss to the Gators.
Looking back on this makes me understand now that this isn’t the same ole Georgia of 2002.
Kirby has instilled toughness in the program. Georgia has better talent, and a two game winning streak and has physically whipped Florida over the past years to a combined score of 78-24.
Give me UGA 27-20 in 2019, but the game is on November 2nd again, however which makes folks like me nervous.
Steve Spurrier created that doubt in all of us Dawg fans. Damn you Ball Coach. The WLOCP is a great American sporting event that you need to experience at least once in your lifetime.
The Other Rivalry
By: Mike Anthony
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
On Saturday, Georgia and Florida will throw their little cocktail party.
Texas and Oklahoma put on a good show a couple of weeks ago and Auburn and Alabama figure to have another slugfest at the end of November.
There are plenty of rivalries between Power-5 schools that get a lot of press, but – when it comes to the mix of mutual hatred and respect that defines so many great college football rivalries – you can’t do much better than taking in a game between Georgia Southern and Appalachian State.
Thursday’s matchup will have plenty of storylines as far as the 2019 season goes.
Appalachian State is ranked 20th in the country – although a ranking didn’t do the Mountaineers much good against the Eagles last season.
App is looking for a third straight Sun Belt title while the Eagles are riding a three-game winning streak and could take control of the Sun Belt East race with a win up in Boone.
But for everything that can be gained by either side with a win this week, the rivalry is about so much more than just one matchup in any given season.
It’s about the first playoff loss in Georgia Southern history and the only time Erk Russell’s Eagles were ever shut out.
It’s about the Mountaineers having nearly a dozen fewer conference championships in their trophy case once Georgia Southern decided to crash their party in the Southern Conference.
It’s about Appalachian State mostly not caring about losing a home game in 2001, so long as it kept Adrian Peterson from gaining 100 rushing yards.
It’s about Mountaineer fans wrecking a Georgia Southern team before wrecking its bus and postgame spread.
It’s about the Eagles winning by 47 points against a ranked App State team the season after that.
It’s about the Mountaineers gaining the upper hand in nationwide competition and winning three consecutive championships after the Eagles had gone back-to-back twice.
It’s about Armanti Edwards supposedly breaking the goal line to stave off an upset.
It’s about the Eagles putting a black mark on ‘Black Saturday’, ending a lengthy home winning streak for App while the Mountaineers were still basking in the adulation of a win over Michigan.
It’s about Appalachian State keeping its foot on the gas until 712 yards had been racked up.
It’s about a top-ranked App team jumping out to a 14-0 lead at Paulson and then never scoring again.
It’s about how App’s Brian Quick has still never fully gained possession of a touchdown pass that won the 2011 game.
It’s about an FBS atmosphere and a sea of cardboard cut-out Eagle head logos overwhelming the Mountaineers in 2014.
Most recently, it’s about Georgia Southern watching it’s fiercest rival attain an FBS ranking for the first time, then throwing that ranking in the trash four days later.
When Thursday rolls around, it’s going to be all about who can gain control of this season’s race for a Sun Belt title.
But it’s about a lot more than that…
A Fans View
By: Mike Anthony
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
In these parts, the end of October can mean only one thing – another chapter written in the rivalry between Georgia and Florida.
To be perfectly honest, I have no stake in this matchup.
I spent the first 14 years of my life embroiled in the various college football rivalries of the Mid-Atlantic and Rust Belt states.
And while I’ve enjoyed all of the ACC and SEC rivalries since moving down south, I’ve never taken a side and simply appreciate each game as it comes while not digging too deep into the history.
So, I consider myself unfit to discuss the ins and outs of Georgia and Florida. Luckily, I’m never short of friends with deep roots in various teams throughout the south.
With the latest edition of Florida/Georgia on tap, I turned to Sudie Pennebaker (a huge Florida fan from the Sunshine State) and Morrell McCaskill (a lifelong Georgia fan) to try and sway me to their side.
Here’s a few pieces of the argument that ensued.
Me: So, let’s jump right into it. Where do we stand in this rivalry? Who’s getting the best of it?
MM: First off, UGA not only won the first ever game in this rivalry, but it still holds the largest victory in the series and is ahead in the overall record with 52 wins. Florida is more like a bitter little brother in the series. Outside of the Spurrier era, UGA has owned the rivalry.
SP: Eh… 51 wins. Georgia says 52 because they count a game when they played a school that wasn’t actually UF. And Spurrier left in 2001. We’ve won 10 times since then. Not sure how you can say Georgia has owned the rivalry when they only have seven wins in that span.
Me: The game has the moniker of “The World’s Largest Cocktail Party”, but that name has been shuttered recently. How devastating is it to lose such a great nickname.
MM: I think it’s a buzzkill. The cocktail party name lends to the two schools’ strong tailgating traditions. It also bleeds into the crowd that isn’t so into football, but loves a good party. That does nothing but help college football’s cause.
Me: How about the neutral site? Would the game be even better if it was a home-and-home?
SP: On one hand, I like Jacksonville because A.) Family is close by, B.) Go Jags and C.) It feels like a home game. But I don’t think it’s really a neutral site.
MM: Neutral? 71 miles vs. 362 miles doesn’t seem too neutral to me. I would love if it was home-and-home. Georgia does that with Auburn every year and that works great. Florida fans may be worried about wearing their jean shorts in late October in Athens though. It could be chillier than what they’re used to.
SP: Nah. We’ll just wear the jeans that we will turn into shorts next summer.
Me: You obviously have all the great moments for your team committed to memory. What’s a low point for you?
SP: I am not fond of 2012… Stupid Jeff Driskel. Stupid Will Muschamp. (editor’s note – at this point, Sudie wandered off topic and spent the next five minutes lamenting the Muschamp era)
MM: 2012 was a great year. The one I hate was 2014. We had just beaten Missouri 34-0. Florida wasn’t even ranked. We got beat handily and that was shocking. Plus, it basically sealed the SEC East for Missouri.
In the end, we all ended up right where we had started. There will never be any love lost in this rivalry and – as is often the case – this year’s matchup is heightened by the fact that the winner will be in position to claim the East and play for the conference championship.
I’ll probably remain on the fence when it comes to picking sides. Our discussion cast some light on the pride and pain each side has experienced, but I get enough of that from the allegiances I already claim.
No matter who you root for, it’s going to be one heck of a party – cocktails or not.
Call It What It Is
By: Teddy Bishop
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
Okay, is it the Georgia-Florida game, or the Florida-Georgia game?
Well, my oldest son is a Georgia fan, and my youngest son and my daughter are Florida fans, so for the purposes of this article, I’ll just refer to it as THE Game.
The bitin’ Bulldawgs started the season ranked #3 with visions of winning a national championship. And they certainly moved in that direction until the Gamecocks from Columbia (South Carolina, not South America) rolled into Athens (Georgia, not Greece) and upset the Dawgs in double overtime, 20-17. Georgia could still make the playoffs, but, well, not really.
As for Florida, the Giant Water Lizards started the season at #7, having made improvements over the last two seasons. The Lizards from Gainesville (Florida, not Georgia) were rolling merrily along until they had to go to Red Stick, Louisiana and play the Big Kitty Cats. Final score: 42-28.
So, both teams come into THE Game with one loss.
Quarterbacks are always important in THE Game. In Athens, Jake Fromm kicked Justin Fields’ butt on the practice field and sent Fields packing.
Fields appealed for a hardship case, saying a Georgia baseball player was prejudiced. The NCAA bought his story and allowed Fields to play in Columbus (Ohio, not Georgia) without sitting out a season.
The rumor on Fields was that he couldn’t decipher the Dawg playbook and Fromm could. I guess Ohio State doesn’t have a playbook because Fields has done excellent work for the Buckeyes. (Can anyone tell me what a Buckeye is? I looked it up and it’s either a shrub/tree, a butterfly, or a coupling for a railroad car. That’s right off the internet, so it’s got to be true. I originally thought it had something to do with a male deer’s vision capacity, but apparently not. By the way, do you know the difference between beer nuts and deer nuts? Beer nuts cost $4.95. Deer nuts are under a buck.)
At any rate, Justin Fields has taken Ohio State to a #3 ranking while the Dawgs have fallen to #10, making some people suggest that Kirby Smart should have kept Fields and let Jake Fromm at the mouth.
Speaking of Smart, Kirby has done an excellent job in Athens, despite the loss to SC.
Down in the swamp, Dan Mullen has Gator fans talking national championship again, but not this year.
When Florida quarterback Feleipe Franks left the Kentucky game with a season-ending injury, backup Kyle Trask entered the game and took the Lizards to a comeback win. And Trask has played well, the LSU game notwithstanding.
Georgia’s offensive line is very good, and that could be a key to THE Game. They’ve opened holes for D’Andre to show how Swift he is. The Dawgs also have some pretty good receivers as do the Lizards. It could come down to the running game.
Whichever team can establish the running game early should have the inside track to winning the game.
THE Game will be played in Jacksonville (a neutral site) again, although Kirby Smart has expressed an interest in a home-and-home series. Tailgating will start at least a day ahead of time, even in Brunswick (Georgia, not Maine).
I guess it has come down to predicting the final score, so here goes: 24-17. (Smiley Face!)
Florida Georgia Line
By: Robert Craft
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
The Florida-Georgia football rivalry began in 1915 and they have played every year since 1926, except for 1943(canceled due to war). The “World’s Largest Cocktail Party” started in 1933. Jacksonville has hosted the game with the exception of 1994 and 1995.
Georgia leads the series with 51 wins 43 loses and 2 ties.
Let’s take a look at the series by decades. Georgia owned the 1980’s winning eight times during that period.
The 1980 game, Georgia trailed 21-20 with time running out, facing a third down and long from their own 7-yard line.
Georgia quarterback Buck Belue scrambled around his end zone then found wide receiver Lindsey Scott open in the middle of the field. I can still hear legendary Georgia radio announcer Larry Munson’s call of the play. “Run Lindsey” lives on today in my memories.
In 1990, Florida hired its prodigal son, Steve Spurrier. The 1990’s belonged to Florida winning 9 times during that decade.
The 1993 game, Florida was leading 33-26 with five second remaining. Eric Zeier, the Georgia quarterback completed what looked like the tying touchdown to Jerry Jerman.
However, Gators cornerback Anthone Lott had called a timeout. On the next play, Lott was called for pass interference giving the Bulldogs one last chance. Zeier last pass was incomplete. Gators won 33-26
The 1994 and 1995 games are the only game since 1933 not played in Jacksonville. In 1994, the Bulldogs traveled to Gainesville and took a beating 52-10.
In 1995, the Gators went to Athens and embarrassed Georgia 52-17. Coach Spurrier stated after the game, “we wanted to be the first team to hang half a hundred on them in their own stadium, we heard no one had ever done that before.”
The 2000’s belonged to the boys from Florida. The Gators won 8 times during the 2000’s.
The 2007 and 2008 games stand out during this decade. In 2007, after a short touchdown run by Knowshon Moreno, the entire Bulldog bench rushes the field to celebrate.
Coach Mark Richt stated that he ordered his team on the field after the touchdown. That celebration fueled the Bulldogs to a 42-30 victory. This game is remembered as “The Gator Stomp.”
The 2008 game featured two top ten teams with an inside track to the SEC Eastern Division race. The Bulldogs dominated the first half on the field but missed two field goals and failed to recover an onside kick. The Gators lead at half 14-3.
The second half was all Gators just like the 2000’s. Tim Tebow lead the Gators to a 49-10 rout of the Bulldogs.
The 2010’s are up for grab this Saturday. Georgia leads the 2010’s 5 to 4 wins. With a win on Saturday, Georgia would win the decade battle for the first time since the 1980’s.
This may be the most significant Florida-Georgia game since 2008. The winner takes control of the division and their college playoff hopes are still alive.
Keys to the Game for the Bulldogs:
- Establish the running game (entire offense revolves around running the ball)
- Win the turnover battle
- Pressure Trask
Keys to the Game for the Gators:
- Tackle, Tackle & Tackle (no yards after contract)
- Contain D’Andre Swift (there is not a team in College Football that can stop him)
- Win the cornerback/wide receiver battles
Georgia is a 3.5 point favor. My prediction: Florida takes it 24-16
The Best Rivalry
By: Kenneth Harrison
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
The SEC has some great programs and traditions. It seems like every team in each division is a rival with the exception of the two newest members (Mizzou and Texas A&M).
Some of the great rivalries are Alabama-Auburn, Ole Miss-Mississippi State, Arkansas-LSU and Florida-Tennessee. We can also add anyone that shares a border with Tennessee as one of their rivals.
The best rivalry in the conference has to be Georgia and Florida. There are several factors that make this very unique. Both teams are in talent rich states. They both recruit the best players from states that are top five in the nation in talent.
Both teams are extremely competitive and produce a lot of NFL talent consistently. Some of them have won the Heisman Trophy. Some legendary names that played in this series include Herschel Walker, A.J. Green, Matthew Stafford, Hines Ward, Emmitt Smith, Tim Tebow and Danny Wuerffell.
We cannot say the same for other programs in the conference like Arkansas, South Carolina, Kentucky, Mizzou and Vanderbilt.
This game is also played at a neutral site. The Auburn-Alabama game used to be played in Birmingham at Legion Field. Since 2000, they are played on campus.
Arkansas – Texas A&M game is played at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Tx. The contract was signed before A&M joined the conference and it ends in 2024.
The first time both teams met was in 1915 and has been played every season since 1926, except for a war-time interruption in 1943.
The game has been played in Jacksonville since 1933 with just two exceptions. It was formerly called the “World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party” but that name is no longer used officially.
The schools also dispute their first meeting, which UGA counts as a 52-0 win in 1904. UF does not count this because it was one of their predecessor institutions, called Florida Agricultural College based in Lake City.
The modern university was established the next year in 1905 and fielded the first officially recognized football team in 1906.
Since the league was divided into two divisions in 1992, both teams have been competing to win the SEC East. The game is high stakes and that makes it more entertaining.
This year both teams have one loss and are ranked in the Top Ten. The team that wins this game will win the division. As long as they continue to win, they will make the College Football Playoff.
Steve Spurrier was known for taking shots at rival teams and it seems current Gators head coach Dan Mullen is continuing the tradition. He trolled UGA this offseason when he announced the attendance for the spring game was 39,476. Mullen previously admitted he has having fun with the spring game numbers to rile up his rivals.
Georgia has not won a championship in 39 years and has played 476 games during this drought. Now, Mullen claims he doesn’t know where that number came from.
“I had no idea. I don’t even know how they came up with that number, the most random thing ever,” Mullen said. “But everybody started freaking out about it, I guess, until three days later somebody put enough math together to go figure that out. Maybe Georgia fans were really so uptight they haven’t won in 39 years they got all uptight and tried to figure it out. But it was pretty random actually, it was pretty funny.”
I hope this game lives up to the heavyweight matchup we are all expecting.
The Good, Bad and Lucky
By: JJ Lanier
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
As someone who grew up in North Carolina and didn’t start really following college football until the late 80’s/early 90’s, I never had much interest in the Georgia/Florida rivalry.
At that time Florida was dominating the series like a father does in basketball against his 7-year-old, so unless you had some connection to either team, it was just a regular game with a clever nickname.
It wasn’t until my wife and I began our short, two-year stint in Athens (‘01-‘03), that I realized just how big the entire game, and the festivities surrounding it, were.
I don’t remember much about the 2001 game, other than the fact Florida won, but the day before the 2002 certainly stands out in my mind.
All sports fans are superstitious to some degree, whether they want to admit it or not. In the case of a fellow employee I worked with at an Athens carpet store during the 2002 season, his superstition involved a Georgia t-shirt he wore every Friday before the weekend’s game.
Leading up to the Florida game, I suppose the superstition was working, since Georgia was undefeated and ranked in the top 5. So, you can understand my surprise when this person showed up to work on that Friday, the day before arguably the biggest game of the season to that point, without his Georgia shirt.
Now it wasn’t just those of us in the warehouse that were aware of this ritual, everyone else in the building, including the owner, knew about it.
As word of the forgotten t-shirt trickled throughout the store like a game of telephone, the owner, who was apparently well versed in superstition lore, decided to step in.
Not only did he send my co-worker home to collect his t-shirt, while on the clock, but he stepped right in and filled in for him while he was gone. He, like most everyone else, didn’t want to be the jinx that caused Georgia to lose.
Since I didn’t have a dog in the fight (no pun intended), I thought the whole ordeal was pretty funny, especially since I thought Georgia was going to win.
Florida had really struggled to begin the season and Georgia was clearly the better team; just goes to show records don’t matter in any rivalry, even if it’s one you don’t pay much attention to.
Even though Florida won, the magical shirt continued to be worn every Friday as Georgia finished the season with only one loss. I guess it wasn’t only that the shirt had to be worn, but it needed to be on his body before he arrived at work in order for its mystical powers to flourish?
Now, I realize this isn’t some scandalous story, or one that ends with my buddy running down Broad St. screaming “Danny Wuerffel is my Dad”, but, when was the last time the owner of the business you work for paid you to go home because of a superstition?
Plus, over the course of the two years I lived in Athens, and five years in Georgia overall, I never encountered a situation that embodied how important the Georgia/Florida game is to its fans.
If you’re a Georgia fan, I can only hope my former co-worker remembers to wear his shirt to work on Nov. 1.
From my experience, the outcome of the game depends on it.
Cocktails In The River City
By: TJ Hartnett
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
The University of Georgia and the University of Florida have fought the same battle on the same battleground for nearly a century. That won’t be changing for the next several years.
The city of Jacksonville, Florida, where the two rivals have played their annual game since 1933, agreed to continue hosting the collegiate contest through at least 2023 with an option to extend to 2025.
Press releases were sent out with all parties involved expressing a positive feeling about the deal, espousing words of tradition and history; if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, essentially.
The idea behind playing this game in Jacksonville each year is housed in the notion that it’s a neutral ground. With the two teams claim to be the “University of” their respective states, Jacksonville also serves as a borderland over which the game’s victors can claim.
But it’s not quite neutral territory, is it? Ignoring the fact that the game is played inside the state lines of Florida, the geography is actually staggeringly lopsided.
The rabid, eager fans of the Georgia Bulldogs make the trip every year, often with a pit stop on a beach or coastal island like St. Simon’s, to cheer on their team. Thus, is the level of their passion.
It’s an overnight trip, for sure. It takes over five hours to make the trek from Athens, Georgia to Jacksonville.
Gas money, hotels, food and alcohol, and eleven or more total hours in a car are all costs that the Bulldog faithful must pay to root for their home team.
The Florida Gator Nation? They could easily sleep in their beds the night of the game. It’s less than an hour and a half travel time to get from Gainesville to Jacksonville. Sure, many Gators will stay in Jacksonville and revel in the festivities, but with a DD in tow, driving back home is very much an option.
Granted, so many fans of college football – and these two teams in particular – aren’t current (or have ever been) students of their respective schools; but the stadiums in Gainesville and Athens aren’t filling up with 5-hour commuters every Saturday. They’re being attending by people who can commute to the games.
So, even those season ticket holders for UGA, who aren’t living in Athens aren’t living an hour and a half from Jacksonville either.
This isn’t to say that Florida has home field advantage every year but it’s not a far cry from it.
There’s been talk of moving the game from Jacksonville in the past. Recently there has been a notion for a home-and-home series between the two teams, for example.
I’ve even heard it suggested that the annual game switch between Jacksonville and Atlanta (for those counting mileage, the travel times essentially switch, but with a slightly shorter trip time from Gainesville to Atlanta than Athens to Jacksonville).
Last week’s news of the game remaining in Jacksonville puts those options to bed, for now, anyway.
Truthfully it does seem unlikely that a game with such rich history in one location would be altered. Especially now that they’re locked in for a 90th year, why stop shy of a century?
Who knows if either of those options, or a third, heretofore unknown choice, will ever be utilized.
The game is too big each year to not involve some kind of pomp and circumstance, even when the teams aren’t having their best years.
So maybe Jacksonville isn’t the most elegant solution; it doesn’t seem like there will be another one anytime soon.
