LIVE: Bulldogs, Jackets vie for more than bragging rights
The early scene from Sanford Stadium, site for the final regular season game for Georgia and Tech.
ATHENS — Good morning. Before we get to the game, I have a small request: Let’s be civil.
I understand emotions (and beer) often cause sports fans to jump the rails a little bit. Because we will have both Georgia and Georgia Tech fans on this blog, the chance for a verbal inferno becomes even greater.
But the same rules apply: no profanity, no profanity that is cleverly disguised with punctuation marks, no racist comments, no sexual innuendo, no stealing of screen names to give the impression that somebody wrote something when they really didn’t, no … well, you get the idea. You can praise, mock, laud and criticize all you like. But let me share something an old editor of mine once told me: If you have to ask, “Can I write this?” the answer is probably no.
Fair enough?
OK, onto the game. Georgia and Georgia Tech is, first and foremost, always about 364 days of bragging rights. But it’s so much more than that today.
– Georgia needs a win to keep hopes alive for a berth in the BCS title. That’s also contingent on the Bulldogs upsetting Alabama in the SEC championship game next week. The Dogs would still play for the conference title even if they were to be upset by the Jackets. But obviously a lot of steam would come out of the game, and certainly it would deflate the fan base.
– Georgia Tech needs a win for a credibility boost and, in that sense. It also would give Jackets fans some hope for the ACC championship game against Florida State and/or a better bowl game. Tech has won three straight. But it has been a largely rocky season and they slipped into the Coastal Division title and a conference championship berth through the backdoor, benefiting from Miami’s decision to bow out in hopes of minimizing expected NCAA sanctions.
Georgia fans have reason to be concerned: Even though the Dogs have shown themselves to be the better and more talented team, there’s a possibility of players being distracted by all of the SEC and BCS talk.
Georgia Tech fans have reason to be concerned: Even with the late-season bounce back and the added skills that quarterback Vad Lee brings to the lineup, the Jackets’ defense hasn’t stopped anybody. Georgia has a balanced offense led by quarterback Aaron Murray (12 touchdowns, zero interceptions since the fourth quarter against Florida) and freshman running backs Todd Gurley and Keith Marshall.
Bottom line: This is a rivalry game, and strange things often occur in rivalry games. At the risk of sounding cliche, I suspect Tech’s best chance to win today will be based on turnovers and winning the special teams battle. Georgia probably also doesn’t want to get into a scoring battle (as was the case in 2008, when the Jackets won 45-42). Red zone production is key for both teams.
That’s it for now. Have fun all. I’m here to serve.
And with that, the cyber venting lines are open.
By Jeff Schultz
Post-Thanksgiving blog blowout sale
• Upsetting Georgia would give Tech needed boost for future
• Weekend Predictions: Georgia will win on Red-and-Black-Saturday
• Vince Dooley: Joy from Georgia’s resurgence, pain from son’s firing
• Wonder why SEC is on top? Look at other conference finals
• Falcons win — but run before somebody changes their mind
• Short takes: Ryan awful, defense great, win important
• Georgia’s new reality: From on the brink to BCS title possibility
• Upsets launch Georgia into BCS title picture (updated game column)
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1,171 comments Add your comment
glory between the hedges
November 24th, 2012
1:26 pm
Cant give them a td before the half.
playmeortrademe
November 24th, 2012
1:26 pm
“aerospace”
I'm a Georgia fan. It's a license to be stupid.
November 24th, 2012
1:27 pm
no doubt UGA fans will count this as a signature win…Kentucky could beat up on Tech…
dean
November 24th, 2012
1:27 pm
USMC Dawg….old air winger here. Semper Fi bro.
USMC DAWG
November 24th, 2012
1:27 pm
billyho55, Thanks for the classy nod!
Go easy on the Vodka and enjoy the rest of your day, Yellow Jacket!
A RTR Hit-N-Run from ATL
November 24th, 2012
1:27 pm
It’s funny, Aaron Murray with 3 years of 3,000 yards passing and it’s amounted to nothing. I think that tells you what shape the SEC East is in.
kingdaddy
November 24th, 2012
1:27 pm
The Dawgs Defense is men playing boys. Sad, really sad. Bend over Tech…
kingdaddy
November 24th, 2012
1:27 pm
The Dawgs Defense is men playing boys. Sad, really sad. Bend over Tech…
phil
November 24th, 2012
1:27 pm
Tech has that signature Presbyterian win to gloat about….
Sorry, I forgot about it til now.
blamegame
November 24th, 2012
1:27 pm
Any jealous peeps here today? just asking. why are you here?
oh the football game. continue to enjoy
The big question
November 24th, 2012
1:27 pm
Where are all the tek big mouths… st Simons , yellow fuzz?????
DAWGS
November 24th, 2012
1:27 pm
Abusive. Body slamming, pile driving, tearing that azz up!
JB
November 24th, 2012
1:27 pm
Killing the bees. They hate us so
bad. The blogs this week of possible upset was cute
Yella Britches
November 24th, 2012
1:28 pm
What’s more embarassing than this score is some of my fellow GT fans like GT Bob that come on these blogs and defend GT and CPJ. You are a joke.
Lil' Barry Bailout
November 24th, 2012
1:28 pm
If memory serves, Coach O’Leary was able to get players.
Paul Johnson should be fired for doing only 1/3 the job of a head football coach.
Buzzman
November 24th, 2012
1:28 pm
CPJ need to send up the white flag, we are outclassed like I knew we would be. Just like next week we will be outclassed. Vadd does throw a nice ball, with a little practice he might throw it to our guy. We have given GA three scores, fumble on the one, goes for 4th and 5, on the 50, then we throw to their guy. Just think if our offense didn’t play, the score would only be 7 to 0.
Andy
November 24th, 2012
1:28 pm
The SEC has at least 6 very good teams. A comparison to the ACC is ridiculous.
GTBob
November 24th, 2012
1:28 pm
@GtBob, Rambo being a thug? Didn’t know tackling in football is being thuggish. Your team should try it.
Jumping up and down and acting like a moron when a guy just ran for a first down is pretty much much a thug move.
The big question
November 24th, 2012
1:29 pm
This is starting to look like child abuse
glory between the hedges
November 24th, 2012
1:30 pm
Tech having horrible clock management
kingdaddy
November 24th, 2012
1:30 pm
Taken down hard by Ogeltree… Get used to it…
blamegame
November 24th, 2012
1:30 pm
the announcers keep saying GT needs to score. DUH
Will
November 24th, 2012
1:30 pm
I love how UGA is tackling GT players hard and just slamming them.
Iluvnutella
November 24th, 2012
1:30 pm
Just make it respectable….. I think one more year of this non-sense and CPJ will be shown the door. If ND and Stanford can amke a go and be Top 25 every year, we can 2. Just gotta find the right coach.
son's who?
November 24th, 2012
1:31 pm
Why not Vad Lee here? Washington has no arm.
phil
November 24th, 2012
1:31 pm
Buzzman, you doofs haven’t given us anything….
You’re being blasted. Go play with your legos.
billyho55
November 24th, 2012
1:31 pm
IF “WE” ONLY HAD A COUPLE OF NASTIES ON D! NEED PLAYERS WITH ATTITUDE, A CHIP ON THEIR SHOULDERS TO COMPETE REGULARLY! NO THUGS, JUST GUYS WHO WHEN THEY HIT THEY HIT WITH MALICE INTENT!
Will
November 24th, 2012
1:31 pm
Gonna feel so good to beat Tech AGAIN….but bet your bottom dollar that 364 days from now they’ll be talking about how they’re going to beat UGA….All over again.
Iluvnutella
November 24th, 2012
1:31 pm
over by halftime is no way to go thru life……..Johnson is so lost…….
The big question
November 24th, 2012
1:31 pm
The bad news is Florida State is going to do the same thing.
The Grinch
November 24th, 2012
1:32 pm
Coaching genius Paul Johnson let the clock tick down to where they now have 8 seconds left in the half and 2 time outs.
Andy
November 24th, 2012
1:32 pm
The SEC has at least 6 very good teams, (UGA, FLA, SC, AL, LSU, AM). A comparison to the ACC is ridiculous.
GTBob
November 24th, 2012
1:32 pm
Why not Vad Lee here? Washington has no arm.
That is a very good question. I think Paul is a little upset after the interception.
billyho55
November 24th, 2012
1:33 pm
Yella, Nutella,
AMEN BROTHERS! AMEN!
USMC DAWG
November 24th, 2012
1:33 pm
I think CPJ is a great coach and offensive mind; however, when he came out and said the UGA/GT rivalry was just another game as though he didn’t give the annual rivalry game much thought, I think he pissed off a lot of Tech fans and UGA fans still remember as well.
Go Dawgs!
ignition
November 24th, 2012
1:33 pm
I’d rather CPJ play Vad for the rest of the game to get him experience, this game is a wrap, but at the same time I would like to see how much fight GT has in them.
Strange Murphy
November 24th, 2012
1:33 pm
Soooo are all the Nerds gonna keep beiotching about how powerful Tech is?
A RTR Hit-N-Run from ATL
November 24th, 2012
1:34 pm
Tech sure doesn’t have a problem converting first downs.
Lacy is going to have a field day with this.
David S.
November 24th, 2012
1:34 pm
anyone who thought this was going to be close, and by close i mean within two touchdowns, were crazy in the head…. Tech is soooo bad…. can wait to hear all tech fans with their excuses as to why to keep Paul the ASS Johnson
Buzzman
November 24th, 2012
1:34 pm
Jeff, you must have gone to lunch with the rest of the Tech team, haven’t heard from you in a while. Could you eat a fast lunch and bring back some of the players. (lol)
Iluvnutella
November 24th, 2012
1:34 pm
Sheer Genius….a half arse QB running for the sideline when we have two shots at the endzone on pass plays….LOL.
kingdaddy
November 24th, 2012
1:34 pm
Keep the starters in…
rivercard
November 24th, 2012
1:34 pm
Yankee- Not CFB agnostic, just not a fan of either of these two. I like these boards because I find the comments entertaining. Watching because the game has National significance and Georgia is my big pick in my pool.
They weren’t veiled slams. I find a lot of Georgia fans to be unwilling to honestly assess their team (nice way to say delusional). That being said this offense is capable of taking them all the way and as much as I slammed Grantham he is a social butterfly compared to that curmudgeon coaching Tech.
I am astounded that some don’t want to send him packing. I guess same folks who defended D Rad because he raised some bucks while leading once fine basketball and football programs into the abyss.
USMC DAWG
November 24th, 2012
1:34 pm
I definitely agree that Tevin Washington RUNS the Triple Option much better than Vad Lee.
Will
November 24th, 2012
1:35 pm
UGA’s defense will make adjustments at the half, come out playing much better on defense like they did vs. Southern last week.
son's who?
November 24th, 2012
1:35 pm
A fitting end.
Iluvnutella
November 24th, 2012
1:35 pm
Can we fire a coach at halftime?
JB
November 24th, 2012
1:36 pm
We need to consider dropping Tech to protect our players knwes before the years we play ihe SECCG the years we play
USMC DAWG
November 24th, 2012
1:36 pm
How can you blame the GT kicker when Paul Johnson routinely shows no confidence in him by going for it on 4th down all of the time.
Go Dawgs!
Jeff Schultz
November 24th, 2012
1:36 pm
End of half. Tech facing a tough second half obviously.