Who do UGA fans love to hate?
“As a Dawg, who do you despise most?”
I figured that topic/question, proposed recently in an e-mail from Blawg reader Tom Lashley, would make a good Monday morning eye-opener. After all, college football in this state traditionally is all about “clean old-fashioned hate,” and there never seems to be a shortage of villains for UGA fans to focus on, whether it’s opposing coaches, trash-talking players or mush-mouthed TV analysts.
Actually, there seems to be a lot more despising going on these days than I recall in my childhood. For the most part, folks in red and black respected Georgia Tech’s Bobby Dodd, even when he’d won eight in a row over Wally Butts in the 1950s. And while UGA fans always hated Tech the week of the annual game, many back then actually rooted for the Jackets when they weren’t playing against the Bulldogs.
Loading ...Back in the 1960s, Alabama’s Bear Bryant was probably the only figure widely hated by college footbal fans in these parts, and that went for everyone in the SEC who didn’t follow the Crimson Tide (not just Georgia fans).
Archie Manning and Pat Sullivan weren’t real popular in Athens during their time as players, but I’m not sure it ever reached the level of hating or despising them.
More of that developed in the 1980s, when rival coaches like the tobacco-spitting Danny Ford at Clemson and sanctimonious Bill Curry at Tech were pretty widely despised. Jackie Sherrill had his haters, too. And, of course, there was UGA academic whistleblower Jan Kemp, who might have been a hero to some observers of college athletics but whose name came pretty close to curse-words status among many Bulldogs fans.
Then came the ’90s and the arrival of the Prince of Darkness at the University of Florida. Steve Spurrier made no secret of his longtime hatred of UGA and took every opportunity to belittle Dawgs players and coaches during the Ray Goff and Jim Donnan eras and run the score up on Georgia whenever he could. Today’s South Carolina Spurrier Lite might not matter as much in the overall scheme of things, but he’s still No. 1 on many Georgia fans’ hate list.
Of course, we can’t forget the folks in Knoxville. Phil Fulmer was up there on the hate list for a while but faded once his spell over the Dogs had been broken by a hobnail boot. And Jabari Davis had a brief run as a UGA villain after he famously said he signed with the Vols instead of the Bulldogs because “Georgia was always talking about getting to the Peach Bowl” while at UT “we’re talking about going to the Rose Bowl.” Of course, after the Vols ended up in the Peach Bowl two straight years while Georgia was winning an SEC crown and playing for another, Jabari mainly became a punch line.
Ditto Casey Clausen. After standing on the sidelines with an injured shoulder while Georgia beat the Vols in Athens, he said that had he been in the game, “I could have played on one arm” and Tennessee would have won. He appeared to have two good arms the next year in Knoxville and still managed a fumble near the goal line that the Dawgs’ Sean Jones returned 92 yards for a touchdown on the way to a 41-14 Georgia rout.
In suggesting the “who do you despise most” topic, Lashley mentioned two obvious candidates, Spurrier and Urban Meyer, along with Tim Tebow (who I’m not so sure most Georgia fans hate as much as they’re just tired of his deification). I got a chuckle out of Lashley’s other suggested villain: UGA President Michael Adams. Considering the way he was booed at the Sugar Bowl, though, I’d say Adams definitely is a contender.
And I’d throw everyone’s least favorite SEC official, Penn Wagers, and ESPN’s resident UGA hater, Lou Holtz, onto the list.
So that’s our Question of the Day. Feel free to vent your spleen about these or any other villains in the comments, vote in the poll or do both.
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161 comments Add your comment
R D
July 20th, 2009
7:29 am
This is absolutely the most childish column I have ever read. Lord have mercy, how old are you sir?
Disgruntled Dawg
July 20th, 2009
7:59 am
This is a no brainer Bill…. You left off the bald headed idiot Willie.
johnnie Ray
July 20th, 2009
8:02 am
Other kool aid drinking dawg fans would be on my list!
alpha dawg
July 20th, 2009
8:08 am
Mark May and the rest of the ESPN dumb a$$eS
Jim Doannan as in Doans Pills
July 20th, 2009
8:10 am
Michael Adams hands down..
Browncoat
July 20th, 2009
8:11 am
Get someone else to write this blog!
45-42, bleah
July 20th, 2009
8:11 am
Every techie that posts 45-42 bwahahahaha. I’m really anticipating the November beatdown.
Frozen_Gator
July 20th, 2009
8:14 am
R D< You don’t know college in the South very well and I don’t think you’re from around here.
Bubba
July 20th, 2009
8:14 am
Lame Kiffin is climbing the list rather quickly.
DAWGLOVER
July 20th, 2009
8:16 am
Tom Brenneman – the man knows nothing about sports and was calling the game for UGA’s last Sugar Bowl and all he could do is bash CMR and accuse him of running up the score. He was almost yelling. Fortunately the other announcer reminded him that the third-string was in the game and that UGA couldn’t just take a knee on every down. The moron didn’t want to admit Hawaii just sucked.
Gen Neyland
July 20th, 2009
8:17 am
Anything Orange…
DAWGLOVER
July 20th, 2009
8:17 am
I agree about Mark and May and all of ESPN. They would give the NC to USC every year without ever playing a game.
3>8
July 20th, 2009
8:18 am
Bill (and Huh?), you actually do not pull for Tech most of the time?
Bubba
July 20th, 2009
8:18 am
I love the COOTS. Who would not love the scrawny little chicken fighting itself in a mirror during the COOTS beatdown by Iowa in the bowl game. It was symbolic of the futility of that moribound football program.
Freedawg
July 20th, 2009
8:20 am
I don’t know how old you are or where you grew up but people around here back in the day didn’t hate Bear Bryant. They were practically in awe of him. What they hated was having to play Alabama.
Robert
July 20th, 2009
8:20 am
Florida fans, because they wear jean shorts, put gel in their hair, frost their tips, have Urban Meyer for a coach, drive fast-and-the-furious cars, Gainesville sucks, Matt Hayes, their quarterback cries, etc.
Georgia Tech fans, because they are nerds, their women are ugly, Atlanta sucks, their stadium is a little dump, they gloat so hard after one win, everyone gets robbed on their campus, they harbor terrorists, etc.
ESPN
Carpet bagging yankees who think they know about college football.
Iceman
July 20th, 2009
8:22 am
Michael Adams..the idiot impedes athletic department progress every chance he gets.
Robert
July 20th, 2009
8:24 am
Willie Martinez
RAMBLE ON!!!
July 20th, 2009
8:26 am
Check this out fleabags:
In a land far away, where one of the greatest and oldest Championship is played,(umm think of the SEC Championship multiplied by a gazillion, but the fans don’t pee in squirt-guns and spray each other) a golf game is played.
Over a 130 years this tournament has been played, well guess what, another typical GT graduate has won once again.
Let’s all join together and wish Stewart Cink a nice loud Goooooo Jackets!!!
Scott from Rockmart
July 20th, 2009
8:27 am
Robert you named Florida fans, Georgia Tech fans, ESPN and Carpet bagging yankees, but only listed a reason (a stupid one [Woody Hayes, Joe Paterno, Bo Shem….) for your feelings. Every thing else is 6th grade insults. WHY do you hate them?
Gen Neyland
July 20th, 2009
8:37 am
RAMBLE ON!!! : Did Cink play for money at the college level too..? And he beat an old man. Big bully.
Mikey
July 20th, 2009
8:38 am
In order…
Georgia Tech
Florida
UT
UGASlobberknocker
July 20th, 2009
8:40 am
Congratulations Stuart Cink! His win proves that some Tech people do know how to win and WIN WITH CLASS!. Who knew?
Hey Tech football fans; I’m guessing Cink won’t be on any message board repeating his final score over and over and over again.just because he finally won a tournament.. He probably realizes how juvenile and pathetic that looks. Some of these pitiful Tech fans (with their obvious inferiority complex,) even make David Duval seem lovable in comparison.
Mikey
July 20th, 2009
8:40 am
Ramble on,
Conratulations to Cink but Watson lost more than Cink won.
The putt on 18 to win was his worst putt of the week…
The playoff was an afterthought.
Too Easy
July 20th, 2009
8:41 am
Good for Cink (on this pro golf blog). Too bad he didn’t win any NCAA championships while he actually was a jackette. Same for Duval, Mize, Matteson, etc., etc., etc.
Too Easy
July 20th, 2009
8:42 am
Now, THAT’S typical gt graduate.
Dave
July 20th, 2009
8:49 am
I think that if Iran fielded a team and played UT, I would pull for Iran. Their fans are the worst I’ve ever seen. Same with Ga. Tech. Tech wins ONE game by three points and act like it was a beat down. They fail to insert that THEy gave up 42 points and 407 yds. passing. I guess when you’re losing 7 of 8, it can make you feel a little paranoid. Even a blind squirrel finds a nut, eventually….
DawginLex
July 20th, 2009
8:52 am
Hey Rambler,
I bet Stewart won’t blog and post “6 stroke playoff beatdown” over and over again like ‘m’ does.
AltamahaDawg
July 20th, 2009
9:00 am
I remember when Georgia fans reserved thier dislike for the other team.
T-Rav and the Eastside Grainger
July 20th, 2009
9:11 am
Robert…..dont your professors murder people?
Cuz
July 20th, 2009
9:12 am
I gave up hating when I found the Lord, I just intensely despise these days.
I agree. Maroonic topic.
Cuz
July 20th, 2009
9:16 am
T-Rav, I despise you. That is pretty low considering that many of my friends went to school with the wife and were shocked and deeply saddened at her death. Thanks for bringing your lack of class to this blog. I went after any one who made joke comments about the Tech athlete who OD’d on heroin. You must think class is that fifty-five minutes you spent with a professor.
ahope3
July 20th, 2009
9:18 am
Dave,
And we found a lot of nuts that day huh? It’s crazy how you uga fans like to chastise Tech fans for gloating on our win. You fail to understand many factors. It was our first win over you in 8 yrs, eventhough we have the longer streak. It was Paul Johnson’s first attempt to beat you and he did beautifully. Who care about how many yards we gave up, WE WON. Let’s look at the one dimensional yards you gave up…….. ON THE GROUND. You knew what was coming……. DUH THE RUN, and still could do nothing. uga was overrated and got their butts handed to them in their home stadium, in front of 90,000 fans. Yet you talk about us for bragging. It’s college football, these players play for the love of the game, not a paycheck so yes, they brag, their fans brag, IT’S COLLEGE FOOTBALL. Get over it
YoungDawg
July 20th, 2009
9:21 am
Michael Adams!!!
ahope3
July 20th, 2009
9:21 am
T-Rav and the Eastside Grainger ,
Your comment is deplorable and totally irrelevant to this blog. You show hints of racism, childishness, and an overall lack of intelligence.
ahope3
July 20th, 2009
9:21 am
Cuz,
Bravo
UGAGRAD02
July 20th, 2009
9:26 am
I don’t hate Tech and the school, it’s the fans. Tech fans are fickle, and when you go to a Tech game it’s like going to a circus. You have 790 the zone doing free giveaways, rap concerts, and the GTG’s selling their album out front. Sure Tech has had a great past with some fine coaches and players, but the whole college football experience is missing at Tech. They should have never built the new end zone sits and that way Tech might have every game sold out during the year.
dawgfanatic24-7
July 20th, 2009
9:28 am
Fla then UT. Tech sucks and we normally beat them. A fla victory usually means a bid for the conf cham.
Saint Simons
July 20th, 2009
9:29 am
45-42!!!!!!! hahahahahahahahahaha
ahope3
July 20th, 2009
9:31 am
Robert,
You are an idiot for your comment just as well. We don’t harbor terrorists. You probably have plenty at your school. We are a technology oriented school. Of course we’ll have a lot of international students and of those, some may be. If we knew that, do you think we’d allow admittance. How do you think they get in this country, THE GOVERNMENT you jerk. Don’t blame Tech for a slipup on the government’s side for not checking as thoroughly as they should. 9 times out of 10 you’ll probably work for one of us some day, just because of our degree. Now think on that while you trash talk Tech and Atlanta, one of the most thriving cities in the country bringing in more revenue than Athens could even count. You’re just an IDIOT
Tony Romosexual
July 20th, 2009
9:33 am
Need to start the season before they fire Bill King; lame and overused topic to try and inflate the amount of comments.
Why so much hating?
Did T-Rav’s comment get removed? I can’t see it.
ahope3
July 20th, 2009
9:35 am
UGAGRAD02 ,
More than half your fans never even step foot on uga soil. You call us fickle yet you have more bandwagon fans than any school in the history of college football. Don’t criticize us. Of course you wouldn’t understand, you’re used to cow pastures and mud pies. We have a great college football experience in a wonderful city. We play the top name teams in the nation (Clemson, FSU, Miami, Virginia Tech) and beat them. So don’t talk about what you don’t know anything about. At All
Tony Romosexual
July 20th, 2009
9:36 am
ahope3….breath homie.
Tony Romosexual
July 20th, 2009
9:36 am
After all, you are on OUR TEAM BLOG, geek.
Otto
July 20th, 2009
9:39 am
I don’t think most UGA fans hate maybe some of the newer transplants do. They do give long time UGA fans a bad name. Bill you have given UGA fans a bad name with some of your UF comments in the past. Many long time UGA fan strongly dislike UF, Tenn, and GT.
With that said SOS was actually hated by many for making fun of Goff. We weren’t happy but he was our coach to make cracks at not SOS’s. I actually respect SOS he said thing about the Refs every other coach was afraid to say especially Goff. I dislike Urban and UF but do not hate them or any other team in the SEC.
I do hate Penn Wagers that biased excuse for a ref.
Saint Simons
July 20th, 2009
9:40 am
Sorry I had to get that out of me. Since we only beat UGA once a decade, I have to get it out of me before we get waxed again this year. Truth is, we got extremely lucky last year. UGA owns us every year.
RAMBLE ON!!!
July 20th, 2009
9:40 am
Ya’ll should show that same indignation for Robert as you do for T-Rav…selective moral outrage is for the democrats.
I’d rather be a dawg, than a democrat.
T.O
July 20th, 2009
9:44 am
Ahope3
Please don’t include Clemson as a top team in the nation. You’re kidding yourself. They are the second biggest joke of a football program in the country. GA TECH is #1. Good luck on another 8-4 season.
ahope3
July 20th, 2009
9:46 am
Saint Simons ,
What kinda fan are you. We weren’t lucky. We were the better team in that game. Running the ball down their throat is not luck. Maybe getting lucky on missed coverage down the field and having their dbs get burnt would be lucky, but that didn’t happen. We’re a great team and maybe you should find another team to cheer for.
ahope3
July 20th, 2009
9:47 am
T.O ,
I was talking about historically. Clemson has had ups and downs, but they have been good. We’ve beat them 4 of the last 5 years. I know what I’m talking about.