Who you for, UGA fans? The Evil Genius or Nick UnFairley?
"Good luck, Stevie boy. We're all counting on you." (AJC photo by Brant Sanderlin)
Three years ago yours truly paid a midweek visit to Columbia, S.C., for Steve Spurrier’s weekly briefing. Toward the end, I mentioned that a brand new AJC.com poll had just reconfirmed that the Ol’ Ball Coach was — ahead of even Urban Meyer, who was coming off a BCS title — the man Georgia fans most loved to hate.
“Glad they haven’t forgotten me,” said Spurrier, who seemed pleased.
Postscript: Four days later, Spurrier and South Carolina came to Sanford Stadium and beat Georgia 16-12.
The Bulldogs have nothing to do with this year’s SEC championship game, which will be staged Saturday at the Georgia Dome. (Fun fact: Seven different SEC schools have qualified for the title game since last Georgia did in 2005.) But Spurrier will be here, and he might actually be the sentimental favorite. Because here are your choices:
• In one corner, the Evil Genius and his Gamecock minions, who are new to this championship thing.
• In the other, RoboCoach Gene Chizik and Nick UnFairley and, lest we forget, Cam Newton.
Loading ...Auburn fans love their team. Almost nobody else does. Let’s state for the record that Newton is the nation’s best player and Fairley its best defender, but we also must concede that the Tigers lead the world in irrational exuberance.
This isn’t to say South Carolina has been without sin. Tight end Weslye Sanders was kicked off the team without playing a down this season, and several Gamecocks apparently got the William Shatner rate at Columbia’s Whitney Hotel over the summer. And that “2001″ introduction at Williams-Brice Stadium was pretty tired back in … well, 2001.
But Auburn, as we know, has become the new standard in raised eyebrows, what with Fairley’s repeated slams of Georgia quarterback Aaron Murray (see YouTube video below) to the series of revelations/allegations that led to Newton being declared ineligible by Auburn. (He was re-instated, after a timeout of one day, by the NCAA.)
Viewed alongside strutting Auburn, the Gamecocks seem rather gentlemanly. So now I’m asking a question I never thought I’d ask: Georgia fans, are you rooting for Spurrier?
Or, put another way, is there really a cold front bearing down on Hades?
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935 comments Add your comment
Gator Man
December 3rd, 2010
4:19 pm
Go Auburn and represent the SEC in the BCS NAT. I would expect a bunch of losers from UGA would be pulling for SC to knock Auburn chances to play for a NAT.
When you have not played for one in 30 years you get selfish.
Chuck Oliver
December 3rd, 2010
4:20 pm
Kang here!
@chillahill43
Does your mom know you’re on the computer? She would be highly upset!
Kang OUT!
Joe Morrison
December 3rd, 2010
4:22 pm
Aubarn wins, then plays in the NC game, sCam wins the Heisman and then a year later when the money trail shows up, stripped of it all —— priceless.
jarvis
December 3rd, 2010
4:22 pm
OnceUponATime…I blah, blah, blah didn’t understand that I was pulling for three teams that generally don’t care for each other. I moved close to one blah, blah, blah.
Leave. I asked your neighbors. No one wants you here.
To Cobb Dawg
December 3rd, 2010
4:22 pm
Stop drinking the KoolAid, dearie.
Learn to think for yourself and not be so sold on a media blitz based on allegations and speculation.
Makes you look pretty foolish when you believe everything you read.
Paul Deitzel
December 3rd, 2010
4:23 pm
I too will root for the Gamecocks!
aualum87
December 3rd, 2010
4:23 pm
@cobb dawg, we’re glad you’re not pulling for AU, we don’t need you pulling for the Tigers, we’ll do just fine….by the way, Shreveport gets chilly in December (extra chilly when you’re 6-6 and playing Central Fla in a bowl game, ouch!…)….like I said, we’ll be in sunny Glendale if you need us….
Jim Carlin
December 3rd, 2010
4:24 pm
Count me in ……. go Gamecocks!
Sparkey Woods
December 3rd, 2010
4:24 pm
Go Cocks!
jarvis
December 3rd, 2010
4:25 pm
So you’re saying Cobb Dawg drinks KoolAid.
I don’t believe it, but I read it on the Internet, so it must be true. I’m so torn.
Lou Holtz
December 3rd, 2010
4:25 pm
I built this team …………. Gamecocks!
Steve Tanneyhill
December 3rd, 2010
4:26 pm
Boy, if I had those receivers……… gamecocks, baby!
jarvis
December 3rd, 2010
4:27 pm
What’s brown and sticky?
aualum87
December 3rd, 2010
4:28 pm
@Gator Man, you’re spot on it….UGA has resorted to pulling for OTHER teams to win and beat up on all those “meanies” that beat their Bulldawgs…it’s actually pathetic….and I guarantee you every AU fan has been pulling for the SEC representative the last 4 years….that’s how we roll, we don’t sit around and pout and hope somebody else beats the team that beat us….
jarvis
December 3rd, 2010
4:29 pm
A stick.
Rick S
December 3rd, 2010
4:29 pm
Honestly- As a Georgia fan I am sick and tired of participating in picks in the SEC Championship Game that in recent years always involve other teams! Ridiculous!
aualum87
December 3rd, 2010
4:30 pm
jarvis, your pecker, that’s what’s brown and sticky….you need to stay away from those types of bars….
Cheesestick
December 3rd, 2010
4:30 pm
Auburn S@#KS
jarvis
December 3rd, 2010
4:33 pm
Why does Snoop carry an umbrella?
meh
December 3rd, 2010
4:33 pm
I’d like to see both Auburn and Oregon lose. Then I could sit and laugh as TCU and Stanford played for the national championship.
jarvis
December 3rd, 2010
4:34 pm
Fo’ drizzle.
aualum87
December 3rd, 2010
4:37 pm
Does Mark Bradley not get it? This is college football, not a popularity contest, it’s not “who you got pulling for ya’”, it’s smashmouth SEC football, and who cares if people in Kansas, Ohio, or anywhere else is “pulling for ya’”….that’s why you have a fan base…
Your Breath Smells like Fish Fry Tacos
December 3rd, 2010
4:38 pm
Au fan don’t you mean once upon a goat?
jarvis
December 3rd, 2010
4:42 pm
Grrrrr….smashmouth….grrrr
SECWasteManagement
December 3rd, 2010
4:42 pm
Hope South Carolina wins and then an errant cruise missile hits the Dome.
JdawgT
December 3rd, 2010
4:45 pm
The best thing about Auburn is that it’s in Alabama.
John
December 3rd, 2010
4:48 pm
“I could not give a rat’s arse if the NCAA “vacates” every AU win going back to 1800s. We all know what happened on the field.”
That’s one way of looking at it.
Live for the moment. I can relate. After the Braves won the WS in 1995, I was thinking about next season by January. 1995 was fun while it lasted; and then it was gone.
And if the Atlanta Braves single World Championship had subsequently been revealed a fraud, it didn’t detract from my enjoyment of the 1995 season while it was in progress. In fact, if I had suspected my Bravos were cheating, it would have only redoubled my efforts to enjoy it while I could.
Seems no different for some AU fans and their attitude about the 2010 season.
So live fast, die young and leave a beautiful corpse – because if what’s now unproven becomes fact, that’s what your football program will be for a while after the NCAA gets through with it.
Then think fondly of the cast of characters who caused your predicament.
UGA 6-6
December 3rd, 2010
4:50 pm
Wow, the jealousy is mind blowing….
Just because UGA is still scared of the so called “Evil Genius” we need to remember AU beat him in The Swamp when he was #1 in the nation and did it again later in Jordan-Hare. a feat unthinkable to UGA fans…..
You all are still scared of the man……..I guess I would be too if we were 6-6 this year..with all those great recruits over the years – still the most underachieving program in the nation..
george
December 3rd, 2010
4:52 pm
good lord mark how clueless can you be. Instead of writing the garbage that you do why dont you actually look up SOME FACTS and realize that you have mixed up Georiga and Auburn.
1. FACT 1 The highest authortiy in College athletics has said neither Auburn University or cam Newton did ANYTHING wrong.
2. FACT 2. You talk about AU being a dirty team. as of NOV 18th UGA was 9th in number of personal fouls this year with 22 including Ben jones being supsended for a cheap shot against Ms. St. Auburn Has 20 personal fouls. Not to even mention.NCAA Rule 9-4-5-1-c:
during either half, coaches or substitutes shall not leave their team area
to participate in a fight, nor shall they participate in a fight in their team
area.
PENALTY—15 yards from the succeeding spot, plus first down for Team
B fouls if the first down is not in conflict with other rules.
Disqualification for the remainder of the game and for the
next game [S7, S27 or S38, and S47]. For fights that occur
in the last game of a season, coaches and substitutes with
eligibility remaining will serve fight-related suspensions
during the first game of the next season for which they are
eligible.
4. FACT 4 You talk about arrests. UGA has 11 arrests in the last year not including the athletic director. Auburn has 3 in the last 2 years.
Please please please please respond to this. I can not wait for you try to explain yourself and try to somehow try to twist the facts.
How 'bout some French Cries
December 3rd, 2010
4:53 pm
Who cares who the leg humpers want to win. They are the biggest bunch of sore losers I have ever seen.
JdawgT
December 3rd, 2010
4:54 pm
John , I bet you cheat on your wife too.
John
December 3rd, 2010
4:59 pm
JdawgT -
Virtuous I ain’t – but I’m not crazy either.
SHANNON
December 3rd, 2010
5:06 pm
Do you have to ask MB?????
The old ball coach.
dawg
December 3rd, 2010
5:12 pm
Why would we be afraid of the old ball coach? We took something from him he can never, ever get back. He is an excellent coach.
Ann Cox Chambers
December 3rd, 2010
5:21 pm
Bradley, I want to see you and whoever screens your blog in my office Monday morning.
JdawgT
December 3rd, 2010
5:39 pm
LEGHUMPERS UNITE !!!
Don4654
December 3rd, 2010
5:40 pm
George,The NCAA said that there wasn’t “sufficient evidence that Cam or Auburn did anything wrong”not no evidence.
Sleeper Service
December 3rd, 2010
5:46 pm
fo drizzle! Ha! Good one
DAVID
December 3rd, 2010
6:00 pm
To bad the best SEC team at the moment isn’t playing for the championship. Less than a month ago Arkansas killed SC in Columbia 41-20(wasn’t that close). Refs gave the game to Auburn at Auburn. But go Tigers so Hogs get some Sugar!
bigdawgfan
December 3rd, 2010
6:04 pm
There’s only one word to describe any UGA loyalist who would lean toward the East Alabama Reform School-TRAITOR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
who is clisby clark
December 3rd, 2010
6:16 pm
Mark: Give us your thinking about Mr. Newton and his Heisman chances. Isn’t there stillf a cloud over his head, and aren’t the NY Athletic Club committeemen still stinging from the Reggie Bush embarrassment?
PS I now live in south Georgia where your employer no longer “covers Dixie like the dew”. So I can’t faithfully read the paper like I used to, since I can’ get it.
who is clisby clark
December 3rd, 2010
6:25 pm
Okay! Okay! I’m still working on my typing skills. I KNOW here is no “f” in still!
AUBABY
December 3rd, 2010
6:27 pm
You Georgia Fans are so funny…Nick Fairley did this, Nick Fairley did that…well heck, had your offensive line been worth a snot…Nick Fairley wouldn’t have even gotten to the QB in the first place. Auburn doesn’t need fickle UGA fans to root for them…If Auburn wins out and takes it all this year…that will be 3 undefeated seasons for the Tigres since 1990…How man has UGA had?…Besides, I would much rather have my guys be overly aggressive on the field as opposed to behind bars….I think the UGA players are far more adept with that scenerio than playing ball anyway…AND If UGA had won that game you guys wouldn’t be crying and whining about Nick Fairley tried to hurt our QB. Oh Boo Hoo…Auburn Nation…War Eagle…let’s have a good game against the GameCocks and let’s see what we can do against the Ducks should we both prevail tomorrow…War Eagle!!!!
Dirty Dawg
December 3rd, 2010
6:38 pm
Hey bigdawgfan, perhaps you didn’t see my ‘rationale’ for why I want Auburn to win…it was earlier this morning – ten-something – but, in short, I’m pulling for them because I believe that they really did it, know it, and are hoping to dodge it…and that when it all comes down and they have to vacate everything and suffer the consequences that will come to a program that was fully complicit in the whole sorry mess. The ultimate price, as it were…and all because of the attitude on display since the first inkling that something was rotten in the ‘purdiest’ village on the plains.
DodgerDAWG
December 3rd, 2010
6:41 pm
This is one of those games where I hate the NCAA Football overtime…THink I will just watch it and enjoy the game…Maybe pull for Oregon
Hilton Head Island
December 3rd, 2010
6:48 pm
South Carolina
go gamecocks
SEC FAN
December 3rd, 2010
6:59 pm
Ok listen up Bozos….. any self respecting SEC fan should pull for Auburn and then pull for them against Oregon… If Auburn had no shot at the NC I’d pull for the OBC. We beat Auburn 4 out of the last five and they’ll be lucky to win 7 games next year without CAM and NICK. This year is their year so let’em rip Tigers and bring home another SEC National Championship.
surfdawg
December 3rd, 2010
7:04 pm
Going with the Gamecocks on this one
Sautee Dawg
December 3rd, 2010
7:08 pm
7 different teams mean that our conference is a storng conference. Not a conference where it’s ladden with pansies that 1 team dominates it every year.
Mark Bradley you are wrong. Nick Unfairley is not the defensive player of the year.
That honor should go to Justin Houston. Having some class should be a factor in determining this award and a player that hit Murray in the back late the way Fairley did has no class at all.
The times he hit Murray straight up I have no problem with, some were even great plays, but to spear another player in the back long after the ball has been thrown intentionaly trying to knock him out of the game or hurt him permanently, shows lack of class and lack of leadership at the coaching level.
Fairley made the same play on the QB during the Clemson game, and the list goes on and on. Late hit on Murray to the leg, SEC refs should have ejected Fairley, they are partly responsible for these typs of plays.
I can promise you this Mr. Bradley if one of our players hit Mr. Newton that late or speared him in the back an ejection wouldn’t be the only punishment handed out. Coach Richt would have seen to that.
Coach Chiznik seems to get fired up and motivated by Fairleys actions which only makes me thankful that the Bulldawg nation has Mark richt and not a coach who condones this type pf play.
As far as hating the Evil Genius, I don’t. I actually admire him for a job well done this season but in my opinion the Gamecocks have no hope with the Tigers.
Gamecocks make it close in the first half but just like UGA, Alabama, Gamecocks earlier in the season.
Cam Newton sells tv time and the SEC powers that be will not let an undefeated Awbarn team lose this game and not be represented in the National Championship Game
It;s not going to happen.
You can’t make me believe that Auburn with it’s 56th ranked defense in the nation can let Allabama and UGA, and S. C. score the 4 times each in the 1st quarter and then hold them scoreless for 3 quarters. without help.
last 3 quarters UGA couldn’t touch the ball without ref’s finding some kind of mistake, same with Alabama. Same with S. C. It will be the same in the DOME.
In the 3 games listed abvove Auburn had maybe 2 penalties in 9 quarters of football., which is unheard of, none of them holding by the way while protecting Mr. Newton.
Maybe the SEC and the NCAA feel they owe Auburn for the 2004 debacle they made of the Championship that season, who knows.
The Newton story is the hottest thing to hit the press in sports since O.J. Simpson so the story keeps on going is my guess with a Auburn win.
Maybe the Gamecocks hang on but don’t see it happening.
Don’t forget though Bradley, you got the Fairley thing wrong, he’s not the MVP on the D side of the ball this year, gotta have some class to win those type awards.
.
Dean
December 3rd, 2010
7:12 pm
Auburn is an embarrasment to the south and our beloved sport. Always have been cheaters and have never been able to win without being cheaters. They are Bama’s little beetch sister and are routinely put in their place. They bought a good team for one year. Enjoy it all you in bred Auburn family members. You won’t be playing football with the big boys for long. The last 5 years you are 1-4 against Georgia and 1-2 the last three against Bama who won a legitimate National Championship. Thump your chest for your one glory year. Lame cheaters, very lame!