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
LHardingDawg
December 3rd, 2010
11:09 am
I’m pulling for the eastern division over the western division.
That Guy
December 3rd, 2010
11:09 am
@SoCal, Curious as to why. The allegations, which are just that. Or the dirty play? If it’s “dirty play” then you should be very disappointed with the Dawgs. They are the only team from the SEC in the top 10 in personal fouls in the NCAA this year. As this loss of respect interfered with your work, relationships with others, etc? The point I was trying to get at, is that if a college football game is more important than personal relationships, work, etc, then that person (not necessarily you) has bigger problems than who wins the SEC championship.
Jim Pierce
December 3rd, 2010
11:10 am
Dawg: WAITING for that link, or an admission that you just shot your mouth off.
Pluto
December 3rd, 2010
11:11 am
Yeah Jim I think you got it.
hypAUcritical....
December 3rd, 2010
11:11 am
Jim Pierce…. ????
forgot to add, Go Cocks!! would rather not see an SEC team in the national championship game than one with an asterisk by their name.
also, are they going to let Slimy Cecil attend the heisman ceremony?
Dawg fan for Carolina
December 3rd, 2010
11:11 am
JB,
Correct,it would put a black eye on the SEC as a whole. Do want Spurrier to take it to the Tigers in a big way though.
ARdawg
December 3rd, 2010
11:11 am
Anytime my beloved Dawgs are not playing I will root for the underdog (which lately has been mutually inclusive) or unless one of the teams is on my list of the 5 teams I hate the most. I’ll take the underdog just so I can emotionally “get into” the game.
C0cks by a TD
Milton
December 3rd, 2010
11:11 am
SoCal:
Here is the link disputing your wiretap allegation:
http://www.al.com/sports/index.ssf/2010/11/sources_wiretaps_dont_link_mil.html
Care to counter with one supporting it?
Jim Pierce
December 3rd, 2010
11:12 am
Pluto: So UGA fans and others belive that AU paid Cam and Cecil. Got it. Nevermind that the FBI, SEC, NCAA, and Auburn itself has cleared it. lol
ALMA
December 3rd, 2010
11:12 am
My comments weren’t bad. Why didn’t you post them?
ARdawg
December 3rd, 2010
11:12 am
Never thought I would say it but, GO Ole Ball Sack!!! errrrr Coach I mean
Indian Mike
December 3rd, 2010
11:14 am
Gotta root for Carolina! No way can I root for a program as dirty as Auburn. Yeah Spurrier kicked out butts all those years and he was brash and arrogant about it. However, everything he said about us was true. I think that was why we hated him so bad. His teams were better than ours and his coaching was better and there was nothing we could say as a comeback. That is the one thing about him that you have to at least respect. He says what he thinks and he is upfront about it. Gene Chizik and Urban Meyer are snakes-in-the-grass. They are like the sneaky punk at school who is always doing wrong but weasels their way out of getting caught.
Go Gamecocks! Take down Cam and his cast of thugs!
Atlanta, Ga Auburn Tiger.
December 3rd, 2010
11:14 am
This is a silly question because the answer is obvious. The beat down the whiners took from Auburn is still fresh and their pain and anguish is so overwhelming, they’ll all pull for one of the other teams that embarrassed them this season. Ain’t gonna happen. Your anguish continues. War Eagle!
RxDawg
December 3rd, 2010
11:14 am
@ What What
December 3rd, 2010
10:10 am
It’s not so much that his on the field play elevated significantly. It’s more about his lack of control to stop playing when he’s supposed to. When combined with his extreme rise in play and also combined with the stench coming from everything Auburn these days… it’s not that far fetched to think it’s possible. I’m not accusing, I’m stopping just short of it.
ladyluckjc
December 3rd, 2010
11:15 am
Mike T, that was my point. Chizik was the top assistant in the country. Thanks for driving home my point with your Weinke/Ward talk. It’s comical arguing with some of you. I can get my 3 yr old to say anything I want as well.
hypAUcritical....
December 3rd, 2010
11:16 am
Jim Pierce …. ?????
forgot to add, Go Cocks!!! would rather not see an SEC team in the national championship game than one with an asterisk by their name.
also, are they going to let Slimy Cecil attend the heisman ceremony next weekend? talk about awkward
GTAU
December 3rd, 2010
11:16 am
Thats the sweet smell of success my friend. I know, it stings the nostrils of folks that haven’t smelled it in 30 years.
hypAUcritical....
December 3rd, 2010
11:17 am
now 2 posts not showing…..what up with that
fr"AU"d in denial
December 3rd, 2010
11:17 am
I’d vote for Tina Fey as doing a better job with no experience than Sarah Palin, I’d like for the Ol’ Ball Coach who never cheated at UF when uh, Meeami and FSWho did and got away with it, well, a slap on the wrist, but then again, like Deion Sanders, I didn’t graduate from FSU either, so I hope the chickens when seeing that we are going to strip Auburn from any titles or bronze statues they win anyway, manana, five years who knows when, but we know why:
‘THE MONEY AT AUBURN WAS TOO GOOD TO TURN DOWN COACH MULLLEN”
Now, can someone please share a link of the three monkeys, see no evil, speak no evil, and hear no evil. You know, Auburn fans, Cam Newton, Auburn fans….
DubleDawg
December 3rd, 2010
11:18 am
I wish that they could both lose, and this is the best scenario. Auburn wins a close game, Newton is outvoted in the Heisman race because of suspicions of Reggie Bush redux, and evidence of payment by AU boosters to Newton’s father surfaces. Auburn is sanctioned, it loses scholarships and vacates its wins and championship, goes on probation, and SC is retroactively declared the champion 2 years after the fact when no one cares, it is losing again, Spurrier has retired, and there is a big fat asterisk by its win. SC never wins another SEC Championship, and Cocks fan are forever after forced to defend their one time event of “SEC Champion.”
That would be beautifully chaotic.
aualum87
December 3rd, 2010
11:19 am
Bradley..”Auburn fans love their team. Almost nobody else does”…do you think Auburn fans care who likes them?? This is not a popularity contest, it’s SEC football, so who gives a crap that UGA fans don’t like Auburn, is that news?…
So this is what this boils down to, a blog of losers, picking which team that beat their Dawgs will win the Championship Game….you guys are pathetic……
Dumbo
December 3rd, 2010
11:19 am
Dang, this BLOG has more rednecks than on it than there are in all of South Georgia. Burp………………….Honey, how ’bout anudder Bud and a chicken leg or three…..burp……………
DAWG A
December 3rd, 2010
11:20 am
Easy Decision…. I don’t like Spurrier because he always seem to beat us! I don’t like Auburn because they are possibly going to win a national championship with their best player being a cheater! And I have seen Auburn play several times and they are a bunch of thugs!
So yea it is a easy decision………… Go Spurrier and South Carolina!
wareagle
December 3rd, 2010
11:21 am
Way to go, Mr. Bradley! You knew that this would get the uggas all riled up again and you have once again succeeded admirably. Doesn’t take much, truth be told. They are such a sensitive bunch. Irrational exuberance? I think not. Irrational exuberance is when ugga fans stomp around each and every August beating their collective chests about how their team is going to walk away with the SEC and BCS championships. According to them you might as well not even play the games, just hand over the trophies, please. THAT, my friends, is irrational exuberance. Good luck next year, uggas. War Eagle.
And by the way, we don’t care whether you like us or not. That goes for you too, Mr. Bradley. I generally like your columns though so no hate there, ok?
Pluto
December 3rd, 2010
11:23 am
I believe the operative words were, as of this time. Nothing has been cleared and the investigation is open and on-going. Go Carolina!!
SEC fan
December 3rd, 2010
11:23 am
As an Auburn graduate and fan and living in a House Divided with UGA graduates, I have loved and followed both teams. I attend most of the the UGA games since we live near Athens. Although the Dawgs in my family handled the loss with grace and dignity, I have been absolutely appalled at the vituperous HATRED directed toward me individually, my alma mater, Auburn fans and Auburn players FROM THE UGA FANS. I have Bama friends who have acted much classier and are actually supporting Auburn to win the SEC. In my frequent visits to UGA games, I have noticed a sense of entitlement from the students and fans. What I saw (and this could be said for the AU/Bama game as well) was that UGA went up early so they assumed they were pulling off the upset of the year. How dare Auburn come back and win!!! The Georgia fans are mad as the devil….the Bama fans are tipping their houndstooth hats. I don’t get it. I know there are factions at every school who can make any sporting event miserable, but other than Florida, UGA seems to be the worst. I decided this year I was going to buy a ticket and sit in the Auburn section…it was not the Auburn section. Being an older woman with a temporary disability, I had the “pleasure” of sitting behind two UGA male fans who stood up on their seats (not on the concrete, but on their seats) the whole game. I asked them politely if they could sit down occasionally and was basically told “no”. So I moved….the UGA fan behind me kept dropping the *f* word. There were young children and elderly folks around. I asked the fan if he would use that kind of language in front of his grandmother and he said “yes”. BTW, I have never heard the use of the *f* word so much as it is by UGA students. Total lack of respect…but they are “entitled” to do whatever they want. Just go to St. Simons for the UGA/Florida game — you’ll witness first hand why the world is going to hell in a hand basket.
As for you Mr. Bradley, why can’t you just get over it??? Did you actually play football in your life? Talk to any player at any age and they will tell you that cheap shots and late hits happen all the time. That doesn’t make it right and I don’t condone it. But somehow you’re trying to make Nick Fairley out to be holding a monopoly on that type of behavior….why?? What do you stand to gain from constantly putting people down?
And as for the Auburn fan exuberance….if your school were having the kind of year Auburn has had, you might be doing cartwheels down Peachtree Street. Jealousy is an ugly trait.
murfdawg
December 3rd, 2010
11:24 am
Can’t pull for SOS. Beating Donnan and Goff was no big feat, but SOS made the gator nation proud after 60 years. Now he can make the Cock nation proud, but it won’t happen. The Ole Ball Sack has always been a mediocre coach with superior players. Lou Holtz did a better coaching job at USC than spurrier has.
Auburn has been down and it is their own fault. Now they have pulled themselves out of the quicksand and are standing on the mountain top. But when you get to the top of the mountain, there is only one way to go. After AU wins the SECCG and the MNC, the NCAA will take them down the other side of the mountain….again.
So, I’m pulling for AU to win the SECCG and the MNC, but lose in the big picture in the next five years.
Nick F.
December 3rd, 2010
11:24 am
I’m commin to getcha, puppies, here I come!
Sleeper Service
December 3rd, 2010
11:25 am
To the folks asking why Mark Bradley would write Georgia biased articles, AJC stands for Atlanta Journal and Constitution. Last time I checked, Atlanta was still located in the state of Georgia. If you don’t like it, bug the editors of the rags that pass for newspapers in Al until they create blogs for you.
Patrick Romano WAR DAMN EAGLE
December 3rd, 2010
11:25 am
Hey First, Did you really say Go Cocks, WOW and what about UGA’S Cheap Chop Blocks,,,
Jealous, See ya next year with your 5 or 6 wins.
NCAA/SEC don’t find it necessary to punish Nick Fairley, last I heard it was a contact sport. I understand the late hit and he was penalized as he should have been.
Like Buck Belue stated calling the game if he had silver britches, we’d love him!
WAR DAMN EAGLE
When we contain Lattimore and knock out Garcia, with a Nick Firley sack we will continue on our roll at 13-0…Great season, give UGA some cheese with all their whining…
See ya’ll in Glendale, AZ first week in January…
01HAWK
December 3rd, 2010
11:26 am
BARNERS are not liked here, and never will be
Jeff
December 3rd, 2010
11:26 am
I think I speak for ALL Georgia fans when I say that I hope that a massive, unexpected, once-in-a-lifetime earthquake hits downtown Atlanta at 4 p.m. tomorrow and swallows the whole freakin’ Georgia Dome.
I really don’t care about this one… I’d hate for either team to win. But I can’t worry about what two other school’s football programs are doing… I have enough in real life to deal with, PLUS if I’m going to worry about a football team, it’s going to be my Bulldogs and how we can fix a few things before next year.
I can’t wait for 10 years from now, though… Spurrier will still be making deals with the devil, Nick Fairley will be in prison somewhere, Cam Newton will be JaMarcus Russell, but Bulldog fans will still be supporting their team with their heart and soul… Go get ‘em next year, Dawgs!
none of your opinions count
December 3rd, 2010
11:26 am
The reality is this:
Its doesnt matter what you think about the situation, it only matters what the NCAA and SEC think.
None of you, Auburn, UGA, Bama or otherwise, matter in the case. You dont talk to recruits, you dont coach the teams, you dont have any influence whatsoever.
So vent away on random blogs, attempt to get under your counterparts skin, you still dont matter.
War Eaglet
December 3rd, 2010
11:27 am
We win as a team, and will go down as a team in a flame filled inferno when the NCAA Vultures are through picking our feathers from our carcass, WE ARE NOT LOSING TO THE GAMECOCKS, however, we will cry like babies and nowhere to be found when the NCAA is through with the investigation, in 2015, so until then
longtimegatorfan
December 3rd, 2010
11:28 am
Jim oo7(7:15 am)
as the ole ball coach always said “its the opponent’s job to stop you
not your own coach’s.” when it comes to “running up the score” Like
him or not (consistent losers to him like ugag hate him) but nobody
creditable (this eliminates most ugag fans) ever accused him of any cheating. he always played by the rules.
NCAA
December 3rd, 2010
11:29 am
Hey Pluto,
Its over, read the comments coming from the NCAA pres and the SEC Commissioner.
O-V-E-R
Your posts on this blog and others arent going to keep it alive as much as you wish they would.
ARdawg
December 3rd, 2010
11:29 am
Jim Pierce
December 3rd, 2010
11:12 am
Pluto: So UGA fans and others belive that AU paid Cam and Cecil. Got it. Nevermind that the FBI, SEC, NCAA, and Auburn itself has cleared it. lol
CLEARED?!?!?
Not so fast my “Prepared to eat my young for Cam and Cecil” friend. Cam is cleared to play by the NCAA. That has nothing to do with anything other than absolving AU of knowledge of Cecil soliciting money for Missy ST. If you think this means everyone is innocent. You should seriously get your head out of your Azz
1eyedJack
December 3rd, 2010
11:30 am
I’m with you fellas.
Yellow Flag Fairley
December 3rd, 2010
11:30 am
I wish Yellow Wood pay me my money.
Ankle Socs
December 3rd, 2010
11:32 am
IF ANY OTHER TEAM IN THE SEC OR ANY OF THE PEEWEE CONFERENCES (ACC, PAC 10, ETC) HAD NEWTON AND FAIRLEY THEY WOULD NOT BE COMPLAINING ABOUT THIS. IT IS A CONTACT SPORT, IF YOU CAN’T TAKE A HIT, THERE’S AN OPENING ON THE GOLF TEAM OR BOWLING TEAM….TRY OUTS ARE ON FRIDAY’S @ 3PM AFTER DORA THE EXPLORER GOES OFF AND YOU’VE HAD YOUR COOKIES AND MILK….AND IN A TWO WORD CLOSING……
WAR EAGLE
John
December 3rd, 2010
11:33 am
With the exception of a handful of fans, almost everyone I know loves this Auburn team. How can you not like them? They have the best player next to Herschel Walker in the history of the SEC in Cam Newton. They have a solid, respectable coaching staff of unquestioned integrity. They have more players on their team who already have their degrees than any school in the country except Boston College. They have a veteran offensive line, the best freshman running back in the country, and the best defensive player in the country. They get the best TV ratings of any team in tyhe SEC and, in fact, their win over Alabama was the highest rated college football telecast of 2010. A few know nothing fans or jealous fans may not like them but for everyone else, this Auburn team has more support than any SEC team I have ever seen.
Hank Williams Jr.
December 3rd, 2010
11:35 am
Preacha man say its da end of time, da mississippi river shes a runnin dry.
To ARDawg
December 3rd, 2010
11:36 am
You can interpret it however you want, the NCAA and SEC are both acting like its a done deal, but if you want to focus on pieces of quotes, go for it.
Hopefully you dont let it impact your life too much.
Just saying?
December 3rd, 2010
11:38 am
It will be BCS when Carolina beats Aubarn!!!
B-because
C-Cam
S-sux
Supes
December 3rd, 2010
11:38 am
south carolina deserves all our support in this game…darth visor aside no way do I want that paper cheating dirty Auburn Sham Newton team to represent the SEC in the NCG.
Cobb Dawg
December 3rd, 2010
11:38 am
Jim Pierce – Awbarn’s record is *12-0, always will be. AU’s not Bama and never will be.
AU in Atl – Delta is ready when you are!
The rest of you Aubies – It’s not just UGA fans that hate AU, it’s the entire country. We’re all tired of your cheating and thuggery and your “win at any cost so we can be more like our big brother Bama” attitude. Get over it! You have to pay players to come to AU and anyone inside the program knows it.
Cobb Dawg
December 3rd, 2010
11:40 am
BTW, maybe we should change the name to *Auburn University!
Sleeper Service
December 3rd, 2010
11:41 am
John, far left, third key up. Push it one time.
Dumbo
December 3rd, 2010
11:41 am
Gosh…..reading all the crap from the great unwashed from SC & Auburn….dang, and all along I thought Techies were pukes until today
Supes
December 3rd, 2010
11:42 am
It’s not just UGA fans that hate AU, it’s the entire country. We’re all tired of your cheating and thuggery and your “win at any cost so we can be more like our big brother Bama” attitude. Get over it! You have to pay players to come to AU and anyone inside the program knows it.
****************************************
THIS^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Is the truth…
I find it sad to see Auburn fans here talking TO GA FANS…when MOST other SEC FANS feel the same way…its not just GA fans…it’s a national dislike for this dirty cheating paper tiger champion team that Auburn and their classless coach has bought this season.