Walmart shoppers! Here’s the scoop on Tech and UGA fans!
Sometimes Tech folks feel overshadowed. (AJC photo by Johnny Crawford)
In years past our annual look at Georgia fans vis-a-vis Georgia Tech has been offered in the spirit of good clean fun. This year, for the sake of novelty (and also because even I’ve wearied of Willie Martinez), the idea will be to help these two neighboring-but-different groups actually understand one another.
And then we’ll all join hands and raise our voices in a spirited rendition of “I’d Like To Teach the World to Sing” and toast one another with Coca-Cola products, and by the way: Did you know Georgia fans refer to Bobby Dodd Stadium as “The Joke By Coke”?
But enough! No more gags from me this year! Instead I offer the observations gained from dwelling among Tech and Georgia folks these past 27 years, eight months and 18 days.
• Tech fans care just as much about football as Georgia fans. This may come as a surprise to those Bulldogs backers who are forever mocking the attendance at Bobby Dodd Stadium. (For the Jackets’ mammoth Thursday night clash against No. 10 Virginia Tech, attendance was announced at 50,140 in a facility that seats 55,000.) But counting heads isn’t necessarily a measure of passion.
Tech’s enrollment is roughly 20,000 — Georgia’s is 35,000, by the way — and a goodly percentage of those students will take their degrees and move elsewhere. (This isn’t to say that no Georgia grad ever moves out of state. Even Lewis Grizzard moved to Chicago for a few months.) But studies have shown that there are more Auburn grads living in metro Atlanta than Tech alums.
Numbers-wise, Georgia is always going to win. That doesn’t mean Tech folks don’t care. They do. Just ask any alum what he/she thinks of a Tech uniform that doesn’t feature the color gold. Or get one going on Bill Lewis’ 2 1/2-year reign of error.
• Just as Tech fans hate being hit over the head with attendance figures, Georgia fans hate hearing about Jan Kemp. When John Davis was a Tech lineman back in the ’80s, he told me this joke: “How do you get a degree from Georgia? Drive by campus and roll down the window.” And there was a time, let’s stipulate, when UGA wasn’t exactly a school of renown, and the Jan Kemp trial only underscored the notion.
But that was then, and under presidents Charles Knapp and Michael Adams the University of Georgia has become a place of pride and achievement. No, calculus isn’t a requirement for every UGA undergrad, but the academic missions of the schools are rather different. Georgia is a broad-based state university; Tech is, duh, a technical institute. Not everyone wants to be an engineer. Just because your diploma is from UGA doesn’t make you a comparative moron.
Not that Tech folks are eager to concede the point. On his Tuesday night radio show, Tech coach Paul Johnson took a call from someone who began barking. Said Johnson: “He just got off from Walmart.” (FYI, the CEO of Walmart is Tech grad Michael Duke.)
• When Tech fans speak of football tradition, they think first of Bobby Dodd. He was everything a Tech fan wanted in a coach. He was smart and his teams played precise football and he won a lot of games and he, not incidentally, beat Georgia eight times running. But that was in the ’50s, and those were different times: College football wasn’t yet a billion-dollar industry driven by TV and recruiting wasn’t a cutthroat nationwide competition.
Reasonable Tech fans — and Tech fans, by and large, tend to be reasonable — cannot envision their team ever again beating Georgia eight times in a row. (Since 1977, Tech has beaten Georgia eight times total.) In their heart of hearts, Tech fans would be satisfied with winning one of every three against their bitter rival. Not coincidentally, Johnson is 1-2 against Georgia.
• When Georgia fans speak of tradition, they think first of Herschel Walker. Yes, the Bulldogs were winning SEC and even national championships and turning out famous players (Sinkwich, Trippi, Tarkenton) long before landing the kid from Wrightsville on Easter 1980, but the Era of Herschel propelled Georgia from the ranks of perennial Southern power to something bigger. By every measure, those were the three greatest years in Bulldogs history.
That said, those three seasons skewed some Georgia fans’ view of their program. Two decades would pass before Georgia won another SEC title. Mark Richt has taken two conference titles and three division championships and his teams have finished in the top 10 five times, but Georgia hasn’t played for a national crown since 1982, and five different SEC schools have finished No. 1 over the past 13 years. UGA fans are still waiting their turn, same as they await the Next Herschel.
• Georgia is Tech’s biggest game of every year. Chan Gailey got fired not because he had losing seasons — he didn’t, not a one — but because he was 0-6 against the Bulldogs. And it’s undeniable that the words “To Hell with Georgia” are sung the loudest whenever “Ramblin’ Wreck” is played.
• Tech is Georgia’s biggest game only when Georgia fans are scared they might lose. This isn’t such a year. Georgia has won its division and is going to play LSU or Alabama for the SEC title next week. Georgia has, to borrow another Johnson line, bigger fish to fry. Which is the primary reason Georgia fans should be wary of Johnson and his team.
By Mark Bradley
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521 comments Add your comment
LawDawg
November 23rd, 2011
12:33 pm
1)”Tech fans care just as much about football as Georgia fans. ”
No, they don’t. A few Tech fans care a lot about football, but among current students and alumni, it is not close.
2) UGA fans were by no means universally confident before BSU. Also, I was a lot more comfortable, Burdell, before NMS and CC, but that is just me. Regardless, with the UGA stout run defense, I think we have reason to be confident going into a game against a team that almost lost to Duke, which doesn’t even have a football program. They just hand out jerseys to the first 100 fans who show up.
3) Mark: What was the Willie Martinez reference? The fact that Tech can only beat UGA if we have an awful DC or is this recycled content with a few updates?
SiddyBoy
November 23rd, 2011
12:35 pm
Calling Tech the Yellow Jackets is an insult to the insects !!!
SSG Desert Dawg
November 23rd, 2011
12:36 pm
@ Vermont Yellow Jacket, that shows you how important Tech is to UGA…no higher than 3rd on the priority list. After a few more wins GT will fall behind SC.
Finchdawg
November 23rd, 2011
12:36 pm
I think the Dawgs will win, but I am scared that Tech might win. 8-3 is a solid record, and if we make enough mistakes we’ll be in trouble.
Jacketdad
November 23rd, 2011
12:37 pm
Mark, even though I disagree with your past analysis that Tech has a lack of talent and that whatever success they acheive is due to CPJ’s genius, I think you have hit the nail on the head with your description of the difference between UGA and Tech fans.
Mark Bradley
November 23rd, 2011
12:38 pm
Thanks, Jacketdad.
OoltewahDawg
November 23rd, 2011
12:38 pm
Vermont Yellow Jacket, you just helped prove the truth of this article:
http://bleacherreport.com/articles/952607-georgia-vs-georgia-tech-are-the-dawgs-the-most-hated-team-in-sports
Gold & White
November 23rd, 2011
12:38 pm
Spyro…the LSU front several years ago was another. But for this year, UGA might be the best front 7 but not that much above other teams we have faced unless you look at the recruiting ratings. Ought to be a good game unless one side or the other commits several more turnovers.
Gbal
November 23rd, 2011
12:38 pm
ABSOLUTE BS …. If someone was really trying to do some damage, they really blew it. Wouldnt be suprised one day if Richt did bow out for other interests, but naming BOBO and Dooley as likely replacements…Thats where we know this is a very bad attempt at a joke.
Georgia football coach Mark Richt rumored to be leaving
November 21, 2011 3:00 AM by Mark Mayer
Embattled Georgia football coach Mark Richt, who led Georgia to the SEC East regular season title with a victory over Kentucky on Saturday, will leave the program at the end of the season according to inside sources.
Top candidates to replace Richt reportedly are Tennessee coach Derek Dooley and Georgia offensive coordinator Mike Bobo. Dooley is the son of Vince Dooley, longtime Bulldogs coach/athletic director and an Athens icon.
Richt’s job was reportedly on the line this season especially after an 0-2 start, but the Bulldogs rallied to win nine straight games to capture the SEC East title.
Sources in the South Carolina/Georgia area say that Richt will pursue outside interests and decide on his own not to return to Georgia.
Richt was hired as head coach of the Bulldogs before the 2001 season, replacing Jim Donnan. He has won two outright SEC championships, four SEC East titles and led Georgia to a finish in the AP Top 10 five times.
Big Johnson Meltdowns
November 23rd, 2011
12:39 pm
Dear Lord,
This Thanksgiving I am thankful that Mark Richt is our coach, and not Paul Johnson. That is all.
Amen.
Andy
November 23rd, 2011
12:41 pm
It’s probably the 3rd or 4th most important game on UGA’s schedule in any given year. That’s mainly because it’s a non conference game so it automatically has less importance. I think the Tech/UGA relationship is similar to UGA/FLA. The FLA game has been very important to UGA fans over the last 20+ years because FLA has won so much but it’s not as important to FLA because they win. If Tech won more versus UGA it would have less importance for them.
CaliDawg
November 23rd, 2011
12:43 pm
…and where does GT place in grad rates in the ACC? Hmmm. Oh, and an interesting article recently in the Wall Street Journal about GT’s dummied down classes for the students not majoring in Engineering – AKA: the athlete-students.
Jim
November 23rd, 2011
12:44 pm
Here is the scoop. Tech fans watch UGA games to hate on UGA hoping they will lose. UGA fans never watch a Tech game, until they play UGA. If Tech played Russia the UGA fan would not watch it, but would pull for Russia and only check the paper for the score the next day.
Politically Correct
November 23rd, 2011
12:45 pm
Using the term “Retarded” is disrespectful … Agreed. “Mentally Challenged” is more politically correct and more respectful.
From now on, instead of calling Tech fans “Nerds” … you are to call them “Mentally Superior”. This is also more politically correct and more respectful.
Funny Funny Tech Fans
November 23rd, 2011
12:47 pm
For the Tech fans commenting on UGA scoring only 19 against Kentucky…you do realize that you only scored 21 against Maryland and Virginia?
George Stein
November 23rd, 2011
12:47 pm
Tony Barnhart disagrees about who Georgia’s biggest rival is.
Seriously, CaliDawg? Our athletes have the highest SAT scores of any FBS school in the country. That they don’t all graduate on confirms that getting a degree at Tech is harder and that we don’t just hand them out. Try doing a real analysis next time.
Stinger1
November 23rd, 2011
12:48 pm
First of all , Bradley is the moron. Second , Walmart is his brother for selling only UGA junk that NEVER sells because the shelves stay full of that pathetic memorbila. We at Tech don’t care about the opinions of those people in red in black ( Black in Red ) even they can’t figure out what they want to wear. Regardless if we win or lose……………..WE AT TECH WILL ALWAYS BE THE SUPERIOR SCHOOL IN GA !!!!!!!!!!!!! We love our Jackets !!!!!!!!!!!!!! Go back to your on Blogs ……you lowlife Bullwusses .!!!!!!!!!!!!!
George Stein
November 23rd, 2011
12:49 pm
Comparing scores is fool’s gold, Funny Tech Fans. Most people know or should know that.
SiddyBoy
November 23rd, 2011
12:49 pm
I guess that Paul Johnson will have more trouble recruiting “retards” now !!!
Fair and Balanced
November 23rd, 2011
12:50 pm
Tech is still the biggest game of the year regardless of expectations. We fear losing to Tech every year because it is embarrassing to lose to an inferior program. It just is. Your attendance argument…..nay. That just does not wash. Sorry. When enrollment was at 10k in the 60’s the stadium was bigger and filled up more often. When Tech program faded, enrollment rose but attendance went down, and eventually the stadium was built smaller.
calvin
November 23rd, 2011
12:51 pm
Somehow Bradley’s attempts to be fair to both schools
always result in more fairness to UGA. And Schultz
doesn’t even pretend to be fair. Every year the AJC
writers pull for UGA, but that’s all right, because it
helps motivate Tech.
T3
November 23rd, 2011
12:51 pm
IMHO, Clemson, VT, UNC, and NCST have better Defenses than UGA.
LawDawg
November 23rd, 2011
12:51 pm
George Stein: getting some soft “management” degree or something at Tech is just as easy as anywhere else. I guarantee that most of your athletes are not majoring in chemical engineering. I’m sure Javaris Crittendon and Chris Bosh were not intellectually challenged while at Tech.
The graduation rate thing is fairly meaningless, though, since teams with a high number of players who enter the NFL early is going to influence that. Tech probably has a lot more football and basketball players leaving early than UVA, Duke, etc.
Mark, Great work here!
November 23rd, 2011
12:51 pm
Great op ed!
LawDawg
November 23rd, 2011
12:52 pm
T3: That is because you have never watched a game of football in your life. Clemson? NC State? Are you high or trolling (or both)?
LawDawg
November 23rd, 2011
12:52 pm
calvin: Schultz favors UGA over Tech? Are you insane or do you just never read anything he writes?
Stinger1
November 23rd, 2011
12:54 pm
Koolade drinkers they are . Real fans CHOOSE a REAL university !!!!!!!!!!!!!!
essss eeeeeeee seeeeee
November 23rd, 2011
12:54 pm
Ugagers………you do less with more better than anyone in the country! Take some pride in that. How does it feel to be the only SEC blue blood without a BCS title?
Neutral
November 23rd, 2011
12:55 pm
Good article Mark. Even though I’m neutral on this rivalry, I still get a kick out of how GT fans put down the academic credentials of opponents. I remember back to the Jan Kemp days when UGa took such a beating……GT (and most colleges) were guilty of similar activities related to remedial studies. GT’s admission standards for football players are not higher than UGa, and haven’t been higher for decades. GT should also not brag because I think their graduation rate is at or near the bottom in the ACC and UGa is toward the top.
T3
November 23rd, 2011
12:56 pm
Uh Lawdawg:
According to the 2010 Princeton Collegiate Review,
GT’s Grad & Undergrad Business School is ranked #25 in the country.
Emory is ranked #22.
UGA’s B-School is ranked #49.
Even UGA’s, Terry B-School is a ranking joke.
GeoffDawg
November 23rd, 2011
12:58 pm
I’ve never doubted the level of commitment from tech fans. It takes a lot of passion to be that obnoxious on a day to day basis.
jg
November 23rd, 2011
12:58 pm
and I too apologize that Coach PJ insulted Wal Mart employees
Stinger1
November 23rd, 2011
12:58 pm
Paul………kick thier %#$@*&!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And let that take care of itself.
yellow meconium
November 23rd, 2011
12:58 pm
Time for all the techies to talk trash—go ahead beez–you do it every year–one year (I remember in the last ten) was even justified.
Tom
November 23rd, 2011
12:59 pm
“Georgia fans are passionate, but let’s face it – they’re not the brightest fans. Passionate, but not bright.” – Former UGA QB Eric Zeier, November 21, 2001 on 790TheZone
George Stein
November 23rd, 2011
12:59 pm
Please, LawDawg. Our B-school is ranked higher (though I admittedly don’t think much for US News rankings) than the prestigious Terry School. Essentially, smarter players are taking our easy major and they can’t make it out. Moreover, our easy major is harder thand than the hard major at UGA.
I hope you’re not an actual lawyer. Your clients would be poorly served.
PerroGrande
November 23rd, 2011
1:00 pm
Wow, I am surprised at Johnson openly bad-mouthing the SEC and UGA in particular. Like Boykin’s tweet earlier in the year, smack talking the opponent during game week usually results in poor performance–although this is worse than Boykin’s tweet. I suspect the Dawgs will be hearing CPJ quotes a lot.
yellow meconium
November 23rd, 2011
1:01 pm
Beware my fellow dawgs–this is all the jackets have to play for this year. Paul will run the gimmick with a couple of wrinkles–because he’s so superior and intelligent.–blech!
Heath
November 23rd, 2011
1:01 pm
Tech can’t sell out the high school stadium because there is no such thing as a Tech fan – only people who hate Georgia and pretend to be.
And if you think those Tech players are taking their own calculus exams then you’ve been taking advantage of their lenient drug policy (toke it up boys, no suspension for a first offense)!
Soon to be SEC East Champs
November 23rd, 2011
1:01 pm
LawDawg…If GT chose to establish a law school it would be rated ahead of UGA’s…Godd thing they choose not to…the world has plenty of you bottom-feeding swine.
SEC FAN
November 23rd, 2011
1:02 pm
But studies have shown that there are more Auburn grads living in metro Atlanta than Tech alums.
…and yet, AJC still gives little coverage to SEC schools other than UGA.
Soon to be SEC East Champs
November 23rd, 2011
1:03 pm
Heath….do the UGA players take their own Underwater Basketweaving exams? Maybe so.
GTBob
November 23rd, 2011
1:03 pm
Tech fans care just as much about football as Georgia fans.
No they don’t. Maybe a few do. Football is the sole reason most UGA fans wake up in the morning. We love football, but it doesn’t consume our lives or school like it does at UGA. I have already shifted most of my attention to basketball, UGA fans never seem to shift their attention at all.
George Stein
November 23rd, 2011
1:04 pm
Aside from the retard thing, please enlighten us on what Johnson said that was controversial, PerroGrande.
JB
November 23rd, 2011
1:04 pm
Dawgs live rent free in Tech’s mind. I have Tech friends and they talk and think about us all the time. Kinda sad in a way. Winning the 9 of the last 10 I’m sure has something to do with it. Some Tech bloggers like to brag they are all about the academics and the “Tech life” etc, but beating us is more important to them than anything it seems. If we are bumpkins and trailer trash to them……Why do they care?
Kelly
November 23rd, 2011
1:05 pm
GT’s Grad & Undergrad Business School is ranked #25 in the country.
That’s 24 schools that are above you, so what’s the deal with your arrogance?
All this Tech superiority? Why? Most of them got rejected from MIT or couldn’t get into a good private/Ivy League school. It’s called Sheol…and it’s where the bugs live. It’s an obvious psychological dynamic at work when the perennial losers limp back over to their over-burnished academic achievements and start shouting from the rooftops that they’re superior when even the stats they cite show that they’re way, way, way down the list. This is a football game we’re discussing. Not Battle of the Mathletes.
UGA24-7
November 23rd, 2011
1:06 pm
And for those who like to mix a bit of humor in with their heavenly entreaties for Georgia to do well, Todd Miller sends in this prayer given by John Brown of Monticello to the East Metro Bulldog Club this week:
Tonight our Lord we are gathered as members of the Bulldog Nation and we thank you for the blessings of being a Bulldog.
We thank you for fall afternoons between the hedges, we thank you that we are blessed to hear the Redcoats playing “Glory, Glory,” and we give thanks for the chills we get when the trumpet tones the battle hymn. We give thanks for the smell of ribs cooking on the grills of campus tailgates and we gave thanks for the chapel bell ringing after a victory, and are grateful for the sheer joy of wearing red and black.
We thank you for those moments that we treasure, Tarkenton to Herron, the flea-flicker versus Bama, Appleby to Washington, that kid outa Johnson County running through two men, run Lindsey run, sugar falling from the sky, Butler kicking it a million miles, hobnailed boots that still hurt in Knoxville and Johnson in the end zone.
Tonight we thank you for Aaron Murray, a fine young man who did not charge us $180,000 to play quarterback.
Tonight we thank you that Mrs. Geathers and Mrs. Jenkins allowed their sons to discover biscuits and pound cake at an early age so that we might have a nose guard for the 3-4 defense.
Tonight we thank you for the new Nike uniforms. We may not like them but we know they look better than a Gator in a tank top and jean shorts.
Tonight we thank you that as we gathered here that we have been blessed, we have been blessed to live in land that stands for freedom, for those who have given of themselves to defend our freedom. We thank you for the blessings of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness and we pray for your blessings to continue on we who are gathered here this evening that may truly understand that it is great to be a Georgia Bulldog.
Amen.
Riddle
November 23rd, 2011
1:07 pm
Why don’t Bulldogs eat M&M’s?
They’re too hard to peel.
Justice Dept
November 23rd, 2011
1:07 pm
Are there any American kids still going to Tech?
Riddle
November 23rd, 2011
1:07 pm
Did you hear about the Cessna airplane that crashed in a cemetery near the Georgia campus recently?
Georgia search and rescue workers have recovered 300 bodies so far and are still digging.