Today there will be no scathing diatribe against some aspect of evangelical Protestant-dom that is not to my fancy. No paean to Queen Gorgo and 300. No deconstruction of crazy things that people can do in Speedo bathing suits. No speculative rumormongering about football coaches on the hot seat. No ruminations about classes, tests, projects, the pleasures of insomnia and the rush that you get from running around like a freerange chicken with its head cut off trying to get classwork done on time, the thrills of attempting to negotiate one’s way around the street preachers who occasionally show up on campus to berate the students for all manner of sins real and imagined, or other facets of my life as a second-time-around college student.
No, today there will be nothing like that.
Just a simple appeal.
An appeal to any Georgia football player or coach who may find a little bit of free time amid the mad rush of pregame preparations today (perhaps on the bus ride to the practice facility or to the stadium) to bust out the old laptop and go bopping around the blogosphere and happen to wind up in this little neck of it.
As a former Redcoat I am well aware of the craziness and zaniness of pregame preparations, especially in Jacksonville. I saw a different side of it, to be sure, but I know all about getting up bright and early in the morning and getting moving several hours before kickoff, dress rehearsals, final run-throughs, that bus ride to the stadium on game day, grabbing a bite to eat for lunch whenever you get the chance, and all the other facts of pregame life. I get that whatever time (if any) you may have for bopping around the blogosphere today is drastically limited. So I will just cut right to the chase.
Please beat Florida today.
PLEASE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
If you are a player, please pass this message on to your teammates. If you are a coach, please share it with the players under your supervision, and with the rest of the team as well.
Please beat Florida today.
PLEASE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Florida has beaten Georgia for 15 of the last 17 years. This stands as a source of abject humiliation and disgrace to any true Georgia fan.
For crying out loud, Vanderbilt has done better against us over the last 17 years than we have done against Florida!!!!!
This ranks right up there with the most one-sided college football rivalries of all time—at least during this time period. Tennessee-Vanderbilt comes to mind. So does Notre Dame-Navy. Get this—Notre Dame has beaten Navy for over 40 years in a row. That means Navy has not beaten Notre Dame at all during my lifetime. Are we heading in the same direction?
But Florida is no Notre Dame, and we are no Navy. Florida and Georgia are both major SEC programs with strong winning traditions over the years, aspiring to be relevant on the national stage. Granted, Florida is a little bit—no, a lot—closer to that goal these days than we are, but that in no way means that the gap between our two football programs is anything close to the yawning chasm that separates Tennessee and Vanderbilt, or Notre Dame and Navy. It is completely and utterly inexplicable that a series between such close, comparable conference rivals should be as completely and totally one-sided as this series has been over the past two decades.
And completely and utterly inexcusable.
You have GOT to do something about that.
You can start today.
Please beat Florida today.
PLEASE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Some people say that it’s all the fault of the venue. That Jacksonville, a supposedly neutral site, is not neutral at all. That it gives Florida a decided home-field advantage every year.
That’s bulls—t.
The ticket distribution is 50-50, with half the tickets going to Florida and half going to Georgia. And Georgia people do travel to Jacksonville, so it’s not like the Georgia tickets go unused and get snapped up by Florida fans. At least that’s how it was when I was at Georgia. I believe it is still the same way today.
Texas and Oklahoma play every year in Dallas, just a couple of hours up the road from the very heart of Texas country. But Oklahoma has no problem whatsoever with this; they beat Texas five years in a row back in the early 00’s, and I seem to recall that they beat Texas pretty handily this year as well.
Oklahoma has no problem with going into a neighboring state every year. They don’t complain about the unfairness of playing Texas in Texas every year. They just man up and beat them.
So that takes away whatever excuse you have to not do the same to Florida.
As a matter of fact, I’ve heard tell that there was once a time when Georgia used to beat Florida like a drum, almost year in and year out—right here on this very field, in this very city. As a matter of fact, I’ve heard that it got so bad that Florida fans desperately wanted to move the game out of Jacksonville to give themselves more of a chance.
But they didn’t. They manned up and started beating us like a drum, year in and year out (no almost about it!!!!!) And now it’s us that want to move the game out of Jacksonville.
Take your cue from this, people. Don’t start making excuses about the non-neutrality of the Jacksonville site. And don’t buy into those excuses either. Just man up and start beating Florida, and I bet all those Georgia fans who are bitching and moaning about the non-neutrality of Jacksonville will feel a whole lot differently.
You can start today.
Please beat Florida today.
PLEASE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Some people say that it’s all a matter of mojo. That Florida owns Georgia and that’s all there is to it. That Florida could beat Georgia even if Georgia started all NFL Super Bowl MVP’s and Florida started middle school cheerleaders and band members. That Florida could beat Georgia even if Avril Lavigne was the Florida coach.
Certainly that would seem to be the truth, especially given the way things have gone this decade. All of our last four losses to Florida were decided by a touchdown or less, and two more before that (1999 and 2000) were close until the fourth quarter. The only game this decade in which Florida was decidedly better than Georgia was in 2001, when Florida had four turnovers and over 100 yards in penalties and was still two touchdowns better than Georgia.
But don’t buy into that, because if you do then it will cause you to freeze up mentally and make mistakes that you don’t normally make. And then the whole mojo thing will become a self-fulfilling prophecy. As an education major I know all about self-fulfilling prophecies and how they determine the success or failure of students. You don’t want to go down that road. Because you already have, in several of your losses this decade. You let that whole mojo thing get to you, and it caused you to freeze up and not play to your full potential.
But you don’t have to let it get you this year. Coaches, take your players out onto the field at Alltel Stadium Jacksonville Municipal Stadium and have them measure the dimensions. Players, if you have any doubts about this, then ask your coaches to let you measure the dimensions of the field at Alltel Stadium Jacksonville Municipal Stadium. I think you’ll find that the field is still 100 yards long, that the end zones are still 10 yards deep, and that all the other dimensions—the width of the field, the width of the hashmarks, the height and width of the goalposts, etc. are completely and totally consistent with what you’ve seen in every other SEC stadium that you’ve ever been in. There is nothing here that can or should cause you to do anything differently than you have in any other place where you’ve been able to win.
You can blow that whole mojo thing right out of the water. You can shut up all the doubters and the smack-talkers who love to go around talking about how Florida just completely and totally owns Georgia. All you have to do is beat Florida today.
Please beat Florida today.
PLEASE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Of course Florida is a much better team than you this year. That is a universally accepted truth. There is not a soul in heaven, on earth, or under the earth who believes even for a moment that Georgia has a chance to beat Florida today.
This is to your advantage, people. As a matter of fact, this is a HUGE advantage to you. Remember what South Carolina did to you earlier this year. Remember what Vanderbilt almost did to you a couple of weeks back. They were able to do this because they held the exact same advantage you hold over Florida today. Which is that YOU HAVE NOTHING TO LOSE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Of course there are going to have to be some improvements. That offense is going to have to be better than erratic. Matthew Stafford, you are going to have to figure out how to complete passes consistently throughout the game, not just at the end when the game is on the line. Tell your receivers that they are going to have to catch the ball. Tell your offensive line that they are just going to have to block.
And that defense is going to have to figure out how to stop somebody. I have not been impressed with what I have seen so far this year. Nobody else has been able to stop Tim Tebow this year; how much less this defense that has been thoroughly gashed by South Carolina, Alabama, Ole Miss, Tennessee, and Vanderbilt. Defense, that’s just not good enough. You’re going to have to man up and stop somebody. I don’t care how you do it. Just do it, for crying out loud!!!!!
Still, I hear that Tim Tebow is a little banged up this week. So if ever you had a chance to stop him, this is it. And from what I hear, if you stop Tim Tebow then you’ve pretty much stopped Florida.
So don’t let all that talk about how much better than you Florida is get you down. Remember, they have everything to lose; you have nothing. That is a HUGE advantage!!!!!
Don’t hold anything back. Let it all hang out. Bring everything but the kitchen sink—and then go back and get the kitchen sink and bring that too. Give it everything you’ve got—and if that isn’t enough then give everything that your family members, friends, and close acquaintances have got as well. They won’t mind.
Don’t hold anything back. Leave it all lying out there on that football field today.
Remember, people, YOU HAVE NOTHING TO LOSE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
And if you win, then you have the pleasure and pride of knowing that you have broken the abject humiliation and disgrace which every Georgia fan has been forced to bear at the hands of Florida for the past two decades. You will have helped to move this away from being a completely and totally one-sided rivalry. You will have shown the world that, yes, Georgia CAN compete with Florida after all!!!!!
But that’s not all. The SEC East is wide open right now. You are one of five teams currently tied for first place with two losses apiece. If you win, then you are still in the race for the SEC East title. Of course, you will need a lot of help from opponents of South Carolina and Tennessee. But if you win, then you will have taken a necessary first step. And then who knows? It may just work out for you to end up back in Atlanta for the SEC Championship this year. And if you do—who knows? You just might pull the upset and knock off LSU in that game. And that will be an occasion worthy of celebration—far more so than that little tickle pile you tried to form on top of the big V in the middle of Vanderbilt’s field when you beat them by a field goal on the last play of the game a couple of weeks back.
But it all starts today.
You have GOT to beat Florida first, before any of that other stuff can even have a chance to happen.
Please beat Florida today.
PLEASE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I will not be watching the game this afternoon. My freshman year at Georgia was the very first year that all of this insanity started. The only games which we have won in all this time took place when I was away out of town. So this afternoon I will pretend to be out of town, and tune out for the duration of the time that the game is on. I want to give you the maximum chance for success that I possibly can.
Please beat Florida today.
PLEASE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I am sick and tired of it. Tired of seeing Florida beat Georgia like a drum year in and year out. Tired of the abject humiliation and disgrace at the hands of Florida which has been the lot of every Georgia fan for the last two decades. Tired of the frustration which goes with knowing that we have lost yet another one to Florida.
Seventeen years. Fifteen losses. Seven graduating classes coming out of Georgia without ever having known what it was like to see Georgia beat Florida while they were there.
Enough is enough.
Please beat Florida today.
PLEASE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
