Quick Hit: I Seen Georgia’s Bowl Picture, and It Ain’t Pretty

Well, it is about time to start thinking of where Georgia will wind up in a bowl game–that is, if Georgia winds up in a bowl game this year.  There are a few possibilities floating around out there, and none of them seem to be particularly appetizing.

Most analysts have Georgia playing Missouri in the Independence Bowl.  The Independence Bowl–the Booby Hatch of bowl games if ever there was one.  Most teams that have an unsatisfying season get to sit home and lay low during the months of December and January and try again next year.  But not the two unlucky teams who get selected for this little jaunt.  No, these teams must suffer the additional indignity of going to Shreveport, Louisiana–that most exotic of postseason destinations–and having to appear incurably excited about it.

I can tell you all about that.  In 1991, my sophomore year at Georgia, we went to the Independence Bowl.  The weather was awful–overcast with highs in the 40s and 50s every day that we were there.  Our hotel was a roach-infested rat trap located on the eastern edge of Bossier City.  But it did have a nightclub–that was one redeeming virtue.  The high point of the trip was the parade through downtown Shreveport.  There are towns in war-torn Bosnia that have more attractive and vibrant downtown areas than Shreveport did in 1991.  I seem to recall passing not more than 200 people during the course of the entire parade.  When the game was over and we were leaving the stadium, one erstwhile Redcoat commented, “THE BOWL TRIP FROM HELL IS OVER!!!!!”

The title sponsor for the Independence Bowl that year was Poulan WeedEater.  (Larry Munson:  “Weedeaters are falling from the sky!!!!!!!”)  This year, the title sponsor is a company called AdvoCare.  Never heard of them?  Not to worry–your ever-faithful Jono had never heard of them until now.  Seems they are a company that specializes in nutrition and sports performance products, and they have a hellaceous business opportunity for anyone who is interested in selling their products.  Here is their website.

There are a couple of alternatives floating out there.  Some pundits have Georgia playing Florida State in the Music City Bowl.  Of course that would bring back inevitable memories and comparisons with Georgia’s last trip there.  That was in 2001, Year 1 of the Mark Richt era.  The weather was very cold and blecky in Nashville that year.  Georgia lost a heartbreaker to Boston College despite having vastly superior talent.  But it was clear to all that Mark Richt was only getting started, and better days were coming soon for Georgia.  To wind up back in the Music City Bowl in Year 9 would leave us all with the inexorable feeling of having come full circle, with the best days of the Mark Richt era far behind us and no prospects of anything better in the near present future.  That would be yet another reminder to all that this once-proud Georgia program has lost its way.  As if we haven’t had enough of those over the last two seasons.

Meanwhile, the erstwhile peeps over at CBS Sports have Georgia playing Houston in the Liberty Bowl.  That would not be too bad–except for just one problem.  This year’s Liberty Bowl comes after New Years Day.  And it isn’t a BCS game.  Which means that nobody will watch the thing–except maybe Elvis.  He’s in Memphis.  Memphis does have some nice places to visit:  Graceland, Beale Street, the Sun Recording Studio, and the Stax Museum of American Soul.  Shreveport offers nothing like that–except maybe a couple of casinos on the river.  And it’s anybody’s guess as to how those made out in the recent Midwest flooding.

Then again, Georgia is not even bowl eligible yet.  And there is no guarantee that Georgia will get bowl eligible.  They should–but that is not guaranteed.  And if Georgia should fail to attain bowl eligibility this year–that just might be the best outcome of all.