A Modest Proposal for Damon Evans

Regardless of the outcome of Saturday's game, I have a modest proposal for Damon Evans to consider that would alter the Georgia schedule with respect to Georgia Tech. Put simply, this game is not really a rivalry and Georgia would benefit from not playing it every year. Yeah, I know, Tech won last year. And if they win tomorrow, it still wouldn't change a thing. This series is a bore and typically irrelevant on the national scene. A victory over Tech delivers all the satisfaction of a win over Vanderbilt. Some UGA fans say Tech is our rival, but that tells me they are either very, very old, or are confusing the burning shame of losing to an inferior program with a "rivalry." (Ask yourself when was the last time you celebrated a win over Tech) Losing to Tech is like getting beat up by a retarded kid your kid brother, but that doesn't make the kid your rival. It just makes you lame for losing.


The precedent for not playing an in-state Div. 1 team every year has already been set by the Penn State/Pitt series. I think the Penn State/Pitt series is a good model for us to follow because (i) though dominated by Pitt/Tech in the era preceding the face mask and forward pass, it is now heavily lop-sided in favor of Penn State/UGA; (ii) the schools play in different conferences so they don't have to play each other; (iii) in most years during the BCS-era, Pitt/Tech drags down Penn State/UGA's strength of schedule; (iv) and Pitt/Tech plays in a stadium substantially smaller than Penn State/UGA so fans who would otherwise attend the game can't attend.

Despite sporadic victories in the last twenty years (some of which were cheating-assisted), the series hasn't been competitive in many of our lifetimes. UGA leads the overall series by an overwhelming 59-37-5 advantage. But consider more than twenty of Tech's wins came prior to 1957. The last time Tech won by more than two touchdowns, you were allowed to smoke on an airplane. Now look at these results by decade:

• 1960s: 6-4 UGA
• 1970s: 7-3 UGA
• 1980s: 7-3 UGA
• 1990s: 7-3 UGA
• 2000s: 7-2 UGA
  

The Penn State/Pitt rivalry went dormant when Pitt rejected a 2-1 series that would require Pitt to play in State College twice for a return trip by Penn State. That kind of model would work for UGA. A 2-1 would be better for our fans who can't squeeze into the Joke by the Coke. Tech would probably veto that idea (just as Pitt did), so playing a few times a decade could be a fall back position.

Predictably, Tech backers would squall about what a terrible idea this is (just like Pitt backers did), but I don't think most UGA fans would really care if this game wasn't played every year. Despite Tech's win last year, this game has become an afterthought for many UGA fans. It remains the case that when Tech wins this game, it means there are serious problems with the UGA football program. As the recent decades results above demonstrate, Tech wins are as rare as hen's teeth. That's not the kind of competitiveness that constitutes a rivalry.

Let me pre-empt the techsters who will no doubt flame this post. [sidebar: isn't it pitiful that tech fans read this blog to get the validation of a provoked response? I would have to google a tech blog, assuming there are any] The Georgia-Florida series is currently lop-sided, but (a) Georgia leads the all-time series, and (b) it is a Southeastern conference game, so it isn't analogous.

I also add that superduperoffensivegeeeeeeen-ius Paul Johnson agrees that this is just another game. I give him credit for seeing how pathetic it is that Tech defines their existence through the prism of this game. Johnson knows he has his work cut out for him (until he leaves for Nebraska): "They're in the state. I understand all that. But it's not going to define our year if we beat Georgia. I'm trying to build a football program here."

So to Damon I say: Give CPJ a few years to "build a program" and we can decide if it's worth our time to play them regularly again.



Editor Note: Dawgnoxious wrote this. In the near 20 years that I've know him, this is an opinion he's held vocally and consistently. It's not an opinion related to last year's game. -- PWD