My Take

Georgia leads the series against Florida 46-36-2. The only thing this shows is how much Georgia dominated this matchup prior to The Ole Ball Coach taking over in Gainesville. He lost once in Jacksonville. For a majority of the 90's the Gators were just that much better, kind of like this year. But for a series to be that lopsided for more than 15 years is pretty mind boggling. Florida has ended two undefeated seaons during the Richt era in a stretch where Coach Richt has run his record to 1-4 in Jacksonville. Keep in mind this has been a 4 year stretch of dominance for the Dawgs and only one win has resulted on the St. Johns. They even spotted us Zook for 2 seasons. Eventhough it is arguably the greatest spectacle in College Football and ranked as one of the best rivalry games, I cannot look at this game as a true rivalry. That would be like saying Kentucky-Tennessee is a rivalry, the records are quite similar. Georgia seems to admire Florida as a program while accepting the loss in St. Simon's on Thursday every year. This year most gator fans marked this as their 5th biggest game. I have come up with a couple of points for why Georgia seems to struggle:
-Travel. Georgia takes a plane to the game. They must travel over an hour to get to the Atlanta airport prior to boarding the plane. Florida travels to Jacksonville on gameday on a bus ride that is similar in length to the one Georgia takes to Atlanta.
-The off week. Steve Spurrier did 2 things when he took over at Florida. Ripped up the Astroturf and put Natural Grass in the Swamp, and made the 3rd weekend in October his annual in-season golf outing. In Georgia's 2004 victory, we were off the week prior and Florida was not. That is no coincidence.
-Fall break. Football players are on Fall Break as well. This one is a little bit of a stretch but athletes like structure and routine. After playing 8 straight weeks going through 5 normal days of preperation, the sleeping patterns, daily habits, eating, and practice times are all changed. -For a while Florida has looked at this as just another game. Georgia looks at it as season defining. The pressure and anxiety the dawgs play with has shown in the opening quarter for many of the losses.

Whether these reasons contribute to the losses or not, they surely don't help. The Gators are a lot better once again this year and we defiantly missed our chance the past 4 years. But I think Georgia's program is in the best state it has been in for a long time. In the next decade the overall success of these two programs will make this rivaly equal or bigger than "The Red River Shootout." Don't count on it starting this year though.


*Georgia baseball completed its Fall session this week: There will probaly be 3 Freshman penciled in the Opening day starting lineup. Left field, Third, and Second. The starting pitching returns a solid corps with Leaver, Moreau, and Holder. If Sebastian can be half of what they expected out of him coming out of Columbus, the rotation could be very strong. The relievers will be made up of primarily Freshman and Sophs but will have one of the premier pitchers in the country closing games. The best bats will come from Wyatt(CF) and Olson(RF) with Beckham(SS) being the most productive. The 2007 team will be completely different from the 2006 squad. The strength will be pitching and defense and the offense will have to scrap together runs instead of relying on the long ball. My fall prediction sees this young team fighting for a spot in Hoover as a 6,7, or 8 seed at best. It would be a very successful year if the Diamond Dawgs locked up a 2-seed in the NCAA tournament.

*There is a very good chance that Parkview and Valdosta will miss the State playoffs this year. Windsor and Groves are in line to make it with Jenkins haveing an outside shot.

*Theres as good a chance of people not calling it "The World's Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party" as it is for me to see Damon in Sr. Mary's class after church on Sunday, as he talks about his accident while looking directly at her cankles.

*BC's Freshman play Sav. Christian's JV on Thursday. As far as Freshman games go, this might be one of the biggest in BC history.

*The Georgia/Kentucky game not being televised will leave me in a position that I don't think I've been in for almost 10 years.

*The ACC is struggleing a bit.

* Just to let you know, there will be no parade this week. Shirts are only $12 and you can wear them on Friday.

This is a great week to be alive. Its one of those times that you will look back on in a couple of years and wish you could have these 4 days to do over. Georgia hangs around but the defense is just not very good as Stafford puts forth his best effort of the year. F-34 G-20. Hillards here I come.

Go Dawgs, Cadets, and 142 days