Georgia Sports Blog: Why I hate the Gators

In 1990, I made my first trip to the World's Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party. It was the first of many journeys to The City That Hygiene Forgot.

The 2005 edition of the Georgia vs. Florida game will be my 12th Cocktail Party and my 13th time watching this matchup.

I've only missed the 1993 Game (aka "Timeout Florida") and the 1994 Game (aka "The Debacle in the Swamp). I even sat through the 1995 "Beat Down in Athens" in which with 5 minutes left I yelled:

"Spurrier, You Son of Bitch.
You're not Getting 50. Not in OUR HOUSE!"
[Quiet for 3 minutes]
"Well...You're not getting 55."
I hate the Gators for the same reason that most Gator fans over the age of 40 hate Georgia. My frame of reference is one of pain, hatered and long bitter rides home on Sunday mornings.

Older Gators know this same feeling. From 1964-1988, Georgia went 17-7-1 versus Florida. During those years, the Gators saw every dream, every hope, and every potential title fall at the hands of the Dawgs. But then something horrible happened to Georgia. Dooley retired.

After that great Vince Dooley run, which not coincidentally ended in the Gator Bowl, the Dawgs went 3-13. The Dawgs kept their swagger for 1 year after Dooley retired. Winning in Ray Goff's first year. Then the wheels fell off.

The winds of change blew again into Jacksonville as Spurrier retired after the 2001 season. Just as the Dawgs enjoyed the momentum of their ownership of Florida for 1 more year after Dooley left; the Gators enjoyed two more years of ownership of Georgia after the Evil Genius walked away.

Now we enter this weekend's game.

The young Gators are new to failure, mediocrity and five loss seasons. But the older Gators know that their entire athletic trophy case now works in Columbia, South Carolina. The ONLY man to ever make the Gators Growl as a player or a coach is gone. And the man who is filling the Head Ball Coach's job has devised an Orange and Blue offensive system that has done more to stop the Gators from scoring points than anyone since Tom Osborne.

What will this matchup bring? I don't honestly know. With Shockley gone anything can happen.

All I know is that the monkey is off our back, and the expectations are off our back. All of the pressure is squarely on Urban Meyer's Gator Squad. A team that is quarterbacked by a QB who wants to show up for the game wrapped in bubble wrap. A team who can't run the ball against anyone outside of the Bluegrass state. A team who's defense's greatest claim to fame is falling on LSU and UT fumbles.

[Photo: A reinactment of the 1995 Fiesta Bowl.]

If the Dawgs protect the ball we win. And not only that...we begin another Dooley like run of dominance. This series has NEVER been about balance. It has always been about domination. And Gators brace yourself because if we win under these incredibly adverse circumstances, we're going to settle into victory lane for the long term.

The Very Long Term