First of all, if you haven't been to Tuscaloosa, you need to go. The Dawgs and Tide play classic games there. Their fans, despite their mixed reputation, are great. Every Bama fan that I talked to was very cordial, even when discussing what was going to happen that night. After I stopped cheering for a while because my wife said I was being "obnoxious," several Bama fans encouraged me to keep yelling for my team. Even after the game, they really didn't say anything other than we had played better and deserved to win. I doubt we would be as gracious after a swift kick to the guts like that. The Bama fans were right. Despite the drops, despite the missed kicks, despite the spotty play at times, we should have won that game big. Bama played a bad first half and we couldn't seem to make them pay for it like we should have. I thought the Tide woke up a little bit in the second half, but we still had our opportunities. We're young, we're still inconsistent, but the trend line is headed up. The receivers didn't drop the ball, despite his shortcomings Chandler made a clutch catch when we needed it on the final drive in regulation, and I thought our young defensive backs played well. I know Bryan Evans got burned on that deep route on Bama's final drive, but Jones and Allen had their moments of brilliance.
There is nothing sweeter than a big SEC road win, especially one you gut out at the very end. When there are only a few sections still left in the stadium as "Glory, Glory" blares out and you're left alone with the rest of the Dawg people, it's a feeling that is transcendent and hard to match in the realm of sports. It is also a feeling that has now become common under Mark Richt, but it shouldn't devalue the experience. It never gets old.
Quinton
4 comments:
Q, you couldn't be more on the money, both with your comments about Bama fans and about the way it feels to be in a road stadium after a victory.
Even though it looks like a logistical nightmare for me, that feeling is the very reason I'm trying to figure out a way to get up to Knoxville in a couple weeks. Richt-Neyland is an immensely cool place when there's only about 6k folks in red and black jumping around like they just won the lottery.
We were smack in the middle of the Bama student section with maybe two other Georgia fans nearby and those students just would NOT leave after the game ended... weird. Sadly, we kept our celebration to a minimum as we did not want to get Bourbon dumped on our heads. Their utter silence was sort of frightening but it was still pretty sweet.
eWhen I was in school traveling w/ the team I remember:
Knoxville being the most awe-striking place; so huge, orange everywhere and the setting near the river is cool too.
Florida (Gainesville) was the loudest and most intimidating place- what an ugly stadium, but that triple-level endzone with the students was like a wall of sound.
Tuscaloosa has the best for fans; the students were there an hour before the game and all but a few of the frats were in their seats at least 20 minutes before the game started, unlike UGA in those days when people where still coming in at the end of the 1st Qtr because they were still drinking.
Kentucky was the best small stadium.
UGA was the best big stadium.
My favorite moment of 'empty bleachers' was in Knoxville in '04 when we killed them, and Clausen got benched. We started chanting Casey's name, and all you could hear were Georgia cheers and the Redcoats.
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