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October 7, 2009

UGA vs. GT in the Georgia Dome to open the 2011 season?


Image: AJC

Damon Evans says that UGA and Tech are in very preliminary discussions with the Georgia Dome to open the 2011 season.

The Positives:
  • Tech would essentially be giving up a home game as the Dawgs would have dramatically more fans at the game.
  • The pay day would be nice for the athletic department.
  • We would have all off season to get ready for the triple option.
The Negative:
  • Tech's greatest systemic program weakness is depth. One of the advantages we have in the series is the timing. By playing them late in the season, they are historically thinner on the lines of scrimmage and at other key positions. They beat Auburn twice and Notre Dame once in the season openers a few years ago.
I'm not a fan of the idea because the negative is an enormous issue. It didn't help us last year as Tech's OL and Nesbitt were both beat to pieces. However, taking the long view, depth late in the season is a huge problem for Tech historically. They can get 22 very solid players, but that second team depth has been their undoing.

And honestly...the Tech fan base is never going to go for this. The idea of giving UGA an additional 15-20k tickets for their "home" game just isn't going to happen.

See Also:
-- 2009 UGA at Georgia Tech Tickets

PWD

46 comments:

Tree Dawg Night said...

I, for one, am all for it. If we can't beat Tech with an off-season to prepare, quite frankly, we deserve to lose. No excuses.

Anonymous said...

My understanding of this deal is that it defers Tech's home game to 2012, not that it replaces Tech's home game.

Anonymous said...

The Tech fan base may not go for it, but the advantages of TV and $$ will probably outweigh their opinion.

Anonymous said...

I think the big issue is CPJ & CMR don't like the recruiting foothold Alabama, Clem(p)son, VA Tech, etc get when they play a game in the dome. If the coaches are for it, I suspect the fan base will fall inline.

Anonymous said...

The Notre Dame victory to which you refer was in ND's 1-11 season, they beat Tech in Atlanta in Quinn's senior year.

But the Auburn wins probably support your point to an extent.

The game will never be played in the Dome for the reasons you - and Damon Evans - cite.

Brad said...

UGA won't go for deferring tech's home game to 2012. We are already the home team in Jax that year. This would cost us another home game if that's the plan.

Ryan said...

Just for the record, in 08 it's not like we weren't down for the count in terms of depth either...

Is it just me or was our O-line better when it was piecemeal? Maybe we should switch everyone around week to week just for the hell of it...

Anonymous said...

If you take the Tech game away from Thanksgiving weekend, you might as well take away the turkey too. I wouldn't know what to do that weekend without the Dawgs kicking the bugs butt on Saturday. Keep it as is.

Hunkering Hank said...

Off topic question - does anyone know if the UGA v. UT game will be on tv in Myrtle Beach, SC? It's an espn360 game. I know I can watch it live on the internet, but, I'd rather get lit at a sports bar. Anybody know? Thanks.

godawg said...

Ludicrous idea. We play Tech last. That's the way it has been and that's the way it should stay. If we want to open in the GA Dome find another team. Case closed, move on...

Anonymous said...

No possible way will this happen.

Kevin said...

Exactly who would we play during rivalry week? The first game of our season has falling to a cupcake or some OOC matchup whom we have no history with... would you really want to see that as the last game of the year?

Kevin said...

Hunkering Hank-
It's an SEC Network game. Check the local listings here:
http://www.secsports.com/news/default.aspx?ArticleId=12966

Rick said...

Sorry for the Off topic Question:

Where is the best place to get tickets to the Vandy game? I keep hearing to wait and the prices will go way down for this game. Does this mean I should check stubhub next week or should I just arrive at the stadium prior to the game and buy tickets outside? If you have any experience with this or any suggestions, I'd appreciate the feedback. Thank you.

blackertai said...

I guess we'd move the Auburn game that season? I mean, I hope we'd finish with Auburn (which would make sense tradition-wise) if we did make this move. I really hoped that we'd get to play some other ACC team, however. We already have Tech every year, why not use this Chik-fil-a kickoff classic to get our 1 other BCS team a year onto our schedule. I'm sure ESPN can come up with the money to buy out Louisville, and we could get a UNC or FSU or Miami instead of Tech.

Anonymous said...

Rick - Tickets will be abundant outside of the stadium. In fact, the last couple of times I have went, people were giving tickets away.

Jimmy D said...

No way. Football should be played outdoors. 'Nuff said.

Anonymous said...

I couldn't hate this idea more if Rogers Redding had come up with it.

Not sure I see Auburn wanting to close the season against anyone other than Alabama, though I'm pretty sure they've done it before.

This would have made slightly more sense before the SEC's Thanksgiving-weekend rule came into effect.

But it only would have made slightly more sense than it does now, when it doesn't make any damn sense at all.

We can't switch the hosting order for the game, because it's tied in with the Cocktail Party hosting order. If we did, it would probably mean adding another patsy to the 2012 schedule, and we've done well at getting away from that.

Dawgnoxious said...

Regardless of where we play Tech, I like the idea of playing them early in the season. Playing them last elevates the rivalry beyond where it belongs. Ending the season with Auburn would be nice, or another conference opponent.

It would be great to go ahead and get the Tech game out of the way early in the season. I don't enjoy that game. As Roy Orbison Dawg said, Tech is not the team I enjoy beating the most, they're just the team I hate losing to the most. That's because getting beat by Tech is like getting beat up by a retarded kid. That doesn't make the retarded kid your rival. It just makes you lame for losing.

Largemouth Dawg said...

Imagine how fast the enthusiasm would drain out of the season if we opened with a loss to Tech. I'm not saying we would lose to them, but half the fun of any season is knowing, no matter how bad the team may be, there is still a chance to take it to the nerds. If we don't have that to look forward to, a bad season could turn downright abysmal before it ever even gets started.

Tommy said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said...

Wow. I have to say, it's very nice to be wanted. Stokan is busting his butt to get Georgia in that CFA kickoff game.

Buy L'ville out already. Nobody wants to make that trip anyway.

Anonymous said...

Maybe we could play Florida in the last game of the year when the Tech game would have been. It won't be so hot in Jacksonville in late November, and then CMR won't have any more excuses . . .

JackSpratDawg said...

Don't really see it happening as it would upset the SEC's scheduling preference that everybody plays their big rival on Thanksgiving weekend. In short, UGA would have to be idle at the end of the season, or some other SEC team would have to give up their "big rival" game.

On the other hand, if someone throws enough $$$$ around, it will happen...

Tommy said...

In a typical Georgia-Georgia Tech game, Georgia wins. That's not homerism, that's 100 years of empirical data talking.

So, first off, stop all this crying about "what if we lose?" and "we don't want to face them when they have depth." Sack up. When we lose to them, we've got bigger problems as a program than our fans getting ragged on. You can probably count on one finger the times we've been a MNC contender and Tech screwed it up for us, so that's hardly a risk we need to spend much time managing.

Frankly, I don't value this rivalry much. They're not in the SEC and I've never lived in Atlanta, so I've never understood why this game is the priority that the Cocktail Party is. Move it to the Dome, first game of the season or, hell, just play them every few years like Florida and Miami -- I really don't care.

Point being, if the only justification for playing this game in the Dome is to keep Alabama out of there, that's good enough for me.

Anonymous said...

So... Dez Bryant?

Does this mean we're 4-1??? Kidding. But seriously, does it?

Mr. Sanchez said...

Like others say, if we start with Tech, who closes the schedule?

And you left out a positive about playing them in the opener Paul. In addition to getting a full off season to work on stopping the option, option teams don't seem as in rhythym early as they do late. Fumbled pitches, poor spacing, etc, that is the type of offense that seems to get better and better if you can have a healthy unit all season.

Unknown said...

Good news: When we lose to Tech, we don't have to worry about our hedges being ruined.

Anonymous said...

I hate this idea. I might could stomach it if its only for one year, but I'm calling it quits as a Dawg fan if we stop playing Tech last.

Anonymous said...

Ahh the Georgia Dome....

The only place where a short directional kick actually worked.

Anonymous said...

This would be incredibly boring. Why can't we get another upper tier ACC team or Big East team to play us there. We play Tech every year, what's so exciting about opening in the Dome. Let's play Miami, FSU, VaTech, Cincinnati, NC State. I don't know, someone exciting.

SCdawg said...

this is ending a tradition so i hate the idea.

why cant we play clemson??? i know there is a series planned for like 2013 & 2014 but thats too far away and we should play them to open every season. its a great rivalry that needs to be renewed even if it was in the dome.

Hunkering Hank said...

Thank you Kevin!

Unknown said...

if it's not a Texas, OU, or an upper tier ACC or Big Ten team it's not worth it for UGA or the Atlanta Sports Council

outside of one of those options, the only time I really care about seeing the Dawgs play in the Dome is the first weekend in December

blackertai said...

Well, after reading Tech's SBN blog, it seems they're all opposed to this as well. I don't know, it might work out, but neither side wants to loose a home game. Anyways, we could attract such better competition than those optioneers. I'd much rather see us play Miami or FSU or Va. Tech than NATs.

Ludakit said...

The statement from Tech's AD makes it sound like he's behind it since it would put their three biggiest games (UGA, VT, CLEM) as home games beginning in 2012. The down side for us is that makes our last two games in even-numbered years as away games.

Tech's behind it but after looking at the long-term consequences of it, I highly doubt Damon does it. You can finish the season away with the last two games. It's a poor idea.

Anonymous said...

Maybe we should play all our rivals at neutral sites. We could play Auburn in Birmingham, South Carolina in Charlotte, and Tennessee in Nashville.

For those of you that worry about Alabama and other SEC teams playing in the dome hurting recruiting NOTHING hurts recruiting more than losing to Florida ever year. What's being done about that?

blackertai said...

Don't worry, anon. I'm sure Richt's got the family praying about it.

Anonymous said...

Nice way to start the season injuring a) on the Dome's artificial turf...

Dawg19 said...

To be fair, we should schedule the South Carolina game at the Dome...so they can see what it's like to play there...

Kevin said...

You really expect to play Auburn as our last game? You realize they would never move the Iron Bowl, and with the 12 game season, if we wanted to actually end with Auburn and a week earlier than all other teams, we would basically have to give up our bye week.

Oh, and UF isn't moving their FSU game either.

Anonymous said...

We cannot end a week earlier than other teams. The SEC has mandated that every team plays on Thanksgiving weekend. That's why Alabama and Auburn are playing the Iron Bowl on the day after Thanksgiving this year; they've normally played the weekend before.

There is precedent for those teams ending seasons against other teams; Alabama played at Hawaii during its bowl ban early this decade. But odds are Auburn wouldn't want to mess with the order of those games.

Remember how weird it was in 2001 when the Houston game got moved to the end of the season because of 9/11? If we don't end with a rival or big game of some sort, every year will be like that. And we're not getting a major OOC opponent to play that week.

Hunkering Hank said...

The only way I see this happening is on a one-off basis and Tech calls it a homegame for ticket purposes. UGA would get its regular allotment of tickets and Tech would be charged with filling up the dome - which, of course, would be UGA fans buying tickets from Tech.

Personally, I think it's weird and don't want any part of it. I agree with the commenter above who said we should be figuring out ways to beat Florida instead of messing around with Tech to potentially negate an alleged recruiting issue.

Muckbeast said...

This is a bad idea.

A better idea is instead of getting screwed by a school like Ok St. we play that type of game in the Georgia Dome.

Anonymous said...

At least the colors in the Dome favor us...Red and Black all over!!

Leave things as they are or just play it in the Dome at the end of the year...like we do now!

Anonymous said...

If GT wants to re-work their overall home/away schedule rotation they need to talk to the ACC scheduler. When the league expanded to 12 teams a couple of years ago GT had to play VT in Blacksburg two years in a row, so the league owes them a favor.

 
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