WSLS Ep. 062 - World's Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party

Scott and I disagree on who wins Georgia-Florida.

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Annual Celebration of the Repeal of Prohibition

Seems about right. Rex Edmondson, former sports editor of the Jacksonville papers, called the World's Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party the annual celebration of the repeal of prohibition. I can dig that.

Lewis Grizzard ran with that, too. "Drunk as five eyed owls." Yep.

TD

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Cruisin'

I normally try to get a trip of some sort in during the off week if it falls right before the World's Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party. This year, the wife and I are cruising out of Jacksonville to the Bahamas.  I have a few things qued up for the next week, but posting will be light until Thursday or Friday.

Considering what I expect my bar tab to be, it might be light those days, too.
TD

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Stacking the Everbank Field deck

Travis Fain with a winning idea:

As Bernie has already noted, absent a friendly fan discount, the cheapest after-market tickets for the Cocktail Party are going to be on the Florida side, which is the eastern side of the stadium this year.
But you don't want to sit with Florida people. So why not target a few key sections, see if we can load those up with Georgia fans?

He graciously mentions our ticket site, but a quick glance shows lot's of tickets around the stadium still available.
TD

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EA SPORTS Helmet Give Away Winner: Wiley Jones

EA SPORTS, as a part of their promotion to get Jarvis on the cover of NCAA Football 2013, was gracious enough to give one of our readers an autographed mini-helmet. Nearly 100 of you registered to win the helmet and the winner was Wiley Jones of Atlanta.

Mr. Jones was gracious enough to answer some questions for me....

When did you become a Georgia fan?  I grew up in Georgia watching Georgia football but became a serious fan when I transferred to Georgia in 2001.

What is your favorite Jarvis Jones moment? Jarvis stripping the ball from Jordan Reed during the 2012 Cocktail Party!

Favorite all-time Dawg? Jarvis.

Any gameday traditions?  Catching up with friends in Athens for the game.

What will you do with the helmet? My wife is expecting in May, and the baby's nickname is Jarvis, so the helmet will go in the nursery (until the wife moves it, then to the office).

Congrats and good luck! Thanks to everyone that voted and registered.

TD

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How I feel about Florida

The other night, as I was walking into the Georgia Center for a cocktail before the basketball game, there was a group gathered around a TV watching the Florida/Kentucky basketball game. It was early, so Noels hadn't broken his leg off yet (not making light of it, just observing what it looked like; I sincerely hope he makes a full recovery), and it was tied at 11. I just shook my head and muttered something about meteor game, to which one of the gentleman sitting there said "how can you not hope Florida beats Kentucky? Kentucky is the worst, at least in basketball."

I was so taken aback at his statement, I just muttered something about rooting for the North Koreans over Florida and proceeded to find a special on hurricanes at the bar. While I appreciated the place the gentleman was coming from, I just can't get my head around openly (or ever) rooting for Florida. To support them winning at anything and not hoping for them to fail miserably, and then to do so with ladies present, just really set me back. Don't get me wrong, I didn't want Kentucky to win either, but still....

Thankfully I found a video (h/t Matt Norlander at CBS Sports) that captures the spirit of what I feel towards Florida. The video, from the Duke-UNC manager's basketball game, is fairly self explanatory  Duke hits a last second three to win. There are Duke students there. Watching a manager's basketball game. And they rush the floor.

That is how much they hate UNC, and how much seeing UNC lose means to them.

I am, by no means, a Duke fan, but I get it. I really get it.

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All quiet in bowl practices

The only interesting thing coming out of bowl practices so far is the news that Malcolm Mitchell will be a full time defensive offensive player going forward. Unless, of course, he isn't.

Anyway, I thought letting the team play wiffle ball on Sunday was genius. Putting aside the camaraderie and such of doing something unexpected, it allowed the team to play a game that let's them put the hard loss in Atlanta aside. Murray and others faced down the questions about spiking it, the hit, what they would do differently, 20/20 hindsight second guessing ad nauseum. They had fun on Sunday.

Playing a simple game allows the team to have a fresh start to prepare for Nebraska. Blutarsky said it best when he said

Lose to Nebraska and all that momentum that’s been building since the Cocktail Party – even through the SECCG loss – dissipates like a fart in the wind.

It took me a minute to get to this point. I was viewing the Capital One Bowl as nice little exhibition that wouldn't matter much. However, after thinking about opportunity for the team to go against another quality opponent and have a quality win to point to headed into next season could be key to any sort of run we might make.

We fought the real and perceived notion that Georgia couldn't compete at the highest level any more. Win against a 10 win team and do so convincingly, you give yourself some serious breathing room against those that write and say those things.

TD

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They were lead by 2 freshmen running backs

#1 Florida vs. #17 Georgia
1985 World's Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party



God Bless America

Go Dawgs.

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SEC Power Poll Ballot, Week 7

1. Alabama - Neither snow, nor lighting, nor gloom of night can stop the Tide.
2. Florida - Gators keep showing they are all the way back. Can they make the World's Largest Cocktail Party a de facto BCS National Championship Game quarterfinal?
3. LSU - The Tigers have some work to do before they can claim they are all the way back. I'd start with letting Brad Wing be QB.
4. South Carolina - Pretty sure Spurrier is also blaming the traffic on I-95 around South of the Border on Connor Shaw.
5. Georgia - Coach Mark Richt has lost control of the off week.
6. Mississippi State - If Georgia was 3-0 in the conference with wins over Tennessee, Auburn and Kentucky, would they be ranked lower?
7. Texas A&M - There is some solace in not blowing the big lead, right?
8. Arkansas - John L. Smith has some investments to sell you if you think they are really back.
9. Ole Miss - If they only could get three more Auburn games on their schedule....
10. Vandy - With Auburn coming to town, this is the week for James Franklin to really give the New Vandy™ thing a good run through.
11. Tennessee - The Vols are 6-0, counting moral victories.
12. Missouri - Unfortunately for Mizzou, the weather let up before the conference could call off their game.
13. Auburn - All you need to know about Auburn is the high point of their conference season so far is a perfect onside kick.
14. Kentucky - Got a break with the weather on Saturday night, allowing them to escape Arkansas with just a  42 point loss.

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UGA 2012 Schedule: No Bama

The SEC just released the 2012 SEC football schedule.  The Bulldogs will avoid playing Bama and will instead pick up Ole Miss. Georgia will not get a bye week before the Cocktail Party as the SEC moved the UK game back a week.  The bye week is currently Oct. 13th.   On the other hand, the Gators don't have a bye week either.  They play at South Carolina prior to our match-up.

More later from one of us.

PWD

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2012 UGA Football Schedule Rumors

The SEC announced today that they won't be finished with the 2012 football schedule until after Christmas. With that in mind, here's the UGA football schedule as I'm projecting based on the rumors and rumblings:

Week 1: Buffalo (home)
Week 2: Missouri (away)
Week 3: Florida Atlantic (home)
Week 4: Vanderbilt (home)
Week 5: Tennessee (home)
Week 6: South Carolina (away)
Week 7: Kentucky (away)
Week 8: BYE Week
Week 9: Florida (Jax)
Week 10: Alabama (home)
Week 11: Auburn (away)
Week 12: Georgia Southern (home)
Week 13: Georgia Tech (home)

There's a chance we could see Bama at home in Week 8 before the Cocktail Party with the bye week after Florida, but that's not what I heard earlier this week. This is all still fluid to some degree so you could see even more changes. However, this is the latest as of yesterday's rumor mill.

The games that are either confirmed or darn close to being confirmed are Buffalo, Missouri, FAU, Georgia Southern and Georgia Tech. Given that Ole Miss appears to be playing Florida and Missouri from the SEC East next year, it looks very likely that Georgia does get Bama...at home.

UPDATE: Various other media outlets are saying that UGA will play Ole Miss at home in Week 10 instead of Alabama. That would be great, but I'm struggling with the conflicting Ole Miss rumors which have them playing:

Missouri and Vandy
or Florida and Vandy
or Missouri and Florida
or UGA and Vandy

I had projected earlier this offseason that we'd get Ole Miss and Aubrn as our Western Teams. I would prefer to have been right then....than the post above.

PWD

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Random Thoughts on the Cocktail Party

Watching our special teams play was like watching a teenage cutter holding a box of Wusthofs. It was sad and gross to watch, yet the plot line would make a pretty decent Lifetime Movie with Meredith Baxter playing the role of Coach Richt. It was enough to make me miss Jon Fabris...a little.

But we won. And that's all that matters. After 17 trips to Jacksonville, I can tell you I've seen us play way smarter and lose.

And why did we win? Because the defense, which was a rolling shipment of fail last year, simply got dramatically better. The result -- If you have a few minutes to enjoy a cold beer and warm schadenfreude, read these Gator recaps from Orson Swindle and Run Home Jack over at EDSBS:

"You could give Charlie Weis a Garmin, fifteen Sherpas, a moving walkway made up of arrows saying "MARZIPAN FACTORY THIS WAY FREE SAMPLES" and the ball on the eight yard line and that piece of shit still couldn't find the end zone." - RHJ

"But don't say this is all necessary. It's not. Meyer's struggles in his first year got him to nine wins. [NAME REDACTED] learned and unlearned basic arithmetic on the job and still won seven games. This team will lose to Vanderbilt. This team will lose to South Carolina. This team will lose to Florida State, and they will miss a bowl game for the first time since the pre-Spurrier era. That is not good coaching. That's failure, and boring, depressing failure at that. At least fight James Franklin at the fifty when you're done losing to Vandy, Will, and thus give us something to cheer about." - OS

Honestly, I don't expect Weis to be back in Gainesville next year. Muschamp really can't fire the guy, but Weis has the career competence to look around and see that his QB situation isn't going to get much better (he's sampled the goods already). This is just a bad fit. The bad news...the Gators will be better off without him.

However, without Charlie's offensive reputation, there's the cold reality that the Gators' head coach is just a loudmouth ex-UGA player who is now 0-5 in Jacksonville.

And by the way ... going for it on 4th and 19 is an absolutely, positively stupid call. It doesn't matter that it worked. It's still such a galactically stupid call as to bring your entire thought process into question. Assuming there was a thought process to begin with.

See Also:
-- "If Weis is a Genius, then Addazzio was a Mastermind." - Orlando Sentinel


PWD

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SEC Expansion: Bama and AU to the East?

If the SEC expands to include Texas A&M plus another school slotted for the West, I expect Alabama and Auburn to both move to the East.

SEC East:
Alabama
Auburn
Georgia
Florida
Tennessee
South Carolina
Kentucky

SEC West:
LSU
Texas A&M
Arkansas
Miss State
Ole Miss
Vanderbilt
TBD

If the league slots FSU or Missouri caliber program in the West, the balance would be reasonable. If they go after Virginia Tech again, then the divisions would basically stay the same as they are now and Bama/AU wouldn't move.

A nine game SEC schedule would likely be a part of a 14 team league. Especially now that the Pac 12 and Big Ten are going in that direction.

What's the benefit to UGA beyond more quality home games? Well...we would get a balanced SEC home/away schedule of 4 home, 4 road and 1 neutral. Today, Georgia has a 4-3-1 SEC schedule on odd numbered years and 3-4-1 on even numbered years. It would actually be easier to keep the Cocktail Party in Athens if the SEC expands to 14 teams and goes to a 9 game league slate.

Imagine a slate like this on an even numbered year:

Home:
UT
Alabama
Arkansas
Kentucky
Georgia Tech

CUSA Team
Div I-AA Team

Away:
Auburn
Texas A&M
South Carolina
Mississippi State

Neutral:
Florida

What's your take?

PWD

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ESPN College Gameday Site Projections

I think "guesses" is a better word, but here goes.

Week 1: Oregon vs. LSU
Preseason #3 vs. #4 in a neutral site contest at Jerry World. Biggest no brainer ever. Update: Confirmed.

Week 2: Notre Dame at Michigan
Rumors suggest that Ann Arbor is the target (Now confirmed) . is honoring Desmond Howard and the game is already marked on the ESPN tentative calendar. Personally, I'd send the crew to Happy Valley as PSU (#25) hosts #2 Bama. Both are ABC/ESPN games. Updated: Confirmed.

Week 3: Oklahoma at Florida State
Preseason #1 vs. #5. This is a no brainer. Update: Confirmed.

Week 4: Missouri at Oklahoma
This is wide open. Alabama hosts Arkansas, but that game is a near lock for CBS. I'm going to go with preseason #1 Oklahoma hosting #21 Missouri. Downside to this guess would be the back to back appearances by OU. Also, the lack of an SEC home game to this point makes a trip to Tuscaloosa a strong possibility as well.

Week 5: Nebraska at Wisconsin
Nebraska's first Big 10 game looks like the leading candidate. Bama at Florida would be a solid guess except it looks slated for a CBS primetime slot. I don't see Disney promoting counter programing.

Week 6: Miami at Va Tech (?)
If Cheaty McSweatervest and Pryor were still at Ohio State, I would've said Ohio State's first visit to Nebraska would be the choice here. But this could be UF at LSU, Auburn at Arkansas, Texas vs. Oklahoma, or Miami at Va. Tech. I like the Hokie's here, but it's just a shot in the dark.

Week 7: Oklahoma State at Texas
I could also see Michigan at Michigan State due to weak scheduling both Sparty and UM could both be staring at 1 loss or less entering into this game. Arizona State at Oregon could factor into the mix, but it seems less likely. I'm also doubtful that Auburn at Florida will have much sizzle by Week 7 as both teams could have 2 losses by then.

Week 8: Wisconsin at Michigan State
The slate is really weak for this one. USC at Notre Dame will air on NBC so it's likely out and Oklahoma State vs. Missouri has zero national appeal. Auburn at LSU is another candidate.

Week 9: Stanford at USC
Another less than stellar group to choose from. Texas A&M hosting Missouri will be an intriguing destination for them as well. If UGA makes it through the first two games undefeated, another Cocktail Party visit isn't out of the question.

Week 10: LSU at Alabama
This should be the biggest game of the week. If either team falters, then Arkansas at South Carolina could also be a big deal nationally.

Week 11: TCU at Boise
The best game of the day will could end up being Stanford at Oregon, but I think ESPN is going to want to promote this one instead. Especially if BSU takes down UGA in Week 1. Other big games for the weekend include Miami at Florida State and Nebraska at Penn State.

Week 12: USC at Oregon
Mainly because I think Oregon is getting screwed out of hosting ESPN the week before. Oh..and this week sucks.

Week 13: Alabama at Auburn
Past two national champs going at it in the Sanctions Bowl. Realistically, ESPN could end up at any rivalry game this weekend. FSU at UF, ND at Stanford,


When I look at that slate in all at once, it looks lite on SEC home games. That probably helps Alabama hosting Arkansas in Week 4.

What are your thoughts?

PWD

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About the Bye Week

Image: DawgPost.com '07
Obviously, Florida isn't going to just roll over and play dead for us, but you wouldn't know it from reading some of the message board posts or reviewing the betting line.

Think back to 2007. Georgia was coming off a bad 2006 season, and it entered the 2007 Cocktail Party in a very flaccid fashion. The South Carolina loss was bad followed by the 28-0 halftime Volunteer lead in Neyland. All followed by barely beating Vanderbilt in Nashville. The only legitimately positive sign that season was the big win at Bama.

But Georgia took advantage of the bye week to get its act together and beat the defending national champs senseless.

There's no reason to think that Florida...despite all their problems...can't do something similar. It's not like they are without talent. They just have to pull their heads out of the sand in order to give us a war.

And to clarify...This post isn't some subtle pre-game excuse making way of saying "Florida will win because of the bye week." That's a bullshit excuse on par with bitching about the weather (as Blutarsky mentioned on Monday). The Dawgs had the bye last year before UF and in 2008 before the Tech game, and it did them no good. It's simply to say that the Gators are probably tired of hearing how much they suck, and they will play their best game of the year against UGA. Much like UT did in 2007 after their bye week.

Also the Dawgs should be very thankful we didn't have the bye week this year. Georgia needed the extra week to build more momentum and confidence. Plus, Caleb King would've been suspended for the Gator game if we had the bye on Saturday.

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I'm glad SOMEBODY finally got arrested

In 2009, we had the fewest off field football incidents that I can remember in about 15-20 years, and we had a season completely in the toilet. I think it was "scrambledawg" who called last year, "A Dumpster Fire" of a season. (via the DawgVent)

Last time we had a big armed QB in the news for being a dumbass, we finished #2 in the nation. My conclusion? Viva la Mettenboozer. So I say...Let the Good Times Roll!

Which reminds me....We know about The Cherrishinski and The Knowshon Moreshino. What's Zach's signature drink?

Update -- Suggestions so far for Zach's signature cocktail:

From DAve Akins
• Maybe a Mett-hatten or Mett-tropolitan?
  
• There's also Zach's Mambo
  
• Zach's De-Lish
  
• Big Zac(h)'s Morning After

From Walter Geiger of the Barnesville News:
• Mettentini - Grey Goose with a double shot of humility.

Others? I'm currently leaning towards the Mett-hatten.

PWD

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"I'm going to go out there and play my heart out."

The story of the day yesterday involved the players being asked about the timeouts at the end of the game last year from Coach Meyer. Of all the player responses, I appreciated A.J. Green's the most:

A.J. Green wasn't around for the 2007 game, but the even-keeled wide receiver seethes about the 2008 timeouts.

"That's motivation for me," he said. "That's a sign of disrespect. So I'm going to go out there and play my heart out."

At the end of the day, that's all I expect. I expect that when I lug my ass down to every game home and away to support the team. When I spend a tremendous percentage of my net income on the Dawgs and invest my time that the team is going to show up and plays their heart out for 60 minutes. When I don't see that, it sends me off the deep end.

I hope the team is pissed, and I hope they play like it.

If Georgia is focused and plays to their talent level for 60 minutes, there's now way that the 16 point spread holds up. This weekend is a formidable task for the Dawgs. They need to act like they belong on that field with the Gators and play to their ability. If it takes feeling slighted by the timeouts to make that happen, good.

Separately -- Tommy Tuberville on ESPNU picked Georgia to win this game. He thinks the Dawgs are rested, and UF is a beat up mess offensively (paraphrase).

See Also:
-- Tickets: World's Largest Cocktail Party

PWD

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UGA to have a bye week before the 2011 Cocktail Party?

RedStripe over at SicEmDawgs.com does a good job with future football schedule tracking. A few weeks ago, he found that Mississippi State announced some future dates for 2011. The implications of their announcement suggest that Georgia likely has an open date before the 2011 Georgia/Florida game.

It's possible that we'll play Kentucky that week like we're doing in 2010, but it seems more likely that the SEC wants to alternate bye weeks for UGA and/or Florida going forward. No team should have a bye week every single year. It's competitively unbalanced.

It'll also be nice to have 7 home games in 2011 for only the 2nd time since league expansion in 1992. The other years were 2002 and 2006.

See Also:
-- Tickets: 2009 Georgia vs. Florida Game
-- Unofficial 2011 Schedule - SicEmDawgs.com

PWD

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Decision Time on World's Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party

UPDATE: It looks like the game will stay in Jax. Tim Tucker reports Damon is expected to recommend a six-year contract to the Athletic Board. Damon: "I strongly believe staying in Jacksonville at this time is the most appropriate thing to do." Il Duce is "in full support" of Damon's recommendation. Now all we have to do is win. GATA!

***Original Post***
The AJC reports that the UGA Athletic Board is scheduled to make a decision on the location of the Georgia-Florida game at its meeting today.

The location of the game has been a matter of intense debate among Georgia fans for several months now. PWD persuasively argued in March against moving the game. Go re-read PWD's take, because he nails it.

I am cautiously optimistic that this quadrennial waffling on the part of UGA is just a negotiating tactic for getting a better deal from the City of Jacksonville. Back in June future NCAA President Il Duce said, "[t]here are things we want yet out of the city of Jacksonville that can even the playing field a bit.” Like better coaching and better players over the last two decades? That's hardly Jacksonville's fault, but I digress.

This photo never gets old. Courtesy of Josh Massey.

Georgia has been successful posturing to leave Jax in the past. For example, we currently get $100K more than Florida to defray travel costs. However, I will be deeply disappointed if the Athletic Board votes to move this game out of Jacksonville. Neither of the other options are very appealing. The Georgia Dome is smaller and has the atmosphere of a podiatrist's office, and the notion of bringing those asshats to Athens every other year is repulsive.

It's hard to predict what Adams and his Board values more. By moving the game he gets a belated victory in his war to scrap the WLOCP moniker, but keeping the game in Jax generates UGA about $1 million more every two years. I'm guessing we'll see another 4 year deal to stay in Jacksonville.

When cocktail parties are outlawed, only outlaws will have cocktail parties

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Away Game Cut-Off Scores for Georgia Tech and Vandy Announced

Geno Atkins vs. Tech in '07 (Image: Hipple)
The Athletic Department announced the ticket cut-off for the Georgia Bulldog games at GT and Vanderbilt.

• Vanderbilt: All Hartman Fund contributors who ordered with a cumulative score of 11,300 and higher will receive tickets.
  
• Georgia Tech: All Hartman Fund contributors who ordered with a cumulative score of 30,000 and higher will receive tickets.

If you don't have tickets and are interested in aftermarket sources, I may be able to help. Our relationship with Stubhub gives you access to tickets in almost any section of Tech's Bobby Dodd Stadium or Vandy's Dudley Field. Links to ticket information from Stubhub is below:

• UGA at Georgia Tech (Boddy Dodd Stadium at Grant Field)
  
• UGA at Vanderbilt (Vanderbilt Stadium at Dudley Field)

The UGA Athletic Department hasn't announced the cutoff scores for the Cocktail Party this year. When they announce for the Florida game, we'll let you know.

PWD

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