…this week with more blue.

Yes, it is that time of year again. The last weekend in October, a date that Georgia Bulldogs’ fans look forward to each year with a mixture of hope (we could get them this year) and dread (they’ve beat us 15 of the last 17 times). It’s the weekend that thousands of fans in red and black stream down from Athens and Atlanta and Savannah and other points north and thousands arrogant orange and blue clad folks creep up from Gainesville and points South. Both groups converge on Jacksonville on the St. John’s River for the World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party as they have nearly every year since 1933 to watch the Georgia Bulldogs battle the Florida Gators.

This year both teams come in to the game with a 5 – 2 record. Both teams have struggled against some of their SEC opponents and blown others away. On paper, the Gators have got the better side. The defending national champs are led by sophomore QB Tim Tebow who has completed 2/3 of his passes this season and leads his team in rushing yards. The Dawgs have sophomore Matt Stafford at the helm and while he’s shown moments of brilliance, he has struggled under pressure. Georgia’s best offensive weapon is freshman tailback Knowshon Moreno, who has demonstrated the ability to be a break out runner. The Gators don’t really have a tailback threat, but Tebow has rushed for 10 TDs on the year. Georgia’s biggest problem on the offensive side of the ball is an inexperienced offensive line that the Gators D will be looking to exploit. Defensively neither of these teams has been spectacular – but Florida has been more consistent. The Dawgs D is young and inexperienced and has really struggled against SEC opponents. One advantage the Bulldogs do have is that they had an off week last Saturday whereas the Gators had to work hard up in Lexington after back to back losses.

But all of this is going to become irrelevant at about 3:30 on Saturday afternoon. When these two teams meet at the Gator Bowl – or whatever corporate name it has these days – anything can happen. There have been times when this game knocked one of the two teams out of a chance of a National Championship – Jeff at Echoes in Eternity is spending the week reminiscing about times when the Dawgs took the Gators out of contention. As a Georgia fan and a pessimist I’ll dwell on the losses – the most painful game in recent memory is 2002 when we came into Jacksonville 8-0 and ranked No. 1 in the country. We left Jacksonville that night with stubby tails between legs after losing by a touchdown. We finished the season 14-1, won the SEC championship and beat FSU in the Sugar Bowl, but none of that mattered because we lost to the cursed Gators. The only game worse than that was 1995 when Spurrier came to Athens and tacked on an extra touchdown at the end of the game to set a record for points scored on us between our hedges. If that’s not enough to make you hate the Gators…

For me, as someone that grew up in Gator country, this weekend is the most important of the college football year. That 2002 season was a great one for the Dawgs, but I had a hollow feeling because we couldn’t get past those dastardly mud lizards. The frequency with which they’re beating us lately is just unacceptable and really just painful. My Gator friends are claiming that it’s not really a rivalry anymore. I do not feel great about our chances coming in to this game, but the team that wants it more will win we just need to make sure that’s Georgia. It’s time for the Dawgs to hunker down and remind the defending national what it’s like to get tore up by the Junkyard Dawgs!

A final note – frequent readers of this site may remember that I started an ill advised feud with a fellow expat Tennessee fan which resulted in my beautiful son Z, not to mention my dog, being adorned in sickly Tennessee orange a couple of weeks ago. I am going to do my best to restrain myself this week from getting myself involved in any similar shenanigans. If the truth be told, it doesn’t much matter anyway. Z’s Irish relatives, ignorant of the intricacies of SEC football, sent over an orange and blue outfit for him. Dr. O’C, well aware of the intricacies of SEC football, insists on dressing him in it – hence the photo above. I think we can all agree that Z is much cuter dressed in Baby Dawg gear than in dreadful orange and blue. And no matter what happens on Saturday we’ll both continue to proudly wear the red and black.

Go Dawgs!

Image credit:

The crowd photo is from Brian Cassella’s fantastic photo blog.

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