Kirby Smart, in a rare PR stumble.
Kirby neglects to remember some folks in ‘Dawg Nation may be still picking up pieces left behind in Helene’s wake. Also, this could be the result of scheduling a key SEC game as your Homecoming game, when folks on Greek row are busy visiting friends and holding socials this past weekend. In other words, the focus on Saturday may have been on anything and everything other than football.
I don’t go to home games often. The price point and four kids prevents me from going often, but I noticed in recent years that the game experience is little different from when I was going more routinely around 13 years ago. Maybe that’s part of the problem. Maybe it’s the fact that it’s October and instead of hints of fall we’re getting hints of planet Mercury. I watched and, yes, it was a rather pedestrian affair to behold, but it’s still Auburn and I was interested to see if they could put it together without turnovers and become the offensive machine I know they’re capable of being. Lo and behold there were no turnovers, and Georgia won by a comfortable 18 points.
Maybe it’s the comfort of being able to win without racking up style points. Maybe it’s because there’s a lack of a flashy playmaker on either side of the ball, or big plays and big scores. Maybe it’s that we’ve owned Auburn long enough to where our younger students who attend (some of them were 9 and 10 years old last time Auburn won) don’t know the joy it brings in seeing anything Orange lose to the ‘Dawgs.
Curious for your thoughts…what’s wilting the experience in Athens?
Students are leaving at halftime routinely now. Is that the weather or beating the crowd downtown?
I think Saturday was definitely a case of people with their minds elsewhere. Folks east of Athens are dealing with a mess caused by Helene. I don’t understand why we selected the Auburn game for homecoming over Mississippi State. That was a fail by the people at Student Affairs.
There was also a hangover in the air from the Bama game. No doubt about it. I got that vibe from the moment I stepped in the stadium.
Finally, TV is sucking the life out of the in-game experience. The clock rules have reduced the amount of play while the TV timeouts have replaced that time. There’s a lot of standing around now.
Kirby needs to watch what he’s saying around this topic. Claude Felton from retirement would do well by Kirby to tell him that’s a bad idea. I’ll be interested to see if anyone in the press room asks him for a clarification of his remarks today.
Great meeting you on Saturday, ee.
You make some good points regarding the crowd, but I still thought those that were there could have been much louder. Like you said, “It’s Auburn!” Even when the stadium was full the crowd noise for the defense was not up to par.
Having said that, it was even an odd Homecoming and you’re right that the younger fans are just used to beating Auburn I guess. I’m used to the alumni cheerleaders and Redcoats being there. Besides announcing the King and Queen you would have never known it was a Homecoming game after the alumni trumpeter during the pregame festivities.
An old Redcoat posted an official communication/announcement from the University that said they were going to have the alumni band play at halftime of the Tech game – a big middle finger (I am not an alumni Redcoat always enjoyed hearing the Redcoats during the game, would love to hear them more! Maybe blaring rap music instead of letting the Redcoats play is one way to kill the vibe!!!). No doubt that decision was made because they could sell more tickets to Auburn, than they could for Tech, and so didn’t want to “waste” them on the Redcoat alums.
PS – looked like Auburn’s full band was there on Saturday! Anyone know if we sent a pep band to Tuscaloosa, or did we just “no show” like we did in Lexington???
Hope Kirby corrects his mistake/comments re: “fans”. Not a good look but expect him to course correct.
His observations were accurate. The people in the stands were not cheering like they normally do. I think the loss to Bama as well as Helene were a factor. I would also venture to say that with ticket prices going up and more bandwagon fans getting tickets the makeup of the crowd is different. The crowd wants the to always win like we did against TCU. That is never happening. We as fans were not elite. I came and yelled as always but it reminded me of lackluster crowds under Donnan. The people four rows behind me in the club section only yelled when they were complaining about Bobo’s play. As one of my friends like to say we were more athletic supporters than fans. The players who came back got louder yells than the team and the Olympians did not really get cheered either. Hopefully it was a one time experience. Kirby needs the electric atmosphere to show recruits and we did not bring it.
Kirby should have commented on the mitigating circumstances instead of solely calling out the fans.
Its certainly what the fans do for the coaches and the players when there is a concern about effort or focus. We consistently offer a list of mitigating circumstances or, said another way, offer excuses rather than solely put the blame on them when things go wrong on the field. CKS should follow our lead and our example.
Any suggestion that we’re all in this together and its either victory or death each every time out because any other outlook and attitude gets you beat, is just unfortunate.
Each and every fan, player and coach should focus on themselves and what they need to feel good even if its getting a pat on the ass when you whiff, lolly gag or just feel sorry for yourself and let everyone else down. What we all need when we fall short is affirmation that failure is good enough so that we can get secure and comfortable in our own mediocrity.
I hope someday that we travel to some distant region in the country and no red can be seen anywhere in the crowd and that our HC says:
“I want to thank the fans for spending time away from the game and on what they felt was more important than being here. You’re good enough, even with no effort at all.”
Filling up half of ND stadium had zero impact on winning two natties three years later. Traveling to the Rose Bowl was likewise meaningless.
We should all just tap the brakes and glide into the “meh” that we all appreciated from 1983-2015. “Elite” is for the other guys. Kirby may just need to take his constant grind and focus on winning at everything everyday elsewhere. If not, he may step on some toes and hurted some fee fees….
I have no problem with challenging the fans to be part of things. None. He did it when he showed up and we had 105,000 or so show up to the spring game. Its not an issue of whether you should do this but when and how.
If you are doing it when your team plays poorly or loses, that’s a bad look. Doing it after a good solid conference win is something altogether different.
In one circumstance, its an excuse, in another, its motivation.
Play to the standard dawg fans or find a portal. There are plenty of folks who would love to have your seats.
You are there to affect the opponent and thus the outcome. We haven’t lost there since 2019 for a reason.
DYJ!!
This was the first time in many years that Sanford hosted a game after a Bulldog loss. That could damper enthusiasm along with Helene and Homecoming events. It did feel more like a noon game, but fans did get loud at times. I do want to applaud stadium beer sales as it was quick and easy getting beer (harder to get anything else)
While I agree that there was a lot going on in the wake of the devastation caused by Helene and last weekend’s hangover, I think there is a much broader issue going on. Our in game experience needs a complete overhaul. The music, sequencing, score board, replays – all of it. TV timeouts are out of our control and there is nothing we can do to fix that but there is a lot we can do to improve the things that we can control.
I am all for recognizing important UGA grads and faculty but dedicate that to pre-game and halftime moments. The flow of music and scoreboard interaction can be greatly improved and replays.. don’t get me started! If you are making the effort to pay for tix and attend the game, by all means give the fans the ability to watch replays on a regular basis, especially those that are being reviewed in real time.
The stadium music is generally boring. I have heard the comments that they do not want to piss off the elderly donors but I disagree. I don’t think anyone really cares what’s being played as long as people are fired up and having fun. I can’t imagine that any of the silver hairs in Columbia, SC had Sandstorm on their playlist before they started playing it but they all love it now.
I didn’t go to Tuscaloosa last weekend, but I did speak to a few that did and they said the scene there was insane and that the in game production was much better that what we’ve got.
Hard to get into flow of game with all the introductions of whoever in the hell they introduce at every timeout or TV timeout. And 70% I can’t understand what the PA announcer says. And the PA guy is awful to be honest. The entire UGA game day production is lame as hell if we are being honest. The scoreboard couldn’t even keep up with what down and distance it was. The entire production is completely uninspiring
We can’t understand what they say because the volume is up so high that it intelligible. Reverb is a big problem. They are not playing music to appeal to gray hairs I doubt most of them like rap. They played Soilder Boy which was an homage to our blackout win over Auburn. They need a better audio system. They need to appeal to all fans in the stands. The music choices at one point were to appeal to recruits.
Good point on the reverb —PA system and announcer are parts of the problem. But on the rap music—-I could tolerate that. It’s where we are—-and that’s fine. But the music sounded more like you wandered into an underground nightclub in Berlin for a 2 am rave where you would need 4 sniffs of coke and 2 mollly bars to make it thru the everlasting head pounding bass at level 12 on the speaker.
I feel like 2 or 3 seasons ago they made a big deal before the first game about investing $$$ millions into the sound system, but it is absolutely no better…. Perhaps the open west end zone presents acoustical issues, but it makes no sense.
Whole in-stadium experience needs a revamp, I feel like I’m shouting into the void every year when I fill-out the survey….
The crowd definitely didn’t have the usual punch. We need to bring the noise this coming Saturday.
Deflection on Kirby’s part. Addressing the media and fans about “What’s wrong with the team?” that is one play short of being undefeated has to be frustrating. He knows more than anyone the deficiencies but he’s not going to air them publicly and he’s missing so many pieces. So he called out the fans. More to rebuild positivity around the program than a real criticism I’d guess. Just came out wrong…he won’t but I bet he’d like to walk that comment back a little. Probably foresees the crowd being really flat this week against the bizarro dogs and doesn’t want the players to play down to a lesser opponent so he wants to get the crowd to add some juice. Fine. If that’s really important throw everybody off and break out the black jerseys. He won’t but what else you going to do? I also suspect we aren’t going to be able to take over DKR stadium in two weeks. He saw what happened in the frenzy of Tuscalooser and wants to avoid that type of environment again. If Texas beats OU then it’ll be a madhouse in Austin.
He said it at the presser and then with DJ later. It was no accident and was fully intentional. The crowd needs to be louder, regardless. It’s our job as fans of the program, much more than donating to the school or contributing to NIL.
Ain’t no crab walking from the head man:
It’s not just the in-stadium experience that’s becoming less entertaining with all the rap music, lack of replays, and TV timeouts. They’ve made it so hard to park anywhere on campus for good ol’ tailgating. Schlepping coolers and chairs and fried chicken a mile and a half is a pain in the ass. Fans are leaving the stadium early because it could take +20 mins to get out of the exits if you wait until the game ends.
Our scoreboard seems really outdated to me vs other stadiums. And we only have one (in an endzone) where most others have multiple. There’s no communication of what’s going on during the game whether it be stat-wise, injuries, etc. Other stadiums have stats rolling throughout the game (ie. Etiene has 40 yards on 5 carries, Robinson has 2 carries for 24 yards, etc. or the opposing team replaced their starting QB).
I sat in the club level for two seasons and can honestly say that the experience wasn’t all that fun. Fans there didn’t cheer for the team. They only complained about whatever the called play was if it failed.
I complained about Auburn’s tailgating experience being so vanilla. The school provides all of the white tents and chairs and ice, you reserve (pay for) your tailgating spot and show up at your assigned address (row hh, space 13). They have a map phone app for god’s sake. That takes the uniqueness out of the tailgating experience for sure and I never want to get to that in Athens but I feel its inevitable as space is more and more a premium.
Hate that I missed the Senator’s tailgate and I really hope all you scamps are recovering from the storm damage.
Cheers ‘n Shit.
Several people left early due to being hot (folks with tix in 600s were feeling it) and I’m not a fan of Coach Smart comparing his athletes handling the heat to fans. If Kirby wants ME to handle the heat to HIS standards, then give me a scholly, NIL deal and tell me what the standard is during fall camp to train to – – until I get suspended for Street Racing. Expecting the thousands of goofs that wait in line for $11 pints of Trop to deal with the heat like the dudes representing the G is dumb (quote me on that). Also, I know of multiple damn good Dawgs from the Augusta area that couldn’t make the game because of real life issues so the comments were a little surprising. I get the tunnel-vision of coaches (like famously not knowing it’s Election Day) but I think let’s maybe wait on calling out the fans until they get power back and a roof over their heads.