There’s been much needless offseason fodder about the toughest home environment. Additionally, Auburn and SEC fans alike are calling the Deep South’s Oldest Rivalry in favor of the Barners already, because it’s at Gurgling Hair as well as at night.
But…but…
Auburn has faced a healthy number of ranked teams at home, and a 10% success clip doesn’t necessarily generate fear in the hearts of their visitors, to say the least.
Beyond that, playing neutral site games doesn’t help this number for Georgia but does seem to indicate that we travel well, and that we likewise don’t seem to be too overtaken by the host’s environment, though the Alabama game would definitely be a spot for contending that idea.
Georgia gets to flip that this year…likely hosting ranked teams in Alabama, Ole Miss, and Texas. Will the home record streak stand…or is this the year it’s broken?
All these people saying Auburn beats Georgia this year must be smoking something. The Greater Opelika Cow College could have 3 losses (likely 2) by the time the Dawgs show up at the Cesspool on the Plains.
On the home field advantage question, Josh Pate is going out of his way to take jabs at UGA at every opportunity. He had us at 12th best HFA in his 12 team national ranking with that glorified erector set of of seats for Lulu and Junior at #1.
He has to do something to explain why his beloved Tide have taken a step back as of late. He keeps trying to dodge his homerism but it’s a little too obvious sometimes.
I followed his podcast until the UGA-Bama game last year. His fawning over Bama while completely ignoring how we came back in the game showed me his lack of objectivity for both teams and highlighted his focus on game day experience rather than actual strengths and weaknesses of both teams. There were things that caused us to get 28 points down (IIRC), and reasons we came back without bama adding to their score even by a field goal. Had the youngest player to ever lose to Vandy gotten tackled by our CB or safety, would bama have scored to win? Pate addressed none of those things. I haven’t watched a video of his since.
His new bride (then fiancé) is a Bama grad. He’s also trying really hard to hide his childhood fandom. Therefore, take his UGA comments with a grain of salt.
Late is kind of a doosh.
Pate. Although Late works. He was late first an interview with Kirby once. Kirby got tired of waiting and left.
Late Pate twists himself in knots trying to sound unbiased about the Dawgs and he always qualifies his backhanded compliment with … “i grew up Georgia…”
sorry Late Pate, Satan has left the bldg and ice cream boy from the NW ain’t the bammers 3rd coming… all will be sorted with Kirby & co in Sept.
Of that bammer 11-1 record, how many “w”‘s can be attributed to satan walking the sideline…satan intimidation is one thing, having the ghost of “The Bear” near by, is another thing, currently, nothing at alabamia screams undefeated seasons, let alone at home any more…GO DAWGS!!
I think Georgia is more of an unknown quantity this year than any year we’ve seen since Kirby arrived. I don’t think we will perform nearly as poorly as many predict. But we are pushing a lot of new players into starting positions. Last year we were notoriously slow to find our groove. That can be difficult for a younger, less experienced team to overcome. In my opinion a lot depends on these new number ones stepping up fairly quickly. We don’t need another year of ‘sluggish’ being our offensive identity. We may even need the offense to carry the defense on occasion this season. That’s not something a Kirby Smart team usually requires. Please, dear Lord, can we at least improve our ability to set the edge? I’m an old man. Grew up on Munson if you can’t tell.
Agree. I’m not at practice so I don’t go crazy with the “They played harder for Gunner! You could tell!” Maybe. Maybe they were rallying around a guy suddenly thrust into the spotlight at a tough moment. And maybe people tend to see what they want to see. But I sure don’t want another year of our offensive identity being “sluggish”. I said several times last year that our offense reminded me of a comment somebody made at GTP when Coley was OC. “It just looks like everything this offense does is hard to do. They make everything look like it was difficult.” I wish I could remember who said that. At any rate, that was what we looked like most of the time last year. And while I have defended Bobo from the knee jerk idiots that want to make everything damn thing his fault, there will be no defending him if our offense looks sleepy and slow this year.
The off-season is clearly in full effect. There are probably 13-14 excellent venues in the SEC that can all result in a good “homefield advantage” if the home team is worth a damn and the fans are into it. I’ll take our home record under Kirby any day over a bunch of hype and bullshit from the media.
Your last sentence says it all.
I keep thinking back to Kirby leading the team out at Knoxville Kommunity Kollege in 2023. Nice homefield you got there, it’d be a shame if anything happened to it. I’m of the Coach Wooden School – our only rival is The Standard. Any time, any place female dogs!
As far as Auburn? 15-19 all-time vs Georgia in Hare-Jordan is the literal homefield advantage I want the nobodies not in pads between the lines believing in.
For the record: I’m figuratively typing this while driving in my truck, rocking Early Cuyler styled bling that Georgia Beisbol players would salivate over wearing with their unbuttoned shirts – and I like it!
#Go Dawgs
Auburn Sucks.
Should a football program wish to not suffer an “L” at home, do not schedule UGA football, if a football program is rank and they like their rankiness, do not schedule UGA football, when a football program says this is the year, don’t even schedule UGA football, being invited to play against UGA football in a high profile moment, no lawyers are returning your petition for a firing squad type execution, you can’t back out and you figure there is nothing lose, 65-7 is whut you get….GO DAWGS!!
Speaking of playing on the road, I’m sitting behind enemy lines currently in Atlanta for my son’s freshman orientation at Tech. Pray for me.
Btw, funny to me how often Georgia has been mentioned so far today in the Tech orientation sessions. The little brother complex is thriving.
I did meet a family whose daughter attends UGA and she is wearing her Georgia sweatshirt for her sister’s Tech orientation. I told her I was proud of her outfit choice.
https://tenor.com/view/the-simpsons-homer-simpson-nerd-insult-bully-gif-4995988
Lol
None of my kids went to the Trade School, and no way I would have worn anything other than red (or black) to their orientation. I probably wouldn’t be so blatant to wear the Power G.
Hopefully, you have trained up your son in the way he should go, and now he is older, he won’t depart from it … Go Dawgs!
When they were teaching the incoming students the traditions and cheers (they started with that stupid Budweiser song…nice tradition you got there.) my son turned to me and said, “I still can’t say ‘Go Jackets.'”
He definitely is there for the Engineering degree and not the sports. It will be interesting to see how he roots on Black Friday in the Benz.
S. Congrats on your son. Gotta be a sharp kid to get into school there!
Thank you. If it weren’t for his interest in math and engineering he wouldn’t be there. I still can’t get used to him wearing Tech shirts around the house and the GT sticker he put on his truck to replace the Georgia decal.
the game in Jacksonville is kind of a wash. And it explains why we dont have several more ranked home wins over that time span.
Pate must be going for hate clicks. I find him interesting most of the time, but the Tide homer in him has become more obvious lately. I dont hate him or automatically discount all his views, but I dont just blindly accept them, either.
Pate can eat a satchel of Richards.
Regarding the stats in that tweet, don’t forget that UGA did not have to play UGA, so that reduces the number of times we could play a ranked team compared to other programs. Same reason our strength of schedule will appear statistically weaker than it actually is.
Man, I love all these shots Kirby and the Dawgs are taking this off season.