When all else fails, move the game

by Buddy Martin on May 14, 2009

OK, so I hear the whining out of Athens again from the Georgia Bulldogs about how unfair it is for them to have to play their annual rivalry against Florida in the unfriendly confines of Jacksonsville.

Mark Richt says he thinks the game should be moved to Atlanta, or maybe Charlotte.

Funny how Richt complains about the game being played on Florida soil, but doesn’t mind playing it in the state of Georgia. But Charlotte?

Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. Move this SEC classic to ACC country.

Why not play it in the Bahamas or maybe Seattle. Hey, why not just take it on the road to a different spot every year?

It may have something to do with the fact that the Bulldogs have lost 14 of the last 17 games played in Jacksonville.

Seems like it hasn’t been that many years ago, back before Steve Spurrier arrived to stem the tide of Vince Dooley’s onslaught, that those Georgia folks loved Jacksonville. It was Spurrier, armed with a plan to reverse those fortunes, who always bragged that the game was a big convenience for his Gators because they only had to take a short busride to play in — at that time — what was known as the “Gator” Bowl.

I can’t blame Richt, though. This could start a whole new trend. Auburn ought to ask the Iron Bowl to be moved out of Birmingham — maybe to Cleveland — in order to break the stronghold that Nick Saban is going to have on the Tigers. The Texas-Oklahoma game could be switched from Dallas and played in Branson, Missouri. Bobby Stoops would get it off Texas soil that way.

Yeah, those Georgia Bulldogs need a change of venue. Although I didn’t hear much of that two years ago when Richt’s team created havoc with “The Incident,” storming on the field after their first touchdown and going on to beat the Gators.

I think I know why Richt doesn’t want to come back to Jax, however. He just never wants to see that scoreboard that Urban Meyer kept showing him last season when the Florida coach kept calling time out in the final moments, just so the Georgia coach could burn the image in his head: “Florida 49, Georgia 10.”

Yeah, I think he’d like the view better in Charlotte.

Viewing 3 Comments

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    I totally agree. I am an old school Gator, and I remember back when GA owned us. Some of our fans wanted to make it a home and home series back then. I am glad they didn't because thanks to Spurrier we reversed the trend.

    However, these days when you figure the Dogs have to travel down a couple days before the game and stay in hotels, while the Gators take a 45 min bus ride over on gameday, it just seems to me I would want a change if I was a fan and coach of that team.

    Oh well, Go Gators "Back to Back"??
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    Dear Buddy,
    The Iron Bowl WAS moved from Birmingham in 1989...It now alternates between Tuscaloosa and Auburn. . Personally, I would rather go to a banquet honoring the Somali Pirates than go to Auburn, but fair is fair. Having the Georgia/Florida game in the state of Florida every year does seem to be an advantage to Florida.
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    Love this topic. I'm one of the few who wanted a home and home, my friends in Jacksonville don't see it that way. Always wanted to go to see a game in Georgia just once sorry I didn't get up there the one year the Old Ball Coach scored half a hundred on Ray Goff.

    But moving this game to a neutral field in Georgia well that Dog won't hunt. Either keep it in Jacksonville or move it to a home and home. I guess you could have a neutral home field in Florida one year and Georgia the other but why?

    You hit it back when Dooley was the coach the Dogs humiliated us on a regular basis. They knew where our goat was tied up back then. I hated ABC's Ground Hog Day remembrance before each broadcast of the Larges Cocktail Party in the World because they'd always rerun that Run Lindsey Run. It got so I'd go out of the room and wait till kickoff.

    Even if we wanted it too this thing won't last forever. But forever I'll remember our goal line stand then that 96-yard bomb Kerwin Bell to Rickey Nattiel. That day made all things right for this man in Jax. It was the beginning of the down fall of Georgia's strangle hold on the Gators and Dooley's reign we began to turn it back then.

    And a day like that will happen for Georgia too but now while Urban Meyer is at Florida. Hehehehe
 
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