Ten Long Years

I just re-read my post regarding what Sooner Magic said about the Dawgs' out-of-conference scheduling, and realized that I called out a lot of Tech teams that beat us over the years in order to make an argument that you should never downgrade your in-state rival the way SM was seemingly downgrading OSU. I mentioned the '27 game that cost us the NC, The Drought, and the 2004 Tech team that nearly came back on us (thank you, Reggie Ball, for your unbridled idiocy!). What I did NOT mention, however, was the 1998 Georgia Tech team. And I just realized that this is the 10th anniversary of that game, the very first Tech game I ever attended.

I always got tickets to Georgia games through my grandfather, but because I was a young'un and because my birthday always coincides with the Tech game, I never went. I always went to day games, meaning I saw teams like Mississippi State and Southern Miss and things. So my first year in college at Emory, one of my friends' boyfriend was a UGA student who sold me his Tech ticket for $10. Years later, when I was a graduate student at UGA, I would curse his name as not a true Georgia fan, then turn right around and sell my Tennessee ticket to a friend of mine for face value ($6) because I had to celebrate my wedding anniversary instead of going.

At any rate, I was EXTREMELY excited. It was the first Georgia game I had been to since Brett Favre was playing for USM, and I bought a t-shirt (it says \"Kiss Your Buzz Goodbye\" on the back, and I still have it) and sat in the nosebleeds. It was a day game, I remember, and shockingly it was not packed; there were empty bleacher seats where I was sitting. And we didn't pound Tech all day, but we had maintained a comfortable 10-point margin for most of the game. Then Tech scored a touchdown late, considerably slimming that margin. We began driving down the field, and Quincy Carter fumbled the football. Tech recovered, scored, and beat us 21-19. They scored what felt like 13 points in 90 seconds, though I may be wrong about that. I just remember being totally relaxed in terms of winning or losing the whole game, and then Quincy fumbles it away like the idiot he is. WHAT a heartbreak. That game might just be the reason that I agree with Larry Munson on NO lead being safe when you're playing Tech. Someday, when CMR's streak of 25 consecutive wins over Tech is legend in the South, I'll tell my grandkids never to take the Tech game for granted. \"One time,\" I'll say, \"I saw Georgia Tech score 13 points in the last minute and a half of the game to beat us in Athens. Saw it with my own eyes.\"

All of which is to say, RxCowboy, that if Sooner Magic is saying that our nonconference schedule is weak, a schedule that only last year included their major in-state rival, your Oklahoma State Cowboys, then he needs to seriously rethink his own school. Georgia fans take Tech seriously EVERY year. No matter what.

As a youngster growing up in Georgia, you pick your sides early. I remember when Bobby Dodd owned us. Thank God those days are over.
Let me ask you people this, how do you think Tech would fare if they had stayed in the SEC? I think they saw the writing on the wall and decided they'd get out while the getting was good. What a different conference we would be if Tech and Tulane were still members.
Paul Johnson stirred up his gnats. All I can say is be careful what you start because the Georgia Bulldogs are gonna finish it.

GT is in the right conference.....the weak sisters of the ACC.

Agree. GT is definitely in the best conference for them. SEC just too powerful for that school on a long term basis. Competing in the SEC is a very demanding proposition.