Pregame tussle

RTR91

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This quote from Jordan Jenkins is something else...

Georgia linebacker Jordan Jenkins was on the opposite side of the near skirmish. Referees quickly stepped in and diffused the situation as Alabama eventually ran past what appeared to be taunting Georgia players.

"All I saw was a lot of Alabama players over there and crowd noise, so I just went over there," Jenkins said. "I thought they were fighting one of our guys, so I went over there and helped diffuse the situation."
 

BamaJama17

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Remember richt's career early on involved the Miami - fsu glory days in which intimidation played a big role in some games. The only problem is when teams ignore you as you are trying to intimidate them. Nebraska, bama, and psu paid those teams no attention and won big games against them that teams like Oklahoma did not
Yup. 1986 Penn State, 1992 Alabama, and 1994 Nebraska all come to mind.
 

BamaJama17

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The problem with richt doing it is that it always seems to backfire on him, but when Jimmie did it people were upset only because Miami was a monster. While many will say the Miami teams were very classless and indisciplined you really can't argue that jimmy had some sorta of control on them enough to win. Yea the fatigue game is an outlier to that claim, but more times than not he had control. It really started to backfire when Ericsson took over. Richt just doesn't have control when it happens
One factor could be that CMR has coached in a conference 1000000x tougher than CJJ ever did in college.
 

81usaf92

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One factor could be that CMR has coached in a conference 1000000x tougher than CJJ ever did in college.
Yeah that's true, and if Selma sees this he will probably mention that they played at the orange bowl a lot. Still reading about jimmy and seeing things from his players gives me the impression that he had some level of control that richt lacks. It also is odd that tuberville was better than richt when tubby was a coordinator under Ericsson
 

BamaJama17

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Yeah that's true, and if Selma sees this he will probably mention that they played at the orange bowl a lot. Still reading about jimmy and seeing things from his players gives me the impression that he had some level of control that richt lacks. It also is odd that tuberville was better than richt when tubby was a coordinator under Ericsson
Lets also keep in mind that CJJ and Miami couldn't get away with what they did back then today because the officials would constantly flag them for unsportsmanlike conduct and start ejecting players left and right. Another thing of "level" control would be in part to no internet and social media to expose their (Oklahoma also) off the field shenanigans.
 

81usaf92

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Lets also keep in mind that CJJ and Miami couldn't get away with what they did back then today because the officials would constantly flag them for unsportsmanlike conduct and start ejecting players left and right. Another thing of "level" control would be in part to no internet and social media to expose their (Oklahoma also) off the field shenanigans.
Also a good point, but he also let the same thing go on in Dallas. After they lost to psu it seemed he was more in control of Miami. That can also be in part because the Miami president really came down on the team. It also seems that when jimmy left, the team really viewed Ericsson as just a face on the sideline rather than an authority figure. So they went back to being just as bad as they were in the fatigue game. A lot of them admitted to doing it because they didn't respect Dennis and they wanted to stick it to the president
 

TideEngineer08

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The thing about those Miami teams, even if it seemed like the macho intimidation worked, it really never did. When they destroyed teams it was just because they were so much better than them, not because they talked trash.

It seems Richt would learn but it's been 15 years. This is who and what he is. Georgia is stuck with him and IMO they are the perfect fit. All bark, no bite and generally overrated.

They will not win the East.
 

2003TIDE

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In fairness, about their fans, I've seen no attempt to justify it:

LINK

LINK
Between this and all the penalties, all the UGA fans I work with are tired of it. They know they get to wound up and cost themselves games. Just not sure why the coaching staff and players don't realize it.
 

imauafan

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I don't think anyone has mentioned that CBS showed both the UGa and the UA team buses as they arrived at the stadium. The UA coaches and players calmly left the bus and walked to the lockerroom. The UGa players were rocking their bus back and forth. I've never understood why coaches allow players to burn so much energy before a game.
 

KrAzY3

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apparently this isn't new]
None of it is new.

Here's how I see Richt. He goes out and gets a violent bulldog. He does nothing to curtail the violent tendencies. When his dog goes beyond barking, and trying to bite people, and actually bites someone, he apologizes, gets rid of it, and goes out and gets another violent bulldog.
 

CB4

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Funny quote from a UGA fan on another message board (concerning UGA's taunting of Alabama):

"All teams and their players talk trash. What's the difference for us? We can't help but talk trash in the warm ups. The other teams choose to do it after they have rubbed our ****** in the dirt."
 
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TideMan09

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Clemson coming down the hill is one of the coolest traditions in college football, Death Valley in Clemson at night, is just an awesome sight & I think the loudest stadium in college football when it's rocking..
 

selmaborntidefan

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The reputation of Miami as Thug U probably has its genesis in their shameless running up of the score on Notre Dame, 58-7, on November 30, 1985 (played at the same time as the infamous Van Tiffin Iron Bowl). Ara Parseghian, the former Notre Dame coach who Tied One for the Gipper in 1966, whined and complained about the carnage. It was in Coach Gerry Faust's last game. Now the reason JJ and Miami ran up the score had to do with the politics of the rankings. Unbeaten Penn State was number one but somehow once beaten Oklahoma was #2 - ahead of once beaten Miami, who was actually down at number four. Miami had a legitimate complaint because OU's only loss was to......Miami. In Norman, 27-14. There were two polls back then (AP and UPI) and Miami rose to #2 in one of them, creating an outcry of anger in Iowa, where the Hawkeyes were a couple of plays from beating Ohio State as well.

I think that had that blown over at that point maybe it never gets as bad as it did.

Unfortunately, JJ felt the need to shoot his mouth off and spent much of the month running up to the 1986 Sugar Bowl with Tennessee saying that if he got the chance he was going to run up the score on the Volunteers to impress the pollsters.

Tennessee 35 Miami 7


That would put a dose of humility in most normal people but neither JJ nor Thug U meets the definition of normal.

1986 saw the infamous battle fatigues at the Fiesta Bowl with Penn State. Johnson basically apologized under pressure but even wrote in his later book (1993) that he didn't agree with it.

I've never had an ounce of respect for Jimmy Johnson as a coach because he never showed any to the game. (He seems to be a lot better now). In 1987, his team was involved in a brawl with South Carolina in the fourth quarter and also took some cheap shots at Heisman winner Tim Brown, who called them 'classless.'

And instead of taking this into account, JJ let players get into the microphone and boast about their greatness and say - in essence - 'well, the only reason they don't want to play us is because we always beat them.' And when folks pointed out that Johnson didn't teach his players any responsibility, he would retaliate by asking rhetorically, 'how does leading someone around by the hand teach them responsibility' - but he'd never really do anything to anyone that might show that he actually did have a line to not be crossed.

And finally, of course, he played the race card just like that fictional work "30 for 30: The U" did. JJ was more clever about it than the film was but the charge was still the same. Thug was 'code' for racism, for hating black kids who were having fun blah blah blah. The media even tried to turn it around by saying that Larry Bird was 'one of the big trash talkers of all-time.' Apparently, the intellectually challenged journalists were too stupid to realize there's a BIG difference between psych warfare DURING an athletic competition on the field that nobody hears in the stands and standing at a microphone and questioning the manhood of Alabama's defensive backs as Lamar Thomas did in 1992. Bird never did that and neither did any of Alabama's black players who talked trash during the game (as even Derrick Lassic has admitted). And even after getting his own manhood ripped away by George Teague, all Thomas could say after the game to the media was, "They showed they were just average" (I have this on VHS tape - seriously).

And that thuggery and mentality carried over to the Erickson regime. They only got away with it because they were winning. Once the losses began to pile up.....once Miami began to play schedules more challenging than anything Boise State can concoct........nobody would put up with it anymore.

Now I've said a lot but now we get to the problem at UGA. And UGA has a hypocrisy problem that goes way back far beyond the Mark Richt era. It may go back further but it most certainly goes back at least to the 1980s and Vince Dooley's greatest teams.

What is not often remembered, however, is that UGA had an Auburn-esque record of punishment from the NCAA. The reason nobody remembers this is because the sanctions against UGA were so slap in the wrist that most of us would die laughing. While Dooley was coach they got hit three times, the third (1982) having to do with their recruiting of Herschel Walker, who was allegedly sold to the highest bidder. (It has been stated more than once that the reason Walker bolted to the USFL for those millions is because he was going to be found ineligible to play in 1983 anyway).

That's all bad enough, but then you have to look at what happened in 1984 at Florida. In September, allegations broke against Charley Pell and his staff, with Pell resigning. Florida picked up the pieces and amazingly put together a record good enough to win the SEC title, their first ever. Florida knew a bomb was going to explode on the allegations, so they opted to not go to the Sugar Bowl in 1984 but would still be recognized as SEC champions. Since this was the first it was VERY important to them.

The SEC voted, 6-4, to strip Florida (the four teams in favor of Florida keeping the title were Alabama, Florida, MSU, and Auburn).

The ringleader in the entire 'let's show those cheaters?' Why Vince Dooley himself!!! This was in June of 1985. In February of 1986, Georgia got creamed by a former English professor named Jan Kemp, who refused to give athletes favorable grades to maintain their eligibility. Oh btw, these were football players in the fall of 1981, when UGA was defending a national championship and SEC title - so much for 'Florida cheats and we don't.'

Incidentally, Dooley was the AD at the time and the President of UGA for some 20 years, Fred Davison, resigned over the whole Kemp lawsuit.

UGA has a long history of trying to pose as good guys while trying to stack the deck. And Mark Richt learned the same tactics to defend thuggery from Papa Bowden at FSU. Quite frankly, it's a match made in college football Hell.


The issues of these constant pregame tussles and classless behavior stem from character issues deeper than the surface. Why does UGA have this problem? Obviously because players think they can get away with it or that it is somehow sanctioned or okay. I'm not talking about the stray loose cannon who commits a crime away from school - ALL teams have that problem. But TJ Yeldon made a gesture in the 2013 ATM game and never did it again. Why? Because that stuff isn't tolerated here.


I'll leave you with one final thought after this meandering. Miami was not the only team in the 1980s with problems in the tunnel. Notre Dame under Lou Holtz had a similar problem. I realize we've all plowed into Holtz for getting every place he ever coached put on probation. In 1989, Notre Dame got into a tunnel altercation with USC. I think that was the fourth under Holtz's watch. He publicly announced that if it ever happened again, he would resign. It stopped the nonsense.

I don't care for Notre Dame or Holtz - but at least he had a line. The time for Richt to establish a line was long ago, and he is not in any meaningful control of the school. He may well be a nice guy (but then again the public image of Mike Shula was at odds with reality, too), but he's still ultimately responsible for the actions of his team.

He is, after all, the adult leading a bunch of young 'first time away from home' adults into life.
 

Blindside13

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Just watched the Clemson entrance that is really cool. As unclassy as Georgia was in that game and the one yesterday, I still say I am not mad with them at all. I think it really motivated us because we are Bama and we will play anyone at anytime,and a team with that attitude can not be intimidated as the puppies found out the hard way.
 
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TideWatcher

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I was at the Georgia Dome in 2009 when we beat Florida; Before the game I saw Bama players ignoring the florida players who were taunting them; I knew that the game was Bama's. The cockiness of the other team is a plus for Bama. Someone on the board here when they saw what Ga did pregame, said "me likey" and I thought the same thing; we are going to win.
 

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