Home field advantage in this series has been meaningless since Dr. Sanford got fed up with having to play them in Atlanta in 1927 and decided to build the stadium that now bears his name. Over the last 45 years or so, Georgia has posted virtually the same record against Georgia Tech at Grant Field as the ’Dawgs have against the Jackets between the hedges. Moreover, Mark Richt has a higher winning percentage on the road than at home and this was his first loss ever to an A.C.C. opponent.

Jim Donnan started out 1-0 against Georgia Tech and finished with a losing record against the Engineers. Pepper Rodgers started out 1-0 against the Red and Black and finished with a losing record against Georgia. Ray Goff started out 1-0 against Florida and never beat the Gators again. One game is too small a sample size to be meaningful and a lot of guys have won one in a row.

The triple option works in the modern game for the same reason Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain’s swinging gate maneuver worked at Gettysburg: it’s so archaic that teams never see it. Now that we have to deal with it on an annual basis, we’ll adjust to it. Besides, if “hitting their stride” includes giving up 42 points, I’ll take my chances.

The evidence that Georgia was about to begin a winning streak over Florida was much better after 2007 than the evidence that Georgia Tech is about to begin a winning streak over Georgia is today. The Bulldogs played a solid 60 minutes in Jacksonville last year and won by 12 points to claim their second series victory over the Saurians in a four-year period. The Yellow Jackets were dominated for a half, took a third-quarter lead on a pick-six and a fumbled kickoff return by the Bulldogs, and held on to win by three points to claim their first series victory of any kind in eight years and their first series victory not to involve cheating that subsequently received N.C.A.A. sanctions in 18 years.

A far more compelling case could have been made 12 months ago for the proposition that Florida had plenty to be worried about in the immediate future of that rivalry. The immediate future turned out to be 49-10.

The twelfth year of Steve Spurrier’s Fun ‘n’ Gun was the twelfth year of that style of offense in S.E.C. history. The triple option has been around for decades. It went away because folks figured it out, and it began working again (e.g., Air Force nearly beating Tennessee a couple or three years ago, Georgia Southern scoring 28 points on Georgia in 2004) because it was seen so rarely. Teams that see it all the time know how to defeat it, as evidenced by Notre Dame’s winning streak over Navy.

Again, one year’s worth of numbers means little. This is especially so for a team whose road schedule (Boston College, Virginia Tech, Clemson, North Carolina, and Georgia) was significantly tougher than its home slate (Division I-AA Jacksonville State, Mississippi State, Duke, Division I-AA Gardner-Webb, Virginia, Florida State, and Miami, with open dates preceding two of the seven home games).

Georgia Tech’s stadium is small by S.E.C. standards and Georgia fans fill Grant Field whenever the Bulldogs play there. The Yellow Jackets may have home field advantage against other teams there; they simply don’t against the ’Dawgs, who are 17-5 in Bobby Dodd Stadium since 1965 and 15-7 against the Golden Tornado between the hedges during that same span.

Mark Richt’s road record (30-4) is so impressive that he and his staff have talked about varying their pregame routine in Athens to simulate their pregame routine away from home.

Georgia has a winning record against Auburn at Auburn (14-9-2) and a losing record against the Plainsmen in Athens (10-18).

The Red and Black have the same record against the Gators at Florida Field (1-1) as they do in Sanford Stadium (1-1).

Georgia entered 2008 with the same record against Tennessee in Knoxville (8-10-1) as the Bulldogs had against the Volunteers in Athens (8-10-1).

As I have already demonstrated, the ’Dawgs are at least as good against the Jackets in Atlanta as in the Classic City.

Maybe you’d rather play your biggest rivals at home, and maybe you’re right to think that way, but history, both ancient and modern, says that this logic simply is not applicable to Georgia. The Bulldogs are as good against all four major rivals away from home as at home. In fact, we joke all the time that we wish we could play every game on the road.

I’m just pointing out that not all home field advantages are created equally . . . and I say that as someone who has seen Sanford Stadium become a much more intimidating place to play during my lifetime.

The Swamp seats 88,548 rabid football fans who lock arms, sway, and sing “We Are the Boys” when they’re not busy doing the Gator chomp to the “Jaws” theme. Historic Grant Field seats 55,000 Dragoncon refugees who go to games with yellow wigs, astronaut outfits, and computers. (Seriously.) It’s just not the same thing.

Obviously, if given the choice, I’d rather play Florida in Athens than in Gainesville, despite the fact that it didn’t seem to make much of a difference in 1994 and ‘95. For Georgia, though, Georgia Tech is as tough as Georgia Tech is going to be, irrespective of venue. I’m 40 and I don’t think I’ve ever seen a Georgia-Georgia Tech game where home field advantage made a lick of difference. The years we’ve won, we’d have won in either stadium; the years we’ve lost, we’d have lost on either field. In this particular rivalry, for whatever reason, it’s just not a factor.

Georgia Tech’s whole history is about us.

Their long-running campus-wide practical joke, George P. Burdell, is based on George P. Butler, the first quarterback in University of Georgia history and captain of the Red and Black’s 1893 and 1894 teams. Back in the days when their freshmen wore “rat caps,” they were required to adorn them with anti-Georgia slogans. The most memorable line in their fight song makes specific reference to us. If you ask a Georgia Tech fan, “What’s the good word?” he will not answer by saying anything good about Georgia Tech; he’ll spout that vile blasphemy about Georgia.

This is why their celebration of victory cannot simply be about their victory; it must be about our defeat. They can’t merely celebrate amongst themselves; they have to seek us out to rub our noses in it.

Last night, at the Christmas play in which my son appeared, I stepped into my home church for quite literally the first time since the weekend after Thanksgiving without a Georgia Tech fan in the congregation coming up to me to say something about the game. I didn’t get half this much crap from Alabama and Florida fans combined, and the fans of both of those teams had considerably more to boast about than the Yellow Jacket faithful do. Crimson Tide and Gator fans, though, are used to being winners, so they know how to act like they’ve been there before.

A ‘Dawg fan would rather go 11-1 and lose to Georgia Tech than go 1-11 and beat Georgia Tech. A Ramblin’ Wreck fan would rather go 1-11 and beat Georgia than go 11-1 and lose to Georgia.

We’re Georgia fans not because we hate other teams (although all of us have at least one rival we hate); we’re Georgia fans because we love Georgia.

They’re Georgia Tech fans not because they love Georgia Tech; they’re Georgia Tech fans because they hate Georgia.

When you get past the annoyance of having to listen to their prattle, you begin to appreciate how truly pathetic their fandom is. That is when clean old-fashioned hate gives way to clean old-fashioned pity.

Georgia and Georgia Tech fans do have one thing in common, though. We both spend all of our time thinking about the Bulldogs.