Dawg Datum of the Day

by T Kyle King on Jul 26, 2008 6:00 AM EDT in Football

Without a doubt, my favorite quotation from a Georgia player at S.E.C. Media Days was this line from Mohamed Massaquoi:

I don't think I play better in the black jerseys, but definitely more emotionally. We love putting them on, and hopefully can wear them a little more this season.

I’m thinking black jerseys versus blue pants in Jacksonville on November 1 and, if that goes well, we’ll see a second straight B.C.S. bowl blackout in Miami on January 8.

Who’s with me?

Go ’Dawgs!

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Bring it

Whatever you think you need to do, do it. This has the chance to be an all-timer of a game, and I want both sides as amped as possible. Only this time, let’s not have any more unsportsmanlike conduct penalties from either side (since Florida had a couple of its own, too).

by Year2 on Jul 26, 2008 11:40 AM EDT 0 recs

"Amped"

I think there’s no question both sides will be amped. And I would be very surprised if both sides don’t have a couple of early unsportsmanlike penalties, if for no other reason than that the officials want to assert their control. And if Penn Wagers is officiating, we are almost guaranteed a first quarter (at least) where the Dogs get consistently poor field position.

I’ve got a question. I understand UGA is the “home team” this year. But we were the visiting team in 1980 (we all remember Lindsay was wearing a white jersey). When did the home-visitor designation flip? At first I thought it was, perhaps, the home-and-home years during the Gator Bowl renovations, but we were still the home team in odd years through 1995 (not the most comfortable of homes that year, but home nonetheless). It’s fairly meaningless, I know, given the stadium split, but at one point, (or at some odd number of points), one team was the home team in consecutive years. Am I missing something?

by NCT on Jul 26, 2008 12:41 PM EDT up 0 recs

You're absolutely right, Year2

The national championship game is being played in Jacksonville, not Miami.

The winner of the World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party will also be the winner of the B.C.S. title tilt on January 8 . . . and the victory margin in the latter will be larger than the victory margin in the former.

Go 'Dawgs!

by T Kyle King on Jul 27, 2008 3:56 PM EDT up 0 recs

Just a guess

Could it have been when the SEC switched from a 5-2-1 to a 5-1-2 schedule?

We lost Ole Miss as a permanent opponent. My guess is that some series’ home/away affilitations had to be switched in order to maintain the schedules.

by Hobnail_Boot on Jul 26, 2008 3:45 PM EDT 0 recs

We weren’t the home team in 93. If you look at the schedule for that year, we had four SEC home games, which means we were the visitor in Jacksonville. We were then the home team in 96. (It’s best to ignore 94 and 95; they didn’t follow the pattern. Instead, they just picked up where we left off in Jacksonville in 93.)

I’m guessing it has to do with one of the expansions of the SEC schedule, either from six games to seven or from seven to eight.

by RJohn on Jul 26, 2008 10:37 PM EDT 0 recs

Wait, duh

There was never a seven-game schedule. I have a bad habit of counting SCar before they became a member of the conference.

by RJohn on Jul 26, 2008 10:44 PM EDT up 0 recs

Actually, there was a seven-game conference schedule at one time

The Southeastern Conference played a six-game league slate through 1987 (when the Bulldogs’ S.E.C. schedule consisted of Ole Miss, L.S.U., Vanderbilt, Kentucky, Florida, and Auburn), but went to a seven-game conference schedule in 1988 (when the ‘Dawgs faced Tennessee, Mississippi State, Ole Miss, Vanderbilt, Kentucky, Florida, and Auburn).

Prior to the shift from a six-game S.E.C. slate to a seven-game conference schedule, Georgia played both Palmetto State out-of-conference rivals pretty much annually. The Red and Black faced Clemson 24 times in the 26 seasons between 1962 and 1987; the Classic City Canines faced South Carolina 29 times in the 32 seasons between 1958 and 1989.

Because the S.E.C. schedule expanded in 1988, however, Georgia had to begin alternating series with the Gamecocks and the Tigers, facing South Carolina in Columbia in 1988 and in Athens in 1989 before taking on Clemson on the road in 1990 and at home in 1991.

In 1992, the S.E.C. expanded to twelve teams, added South Carolina, split into two divisions, and went to an eight-game conference schedule. Georgia honored the original deal made in the late ‘80s prior to conference expansion, playing Clemson in Athens in 1994 and at Clemson in 1995 as previously agreed but not scheduling any additional series meetings until a quirk of the calendar allowed schools to schedule a twelfth regular-season game in 2002 and in 2003.

Fortunately, Damon Evans’s tougher out-of-conference slates in the era of the permanent 12-game regular season has allowed Clemson to be added back to the slate in 2013 and in 2014, but, barring an intervening bowl meeting, the gap between the 2003 and 2013 games will be the largest ever between successive series meetings.

But, yeah, Georgia played a seven-game S.E.C. schedule for four years (1988-1991).

Go 'Dawgs!

by T Kyle King on Jul 27, 2008 4:09 PM EDT up 0 recs

And just to answer one more time, according to the schedule, we were the home team in 1980. We had home games against Vandy and Ole Miss and we were at Tennessee, Kentucky and Auburn.

So I guess the question is why we were in white in 1980?

by RJohn on Jul 26, 2008 10:48 PM EDT 0 recs

RJohn, where are you getting that impression?

I’m not going to tell you that you’re wrong, because I don’t know definitively that you are, but I’ve never heard of the “home” designation at neutral-site games having anything to do with how many true home games a team has.

The designation of “home” and “away” teams at neutral sites came about because of television. In the black-and-white era, it was difficult to distinguish dark jerseys. For instance, if Georgia wore red jerseys and Georgia Tech wore Navy blue jerseys and the game were being broadcast in black and white, it would be difficult to tell the teams apart.

The solution to this was a T.V.-inspired N.C.A.A. rule requiring one team to wear white road jerseys and the other team to wear dark home jerseys. The assignment of “home” and “away” status at a neutral-site game where the tickets are evenly divided is more or less and meaningless and, to my understanding, it is entirely arbitrary.

Can you cite me a source for your belief that the number of home games a team plays in its own stadium has some bearing on the assignment of “home” status at a neutral site? Once again, I’m not saying that I’m sure you’re wrong, because I am not certain that you are, but I have never heard that argument before, so I question its veracity and I’d like to know where you got that idea.

Go 'Dawgs!

by T Kyle King on Jul 27, 2008 4:16 PM EDT up 0 recs

Each team in the SEC gets four home SEC games and four road SEC games, outside of neutral-site arrangements. If we didn’t play in Jacksonville, and we just played on campuses, then we’d be the home team in even-numbered years. So when we go down to Jacksonville, we’re in essence giving up an SEC home game, so we end up with only three.

Beyond jersey colors, of course, it’s completely irrelevant which is the home team and which is the visitor, as far as the game is concerned.

If you notice, the years we’re the home team in Jacksonville are also the years we play Tech at home.

Adding those up was just the easiest way to ID which years we were home and which we were visitor in Jacksonville. Now that I’ve been corrected on the seven-game thing, I’m going back to that being the source of the switch, though I haven’t gone through and added it up.

by RJohn on Jul 27, 2008 7:19 PM EDT up 0 recs

Thanks for the explanation

That can’t have been the reason for the switch, though.

The newspaper photographs appearing in Cale Conley’s War Between the States clearly confirm that, from at least 1980 through at least 1991, Georgia wore white jerseys in even-numbered years and red jerseys in odd-numbered years, without exception. The switch from a six-game conference schedule in 1987 to a seven-game conference schedule in 1988 did not affect the designation of the “home” team in Jacksonville, which remained unaltered throughout that period.

Go 'Dawgs!

by T Kyle King on Jul 27, 2008 8:03 PM EDT up 0 recs

This is a Test Comment

This is a TEST Comment
Salman Khan
Salman Khan
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by salman22 on Jul 27, 2008 9:49 AM EDT 0 recs

We read you loud and clear, Salman

Check, check, sibilance, sibilance.

Over and out.

Go 'Dawgs!

by T Kyle King on Jul 27, 2008 4:17 PM EDT up 0 recs

I think it was 1994 and 1995 that did it

I pulled Cale Conley’s War Between the States off the shelf and thumbed through it. Cale’s game-by-game history of the Georgia-Florida rivalry was published in 1992 and it features contemporary photographs from most of the games.

It is clear that Florida always was the home team in even-numbered years and Georgia always was the home team in odd-numbered years. As NCT correctly noted, the Bulldogs were wearing white road jerseys in 1980. War shows Georgia wearing red in 1981 (p. 462), 1983 (p. 483), 1985 (p. 500), 1987 (p. 521), 1989 (p. 542), and 1991 (p. 558) and Georgia wearing white in 1982 (p. 467), 1988 (p. 528), and 1990 (p. 554). Without a doubt, then, Georgia was the home team in Jacksonville in odd-numbered years and the visiting team by the St. John’s River in even-numbered years dating back at least to the early 1980s.

Just as undeniably, though, the ‘Dawgs have been the home team in even-numbered years since. The 1999 Georgia football media guide notes in its game recap for the previous year’s Cocktail Party that “Georgia wore black pants with its red jerseys” in Alltel Stadium on October 31, 1998. That is consistent with the fact that the ‘Dawgs were wearing white against Florida last fall, in an odd-numbered autumn.

While I don’t have anything definitive on, e.g., 1993 or 1996 (even though I was at both of those games, I don’t recall with certainty what the ‘Dawgs were wearing), I believe the two years that the game was not played in Jacksonville changed the sequence for some reason. Obviously, Florida was the home team in 1994 (when the game was played in Gainesville) and Georgia was the home team in 1995 (when the game was played in Athens), and it appears that the Bulldogs were the “home” team in 1996 (when the game returned to Jacksonville), as well.

Why that is, I don’t know, but (unless someone has solid photographic evidence to the contrary) it appears fairly clear that the break point occurred when the series briefly left the Gateway City. Prior to 1994, Georgia was the home team in Jacksonville in odd-numbered years; after 1995, Georgia was the home team in Jacksonville in even-numbered years.

Go 'Dawgs!

by T Kyle King on Jul 27, 2008 5:31 PM EDT 0 recs

All right, then

Thank you, Kyle, RJohn, and Hobnail_Boot for your observations and research. Kyle, it didn’t occur to me to check my autographed copy of War Between the States (in which Cale generously scrawled that I was a gentleman and a scholar, since which time I’ve become more gentlemanly, perhaps, but less scholarly, certainly).

by NCT on Jul 28, 2008 8:31 AM EDT 0 recs