Thoughts from a former Wartiglesman

I didn’t expect you’d remember those!

go look them up or are you gonna repost this week?

/being really efficient nope this time it’s just lazy.

As I said in my post, I didn’t hate Auburn until later. Had Auburn fans not gotten so far-fetched in conspiracy theory, the hatred wouldn’t have started to build. Had Auburn fans not begun to claim MNC’s the way that Bammer’s do, the hatred wouldn’t have started to build. “If a laundromat in Tuscaloosa votes us national championships, we’ll take it.” Bear Bryant said it, but judging by many of your fans, it could have easily been Pat Dye, Cliff Hare, Shug, or Tubs. I hate Auburn because when I publish my thoughts on how I went from being a dyed-in-the-wool Auburn man to a Georgia man, people like you come trolling other message boards making personal attacks. (Haven’t you been banned from this site enough times to understand any decency? Apparently not!) I have no problems with reading comprehension. As for your mention of MNC’s on the flats, you should be able to read above that I wrote “I don’t hate Auburn like I hate Tech.” But I’ll save my NATS rants for the week we play them. This is Georgia-Auburn week, and for now, I’m sticking to the topic at hand.

because cowards on internet sites say disparaging things that they would never say in person. They try and turn this respectful rivalry into somewhat wrought of hate and loathing but it’s not.

Doesn’t Georgia have enough of that with Florida and Tech? Do you really want it with Auburn? Really?

http://www.thewareaglereader.com/2011/07/shug-is-dead-and-i-dont-feel-too-good-myself-lewis-grizzard-on-auburn/

epic fail.

if by same you mean consistently and constantly lower in every ranking and measure, than yes, that’s “same”.

In the foothills of the Appalachians, sits Athens, nestled in rolling hills and home to the University of Georgia. If that’s “Deliverance country,” so be it. I never claimed to be incredibly smart, but thanks for the reality check. I think my post established why I didn’t go out-of-state, and I had no desire to pursue an engineering degree, so I didn’t attend Tech. Find any recent (last 10 years) objective date that shows Auburn’s academic standing (on the whole, not talking Vet school here) as higher than UGA’s and I’ll engage you in a debate about that. Lastly, though I’ve never been to warbloggle.com, and likely never will, I’m sure that he is a better writer than I. I’m somewhat successful in my own line of work (which is obviously not as an author or writer of any kind), and I’m perfectly fine with that. I simply decided, while home sick from work yesterday, to share my story of how I became a Dawg fan. I obviously hit a nerve. Perhaps the joke about Auburn being a fallback school for people from Georgia who didn’t get in at UGA hit a nerve? Thanks for your feedback, though. Have a great day!

For what it’s worth, I’m genuinely surprised at your observation about our “constant hatred,” which seems rather unfair. Some of the writers here take the Florida rivalry very seriously, and some of the writers here (including me) take the Auburn rivalry very seriously, but that’s hardly all we talk about, and I certainly don’t think any of us rises to the level of many fans on both sides of the Iron Bowl rivalry. Moreover, a great deal of it (e.g., RedCrake’s weekly posting regarding the Bulldogs’ upcoming opponent) is tongue-in-cheek and over the top, and deliberately so, for the sake of humor.

In the meantime, writers on this site have written very sensitively about the Penn State scandal, have expressed their condolences to the Auburn family over the recent passing of Mrs. Jordan, and have championed efforts to raise funds for local food banks and for the acquisition of a helping dog for a child suffering from autism. If you object, for instance, to my displays of vitriol toward Auburn, I at least understand that. However, to claim that this weblog is consistently negative and hateful about every other team out there, or that it spews constant hatred, is, I believe, an unfair and inaccurate overgeneralization.

That said, the rest of your points are well taken, and I thank you for sharing them.

While I certainly hope the Dawgs will pull through, and on, paper, UGA has the edge, we both know that games aren’t played on paper. I think it will be a very competitive game, and we may end up on the short end of the stick.

In regards to academic standings, I’ll offer the following argument: In it’s most recent college rankings, U.S. News and World Report ranks UGA at #62. Auburn checks in 20 spots lower, at #82. Your alma mater, Duke, is rated #10. Twenty spots lower, one finds the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. Would you describe Duke and UNC as comparable? UNC is a great school, but I know several Dukies, and none of them would appreciate the comparison. The vitriolity and indignation with which most Dukies view UNC dwarfs the indignation with which I view Auburn. (The University of Alabama, incidentally, is rated #75). Georgia is rated as the #23 public school, Auburn is #36. In programs, both undergraduate and graduate, which both schools have in common, UGA is rated above Auburn in all but one, with the sole exception being Engineering. The University of Georgia’s average SAT score for the 2010 incoming class was 1855. Auburn was 1790. (For the sake of comparison, Duke was 2145, UNC was 1940). I can understand your statement that the two schools are comparable, but UGA is rated higher almost completely across the board.

As I’ve said in earlier posts, my disdain for Auburn has been created by the actionsn of Auburn, its athletic association, and its fans. I was not raised with this feeling, as you likely were for Alabama. One must face the fact that in AU players destroying the hedges, in cheap shots on UGA players, in the constant inferiority complex with which many Auburn fans operate, they have made others around the country dislike them. It’s like the guy who lived on my floor in Russell Hall who used to come home drunk three times a week and bang on every door at 3 AM. He couldn’t understand it when one night, he got his butt handed to him by two guys who were tired of it.

Is it fair for me to lump all of Auburn’s players and fans in with the bad? No, probably not. But this is certainly not something that consumes my life, nor do I think this is something that consumes the life of any regular contributor to this site.

Oh, and I will agree that the SEC East is down this year. There have been plenty of years in which the East was the stronger division. In fact, since the league split, the east has consistently been stronger. The balance of power has made a shift. However, that doesn’t mean that we pull any less for our team to win the division, just as Auburn fans were more than happy to win the division in years in which Tennessee, Florida, and UGA were all better teams. The only way to win an SEC title is to play in Atlanta. The only way to get to Atlanta is to win your division.

Thanks for your thoughts, and good luck Saturday. Here’s hoping we kick your butts!

… and I know a whole bunch of UGA fans and alumni.

Much obliged.

At least we have our disdain for those no-count (literally, they can’t count) Tar Heel parvenus in common! :)

Thanks for your well-reasoned response. I always enjoy a good debate with someone who is able to actually debate. Once we both got past being hyperdefensive, thinking that the whole thing was a personal attack, I think we both raised some valid points.

I don’t dislike all Auburn fans; I’m hosting a full house of them this weekend (God help us all).

Go Dawgs!