Ordinarily, this is just about the time that I'd be bringing you Too Much Information, but, seeing as how Doug Gillett and Senator Blutarsky already have taken you deep inside the numbers, and seeing as how I, like Doug, am in Thanksgiving recovery mode, I'm going to give you a short course of leftovers rather than a detailed breakdown on tomorrow's showdown between the student-athletes of the Peach State's two Division I-A institutions:
- Real estate is all about location, location, and location. This is not the case when it comes to the Georgia-Georgia Tech series, however. Since the Yellow Jackets' eight-game winning streak from 1949 to 1956 was snapped, the Bulldogs have posted ledgers of 18-7 against the Ramblin' Wreck between the hedges and 18-7 against the Golden Tornado at historic Grant Field.
- In a related item, Mark Richt not only boasts a record of 24-4 on opponents' home fields, he also has gone 28-2 in non-conference games, including a 10-0 mark against Atlantic Coast Conference squads.
- The Red and Black have not surrendered more than 17 points to the Yellow Jackets in any of the six series meetings of the Mark Richt era. While this year's Georgia Tech team puts up 26.9 points per contest, the Ramblin' Wreck has been limited to 23 points by Virginia, 13 points by Clemson, 10 points by Boston College, and three points by Virginia Tech. In other words, the Golden Tornado artificially boosted its scoring average by hanging 33 points on Notre Dame, 34 points on Army, 41 points on Duke, and 69 points on Samford.
- On the flipside of that same coin, the 'Dawgs put up 32.0 points per contest and have broken the 40-point barrier five times in their last nine games. The Classic City Canines, unlike the North Avenue Nerds, have not padded their numbers with blowout wins over hapless competition: Georgia scored more points against Auburn (45) than against Troy (44) and tallied almost as many points against Florida (42) as against Western Carolina (45).
- 2007 is the sixth season in school history in which the Bulldogs beat Alabama, Auburn, Florida, and Kentucky in the same autumn. During the previous five such campaigns (1944, 1946, 1948, 1959, and 1976), Georgia went 4-1 against Georgia Tech. The lone loss came during World War II, when military trainees were housed on the campus in Atlanta and the male student population in Athens had been reduced to those too young or infirm to serve; had that Yellow Jacket team made up of future soldiers and sailors not been able to beat that Bulldog squad made up of youngsters and 4-Fs, we'd probably all be speaking German today. The other four Georgia teams to have beaten the Crimson Tide, the Plainsmen, the Gators, and the Wildcats in a single season, though, all beat the Ramblin' Wreck . . . and all four of them went on to capture the Southeastern Conference crown and appear either in the Orange Bowl or the Sugar Bowl.
- The last time Georgia lost to Georgia Tech in a season in which the Bulldogs beat both Florida and Auburn was 1951.
- All that said, I tend to agree with Doug and Bluto. The familiar saying that "you can throw the records out" has not, historically, been applicable to this series; the team that comes into the season-ending showdown for Peach State bragging rights with the better record generally emerges victorious, but the emotional aspect of a rivalry as heated as this one often keeps the final margin close. Accordingly, we should take comfort from the fact that the 'Dawgs are 24-12-5 against the Golden Tornado in games decided by a touchdown or less.
Go 'Dawgs!