The good, the bad and the ugly from the road trip to Oxford

JJacket said:
I'd prefer my experience at FSU in 2009 where I was berated and harassed all day long by FSU douchebags and then JFN went out and beat their ass.
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Obviously, but I’ve been to a lot of road games with a variety of outcomes, and all things being equal, it’s nice when the opposing fans aren’t all assholes.

JRjr
 
GoGATech said:
No I don't believe so. Mississippi State, maybe. But anybody else I doubt it. And I think the 50,000 number above was low. I've heard it's closer to 100k in the grove and I believe it. You just can't understand it unless you go. It's not just a lot of tents with 4-5 people under each watching other games on a tv or cooking. The square footage of the grove is bigger than the stadium footprint and folks are packed in there nearly nut-to-butt everywhere. There is a constant haze of dust because it's like a slow motion stampede. Again, there is no good way to describe it, you just have to go. And like stated previously, 99.9% of them were all extremely nice and welcoming. I can't tell you how many times I heard, "welcome to Oxford" or "are you guys having a good time?" etc.

There was one asshole. We were following a group of players parents to greet the team coming in off the buses, and got sort of lost in the middle of the grove. There are "streets" but when you get in the middle and can't get to one, you just sort of have to cut thru and around some tents. We were going thru the very end corner of one groups tent, not in anybody's way or anything, just trying to make it out to the road and some guy comes up and stands in the way and moves a trash can to block the way. I moved it out of the way so folks could get through, he said "what are you doing? go another way!" very rudely. I said those are players parents and they're trying to find their way to the team buses. He said, "I dont care who they are." I laughed and told him that out of the 100k folks I had seen that day, he was the only asshole in the bunch. He had no words and his friends started chuckling at him. Needless to say everybody else cut thru his tent.

Talking to another guy waiting for the porta-potty, I asked how many of those folks don't go into the game? He said most of them don't. They typically have more outside the stadium than inside. He said he hadn't missed a game since he was a child but had never actually been in the stadium to watch it. I'm telling you, Clemson, Athens, nowhere has öööö on the Grove. If if wasn't for Kiffin and them luring GT kids in the portal, they'd probably be my #2 team just because of their fans and the grove.
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So, I know some Mississippi State fans as well. Those are good folks! Almost to a man they have expressed a wish that GA Tech was in the SEC. They like playing us, and coming to ATL, and they like our fans, etc. When I tell them they are the reason we aren't in the SEC, they look at me like I'm a Martian. Then I explain how the vote went down back in 1978 and they just stare at me like, "Really?!" It's like they all have this understanding that GA Tech was a charter member of the SEC, played at the top of the league for a long time, and have some crazy good traditions (they all love our wreck), but for some weird reason that they don't understand ended up leaving. It's like, "You guys ought to be in the SEC." I guess it's like they know Atlanta is the hub of the SEC and we're in Atlanta and have all this history and tradition and were charter members, but we're not there and we ought to be.

Anyway, the only ones I've ever heard say wtte that GA Tech gave up their SEC membership and shouldn't be back in were either UGAg fans (mostly), some older AU fans, and a handful of LSU fans. But I also know a lot of AU alumni/fans who would love for us to be in the SEC, too. Having lived in Alabama for a while, I can tell you that Alabama fans really respect GA Tech on the whole, particularly the older ones. They remember the rivalry and miss games like that. UT and Florida alumni/fans particularly see us as ought to be SEC.

It's just strange how college football has progressed over the years. You got Texas, Oklahoma, and Missouri in the SEC but not Georgia Tech. Shrug.
 
vapspwi said:
Obviously, but I’ve been to a lot of road games with a variety of outcomes, and all things being equal, it’s nice when the opposing fans aren’t all assholes.

JRjr
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There was never a better experience in my memory, and I have seen us beat UGAg before, than walking out of that stadium in Tallahassee in 2009 after that marathon game (remember, it was lightning delayed too). The FSU fans were rabid because we were a good team.
 
stinger78 said:
So, I know some Mississippi State fans as well. Those are good folks! Almost to a man they have expressed a wish that GA Tech was in the SEC. They like playing us, and coming to ATL, and they like our fans, etc. When I tell them they are the reason we aren't in the SEC, they look at me like I'm a Martian. Then I explain how the vote went down back in 1978 and they just stare at me like, "Really?!" It's like they all have this understanding that GA Tech was a charter member of the SEC, played at the top of the league for a long time, and have some crazy good traditions (they all love our wreck), but for some weird reason that they don't understand ended up leaving. It's like, "You guys ought to be in the SEC." I guess it's like they know Atlanta is the hub of the SEC and we're in Atlanta and have all this history and tradition and were charter members, but we're not there and we ought to be.

Anyway, the only ones I've ever heard say wtte that GA Tech gave up their SEC membership and shouldn't be back in were either UGAg fans (mostly), some older AU fans, and a handful of LSU fans. But I also know a lot of AU alumni/fans who would love for us to be in the SEC, too. Having lived in Alabama for a while, I can tell you that Alabama fans really respect GA Tech on the whole, particularly the older ones. They remember the rivalry and miss games like that. UT and Florida alumni/fans particularly see us as ought to be SEC.

It's just strange how college football has progressed over the years. You got Texas, Oklahoma, and Missouri in the SEC but not Georgia Tech. Shrug.
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Alabama sponsored us back into the SEC.

UGAg is ultimately who blocked us.
 
Saturday was a highlight of my tailgate career. Ole Miss fans were great. Just walking thru the Grove we were harassed by Ole Miss fans to join them with drink and food. I’m sure everyone knowing what the outcome of the game would be took the pre-game angst out of everyone. It was a party of parties. Now, for post games I definitely enjoyed walking out of Doak and Jordan-Haire singing the fight song all the way to the car over Saturday.

And, yes, the thousands of red dresses were something seldom seen by these eyes.
 
JJacket said:
Alabama sponsored us back into the SEC.

UGAg is ultimately who blocked us.
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Alabama, Florida, and UT all were pushing the sled hard for us. LSU, Kentucky, and Vandy, were also in our corner. It was the Mississippi schools (who held onto Johnny Vaught's grudge for never playing there), Auburn (because we owned them for many, many years), and UGAg (whose long-sought in-state dominance slipped through their fingers often in those days) were against us. We needed one of those four's vote and yet failed to get one.

But alas, this thread is about the trip to Oxford. I'd like to get over there to a game one day. However, I'll probably have to settle for an Ole Miss UGAg game, one at which I'll be yelling hard for Ole Miss.
 
stinger78 said:
Alabama, Florida, and UT all were pushing the sled hard for us. LSU, Kentucky, and Vandy, were also in our corner. It was the Mississippi schools (who held onto Johnny Vaught's grudge for never playing there), Auburn (because we owned them for many, many years), and UGAg (whose long-sought in-state dominance slipped through their fingers often in those days) were against us. We needed one of those four's vote and yet failed to get one.

But alas, this thread is about the trip to Oxford. I'd like to get over there to a game one day. However, I'll probably have to settle for an Ole Miss UGAg game, one at which I'll be yelling hard for Ole Miss.
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Yea. Mississippi is wonderful. It is the best thing ever. Have to experience it....blah blah.....screw them.
 
The Grove was great and I am glad my we got to experience it. A lot of "stupid" hot walking around. The game was really good until that terrible last quarter, and we had a few Tech fans around us on the 40 yard line behind the visitor bench. Overall it was mostly Ole Miss families around. Hell, we only we're heckled once in the Grove when walking down one of the main alleys and we ventured through a fraternity I guess. But it was very PG, and I got a good rise out them when I called them ladies and they all needed to calm down.
 
JJacket said:
I'd prefer my experience at FSU in 2009 where I was berated and harassed all day long by FSU douchebags and then JFN went out and beat their ass.
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I'll go with 2008 and the comeback at Sanford Stadium, sitting in a dwag friend's box that was really about 50-50 Tech fans and laughing all the way back to our vehicle in the mist when it was all over.
The epic fist pump. The "We didn't knock him out of bounds?" Their senior day. And the day they honored that misanthropic alcoholic Munson. And of course ... "We gotta celebrate this one!"
 
Ok, this should work....
 

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I complimented the young ladies on their decision to attend an academic institution that was NOT the University of Georgia.
I think Ole Miss fans were a little perplexed at our hatred of Georgia but when we put in context with how much they hate LSU or Miss. State, they seemed to get it.
 
swampsting said:
I complimented the young ladies on their decision to attend an academic institution that was NOT the University of Georgia.
I think Ole Miss fans were a little perplexed at our hatred of Georgia but when we put in context with how much they hate LSU or Miss. State, they seemed to get it.
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UGA-Ole Miss is interesting. UGAg never played them much at all, only 4x prior to 1966, and never in Miss. Then they played them every year from 1966 through 2002. Since 2002, the last 21 seasons, they've played them 5 times. Most of the younger ones have not seen UGAg all that much.
 
stinger78 said:
UGA-Ole Miss is interesting. UGAg never played them much at all, only 4x prior to 1966, and never in Miss. Then they played them every year from 1966 through 2002. Since 2002, the last 21 seasons, they've played them 5 times. Most of the younger ones have not seen UGAg all that much.
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We warned the Ole Miss fans. We told them we were pleasant and affable and very gracious. Georgia fans are ... nothing like that. Told them we are badly outnumbered in our state but at least we don't go up to people and start barking in their face.
I think Ole Miss goes to Athens next year.
Lost in all this is Ole Miss has a pretty good team. With LSU and Alabama both having shown some flaws, Ole Miss might make a run at the SEC West.
 
Gobees said:
Seeing 50,000 women (49,000 blonde) in red dresses was not bad, either.
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Told my buddy I had seen my share of evening walkouts at the Spring Street Ballet back in its heyday.
This was better.
 
Supersize that order mutt said:
The TV DID show that, but with the exception of one brief shot of the Tech cheerleaders, nobody watching the game on TV would have known there was a single Tech fan at the game. I have heard there were actually quite a few, but the SEC network never bothered to show them.
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The TV (SEC crew) kept saying that we now had "SEC talent" through the transfer portal.I guess that explained we stayed with them for 3 qtrs.
 
swampsting said:
We warned the Ole Miss fans. We told them we were pleasant and affable and very gracious. Georgia fans are ... nothing like that. Told them we are badly outnumbered in our state but at least we don't go up to people and start barking in their face.
I think Ole Miss goes to Athens next year.
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Told the ones I spent some time with to make sure their cars don't have anything ID'ing them as non-Ugag, et al, about keying, harrassment.

They said that's similar to what they experience at LSU.
 
swampsting said:
I'll go with 2008 and the comeback at Sanford Stadium, sitting in a dwag friend's box that was really about 50-50 Tech fans and laughing all the way back to our vehicle in the mist when it was all over.
The epic fist pump. The "We didn't knock him out of bounds?" Their senior day. And the day they honored that misanthropic alcoholic Munson. And of course ... "We gotta celebrate this one!"
Click to expand...
The best walk back to the car of all time was Clemson 2005 when Calvin and Reggie broke their hearts. Every Clemson fan looked like they had just returned from Vietnam and had very little to say.
 
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