When Should the Georgia Game Be On The Backburner?

GTLiebs

GTLiebs

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Now it could just be me, though I think anyone attending the Peach Bowl would agree, but it seemed like our players didn't seemed especially motivated for the bowl game. There are two ways a team coming off a big win to end a great season into a prime time bowl game can come in unmotivated. One, they assumed they would run all over the other team, which in this case was possible but not likely unless the coaching staff believed it too and thus pretty much failed. The other is that after winning that one game of the season nothing else was quite so important. In this case it was probably the latter. I constantly hear about how people would be fine with a 1-11 season if we beat Georgia and how Coach Johnson deserves a free pass (whatever that is) for beating Georgia. I think anyone who goes up to these players and tells them "at least you beat Georgia..." that person should be berated. I think at least for the players sake these priorities should be changed. I understand the seniors set the goals for this season and maybe because of all their time under a coach like Gailey who couldn't really motivate that kind of thing is understandable. But does anyone find it strange that our seniors (which in the preseason were suppose to have great NFL potential) placed beating a particular team that had been playing very well the past few season over winning a bowl game for the first time? Any seniors we had this season who weren't redshirted have never won a bowl game.
 
Liebs, I see you are in FL. I am in FL also and down here we don't hear a whole lot from those boring UGA windbags so we don't have to go through the annual hell our other GT fans have had to endure these many years.

I think the desire to beat UGA first and foremost is very understandable and I belong to the group that feels that way. Your post, however, is also very rational and makes a good point.

Emotions, being what they are, will probably continue to prevail over rationaliy - in the near future at least.
 
It should never go on the backburner. I see your point, but if the team couldn't get up for playing in front of a sold out dome before a largely pro-Tech crowd on the national stage...then putting the Georgia game on the backburner wouldn't solve anything.

We just sucked it up, plain and simple. It didn't have anything to do with how important the Georgia game was, in my opinion. Sometimes you just don't come ready to play and you suck.
 
Well, according to dems the players were fired up about the bowl and seemed ready the night before. Maybe we were ready and just got our asses kicked? It's way to hard to get into the heads of 100+ 18-22 year old guys and figure out anything that holds true for all of them.
 
When we have the lead in the overall series AND you can walk into a sports store and see more GT items than uga items AND we bring the longest win streak to double digits, THEN it will be put on the backburner - but only until the double-digit win streak has ended - then it gets brought back to the front.

Oh, that or the uga football program ceases to exist because we have teamed with Florida, Alabama, Auburn, and LSU to give the mutts five winless seasons.
 
I don't understand why everyone keeps saying the team wasn't ready. I talked to several insiders and they said the players were pumped and excited.

We just played bad and it steamrolled from there.

There is a difference.

In 86 we were fired up about WF and the chance to secure a bowl and we went out and crapped on ourselves. It happens.
 
GTLiebs said:
Now it could just be me, though I think anyone attending the Peach Bowl would agree, but it seemed like our players didn't seemed especially motivated for the bowl game. There are two ways a team coming off a big win to end a great season into a prime time bowl game can come in unmotivated. One, they assumed they would run all over the other team, which in this case was possible but not likely unless the coaching staff believed it too and thus pretty much failed. The other is that after winning that one game of the season nothing else was quite so important. In this case it was probably the latter. I constantly hear about how people would be fine with a 1-11 season if we beat Georgia and how Coach Johnson deserves a free pass (whatever that is) for beating Georgia. I think anyone who goes up to these players and tells them "at least you beat Georgia..." that person should be berated. I think at least for the players sake these priorities should be changed. I understand the seniors set the goals for this season and maybe because of all their time under a coach like Gailey who couldn't really motivate that kind of thing is understandable. But does anyone find it strange that our seniors (which in the preseason were suppose to have great NFL potential) placed beating a particular team that had been playing very well the past few season over winning a bowl game for the first time? Any seniors we had this season who weren't redshirted have never won a bowl game.
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Way too long of a post with very little content! But from what I could suffer through, I must say that other than winning a National Championship, the UGA game is far more important. Bowl wins, and even conference championship wins aren't nearly as important unless we're contending for a national championship. Bowl games dont matter and neither does winning the conference when you win it at 7-4. Beating UGA at 1-9 is way sweeter!
 
I was hugely disappointed in the bowl game. I had hoped that the days when we played flat were behind us. But let’s face it, our team spent a month having sunshine blown up their backsides. LSU spent a month hearing about how they were going to get run out of town. It’s not surprising that they came motivated to play and we didn’t.

We still lack the one thing that can keep a team motivated regardless of the opponent, competition for playing time. It will take at least two more years to build up the depth we need to keep everyone playing at a top level just to see the field.
 
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The path to post-season success is NOT to stop worrying about UGA. That's Gailey-think.

We need to beat our rival, not just to beat our rival but to achieve success elsewhere.

You will not find one example of a successful team that does not beat its rival sometimes.

You never have to say "It's just another game" if you are winning. That's just an excuse for losing consistently, and a bad one.
 
John, thanks for expressing this. Coming from someone who's been there gives it a lot more weight.

Everyone seems to think that a big part of the reason we lost was because we were flat. Now I will say that LSU was a little more fired up than we were, but the main thing is that their team was bigger, faster, and stronger. They underachieved greatly this year but put it all together against us. If we don't make all the crazy mistakes it might have been close, but I don't think we'd have won.

quote=refrigeratormover;291648]I don't understand why everyone keeps saying the team wasn't ready. I talked to several insiders and they said the players were pumped and excited.

We just played bad and it steamrolled from there.

There is a difference.

In 86 we were fired up about WF and the chance to secure a bowl and we went out and crapped on ourselves. It happens.[/quote]
 
GTMens, it's just that i think that opinion is not something the players should have. You think a player from a 1-11 team with a win over Georgia are going to get into the NFL? Will those players or that team get any respect from anyone else but Georgia Tech fans? That kind of thinking is a fan mentality that could affect the players and I think that's a bad thing. I'm not saying that is the right idea though.
And lonestar, I didn't mean to put it that way. I don't mean treat the Georgia game as any other game but that we shouldn't forgo other games because they aren't the Georgia game. It's just that I feel once a teams' goal stops being to win championships and starts to be beat this one guy they, well, won't be able to win a championship I guess.
 
refrigeratormover said:
I don't understand why everyone keeps saying the team wasn't ready. I talked to several insiders and they said the players were pumped and excited.

We just played bad and it steamrolled from there.

There is a difference.

In 86 we were fired up about WF and the chance to secure a bowl and we went out and crapped on ourselves. It happens.
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E X A C T L Y!! what happened. :bowdown: (we have to move on-next year will help ease the pain)
 
Backburner??!? Never.

But what I'd really like to be able to think/say is that "Winning against them is no big deal, but losing to them is unthinkable."

To get there we'd need to be consistantly blowing them out by 14+ points and see their program in a tailspin.
 
This comes back to the argument that is always on here: which is more important, beating UGA or beating everyone else. I am in the beating UGA trumps everything camp. I know I'm not alone, but I also know that some people think I'm insane. I would be happy with the theoretical 1-11 season. Of course I'd like to have Georgia Tech once again be crowned the mythical national champions. But if I had to choose between a 8-5 season, with a win in a bowl game but a loss to the Great Satan, or a 5-7 season with no bowl but a win over the mutts, I take B. I think it really depends on when you went to Tech. I got in and out during the Chan Gailey era. That alone should say enough.

As for the Peach Bowl, saying we were flat is an insult to the way both teams played that game. Two plays in that game determined the outcome, and they were both in the second quarter. If either of those plays went our way, the game may have been drastically different. That game was like the UGA game last year where we had our chances and everything in the universe seemed to be aligned against us.
 
Sorry--I did not answer the thead question (got carried away with a sensible post)--but NEVER-NEVER should the Ugag game be secondary--everything ELSE is in 2nd place!!
 
Allen Koholic said:
This comes back to the argument that is always on here: which is more important, beating UGA or beating everyone else.
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Which is flawed, since we play them last and will already know how the rest of our season went. Think of these two scenarios going into Clean, Ole Fashioned HATE!!!:

0-11: One last shot to actually win a game. Pride on the line. Don't want a winless season.

11-0: So far, undefeated. Win and we're down to one game away from the MNC bowl!
 
GTLiebs said:
Now it could just be me, though I think anyone attending the Peach Bowl would agree, but it seemed like our players didn't seemed especially motivated for the bowl game. There are two ways a team coming off a big win to end a great season into a prime time bowl game can come in unmotivated. One, they assumed they would run all over the other team, which in this case was possible but not likely unless the coaching staff believed it too and thus pretty much failed. The other is that after winning that one game of the season nothing else was quite so important. In this case it was probably the latter. I constantly hear about how people would be fine with a 1-11 season if we beat Georgia and how Coach Johnson deserves a free pass (whatever that is) for beating Georgia. I think anyone who goes up to these players and tells them "at least you beat Georgia..." that person should be berated. I think at least for the players sake these priorities should be changed. I understand the seniors set the goals for this season and maybe because of all their time under a coach like Gailey who couldn't really motivate that kind of thing is understandable. But does anyone find it strange that our seniors (which in the preseason were suppose to have great NFL potential) placed beating a particular team that had been playing very well the past few season over winning a bowl game for the first time? Any seniors we had this season who weren't redshirted have never won a bowl game.
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Use paragraphs.
 
Obviously a MNC is most important. A MNC gained in a year we lost to UGA would still be a MNC. (however farfetched such a scenario might be)

The debate is would you rather win the ACC or beat UGA. If we were maintaining a win percentage near 50% with them I personally think ACC championships are more important. When you have lost seven straight, the UGA game better be your Super Bowl. That is where I fall.

If the ACC or Coastal championship are not available, it becomes much easier. The UGA game is more important than three to ten 'regular' games for most of us. i.e. we would drop the W-L record by three to ten wins if it meant picking up a win over UGA.

The one wild card for me right now is keeping the 'meaningless' bowl streak alive. That might could enter the discussion as that streak puts us in very fine company.
 
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