The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Making themselves at home
Does ‘neutral’ Jacksonville give Gators edge? Maybe, but Dogs won’t complain if they win.
The annual World’s Largest Complaint About a Neutral Site Game is upon us.
Also known as the Florida-Georgia game — and on rare occasion of late as the Georgia-Florida game — this very traditional border war is too often accompanied by a grievance. That being: Jacksonville somehow gives Florida an unfair advantage.
Distance from Gainesville to Jacksonville — 72 miles.
Distance from Athens to Jacksonville — 338 miles.
Some would have you believe that the difference of 266 miles, even here in the post-bi-plane age, makes
this an annually onerous game for the Bulldogs. These souls would have you think geography is the reason Georgia has lost the past three meetings, and, more shockingly, 21 of the past 27. Location, location, location is big in real estate. I’d argue it’s more blocking, tackling and coaching.
Would this great rivalry be more balanced of late had they relocated a bit farther north on I-75? Say, play a few in Tifton? Or, even better yet, Unadilla?
ESPN’s Lee Corso this year came out from beneath some grotesque mascot head long enough to advocate for this series going back to campus. Otherwise, he said, “If the teams are close, Florida’s got a great advantage.” It is an advantage that escapes me, being a Florida grad of a certain age who witnessed the Bulldogs dominate in the 1970s and ’80s (winning 15 of 19 over one stretch).
To their credit, current members of the Bulldogs were making no big deal about the venue, taking a mostly indifferent view
of Jacksonville. Which is exactly the approach most of the world takes to that city.
Georgia coach Kirby Smart does regret losing an opportunity every other year to bring recruits to campus and having them soak in the experience of a big game in Athens. After all, life is recruiting — everything else just a minor detail.
As he said earlier this week, “I don’t think ( Jacksonville) is an impact on the outcome of the game. I don’t think it’s an impact on anything other than the fact you lose the good opportunity to recruit prospects and have them on campus.”
Jacksonville just happens
to be associated with some of the most painful kind of losses for Georgia. Any revulsion to the place is more reflex than based on anything rational. Jacksonville simply is a bad memory, but one that is subject to editing.
Bulldogs tight end Jeb Blazevich knows that. “We did have a win there against Penn State (in the Taxslayer Bowl at the close of the 2015 season). So, that did feel good. I’ve experienced the positive side leaving there.”
Otherwise, he said, “There is something special (as in especially awful) about leaving Jacksonville, having lost, where you’re like, man, we’re coming off a bye week, everyone
is feeling good, ready to get back into it, and then lose. I never want to feel that again.”
There should be no need for the senior to relive that agony, given that the unbeaten Bulldogs are a two-touchdown favorite and Florida is all talk and no offense. These Gators have comeuppance written all over them.
It is time to fully concern oneself with the result of the game, not the address. If the Bulldogs win as they should, Jacksonville will look like Paris in the spring. It will be the happiest place on earth — apologies to the Disney Corp. The Georgia half of the stands may never want to leave.