See, I’m one who doesn’t put a lot into all those dumb ESPN statistics, i.e. “Team A has beaten Team B X times over the last 100years”, as if that has any relevance on the game today. I look at things in related timeframes, such as a 3-4 year span when it relates to players, or the time a coach has been around as it relates to coaching.

Somehow, I just can’t imagine CPJ having the same kind of teams that Gailey had. I have to think that CPJ will have my team ready and prepared and focused for the task at hand without relying on historical archives. There’s a fire to him that tells me he will be on our guys from the word go.

I think I was about seven or eight the first time I really noticed college football. I was a huge Braves, Hawks, and Falcons fan earlier, but college didn’t really click with me until about that time. Everyone that I can remember were uga fans except for this one kid who I payed baseball with. He was always wearing his GT jacket to practice and I asked him about it one day and he told me about GT and how his dad went there and I swear I think that’s the first time I heard the word college. It was very intriguing.

Either way, I always remember thinking the Georgia bulldog was ugly as heck and I always played in yellow jacket hives around the neighborhood. Yes, literally. I would find them, piss them off, then stand there while they stung me and catch as many as I could in jars while I lit their holes on fire with an oil/gas mixture and watch them come flying out like little fireballs. I ended up getting rid of many hives from people’s yards that way and the stinging has never really bothered me much.

Soooo, when my friend was telling me that GT was the Yellow Jackets, I got very excited. This gave me something that was all my own when, a little bit of gold individuality amongst a sea of red family members.

As for our little convo here though, I totally understand your point about the players getting pumped up, but as you said, it’s from the buzz of the game at hand, not directly related to a singular game that happened in 1919, or even 1990. I’m by no means attempting to sway you or even say that it doesn’t matter at all, and I’m not trying to be overly confident, I just personally don’t believe that a player (or at least not a whole team of players) goes into a game thinking, “OMG, Team X beat us in a pivotal game back in 19xx, so we got to get ’e, this time!” I totally believe that players get pumped up on the students being pumped up, and that some games may have a bigger buzz or hype than others. That I can agree with for sure.

This just happens to be a UVA team that hasn’t done anything yet to impress me. Sure, they are 2-0 in ACC play, but it’s UNC and Maryland, and they have lost to scrub teams, especially Maryland. After the shellacking that occurred in Miami, I have to believe that the players and the coaches won’t allow for another trap game and won’t get caught with their pants down again.

This may or may not be my usual optimistic side coming through rather strongly. I’m just trying to get you to join me man!