Technical Tidbits 11/25: Mutt-hurt shrub thievery and a true “little brother” complex

For many UGA fans, the annual edition of Clean, Old-Fashioned Hate is more of a second-string rivalry than the main course when it comes to rage and general dislike of the opponent. It makes sense to an extent, especially when you consider that there are other games that typically play a bigger role in them losing the weak SEC East over and over again, but the irony is that not one of the schools that Georgia fans consider their “main rival” actually reciprocates that hatred. Despite being listed as Georgia’s most hated rival, Florida fans care more about the FSU game every year. The same is true for Auburn with Alabama, for South Carolina with Clemson, and for Tennessee with a number of games that are simply more important than the Georgia game. In a way, UGA really has the biggest little-brother issue of anyone — they see everyone but Georgia Tech as a major rival yet are firmly planted at third or so on the “most hated” lists of their opponents.

Andy Demetra recently completed a neat set of interviews with some of the former and current Jackets who put forth the absolute best individual efforts in wins over UGA: Harrison Butker, Roddy Jones, John Dewberry, and Jerry Mays. They each had some interesting comments on what the win meant to them as well as some unique insight into the rivalry as a whole, but I sure wish there were some more former players to ask these questions to. Unfortunately, the general lopsidedness of the rivalry has prevented that; heroic stories are hard to come by when victories are few and far between. However, there is good news: Clean, Old-Fashioned hate seems to be getting more and more competitive. A Tech win tomorrow would mean that we’d be looking at a 2-2 record over the past four years, including two overtime games. That’s obviously a huge “if”, but you’d be hard-pressed to find a more competitive rivalry than that even over such a short time span. Hopefully we’ll get to see another great game tomorrow.

For the week’s final UGA-inspired cringe, let’s flash back to 2014 when quarterback Hutson Mason did the cringe-iest thing of all time by ending the game on an overtime interception. Yeah, you may have vague memories of these two plays.

A squib kick at the end of regulation against a team whose kicker can hit from 60 in practice? CRINGE. Throwing to the wrong team with the game on the line? CRINGE. The worst part of all, however, came afterwards, when UGA’s highly-trained and intelligent security detail took away the pieces of Georgia’s hedges that Tech players had snapped off.

That’s just the pinnacle of butt-hurt. Your job is to stare at the drunk audience and pretend to hold authority over them, not to steal shrubs from college athletes. No word on whether or not these vigilantes were present on the Flats the next year when UGA players planted their flag and ripped up turf at Bobby Dodd Stadium, an equally valid tradition. I’m sure that was just fine with them.