Georgia coverage griping

[danny daniel]

I was at the 2014 COFH game in Athens. After the pic there was dead silence. I cannot describe how silent. It was just unthinkable to dawg fans that GT won that game. Not a word from the uga crowd in the stadium or afterwards walking to the parking lot. Its something you would never forget.

I was also at the 2016 COFH game in Athens, same seat. From early in the game the whining started, non stop uga fans complaining about not being able to stop the TO, fire Smart, dumb play calls, receivers can't catch, poor OL, this "looks like all our other games". When we scored in the fourth Q to come within 6 the overwhelming talk was "if we don't score again we are going to lose again because we can't stop the TO". Unbelievable difference. The fans seem to expect the dawgs to lose when we got within 6. What a difference!

Most fans behaved. One guy before the game yelled NERD at me. After the game I wonder how he felt after being beat by the NERDS. Unfortunately I missed the opportunity to explain it to him as I was consoling my very generous uga host who had previously (pre-game) clued me in on the uga perspective above in the second paragraph..

 

[RonJohn]

I fear we have very little negotiating power, but I would hope TStan (did I do that right?) will put pressure on IMG and the radio stations directly to try to at least eliminate the baseless negativity. My Jackets are not simply a punchline.

I wouldn't want the athletic association to try, and I wouldn't want the stations to change their schtick based on our desire to have them change it. Trying to force them to say what we want them to say is at least as bad as the things they say now.

However, I do not support having 680 as our flagship station. The GT game was bumped to 1230 twice this year(and twice last year I believe) for baseball games from one of the worst teams in MLB. My radio won't even pick up 1230 at Bobby Dodd. At least once this year and once last year, they moved the game in mid-sentence with no warning. You heard Brandon/Andy talking in mid-sentence, and then the Braves pre-game show started. Not only did the interrupt the football game for a baseball game, they interrupted for the pre-game. Obviously to 680, the Braves pre-game is more important than actual action in a GT football game. It is very obvious that the Braves and UGA are much more important to their business model than the GT football games. For that reason, the GT games should be on a different company's station.

 

[GTNavyNuke]

Like Coach Woody Hayes told me years ago. " F them".

Spoken like a Tech grad (tic). Seriously, you can't please some people even some of the time (let alone all of the people all of the time) and it's folly to try.

 

[Skeptic]

I haven't read the AJC in years.

Bet you read it Sunday.

 

[Skeptic]

There is no pleasing some people. Georgia Tech beat Georgia big time in a stirring fourth quarter show. We just completed a good regular season with another November show. But all some of you guys wants to do is whine because you think a newspaper you say you never read doesn't love you; she dumped you but you never loved her anyway. Stop pouting. Enjoy your triumph. Live in the moment. We have a bowl game to go and a year to celebrate. Geez. Why some of you folks insist on standing in the spotlight and whining is beyond me. Even assuming it is so and the AJC always loved Georgia more, so what? I could go for days and days and days and not give a damn what a newspaper, TV station or my next door neighbor thinks. Thanks for wrecking the afterglow. Arggh...

 

[redmule]

There is no pleasing some people. Georgia Tech beat Georgia big time in a stirring fourth quarter show. We just completed a good regular season with another November show. But all some of you guys wants to do is whine because you think a newspaper you say you never read doesn't love you; she dumped you but you never loved her anyway. Stop pouting. Enjoy your triumph. Live in the moment. We have a bowl game to go and a year to celebrate. Geez. Why some of you folks insist on standing in the spotlight and whining is beyond me. Even assuming it is so and the AJC always loved Georgia more, so what? I could go for days and days and days and not give a damn what a newspaper, TV station or my next door neighbor thinks. Thanks for wrecking the afterglow. Arggh...

It's not enough that I win. Everybody must also love me. Probably some kind of syndrome yet to be identified by psychologists but in the water right off North Avenue.

 

[Yaller Jacket]

I think my first post was too muddy. My main point was not the overemphasis by the local media on UGA. I understand you must cater to your customer base. The thing I was irritated about is the concept held by local reporters and the UGA fanbase that because they sign highly ranked recruiting classes and we don't, this game should always look like the Junior High team versus the Varsity. And if it doesn't, it can't be because we have found a way to field a good team; it's got to be because UGA underachieved.

But this morning I'm thinking maybe that ain't all bad. Let the reporters and fans make Smart explain how in the world his all world recruiting classes lost to lowly Georgia Tech. Get 'em angry and hurt and let them take it out on Smart. We can just smile and let them fight.

 

[PBR549]

Bet you read it Sunday.

Would never pay for it.

 

[PBR549]

Guess what the media is biased. The world gets its info differently now. If everyone went by what the media said we'd have a different president elect. I just wish that someone would do a podcast with call ins and guests that was all about Tech football or even ACC football. Like what GTSUPERFAN tried to do a while back.

 

[SolicitorJacket]

I honestly would not care but for my belief that the dwag driven media narrative in this town and state seriously affects GTAA's bottom line financially and hinders us in building a larger more sustainable fan base.

When unaffiliated people, especially kids, are fed a steady diet of "Tech Sux, Georgia is the only cool alternative" it has an effect. Why are there fewer butts in the seats? Why cant you find Tech gear in most stores in the state? Demand is low because Tech sports dont "move the needle".

While the negative media coverage is not the only or biggest cause of this, it is too significant to just say "F 'em" and ignore it. If there is some way to correct it, we should try.

Before anyone starts talking about winning more, it isnt like we are an 0-12 team traditionally while the dwags are perennial national champions. The on the field results of the two teams are remarkably similar over the past 20 years. Despite this they grow their fanbase and profits while ours seemingly shrink.

Yes, our fanbase and revenue would grow if we fielded a team that was in CFP contention every year for a decade regardless of the media treatment, but why do we have to be the only program in the entire friggin country to win at that level in order to garner some measure of respect in our home state?

 

[TheSilasSonRising]

2 out of last 3 isnt enough?

Maybe should be for the press - but not us.

All we can do is beat them. After that the "press" means squat.

 

[Jmonty71]

I know the AJC seems biased and yeah, they probably are. However; when it comes down to it, it's a business. Why do you think the media jumps all over the slightest incident regarding police? Ratings. Same can be said why things like a black person breaking into a house of white people and killing them, is ignored. Yes, that happened in my neighborhood about 4 months ago. Not one single news station out to cover it. You can guarantee it would have been different, if that was switched around. Same with ugag. They drive the ratings (money) for the AJC. Of course, they are going to cover what makes them money. I feel sorry for Ken, to be honest. I feel he does a really great job and it probably gets far less recognition that what Chip does. You know it, I know it... It's business. Newspapers, TV news, radio, ESPN, Sports channels. Fox covers the mess out of the PAC 12 and speaks little of the SEC. Why? They are PAC 12 funded. Do you see the CW, in Atlanta, talk about the SEC? No. They are funded by the ACC. However; brings the money, attention or ratings is who gets the coverage. Plain and simple. Do note: The analogy above was not racial driven, it was just to point out why the media chooses what to cover.

 

[TheSilasSonRising]

I honestly would not care but for my belief that the dwag driven media narrative in this town and state seriously affects GTAA's bottom line financially and hinders us in building a larger more sustainable fan base.

When unaffiliated people, especially kids, are fed a steady diet of "Tech Sux, Georgia is the only cool alternative" it has an effect. Why are there fewer butts in the seats? Why cant you find Tech gear in most stores in the state? Demand is low because Tech sports dont "move the needle".

While the negative media coverage is not the only or biggest cause of this, it is too significant to just say "F 'em" and ignore it. If there is some way to correct it, we should try.

Before anyone starts talking about winning more, it isnt like we are an 0-12 team traditionally while the dwags are perennial national champions. The on the field results of the two teams are remarkably similar over the past 20 years. Despite this they grow their fanbase and profits while ours seemingly shrink.

Yes, our fanbase and revenue would grow if we fielded a team that was in CFP contention every year for a decade regardless of the media treatment, but why do we have to be the only program in the entire friggin country to win at that level in order to garner some measure of respect in our home state?

You make some very good points. But it is probably true that for a very big part, it is vital we win games "Clemson southward". We need to beat Miami more, we have done pretty darn good vs FSU (talking CPJ era), need to beat ugag more, and we need to reverse the Clemson trend.

If ugag is playing uf, people are not as interested in our game vs a Syracuse. If ugag is playing auburn, people could not care less about our game vs a Virginia, for instance. If ugag is playing a tenn, we are going to have a hard time building up a game vs wake.

And, perhaps, even more important is consistency on the big stage.

 

[Old South Stands]

Tech football, despite the nominal talent gap, is not inferior to Georgia e.g. Vanderbilt or Kentucky, but actually a worthy peer as a program. The long losing streaks and the drought during the Chan Gailey years aside, Tech as a football program is generally competitive with UGA, if maybe just a notch below their level. The close scores of many of the games since 1984 tell the story. There were some fits and starts and lack of progress, which usually happens when a new coach arrives on campus (see Curry's and Ross's records their first few seasons), but once a coach has been at Tech a while and has a chance to put his system in place, the wins against Georgia seem to come. What Tech has now is an established coach with an established system who's likely to stay a number of seasons into the future...

The slanted media coverage does affect how people view the program. There's no doubt about that. It was that way back in the mid/late '80s when I first came to Tech as a student... During my first week in school, there was a huge billboard right off campus that stated "Channel 2 is your Georgia Bulldogs station". But it wasn't always that way. Go back to the 1978 game in Athens and look at the people in the stands... there was just as much gold as there was red. Such a legacy had been built up from Coach Heisman all the way through the end of the Coach Dodd years, that the state was pretty much evenly split between UGA fans and Tech fans. That momentum carried almost all the way to the end of Pepper Rodgers's tenure.

The thing that changed everything was Herschel Walker and 1980. UGA was a serious national program in 1979, won it all in '80, and in '81 and '82 would have repeated if not for some late-game heroics in the Sugar Bowl by Dan Marino (Pitt) and Todd Blackledge (Penn State). Herschel won the Heisman Trophy in 1981. At that time, Georgia was almost as dominant as Alabama is today. The majority of new sidewalk fans started breaking for UGA at that time. Meanwhile, Tech was winning 1 or 2 games a season with no improvement in sight.

I think much of the perception of UGA and Tech stems from those years. This may be a point in time were those perceptions begin to change...

 

[SolicitorJacket]

Old South Stands hits upon an important point. College Football exploded in attendance popularity in the 1960s and 1970s. I think this was a result of the rise of the middle class and their access to transportation that created disposable income to spend on games and the ability to get there.

Tech was right there at the beginning of that. With the addition of the Upper East in 1961 followed by the Upper West in '67, Grant Field's seating capacity was in the ballpark of some of the really big stadiums. In fact it seated basically the same number as both Sanford and Neyland at that time.

However, the one -two punch of leaving the SEC and Dodd's retirement nipped that in the bud. As college football continued to grow exponentially, Tech hit one of its worst droughts ever. By the early 80s we had less than 20k coming to see us play Navy.

Tech has recovered somewhat but never gained back that momentum. That was over 30 years ago, and while it does, in part, explain the fanbase differences, it does not excuse or validate the personna non grata identity of Tech in local media.

 

[kg01]

Speaking of media gripes, I found it nice to see us getting some cover-time on ajc.com for today's news.

 

[Whiskey_Clear]

http://www.ajc.com/sports/college/n...nfidence-paul-johnson/a73YwA1SvHtNcs5jrjKUQO/

http://georgiatech.blog.ajc.com/201...-a-unicorn-sanford-stadium-scoreboard-at-000/

 

[swampsting]

The thing that I think gets overlooked by the media is that even during their win streak most of the games were very competitive and actually could have gone either way.
I always attributed the AJC bias to the fact that it was full of UGAG alumni from their Journalism School.
The thing that really pissed me off when I lived in Atlanta was the local sports talk radio, you would think we'd get some positive coverage simply because we are the local team ??
Out here in Boise the local radio sports talk is so biased it's total comedy. Last week they were talking about conferences and it was said that the ACC was only slightly better than the Mountain West Conference ...

For the most part, their guys have not and are not from UGa. Chip Towers is and Seth Emerson, I think, is. But Schultz is from California and Bradley is from Kentucky. Suguira is from Chicago, I think.
I thought most of the coverage in the AJC was good. If you go to DawgNation, of course it's going to be written to that perspective. And what happens Bradley and Schultz split up the column duties. One writes on what it means for Tech, one does the same for Georgia. Bradley could have focused more on Tech on his column, but so be it.

Then again, Bradley did write this for Sunday too: "Credit where it’s due: Paul Johnson’s team beat Georgia yet again; Paul Johnson’s team runs this state. Not bad at all, sir."

 

[Skeptic]

For the most part, their guys have not and are not from UGa. Chip Towers is and Seth Emerson, I think, is. But Schultz is from California and Bradley is from Kentucky. Suguira is from Chicago, I think.
I thought most of the coverage in the AJC was good. If you go to DawgNation, of course it's going to be written to that perspective. And what happens Bradley and Schultz split up the column duties. One writes on what it means for Tech, one does the same for Georgia. Bradley could have focused more on Tech on his column, but so be it.

Then again, Bradley did write this for Sunday too: "Credit where it’s due: Paul Johnson’s team beat Georgia yet again; Paul Johnson’s team runs this state. Not bad at all, sir."

Watch it. You are swimming against the current here. But you're right.

 

[SolicitorJacket]

Watch it. You are swimming against the current here. But you're right.

Once again, the main gripe is not with the AJC, it is moreso with the radio guys. Our flagship station is the worst offender.