Getting to Know UGA (fan base and beyond)
I’ve spent a lot of time in Georgia (in general) and Athens (in particular). My grandfather and uncle went to UGA, my wife grew up in Athens, and her parents were both on faculty and/or staff for decades. While I am by no means a native and/or alum, I thought I would share a couple of thoughts about the school and town for those people interested.
First off, UGA is a good school that takes its academics seriously. While it doesn’t have the history or diversity of excellence as some public ivies, it has a number of schools (vet, journalism) and departments (insurance as one example) that are consistently in the top 5 nationally. Because of the Hope scholarships (where top hs students get ~full tuition and (I think) board covered by the Georgia lottery, it gets more than its share of top in state students.
Another thing I like about UGA is that, when push comes to shove, folks will side with the institution over sports figures. A few years ago there was a showdown between the former AD/ football coach (Vince Dooley) and the University President (Michael Adams). It’s a long story, but at the end of the day Adams was backed by the powers that be which I took to be a clear sign that, as opposed to (ahem) other University Presidents, the coach wasn’t the President’s boss.
Like UM, UGA has a bunch of good sports teams as well. They have not made the cuts that other schools have, and have won national titles in a bunch of other sports. IMO they tend, much like Michigan, to not cycle through coaches a lot (MBB being a notable exception), showing patience with people like Mark Richt (who by all accounts is a really good person) who were successful but could not break the Saban ceiling.
In terms of towns, Athens is pretty awesome. A lot like Ann Arbor (close enough to the state’s major urban center to be linked with it, far enough to have its own identity), Athens continues to have a pretty awesome music scene (besides REM and the B-52s, I loved Drive By Truckers) as well as some really good quality restaurants. I had my last meal before my wedding at Weaver-Ds, a fried chicken joint that is famous for their “Automatic for the People” sign featured on the eponymous REM album cover. While there is more of a divergence in “vibe” from the surrounding areas in terms of politics, this has become less obvious in recent years as the state has trended purple. It has been and remains weird, in the best sense of the word).
With regards to football itself, one of the biggest differences is that Sanford Stadium is located right in the heart of campus. Because of some hills and trees, its less imposing from afar than a lot of other stadiums but it is definitely “big”. The tailgating scene is also quite dispersed, so there are no giant parking lots I’ve seen that resemble the UM golf course or even the main parking lot at the stadium.
In terms of the fan base, I have a small sample size of folks I interact with (a lot of whom don’t follow cfb much at all), their fan base is pretty rabid but not insane. Their historical rivals include Georgia Tech (which is also a very good school with a pretty bad football team recently) and Florida, the latter being a game where, based on my limited experience, both fan bases are too drunk by kickoff to face off against each other. While their white whale is clearly Alabama, that hasn’t always been the case even though they (like Tennessee, another historical rival are neighbors).
To sum up, I really think that Georgia is similar to Michigan in a lot of ways. I was really bummed that they are meeting in the semi-final because I wanted them to meet in the title game so that, if Michigan did have to lose to someone, at least Georgia would be guaranteed to win it.
December 8th, 2021 at 10:17 AM ^
I went to one game there, about a month after 9/11 when I was a grad student in Chapel Hill. It was a night game “between the hedges” as they like to say against Arkansas. It was probably my first night game ever now that I think about it.
I recall going out pretty hard in Athens Friday night. I also recall the group that I was with had to draw straws to see who was going to get up at 5am(!) to get in line with their truck to get a specific tailgate spot. As you mentioned, it’s pretty dispersed without a big central location, so everyone tends to have their favorite spot.
we ended up drinking from 7am to 7pm kickoff, it was absurd looking back. We also all snuck a pint into the stadium, so I guess 7am to midnight.
great write up, thank you. Go blue.
December 8th, 2021 at 10:37 AM ^
Back in the old college football blog days (ah, blogspot), there was a Georgia blog called "Hey Jenny Slater" that I read pretty religiously. It's proprietor, Doug (can't remember his last name), came up for The Game in 2007. Really cool dude who pointed out many of the similarities between Georgia and UM. Even said that had he not gone to Georgia, UM would have been his college pick. Thanks for these insights!
December 8th, 2021 at 10:41 AM ^
Having moved from Athens to Ann Arbor earlier this year, I definitely miss the music scene the most. Lot of great bands/artists that didn't get mentioned here have Athens roots like Danger Mouse, Widespread Panic, Of Montreal, Olivia Tremor Control, Elf Power, Pylon, Harvey Milk, and Azure Ray. And then there are bands that spent a good amount of time in Athens even if they didn't form there like Neutral Milk Hotel and the Flat Duo Jets. Prior to COVID, there were great shows nearly every night. I also miss the music in the stadium, there's nothing quite like seeing a grandma dancing in the stands to the latest trap hit. Basically everything else, though, I lean towards Ann Arbor.
December 8th, 2021 at 1:40 PM ^
I have also lived in both Athens and Ann Arbor. My time in Athens was in the mid-90's. My brother was in a band there. Two of his bandmates formed the Kindercore record label, Of Montreal and Elf Power were two the bands they recorded. The music scene back then was pretty incredible. I saw Widespread Panic open for Vic Chesnutt. REM would play shows in small venues under assumed names for $3 cover. People like Kurt Cobain, River Phoenix, and Michael Moore would come to hang out at The Guaranteed, Michael Stipe's restaurant, where my roommate worked. It was a very interesting place.
The fanbase at that time had a pure Southern Greek flavor (wearing coats and ties or evening dresses to the games). Gamedays brought an influx of hard-drinking, arrogant types. The town would get trashed beyond what I've seen in other college towns every time there was a home game.
The fans could be harsh. I remember, just after moving to town, I happened to wear an orange shirt on a day that Tennessee had a game there. I hadn't yet tuned into SEC football and this was about 10AM before a 2PM kickoff. The number of people who flipped me off or yelled obscene comments at me would not have been out of place in Columbus or Baton Rouge.
TL,DR - I waxed nostologic about my time in Athens but remember the football fans to insufferable.
December 8th, 2021 at 4:46 PM ^
That's interesting. I have lived in Birmingham, Alabama for over thirty years and have had a very different experience. I have found Georgia fans to be very enthusiastic, even rabid. But my interactions with them have almost entirely positive. I have found them to be loud, but likable, with a a hint of "how are we going to blow it this time" that Michigan fans can appreciate. Compared to other SEC fans (cough, cough Alabama), I have never found them obnoxious. Of course, I've never lived in Athens.
December 9th, 2021 at 10:47 AM ^
I moved to Athens in 2004, and the townie scene was already very nostaligic for that mid-90s period that you lived there. And that's really cool about Kindercore, was your brother in Kincaid? I've actually been contemplating a career change here as of late and was looking to see if there were any indie record labels in Ann Arbor that I might be able to intern at but came up empty. Just another sign of the differences in the music scenes between the two towns, I guess.
December 9th, 2021 at 12:44 PM ^
Yes, he played bass for Kincaid. The 90's in Athens were fun and weird. REM had a studio on Clayton Street at that time. I don't know anything about the current music scene in Ann Arbor. Somehow, I landed in Starkville, MS 20 years ago and have been here ever since. Good luck on the career change!
December 8th, 2021 at 11:32 AM ^
Have to admit GA has largely been the one SEC program I don't loathe. They don't have the same level of sleaze (relatively). Their uniforms and stadium are cool. Athens is a great town. And Georgia as a whole doesn't skew quite as rednecky as other SEC states.
December 8th, 2021 at 12:14 PM ^
a) agree
b) nothing wrong with rednecks
December 10th, 2021 at 10:41 AM ^
I always found Georgia and Florida to be a cut above the usual SEC in terms of prestige and class.
It's a little bit sad to see that Georgia has given up on some of that and gone full mercenary with Kirby Smart. But you can't argue with the game results I guess.
Mark Richt was too Lloyd-like about not just being win-at-all-costs I suppose.
December 8th, 2021 at 2:21 PM ^
Q. How about them Dawgs?
A. Piss on them!!
This is the standard greeting of Georgia Tech alums, my son being one. Afraid to say that UGA is much more the MSU-equivalent in Georgia and Georgia Tech is the UM-equivalent, based on history and tradition, if not on recent football performance.
December 8th, 2021 at 4:48 PM ^
Academically, the roles are reversed. Georgia is not the stereotypical SEC football factory. It's a fine school. But Georgia Tech, although somewhat narrower in its focus, is top notch.
December 8th, 2021 at 5:35 PM ^
I find the UGA-Tech rivalry (vis a vis academics) more balanced than the UM-MSU one. While Tech would win out because it’s so good in STEM and at the margins that beats out UGA’s overall balance and grad schools, it’s also true that a lot of Georgia HS students who get into both go to UGA, something I honestly didn’t see a lot of when I was at UM.
December 8th, 2021 at 8:23 PM ^
Agree completely.
December 8th, 2021 at 3:17 PM ^
I always liked Georgia (for an SEC team anyway), until Smart showed up. It's clear that they just unleashed bagmen to change their recruiting fortunes, and that's how he's built the program. I know "everybody does it," but I have even pulled for Alabama against them because it's at least just the status quo.
That said, Athens is indeed a great college town and all the parallels you cite are accurate and relevant. I'd love for us to have a home-and-home with them. But Georgia notoriously almost never travels north of the mason-dixon line.
December 8th, 2021 at 5:23 PM ^
I've been pondering whether Georgia is basically inverted Michigan.
Michigan is a kinda blue state that dips into purple territory, Georgia is a kinda red state that does the same. We are almost as famous for blueberries as they are for peaches but are not actually the nation's biggest producers of those fruits. If you start from the south east corner of Michigan, you first encounter a major metropolis that's an epicenter of black culture with a perennially disappointing NFL team and 40 minutes away you have a top tier college town with a Public Ivy that is also a traditional blue blood football power with an oft-frustrated fanbase. And the state gets more rural as you go north. With Georgia it's almost the same thing as you go from the northwest to the south.
December 10th, 2021 at 12:29 PM ^
I've lived in both Athens and Ann Arbor. The terrain of GA and MI are very similar -- sandy soil and pine trees.
December 17th, 2021 at 6:43 PM ^
Blueberries? Did you mean cherries?
also, UGa has made great strides academically but it is no Public Ivy
December 8th, 2021 at 6:56 PM ^
Good stuff. Thank you Niels!
December 8th, 2021 at 7:03 PM ^
DBT is the greatest American band.
December 8th, 2021 at 8:23 PM ^
My best friend and his wife both graduated from UGA, and we have a nice Georgia-Michigan friendly rivalry when it comes to athletics and academics. My friend's wife did graduate with a degree in insurance and risk management and she does not let you forget that her program is always in the top 5 of the country. Athens is a great town and the city and the campus do remind me a lot of Ann Arbor. The university also has satellite campuses, such as ours, that allow a Georgia degree to be more accessible. I would say that Georgia is 'twangy' Michigan.
December 9th, 2021 at 12:28 PM ^
She may have come across an old buddy of mine from grad school, David Eckles. In addition to having one hell of a CV, his collection of bobble-head dolls blew my son's mind when we visited his campus office.
December 8th, 2021 at 9:52 PM ^
I lived in Augusta for a few years, so I've been to Athens a few times. I thought it was a nice college town.
There was also a bit of a rivalry with South Carolina
I think some posters above me said it.... but the non-alumni Georgia fans I experienced were terrible to endure. Though I will admit, those bastards sure can BBQ.
December 8th, 2021 at 10:22 PM ^
I was raised a UM fan and graduated from there in the 80's and lived in metro Detroit for 20+ years. I've lived in Atlanta for over 10 years now and have many friends and colleagues who are very loyal UGA alums/fans. My sense:
- while UGA is a decent school academically, it can't really compare with GT which has some engineering programs on par w UM and also has a better b-school than UGA. Athletically it is no contest and I expect the UGA-GT games to go about the same way as this years game for many years to come. My experience has been that GT views UGA the same way MSU views UM (athletically).
- I've not met any UGA fans who are as irrationally insane as say OSU fans. They are an interesting combination of overstating their relative historical importance (some seem to act like they've won 5 national titles in the past 20 years) and having a fear of getting their hopes up TOO much because they've had Lucy pull the football on them many times too. This SEC shorts video captures this quite nicely: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mSQsScAK8sk
- I've only been to Athens once - it has a pretty standard college-town feel and seemed like it had a lot of similarities to Ann Arbor. I WAS surprised that the campus was nowhere near as impressive as I think UM's campus is.
December 10th, 2021 at 10:46 AM ^
Why don't we have something like SEC shorts in the Big Ten? It's awesome.
December 10th, 2021 at 3:23 PM ^
I agree - this is the closest thing I've ever seen:
December 9th, 2021 at 11:40 AM ^
Spencer Hall & Ryan Nanni joined Ace’s pod this week and gave the “Florida Man Guide to Hating Georgia”. Quite entertaining
December 10th, 2021 at 12:15 PM ^
Most bulldogs I've met are happiest when they are eating, sleeping, and passing gas.
December 12th, 2021 at 1:34 AM ^
My early impression of Georgia fans is they're wallowing in Bama envy, but drink enough SEC Kool-Aid to believe the idea of losing to Michigan on 12/31 is laughable
December 13th, 2021 at 11:31 AM ^
If UGA fans are wallowing in Bama envy, then Michigan fans are (or had been) wallowing in osu-envy and there are enough Michigan/Big Ten stans running around who think that the idea of losing to UGA on 12/31 is laughable.
December 13th, 2021 at 11:29 AM ^
I was born and raised in Atlanta and have a lot of family/friends who went to UGA. It'll be fun making bets with my cousins who all graduated from UGA.
Love the music scene out there. Also listened to Widespread Panic, Vic Chestnutt, and Vigilantes of Love.
Campus itself is nice. Sanford Stadium is a classic venue and the hedges are a really neat feature. I do really like the central location of the stadium - makes tailgating really fun and easy for student, although parking/access is tougher/more congested if you're coming from out of town.
After graduating from UM and living in the midwest for a few years, I moved back to ATL for about 6 years and had hoped UM and UGA (or GT) would play each other during that time, but never happened.
Really looking forward to this game and for Michigan to even up the all-time record!
December 17th, 2021 at 6:53 PM ^
Is there a reason people keep saying we have an all time losing record against them?
We are 1-1 vs UGa. We won in ‘57, y’all.
December 17th, 2021 at 6:55 PM ^
Is there a reason people keep saying we have a losing record vs them all-time?
We are 1-1 vs UGa. We won in ‘57 y’all.
December 14th, 2021 at 5:46 PM ^
Last time I was in Athens I got hammered with Nels Cline at the 40 Watt. Had to take the next day off, and the day after that.
Comments