College Football 101 (#99)

Submitted by cstalionsuofm on

College Football 101

99. Deep South's Oldest Rivalry (Auburn/Georgia)

(15th Rivalry)

Now I don't live in Georgia nor Alabama (tell us a what you think if you are), but from what I have read, it seems like the Georgia- Auburn rivalry is similar to the Michigan-Notre Dame rivalry-- it's more of a friendly, yet very competitive, rivalry. Vince Dooley played and coached at Auburn and later coached and became the A.D. at Georgia. Will Muschamp played at Georgia and was a defensive coordinator at Auburn. Pat Dye was an All-American at Georgia and coached at Auburn. The defensive line coach at Georgia played at Auburn. Two current Auburn coaches, Brian Van Gorder and Willie Hernandez, were both the defensive coordinators at Georgia. Neil Callaway was an offensive line coach at Auburn before becoming the offensive coordinator at Georgia. These are just a few of the many more examples!

I think this is what you would call a friendly rivalry. Both places are good schools, good places. Both of them have good people. That's what makes it special.

— Neil Callaway, Georgia offensive coordinator, 2000-2006

This quote pretty much sums it up!"

Georgia holds the edge in this rivalry 53-52-8. Only one game separates the two! This rivalry game has been played almost every since 1892. It has gone back and forth throughout the years. Both teams have many great players-- Georgia: Herschel Walker, Frank Sinkwich, David Pollack. Auburn: Bo Jackson, Cam Newton, Nick Fairley to name a few. From my understanding (once again, I can't speak for them) it seems like the two teams respect each other like Michigan and Notre Dame but compete with each other like Michigan and Ohio State. This is one of the oldest rivalries and clearly the closest with only one game separating the two teams. Another interesting similarity is that they both have the same fight songs (Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!). These two schools are almost identical.

Here are a few links to some big Georgia-Auburn games:

1959

2005

Big Hit

2011 Payback

As you can see here, very competitive!

See what the topic is tomorrow as we approach the 98th day away from kickoff!

hart20

May 23rd, 2012 at 12:26 AM ^

I'll keep downvoting you. After you stop upvoting yourself, I'll likely continue to keep downvoting you, simply because I don't think this is board material. I encourage you to create your own blog or to write for Bleacher Report because I think these posts will better serve that type of audience and it will allow you to keep pursing your obvious passion.

ryebreadboy

May 23rd, 2012 at 1:18 AM ^

There is one quotation mark in the region of your Neil Callaway quote. It is in a one-sentence non-paragraph that you wrote, and nowhere near the quote itself.

rtsannes62992

May 23rd, 2012 at 1:22 AM ^

I actually enjoy these. It is kind of dumb you upvote yourself but whatever. I don't understand how in the offseason people complain that this is not board material. It is something football related when there is not much going on and the board is semi-dead on most days. Keep up the good work, but there are definitely a few ways you could improve this.

singler makes …

May 23rd, 2012 at 2:46 AM ^

As someone who sadly has to grade a bunch of undergraduate writing, this could use a lot of work. I'd suggest that you go pick up elements of style, read it ten times, and try again next year. Now I'm not claiming to be a great writer (or even competent for that matter), but I can rewrite your first sentence in half the space:

"Now I don't live in Georgia nor Alabama (tell us a what you think if you are), but from what I have read, it seems like the Georgia- Auburn rivalry is similar to the Michigan-Notre Dame rivalry-- it's more of a friendly, yet very competitive, rivalry."

----->

From an outsider's perspective, the Georgia- Auburn rivalry seems similar to Michigan- Notre Dame, friendly yet competetive. 

 

You also have many problems with transitions, active verbs, and any establishing even a tiny resemblance of flow.

 

If you want people to read your stuff (or you want to get paid for this as you seem to be unemployeed) you need to learn how to write. That won't happen if you are producing volumes of crap every day rather than working on a less ambitious achievement and really trying to get it to be readable. Last 101 thread I'll click on, but good luck.

 

stephenrjking

May 23rd, 2012 at 2:57 AM ^

I didn't want to comment. Writing for public consumption is a risky sort of thing, because there is always a chance of negative feedback.

I'm glad this is just a board post; a wise move by the OP. However, over the course of a summer, even in a dead period, I suspect the negative feedback will grow. I will, rather, echo what others have suggested: the OP should start his own blog to post this material. It will remain posted, be linkable, and never go away. That will give the OP a chance to develop his skills and the discipline necessary to produce the massive amounts of material that have been promised, and perhaps develop a way to present material that is new and unique to the readers. 

MGoBlog is a tempting place because there is guaranteed readership; however, the readership is there because Brian has worked hard at his craft and has jealously guarded the quality of his work. He has taken a risk and it has paid off. I have tremendous respect for others who take similar risks in a crowded field and carved themselves small niches. 

The OP ought to do the same thing; to continue posting here risks drawing the ire of the entire MgoBlogosphere and receiving so many negs that the OP's posting privileges could be frozen. This has the potential to be highly frustrating, even embittering for the OP; I would hate to see that happen to someone who demonstrates this kind of enthusiasm and energy. 

A better strategy would be to fire up a blogspot or wordpress blog, post the content there, and then every five rankings or so post a board post listing those rankings. Be careful about overpromoting yourself; if I recall correctly from the FAQ, Brian isn't the sort to look kindly on people who shamelessly use his site to promote their own. Michigan bloggers who have their own blogs rarely if ever do so (MichiganHockey.net comes to mind, I don't know if I've ever seen him link to his own site on here--but Brian does link to him in UV). 

Don't quit, but use the feedback to learn. There are people commenting here who have been through these sorts of things on the internet for decades; in the multitude of counselors there is safety.

OMG Shirtless

May 23rd, 2012 at 6:53 AM ^

There are going to be a whole shitload of people who can no longer post the old bullshit standby, "If you don't like the topic, dont click on it."  You know that I'm batshit crazy and I'll remember you. Welcome to club!!!

JHendo

May 23rd, 2012 at 9:35 AM ^

I don't care about Georgia.  I don't care about Auburn.  So, I most certainly don't care in the least about the two of them together with nothing interesting, insightful or unexpected added in, and I'm pretty sure I'm not alone here.  I know it's the offseason, but what the hell is this that you're littering the board with?  I downvoted you once because of the frankly mundane content, and I wish I could downvote you again for the misleading title.  Had I known it was OT and about the Georgia vs Auburn rivalry, I would have clicked right by this nonsense...

Lionsfan

May 23rd, 2012 at 9:37 AM ^

OP I suggest you read stephenjrking's comment a few spots above mine. It's definitely one of the best pieces of advice I've seen, and it will save you unneccesary grief and bitterness

reshp1

May 23rd, 2012 at 10:04 AM ^

Not really sure why everyone is so negative on these. Is there some history with this user? I dunno, they're offseason fodder and it's not like (OT) threads are flying off the front page right now.

profitgoblue

May 23rd, 2012 at 10:18 AM ^

Agreed.  You've got people posting movie reviews and open threads about what people are doing on Friday afternoons and people are complaining about actual college football content during the offseason that a poster put a lot of time and thought into?  To avoid future heartache and pain that some of you are apparently experiencing, going forward you know what you're going to be getting from these posts and if you don't like them, don't click on them.  Until I get guidance otherwise from Brian or Seth, these threads qualify as appropriate OT material for the offseason.

 

profitgoblue

May 23rd, 2012 at 10:39 AM ^

I hear you, but the OP is in the trench taking grenades from all directions.  Maybe after these first few threads people will accept his writing "style" and what to expect from these posts and go forth from there (and prosper?).

 

reshp1

May 23rd, 2012 at 10:48 AM ^

Exactly, this is a user generated blog forum. We are not all pullitzer winners here nor is there an expection to be. If you think the writing is lacking, how about some constructive criticism instead of running the guy out of town? It seems like an ambitious yet potentially interesting project and I for one would like to see where it goes. If you don't, don't click on the (clearly labeled) posts and the cost to you is exactly nothing. 

Tater

May 23rd, 2012 at 7:02 PM ^

User-generated comment helps this blog be one of the best out there, and does a lot of good for the PR number of this blog.  Right now, Google likes "curation-style" blogs, and, with a link or two for source material, these entries would definitely qualify as curation articles.  

This poor guy is working hard to put out content, but will soon have so few points that he won't be able to contribute.  I hope the mods intervene here and give him a few thousand points so he can continue.  

My guess is that with enough constructive criticism, his style will evolve nicely by the time football season comes around.  

Besides, despite the post to the contrary, the old adage still holds true: if you don't like it, don't click on it.  He is putting "101" by each of his posts.  It's not like you could possibly click on one by accident.  

My only suggestion is maybe taking them off of the "diary" portion until more people like his posts.  That way, they don't crowd out some of the content we all know and love.

singler makes …

May 23rd, 2012 at 10:46 AM ^

This.

 

It would be more productive if everyone just wikipediaed the same random football topic every day, and talked about it (Not a bad idea?). That way we wouldn't have to stumble through middle school level writing that adds no original thoughts or perspectives.

 

Anyone can post lots of crap to the internet. In my opinion, it makes this blog look bad to have this random crap associated with it, but obviously you guys know more about running a blog than me.

UMFootballCrazy

May 23rd, 2012 at 10:24 AM ^

Why?  For one, his account says he has been here since April 7 of this year.  Before one starts such an ambitious project, it might be wise to cool one's jets a bit, soak in the blog and its ethos first and see if this is the sort of thing users of this site would welcome.  He did not do that.  The scope of the project indicates that it is really all about the poster and his desire to post; rather than content that genuinely adds something to the discussion of Michigan football, or at the least college football.  His material is poorly researched and not well written.  It is content for content's sake.  One post of this type, we could tolerate, two perhaps, but when you indicate that you plan 101 days of this...that moves you into a different category: a nuisance

This is why he is being down voted.  In the neg bang days, he could have been negged to the point where he could no longer post.  But alas, these are kinder, gentler days.

DonAZ

May 23rd, 2012 at 11:01 AM ^

I'm not quite so negative on the OP as others ... like still others have written, I admire at least the ambition of the project.  As for the writing style ... it's okay; I've seen worse on the web.

" ... it might be wise to cool one's jets a bit, soak in the blog and its ethos first and see if this is the sort of thing users of this site would welcome"

But what UMFootballCrazy wrote seems to ring pretty true to me ... when one is the new kid in the class, it's often best to ease into the social fabric.

I've seen this on many other forums ... someone new comes in, wants to make an impression, and ends up alienating others through too much effort.

The social dynamics of internet discussion forums is actually pretty damn interesting ... I wonder if anyone has ever done a careful study of it?  It's "anonymous" but there are still some of the same personality dynamics that exist in face-to-face.

Willhouse

May 23rd, 2012 at 10:17 AM ^

I went to this game this past fall in Athens. Georgia beat the piss out of them, and seeing a football game and the tailgating scene in Athens is a pretty awesome experience. But I did not get the feeling that I was at an intense rivalry game. It's probably like Mich-Wisky or something. Of course you WANT to win this game and it looks good on the resume, but its not a season defining matchup or anything.

DonAZ

May 23rd, 2012 at 1:17 PM ^

I have a co-worker who's a big Gamecock fan ... and I've always been curious about the rivalry dynamics there.  The other school is Clemson, of course ... but they're ACC.  It would be like if Michigan State was in a different conference from Michigan -- it's just something I can't relate to.

What's the temperature of South Carolina - Clemson rivalry relative to, say, SC/Georgia or SC/Florida (with the whole Spurrier-Florida connection thing going on there)?

Willhouse

May 23rd, 2012 at 2:25 PM ^

In this state, Clemson vs South Carolina is the top rivarly in all of the major sports here - football, basketball and baseball. Its a heated rivalry that does not get much press. But both fanbases are unique. They are completely different breeds of humans, although they do share the same charactheristic of being completely delusional.

Clemson fans always think their team is gonna win it all (like last year after their hot start) and they never really accept the fact that their team will in fact implode and lose a game they have no business losing.

USC fans generally give off the same SEC-type vibe of supeiority, even though their team has done literally nothing in the past 30 years. They still hang on to George Rogers (Heisman in 81) as their main bragging rights.

As a Michigan fan, I can take my lumps (see: The Horror) but I find it very amusing, and sometimes sad, when their fan bases talk shit to me.

That being said - I prefer Clemson over South Carolina. Better tradition, better stadium/campus, more attractive women, less douchebags.

Ranking their rivals, I would say:

Clemson: 1. South Carolina; 2. Florida State; 3. VaTech/UNC

South Carolina: 1. Clemson; 2. Florida; 3. Georgia/UNC

HUGEtractsofland

May 23rd, 2012 at 11:12 AM ^

Do not complain to the OP if you yourself have not attempted something as involved as he is attempting. And this offseason is resoundingly terrible right now so I'll take anything football related I can get. Including watching the Nebraska and Ohio games for the 12th time.

ChopBlock

May 23rd, 2012 at 11:20 AM ^

Guiding principles:

1) Posting lots of content is not bad

2) Posting OT content is not bad, at least during the offseason

3) Posting lighthearted things without a ton of research isn't bad.

The problem comes in when you add all these things together. This content is voluminous, OT, and frankly not very insightful. The OP is dominating the blogspace with stuff that's frankly not really worth reading. It's filler for people to wade through, even during the offseason when there's less stuff going on. It just seems like the OP is trying to promote himself in Bleacher-Report style series rather than add insightful stuff for us to mull over. 

Start a blog, man; you clearly plan to have enough content to do it.

RakeFight

May 23rd, 2012 at 2:47 PM ^

I think the concept here is good... it's the off season, I don't actually know much about the Auburn Georgia rivalry, and I'd be interested to learn more so that I am a better educated college football fan.... but the execution falls short.  The "I'm not sure about this, but this is what I heard" tone that leads to a sense of lack of credibility on the part of the writer and a feeling of "did I just waste 5 minutes of my life" on the part of the reader, is unlikely to keep me coming back.