Double agents

On Wednesday eight words induced shivers down the vertebrae of Yellow Jacket football fans far and wide:

"Urban Meyer resigns as Florida Gators head coach."

Meyer indeed relinquished the position Wednesday evening, presumably for good this time, drawing close to a magnificent coaching run highlighted by the three most prolific seasons in school history and a pair of national championships.

Of particular relevance to Tech fans was Meyer's 5-1 mark versus the University of Georgia, as well as his team's continual impedance of Georgia's success in both SEC East play and recruiting. Meyer's five victories account for more wins than Tech has accumulated in the last twenty meetings versus the Bulldogs.

As of this season, Florida has now beaten Georgia in 18 out of the last 21 games between the two schools, continually reassuring fans, as a favorite blanket or stuffed animal might reassure a young child, of Georgia's second-tier status in the college football world. Furthermore the annual Florida win affords a flimsy and indirect brand of ammunition for Georgia Tech fans seeking to refute claims that Tech-UGA is no longer itself a rivalry, the payload typically being delivered via the following sort of exchange:

UGA FAN: (recites score of the latest victory over Tech and X number of wins in the last X meetings) We own you. This is no longer a rivalry. GT FAN Oh yeah? Well (recites score of the latest Florida victory over UGA and X number of Gator wins in the last X games vs UGA). If Tech-Georgia is no longer a rivalry then what is your series with Florida? UGA FAN: *confused scoff* What does Florida have to do with UGA vs Tech? GT FAN: Our graduates make more money than you! Have you seen the latest US News and World Report Rankings?!?! (pulls rolled-up magazine out of back pocket)

Living vicariously through Florida has in this way become an essential component of Georgia Tech fandom, a vital lifeline of second-hand bragging rights in the face of crushing head-to-head futility. And so in turn has every occasional hint of weakness in the Gator Empire, every minute suggestion that Florida might not quite be able to do the job next time, long produced a palpable and collective puckering of behinds among the North Avenue faithful. Just imagine, then, the consternation now that the future of Gator football has been so abruptly thrown to the winds.


Of course there was a time, long ago, when Florida faced odds nearly as long as Tech when playing Georgia. Upon the arrival of Steve Spurrier as head coach in 1989, Florida had been losers of 15 of the last 19 in the series, and to this day still trails all-time 40-46-2. But Spurrier came with a plan, risking public ridicule by proclaiming the UGA series to be the top priority of his program, despite the fact that Florida had never before even won an SEC title in football.

The rest is well known-- Florida would win the next seven meetings versus Georgia.

The "Ol' Ball Coach" indeed always seemed to have an extra trick or two for the Dogs, even going so far as moving his team's annual open date to the week preceding the game, and all the while taking deft and niggling jabs at his rival in the media. It was certainly apparent that Spurrier derived a special and personal kind of joy in whipping the Bulldogs, doing so in often humiliating fashion on his way to an 11-1 mark in the series.

Paul Johnson arrived at Georgia Tech in a similar, if less confrontational, spirit: He announced "Beat UGA" to be his team's number one goal for his debut season of 2008. After achieving a stunning upset victory in the initial meeting however, Johnson appeared to shrink from the game. In his second season he in fact removed "Beat UGA" from the team's goals, and his prior enthusiasm for the game evaporated. Shortly before the 2009 encounter with the Bulldogs, Johnson went as far as talking down the game, referring to it in a dry, impersonal sense, while insisting his team had "bigger fish to fry" in the ACC.

The results of this approach have been disastrous-- a once special 2009 season was gleefully tarnished by a UGA team in turmoil. A similarly cavalier attitude about the 2010 game resulted in another victory by an even worse UGA team, with the pair of wins together surely combining to save the job of Mark Richt. As it stands, 2008's fluke salvo has long faded in the wake of "restored order" and 9 victories by the big state school in the last 10, with any meek counterpunch by the little brother having amounted to little more than a glancing and forgotten blow.

And so is the door opened once again for Georgia. Paul Johnson had a rare opportunity to send Richt packing and Bulldog Nation into disarray, but has failed in miserable fashion against the two worst Bulldog teams in years. Now Tech's door may be slammed shut. With a prodigious young QB, rejuvenated recruiting prospects, and Coach Meyer cleared from its path, Georgia Football has been granted life once again.

What if there is no longer another team's score or dominance to quote? More significantly, what if Georgia no longer has a team holding it back in its own division? For Tech fans it is a chilling thought.

If, under the guidance of Richt, Georgia indeed parlays this opportunity into a new era of greatness for its program, grinding GT to further oblivion in the process, no one will be more culpable than the hotshot coach who somehow had "bigger fish to fry" than the one he was hired to cook in the first place.