Tennessee Volunteers Running Away With Rival Poll Vote
I expected my fellow Georgia fans to rate Tennessee a bigger rival than Clemson, but not by such a wide margin.
Go 'Dawgs!
almost 2 years ago
T Kyle King
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Most Georgia fans would probably say fourth . . .
. . . after the traditional season-ending gauntlet of Florida, Auburn, and Georgia Tech, but the comparison I was drawing was between Clemson and Tennessee.
Outside of the Gators, the Plainsmen, and the Yellow Jackets, all of whom have been regular Bulldog rivals for many years and continue to be annual rivals today, we saw Clemson rise to prominence as a Georgia rival starting in the late ’70s and continuing throughout the ’80s, then, when conference expansion scuttled the Georgia-Clemson series as a yearly confrontation, we saw Tennessee (previously only an intermittent Bulldog opponent) become an annual rival in 1992.
There was some discussion as to which was a bigger rival—-I think the older guys (like me) still afford pride of place to the Tigers, while Georgia fans under 35 are much more apt to point to the Volunteers—-but the vote has been more one-sided than I expected.
Go 'Dawgs!
3rd biggest rival in the SEC works
and I’d imagine you’d get the same results and the same margin if you asked people here if Auburn or Georgia was a bigger UT rival. Youth reigns – this is why I intentionally stay away from a “is Florida or Alabama UT’s biggest rival?” poll, because I fear the results.
Alabama
Even though the earliest loss to them I can remember is 2002. I’m a traditionalist.
by Incipient_Senescence on Jun 2, 2010 6:30 PM EDT up reply actions
still put Kentucky up there...
but 25 in a row can take a lot of air out of a rivalry… not that I’m not hoping for 50.
Hard to believe the series was 48-23-9 when our streak started… and now we have a 50 game lead.
You're certainly right that it's the third biggest in the SEC . . .
. . . and Tennessee might rank ahead of Auburn among younger Georgia fans.
It’s funny how your formative years as a fan shape you throughout your life. In the 1980s, the Bulldogs rarely played the Volunteers, and the Red and Black put together a four-game winning streak against the Big Orange prior to 1989, so, to me, Tennessee was one of those opponents like Alabama or LSU that was a big game when we met, but wasn’t a team I thought a lot about because we didn’t meet often.
Auburn was the biggest game on the schedule because, in those days, we beat Florida and Georgia Tech regularly; now, with Georgia having taken four in a row from the Plainsmen and won six of the last eight against Auburn while losing four of the last six to Tennessee, younger Bulldog fans are much more focused on Rocky Top than on the allegedly Loveliest Village.
Go 'Dawgs!
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