Stock Up, Stock Down: An Updated Analysis Of Georgia’s Football Rivalries

The University of Georgia has been playing collegiate football for 133 years.

And over that time they have accumulated a rolling list of rivals. Some of those rivalries are congenial. Some could even fairly be described as tepid. Others burn with the fire of a thousand blazing suns.

And those rivalries sometimes move closer and further away from those categories as the years go by. For example, when was the last time you heard fellow Bulldog fans talking smack about former SEC coevals Tulane and Mercer?

The SEC’s recent scheduling changes and jettisoning divisional play are likely to accentuate those changes as the years go by. As I thought about that the other day it concurred to me that the heat of summer might be a good time to take the temperature of our various football feuds. Which have become more intense in recent years? Which have flamed out?

Auburn. I could make an argument that the Plainsmen are Georgia’s preeminent rival. The Red and Black have played the Tigers more than anyone else, and until Mark Richt established dominance in the rivalry (dominance which Kirby Smart has only extended) the series was the only major rivalry in which the Athenians trailed. Keeping this annual contest was among the league’s priorities when the divisions were scrapped, as well it should have been. The Deep South’s Oldest Rivalry is among the gold standard games for college football rivalry. Stock report: Unchanged, very intense.

Tennessee. The Dawgs and Vols played only sporadically until the advent of divisional play in the 90s. But the game quickly established itself as a measuring stick for Bulldog fans, one which for a miserable decade found the Red and Black often coming up short.

But like the Auburn rivalry, this one has turned sharply in the Dawgs’ favor in the new millennium. Josh Heupel has made Tennessee a playoff contender, and no fanbase goes zero to unstoppably mouthy faster than the Big Orange. That constant threat of insufferability makes every Tennessee game, even in the absence of divisions, a big one. There will soon be a day when we don’t play the Hillbillies every season. But for those of us who suffered through the late 90s in Athens as Phil Fulmer’s little brother, it’ll be a long time before a loss to the Vawls isn’t infuriating. Stock report: Down in the non-division era, but still important.

Florida. As a Bulldog fan who grew up south of the gnat line during the Steve Spurrier era, my assessment of the Florida rivalry is perhaps a bit skewed. I hate the Gators. I have always hated the Gators. I will always hate the Gators. If I knew any more tenses within which to express my hate, I would hate/hating/will have hated the Gators in those as well.

In case you spent the 2024 season in a coma, Florida coach Billy Napier went from almost certainly fired to a contract extension and a bowl game last year during the span of roughly five weeks. It was a huge glow up for the high school health teacher/JV football coach from central casting, and owed no small part to the exploits of freshman quarterback DJ Lagway.

Now Gator fans are high on their own personal supply of hopium, absolutely certain that the glory years are back in Gainesville. That’s going to make them extra insufferable until they learn better. And as one of the perennial rivalries that survived expansion, this one isn’t going away. Stock report: Stable to intensifying, like my eternal conviction that I wouldn’t spit on Gator fans even if they were on fire. Unless I could spit gasoline.

South Carolina. The Gamecocks aren’t really a rival, as has been established in these digital parts for almost a decade now. But the Gamecocks absolutely consider Georgia a rival, probably second only to Clemson, and at worst third on their list. But Georgia didn’t play the Chickens with any regularity prior to 1992. And we’ll soon be playing them with only slightly more frequency going forward. That means you’re now free to go back to thinking about South Carolina football once every three years or so, which may yet be too frequently. Stock report: Returning to historical lows.

Clemson. Those of us who remember the 1980s, of whom sadly there are fewer than they used to be, still consider the country gentleman among Georgia’s most intense rivals. Historically, Clem‘s sons are a team the Red and Black have played with regularity (See also Mississippi, University of) and with some degree of fierceness. As the major conferences consolidate Clemson remains an evergreen candidate to join the SEC, but until that happens it’s clear that they’ll likely be an occasional out-of-conference opponent, and annually a potential playoff matchup. Stock report: Stable, with a chance for spikes to record highs.

Alabama. If you had asked me 20 years ago whether Alabama was a football rival I probably would have said no. If you had asked me 10 years ago, I would have said potentially, but that George had a long way to go to earn the right to use that term with regard to the Crimson Tide. In between 2005 and 2015 Georgia earned one exciting victory over the Tide and then were successively humiliated, demoralized, and eviscerated by the Capstone, to the point that it appeared we might never supplant them.

But then came 2021. And 2022. And while the Tide pulled off an instant classic victory last year against the Dawgs, it’s safe to say that this one is back to being a winnable game for both squads. Kalen DeBoer still has a lot to prove in Tuscaloosa, and I feel safe declaring g that he will not win close to as many national titles as the guy he replaced. But in the expanded playoff era Georgia and Alabama are both going to have multiple chances to ruin the other’s title dreams. That’s the stuff rivalries are made of. Stock report: Close to historic highs.

Georgia Tech. First, an anecdote. The Georgia Tech game last year was my daughter‘s first football game in Sanford Stadium. And for much of the evening, I assumed it was going to be a milestone we would both want to forget. As late as the 1:00 mark of regulation we were all certain that Georgia had managed to lose the one game that no Bulldog fan ever wants to lose.

Have you ever witnessed jubilant Georgia Tech football fans? If you’re under the age of 40 it’s unlikely. But I did that night, and it brought back terrible memories of the 1990s, George O’Leary, Jasper Sanks’ knee, and other trauma I’d successfully buried for years. There were Yellow Jackets fans at the Sanford Stadium concession stands at halftime debating their preseason 2025 playoff odds. They’d mentally socked away a victory in Clean Old Fashioned Hate for the first time since 2016.

And then…..BWAHAHAHAHAHA.

Brent Key is a good football coach, he’s recruiting better instate than Tech has in a decade or more, and there’s every reason to think the Jackets will be a better football team under him than they ever were under Geoff Collins. That raises the uncomfortable specter of a potential Old Gold victory over the Bulldogs in football. If and when that happens, and if Heaven forbid it happens more than once, this one will go to another level. Stock report: trending upward, with the potential for meme stock levels of appreciation.

Texas. I know, it seems absurd to talk about a team Georgia’s only played seven times ever as a potential rival. And I’ll concede, as things are currently constituted the Longhorns aren’t so much a rival per se as a coeval or contemporary.

But as a reminder, the two teams have played three of their seven matchups in the past six seasons, and will play again in Athens in 2025 in what is likely to be another top ten matchup. And with the program Steve Sarkisian is building, combined with he and Kirby Smart’s relative youthfulness, these two schools could be battling for SEC supremacy for the next decade, especially if Kalen DeBoer can’t sustain momentum at Alabama or Brian Kelly flounders at LSU, among others. Stock report:Off the radar, but with blue chip potential.

Until later…

Go ‘Dawgs!!!