A lot has been made about Georgia and Florida’s yearly game in Jacksonville. It’s a cool tradition that I have participated in many times, but Coach Kirby Smart has made it known he isn’t the biggest fan. He has a point. In a year like 2021, Georgia didn’t get Auburn or Tennessee at home. Florida is one of the biggest games for recruiting for Georgia, and vice versa. In Jacksonville, recruits can get tickets to the game, but it’s nowhere near the same as having a big recruiting event at home. This snippet from Jake Rowe of DawgsHQ gives a good look for both sides of the argument:
“There’s really quality benefits to both,” Smart said on Tuesday. “You guys, I get it, you want to make a story. You need a story. Everybody wants to talk about it. It’s really not a big debate for me. It’s been made really big by the media because they’ve made it out to be a really big deal. I enjoy the pageantry of going down there and playing. I enjoyed it as a player. I enjoy tradition. I enjoy all those things.
When it comes down to it, the very very basic element of everything comes back to, number one, money, and number two, recruiting and getting good players. I firmly believe that we’ll be able to sign better players by having home and home because we’ll have more opportunities to get them to campus. But I also think there’s a financial factor that factors into that with having the game there and being able to make more money for the university possibly there. So you have to weigh both of those and make really good decisions.”
Today, the two cocktail party participants released a joint statement:
Georgia and Florida released a joint statement on the future of the game in Jacksonville. The contract runs through 2023 with options to expand in 2024 and 2025: pic.twitter.com/g8kZrhLefi
— Seth Emerson (@SethWEmerson) October 24, 2022
For what it’s worth, as a UGA student, I want what Coach Smart wants. I have no reason to question his judgement, especially when it comes to recruiting. It looks like there will at least be one more game at TIAA Bank Stadium, but that could be changing soon.
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Photographer: David Rosenblum/Icon Sportswire
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