GT Football Snarky Preview: Game 12 (Them)

Avoiding them was never an option. Not if you grew up in or anywhere near the state.

The Cesspool of the South may be Athens itself, but the stench emanates for hundreds of miles in seemingly every direction. Simply breathing air in the state means being exposed to the nightmare furnace. Seeing those godforsaken colors everywhere, especially the bright red that seems perfectly crafted to make everyone who sees it angry. Hearing purportedly sentient human beings trying to communicate solely by barking.

Call it what it is: an infestation.

We all tried to warn everyone that they were not to be celebrated as the ones who dethroned Alabama, because it was opening the door to something far, far worse. We were all ignored. And here we are, trying to stay afloat in the world that exists in the wake of their rise to power from 2017 onward.

Most of them have only ever had one mode of operation: whining about things never going their way. At this point it’s ironic, but… well, it turns out that 41 years of crying about never being good enough has made them very good at playing the victim.

They get to have the state legislature bend over backwards to pass a bill virtually overnight because their coach walked in one day and demanded it. They face so little adversity at this point that, the year after they won a national title, a linebacker pretended that people were saying they were predicted to go 7-5 just to motivate himself. Nothing of consequence ever seems to happen to players who rack up their endless train of reckless driving charges, and it wouldn’t matter anyway, because this isn’t a team that can even pretend to be lacking depth at any position.

And besides, if somehow things aren’t going their way, Greg Sankey might just step in to make sure things work out anyway. After all, what’s a flimsy fourth-down pass interference call or a casual disregard of a clear-as-day targeting call between friends, right?

They’re one of the handful of teams that will be totally immune to the entire structure of FBS college football collapsing under its own weight in the years ahead. They always need to be the victim, though, so expect to hear plenty of whining in the near future about occasionally losing to Alabama or sometimes not having the top recruiting class or losing out on some coveted transfer who ends up at Ohio State.

To hell with ‘em.

Any path to curing the infestation begins with one step: kicking their asses right here. Last year taught us it’s possible if a slightly different ending can be pulled out of the fire. Time to make it happen.