ColinAke.com…until I write a book.

This past Saturday, I had the opportunity to shoot what I consider to be the best football game of my college career. I have long considered the Yellow Jackets’ improbable win in 2004 at Clemson to be the best game of my college career, but this tops it. In that game, the Jackets came back from a 24-14 deficit with just 3 minutes remaining behind Calvin Johnson and several Clemson mishaps.

UGA is different. Tech lives to hate UGA. Our fight songs focus on it. Those of us who were raised as Tech fans pull for two teams: GT, and whoever is playing UGA. My dad, who is a very gentle, nice, quiet man, has been heard yelling “C’mon, break their legs!” at the TV during GT vs. UGA games. As you can guess, I hate UGA.

I’ve been in college for five years. This was my last football season. My last away game. My last GT vs. UGA game. We’d lost four games, painfully, under Chan Gailey, Reggie Ball, and a rash of bad luck, bad bounces, bad calls, and bad blood. As we drove to Athens Friday night (before littering the UGA campus with THWUGA issues of the Technique), Akshay and I talked about the game. Never before had we wanted to win a football game so badly.

I walked onto the field Saturday morning in a drizzle with the other Technique photographers. We walked past security guards and in between the hedges. Past UGA’s ugly self and his doghouse. We stood and talked as the players stretched. We talked about who was going to shoot what, but mostly about beating the Dawgs. The Tech team went to the big G in the middle of the field while the baseball team was being honored and started jumping up and down. I could tell they wanted it. Every Tech fan wanted it.

The game started. The points flew. I spent my time on the UGA sideline, loudly cheering on the Jackets in my old gold windbreaker and hopefully annoying those around me. At halftime (28-12 UGA) we had photographers taunting us with calls of “It’s ok guys, you can come back from that!” in the media center.

Then came the third quarter. I got to watch from the sidelines on the UGA 5 yard line as the Jackets scored, recovered UGA’s return fumble, and scored again. Best seat in the house. All of a sudden, we were up 35-28. Here’s a real, straight-from-the-AJC quote from UGA scholar-athlete and senior defensive tackle Corvey Irvin:

“We lost our edge in the second half. I guess we lost our composure. I don’t know if that’s the right word, but it sounds good.”

As time ran out and we won 45-42, I ran onto the field with the other media people. Shot the celebration, watched as players trimmed the hedges. Sung the fight song at the top of my lungs. Enjoyed myself. Watched the Tech fans taunt the UGA fans for the first time in 7 years. Waited until the players finally left the field for the locker room, and began to decompress. Posed for pictures in an empty stadium. Finally left and began the walk back to our car. Yes, I have called my UGA friends to rub it in. It’s the start of a long run during which we’ll see UGA’s decline and Tech’s rise. The player with the most rushing yards during the game, Roddy Jones (and 214, if you’re counting), is a freshman. Our quarterback and B-Back, Nesbitt and Dwyer, are sophomores. We’ll be good for some years to come.

What an experience. What a way to end Paul Johnson’s first year at Tech - if he doesn’t win Coach of the Year, I don’t know who should. The Jackets are now ranked 15th or 16th, depending on what poll you look at - now ahead of UGA for the first time in years.

What a delicious win.

Rain feels great after a drought. Victory is sweeter now because there was sour fruit for years before. And it only gets sweeter from here.

It’s thanksgiving tomorrow. I’m thankful that I get to talk crap about ignorant hillbillies that live across town. That’s right, you know who I’m talking about, the Georgia Bulldogs, or, as some people (many who have never been to Athens), the “Dawgs.”

Saturday the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets play the “Dawgs” in Athens, between the hedges, and I’ll be there. I’ll be on the field, shooting photos for Georgia Tech Student Publications. It’s my job to capture the embarrassment on the faces of the Bulldogs as they lose to Tech in what caps off their most disappointing year ever, and the most exciting year for Tech of late.

UGAg started off the preseason ranked #1. Picked to win the title. They were stacked on offense. But their defense sucks, their offense isn’t quite as good as people thought, and they’re not even in the running for a BCS bowl after two UGLY losses.

Tech started off the year with a new coach installing a new offense on a team of players he didn’t recruit. He was picked to win 2-3 games by several major publications. And they’re sitting at 8 wins right now. 8-3. One embarrasing loss, two losses that could have been changed by one play, one series, one little x-factor. The Jackets are coming in off a game in which they piled on Miami’s decent defense for 472 rushing yards.

It’s going to be a close game. But the last 7 years no longer count. We have a new head coach, a head of steam, and I think I’ll be standing on the sidelines as the Jackets eek by the Bulldogs for the first time in recent history. It’d be a fitting endcap to each teams’ season. Jackets exceed all expectations (save their own), and the Bulldogs fail miserably to capitalize on what was supposed to be their coronation.

What’s the good word? To Hell With Georgia.

How ’bout them Dawgs? Piss on ‘em.

I hate UGA. Everyone at Tech hates UGA. It’s time to get some payback.

Colin

PS - And go Virginia! Beat VT!