It's a Bye Week, But We're Getting Riled Up Anyway

by Arkansas Expats on Sep 7, 2007 5:54 PM CDT in Arkansas Razorback Football

Every week during the football season we'll be posting five reasons to hate the upcoming opponent to help you get fired up (as if that were really necessary). But, since this week is a bye we thought it would be fun for us to list our personal least favorite SEC teams...the ones who annoy, irritate and make us more irrational than any of the rest. So without further adieu, here we go:

Stephen's Bottom Three:

1. Tennessee - Everything about this program drives me crazy. The fans, the team colors and that damn "Rocky Top," played over and over and over. As a former resident of Memphis and a big fan of the city, I also don't appreciate the snotty attitude many UT fans and east Tennessee residents have towards the Bluff City. Get over yourselves.

2. Florida - I admit it: Part of me is just jealous at the insanely successful run that Florida's athletic program is on right now. I attended both the SEC Championship football game last year and the SEC Tournament final in March and, needless to say, I've had my fill of Gator fans for the rest of my life. Florida's hateability may decrease, though, with the departure of Joakim Noah.

3. Georgia - I have to say, outside of the above two teams, I don't find the rest of the SEC to be especially unlikeable. I do get tired of the Mark Richt worshipping performed by much of the sports media in Atlanta and Georgia, though, so I'll put the Dawgs at number three on my list. To listen to sports talk radio here, you'd think the Bulldog coach spends his spare hours feeding thousands with two fish and five loaves of bread.

John's Bottom Three:

1. Florida - Yeah, I'm jealous of their recent success. And yeah, I'm bitter that their b-ball team repeated as champs when I know the 1994-95 Hogs were better. It's mainly the all the arrogance, though, that does it for me. Even though they don't have too much SEC history with the Hogs, the image of Steve Spurrier smirking out from beneath his visor drives me crazy.

2. Tennessee - Ditto to everything Steve said. Maybe it's just something about orange teams that conjures up bad feelings. My next door neighbors, who are otherwise very nice people, are from Knoxville and hosted a huge crew of Vols fans who flew cross-country for last week's Cal game. I have to admit that I was cackling evilly to myself as the Bears rang up 45 points on them. (the Pac-10 still sucks, though)

3. Alabama - Partially because of a few folks we knew in college. And partially because they erroneously claim the 1964 national championship. But mostly because if I hear one more thing about how great Bear Bryant was, or how the Bama fans still can't get over him, my head might explode.

That's it for us. Which teams bug you the most? Add your comments below and vent away!

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Comments

Why so many East teams! I’ll grant ya Tennessee but Florida and Georgia? Weird. I never found Noah all that unlikeable anyway. Goofy, yeah. But nothing wrong with being goofy in my book.

I’d say
1. Ole Miss
2. LSU
3. Bama/Tennessee

by CharlieHog on Sep 7, 2007 6:06 PM CDT reply actions

It is a little weird about all the East teams, huh? Sometimes these things are a little irrational and hard to explain.

Also, I have to admit that my in-laws are from Tallahassee and thus are mostly FSU fans, so that’s probably biased me a bit too. (although I did have a healthy dislike for Florida before I got married)

-John

by John on Sep 7, 2007 6:28 PM CDT reply actions

Hey Charlie,

I guess it’s a function of having lived in Atlanta for the past decade, where all of the above teams have a lot of visibility and fans.

I’ll turn the tables a little bit on you … Ole Miss? Is it because of the Rebels’ basketball success against the Piggies? I frankly find Ole Miss to be one of the more forgettable teams in the conference.

by Stephen on Sep 7, 2007 6:46 PM CDT reply actions

I guess most of my hatred for Ole Miss comes from baseball. Their fan base is frickin’ unbearable.

by CharlieHog on Sep 7, 2007 10:14 PM CDT reply actions

Gotcha. Interesting. John and I made our comments based solely on the basketball and football situations.

by Stephen on Sep 7, 2007 10:51 PM CDT reply actions

Now that I think about it I’m surprised neither of you said Kentucky, then. They are probably #1 for me in basketball.

by CharlieHog on Sep 8, 2007 2:27 PM CDT reply actions

Stephen,
You can add the deification of Coach Dooley to the reasons to hate Georgia. As far as Mark Richt goes, it’s hard to hate someone who adopts underprivileged children and heads up mission trips to developing countries, but there’s definitely a smugness about him that makes me forget all the good stuff he does. But in line with what CharlieHog was saying, if I didn’t live in Atlanta the Bulldogs wouldn’t even be on my radar.

by Jerry Tate on Sep 9, 2007 10:20 AM CDT reply actions

Ian,

Good point about Dooley. Wish I had remembered it. And that’s definitely true about Richt – my problem isn’t so much with him as it is having to listen to the guys on 790 and 680 fawn all over him. However, he did speak at our current governor’s inauguration.

by Stephen on Sep 9, 2007 5:07 PM CDT reply actions

1. Georgia
2. LSU
3. Alabama

Like Stephen, I’ve lived in Atlanta for the past decade so Georgia is high on my list. I was very disappointed that the GA fans developed the arrogance more commonly associated with teams north and south of here when Richt began to show them some success. The fact that we’ve lost the last five games or so to them hasn’t helped in the slightest.

LSU aggravates because we always seem to be playing them when we need a win to go to a bowl game. At least we’ve done better against them than Georgia.

Alabama. What more do you need to say? Arrogant, loud, and ignorant fans. I much prefer Auburn fans; I’ve had nothing but great experiences with them. Plus Alabama fans are almost the only fans who owe me (there’s still a Texas fan out there somewhere who owes me a case of beer on that great upset in ‘81). Hearing about Bear Bryant doesn’t bug me much because I always remind those lauding the ol’ Coach where he came from. ;^)

by Hawgfan100 on Sep 10, 2007 5:51 PM CDT reply actions