Georgia thoughts: The White House, the Cocktail Party and Bulldogs basketball

May 2024 · 8 minute read

ATHENS, Ga. — This is supposed to be a quiet time, which is what leads to it being the opposite. There has been plenty of news on the Georgia football front recently — and other sports — so here are some thoughts.

The White House non-visit

Georgia’s decision to decline the invitation was the wrong one. This isn’t about politics. Kirby Smart’s first year at Georgia was a presidential election year, and when somebody tried to get him to bite he said, “I don’t do politics.” Since then, he successfully has avoided it, until now, where the decision to turn it down can be seen in some quarters as a political one. It probably isn’t. Honestly, I don’t know Smart’s politics, and I’m pretty sure that didn’t play a role in this, nor did the personal feelings of anybody at Georgia involved in the decision.

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What did come into play was a lack of perspective. The back-and-forth about the timing of a visit or when the White House reached out or when it’s the most convenient for Georgia to go … is all irrelevant. An official invitation was issued for June 12, and while that was inconvenient for Georgia as Smart explained Wednesday, citing recruiting and camp obligations, it’s not a good excuse.

This was an invitation from the White House. This was not about going to a banquet on Sea Island. It was the White House. If you get an invitation, you make it work. Georgia has arguably the best football program in America right now, but it’s still just a football program. The White House is a political entity, but it’s still the White House, the home of Lincoln and Roosevelt and Kennedy and Reagan. It’s history, and it’s an honor to be invited and an honor to go. You better have an unavoidable excuse to turn down a specific invitation. This was not an invitation to go during a game week or even during preseason practice. This was for the middle of June, and as inconvenient as it may have seemed, it was feasible.

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Georgia declines White House invite, says date offered 'not feasible'

It also doesn’t mean everyone has to go. The option is there for players and coaches to skip it if they can’t get there or just don’t want to go. But even if it was just Smart and a few staffers and walk-ons, there should have been some Georgia presence. Accepting the offer would have at least given the option to any players or staff who wanted to go. A few people going, even if that’s what it was, would have been better than zero.

It’s also a missed opportunity for Georgia. The headlines around the program lately haven’t been great, with a lawsuit over a deadly crash, another player arrest and a player having to apologize for an ethnic slur. The optics of being at the White House would have been a great way to counter the negative narrative being built by critics about the program. The narrative may be unfair, an opportunity for people to score points off the field that they can’t on the field against Georgia. But the Bulldogs are providing too many unforced errors. As I touched on in my state of the program story: Georgia is under more scrutiny now. It’s operating under a new and higher standard, where missteps will be magnified.

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But successes can be, too, and the White House visit was another chance to have a positive headline and one that couldn’t hurt in recruiting.

That’s why declining the invitation was misguided. Some on the right cheered the decision, just as some on the left would have cheered Georgia doing the same if Donald Trump were still in office. Again, this isn’t about politics. This is probably more about the program being in too much of a bubble, seeing everything in terms of the world it has built for itself, a world built around the football and recruiting calendar. That has worked for Georgia in everything else. But this was different. This was a case where someone should have gotten through to say: It’s the White House. You can make it work.

The Georgia-Florida game has been held in Jacksonville every year since 1933 except for 1994 and 1995. (John Adams / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

Jacksonville

We may be closer to getting some clarity on the future of the Cocktail Party game and a clue on why Georgia and Florida officials have been coy on the future of the game. Jacksonville mayor Lenny Curry said Wednesday that renovations to the stadium could result in the games going to a home-and-home setup for two years, just as they were in 1994 and 1995.

Of course, this leads to speculation that it would be more than two years this time, especially with Smart’s public lobbying for a home-and-home setup. The renovations could be the excuse to take the game out of Jacksonville permanently.

But the initial quotes coming out actually point in the other direction.

Florida athletic director Scott Stricklin, in an interview with my colleague Andy Staples, talked more in terms of a temporary, two-year respite. Georgia AD Josh Brooks in an emailed statement said, “We look forward to having conversations with the appropriate City of Jacksonville officials which will provide more information on the scope of construction, the timeline of the project and how it would impact the future of our game versus Florida.”

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Brooks’ statement was noncommittal. But it wasn’t, “Who cares, we’re not coming back to Jacksonville after this contract ends anyway.”

And as Andy pointed out, taking the game to other neutral sites — Atlanta or Orlando — could be on the table. That wouldn’t please anybody in the debate, although it would make everyone a lot of money.

Keep this in mind: If you’re Jacksonville, are you sinking money into renovating your stadium without the promise of keeping one of your marquee events there on an annual basis? One little-mentioned part of the debate about the future of the game has been the concern that Georgia (and Florida) may have had about the facility. The reluctance to exercise the option and extend the contact was seen mostly as a money play, but renovations may have been a part of it.

That isn’t to say Georgia wouldn’t still seriously consider pulling out of the deal and going for a home-and-home setup. But the news Wednesday could be a clue that the Cocktail Party isn’t going away altogether and that in the short term, it will be a “have your cake and eat it too” scenario: Georgia gets one home game against its rival, perhaps in 2026, which Smart and similarly minded people can use to argue that it should go home-and-home permanently. Jacksonville gets a chance to renovate its stadium and try to show the game it should stay there.

A decision needs to happen soon, at least for the short term: This year’s game is the final one under the current contract, with an option to extend to 2025, which has not been taken yet. The question of renovations may be why the option wasn’t extended yet. The long-term future of the game, however, may still take a while. But the chances of Florida visiting Sanford Stadium and Georgia visiting The Swamp have gone up considerably, even if it’s only once.

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Basketball and other sports

We’ve heard this before, but it’s still worth recognizing that Georgia’s men’s basketball coach is on a recruiting roll as he enters his second year. Mike White now has commitments from four high school players ranked in the top 104 of this year’s class. Blue Cain, a shooting guard who committed last week, is the highest-rated at No. 69.

White also got four players out of the transfer portal, the latest being guard Noah Thomasson, who led Niagara in scoring last year. The hopeful sign about the transfers is three of them are transferring up from mid-majors, with only one lateral move from another Power 5 program (forward RJ Melendez from Illinois). White also mixed in shooting (Cain, Thomasson) with size (transfer Russel Tchewa is 7 feet, while transfer Jalen Deloach is 6-8).

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This isn’t to say Georgia fans should be getting ready for an NCAA Tournament run. But it’s a good sign that things are continuing to trend upward after the program saw a 10-win improvement in White’s first season.

Meanwhile, the spring sports are having a good run. The Georgia baseball team, buried in some quarters after a bad start, still has a chance to squeeze into the NCAA Tournament. The Bulldogs are projected as a third seed by D1Baseball.com, although they are out of the field in Baseball America’s bracket.

Georgia’s softball team, ranked No. 13 in the nation, is trying to make a run in this week’s SEC tournament.

The Georgia women’s golf team is in the 30-team NCAA championship event. Both track teams are in the running (get it?) down the stretch: The Georgia women are ranked No. 8 nationally, and the men are ranked No. 16. Both Georgia tennis teams are in the NCAA super regionals: The women are ranked No. 4 nationally and the men are No. 6.

Who knows. Maybe one of those teams will win it all … and get an invitation to the White House.

(Top photo of Kirby Smart: Sean M. Haffey / Getty Images)

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