Rankings prove Georgia has lost benefit of doubt
Georgia's Mark Richt doesn't have to wonder what it's going to take to pass Georgia Tech and Paul Johnson: win. (AJC photo)
(Last update: 2:10 p.m.)
In two weeks, this becomes less about perception than reality.
Games start, the season unfolds, myths get busted, the guy on the bar stool who never said a word before suddenly says I told you so, a Big 12 coach locks a player in the broom closet and eventually we get to January and scream about the BCS. It’s college football’s circle of life.
But for now, it is about perceptions, and this much has become clear: Pollsters believe Georgia Tech has passed Georgia on the football field.
This is what consecutive years of failed expectations and a five-loss season will do to a program.
When last season ended in Shreveport, the Bulldogs were not ranked in the final Associated Press poll for the first time since 1996. That also left them behind the Jackets (13th) for the first time since 2000.
When this season begins, Georgia will trail Tech in the preseason polls for the first time since 2001, which is the year Mark Richt was hired. The AP’s preseason rankings were released Saturday. They’re similar to the coaches’ poll that came out two weeks ago, which had Tech ranked 17th and Georgia 21st. The gap in the AP poll is a bit wider: The Jackets are 16th and the Dogs are No. 23.
It’s worth nothing that the AP is no longer part of the BCS formula, having pulled out after the 2004 season because of the illogical selection process, to say nothing of the fact orchestrating a No. 1 vs. No. 2 game and rendering all other bowls relatively insignificant is just a bad idea. But the AP still is the most watched preseason and in-season poll, and it fuels what many previously believed:
Georgia has lost the benefit of the doubt.
This bit of reality won’t go over well in Athens. Richt inherited a program that hadn’t won an SEC championship since 1982. He proceeded to win two in his first five seasons. Then Georgia finished strong in 2007 to end the year at No. 2. Such cachet tends to carry over in polls from year to year.
But a preseason No. 1 ranking in 2008 turned out to be only a gateway to lopsided losses to Alabama and Florida, and a home upset by Georgia Tech (in coach Paul Johnson’s first season). Then came last year’s tumble to 8-5. Richt began to feel some heat for really the first time in his tenure. The Dogs now are at a prove-it stage. At Tech, most assume the arrow is pointed up. In Georgia, few are assuming anything.
The Jackets are 20-7 in Johnson’s first two seasons and went 11-3 with an ACC championship last season. They lost four stars (Demaryius Thomas, Jonathan Dwyer, Derrick Morgan, Morgan Burnett) to the NFL draft. But perceptions remain that they’re better than Georgia. Why?
“We won more games than they did last year,” Johnson logically concluded Saturday morning, when asked about the recent coaches’ poll.
Asked if he cared about perceptions, he gave the expected response: “Not really. I just worry about what I perceive and what actually happens. I’m more worried about what happens at the end of the year. Being ranked before somebody at the beginning might be nice, but I’d rather be ranked in front of them at the end.”
Since the non-ranking in 2001, the Dogs have ranked No. 8, 11, 3, 13, 15, 13, 1 and 13 in the preseason under Richt. At 23, they’re now closer to the “others receiving votes” category with Connecticut, Temple and Middle Tennessee State.
“I am thankful we are ranked,” Richt said Saturday when asked about the AP poll. He added, “I hope we play well enough to move up. That’s the plan.”
That’s the way to play this. Richt raised the expectation level at Georgia. This shows how missteps in consecutive seasons can significantly alter public opinion. Georgia finished out of the rankings four consecutive seasons (1993-96), but when it finished 10th in 1997, the Dogs suddenly were back in the preseason rankings in 1998 (19th) for the first time in five years.
It figured there would be a hangover after last season. The preseason rankings might be cause for debate, but that’s what rankings are all about. There’s no reason for Georgia to scream. In two weeks, the games start, and the Dogs will have a chance to change perceptions.
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688 comments Add your comment
dawgfan
August 21st, 2010
11:44 am
yeah, and we see where the Oklahoma and USC darlings get ranked every year too. And both have had 5 loss seasons within the past three years so frankly, I don’t give a damn where SI or the other media rank UGA at the beginning of the year. Fact is, they are and have been a top ten program for the past decade and that didn’t change because the had one bad season. If it doesn’t change OK or USC, why UGA? Answer me that.
Ed
August 21st, 2010
11:44 am
correction – 3.5 out of the last 4 seasons have been mediocre: 2006, half of 2007, 2008 and 2009.
JB
August 21st, 2010
11:45 am
I think most rational folks know we’ll be higher, come Jan and that’s what truly matters.
HBTD!!!
coachaaron
August 21st, 2010
11:47 am
these rankings are ridiculous. the ACC is awful, the BIG 10 is awful, everybody knows, even the pollsters, but they can’t print that or they’d be called bias by all the other conference fans.
The worst Bulldog team in a decade routed the best Yellow Jacket team in a decade last year, yet UGA is still not ahead of them in preseason polls? on top of that, that amazing Yellow Jacket team went on to get beat by IOWA in a BCS game.
i get that UGA isn’t the best team in the country, and i get that UGA isn’t the best SEC team in the country, but we are certainly better than almost half the teams ranked ahead of us without question! it’s the SEC curve in play, it’s the best conference by far, and even the 3rd, 4th, or 5th place teams in the SEC are better than other conferences 2nd or 3rd place teams, and in some cases their 1st place teams.
we all know it.
Dawgtards ruin this state
August 21st, 2010
11:48 am
JB you sound high already! Come Jan you will be tailgating at the piggly wiggly in shreveport or worse.
JB
August 21st, 2010
11:48 am
Um…. Larry, do you happen to recall where NE was ranked, back in then??? If memory serves, I don’t think they were. I also know that Yech wanted no part of CO. Had they played, reality would have set in and it would have been a serious whoopin’, BY the Buffs.
HBTD!!!
JB
August 21st, 2010
11:48 am
Uh, OK.
I see the idiots are out in force.
HBTD!!!
Tanner
August 21st, 2010
11:50 am
Jeff-
It’s not as complicated as making all those improvements you listed.
Comes down to 1 thing:
Get a 100 yard rusher and Richt’s record is 40-3.
It’s that simple.
matt b.
August 21st, 2010
11:50 am
I’m not overly concerned with pre-season rankings, and I certainly understand the lack of confidence in the polls. New starting QB, completely new D-Line in a new 3-4 scheme, shaky ‘09 season, etc.
The important thing to remember is that Richt addressed our defensive ineptitude over the off-season, and brought in coaches with proven track records. Grantham, Belin, and Lakatos all inspire confidence.
An immediate resurgence may not be in the cards, but I believe better times are on the horizon for Georgia Football.
JB
August 21st, 2010
11:50 am
Oops! I was off by one spot. NE was ranked 19th. Yeah, 19th.
HBTD!!!
Yes Man
August 21st, 2010
11:52 am
Georgia conitnues to rank in the top 5 in apparel sales every year. Proving, beyond any doubt, that georgia is perceived nationally as a top 5 program.
Rodney Dangerfield Dawg
August 21st, 2010
11:52 am
You see what happens when you dont get impressive wins over SC ,Vandy and then lose to Kentucky at home. Not to mention the enduring beatdowns by Tennessee and the Gators.
11-0-1 1990 National Champs
August 21st, 2010
11:52 am
You must have taken history at thUGA since you are wrong on every account. Nebraska was in fact ranked, all year! Colorado had a loss, a tie and 5 downs to score to avoid loss #2. To say GT wanted no paet of CO is just plain making sh*t up. Please get a clue, you make all thUGA fans look bad.
Kevin
August 21st, 2010
11:53 am
Jeff
Does UGA has something to prove this year? absolutely. When we play S.Car., Tenn and Fla. We will find out if 2008 was an aberration or a trend.
Do we have anything to prove to Tech? Hell no. Richt 8-1 and our worst team this century beat their best team in 20 years in that little piece of crap high school stadium they call home down in the projects of ATL lat November.
11-0-1 1990 National Champs
August 21st, 2010
11:54 am
Hey JB or is that BJ – above comment for you!
9 outta 10
August 21st, 2010
11:55 am
“We won more games than they did last year.”
Hey Paul “bigger fish” Johnson:
1) You’re in the ACC (Weak schedule play Uga’s schedule & what your record would be)
2) Tech didn’t win THE GAME … UGA 30-24
3) Tech has lost to UGA 9 out of the last 10 years (Trends don’t lie)
Georgia beat Tech, so a 5 loss Uga was better than Tech last year. Georgia has more returning starters than Tech this Year so I see no change in the results. By the end of the season my name will be 10 outta 11.
Carl Jung
August 21st, 2010
11:55 am
When you are sentenced to the Shreveport bowl, you are automatically banned from the limelight.
Jeff you’re right. UGA always runs under that “top echelon” category when they’ve never really deserved it because they always recruit among the top 5. In reality, Richt ( and his predecessors) have never delivered. If you recuit top 5 classes and beat Tech, the UGA job is guaranteed for life. The fans allow anything else to go wrong and it has.
PHIL STEELE for PRESIDENT !
Rodney Dangerfield Dawg
August 21st, 2010
11:56 am
yes man…. those sales are generated through Walmart from all of those fans in the mobile home park clubs.
Carl Jung
August 21st, 2010
11:57 am
No wonder Munson quit
JB
August 21st, 2010
11:57 am
You got tied by NC, you squeaked by CU, UVA and VT. Ooooh, there was a team that out the fear of god in folks.
NE, on the other hand, who lost 2 of their last 3, ended their season by getting WAXED by an unranked OU team, 45-10.
Spare me your revisionist history. And to say I’m the one that’s clueless… Sheeesh!
Usual yellow maggot buffoonery! Guess I should consider the source.
HBTD!!!
SOUTHGADAWG88
August 21st, 2010
11:58 am
The Dawgs and FSU will be the comeback teams in college football this season and finish in the final top 10.I predicted at the end of the bowl season that we are going to play them either in a bowl game this year or the chick fila kickoff next year.Both programs are about to go on a serious run.
Rankings prove that Georgia has lost benefit of doubt | Jeff Schultz
August 21st, 2010
11:58 am
[...] resztę artykułu: Rankings prove that Georgia has lost benefit of doubt | Jeff Schultz are-more, football, georgia, georgia-on-the, georgia-tech, has-passed, preseason-polls, [...]
JB
August 21st, 2010
11:59 am
Run along now, 11-0-1 boy. Thanks for playing, though.
BTW, soon to be 9 out of 10 and we all know it.
HBTD!!!
Delbert D.
August 21st, 2010
12:00 pm
CFN
Alan
August 21st, 2010
12:00 pm
Get Tech to play UGA’s schedule and see how many games they can win. The benefit of playing in the ACC is you get 1-2 tough games a year, the SEC gets 8-9 tough ones.
sunny purdue
August 21st, 2010
12:00 pm
It seems preseason polls are only interesting and accurate when the dogz are highly ranked.
SOUTHGADAWG88
August 21st, 2010
12:00 pm
Carl Jung UGA has averaged 10 wins under Mark Richt.What in the hell are you talking about?
Bo Jacksons Arthritic Hip
August 21st, 2010
12:02 pm
I’m an Auburn fan, and even though I hate Georgia, I respect them. They have great talent on that team and being ranked where they are is a slap in the face. Sure they are going to start a Reshirt freshman QB but he won’t have to do too much with Ealey and King running the ball. They may stumble a few times…..hopefully at Auburn….but to think they will lose 4 or 5 games is ludicrous.
While I prefer Tech to UGA, realistically the Dawgs still pound the bees. They just have way too much talent and Richt flat out wins on the road and the SEC….I hate him…but its true.
Carl Jung
August 21st, 2010
12:02 pm
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Pres Adams has warned all fans to stop spilling their “squeezings” on each other at the games. ” At lot of good stuff is wasted at our games. We need to reduce the # of
gallons bought in by each “patron” to make up for the loss of space caused by bigger asses” The same
warning is being issued to the 75-80 players on the bench ( all 5 stars) that never get to play.
Termigator
August 21st, 2010
12:02 pm
The Dawgs will have losses this year to SC, ARK, UK, AUB and UF and Richt will be in serious trouble by a new AD who has learned not to tolerate the mediocrity that has been UGA football which included the worst job of coaching in Staffords and Mareno’s last year. They easily had the best talent and UNDERACHIEVED! He learned at the foot of the master, sit back and coast.
dogntex
August 21st, 2010
12:04 pm
we have lost cred with the masses and pollsters. we used to get a top 15 regardless. however, if you never knock down the door, people begin to question how good you are, then you go 8-5 it looks like you may be slipping. unfair but true…………..this season is critical, 1or 2 loses max.
tech is a brief fad thanks to the funky offense…..it wont last
11-0-1 1990 National Champs
August 21st, 2010
12:05 pm
I see your logic JB: Have the best record in the nation. Beat the #1 team in a primetime shoot out with two of the best QB’s in college going at it. Have one of the NCAA most clutch kickers ever winning games for you. Have one of the best coaches in the nation, who had NFL teams throwing millions at him. Yes, we did tie UNC on the road playing through the driving rain storm of hurricane Dawn.
1990 National Champs, best record in the NCAA in 1990!
JB – you are one ignorant dawgtard!
Carl Jung
August 21st, 2010
12:05 pm
Get PJ to coach CMR’s players and see what you get.
Dawgster2
August 21st, 2010
12:05 pm
All of you dawgturds get your heads out of the sand or wherever you have them stuck
and start worrying about the number one problem with UGAy. At the rate your athlete-thugs are being arrested, you’ll be lucky to have any football and basketball teams by this year’s season openers.
UGAy has made the state a laughingstock with its reputation as one big party school with copious job opportunities for lawyers and bail bondsman, and decent people are fed up with this. Get rid of the illiterate, undisciplined drunks and felons that Mark Richt recruits, and get rid of Richt too. Even with these illiterate jerkoffs, he can’t even win the division, much less the SEC, so what’s the point.
So while you sit there in your delapidated single wide, deciding if the beer will last until the next unemployment check comes in, think about this.
And don’t forget the red panties. They make great pacifiers to suck on.
Delbert D.
August 21st, 2010
12:06 pm
“One on one head to head record against Richt at 8-1 Georgia says Georgia’s better,”
One on one head to head record Johnson against Richt is 1-1 with a 3 point differential.
Russ, the Temporary Mascot
August 21st, 2010
12:07 pm
A little dog with a painted a$$ should never get in a dispute with the fans but elite programs don’t go to Shreveport and paint a little dog’s a$$ while they are down there. We stayed at the best hotel in town . . . the Econo Lodge over by the Dollar Store and I think that Dollar Store is where they bought the paint. They had some RayBans knock-offs that look a lot like the ones Coach Richt wears but they wouldn’t look good on a little dog.
Rodney Dangerfield Dawg
August 21st, 2010
12:08 pm
Mark Richt has always proven he has to settle. He cant land the big recruits and he cant bring in the best coaches. Mark Richt will settle on down in the hot seat.
11-0-1 1990 National Champs
August 21st, 2010
12:08 pm
JB – It’s hard to run when I’m laughing at the sh*t you’re making up. Not one fact correct in your post, Jim Harrick JR would grade your post a B+, but hey, Tony Cole got an A-.
JB
August 21st, 2010
12:08 pm
Don’t ya just love how 11-0-1 boy leaves out all the other relevant facts. Funny how that works.
Like I said, run along now and clear your throat on the way out. It sounds like that football we rammed down your throat, last season, is still stuck in it.
HBTD!!!
Scorekeeper
August 21st, 2010
12:09 pm
8-5
8-5
8-5
8-5
8-5
8-5
8-5
8-5
8-5
8-5
8-5
8-5
8-5
8-5
8-5
8-5
8-5
8-5
8-5
8-5
Dawgtards will be lucky if they equal that record this year.
9 outta 10
August 21st, 2010
12:09 pm
Hey 11-0-1 1990 National Champs
“I’d like to see thUGA beat Kentucky this year.”
As I recall, the two years we lost to Kentucky both considered horrible seasons for UGA, we still beat Tech.
“I know it’s too much to ask for thUGA to beat Florida”
Lets substitute two words make it:
“I know it’s too much to ask for Tech to beat Georgia”
the Uga/Tech series resembles the UGA/FL series
UGA is to Tech as FL is to UGA
30-24 and 9 outta 10
Joey
August 21st, 2010
12:09 pm
You can’t put any confidence in the AP.
Since 1950, wrong on #1 pick 52 times out of 64 tries.
Off about 80% of the time.
Don’t know if any poll is less accurate than the AP pre-season.
20% accuracy doesn’t “prove” anything except the AP poll is inaccurate 80% of the time.
lucky21
August 21st, 2010
12:09 pm
Tech plays more ranked opponents than UGA therefore we have a harder schedule so I don’t want to hear how “tough” UGAs schedule is and alan 8-9 tough ones really kentucky colorado are really tough tennessee is a mess the gamecocks always choke and arkansas has no defense UF is tough and tech is tough auburn wont be easy but besides that not much to wriite home about.
how2fish
August 21st, 2010
12:10 pm
Termigator underachieved last year We beat a mudhole in the ACC “champs” asses you best hope we don’t play to our potential this year..and I’m happier at 23 this year than I was at 1 in 08..we weren’t a real good team last year and don’t deserve a top 15 ranking but we were better than anyone in the ACC…I mean we beat the best team in the ACC correct?
andyk
August 21st, 2010
12:11 pm
Tanner…one blog has UGA at #3 so that “proves” they’re one of the top 3 teams in the country???seriously, dude, you make even the drunkest, dumbest homer look smart
Delbert D.
August 21st, 2010
12:12 pm
The final polls after the BCS Championship Game:
The coaches involved in the polling are bound by agreement with ESPN/USA Today and the BCS to vote the winner #1.
The Associated Press has no such restriction.
Felix Unger
August 21st, 2010
12:12 pm
All this preseason talk is barf !
Termigator
August 21st, 2010
12:12 pm
No how2, you underachieved Staffords and Mareno’s last year. Read dude.
Zazzler
August 21st, 2010
12:12 pm
Is the correct term for a UGAy fan “dawgtard” or “dawgturd”?
Never mind, i think they both apply.
UGA89
August 21st, 2010
12:12 pm
of course UGA has lost the benefit of the doubt. truth be told they probably hung on to that benefit a couple of years longer than they should. i have said it repeatedly, the expectations of 2008 were the apex for the mark richt-era georgia bulldogs, and the hard fall of the 2008 season, coupled with the 2009 season, will prove to be the downward slope of the mark richt-ara georgia bulldogs. time for a change in athens, anyone with any sense would know that. still there are those UGA fans who pop up every year, and you can read some of them right here in this blog, that think this year will be the year, low expectations, surprise team, blah blah blah. no sir, not anymore.