Rankings prove Georgia has lost benefit of doubt

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proves nothing. Proves we had a down yr. We whipped Techs ass last yr. 08 was a fluke.

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Aj isn’t #1

http://collegefootball.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=1116030

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It’s a shame that you have to resort to such absurdity to get some comments on you column. Tech has passed UGA? Since when does being ranked ahead of another team in a preseason poll mean that program has passed the other. Has Arkansas passed UGA? how about North Carolina? Auburn, whom we have beaten 4 straight? Anxious to see your explanation.

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Just picked up a great buy on some eggs. Recall? Ain’t nothing wrong with them eggs. They look fine. You dawgs get down here soon. I’m putting them in the cooler till December.

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The refs? The NCAA? FSU (for getting Wilder)? The AP? Who you gonna sue, cry babies????

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If you finish #2 in the SEC East are you gonna sue the NCAA for not putting you in the NC game????

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You can sense the frustration in the Mutt fans posts! It is comical the only retort they have is “Well we beat them last year.” You went to Shreveport. We went to the BCS. The entire season, not one OoC game speaks to the quality of a program. And the Mutts know this but they have all these doubts about Richt that they don’t speak about openly. I will take a loss to UGAg every year if we are in the BCS because those are the programs the college football world talks about. News flash to UGAg fans: the world does not revolve around the state of Georgia. In Montana no one even took note of UGA last year and do not know nor care that you beat Tech. But you can bet a lot of people say us because we were in one of the most storied bowls in college football.

As for all this posturing about finishing the Top 5 this year, never say never. But when Richt bounced back in 2002 and 2007, he had an experienced quarterback. This year, like last year, you have an inexperienced guy – a rookie this time – under center. The last two times you had that, you stumbled to five loss seasons. That is a more like barometer to your potential this year than the previous year’s record. And that fact alone shows that UGA has NOT lost the benefit of the doubt. The only reason they are ranked at all given those challenges and history is that they are UGA and the recipients of the SEC curve. When Murray and company get humbled by Vandy or Kentucky that ranking will vanish like UGA’s importance on the national scene last year.

Keep the faith Dogs. You might beat us this year, but we have a better chance at the last laugh as a BCS contender again while, if you work really hard, you might get to go to Nashville for the holidays. Yep, there is a new sheriff in town named Paul Johnson and, “We Run this State” irrelevancies aside, it is killing you to admit it to yourself privately!

BRACE FOR IMPACT!

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Yellow Fuzz — Mature response. You are clearly an adolescent with too much time on his hands and think it cute to post uner multiple handles so as to portray a vast multitude of Tech enthusiast. If there were 1/2 the number of fans in Bobby Dudd who troll under multiple AJC blog screen names, then there would be perpetual sell outs.

Yellow Fuzz = 4 ncs are better than 1 = Shreveport Waffle House Cook

We get it that you guys feel inferior. It hurts really bad to be on the losing end of such a lopsided in-state rivlarly (sic). Not much comfort I can provide for you other than to just to tell you to deal with it. It is not likely to get any better in your life time.

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Like the dude I saw on FS on Sat. evening who paints the bulldog on his pate before each UGa game, “just like hid daddy did” (and like his son will do when he is gone), there ain’t a higher calling than sitting in the stands after a UGa game, just waiting another week until the next game. Life don’t get any better (unless you don’t know any better).

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The current top 25 rankings proove that UGA is an unknown at QB and that the new D scheme and D coaching staff are unproven and are therefore, unknowns ………till they play two or three games.

That is all. To me, the amazing thing is that UGA is even rated in the Top 25 after losing 5 games. To me, that shows the bloodlines ( UGA and SEC ) are good enough to STILL get any ranking. Take GT, now if they lost 5 games ( like usually) they would not make Top 50.

Bottom line: Come Monday 9/6, the rankings will change anyway. BY mid October, we ought to have a good handle on where most of the teams are …………. this has been true since I was in college ………..but in my day ( 60s/70s) we were only concerned with a Top 10 ……….all the rest mattered not. This Top 25 thing is another dumbing down of standards ………like public schools have done. This way everybody can be happy and feel good about themsevles.

Go Dogs.

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Yellow Fuzz, just for thre record, you claim Reggie Ball got a degree from Tech? What was it in and when did he get it? I’m calling you out on that one. If he has I stand corrected.

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Yellow Fuzz — Again, another mature response. Well done. The only one I have ripped is you, because you are talking in circles about GT athletes and academics. You spoke about Reggie Ball being a scholar and then 2 posts later you talk about him still working on his degree — 7 years later.

Please provide the link where I have ripped Reggie Ball, Jasper Sanks, Quincy Carter or Ray Goff. I will hang up and listen.

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13 days

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Attempted to post something like this yesterday and, somehow, it never made it. Don’t know if it’s because I was defending UGA, criticizing Tech, or calling Shultzee out for his penchant for sticking a needle in Georgia every chance he gets. Specifically, I was put off by the posting(s) of one ‘tai’ (wonder if that’s pronounced ‘ty-eee’ – likely). The young person suggested that Georgia was the ‘cesspool of the south’ and that nothing but dumba$$ peckerwoods (my characterization) liked it…that we couldn’t possibly be proud of the ’school’ like Tech people are. Ty-eee went on to say that episodes like Jan Kemp, and Jim Harrick and Damon Evans were evidence of just how bad we were. My comment to that is that Ms. Kemp, at least a half-bubble shy of level, exposed the fact that Georgia had been using it’s ‘remedial’ program to keep kids eligible to play ball. Georgia, unlike all the other places that had been and continued to, ended the practice…Jim Harrick’s problem is that he wanted to win so badly that he was willing to admit, and to convince the powers that be too, certain athletes that never should have been (as if Tech never did that)…and Damon Evans, who got a touch of the ‘Tiger-syndrome’ – found out, like Tiger, that nobody’s ‘too big to fail’. The point is Georgia has moved on from those events and is the better for it. Unlike Tech who uses the Atlanta University Center (Morehouse and Spellman) to hide some of it’s players on the, so-called, tough courses they claim all their people have to take…or that they ‘notoriously’ didn’t bother to keep track of the eligibility of any number of ballplayers who managed to complete their eligibility to play even while they were way behind and deficient in their grades. Is that the kind of thing you people are so proud of Ty-eee’?

Point is we’re just as proud of our school as Tech people are proud of theirs…athletics or academics we take no back seat to anybody.

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http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/news?slug=dw-lionsstafford081910

Follow Dan Wetzel on Twitter at @DanWetzel

ALLEN PARK, Mich. – Matthew Stafford(notes) was flat on his back, surrounded on the sideline by the Detroit Lions’ medical staff. This was last November, the Lions with just one win on the season and down six to the Cleveland Browns. There was no time on the clock, but still one chance: The Browns had been called for end-zone interference on a Stafford mini-Hail Mary that the quarterback had released just before getting blasted.

That’s when Stafford heard the words he wanted to hear.

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More NFL Videos More From Dan WetzelFavre faces age-old questions Aug 17, 2010 It wasn’t the doctors saying his separated shoulder was good enough to return to action – Stafford didn’t care about their opinion. If he could grip the ball, he was playing. By being taken off the field due to injury though, he wasn’t eligible to return.

Then the Ford Field public address announcer declared Cleveland had taken a time-out.

“Hey,” Stafford yelled to the doctors, “that’s a time-out. I can play.”

He battled to his feet and immediately got in the face of head coach Jim Schwartz. “I can throw it if you need it,” he said. He repeated that to his offensive coordinator. Soon enough, Stafford was whipping a game-winner to tight end Brandon Pettigrew(notes) and then celebrating with his arm hanging low and a grimace on his face.

[Photos: See the Detroit Lions’ Matthew Stafford in action.]

And with that, a budding quarterbacking legend was born in Detroit. Even better, Stafford was miked up that game by the NFL, and the footage became an instant classic among long-suffering Lions fans.

Here was a young quarterback with the guts to match his obvious skill. Here was a guy who was as desperate to win – even if it was just the second victory of another lost season – as the fans.

“He earned a lot of stripes with this city with that Cleveland game,” Schwartz said this week at Lions training camp. “[I’m] buried in here [working] but I still go to Target. I still stop at too many fast food restaurants. I talk with the fans and they talk about him.

“I think the city respects that [play]. It respects that he isn’t a prima donna and isn’t a guy who shies away from the physical nature of the quarterback position.

“They’re excited about having a quarterback that No. 1 is a good player, but No. 2 is a guy that they can relate to.”

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Stafford threw 20 interceptions last season and just 13 touchdowns. His quarterback rating was an anemic 61.0. The team went 2-14. Yet there aren’t many fan bases more confident and excited about their QB than Detroit.

To be a Lions fan is to expect the worst. This is the only continuously operating original franchise to never appear in a Super Bowl. It’s had just one playoff victory since 1957. It once let Matt Millen make all the draft picks, an experiment that culminated in the league’s only 0-16 season. This year is the first time since 2000 that the Lions team returned the same head coach and both coordinators.

Hotshot rookies have breezed in and out for decades. Some couldn’t play. Some wouldn’t stop smoking pot. Some were just overwhelmed by the culture of losing. Some never connected with the city or the fans. After years and years of supposed-saviors, Stafford’s arrival was met with caution. He was expected to prove himself.

Amazingly he did. If nothing else he took over a horrible team and kept smiling and acting positive. Everyone could see that a sieve of an offensive line and a lack of a running game was half of the on-field problems. The two-win season was bad, but considering recent history, it was improvement.

Matthew Stafford practices with rookie cornerback Aaron Berry at training camp.

(US Presswire)
And then there was the Cleveland game, the take-notice performance of the season.

So now, for the first time since Barry Sanders retired early rather than continue with this woebegone franchise, there’s a potential star to believe in. To judge the level of fan desperation, Stafford’s 8-of-11, one-TD preseason performance against Pittsburgh last week left radio-show callers breathless – not that anyone is predicting more than six wins.

Then there’s the likeability factor. Stafford hails from suburban Dallas, played college ball at Georgia and owns a $41.7 million contract, yet he’s connected with this blue-collar Midwestern town.

He didn’t move into a gated community in a tony suburb. Stafford, 22, bought a condo in downtown Royal Oak, a popular spot for guys his age. He’s seen in restaurants and stores all over. He wants to be around people. He doesn’t want to just work here. He wants to live here.

“The people here, they probably see me out more than maybe some other guys,” Stafford said. “Everybody has their own way of handling that kind of stuff. I’d prefer to keep living like a normal person.”

Matthew Stafford can hobnob with Hollywood stars like Hilary Swank. But he’s lauded by teammates for having an average man approach to work.

(Getty Images)
Then there are the testimonials from the locker room. His teammates saw a high-profile, filthy rich quarterback arrive and immediately impress them with a common-guy attitude and the work ethic of a training-camp invitee.

“When a guy gets a contract like that there’s kind of two ways to take it,” said veteran lineman Jon Jansen(notes). “One is, ‘Hey, I’ve arrived, I’m good, I just need to go out and play.’ Or, ‘Hey, I want to go out and prove I’m not just worth this, I’m worth more.’ And he is trying to make everyone know he’s worth what the Lions are spending.”

Offensive lineman Dominic Raiola(notes) tells another story. Stafford heard that one of the free-agent tight ends who was just trying to make the team didn’t have a car for training camp. So Stafford loaned him one of his dealer comp cars.

“He respects everybody in this locker room,” Raiola said. “He comes in every day and comes to work. You’ve got to respect that. The amount of money he’s getting paid, the position he’s in, it’s hard to find these days.”

Stafford understands this about the quarterback position – in the end you get judged on wins and losses. He already has all the money he needs. He’s here to rack up wins. And if your teammates aren’t with you, that statistic is going to suffer.

“There are a lot of guys with a lot of talent in this league, which, for whatever reason, may not play as well as people expect them to,” Stafford said. “And there are a lot of guys who people may say don’t have as much talent, who wind up playing well and getting teams to win. That leadership quality and just knowing how to play the game of football [will] get you a long way.”

——————————————————————————–

No one inside the Lions organization was surprised Stafford took that final snap against Cleveland, despite having a separated shoulder. They’d come to expect it.

“The most telling thing about that wasn’t that he got off the ground and went back in the game,” Schwartz said. “A lot of guys have done that. But he was off his feet with a separated shoulder and had the presence of mind to hear the public address announcer say, ‘There’s a time-out, Cleveland.’ And the first thing that popped into his mind is, ‘I can go back into the game.’ ”

Everyone outside the franchise suddenly had the proof they needed. The Lions wouldn’t win another game, but it hardly mattered. Another high draft pick netted man-eating defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh(notes). Speedy tailback Jahvid Best(notes) came later in the first round. The offensive line was bulked up.

There’s some talent in Detroit. There’s some optimism. Fans feel they can believe. In perhaps the ultimate stamp of local approval, at a local concert this month, Kid Rock had some Lions highlights appear on the video screen during one of his songs. The image of Stafford earned a wild ovation.

“Really?” Stafford said when told of it. “That’s pretty sweet.”

It’s a new season in Detroit. And they’ve got themselves a quarterback to believe in.

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this is what perplexes me, the dawgs beat tech last year!! were the acc champions because we beat the acc champions, yet paul johnson is still boasting about the number of games. i dont care if they only lost one game, that one game was still to uga, and we dropped 339 yards on them on the ground, so luck had nothing to do with it.

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Jeff – Thanks for the response.

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“carries” no weight. Duh

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Dawgs lose 5 more games this season.

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Yeah, pretty interesting that we are any where from preseason #3 to #64 (that conceivably bias paper in FL) so that sums up in my mind how accurate and accountable preseason polls can be.

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As long as we keep whipping gtu’s arse, what does it matter what cpj or jeff s thinks???

THWGT!!!!!

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Fuzzy.. I will save you the trouble. I just checked myself. Ball never got a degree from Tech. You are just so full of bs you big blowhard. “B” in calculus indeed. You have beeen exposed Yellow Fuzz. HAHHAHA

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I can see thUGA in the rear view mirror, right where they belong!

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Listen up, GTard…
Get used to it…you’re sissyfied program will always be second-class in this state! ALWAYS.

Stop embarassing yourself with inane comments on a blog you shouldn’t even be on.

Broadcast your idiocy on your own time and space, will ya?

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