Florida paper slams Dogs again: Most overrated ever
Buck Belue's touchdown pass to Lindsay Scott was a "fluke" play, the Orlando Sentinel says. (University of Georgia)
Say this for the Orlando Sentinel: They’re at least consistent in their orange and blue advocacy.
You’ll recall that the Sentinel, whose sportswriters appear to operate as an unofficial arm of the Gators sports information program, drew headlines a while back for ranking the Georgia Bulldogs as only the 64th best team in the country this season.
Before that, the Sentinel had been among the first of the media outlets in states surrounding us to get the Mark-Richt-on-the-hot-seat bandwagon rolling. And, of course, they did it in typical hyperbolic style, noting in complete disregard to the facts that “It seems almost every season Richt’s name comes up as being on the hot seat.”
Now the Sentinel’s Mike Bianchi has taken another flying leap into absurdity. In writing about the SEC Media Days, he opened his latest blog saying, “Keep hearing and reading about how Georgia coach Mark Richt is on the imaginary hot seat.”
Such talk, Bianchi generously allows, “is a disservice to one of the classiest coaches in college football and one of the best coaches Georgia has ever had.” (It was, of course, Bianchi who raised the “hot seat” question question to Richt at the SEC media gathering.)
Naturally, he was just setting up Georgia fans for the Sentinel’s latest swipe. The problem, he says, is “Georgia fans have way too high of an opinion of their program. In fact, I believe an argument could be made that Georgia is the the most overrated program in college football history.”
His case consists mainly of calling Lindsay Scott’s touchdown catch in the 1980 game against the Gators “one of the biggest fluke plays in college football history,” and he concludes that without the national title that the Bulldogs won that year thanks to Herschel Walker and Scott, “Georgia would be closer in history and tradition to South Carolina than it is to Florida.”
Yes, we all know Florida has dominated the Dogs-Gators rivalry the past 20 years (the only period of college football history Gators fans pay any attention to) and that Florida has won a couple of BCS national titles and Georgia hasn’t.
But Bianchi’s notion that Georgia football history is pretty much limited to 1980 is so far off the mark it’s embarrassing. If he checked NCAA records, he’d find UGA is ranked as one of the Top 15 winningest college football programs of all time … and ahead of the University of Florida.
It’s one thing to try and rile up a rival state’s fandom, but at least Bianchi and the Sentinel could try and keep it based in reality.
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468 comments Add your comment
Frannie
July 23rd, 2010
12:54 pm
Dawg fans need to start organizing and demanding that Richt be fired. Otherwise, sports writers will be asking the same question this time a year from now.
Richt represents mediocrity. Saban and Meyer represent excellence and championships. Richt simply isn’t in their class, nor will he ever be. Richt would have to be incredibly lucky to win the division, and the odds against him winning the SEC championship go up to at least 20:1.
Those are the simple facts, and there’s no amount of enthusiasm or cheerleading or Top 5 recruiting classes that can get around it. Nor can you ignore the fact that UGA will continue to lose players every year due to arrests and suspensions. People don’t call UGA “ThugU” for no reason.
As they say in poker, “Read ‘em and weep.”
Michael
July 23rd, 2010
12:55 pm
All Bianchi is saying is that the “fans have too high an opinion of their football program” and that is dead on the money. Not saying the program is overrated but the simple fact is UGA fans are among the most dellusional in the country.
JD
July 23rd, 2010
12:56 pm
This guy knows what he is doing. He wants to build the fire so that UGA & FL fans and players can throw gas on it and add to the buildup to the actual game. That’s when the trash talking and sleeze starts between the two schools.
Rankings during the preseason has only to do with selling the popular team {see USC), teams potential, and what have you done for me lately(again , see USC). FL is a media darling now because they have won a lot of games recently, their overly arrogant as h*ll, and they have an egotistical coach that wants the attention on himself also. Bianchi knows it and even the voters know it. UGA has squandered talent and FL hasn’t. That’s the difference over the past twenty years. They are both legimate historical winning teams. One has just got the best of the other during this generation.
JB
July 23rd, 2010
12:56 pm
Going to have to win 2 to 3 years in a row to correct this….They are feeling their oats….Meyer will not be happy with the article because he knows where it will end up…….Will that help….It can’t hurt
SKB
July 23rd, 2010
12:56 pm
UGA= The most overrated team, does not try to improve
GT= The most annoying fanboys/ trolls
Alabma + Florida= The only real football team in SEC, the two legends
Dawgs Rule
July 23rd, 2010
12:57 pm
It just goes to show how jealous the majority of these UGA haters are of the overall sucess of the football program. First of all, you wouldn’t be trolling on UGA blogs ALL day if you didn’t care (”j” I’m talking about you buddy. You’ve been commenting on this blog all day…get a job!!!) secondly, like Yurtle said, most programs would love to have UGA’s overall sucess and tradition. TigerTime, your jealousy is shining so bright, I gotta wear shades. The jerk of a writer in Orlando is like a little girl trying to get back at the person they have been infatuatingly jealous of their whole life.
JB
July 23rd, 2010
12:57 pm
Franni……. Richt also represents a lot of things that Meyer and Saban don’t…..
TArDAWG
July 23rd, 2010
12:57 pm
Probably trying to keep his job, didn’t like him in J’lle apparently they didn’t either since he is Orlando
Time Out
July 23rd, 2010
12:58 pm
All gater fans:
Listen to yourself. This is why no one across this great country of ours likes you. You all are an arrogant bunch.
Dawgwild
July 23rd, 2010
12:58 pm
F that guy. He also thinks Tebow walked on water! What a Gayturd!
JB
July 23rd, 2010
12:59 pm
SKB……what are you 4 ? Stalling to Saban+probation, Bama sucked……….where have you been ? Legends ?
Galen Hall
July 23rd, 2010
1:00 pm
Florida does not have an undefeated NC! Tech was not undefeated in 1990 and those other NC”s were when Blacks were not allowed to play!
Don "Vito" Leeburn
July 23rd, 2010
1:00 pm
The heads of the Orlando Sentinel family will sleep with the fishes for talking bad about MY athletic association.
As for you, Bill King, you are my employee and I love you, but NEVER tell anyone outside the family what you are thinking again. Ever.
JB
July 23rd, 2010
1:02 pm
SKB……fear the thumb, as Tommy Tuberville would say……Suck on that…….
Minnesota Dawg
July 23rd, 2010
1:03 pm
Lindsay Scott outran the whole Florida Defense. That my friend was not a fluke. Florida was beat by no fluke that day!
gerald c clemmons
July 23rd, 2010
1:03 pm
love all the hate, we must be doing something you don’t like, and if we’re so irrelevant y say anything to us. Usually if someone’s irrelevant to me I don’t have any words for them. go dawgs, most loved team around, top 3 in sales apparel in country, but not rellevant, yeah right, go dawgs, 2nd most profitable athletic dept in america, don’t make me laugh, on the hand continue. hahaha haters, gaters, i hate gaters……
JB
July 23rd, 2010
1:04 pm
Minnesota, what else they gonna say…….. They had 59 minutes to prove other wise….
murfdawg
July 23rd, 2010
1:04 pm
As a native Atlantan and true Southerner, I take exception to your statement about fl being a southern school. The South ends in Tallahassee. Gainesville is New York with a southern latitude. That is why everyone in the South hates Yankees, hemorrhoids and gators.
THE U
July 23rd, 2010
1:05 pm
He’s right Georgia is overrated every year. One NC in 29 yrs. 29yrs thats overrated and sad. With the amount of talent that has come threw the program in that time what more would you call it.
Richard Hamilton
July 23rd, 2010
1:05 pm
Again, this is non news. What do you expect? According to Florida and their fans, football life began at Spurrier. When speaking about the history of football, it makes about as much sense as evolution does regarding the history of the world. Just like God created the world, Walter Camp created American football.
Florida has owned Georgia the past 15 years, that is a fact, but these types of stories are about throwing mud in your face instead of actual facts.
JB
July 23rd, 2010
1:05 pm
Tell’em Gerald….. Hell, Tech still peeing in their pants beating us TWO years Ago, and they are the ACC Champs LOL………………
bennettdawg
July 23rd, 2010
1:06 pm
bianchi wouldn’t know a chin strap from a jock strap.
clint
July 23rd, 2010
1:07 pm
If the ajc was cool,(which it’s not) it would do a piece about the history of Florida and how they pretty much sucked as a program until 1990. They are the ultimate Johnny Come Lately. They are on a good run in the 90s and 00s, but let’s see if they can continue it over the long haul. Programs like USC, Michigan, Notre Dame, Penn State, UGA, etc. do it year in and year out. When they are down it’s only for a few years. When Florida was down, they were down for decades.
JB
July 23rd, 2010
1:08 pm
The U, That’s Through, not threw…………. He threw me the ball……… I walked through the door.
What U you from….LOL
Mark Richt
July 23rd, 2010
1:09 pm
Even in my best season i couldn’t be Florida even with Ron Zook coaching them. But don’t worry i have big things in store for UF this year. No it’s not a new defense or a couple new wrinkles in the offense. This year i think we might try RED Pants. Sure the black helmet and pants didn’t work and the black out vs. Bama didn’t work but i have a good feeling about the red pants. This is sure to do it…if not we’ll try another color combo next year. Go Dawgs!!!
Time Out
July 23rd, 2010
1:09 pm
I remember the 1911 Georgia Florida game. Some Gator fan had some jean shorts on and was drunk smoking a cigarette. Bianchi remember that game? WOW.
PMC
July 23rd, 2010
1:10 pm
BFD really. You just expanded their readership out of the Orlando area.
This is like the Athens Banner Herald writing a negative story about Florida and someone from that paper getting flustered about it.
This is a non issue. Every fan base in the SEC has an overly inflated opinion about thier teams chances. They might as well be the English headed into another World Cup.
Why not report on the political feelings of the people in the Villages… come on man. This is no story.
LOL....
July 23rd, 2010
1:11 pm
I tought this blog had ended… cant believe its still around
wayne
July 23rd, 2010
1:11 pm
beat florida a couple years in a row and this guy climbs back under the rock he came from
@Erik
July 23rd, 2010
1:11 pm
No body cares about or respects your opinion either. You probably know less about football and are a bigger nerd than most of the tech fans. D-bag!
red ryder
July 23rd, 2010
1:17 pm
Red panties- red panties- get cha red panties right here before the rush starts!
too easy
July 23rd, 2010
1:17 pm
move along, no news here…..everyone who doesn’t have a bulldog sticker on their truck already knows this
UGA_2001
July 23rd, 2010
1:18 pm
This is exactly what UGA needs. Maybe the Orlando Sentinel is trying to do another “Man Enough” thing for UGA football. This is the only type of thing that can get this program motivated, as we have seen in the past.
Reality Check
July 23rd, 2010
1:20 pm
It looks like the SEC only stsrted giving championships out in 1980 so UF really does have more SEC titles than UGA.
Also, what is the asterisks beside UF 1984, 1985 and 1990 titles?
If UGA has more wins than UF all time and more SEC titles, than what does that make the Gators Program if UGA is the most over rated school in history. Hears a clue, history does not mean 20 or 30 years only.
DawginLex
July 23rd, 2010
1:21 pm
I thought reporters were supposed to be unbiased in their opinions.
Sounds like this dude Bianchi could work over at the Magic Kingdom as Goofy.
More SEC titles than Florida
More all americans than florida
Lead the head to head series
South Carolina has ZERO SEC titles and they aren’t going to win one this year either.
I bet bianchi wears jorts to work LOL
ugaman
July 23rd, 2010
1:21 pm
if memory serves me right the Dawgs owned the Gators in the 70’s 80’s and early 90’s and still lead in over all wins in the series. It was not untill Darth Visor arrived to coach the reptiles that they started to win anything. For years Florida was known as the most talented team in the conference but could never win it. I belive that would be over rated. The Dawgs will win this year and the Tables will start to turn back toward the red and black.
I COPY AND PASTED THIS COMMENT BECAUSE IT IS EXACTLY RIGHT. GODD JOB BEACH DAWG.AT LEAST I HOPE WE TAKE CARE OF BUSINESS.
Delbert D.
July 23rd, 2010
1:21 pm
“Tech was not undefeated in 1990″
Who did they lose to? Nobody.
rx-dawg
July 23rd, 2010
1:21 pm
Yeah…kinda like prior to Spurrier, Vandy’s record against Ga was better than UF against GA. Maybe Bradley could write that tossing aside a couple of fluke chances to play for the title, UF is the worst team in the SEC. I mean really…what is a rematch in ‘96 against a team that beat you but a fluke? Lobbied to play OSU in ‘06 (yes, you were better than OSU, but so was half the country probably) and Bama WOULD have beaten you in ‘08 if the OC doesn’t get wild and call for that deep pass after you finally got your first lead. UF…leading the way in fluke titles since 1996.
JLC
July 23rd, 2010
1:22 pm
This should not come as any surprise to us who live in reality. UGA is a very good program, but not great. They are indeed overrated every single year. Their supportive, yet delusional fan base thinks they should be in the title hunt every year. Reality is that they are an 8-10 win team…nothing more and nothing less.
bob
July 23rd, 2010
1:23 pm
Everything runs in cycles. The NCAA is sniffing around in the SEC again, so the big boys are probably about to be broken up. These arguments will be moot in a couple of years.
Gator Man
July 23rd, 2010
1:23 pm
Every body in Florida knows if Richt was coaching Florida with not wining any champ0ionship would be Fired.
You can talk about how you own us in the 80″s 90’s, botom line how many championships did you win? 1
We have owned you and by the way have 3 championships.
Bottom line you settle for below average coaches.
Nature Boy Ric Flair
July 23rd, 2010
1:26 pm
Except for 1980, Georgia equals South Carolina??? And posters claim UGA fans are delusional???
From reading these boards, many people probably do not know that UGA still leads the Florida series and has several more SEC titles. And Georgia fans are the delusional ones??
A Florida poster says QB recruit is being compared to Peyton Manning and Troy Aikman, yet will not start at Florida until 2012? A young Peyton Manning is better than John Brantley. And some posters say Georgia fans are delusional??
bob
July 23rd, 2010
1:28 pm
gator man has a good point – but UF has a much larger player pool, so their expectations must be higher.
TnDawg63
July 23rd, 2010
1:30 pm
Like the shirt in my closet says “Get a history then talk!”
By the way it’s great to be a gator hater….always has been, always will be!
rduck
July 23rd, 2010
1:30 pm
So funny to read that Grizzly Adams thinks that just because Florida has owned the dawgs for the last 20 years, that it doesn’t reflect on how the rivalry was in the 70’s and 80’s.. Hmm.. Isn’t that how the dawg nation views the UGA-GT rivalry.. “Last 10 years is all that counts because thats when we started winning”…
savannahdawg
July 23rd, 2010
1:31 pm
Lindsey Scott, Lindsey Scott, Lindsey Scott……………….
couldn't agree more
July 23rd, 2010
1:32 pm
the georgia program is indeed waaaaaay overrated and the fan base does think too highly of it. sometimes, the truth hurts.
ARdawg
July 23rd, 2010
1:32 pm
Beyotchi is like most Florida fans, classless even in the good times. They beat us and still whine about a game 30 years ago. They’re history only goes back 20 years completely forgetting that they sucked the 90 years prior. Ebb and flow Bianchi, ebb and flow. Spurrier and Tebow are long gone. Pray you can continue the domination for the next 20 years. I say you can’t
fsufan
July 23rd, 2010
1:34 pm
uga needs to start beating florida more regularly..watch what the noles do to them this year in tally..bumpbump
REALIST
July 23rd, 2010
1:35 pm
TB gets it right. Paul W. Bryant won 14 championships, 1 at Kentucky and 13 at Alabama. Nobody is going to catch him.