
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.
468 comments Add your comment
sooo....
July 23rd, 2010
4:44 pm
SO IF TEBOWS GAY??? UGA GOT SMACKED IN THE ASS BY A GAY GUY THIS PASSED YR
okkkk u should just say TEbow is a hell of a football player that has passion and has won a NATL CHIP and HEISMAN instead of hes GAY
SO UGA GETS OWNED BY GAY GUYS ?
Ace
July 23rd, 2010
4:44 pm
UGA – just not top shelf.
LMAO
July 23rd, 2010
4:45 pm
UGA’s been nothn bu tGator for the past 20 years.
A Paper Slam?
Aint nothin like the body-slam beat-downs Gators been hading UGA.
As for over-rated? 2008 Pre-Season #1. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
Football Fan
July 23rd, 2010
4:49 pm
He has nothing to write about since the Heat will now own the Magic.
Blue Jean Shorts and an Orange Shirt
July 23rd, 2010
4:49 pm
You can spot a Gaterd fan anywhere
Blue Jean Shorts, Orange Shirt, and a pair of sunglasses you buy from a 7 Eleven, with his drink in a koozie
Truth
July 23rd, 2010
4:49 pm
@King
Bianchi sounds much more reasonable than any of your blogs. He is right on. Uga fans think way too highly of themselves….. every year. I’m not talking just about school pride. I’m saying that you guys really do think from the bottom of your soul that each and every year (preseason of course) that you actually can win the national championship game.
And yet, each and every year you cannot even win your own little division. Even this year, with a totally new QB and a totally new defensive scheme, you guys really do think you can win it all. Granted, your schedule is very cupcake like, but still….
Uga fans love to speak badly of Florida, Alabama, GA Tech, etc. However, not one of you will take off your rose colored glasses and look at your own selves. The Athens program is full of drunks, law breakers, disrespectful thugs that have no reason to be accepted to any institution of higher learning. They are lead by folks that couldn’t care less as long as the idiot fan base continues to donate money.
Bill King – I challenge you to write one, just one, blog that is fact based and tells the TRUTH about the uga athletic program – warts and all. I just don’t think that you have it in you. You may now go back to barking like a dog.
Casual observer
July 23rd, 2010
4:50 pm
Georgia football- good but far from great. The one resounding truth in this is that Dawg fans always think they’re better than they actually are- there is no denying that. Its the same thing every year. And put an asterisk by all those 10 win seasons with the patsies you usually play OOC- recent years being somewhat of an exception with a few less cupcakes on the schedule.
oldskooljacket
July 23rd, 2010
4:51 pm
Top 15 winningest programs of all time? And Georgia fans say Tech fans live in the past!
Casual observer
July 23rd, 2010
4:52 pm
And Bill King still looks like a drooling redneck in that picture. Very fitting for this particular Blawg.
Mike Bianchi
July 23rd, 2010
4:52 pm
What I should have said – I like young boys.
Blue Jean Shorts and an Orange Shirt
July 23rd, 2010
4:52 pm
You can spot a Gaterd fan parked on the side of I-75 hunting for gator to put dinner on the table
ugag is irrelevant
July 23rd, 2010
4:53 pm
reading this blog is entertaining but not outside this state … nobody else even cares, not even in florida or tennessee and certainly not in alabama or louisiana … and I won’t mention the rest of the country who simply laugh at our politicians
LMAO
July 23rd, 2010
4:53 pm
Orlando Sentinel (Florida propaganda fishwrapper)
Atlanta Journal (Georgia propaganda fishwrapper)
Mike Bianchi = Florida redneck pretending to be a journalist
Bill King = Georgia redneck pretending to be a journalist
And the difference would be………….?????????
Dawg'em out!
July 23rd, 2010
4:56 pm
lmao, its funny to me that this fool still hasnt goten over the l.scott play. btw mr. hidden agenda g.a.y.t.o.r. reporter UGA owns the overall record against fla!
Blue Jean Shorts and an Orange Shirt
July 23rd, 2010
4:56 pm
You can always spot a Gaterd fan always wearing an orange wife beater shirt at a restaurant they bought from their local Walmart
Blue Jean Shorts and an Orange Shirt
July 23rd, 2010
4:59 pm
You can always spot a Gaterd fan sporting their 80’s hairstyle
Blue Jean Shorts and an Orange Shirt
July 23rd, 2010
5:03 pm
You can always spot a Gaterd fans’ wife sporting Jordache jeans with keds for shoes
Get serious
July 23rd, 2010
5:05 pm
Reading the comments from Georgia alumni, are you really sure you went to a university?
Get serious
July 23rd, 2010
5:06 pm
I know, you will say these comments are from sidewalk fans who are high school dropouts.
Beast from the East
July 23rd, 2010
5:07 pm
This comes form a Gator fan,
Mike Bianchi is and always has been one of the worst “sportswriters” ever. All he does is try and stir up crap. That’s it. He doesn’t do any kind of research at all. He just keeps piling out garbage day after day. He is NOT a UF homer. He hates on everyone equally. He is just an idiot with a podium. No one in Florida takes him seriously and I suggest you UGA fans ignore his drivel, too.
coach smith
July 23rd, 2010
5:08 pm
LOL
here it is
AND…..Florida is NOT EVEN IN THE TOP 25 ALL TIME….perhaps UF is actually closer to SC huh?
BY VICTORIES
Total
Team Yrs. W on L ost T ied Pct. G ames
Michigan…………………………………………….. 128 869 286 36 .745 1,191
Notre Dame……………………………………….. 119 824 278 42 .739 1,144
Texas……………………………………………………. 115 820 316 33 .716 1,169
Nebraska…………………………………………….. 118 808 333 40 .701 1,181
Ohio St. ………………………………………………. 118 798 304 53 .714 1,155
Penn St. ……………………………………………… 121 789 347 41 .688 1,177
Alabama……………………………………………… 113 787 314 43 .707 1,144
Oklahoma…………………………………………… 113 779 295 53 .715 1,127
Tennessee…………………………………………… 111 770 320 53 .697 1,143
Southern California………………………….. 115 754 302 54 .704 1,110
Georgia ………………………………………………. 114 713 381 54 .645 1,148
LSU………………………………………………………. 114 692 378 47 .641 1,117
Auburn………………………………………………… 115 676 388 47 .630 1,111
Syracuse……………………………………………… 118 671 462 49 .588 1,182
West Virginia …………………………………….. 115 664 442 45 .596 1,151
Colorado…………………………………………….. 118 658 419 36 .607 1,113
Texas A&M………………………………………….. 113 655 425 48 .602 1,128
Georgia Tech……………………………………… 115 653 442 43 .593 1,138
Washington……………………………………….. 118 650 388 50 .620 1,088
Miami (Ohio)……………………………………… 119 647 369 44 .631 1,060
Virginia Tech………………………………………. 114 647 421 46 .601 1,114
Arkansas……………………………………………… 114 646 435 40 .594 1,121
Pittsburgh…………………………………………… 118 644 471 42 .575 1,157
Army……………………………………………………. 118 634 440 51 .586 1,125
North Carolina ………………………………….. 117 631 478 54 .566 1,163
Minnesota………………………………………….. 124 630 450 43 .580 1,123
Florida…………………………………………………. 101 628 372 40 .623 1,040
Clemson……………………………………………… 112 625 426 45 .591 1,096
Navy…………………………………………………….. 127 624 511 57 .547 1,192
Joe M
July 23rd, 2010
5:10 pm
LAWD!
Please keep in mind that when the focus here is on what the O. Sent. writes they are getting what they want, recognition.
Lets just ignore the ignorance that is the writer & the paper and focus on the Dawgs.
Bill, I’m surprised you keep taking the bait.
coach smith
July 23rd, 2010
5:12 pm
ugag is irrelevant
apparently you sir, ARE WRONG
If you go by NATION-WIDE clothing and merchandise sales, UGA has been in the top 5 for the last 10 years and actually was #1 Twice
So apparently other people care OR have you forgotten the photos of Leonardo DiCaprio, Ben Afflack, and others wearing their UGA hats and shirts
Wife and I were in California a while back and saw plenty of Georgia stuff (this may be a fashion statement too) but people know this program everywhere
DawgSinceBirth
July 23rd, 2010
5:12 pm
1927, 1942, 1946, 1968, and 1980…there you go…4 DIFFERENT decades with NATIONAL TITLES…..THAT’S TRADITION!!!!! And we started playing football before 1990….some of you on here that make people appear that you KNOW something about college football need to take some history lessons!!!!!!! I, FOR ONE, LOVE your stupidity!!!!!
Go Dawgs!
Beast from the East
July 23rd, 2010
5:14 pm
Coach Smith,
You are correct that UF does not have a “long” history of winning football. That being said, UF has been one of the top 5 programs in the nation over the past 20 years. Their “tradition” is being written as we speak. Do you really think that a school with over 40,000 students in a populous state like Florida with all of their resources and built-in recruting advantages will ever fall back into obscurity again? I don’t. UF may not compete for the NC every year, but you and I both know that they will most likely NEVER be the doormat that they were in the past. Get used to it…..UF is here to stay!
GeorgiaDawg84
July 23rd, 2010
5:22 pm
Georgia owns Florida in all time record. Florida has owned GA past years, and won a national championship…to say GA has no tradition, very ingorant.
ugag is irrelevant
July 23rd, 2010
5:22 pm
coach smith you are correct … walmarts are surely selling ugag underpants all over the planet and possibly even in outer space … and that proves relevancy, how?
GeorgiaDawg84
July 23rd, 2010
5:29 pm
I have an idea. Lets go grab our calculators, paint ourselves like bee’s, pack out our high school stadium, tailgate in the hood, park a rusty car on the field, and get beat down by georgia..again.
Ace
July 23rd, 2010
5:29 pm
UGA – a program on the skids. About like Vandy and UK and gets beat by them every other year or so.
coach smith
July 23rd, 2010
5:36 pm
Beast from the East
Football began more than 20 years ago
Also quite recently Florida was in obscurity during a 7 year stretch that saw them win ZERO SEC titles at Spurier’s end and Zook’s era
so yes you can fall back again my friend
Roy D. Mercer
July 23rd, 2010
5:40 pm
The only way you can be overrated is that you are getting alot of attention. It kills nondawg fans when the Dawgs are getting all the attention. Fla and Ala can win NC and everybody still wants to talk about the Dawgs. Tide and Gators eat your heart out! Lebron ain’t the King the Dawgs are!
ryan
July 23rd, 2010
5:44 pm
UGA has nothing to loose every game for CMR could be his last the Dawgs are a much better team this year any team that falls a sleep UGA can bite you
Beast from the East
July 23rd, 2010
5:48 pm
Coach Smith,
I’d hardly call that 7 year stretch irrelevant. I’m not on here calling UGA irrelevant or overrated. I think Mike Bianchi is an idiot. Any UF fans on here saying anything like that are either too young to know any better or are just being foolish. I grew up watching UGA beat UF almost every year. I’m from Jax and remember our mantra was “wait till next year”. Dooley had our number and we all knew it.
My point to you is that UF is here to stay. They have too large a fan base with deep pockets and too many built in advantages to fall back into the obscurity that they suffered for so many years. They may have some down years, as all programs do. But I really doubt you’ll ever see them be the cellar dwellers that they were in the 60’s, 70’s and part of the 80’s.
Believe what you will. I believe what I see.
Burt Reynolds
July 23rd, 2010
5:50 pm
Bianchi is a garbage act. A little background about him. He was a reporter at the GAINESVILLE (FL) Sun and then at the Florida Times Union in Jacksonville. He is a moron and it sucks to have to read this garbage of a newspaper (the Orlando Sentinel) on a daily basis. He has a mancrush on urban Meyer and was in tears when Tebow graduated. Just to let you know today they ranked Middle Tennessee State as the 39th best team. UGA was ranked 64!
Surfer
July 23rd, 2010
5:53 pm
Since the AJC has not reported any player arrests in Athens in several days, I suspect that they’ve simply stopped reporting them. Every time they report another arrest, they lock down the comments immediately so dawg fans don’t get upset.
Remember the red panties.
Satchmo
July 23rd, 2010
5:58 pm
Mike used to be on a morning sports talk show, here in Jax, his views very mostly out there. Enjoyed him as the clown he is, but again small man, big ego, looking for something to debate.
militarydawg
July 23rd, 2010
6:07 pm
all the tech fans are gona claim they were dawgs fans all along when UGA wins a NC in 2010
Facts & Crap
July 23rd, 2010
6:12 pm
Georgia has more wins than Florida
Georgia has more bowl appearances than Florida
Georgia has more bowl wins than Florida
Georgia has won more Conference Championships than Florida
Georgia has had more all americans than Florida
Georgia has sent more players to the pros than Florida
Georgia has more SEC wins than Florida
GEORGIA HAS A WINNING RECORD AGAINST FLORIDA by a comfortable margin.
Georgia has actually gone undefeated, a few times. Florida has NEVER gone undefeated. Um yeah……lots of elite teams have not a single season in their entire history where they were not defeated by somebody.
And btw………….their is no national championship in college football. Georgia has NEVER won one and neither has Florida because the NCAA neither awards nor recognizes them. That’s why is “claimed” either by way of a poll or some contrived BCS crap. But the NCAA has never awarded UGA or UF a title.
This is a poorly researched article at best, but I would expect that from Bianci
Ray Barone
July 23rd, 2010
6:18 pm
Continue to enjoy yourselves while you can Alligator Fans, your day is coming when you will return to mediocrity. Youve put up a great record the last 20 years, but it won’t last forever.
ugag is irrelevant
July 23rd, 2010
6:19 pm
and until ten years ago so was uf … y’all can brag about the sec but that’s a bama story all the way
Delbert D.
July 23rd, 2010
6:20 pm
More years have passed in the 20th century than the 21st. Look it it up, it’s true.
LOL@Georgia
July 23rd, 2010
6:22 pm
Lol…you guys honestly think you will beat UF this year? What the hell has your absurdly homer fan base been smoking? Georgia won one title on a fluke, and one by outright betraying our country. 1942 was while Georgia was the ONLY SEC team and one of only five teams in the nation to field an entire team as well as returning starters. Want to know why UF lost by 77 that year? Because UF had kids from off the sidewalk playing who weren’t allowed in the draft.
1942 Georgia out decided to find loopholes and keep their players. Be so proud of that trophy Georgia fans.
Your team has sucked for 30 plus years and counting. You are NOT better then UF now, you are not CLOSE to UF now. We have a better coach, better program, better recruiting pipelines, better at producing draft picks, better at getting assistants jobs, better at winning titles, and better at just about everything.
Bulldog fans are more annoying then any other fan base with this false sense of entitlement. You are not a good team, you are not a national power. Your biggest win in the last 10 years was over Hawaii…congratulations on that big achievement.
UGA VIII
July 23rd, 2010
6:29 pm
Who cares about the opinions of some dork reporter at the Orlando Sentinel. Must have been another slow day at the SEC Media days.
Ed
July 23rd, 2010
6:33 pm
Well said Facts & Crap, but good luck getting anyone to listen, including Georgia fans. Maybe one day the president of the NCAA will announce that there isn’t, and never has been, a major college football national champion. Any “title” that requires the vote of the likes of Bianci or having a team ranked ahead of you lose in an upset on the last week of the season because their quarterback got hurt in the first quarter cannot be considered a legitimate championship.
By all objective measures, Georgia has been a better overall program than Florida through the decades. That’s simply not open to reasonable debate because winning percentage, SEC titles, head-to-head wins, etc. are hard stats that don’t lie.
That’s how it stands in 2010. If Georgia doesn’t turn things around in this series soon, then it might be a different story in, say, 2025. By that time Florida might actually have the alltime series win advantage and more SEC championships. Until then, mouthpieces like Bianci can talk all the trash they want, but they just sound stupid.
Derrick G
July 23rd, 2010
6:40 pm
The Orlando paper is pro Gators, but they will still write negative stories about them from time to time. This paper never does that about UGA.
And Bianchi has lost his credibility as a journalist. His musings are more like some drunk 20 year old behind the keyboard.
SMITTYSTHEMAN
July 23rd, 2010
6:42 pm
I see red panties falling from the sky!! I see red panties falling from the sky!!!!
Ed
July 23rd, 2010
6:43 pm
LOL@Georgia, now I’m the one “LOL”. What’s your excuse for getting beat 51-0 by Georgia in ‘68 – Vietnam?
How about 44-0 in ‘82…Grenada?
Who knew the Gators were so patriotic!
Ed
July 23rd, 2010
6:46 pm
And it was 75-0 in ‘42, I believe.
That’s hanging three quarters of a hundred. Beat that, Spurrier.
ryan
July 23rd, 2010
6:47 pm
Dude that red panties stuff is getting old you panty waste
SMITTYSTHEMAN
July 23rd, 2010
6:55 pm
Dude, you’re gonna live with it a LONG time. For all you idiots that keep repeating 30-24! 30-24! 30-24!, as if that was your life’s most major accomplishment, well then you’re gonna get the red panties thrown in your face every time we hear crap like that. And get this — I’m not even a Tech of UF fan. I’m just sick of the UGA fans who are delusional: This is gonna be the year! This is gonna be the year! yeah, right. Hasn’t been THE year for 30+ years and even then it was because of one person — Herschel. Everybody knows that.