Dawgs winning the East: Pie in the sky or realistic?
Catching up on my Bulldogs reading after a few days off and away from the blogosphere, I came across the roundtable discussion of UGA football posted at College Football Zealots.
We’ve actually already dealt here in the Blawg with several of the questions posted, including which game is more critical for Georgia to win: Boise State or South Carolina? (To recap: While the Boise game is an opportunity for Mark Richt’s program to get back on the national radar, the South Carolina game a week later looms much bigger for the Dogs in terms of their SEC East hopes.)
But the last question in the roundtable is something I’ve actually been pondering lately as I play out in my head just how likely the more optimistic scenarios are for the 2011 Dogs.
The question: Athlon Sports has rated the Dawgs at #14 and Phil Steele has them at #9 in their pre-season polls. Both have Georgia winning the SEC East and playing in the Capital One Bowl. What needs to happen for Georgia to live up to these lofty expectations?
Well, in terms of wins and losses, obviously, beating South Carolina would be a big step in that direction. You can draw up various scenarios in which Georgia could win the SEC East after losing to the Gamecocks (all of which would require the Dogs to win in Jacksonville), but that definitely would be doing it the hard way.
Are the elements in place for such a season? That’s tougher to gauge. Aaron Murray certainly looks like the class of the conference when it comes to quarterback, the schedule is pretty favorable once you get past those first two games, and Isaiah Crowell has a lot of folks excited. But he still has to run behind a questionable offensive line. And while the arrival of John Jenkins should make Georgia’s defense tougher up front, the secondary still has me worried. And then there are the questions about who steps up at wide receiver to replace A.J. Green and Kris Durham.
Plus, of course, whether the team is going to be able to rise to the occasion in the fourth quarter in big games, something that all too often hasn’t happened recently.
A little luck wouldn’t hurt, either.
So what do you think has to happen for Georgia to live up to those “lofty expectations”? Is this pie-in-the-sky thinking, or do Richt’s 2011 Dogs really have what it takes to be a contender?
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370 comments Add your comment
Bawbie
June 15th, 2011
8:02 am
Fire Perno!
AltamahaDawg
June 15th, 2011
8:02 am
still@thebar. Assuming you heve ever even been to that game, you are telling me it sucked the whole time you were there? Wow. I’m sure everybody around you was just thrilled.
Roo
June 15th, 2011
8:06 am
Looking at 4-8, wins at Vanderbilt, New Mexico, Coastal, and Miss. that’s it for the win column. Not going to win these 8: Aub, Tech, Fla, South Carolina, Mississippi St, Tennessee, Boise, Kentucky.
Goose Creek Dawg
June 15th, 2011
8:06 am
I still say 6 wins.
Redfern
June 15th, 2011
8:17 am
Boise State 67, Georgia 17
Start of a looooooooooonnnnnnnngggggggg season!
Delbert D.
June 15th, 2011
8:25 am
Georgia has a realistic chance of winning the East. Only South Carolina has more experienced talent among contenders. South Carolina plays Arkansas, and Georgia plays Ole Miss; otherwise the schedules are the same (except for home field advantages). Those games may be the difference maker. It’s difficult to predict how Florida will be performing by the last weekend in October.
AltamahaDawg
June 15th, 2011
8:29 am
SSIgator, YOU lost freinds in nam? I will openly admit I had you completely wrong. Usually a pretty good judge of these things. I would have bet anything that you were not older than 25 or so.
Santander
June 15th, 2011
8:39 am
South Carolina 37, Georgia 10
Buh bye, Saint Mark!
Stacey
June 15th, 2011
8:41 am
Since we’re in the off-season, wouldn’t this be the perfect time to take an in-depth look at UGA and have a serious discussion about the problems at UGA and why the arrest rate of players is the highest in the country? it’s common knowledge that UGA is a party school, but have any dawgtard players every actually graduated with a real degree? Jan Kemp exposed the school and the coaches almost three decades ago, but there is no sign that anything has improved; if anything, the arrest rate shows that things are getting more outrageous every year while the clueless Mark Richt has absolutely no control over his players. And then there is the infamous “red panties” incident that will haunt UGA for decades.
UGA has become a major embarrassment to all Georgians, and we want some answers starting now.
sandman053
June 15th, 2011
9:33 am
Yeah Stacey there are a ton of them getting arrested….like none in over 240-something days? I’m pretty happy with these Dawgs these days. I think Coach T has them too tired to go party it up.
Delbert D.
June 15th, 2011
9:37 am
If their are ways to over-spin the Iranian Uranium enrichment centrifuges to destruction via software, surely there is a way to categorize posts as on-topic and dump the others into a separate box for those with altered sensibility to enjoy.
Joey
June 15th, 2011
10:15 am
We’re gonna lose to Tech?
Where does time go? I didn’t realize we had gone through another decade since ‘08 . . .
SSIgator
June 15th, 2011
10:35 am
AltamahaDawg -
That was back in the day of the lottery – for the draft board, not to win money. I lucked out and got a pretty high number. Some of my friends were not so lucky and they never returned. I would have thought this country would have learned a lesson from that war, but like they say, history does have a way of repeating itself.
ATLGator
June 15th, 2011
10:49 am
As A Gator Alum it is embarrassing to see all your post on here SSIgator. Why aren’t you on the gator boards talking about our football team. I can tell you what are good sites to talk about Gator football if you would like. Why do you waste your time and energy talking crap about a team that may end up to be pretty decent this year and has a very good chance of beating us. Last time I checked John Brantley is still our QB and our head coach hasn’t even coached a game before. Pretty sure we have quite a few issues ourselves. Do you really have nothing better to do? Is this site the most excitement that you get in your life?
Just saying!
June 15th, 2011
10:54 am
SSIgator – wow ATLGator just owned you. You are getting it from your own fans now. LMAO!!!!
AltamahaDawg
June 15th, 2011
11:55 am
I think you missed my point. Your post have always lacked a certain maturity, if you ask me. I have always assumed you not over 25. Your brand of sophomoric (attempted) humor is not often assosiated with 50 yr old men.
AltamahaDawg
June 15th, 2011
11:57 am
Please feel free to cut and paste that, then respond with an oh so clever zinger!
@SSI Gator & other gators w/selective memory
June 15th, 2011
7:03 pm
SSIgator
June 14th, 2011
11:34 am
…“all of which would require the Dogs to win in Jacksonville” – UGA 3-21 vs UF in Jax are you serious?
First contested November 6, 1915
37–0, UGA
Number of meetings 89 (according to UGA) or
88 (according to UF)
Most recent meeting October 30, 2010
34-31 (OT), UF
All-time series Georgia leads 47–40–2 (according to UGA) or
46–40–2 (according to UF)
Largest victory November 7, 1942
75–0, UGA
And spare me the UGA fans “living in the past” crap, because it doesn’t matter if you’re talking about yesterday, 5 days ago, 5 years ago or 50 years ago, if you’re not talking about today or tomorrow you’re living in the past. So if we’re going to talk about the history of the series let’s talk about the COMPLETE history, not just a selective slice.
GO DAWGS!!!!
JDawg
June 15th, 2011
10:47 pm
http://isportsweb.com/2011/06/15/mark-richt-on-the-hot-seat/
'Real Dawgs eat gator meat (kool aid is foolade) drink POWERADE 2 !!....
June 19th, 2011
7:44 am
You tell ‘em, W/Selective Memory Dawg !! If the Alligators want to talk about the series with Georgia then talk about the WHOLE series not just the past 20 years. We Dawgs still OWN you Alligators despite going 3-18 !!! :0) LoL !!! 47-40-2, Dawgs dominate Gators still !!