Dawgs continue unlikely rise in preseason picks
Aaron Murray seems to be the key to optimistic preseason picks for Georgia. (Brant Sanderlin / AJC)
If this keeps up, I’m not sure I’m going to be able to keep my inner optimist from taking over.
I’m talking about another national college football preview picking Mark Richt’s Dawgs to win the SEC East in 2011, following on the heels of Phil Steele. This time it’s Athlon Sports, which sees Georgia winning the East and then losing to Alabama in the Georgia Dome.
The Athlon analysis of the conference sees the league’s balance of power remaining “tilted in westerly direction.” In the East, a return to Atlanta for the South Carolina Gamecocks is deemed “far from certain, especially with the ongoing drama with quarterback Stephen Garcia.” Meanwhile, Athlon notes that Richt “is probably one mediocre season away from unemployment. Fortunately for him, he has the horses to win the division, led by quarterback Aaron Murray, who has transitioned from question mark to lead Dawg.”
Georgia, Athlon says, “has perhaps the league’s top returning quarterback … a highly rated recruiting class and a favorable schedule.”
Of course, they do ask, “Has the SEC ever entered a season with less returning star power at quarterback? When a redshirt sophomore (Georgia’s Murray) is arguably the top returning QB, that says something.”
The final analysis is that “this might not be a vintage Georgia team that is capable of competing for a national title, but the Bulldogs should be in the hunt to win the relatively mediocre SEC East.”
OK, definitely a bit underwhelming as votes of confidence go, but when you’re coming off a losing season getting picked to win your division is noteworthy. Even if it does look like an off year in that division.
What do you think, are Steele and Athlon just dazzled by Murray’s freshman numbers and the whole “Dream Team” thing, or are they on to something?
MASCOT SHOWDOWN
It’s a dog fight in SportsNation and EA’s “NCAA Football Traditions” voting as Georgia’s Uga and Tennnessee’s Smokey battle in the first round. As of this morning, Uga was in the lead with 52 percent of just over 30,000 votes tallied so far. You can cast yours here.
RINGING ENDORSEMENT
New UGA spot will focus on ringing the Chapel Bell. (University of Georgia)
Most UGA alums and fans I heard from thought last year’s low-rent spot promoting the university that aired during football television broadcasts was pretty embarrassing. So a group of alums, including some TV production professionals, decided to offer their services to come up with something better.
Thursday, a couple of hundred volunteers lined up in front of the UGA Chapel in Athens for filming on the commercial, which will show an endless line of students and alums lining up to ring the Chapel Bell. The promotional spot also will feature the song “Oh My Heart” by Athens’ own R.E.M., The Red and Black reports.
“What happened is, I think like a lot of Georgia alumni, I was disappointed with the UGA TV spot,” said alumnus Mike Martin, creative director of the commercial. “Rather than be a voice of criticism, I wanted to do something about it.”
Martin said R.E.M. agreed to have their song used in the UGA spot “because they love Athens so much and they wanted it to be a celebration of the University and the town of Athens.”
The new spot is scheduled to air Sept. 3 during the Chick-fil-A Kickoff Game with Boise State.
Martin said many college commercials show generic images of professors holding test tubes and students throwing frisbees on campus. For the new video, however, they instead chose to showcase what makes the university and Athens special.
“We want people to choke up a little bit and be proud of being a Bulldog,” he said.
I’m getting a little verklempt already!
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405 comments Add your comment
Tiger
June 17th, 2011
10:22 pm
South Carolina will go back to being South Carolina, 5 loss team last year, probably the only team to ever win the east and lose to Kentucky. Completely blown out of the final 2 games last year.2010 is over and so will any dreams South Carolina has of ever winning a SEC football championship.Auburn just scored again or was that Kentucky?
Steve Spurrier
June 17th, 2011
10:26 pm
Fox Sports.com has GA vs Boston College in Music City Bowl….long ways from NCG in NOLA…
Tiger
June 17th, 2011
10:32 pm
Is there a program in the SEC with less tradition than South Carolina. Never been to a major bowl, only 4 bowl wins in their history 1 more than Vandy. Never finished in the top 10.
Tiger
June 17th, 2011
10:43 pm
Apparently 5 losses is acceptable in South Carolina, Spurrier has lost 5 or more every year at South Carolina.
One ten win season
June 17th, 2011
10:47 pm
That would be south Carolina, playing football since 1894, and have only one 10 win season.
One ten win season
June 17th, 2011
10:58 pm
2010 South Carolina total defense ranked #51, UGA #30.
Furious Styles
June 17th, 2011
11:00 pm
STOP worrying about preseason pools, they mean nothing. This team needs to get its head right and stay away from mental distractions such as preseason polls.
One ten win season
June 17th, 2011
11:01 pm
2010 South Carolina Total offense ranked #50 , UGA #48 and Georgia had a bad year.
sports
June 18th, 2011
12:18 am
why the snide jealousy on where Georgia will be ranked…what’s your point?
UGAfan
June 18th, 2011
2:40 am
If one is to be particularly silly and pick the Dawgs as SEC East champs, why not make them SEC champs and one step further: BCS champs? Might as well make one’s silliness complete.
jUNKER
June 18th, 2011
6:58 am
Athlon, Phil Steele, and Lindy’s, all make money from selling re season magazines, Georgia is a large football state so it’s in their best interest to rank Georgia high to sell mroe magazines.
ESPN’s panel of experts didn’t rank Georgia in the top 25.
Green
June 18th, 2011
6:59 am
If Murray isn’t QB, 11-2. With Murray, 6-7.
Dim1
June 18th, 2011
7:01 am
Without Green & Durham, Georgia will drop from 10th in SEC in scoring against winning teams, to last. Just no proven scorers on offense at receiver or backs.
SCBOY
June 18th, 2011
7:08 am
Dawg fans. Scoreboard. Wasn’t even close last year and SC is much improved and more experienced. Alshon will go wild while Granthan keys on Lattimore. UGA has no one who can stop Alshon. No one.
Wallop
June 18th, 2011
7:17 am
Jeffery flamed out against Knetucky, Florida & Auburn. Grantham will study the video and shut him down.
Wallop
June 18th, 2011
7:19 am
Latitmore can be stopped. He only got 30 yards against Auburn and Ark, and only 48 against Clemson. Grantham will know how to stop him in his tracks. Grantham didn’t have video to study last year, now he does, and he will shut down Lattimore, who won’t break 50 yards.
Bell
June 18th, 2011
7:20 am
Murray will commit 3 to’s against Boise and 4 against South Carolina.
VININGSDAWG
June 18th, 2011
7:27 am
Every year same old story…….Don’t stop believing……..
Truth is 4-5 star recruits come in and play like 2 star recruits.
Rufus
June 18th, 2011
7:30 am
I remember all of the times FSU was highly ranked in pre-season but flamed-out during the season. A finesse offense which Richt learned at the Bowden knee can’t sustain the momentum in the SEC’s smash-mouth style.
VININGSDAWG
June 18th, 2011
7:33 am
Also all of you guys on Bobo’s offense.. Bobo’s offense was scoring even going up 14 on the National Champs. It was Grantham’s defense that was the problem. We pay this jerk $750000 for what. He called Auburn;s offense gimmicky, when they ran it right down our throats. On the first Auburn TD drive in the second half, they ran the ball on EVERY play and right through oour defense. If Grantham was such a high paid expert, then he should have been able to stop it.
gotta go
June 18th, 2011
8:37 am
Folks, please. We have less talent than a year ago BECAUSE YOU CAN’T COUNT ON FRESHMEN! Sit back, relax….we survived Goff, we’ll get through this. See the G Day game? 7 wins tops.
AltamahaDawg
June 18th, 2011
9:06 am
Finally!. I’ve been asking several times for somebody to tell me specifically how SC has improved since last years 5 loss team. Now it looks liek SCBOY has stepped up to the plate. Lay it on me.
I have been just assuming that with the reshuffling of the O-line, the heavy losses in the D front seven, and the turmoil at QB that they basically would be the same team that finished in the bottom half of most categories that anyone could think of.
Here come da judge
June 18th, 2011
9:10 am
Q: What do you call a UGA player in a three-piece suit?
A: The defendant!
Excited, aren't we?
June 18th, 2011
9:13 am
It’s kind of sad to see all the Dawg fans getting so excited this year (just like the year before, the year before that, etc.). How long is it going to take for UGA fans to realize that UGA is simply no longer relevant in the SEC? In the national picture, UGA isn’t even a blip on the radar, and hasn’t been since the preseason #1 ranking two years ago.
Sit back and be grateful for the six or seven wins you’ll get every year. Coaching genius Mark Richt may take you to 8-4 or even 9-3 occasionally, but Florida will still win the SEC, meaning no BCS bowls and no top 10 final ranking. Most years, UGA will be very lucky to finish in the top 25, and only after a big bowl win over a nobody opponent.
It’s a different world now, and Dawg fans need to adjust their expectations downward to reflect reality.
Unfortunately nothing is going to change until UGA changes its mediocre coaching. That’s where the difference is, and that’s why everyone outside Dawgtard Nation just laughs at Dawg fans getting so excited year after year about what a great recruiting class UGA gets. It doesn’t matter how many blue chip high school players go to UGA, they simply don’t get the coaching they would get at Florida or Alabama, to name two schools whose programs are far ahead of UGA. And that’s not going to change as long as Mark Richt is in Athens.
Get your heads out of the sand and face reality. And mediocrity and irrelevance.
AltamahaDawg
June 18th, 2011
9:23 am
I don’t know too many Dawg Fans in my running circles that are counting on freshman and still expect this to be a betetr team, gotta go. I do know a pretty long list of returning players that give we discuss as reasons to think this is a better team. WHY would you say we have less talent? A 6-7 team turning it around wasn;t going to come down to a couple of players. There’s not a team on our schedule that hasn’t lost as much , if not more talent that we did. And from a standpoint of “They mattered”, I’d say other teams have lost a lot more.
I would trade AJ’s impact last year for a QB in his second year in a heartbeat. And I would trade any player on our defense for having that entire squad starting the year actually knowing what to do in yr 2.
I disagree we have less talent this year, but even IF that were true, clearly talent had no bearing last year. I’d say most Dawg fans believe this is a better prepared team overall. 7 wins might be, but no way is that a ceiling. Heck they were a handfull of points, literally a play away in some cases, of winning 10 last year with the worst set of circumstances you could put out there.
BirdDog
June 18th, 2011
9:25 am
@ Excited, thank you for blessing us with your infinite wisdom. Any college football fan that doesn’t get excited about an upcoming season isn’t really a fan. Most UGA fans on here are not sure what the season will bring but we’re still passionate about our Dawgs. Something that you can’t understand.
AltamahaDawg
June 18th, 2011
9:26 am
Florida will win the SEC? I think you forgot to edit that cut and paste, It’s a little dated there.
AltamahaDawg
June 18th, 2011
9:26 am
No Jan Kemp?
No It's Verklempt
June 18th, 2011
9:42 am
Main Entry: verklempt
Part of Speech: adj
Definition: overcome with emotion; clenched; also written ferklempt
Etymology: Yiddish
It Ain't Rocket Science
June 18th, 2011
9:45 am
Coach Spurrier is, I believe 66 years old now and is trying to build a legacy after a few tarnished years playing with the big kids, and I believe he will do anything possible to go out a winner. I am not saying he will cut corners or cheat, but he, just like a lot of you accuse Saban of doing, will try and do what is necessary to go out on top. He has a formidable team and good players at most positions. I am not sure of his depth but SC should still be on top of the SEC East, if his starters stay healthy, and Garcia shows some on field and off field maturity. UGA can give them a good game, and maybe upset them, if the offensive line holds up and the folks at the positions, play beyond their experience level. Never under estimate the determination of a scorned team and UGA has certainly got a fair amount to prove. They should be playing with a chip on their shoulder and if they play smash mouth football, It could be a good game with S.C.
GO DAWGS
AltamahaDawg
June 18th, 2011
9:57 am
I don’t think he would cheat BUT his putting up with Garcia seems to me to be a signal that this might be his last run at it. I think if Spurrier intended on being there a few more years, Garcia would be a minority bar owner at Five Point by now.
JImmy T
June 18th, 2011
10:02 am
I love the dawgs but just cant drink the Kool-aid you’re serving. Too many questions and not enough answers. Murray looked great last year and should be even better this year, but defense is still unproven. Yes there’s talent, but much of it is young and untested. That usually means turnovers, penalties, and mistakes when pups start playing big boy SEC football. OL has disappointed for a few years now, and you cant expect Crowell to be another Lattimore or Dyer.
#1 recruits don't get special treatment
June 18th, 2011
10:12 am
Thought I would pass this on from a team trainer earlier this week….
On Monday….
Workouts under S&C began Monday. The new freshman lift in the mornings and the veterans in the afternoon. The core lifts on Monday were bench press and squats. They had to get 30 reps at 70% of their max. Isaiah Crowell could not finish the lifting or the running and drew Coach T’s wrath. Ken Malcome could not finish with the veterans.
On Tuesday….
The core lifts were close grip inclines and leg presses. The most obvious leader in the weight room is Christian Robinson. Bruce Figgins came in great shape. The most impressive of the new players is clearly John Jenkins. He is very strong and is in great shape. He will be the first new player moved to the veterans workouts. Crowell continues to struggle and was the only player who couldn’t finish Tuesday. He threw up more than once.
It Ain't Rocket Science
June 18th, 2011
10:18 am
Jimmy 1,
I don’t expect Crowell to have a great influence to start the year for sure. He has a learning curve and it would be foolish to expect him to be the next great back until he adapts to college ball and his job on the team. Lattimore was thrown into the fire right away by Spurrier because he is a pure athletic wonder at RB, but he was also beat up at the end of the year, because he was used so much. Crowell, will not suffer from that. The OL line is low on experience but if they increase their learning curve in camp, they have the physical tools to be good. I think our defense has all of the physical tools to be great also. We will certainly have the DL folks that should worry any team that faces them. These are some big, strong, and fast kids, that are eager to make up for last year as well prove that they belong in the SEC.
With the physical talent UGA has, it will be a matter of certain individuals proving themselves early and applying that talent to their position. I still feel UGA will get 9 wins this year, and possibility 10 if they really put in the effort and work it takes.
I believe our coaching staff has been rejuvenated as well, both by having a decent supportive schedule, and the recruits they have coming in. I know they can coach and I think they will.
GO DAWGS
shane#1
June 18th, 2011
11:49 am
So, Crowell tossed his cookies. Maybe Coach T’s workouts are as tough as we have heard. Gotta tear’em down before you can build them up. He should be ready for fall practice. This reminds me of my old Coach. He was a little guy. Five feet, eight inches of cold rolled steel. Khaki pants,sweat shirt, bi-focals, and a John Deere cap. With a chaw of Red Man in his cheek that made him look like he was trying to swallow a softball. Don’t puke on those shoes boy. They belong to the BOE!
AltamahaDawg
June 18th, 2011
12:07 pm
Kool-aid huh Jimmy? Sigh.
danny
June 18th, 2011
12:24 pm
Im a HUGE bulldawg fan but im going to have to see this to believe it. Mark Richt has given me absolutely any reason to believe he would be able to pull this off. Yes, everything has lined up for us to have an excellent year…….excellent players, a schedule that you could not hand pick any better.You’re 2 highest ranked opponents are Boise ST. and South Carolina!!! After that, we should win every game easily. We should be able to dominate Boise and get a win against SC with all their qb troubles. But i just dont think Richt can do it
AltamahaDawg
June 18th, 2011
12:47 pm
why danny?
AltamahaDawg
June 18th, 2011
12:49 pm
specifically what functions or actions do you not think Richt can do?
BigTimeTECHFan
June 18th, 2011
12:58 pm
I agree, east is wide open, but one team will step up a take it
USC
UGA
Florida
Tenn
Kentucky
Anyone of those team can win it next year. but if I had to guess I would go with USC
AltamahaDawg
June 18th, 2011
1:07 pm
Thats probably a good guess, or a safe one anyway. I would submit that SC has to have a better year than they did last year (because I am convinced that at least 2 or 3 teams in the east will) to win it, and nobody can tell me how they have improved in the offseason, when most expert are saying they are reshuffling both lines and the defense as a whole is replacing a lot of key players. I don’t see it. Somebody feel free to show it to me on paper. I can name how Georgia , Tn, are likely to improve. Newbie might not have a better record down there, but UF isn’t going to just go away. Nobody is winning the East with 3 conference losses again for a long time.
quinn
June 18th, 2011
1:12 pm
Ya’ll say that shhh about UGA every year, its all politics!
AltamahaDawg
June 18th, 2011
1:13 pm
I’m certainly not an expert on SC, and frankly I don’t know the main reasons they did lose 5 games. I just don’t see anything obvious that was an issue, (IE. lots of injuries, learning curve on a new system, more experience here or there) that has been clearly addressed. realizing they have 2 big offensive weapons, I doubt they will are a bad team. I just think thier margin of winning the east last year was razor thin and the rest of the division should improve by a larger percentage than that (for obvious issue that you can point to and speculate about being addressed)
quinn
June 18th, 2011
1:16 pm
There gonna have another losing season this year, no recievers, no db’s, so so running game and lb’s! it will be Mark Ritch last year!
War Eagle
June 18th, 2011
1:26 pm
When you consider coaching, talent and discipline, UGA will tied with Auburn for 6th and 7th spots in the SEC:1. Arkansas 2. Alabama,3. LSU 4. Florida 5. Miss State. The home schedule will rule
The West will dominate again with a shoot-out with bama, Arkansas and LSU fighting it out.
It Ain't Rocket Science
June 18th, 2011
2:18 pm
I think Alabama controls the west with their defense. Their offense should be pedestrian enough to put up enough points, with their defense controlling most games. Let’s not forget they do have a mighty good runner and if they can get some decent service out of a new QB, they can control the games.
KYDawg
June 18th, 2011
2:22 pm
Still don’t care what the boo birds say. I think it’s going to be a great season. Go Dawgs!!!
danny
June 18th, 2011
2:53 pm
Altamaha….I don’t think he is a good enough coach because i have watched him choke EVERY season at some point. He has had enough talented teams to have won at least 2 national championships IMO. He had Stafford and Moreno in THE SAME BACKFIELD and never even won the SEC EAST!!! Most coaches could go an entire carrer and never have that kind of talent at all much less at the same time. But he wouldn’t fire his brother in law def coordinator. He had the talent in ‘02, ‘03, 04 but couldn’t get past RON ZOOK coached Gators… We looked out coached almost every big game the past 3 years…..We do NOT look as prerpared as other big timne teams…..I’m not going to apologize for having high standards for Coach Richt and wanting a national championship. He has been everything possible to win one and has not done it while we have had to watch fla win 2, lsu 2, ala 1, aub 1 (who could very easily had 2 if not robbed out of a title game spot in ‘04) So no im not going to apologize…he has had 10 years
oakwood dawg
June 18th, 2011
3:28 pm
please quit dreaming people, these guys at the preseason mags must be smoking or snorting something. dawgs go 6-6 at best they will start out 0-2 with a beating from boise state on national tv and sc and lose big to gators and tigers so there is four loses we’ll lose two more somewhere along the way. sorry just being honest.
@danny
June 18th, 2011
3:29 pm
He won the Fla. game in 2004, and I think you may have meant 07 instead of 04. We didn’t have luck in the polls in 07 finish 2nd in the country and Richt can’t win a big game? You do realize he’s tied with LSU with 5 top 10 AP final poll teams during his tenure and he’s the most successful coach Georgia has had during his 1st decade. I agree with you at the end of the 2002 and 2007 seasons. 2008 18 season ending injuries trumped having Stafford and Moreno.