Dawgs as consensus favorites: ‘A lot of pressure on us’
Vegas thinks Mark Richt will be striking this pose after every regular season game in 2012. (Jason Getz / AJC)
We’ve already established that Vegas oddsmakers like the 2012 Dawgs, but it turns out they’re so high on Mark Richt’s upcoming team that the folks who come up with point spreads have installed UGA as the early favorite in every game on the schedule.
At the Golden Nugget, Georgia is a 3-point favorite over Missouri, a 13.5-point favorite over Tennessee, a 2.5-point favorite over South Carolina, a 4.5-point favorite over Florida and a 6-point favorite over Auburn. And Pregame.com rates Georgia as the favorite in every game on its schedule.
Of course, as has been discussed here, Richt teams have had a disturbing tendency in the past to falter under high expectations, and playing as the favorite every week is going to be as big a challenge this season as rebuilding that offensive line and getting the special teams to quit rolling gutter balls.
The Athens Banner-Herald talked with a couple of the team leaders about Georgia playing as the favorite at the Pigskin Preview in Macon.
“It’s great that people say that, but I think it does put a lot of pressure on us to go out and just win games,” safety Shawn Williams said.
And quarterback Aaron Murray noted that, with a key difference, the Dawgs face a similar problem to last year, when they had to ignore all the media noise about their coach being on the “hot seat.”
“Our motto last year was, ‘We’re on the bus and we’re not listening to any outside noise,’” Murray said. “There was a lot of negative noise, and we wanted to ignore that. The hard thing now is to ignore all the positives and people wanting to pat you on the back and tell you that you’re great and this and that. We have to ignore that, too, and just do what we did last year.”
Or better.
After last year’s 0-2 start, the Dogs reeled off 10 straight wins and took the SEC East, only to end the season with a couple of disappointing losses. But as a team loaded with returning talent and playing the favorite’s role every week this fall, just notching 10 regular season wins again probably won’t be viewed as an entirely satisfactory outcome by many in the Bulldog Nation.
Loading ...But what would constitute a disappointing season in your eyes? Less than 10 wins? Or perhaps anything less than the SEC championship? Feel free to weigh in with a comment, vote in the poll or both.
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340 comments Add your comment
AltamahaDawg
June 14th, 2012
4:12 pm
kerryB 12:58. You are beating a dead horse, my freind.
harold
June 14th, 2012
4:16 pm
READ THE POST FROM YESTERDAY JUNE 13 @ 10:18 AND 10:44
old dog
June 14th, 2012
4:20 pm
Joey,
I hope you are right…….you gotta block and tackle in football; we (obviously) are tackling better than we’re blocking……..hope our line steps up (o-line…d-line will be fine) or we will be on these blogs after the season asking “What happened” even though we will KNOW what happened! A strong d-line exploited our weakness again.
DawginLex
June 14th, 2012
4:28 pm
HAROLD!!!!!!!!!!!!!
http://WWW.BUYPROZACONLINE.COM
Still@theKool-aidBAR
June 14th, 2012
4:31 pm
DiLex…….HEROLD has to yell on the Blogs cause the last time he yelled at his wife she KNOCKED him the F….OUT. LOL
Rodster
June 14th, 2012
4:35 pm
Why do you bother running a story like this? The Dawgs would be etter served to stay as far under the radar for as long as possible. The part about rebuilding the offensive line, wow! I don’t know about you but I don’t think the offensive line last year was anything special. The pass rush from good teams we played last year ran through and by the O-line like they weren’t there. I hope they are a lot better this year.
Joey
June 14th, 2012
4:41 pm
The O-line wasn’t special, Rodster. But 3 of the 5 O-linemen got drafted. So why wasn’t it special?
Lindsey
June 14th, 2012
4:52 pm
I never saw it before, but now I keep thinking how CMR looks like Helen Hunt!! He’s still a hottie though, GO DAWGS!!!!
Rodster
June 14th, 2012
4:55 pm
I don’t know why it wasn’t special, but obviously getting individuals drafted by the NFL is not a good metric for team success. Michigan State and Boise State didn’t play for anything big at the end of the season bt they absolutely man-handled us upfront when we were on offense. (Boise State did as well when they were on offense.)
Joey
June 14th, 2012
5:09 pm
One would think that having players in your team’s lineup that are deemed pros by the NFL, would have to be a good thing.
We won 21 games in ‘07 and ‘08 with that bunch of future high-pick NFL players, then went 8-5 the first year without them (’09).
It could be as simple as Richt has maybe never had a really good, technical O-line coach. It seems every year, there are issues there.
DawginLex
June 14th, 2012
5:15 pm
Joey
I think it is a combination of the type of kid recruited, the skill set they are taught, the S&C program and most importantly, DIET.
We need OL that are big and strong enough to pull and run down and PLOW a DE or LB on a sweep. There is a reason we never ran sweeps to Bean’s side last year. He was too big and had no lateral mobility.
That’s why a kid like Theus should be the prototype for UGA OT’s.
The Truth Detector
June 14th, 2012
5:15 pm
Joey
June 14th, 2012
4:41 pm
The O-line wasn’t special, Rodster. But 3 of the 5 O-linemen got drafted. So why wasn’t it special?
Almost 3 sacks per game, 96th ranked for starters.
http://www.sports-ratings.com/college_football/sacks-allowed.html
0.4 turnovers per game
http://www.sports-ratings.com/college_football/turnover-margin.html
rushing ranking: 37 in all Div. 1
passing ranking 26 in ll Div 1
Overall offensive 49 ranking in Div. 1 adjusted vs Div 1 opponents.
NFL talent vs OL performance means very poor coaching in Athens vs Wins. Which one counts?
Don Davis
June 14th, 2012
5:20 pm
More than one loss is unacceptable. This team should run the table.
Dogs Rule!
June 14th, 2012
5:27 pm
This will be the year of the Dog!!! This dog team may be even better than the 1980 team. No team on the uga schedule can match the dogs in talent. Dogs: 12-0! Book it.
Still@theKool-aidBAR
June 14th, 2012
5:30 pm
Theus……..Molly Ringwald on Roller Skates……………..with bigger boobs…………
Still@theKool-aidBAR
June 14th, 2012
5:31 pm
Dogs Rule!……………..and in like 80% of the time UGa will not have to play BAMA to get a shot at being Great.
gtfanfrom1951
June 14th, 2012
6:00 pm
UGA will lose to Mizzu, Vandy, USC, Fla. Auburn and one more!
gcs
June 14th, 2012
6:22 pm
UGA is favored because yet again, they have dodged Arkansas, Alabama and LSU.
SSIgator
June 14th, 2012
6:33 pm
Tide Rising -
I don’t know what to say about Nancy’s outburst today. She is usually more conservative in her comments, ie; Mark Richt is such a nice man, well at least we played hard, boy this is really good Kool-Aid, etc. Every once in a while though she becomes rather cranky. I think it is when her Sony BetaMax machine goes on the fritz and she can’t watch her 1980 UGA football tape of the Sugar Bowl game. It just puts her all out of sorts.
THE Dixie Redcoat Band
June 14th, 2012
7:37 pm
We agree, UGA should run a table and…win all their games.
truedawg
June 14th, 2012
11:02 pm
Anything more than 2 loses will mean hot seat!! But also who those loses are as well..lose to Tech and the chickens..and its smoking hot..lose to chickens and gators and tech..and its new coach!! Love CMR!!….and theres always a but… We need to have a focused team every game..That auburn game last year was it..Get up for every game and the Dawgs will be back at the Dome..Special teams improve and Murray stops trying to “make stuff..when there’s not stuff there” And Dawgs will be SEC champs..and on there way to BCS..GO DAWGS!!!
No pressure if you EXPECT to win!
June 14th, 2012
11:06 pm
C’mon! Are you a champion or not! Tired of woulda, coulda, shoulda! Time to get it down DAWGS.
Dawg Goneit
June 15th, 2012
7:33 am
If Athens owned a hot seat, then CMR would already be unemployed.
Buzzzzzzz
June 15th, 2012
8:02 am
Results from the 2011-2012 season for the Big 3 men’s sports:
Football: UGA 1, GT 0
Basketball: GT 1, UGA 0
Baseball: GT 2, UGA 1
——————————-
Total: GT 3, UGA 2
In other words…
GEORGIA TECH RUNS THIS STATE!
atlxman
June 15th, 2012
8:47 am
uga insider..you were told wrong then….no way was richt job in trouble….mcgarity himself said he wasnt in danger of losinbg his job…richt is a winner and a very solid coach and in now way would a new AD come in anf fire the best Coach uga football has had…your inside info was way off as proof of another contract extension….
atlxman
June 15th, 2012
9:01 am
guys..AM was a sophmore last year..he will not make the same mistakes he did last year..plus he doesnt have to try and do as much with a better running game…let the haters hate but when 2012 is over those haters will be on a gt blog making fun of techs weak schedule and high school offense
Name (required)
June 15th, 2012
9:26 am
So what are Mark Richt and Aaron Murray going to be doing in early December when some other team is preparing for the SEC champ game?
HOP
June 15th, 2012
10:15 am
It all comes down to the offense and the very ineffective arron murray who is 2-10 against top 25 teams.
uga must won the big games ,remember we have lost our last two games last year and murray played horrible.
uga should be competing for a national championship but murray gets way too overwhelmed with keeping his cool in high profile games.
it should be an interesting year and it will show if mark richt can take uga to the next level.
.
SoGaDAWG
June 15th, 2012
10:39 am
Just beat FL and Tech and I will be happy
OrlG8r
June 15th, 2012
11:20 am
The Bullpuppies are going to win:
1) The division
2) The SEC, and
3) The BCS…….
LOL…..It’s the pre-season in Georgia, again……..
SEC Football Morning Coffee: No Respect for Florida in Preseason Magazines | SEC Football
June 15th, 2012
12:40 pm
[...] Georgia knows that the bull’s-eye is on their back this year in the SEC East, writes Bill King of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. [...]
old dog
June 15th, 2012
12:41 pm
@Joey,
Jamarcus Russell got drafted, so they don’t bat 1000, you know. We may get a few drafted, but as a unit the facts are hard to handle….Boise State, LSU, and Michigan State man handled us up front…their d-lines whooped up on our o-line. This is not a debatable point for blogers and posters to argue…this is just a fact!
dawginduluth
June 15th, 2012
3:43 pm
Why would a bad year against expectations put Richt on the hot seat? Been here, done this before and he’s still here and making more money that even. What makes 2012 any different??
A-Ville Ranger
June 15th, 2012
10:36 pm
When I saw the quote ”a lot of pressure on us” my first thought was, please don’t let that be something Richt said. He displayed an obvious fear of high expectations before the 2008 season. He and the team just didn’t have the mindset and fortitude to live with the #1 ranking.
I don’t know if Richt is now big enough for greatness, we’ll find out.
01HAWK
June 15th, 2012
10:45 pm
“It’s great that people say that, but I think it does put a lot of pressure on us to go out and just win games,” safety Shawn Williams said.
Glad you did not sign with the TIDE. …………………………….BAMA players have this pressure every year.
wreckmaniac
June 15th, 2012
10:58 pm
Does AJC have a special section that lists UGA de-commits and arrests every day ?
wreckmaniac
June 15th, 2012
10:59 pm
Pressure ? Does anyone really think this team is a serious contender ?
Jake Benson
June 16th, 2012
1:37 am
Quote:
“LEAVE THE MAN ALONE HE DOES ABETER OVER ALL JOB THAN ANY ONE UGA COULD HIRE TO REPACE HIM”
LOL. Typical Ga. fan: Can’t spell.
BigDawg
June 16th, 2012
4:56 pm
Hope for the best and expect the worst. Yes IMHO Georgia should have won 3 national Titles under Richt already but have none. What disturbs me most is his apparent lack of learning from his mistakes. To win National Championships the first thing is you have to have a team that is well disciplined and conditioned, next a great defense with coaches who not only know the X’s and O’s but know how to motivate players to be better than they are. Also a head coach who recognizes his weaknesses and works on them instead of being hard headed and continuing to do the same things i.e. poor offensive play calling, poor special teams, under performing offensive line play, poor decision making by the QB etc.
aprilglaspie
June 16th, 2012
7:28 pm
It is astounding that anyone is a big enough fool to come on a website like this and type in all caps.