Which game (besides South Carolina) will be Georgia’s toughest?
Marcus Lattimore is one of the reasons South Carolina looms as Georgia's toughest opponent in 2012. (Associated Press)
This time last year, I conducted what had become our annual survey to see which game you thought would be the toughest for the Dogs, other than the showdown in Jacksonville.
Because of the Florida game’s history over the previous couple of decades, I had decided to put it in a category all its own. It was, of course, the toughest game Georgia would face. The monkey on their back. The discussion was over which game was the next toughest.
But no longer. I think it’s fair to say there’s been a sea change in the SEC East over the past couple of years and, at least for now, I don’t believe the Florida game qualifies any longer as the automatic biggest hurdle on the Dawgs’ schedule.
Steve Spurrier’s Gamecocks have taken over that spot.
Consider: South Carolina, which last year was picked by 65 percent of Junkyard Blawg readers voting in the poll as the likely toughest game on the schedule aside from Florida, has won two in a row against Georgia, which beat Florida last year.
Yes, I know I said a few weeks ago that I consider the showdown with Florida a more important game than South Carolina, and that’s still the case. Because, let’s face it, the Dawgs can lose to the Gamecocks and still win the SEC East if they win the rest of their conference schedule (which admittedly is again easier than the Gamecocks’ schedule this year). Plus, winning two in a row in Jacksonville would pretty much park the “jinx” talk on the back shelf.
But we’re not talking most important game here, or the game you most want Georgia to win. We’re looking at which game will be the toughest for the Dawgs, and I don’t think there’s much argument there. Most college football observers are picking the Oct. 6 game in Columbia as the most likely loss in a Bulldog schedule that otherwise is deemed quite manageable.
The fact that many of those picking the Gamecocks to beat Georgia are also picking Georgia to win the SEC East again in spite of that drives Spurrier absolutely crazy.
Is this a great world, or what?
So, for the sake of this exercise at least, let’s stipulate that South Carolina is the toughest game on the schedule, thanks in large part to the Gamecocks’ perennially tough defense, the assumed presence of a healthy Marcus Lattimore in the lineup and the fact that Spurrier wants it practically more than life itself.
The Bulldogs certainly don’t want to lose a third consecutive year to South Carolina for the first time ever, but it wouldn’t derail their season.
So, let’s turn out attention to which game besides South Carolina looms as Georgia’s toughest challenge.
Is it the Gators, who are still going through their post-Urban renewal? You could make a good argument that because of the series’ history and the rivalry between the two programs (and the closeness of last year’s game thanks to Georgia’s awful special teams play) that the Jacksonville classic is the next toughest game on the 2012 schedule. Florida should be tough on defense, but at this point they’re still a big question mark offensively.
James Franklin could be a big challenge for a UGA defense missing several starters. (Associated Press)
From what I’m hearing, though, more fans are concerned about the conference opener against Missouri. Not only will it be Mizzou’s SEC debut — which means they’re sure to be jacked for it — but Georgia is entering the game with an automatic handicap in having several defensive starters suspended. Plus the Dawgs will be going without last year’s SEC freshman of the year at tailback. Also, recent history shows Mark Richt’s teams have a tendency to get off to a slow start early in the season, especially on offense. And Tigers quarterback James Franklin probably will be the most dangerous two-way threat Associate Head Coach Todd Grantham’s defense will face all season.
As for the rest of the non-cupcake part of the schedule, there’ll probably be a bit more interest in the game with Vandy this year, thanks to the chippy nature of last year’s visit to Nashville, but it still would require a definitely subpar performance on the part of the Dawgs for the Commodores to win in Athens.
Loading ...Kentucky has been known to be surprisingly tough against the Dawgs in recent years, but on paper it doesn’t look like that’s going to happen this year.
Ole Miss? Still pretty much a disaster.
Auburn, of course, always has the potential to be a tough game, though the Tigers remain something of an unknown at this point.
And Georgia Tech and its tricky offense are always dangerous.
So how do I vote? I’m going with Missouri as the toughest game this season after South Carolina.
What about you? Feel free to share your comments, vote in the poll or do both.
Don’t forget the Junkyard Mail! Got something you want to discuss concerning UGA athletics or a question for the Junkyard Blawg? Send it to junkyardblawg@gmail.com.
Find me on Facebook.
Follow me on Twitter.
— Bill King, Junkyard Blawg
Tell us what you think about the site
Customer Care »
Vacation stops, manage subscriptions and more
AJC Services
Sections
Other Editions
Visitor Agreement | Privacy Statement
© 2013 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
199 comments Add your comment
Fair n Balanced
July 12th, 2012
9:06 am
I never saw this as an easy schedule and I don’t understand how anybody says it is. The only way we have a good season is to be a very good team….better than last year in order to repeat winning the East. Granted there are some cupcakes on the schedule but Mo, SC, TN , Vandy, FL, Aub….and Tech can all beat us if we are not a very good team. Given the fact we have suspensions already, transfers, and felony charges to our star player who is now gone….nothing much been done with the OL, the OC position still questionable…..I say we go 9-3 at best. The defense will keep it close in all contests.
Jimmyraybillybob
July 12th, 2012
9:23 am
I’d have to say Missouri. They’re a bit of an un known to most of us UGA fans compared to the other teams we see regularly. It’s early in the new season, which often means turnovers, missed assignments, and mistakes. The Dogs will also be playing without some key starters (bone heads!) that we need for that game, and I’m sure Missouri wants to prove they can play against the big boys in the SEC. I’m just uneasy about that game. Like the fact that the SC game has been moved back a bit. Hopefully that will help. That is surely the toughest game on the schedule.
Eleanor
July 12th, 2012
9:27 am
Enter your comments here
Eleanor Rigby
July 12th, 2012
9:28 am
Ah Where do all the lonely sheeple come from?
shankit
July 12th, 2012
9:37 am
Toughest game for Georgia should be with LSU for the SEC championship,
even tougher than the USC Trojan game for the NC.
Just hope we don’t have to play Washington State (Leach) or his
disciple (Holgorsen at West Virginia)
Eleanor Rigby
July 12th, 2012
9:39 am
All the sheeple buying into Todd Granthams defense is so comical. Get this…. Too many points given up to Boise, SC, LSU and Mich. State. All good teams = all losses. Dont come on here and give us inflated defensive stats by playing NeW Mexico State and Mickey Mouse University. UGA still stinks, so learn it, like it and love it if you want to keep Richt as the coach at UGA.
Sharkman
July 12th, 2012
9:55 am
Answer Bill, ALL OF ‘EM!
THE Dixie Redcoat Band
July 12th, 2012
10:39 am
Buffalo could hang around for 3 quarters or so….We just think UGA will be out coached again.
Newnandawg
July 12th, 2012
11:28 am
The thought of losing 3 in a row to South Carolina is crushing.
Dawg fans, we don’t have to accept something like that.
LogicalUS
July 12th, 2012
11:32 am
I just have to last at all the delusional UGA homers still crying about “giving away” games.
Well, silly people, here is the TRUTH….the players and team who turned the ball over vs SC\LSU\MichState ARE YOUR TEAM so they are back again this year.
How stupid and lame is your argument when you have go about talking about “spotting” teams points as if it was your sorry players\team who contributed to those turnovers and guess what you still have those crappy players to return for another go around.
History would tell us that it looks pretty ugly for UGA in Columbia for the SC game as your crappy players were turned over for 21 pts at HOME and now those same crappy players have to go away to SC where UGA averages about 9 pts a game for the past decade. Just how many more turnovers will UGA have in Columbia? SC by 10.
UGA won’t be playing LSU this season but the same goes against the best defense returning in the SEC, they are only bigger and stronger so how many more than 44 would UGA give this time?
Still say watch out for Mizzou\UT\UF.
Al
July 12th, 2012
11:35 am
Missouri – better hope its not a night game
South Carolina – on the road, nuff said
Florida – need I say more
Auburn – UGA should win but playing not to lose gets ya everytime
Al
July 12th, 2012
11:41 am
The more I think about it all the games will be tough. With Richt,Bobo, & Murray at the helm, they are capable of keeping any team in a game.
Eleanor Rigby
July 12th, 2012
11:44 am
Thankyou Al ! you are no sheeple!
Lindsey
July 12th, 2012
12:05 pm
As I read more and more about our off field issues and suspensions, I am getting worried about this Mizzou games for a number of reasons. This will be their first SEC game, they are going to come out wanting to prove that they belong, plus it is at their home. Then over the last couple of seasons the Dawgs do not start off that great, with this game being in early September I fear they could get us. I am hoping CMR road record and they guys playing like champions will get us the win, GO DAWGS!!
Resident Georgia Fan
July 12th, 2012
12:17 pm
SC by far.
Ace
July 12th, 2012
12:31 pm
Depends on the arrests and suspentions. You know there are more to come.
badlands dawg
July 12th, 2012
12:49 pm
Missouri is going to give UGA a lesson in football boys..Ga never can put thier best team on the field..Missouri knows this,HELL everyobody know this….Murray will find away to drop it like he always do in big games..Spurrier know better then anybody that Ga never have their best team on the field at same time!!!!!!!!
harold
July 12th, 2012
1:11 pm
UGA SCHEDULE IS LAUGHABLE AND A JOKE. IF RICHT DOESN’T GO 13-0 WITH THIS SCHEDULE IT IS TIME FOR RICHT TO GO!
harold
July 12th, 2012
1:12 pm
ANY ARRESTS TODAY?
Red Day
July 12th, 2012
1:16 pm
USC destroys Georgia, 45 – 10 on a glorious fall day in Columbia!
Isaiah's Mommy
July 12th, 2012
1:34 pm
My precious baby boy Isaiah, bless his little heart, should be at UGA helping his team instead of wasting his valuable time at that no-name school in Bama. I don’t know what happened to him, he was always such a good boy, at least until that horrible Coach Richt corrupted him.
Please fire Coach Richt so I can send my boy back to Athens to lead his beloved Dawgs on to victory!
Yours truly,
Miz Debbie
Joey
July 12th, 2012
1:54 pm
45 points? Whew! Easy on the Wild Turkey, Red – though, I guess it’s 5:00 somewhere!
SC’s offense scored 24 points on our D last season, 17 if you don’t count that 4 yd drive. Our O scored every one of our 42 points.
You want to re-calculate? If not, better get those fake punts and reverse KO returns ready . . .
DunwoodyDawg
July 12th, 2012
1:54 pm
I am 100% with all the people who say Florida. The Dawgs have won back to back games against the Gators since ‘88 and ‘89, so this is the big game. This is toughest for purely psychological reasons.
AltamahaDawg
July 12th, 2012
2:59 pm
No, Fla Dawg, why would I take issue with you guessing that we might lose to one of the (MO, TN, SC) games? That’s basically the best guess from about million other people.
And if you are wrong and they don’t, I certainly have no bragging rights. IN fact I don’t disagree. Its very possible. And I’d be pleasantly surprised if not. I do probably do put the % of will win all those, higher than you
When I give/gave you grief about predictions, you were picking the Dawgs to lose, blatently hoping in some cases, pretty much every week last year, then completely diminishing the victory when that didn’t happen.
Really?
July 12th, 2012
3:14 pm
AltamahaDawg
July 11th, 2012
8:40 pm
Here is a problem for you: What occurs 0.09090909 % of the time?
______________________________________________________________________
A UGA student/student-athlete/faculty member DOESN’T get arrested……
FLA DAWG
July 12th, 2012
3:24 pm
kerryb,
You think we had a pretty good season last year? Two opening season losses against a good team and a mediocre team followed by 10 wins against absolute nothing teams ended by two losses by good teams.
The team / coaching did not improve during the season by any measure that I can think of.
It’s fans like you that accept mediocrity and keep this program down. Go an puke all you want. Wallow in mediocrity and puke.
It was the demonstrative outcry by fans like me that helped unload Martinez and get Grantham. That resulted in the only improved team play area I know of – Defense.
By the way, I think Aaron Murray is a heck of a good QB. I think our O Line couldn’t block an Easter Parade Bunny Rabbit and our running backs fall at the first touch.
But if calling it the way I see it means it makes you puke then at least I have the satisfaction of knowing you puked.
AltamahaDawg
July 12th, 2012
3:26 pm
Wow! I have to ask: Did you not realize I was asking how often that guy posted an original thought, and you walked right into it………………or you knew thats what I meant and just mocked him for the pure irony?
Flat Tire on I-95 in Jacksonville
July 12th, 2012
3:42 pm
No arrests today thats good
Just waiting on the Pre-season National title posts to start posting on here
Not many of those this year
I guess the last two humiliating losses of the year with no Dream Team/Ring Team talk this off season has calmed that delusional crowd down
Eleanor Rigby
July 12th, 2012
3:44 pm
Did our defense really play that well? Yes against the Mickey Mouse teams and the celller dwellars of the sec west. Against Boisewith hands on hip midway throught the 2nd qtr. LSU opened a can of W A in the 2nd half of the SECCG. Michigan State was visions of Willie when they tied us to go into OT and eventually winning the game. So… did our defense really play that well Sheeple?
Nothing Could Be Finer
July 12th, 2012
3:49 pm
Until the dogs figure out how to tackle Lattimore, they’ll run home with their tails between their legs.
Flat Tire on I-95 in Jacksonville
July 12th, 2012
3:53 pm
Eleanor Rigby
We solved the problem
The coaching staff got contract extensions
Now we can realax win our national title this year and secure recruiting
Didnt anyone ever tell you to fix a problem you throw more money at it
FLA DAWG
July 12th, 2012
4:06 pm
Eleanor,
Yep, the LSU Game was an absolute blowout. But despite the woeful lack of Offense the D kept us in the game in the first half. Time after time they absolutely shutdown LSU. In fact they set an SECC Game record by shutting out a team for an entire first half.
If you watched closely though you saw the D getting tired just before halftime. I knew then that if the O couldn’t begin to control the game in the third period that we’d end up losing.
Give the D some credit for trying their best in that one anyway. Now about the Michigan State Game!? Ya got me there.
dawg in another state
July 12th, 2012
4:30 pm
Never overlook the short handed game @ Mizz. Go DAWGS!
Dawg Squeeze
July 12th, 2012
5:59 pm
UGA football….32 years and counting.
Dawg Squeeze
July 12th, 2012
6:01 pm
If championships are handed out for the highest number of transvestite professors posing as prostitutes, you guys are in good shape. Another bulldog point of pride.
Brainiac(Dawg/Richt fan for life)
July 12th, 2012
6:12 pm
@ EL IN ORE RIG BEE:
Where were you during the Salem Witch Burning????
Bill King
July 12th, 2012
6:31 pm
Whiskey breath:
If you’re asking about the nonconference schedule, yes, that is put together by the athletic department. And it’s pretty typical of the type of nonconference schedule that many SEC teams play. If you’re talking about the SEC schedule, that’s done in BIRMINGHAM. So figure that one out if you don’t believe it’s a rotating thing.
satxdawg
July 12th, 2012
6:33 pm
Seems to me everybody forgets malcom Mitchell was one the top CB in highschool . Matter of fact he’s a Cb naturally that was converted to a WR. Not to mention we still have the team leading tackler safety shawn willams ,Corey Moore should be ready to rock in roll along with branden smith and damian swann .
SOUTHGADAWG88
July 12th, 2012
9:31 pm
Missouri will be lucky to win 5 games this season.Has anyone actually looked at their schedule?
Rooty Tooty
July 12th, 2012
9:50 pm
Who gives a rats arss…..
UGA man here
July 13th, 2012
8:07 am
How mnay games do we play? 11? All 11 will be the toughest games. UGA has to suit up very game and go out and play focused and hard nosed and mistake free. Aaron Murray has got to act like a 4th year Junior QB and play mistake free ball or we end up around 8-3 and CMR will be gone. UGA at 9-2 will possibly have CMR BACK and barely hanging on to his job.
ALL 11 games will be tough.
UGA class of 71 & 73
DogD
July 13th, 2012
8:13 am
florida will be down again, so missouri is the toughest game after sc. tenn will suck so ga beats them easy. Auburn? they don’t have anything—another dog win.
AltamahaDawg
July 13th, 2012
8:25 am
Not exactly sure who these make believe people are that talk about Pre-season NC’s, but I do know the real people who never have anything original to say and just whine all pre-season vastly outnumber them.
kingdaddy
July 13th, 2012
8:59 am
UGA must win @Missouri! If we stumble coming out of the gate, it will get very ugly in the fanbase with fans calling for CMR & CMBs head. We win that game and we have momentum on our side when we meet the chickens…
Joey
July 13th, 2012
9:07 am
….5 out of 22 and the jinx is over??? Really??”
****************************************
George, if UGA wins in Jax this season, guess what the record would be for the past 6 years?
3-3.
Like I gently told SSIgator this week, Tim and Urban ain’t in Gainesville anymore . . .
Brainiac(Dawg/Richt fan for life)
July 13th, 2012
10:56 am
@ Cloonan:
Judging from your contributions on here the correct pronounciation of your name/handle is CLUE NONE!!!!!!!
tony
July 13th, 2012
11:00 am
kingdaddy
July 13th, 2012
8:59 am
______________________________________
Yes – Everyone in the country knows that we have a very easy schedule this season except for a few fans in this state. We should win a nc this season but felt that way last season.
Here’s a thought. Which team on our schedule can beat Alabama, LSU, OU, USC Troj or Oregon? I don’t think neither.
Brainiac(Dawg/Richt fan for life)
July 13th, 2012
11:04 am
@ Altamaha DawG(8:25am post)
You nailed it Bro!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Obviously way too many people have little or no life other than college football and rely on teams that have “VERY INTERESTING BLOGS” such as UGA to keep their feeble/weak/malfunctioning minds from driving them over the proverbial cliff.
RPh DAWG
July 13th, 2012
12:00 pm
I think that just about all of them will be tough for us to win; probably lose at least 3 of those, possibly even 4. Dawgs are just not a good team. Richt will be back “on the hot seat” if not gone….