5 reasons the Georgia Bulldogs are better off than you think
Aaron Murray has been pretty darn good. (AP photo)
1. A.J. Green returns this week. Rule of thumb: Having your best player in the lineup tends to help.
2. The Bulldogs shouldn’t lose again until the day before Halloween, if then. The next four games: At Colorado, Tennessee in Athens, Vanderbilt in Athens, at Kentucky. The first three shouldn’t be much trouble, and surely Kentucky can’t beat Georgia two years running. (I mean, could it?) There should be much momentum-building done before UGA heads for Jacksonville, and who knows how good Florida is?
3. Aaron Murray looks legit. Even behind an offensive line that hasn’t blocked a lick, the redshirt freshman quarterback hasn’t been overwhelmed. He has five touchdown passes against two interceptions, and he has completed 61 percent of his passes. And now he gets to throw to A.J. Green.
4. The defense is better. That’s still not to say it’s good, but it’s better. Last season the Bulldogs yielded 78 points in victories over South Carolina and Arkansas. This year it yielded 48 against those two teams. Yeah, it lost both games this time, but whaddaya want?
5. This remains a very talented team. Even if it’s being undercoached on offense, talent cannot be kept down forever. Green will make plays that have gone unmade so far. Washaun Ealey won’t always fumble into the end zone. Orson Charles will do something. I’m not saying Georgia’s going to win the SEC East, and even my prediction of 9-3 seems a bit ambitious, but this team will not — repeat, not — finish 6-6. It’s too good for that.
Equal time (sort of): 5 reasons Georgia Tech is worse off than you might think.
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458 comments Add your comment
cantondawg
September 30th, 2010
1:36 pm
Bubba,
Great post.. i couldn’t have said it better
DIT
September 30th, 2010
1:37 pm
“It’s amazing to me how some “so called fans” are hoping we have a losing season so that we can change coaches. That’s about as pathetic as you can get.”
I agree!
Eating crap,and howling at the moon
September 30th, 2010
1:37 pm
JB—-i don’t think anybody will miss your seat.i think the dawgs will be just fine! Look for 2011 to be an exceptional year! maybe even win a NC.
chickenman
September 30th, 2010
1:37 pm
SIC EM
Mean Machine
September 30th, 2010
1:37 pm
You asked the question last week, so let’s ask it again this week; What is Georgia loses to Colorado?
Why y'all oppress me?
September 30th, 2010
1:38 pm
It hard to git up bond money and focus on ball.
McDawg
September 30th, 2010
1:39 pm
there is still no enthusiam from the players-its like watching the OSU game from last year– sloooooow mo and boring
JB
September 30th, 2010
1:39 pm
James…………….I actually agree…………..Now, if the same writer will admit that Florida was average at best for 50+ years until Spurrier started that streak…………Between Herschel and now, we have had 6,7 real good years, but a lot of average years. I think what really gets in our craw is the high School talent in this state, the money this program makes, and the lack of consistency and Championships. That called mismanagement in the business world.
reality check
September 30th, 2010
1:39 pm
I think if the whole AJ gate didn’t happen we would be 3-1 or 4-0. Simply because of the distraction woulnd’t have been with the team and also the opposing D Coordinators would have to game plan with AJ in mind and swing the coverages. Now they are playing vanilla and we have no play makers. The run is stuffed and the TE or no where to be found.
I know that seems simplistic but works for me….. Go DAWGS
cantondawg
September 30th, 2010
1:40 pm
To all the spoiled UGA fans,
Remember that it was CMR success that spoiled you guys into thinking that we should compete for a national title every year. From 2002-2008, We were consistently in the top 10 and finished #2 and #3. Now about a few subpar years, you think he cannot coach anymore and want to hire a head coach with far less credentials than CMR. CMR deserves the opportunity to turn things around. WHY? Because he has a proven track record of success and i know that he will be stronger from this adversity.
TheItalianDawg
September 30th, 2010
1:41 pm
I think Georgia will lose to Colorado, Tennessee and Kentucky, 2-6 heading to Jax. I hope i’m wrong but they will find a way to lose. Bobo is terrible OC and thats Richt’s fault. Richt made numerous killer mistakes in hiring mediocre assistants. I lost faith in Richt and his staff. look at Auburn, how in the world Auburn is 4-0 and we are 1-3, they have a new QB!!! and dont tell me we lost because of Ealy fumbles, enough with this crap, we suppose to beat Miss state by 30 points, they have no QB for the god sake.
I say fire all of them and hire Jim Harbaugh. enough is enough.
Eisendawg
September 30th, 2010
1:42 pm
Sure would hate to play on a team that consisted on the AJC bloggers. Not only have they gave up, some want us to lose so we’ll change coaches. I’m sure alot of these negative know-it-alls are actually UGA haters, but for the ones who actually believe they are fans, be careful what you wish for. If you change coaches, the program will lose many of it’s recruits, and probably go backwards. See Tennessee. For the fair weather fans, watch the Falcons. They are hot right now. Of course, a few weeks ago, some of these same whiners were ready to run Matt Ryan out of town.
You Trippin' man
September 30th, 2010
1:43 pm
Hey R.C., stay off the acid dude.
MIKE T
September 30th, 2010
1:45 pm
Sourgapes said,
You’re no Michigan, you’re no Alabama — both teams with more wins than UGA on the all-time list you’re using.
I don’t think I ever said we had more wins than Bama or Michigan, however I do think eleventh on a list is still
pretty high, compared to the number of teams on the list. (120?)
I’m pretty confident that you could show someone up north
or out west, a photo with a Georgia Helmet and a Green Bay Helmet and they would know which is which.
Just face it man. your just trying to run down UGA.
cantondawg
September 30th, 2010
1:46 pm
Recruiting-wise, i think we need to do a better job of evaluating and offering scholarships. It seems to me that we try to fill up our class real quick and then hold may 1 or 2 scholarships for the elite prospects to the end. I feel that should hold onto more scholarships and try to get the 4 and 5 stars and if we cannot get them, then we offer the 3 stars. It just seems like we are settling for the lesser players and the teams like Florida hold onto their scholarship at the end and get better players.
Tosh.No
September 30th, 2010
1:47 pm
Wow lots of other school douches in here today. Stay Classy douches!
Paul in RDU
September 30th, 2010
1:48 pm
Bubba – OSU has 5 MNC’s (most recent in 2002), 7 Heisman trophies (from 6 different players), is 54-10 in the last 5 years, including a blow out over Oregon last year in the Rose Bowl.
They have played in 3 BCS NC games (1-2 in them).
If that isn’t a national power, what is?
Tosh.No
September 30th, 2010
1:49 pm
CMR is a joke though, the guy needs to go.
MIKE T
September 30th, 2010
1:50 pm
Now about a few subpar years, you think he cannot coach anymore and want to hire a head coach with far less credentials than CMR
Tis true,However that was before Meyer, Saban and Miles,
since 2005 is been pretty much downhill, save the second half of the 07 season.
GA. coach
September 30th, 2010
1:53 pm
GA. needs to get extras player like bama and their MEDICAL HARDSHIP SCAM. We could use and extras 5 players a year.
Vu Du Huong
September 30th, 2010
1:53 pm
I believe in destiny and jinx’s. Like Sundays Falcons game. They were destined to win. The only way we can break this jinx over Georgia is continuing to run the vignette at home games of Damon speaking out on the evils of drinking and driving. I’m serious Man!
Paul in RDU
September 30th, 2010
1:54 pm
Neither GT nor UGA are “national powers” – although UGA is closer. When I tell people from outside the Southeast that I went to GT half the time I get asked “that’s the Bulldogs, right?”
Hotel Shreveport
September 30th, 2010
1:55 pm
Georgia is 1-3 after four games,
which translates into a 3-9 regular season record.
Even the Shreveport Advocare 100 Independence Bowl
demands more than that.
Another Steve
September 30th, 2010
1:57 pm
Being better than I think doesn’t translate into wins on the field. However, I can be patient and take one game at a time providing them the opportunity to demonstrate better play. Until then, my skepticism remains healthy.
MountainDawg
September 30th, 2010
2:01 pm
Man, I hope you’re right Mark. On “paper” the Dawgs should be 4-0 (or 3-1) right now, but the OL, TBs & (OC) play calling haven’t cut it. AJ will only make an impact if the OL can pass block. I’m not sure how they’ll do…on the upside 8-4 is a long shot (probably 7-5); however 6-6 is indeed possible. I’m hoping they can man up & get it done in Boulder.
Hertzel Waltzer
September 30th, 2010
2:01 pm
I can’t believe that our heralded group of elite recruits
should be assigned as losers to SC and ARK as stated by our
fans on this blog.
Howcan we rationalize we are going to run the table when
we are 2-7 in our last SEC games.
It has been a long time since we routed hapless Hawaii
in the Sugar Bowl. At least 40 teams could have beaten
that Lard Ass bunch. We have fooled ouselves too long.
2-7 last 9 SEC games
10-11 last 21 SEC EAST games.
Do we not get it NOW !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
jtdawg
September 30th, 2010
2:01 pm
with all due respect to MUSTANG…
is anyone else tired of this argument??
“UGA fans need to chill out! You want to win but you are scaring the P P out of recruits!”
Fans are passionate about their program. I would find it highly, highly unlikely that recruits are gonna be driven away by fans. Poor coaching and terrible results will send them running, and so will a coaching change, possibly, but blaming upset fans for poor recruiting is just not very intelligent IMO.
In any event, with all the top 10 recruting classes we get anyways, why worry? You’re still going to get the same results
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September 30th, 2010
2:01 pm
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Hannibal Lector
September 30th, 2010
2:02 pm
There is no doubt that the UGA football program is on a disturbing downward spiral, and having an unflappable CMR on the sidelines isn’t helping any. The downward spiral seems to have started with the BAMA blackout game (in what was it 08?) and has continued and is now picking up speed. If it continues it will lead to a CRASH. That BAMA blackout game surely seemed to curse UGA for a long time. Expectations were so high what with the high national ranking at that time and the strong finish the year before. We were on a roll. But then SPLAT! and everything suddenly changed. You could literally feel the energy go out of the fan base in Sanford Stadium that night. The downward spiral has continued since then and is picking up speed.
Sure CMR says the right things i.e. “we’ve just got to hang in there and keep fighting,” but the game keeps passing him by and he remains puzzled, yet refuses to break a sweat. He definitely needs to retake the play calling from Bobo just for starters.
RAID
September 30th, 2010
2:04 pm
I hope not but think we’re steppin into another snake pit this weekend…..The Buffs are really building this one up…..much the way MSU did……nothing would surprize me a this point
Dawg Fud
September 30th, 2010
2:06 pm
Nice sugarcoating, Mark…but i ain’t buying it.
We ain’t good but we can get better if we work hard. The team played hard every game except Miss St.
Monsieur Madame
September 30th, 2010
2:10 pm
Paul – then RDU is completely packed with idiot morons.
MadMax
September 30th, 2010
2:13 pm
On paper? The dogs should be 4-0 on paper? You know what dogs do on paper? Exactly what they are doing to their season. Crappy Wee.
"E-Bay" Green
September 30th, 2010
2:24 pm
Hey! Thug-Dawg fans….Vandy has just returned 1,200 tix, so I am now accepting orders for the tix….cash only, I want the bread up-front man, you know how it is, no bank records this time.
Highest bids win!
5150 P.O.A.D
September 30th, 2010
2:24 pm
5150 P.O.A.D
September 30th, 2010
2:19 pm
NEXT YEAR the MNC is a JOKE. Yes it make money and PUB, bu winning the SEC should mean more if your team does that. Sorry I hate Tech lost to UGA last year, but winning the ACC was more important to me. BAMA playing Ga State this year is nice for Bama to give some money to Curry, but I think my buddy that is a huge BAMA fan could probably play QB and I could be Middle Lindbacker in that game by the middle of the 2nd quarter. If you want to break the BSC then have HUGE OOC games as to make the BCS MNC be between a no loss App St vs a no loss Sayracuse. Make the bowl matchups a joke because the teams playing got to the game by playing nobodys. I know I would love to see a Haiwii v Bosie St for the MNC when you have Bama, UF, Texas, USC west, Ohio St and Oklahoma all having 2-3 losses and playing in crapy bowls, but they could all beat the teams playing in the BCS MNC game. THAT is the cure to killing the BCS.
Boulder, Colorado Chamber of Commerce
September 30th, 2010
2:26 pm
FYI – We are now officially viewing the UGA Thugdawg game as our “trap game”.
Also, why not bring your pretty little black pants and helmets?
cantondawg
September 30th, 2010
2:32 pm
Do you guys remember how our Defensive coordinator search went. We all wanted CWM and we thought that we could get absolutely anybody in the nation to come be the DC for us..Bud Foster turned us down and stayed at VA. Tech for more money. John Chavis turned us down and reupped at LSU. Supposedly, Vic Koenning turned us down and took the job at Illinois. Then, Kirby Smart led us on then used us to get a better deal with Bama. If someone had told us that we would hire Todd Grantham as DC when we first fired CWM then how many of us would have been excited..NONE. I do think however Grantham will get the job done and like the hire.
Here’s a list of potential coaches and how i think it would play out.
1) Chris Peterson – he’s got it made a Boise..wouldn’t leave to job insecurity at SEC
2) Jon Gruden – If he didn’t leave for ND, he won’t leave for UGA
3) Will Muschamp – unproven as head coach
4) Kirby Smart – unproven as head coach
5) Charlie Strong – unproven as head coach
6) Gary Patterson – not leaving for job insecurity at SEC.
Tennessee had to settle for Derek Dooley and Auburn had to settle for Gene Chizik. They thought they could get the moon and had to settle for two unproven head coaches with LOSING records at their previous schools.
Do you guys really want to fire our winningnest head coach % wise and the fourth winningnest coach in NCAA for someone with an unproven record?
I could see this scenario playing out if we have a head coaching search. Look at how crazy our fans are acting now with the best head coach in our history. Do you think any of these hot young coaches want to leave their stable job and jump into the frying pan. If you don’t believe this then look at Alabama’s histore before Saban. Some of our fans are just as bad as theirs.
He
fair and Balanced
September 30th, 2010
2:35 pm
I like the optimism and we need it, but this is not making much sense really. This year’s edition is not very good. Period. The coaching is mediocre from top to bottom – at best. Players like Ealey (how did he get a SCHOLARship?) don’t have the good sense to recover their own fumble in the endzone; players allowing the ball to touch them as they run for punt coverage; an offensive line that is the biggest bunch of underachievers ever………… dare we continue? 9 – 3 sounds really good for sure and even 8 – 4 sounds great. IF that happens, Richt will make a believer out of me, but Bobo and co……. DONE! DONE! DONE!
aikenbravesfan
September 30th, 2010
2:38 pm
In 1969 and 1970 Bear Bryant’s Alabama teams went 6-5 and 6-5-1. In ‘69 they lost to UT for the 3rd straight year and lost to Vandy. They also lost their 3rd straight bowl game. He won 8 of the next 9 sec championships. In those same years Vince Dooley’s dawgs were 5-5 and 5-5-1. Went 11-1 in 1971. With the way fans are now, they would have never wanted these “incapable” coaches to stay around. Go ahead and fire Mark Richt so we can get our Derek Dooley. When we fire him lets see if we can get a coach who has won the SEC east 4 times, 90 games in 10 years, a couple of SEC championships, and 4 top 10 national finishes to apply. You guys that want to fire Richt are CRAZY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Panhandle73
September 30th, 2010
2:40 pm
Just a quick observation about the difference in expectations between a program like Georgia’s and one like Colorado’s:
Georgia expects to win and expects to be in a good bowl game each year. They also expect to be in the SEC championship every year, not just on occasion.
Colorado is content to win a couple “designated” games (CSU and one conference upset each year), as well as the occasional bowl game, and a conference championship game every ten years or so.
When traveling overseas in Europe with a group of 9 or10 couples from Athens that were long-time Georgia fans, I made the foolish mistake of wearing an orange rain jacket during pouring rain in Italy. I was asked to take it off by more than one of these otherwise genteel southern folks. I honestly thought they were joking.
Days later, when the rain started to fall heavily in Switzerland, I reached into my backpack and found my orange rain jacket had been replaced without me knowing with a bright red one.
As I learned to say on that trip, “Bless their Hearts!” Good Luck Georgia Fans
(For those of you that will attend the game in Boulder and think that Florida or LSU fans are rude, you will be unpleasantly surprised to find that many CU fans are worse.) I hope that they have changed.
5150 P.O.A.D
September 30th, 2010
2:40 pm
OK to all you that say pay the players. Here are the numbers from UGAs teams.
Baseball 42, M Bball 12, W/M Cross Country 54, Football 124, M Golf 11, M/W Swimming 51, M Tennis 11, M/W Track 98, W Bball 12, Equestrian 67, W Golf 8, Gymnastics 13, W Soccer 31, Softball 22, W Tennis 10, and Volleyball 13. That is 570 Student Athletes. If “PAY UP” has their way that is $570,000 min. a month to $1,140,000 a month or $13,680,000/yr. HAHAHAHAHAHHA RIGHT UGA can afford that. As someone posted UGAA is like #2 in money rasing and there is no way in HELL UGA can pay PLAYERS. TITLE IX leveled the field. Pay ONE you pay them ALL. Hell if you just paid them $2,000/ semester that is $3,420,000/ year.
GDAWG65
September 30th, 2010
2:42 pm
Mark you are too optimistic. However, I’m looking forward to seeing major changes next year. A head coach that is head coach, will disipline the team and motivate them. A OC that is thoroughly experienced in the job – meaning Dodo is goine. When a team doesn’t respect its coaches – and in this case for good reason, they aren’t going to be winners. It’s tragic that the team has no one to look up to.
cantondawg
September 30th, 2010
2:47 pm
fair and balanced,
your comments show that you never played football before and your stupidity. Ealey fumbled the ball because he got his bell rung by a defensive player and probrably didn’t know where he was at for a few minutes. If you had ever played football, you would know this. You also talk about players allowing the ball to touch them during punts. Again, anyone who has played know that you are trying to avoid block and blindside hits on the punt team and if a ball is under kicked it’s liable to hit anyone. I HATE sorry a$$ fans like you.
Phil
September 30th, 2010
2:51 pm
“4) Kirby Smart – unproven as head coach
5) Charlie Strong – unproven as head coach”
Richt was also unproven when they hired him. 10 years later and he hasn’t proved very much if you ask me.
DIT
September 30th, 2010
2:53 pm
Phil – “10 years later and he hasn’t proved very much if you ask me.”
You mean despte the two SEC Championships and 2 BCS Bowl victories right? Hey, I agree the past two years have stunk, but to say that CMR has done nothing is not very accurate.
mdr
September 30th, 2010
2:54 pm
Yeah, I’ve been a dawg since the day I was born (35 years ago), but I can not muster up any optimism for this team right now. I would love to see them get on a roll, but nothing they’ve done so far suggests to me that they are capable.
mdr
September 30th, 2010
2:54 pm
Phil – Luckily no one is asking you. That was just a ludicrous statement.
Shankit
September 30th, 2010
2:55 pm
The next head coach should be a young
coach at another division, such as Murray
State, etc. not one of these prima donnas
at Division 1. Give some younger talent
with new ideas a chance.
Phil
September 30th, 2010
2:58 pm
Richt has proven he can’t beat Florida, he can’t compete with the elite teams in the SEC, will never get us to a National Championship game. He’s proven he can’t control his players, both on the field and off the field. He’s proven he can take a elite program in the SEC and take to the bottom along side Vanderbilt and Ole Miss.
I guess you’re right, he’s proven a lot.
Pete
September 30th, 2010
3:00 pm
Well….first, most of you idiots never graduated from The University of Georgia….so keep your damn opinions to yourself. Secondly (and this coming from an Alumni and now booster…which I assure you, 95% on this comment list are not), we play in a competitive conference. We play hard year in, year out. This is a young team. We have been without Greene. We are only a few years removed from excellence. Dont pull a Tennessee. We dont need a Lane Kiffin to Derrick Dooley debacle. Just enjoy this year, and wait for the next. GO DAWGS!!