Glass-half-full dept.: How UGA might still win the SEC East
"Over? Nothing's over until we SAY it's over! Who's with me?" (AJC photo by Brant Sanderlin)
Having spent the week hammering Mark Richt and Georgia, doing everything from crunching numbers to imagining the worst that could happen, it seems only fair to offer a corresponding best-case-scenario. Here goes:
The Bulldogs could win the SEC East.
I know, I know. They haven’t yet won a conference game, and they surely won’t be favored to beat either Florida or Auburn. (And Kentucky looks like a toss-up.) But it’s conceivable Georgia could finish 5-3 in the SEC, and that might — might, I said — enable them to take the division. Here’s how it would work:
Step 1: Georgia wins out. (Duh.)
Step 2: South Carolina, which has already beaten Georgia and lost to Auburn, loses to Alabama on Saturday, to Arkansas on Nov. 6 and to Florida the week after.
Step 3: Florida, which has lost to Alabama, loses to LSU on Saturday and to Georgia on Oct. 30.
That would leave Georgia and Florida at 5-3 in league play, with Georgia holding the tiebreaker because of its head-to-head victory, and South Carolina at 4-4. (At this early date there seems no sense in discussing how a three-way tie might be broken. Nor does there seem a need to assume any of the above will lose to Vanderbilt.)
Among the things Georgia had going for it this season was this basic bit of logistics: It wasn’t scheduled to play Alabama, and both Florida and South Carolina were. That still holds. And Georgia does get the three Eastern lesser lights — Tennessee, Vandy and Kentucky — in a row. (So does South Carolina, but two of those games are on the road. The Bulldogs get both the Vols and Commodores in Athens.)
There’s a chance Georgia could go to Jacksonville at 3-3 in league play, and if you get to 3-3 there’s at least a mathematical possibility of finishing 5-3. And 5-3 might just win the division, provided South Carolina finishes 4-4. Which could yet happen.
Understand: I didn’t pick Georgia to win the East — I picked UGA third, behind Florida and being shaded for second by South Carolina — and I’m not picking it now. But if I’m going to imagine the horror that might be unleashed if the Bulldogs lose to Derek Dooley’s team, I might as well be even-handed. As lousy as this season has been, there’s still a chance something really good could come of it.
A chance, I said. A chance.
(Oh, and if Georgia loses Saturday, forget I mentioned this.)
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647 comments Add your comment
Mike
October 7th, 2010
11:43 am
I’m as big a Georgia fan as anyone … but Mark … I’ve already accepted the fact that we are done. Hoping we can play spoiler.
Bah Humbug
October 7th, 2010
11:44 am
This is why UGA have become the “paper” champions. Farfetched articles like this writing in UGA as Champions have made there fans substitute what the paper says instead of what is real. This is real: UGA you are not good!
Delbert D.
October 7th, 2010
11:45 am
Coach Richt, there’s a better solution than working your tail off. Just get it surgically removed and be done with it.
McDawg
October 7th, 2010
11:45 am
I like your style Mr. Bradley
WayShun Ealy
October 7th, 2010
11:46 am
ME AND GREEN ARE OUTS DIS BEAOCH THE FIRST CHANCE WE GETS. WANNA MAKE DAT BLING FOOLS.
icedawg
October 7th, 2010
11:46 am
This weekend’s game will clear up the matter. The Dawg’s defense is in such a shambles, has so many holes, that the Vols offense should be able to score almost at will. It will take several years of decent recruiting and less attrition due to lawbreaking and academic failings to turn this “puppy” around. All the fuss about the Columbus running back going to Bama is unnecessary. There are plenty of quality players out there and they call cannot play for Bama and Florida.
Faith in Richt
October 7th, 2010
11:46 am
Put ALL of your faith in Coach and it will happen. Not only win the SEC East but the SEC and National Championship as well.
SugarHillDawg
October 7th, 2010
11:49 am
I agree with the first poster. If we win the east we STILL shouldn’t be allowed to go to Atlanta.
pbj
October 7th, 2010
11:53 am
Mark, Mark, Mark…. You have been reading some of your reader’s comments too long- the ones that claimed Georgia was going 14-0 this year- and the one that is still claiming that Ga could end up winning the SEC. There are drugs for that you know.
WayShun Ealy
October 7th, 2010
11:56 am
WHY TALK NECKS ALL UP ABOUT MY COACH FOOLS. MOST OF U ARE FAT SKIN CRAKAS ANYWAYS.
B-Mac
October 7th, 2010
12:01 pm
So you’re saying there’s a chance!!–Jim Carey voice from Dumb and Dumber LOL!!!
SecGuy
October 7th, 2010
12:01 pm
I’m a Bama fan, but sure it can happen. I haven’t counted Georgia out because I see problems with Florida and South Carolina too.
Ray
October 7th, 2010
12:04 pm
You Richt haters better get off the fire mark richt bandwagon. Major rumor that Spurrier retires at end of season and USC is VERY interested in Richt were he to be fired from UGA. UGA has a treasure in Richt and a couple of bad years should not cause you to be short-sighted. Oh the pain of losing him to USC. They would be a top ten team in no time flat.
GATOR HATER
October 7th, 2010
12:05 pm
The chances the Georgia Bulldogs winning the SEC EAST Atlanta Braves,winning National championship and World Series, ARE NONE.
Obama
October 7th, 2010
12:06 pm
Don’t worry flea bags. There’s still hope and change on the way
Saint Mark
October 7th, 2010
12:06 pm
In the 1986 Jan Kemp trial, O. Hale Almand Jr., a lawyer for UGA, offered a justification for the favorable treatment accorded the athletes, citing a hypothetical player. “We may not make a university student out of him,” he told the jury, “but if we can teach him to read and write, maybe he can work at the post office rather than as a garbageman when he gets through with his athletic career.”
That trial exposed UGA for the football factory that it was, and exposed Vince Dooley as a fraud and a sleazebag. It also derailed Dooley’s plans for a political career. That’s why we see the decrepit old fraud doing TV commercials even now.
Mark Richt is just the latest in a line of sleazy UGA coaches who coddle athletes and discard them after four years of football. He recruits illiterate morons he knows aren’t smart enough for college, but he doesn’t care, as long as they help him line his pockets with millions of dollars each year.
Suntanned Saint Mark isn’t all he appears to be, is he?
Keyser Soze
October 7th, 2010
12:07 pm
When pigs fly
Gdawg84
October 7th, 2010
12:08 pm
Mark,
I love that your whiskey glass is half full…sounds like yuor crack pipe is too!
Spray tan
October 7th, 2010
12:09 pm
We’re still in this. 0-3 is all part of the plan. We lay in wait and let everyone get comfortable and then we make our move. Don’t worry, losing to UT this weekend is part of the plan as well.
GATOR HATER
October 7th, 2010
12:09 pm
I’ll say it again. The chances the Georgia Bulldogs,winning the SEC East,and the Atlanta Braves winning the National League and World Series Championship’s. ARE NONE.
"But it's a 1 and 4 SEC team"
October 7th, 2010
12:10 pm
We got this.
Patrick, what handle are you posting under these days?
October 7th, 2010
12:10 pm
Enter your comments here
JD
October 7th, 2010
12:11 pm
Make up your mind and stick with it. You trash them one day and then come up with some way out positive situation the next day. At least you are not riding the fence with them. I guess that is better than trashing them only and not writing about them at all.
RussDawg
October 7th, 2010
12:11 pm
Wow so we leave journalism behind and venture off into the world of fantasy and fiction!
Great Reporting from the AJC
So if this team does pull it off and beat UT they will be what? 2 – 4 2 – 4 ! and we’re all back on the wagon and talking SEC title game ! Man I lived thru the early 70’s and never got that high.
Helen Hunt
October 7th, 2010
12:11 pm
I sure was better at acting than coaching in Athens.
Spray tan
October 7th, 2010
12:11 pm
GATOR, even if the Braves had to face Roy Halladay in every postseason game, they still have a better chance than the dogs.
Gman
October 7th, 2010
12:13 pm
Yeah, the Jan Kemp trial is relevant. Gimme a break dinasour boy
elroy
October 7th, 2010
12:13 pm
what a retarded column. bradley, this one knokcs you down a few points. you are now at -25.
Sports Clips
October 7th, 2010
12:13 pm
CMR we have a new hair style we want to try out on you. Call us.
Hanna
October 7th, 2010
12:13 pm
I’ve never understood how anyone – even an alumnus – could support and take pride in UGA’s football team. When you look at their history for the past forty years, how can anyone ignore Jan Kemp and the “remedial studies” scam, the Jim Harrick fiasco, the DUIs in the athletic office, the DUIs and other arrests of players, the #1 party school tag (i.e., the most drunk students), the suspensions and outright dismissals, the Fulmer Cup, and on and on?
As disgraceful and humiliating as it is, I don’t see many alums and fans demanding an end to this sordid activity. It sets UGA apart as the kind of school most people abhor, and it’s become an embarrassment to the whole state of Georgia.
Will it never end? Apparently not while Mark Richt is at UGA. Richt is perhaps the biggest hypocrite in the United States. But even with all the cheating and lawlessness that he ignores, he still can’t win the SEC.
So you’re paying him to be BCS champions, but he can’t even win his SEC division. So why do you pay him millions of dollars a year?
Just asking.
Michael Vick
October 7th, 2010
12:14 pm
Hire me as your strength and conditioning coach. I know what to do with a dog that won’t fight. I’ll need jumper cables and a tub of water.
Spray tan
October 7th, 2010
12:15 pm
Gman, spin that to all the UGA bozo’s that still revel in a 1980 championship.
Ray
October 7th, 2010
12:21 pm
Mark is right–UGA has a shot. I believe they will run the table. Team is fired up, ready to prove their power. CMR, the finest coach in UGA history, will lead the team into battle. UGA 36–TN 10. And…lets not lose our coach to South Carolina. Support Mark Richt.
King Roy Barnes
October 7th, 2010
12:30 pm
Run left, run left. I’ll have the teacher’s unions block for you.
Andy
October 7th, 2010
12:32 pm
1- It’s not as odd as it looks. In 24 years of coaching, Richt’s NEVER won less than 8 games on any team he’s ever coached. So odds Richt gets to at least 8 wins, almost 100%. And Richt has a 9 or 9+ season 80% of his years at Georgia. So 80% chance Richt gets to 9 or more wins in 2010.
80% Chance Richt goes 5-3 in the SEC East in 2010.
2- Let’s look at The Ole Ball Coach. Spurrier has finished 4-4 or worse, 80% of the time over there at South Carolina. He did have 1 season where he finished 5-3, but 1 out of 5, ain’t good odds. Unfortunately for Steve, this is the hardest schedule he’s ever had at South Carolina, and he still has Alabama, Arkansas, and Florida, 3 top 15 ranked teams, to go. Let’s face it, Garcia choked so bad with his 2 late fumbles against Auburn that Spurrier benched him and put in a Freshman at QB, who also choked, and quickly ended the game with 2 interceptions.
80% chance Spurrier goes 4-4 or worse in 2010 in SEC East.
3- The trickiest part is Urban Meyer. For years, folks like me have been saying he’s overrated, and his wins were due to guys like Tebow, Percy, and coaches like Strong & Mullen. Also thought Brantley wouldn’t be very good, and I was right. I’ve said all along this would be one of those down years for Urban, another 5-3 year. So Urban goes 5-3 or worse in the SEC East 40% of his time, and goes 13-1 the other 60%. I don’t think anyone thinks Meyer will go 13-1, so you’d have to think this is that rebuilding year. Meyer looked so bad against Alabama, it was embarrasing. 31-6. Just got pummeled. Which did not surprise me. Can Meyer beat LSU & Georgia? I don’t think so, not with this team, not without Tebow, Percy, Strong or Mullen. But the odds are in his favor, because he finished 5-3 or better, 60% of his seasons. Also, Meyer has a number on Richt, and usually wins that match-up with a better running game and tight end. I don’t think Florida’s running game or tight end is better than Georgia this season. If Demps and Brantley are both hurt, it’s gonna be 5-3 or worse.
40% chance Meyer goes 5-3 in the SEC or worse in 2010.
wkmorris
October 7th, 2010
12:40 pm
[Note to AJC H.R. Department] You might want to be sure to include Mr. Bradley in the ‘random’ drug screening process
Barbara Dooley
October 7th, 2010
12:41 pm
Mark, you have been drinking the Thuga kool aid way too long. Vandy, Kentucky, and Tennessee are better than Thuga. Idaho State will give them a good game. Auburn and Florida will smack them and Tech will also beat them. You and the thuga nation are looking at 3 and 9 at best with one of the easiest schedules in the country. Next year it will get easier since rumor has it that Thuga opens up with Agnes Scott.
Jethro Bodeen
October 7th, 2010
12:42 pm
I like your math Mr. Drysdale!
David Granger
October 7th, 2010
12:42 pm
I guess there’s always a possibility. But I’m not sure that would be a good thing for us, Mark. There are some things that really need to change at Georgia…not just for this season, but for the good of the program in the long run. (I’m not necessarily talking about getting rid of Coach Richt, but that’s definitely on the table.)
But if we were to win out, I’m not sure those problems would actually be addressed. And these problems are not just things that have happened this year…but are ongoing issues, like the lack of discipline, that have hurt us for several years now.
Barbara Dooley
October 7th, 2010
12:43 pm
This just in from WSB radio. Saint Mark has called for all the Thuga fans attending the game to wear black shirts and red panties. Mark will even use a different hair spray. That should do the trick.
Al Gore
October 7th, 2010
12:44 pm
Thanks Mark! This is better than: ” I invented the internet” But, I have to give you credit, you know how to stir the pot. lol
Barbara Dooley
October 7th, 2010
12:45 pm
Wayshon is giving Caleb Queen and Pay J Green a ride to the stadium on Saturday. Tailgaters better move their cars.
Barbara Dooley
October 7th, 2010
12:49 pm
Larry Munson: “Alright, get the picture, the Thuga fans are dressed in Black Tops and Red Panties. Saint Mark has just led the team out locked arm in arm with Damon Evans with the tunes of Soldia Boy screaming from the speakers. There’s going to be a lot of thugging going on today. Loren, what a yot?”
Larry: “Well Larry, I am having a hard time talking because my red panties are too tight. I’ve never seen so many stretched red panties in all my life….”
And as always
October 7th, 2010
12:50 pm
Georgia is 1-4, mismanaged and not good. But they’ll can the coach, get one who knows what he’s doing, and win a lot of games again.
And yet Tech Fans, Florida Fans, Auburn Fans, UT fans, et all are still on a Georgia blog.
Thank you again for your continued obession with The University of Georgia.
travis
October 7th, 2010
12:51 pm
hard to believe.with all the good players they got they suck this bad…i cant believe it what is wrong down there….geeeeeeeeeee
Barbara Dooley
October 7th, 2010
12:53 pm
And as always, you are too busy drinking the thuga koolaid…….good luck against Idaho State….if you don’t squeek by them its 1 and 11 instead of 2 and 10…..
Pat
October 7th, 2010
12:55 pm
Bradley being Bradley. Is that like Manny being Manny? You roll your eyes everytime…
Barbara Dooley
October 7th, 2010
12:56 pm
Time to get out those 1980 tapes again.
Buffalo's Rule!
October 7th, 2010
12:56 pm
Why is there so much criticism for UGA losing to Colorado. After all, they won the 1990 National Championship!
reality check
October 7th, 2010
12:57 pm
Can’t believe you thought it much less took the time to write it down….. Come ‘on Man!
Wishful thinking sitting at 1-4 I would say??????