ESPN hates UGA! No, wait! ESPN loves UGA! (Ah, clarity)

Don't fret, Dog-lovers. ESPN says you've got the edge in coaching. (AJC photo by Brant Sanderlin)

There are times when fans of every college team seem to believe ESPN is Out To Get Them. Tennessee backers have long held this to be true, insisting that the Worldwide Leader’s blather was the reason Charles Woodson won the 1997 Heisman Trophy over Peyton Manning. Georgia supporters, still recalling how Kirk Herbstreit dismissed the Bulldogs’ case for inclusion in the 2007 BCS title game, aren’t above such suspicion, either.

Not to rain on anybody’s conspiracy parade, but it could just be that the Worldwide Leader’s problem is that it employs every pundit in the world. When you have so much being said/written by so many different voices/scribes, you’re bound to tick off everybody at some juncture. This weeks offers an schizo case study.

Georgia’s game with South Carolina will be aired by ESPN, which knows no bounds when hyping itself. There has been so much written about the game on ESPN.com — and hey, it’s only Thursday! — as to boggle the mind. Here we cite specifics:

• KC Joyner, an ESPN Insider, has labeled Georgia “a flawed and overrated squad” that does not belong in the nation’s top five. (All these links require registration.) His reasons: The defense is lousy, the special teams are worse and the Bulldogs are flagged for too many penalties.
• Rod Gilmore, an Insider who also does commentary on broadcasts, calls Georgia one of three teams — West Virginia and Notre Dame being the others — who are “false kings.” He rips just-returned-from-suspension defenders Alec Ogletree and Bacarri Rambo for their play against Tennessee, writing that they “took poor pursuit angles or were slow to recognize and diagnose plays.” Whoa, Nellie!

Those were the first two Georgia-based assessments posted on ESPN Insider this week, and they were enough to induce a Red & Black lather. (Speaking figuratively. I’ve never seen lather come in such bold hues.) But wait!

• The Scouts Inc. analysis — it’s compiled by Todd McShay, Steve Muench and Kevin Weidl, and it’s detailed — on ESPN Insider picks Georgia to beat South Carolina 28-25. Its gives Georgia the advantage at quarterback (about whom more later), wide receivers, offensive line, linebackers, defensive backs — and coach! In related news, Steve Spurrier is seeking to have Scouts Inc. fired.
• Phil Steele, whose idiosyncratic yearbook Georgia fans enjoy and quote ad nauseum when he picks Georgia to do well, picks Georgia to beat South Carolina in his weekly post for ESPN Insider. (Here we pause to wonder: With everyone in creation seemingly an Insider, who’s left Outside?)
• Brock Huard, a former quarterback turned — you guessed it — an ESPN Insider, calls Aaron Murray the SEC’s best quarterback and writes that Murray’s long-sought “marquee win … should be coming Saturday night.”

It’s entirely possible that I’ve missed something on ESPN.com this week, but those five entries should suffice. Moral of our story: ESPN is large, and it contains multitudes. And if you happen to hate some point of view the Worldwide Leader espouses, wait 10 minutes and a differing take will rumble past.

Update: On cue, here’s another. In his Man Vs. Machine Upset Picks, Insider Will Harris – I assume he’s the Man in question – has South Carolina winning 28-20. I’m not sure how that’s an upset, seeing as how the Gamecocks opened as a favorite. (Though the betting line has narrowed considerably, which means pro-Georgia money is pouring in.)

By Mark Bradley

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