Phil Steele: Georgia Bulldogs ‘could very well run the table’ this year
If you missed it, you’ll want to hear what college football analyst/publisher Phil Steele said when asked on ESPN to name an off-the-radar team that could have a big season.
He initially mentioned Oklahoma, his pick to win the 2010 national title despite losing five games last season.
And then he mentioned someone else:
“If I was going to pick another one out of the stack there,” Steele said Friday on ESPN’s College Football Live, “I would have to say the Georgia Bulldogs. I think they’ve got a shot of even winning the SEC East and could very well run the table.”
Wow. Whoa. Run the table?
Steele doesn’t go so far as to predict the Bulldogs will do it, mind you. In fact, he has them No. 19 in his preseason rankings. But I’m pretty sure he’s the first to utter on national TV the possibility of an undefeated season for the 2010 Dogs.
Phil Steele’s College Football Preview magazine is always packed with information. Here are a few morsels pulled from his two-page preview of Georgia in this year’s edition (the abbreviations are his way of conserving space to cram in more info):
- “The 17 total QB int [last season] were the most at UGA since 1984.”
- “Surprisingly heading into ‘07 UGA had just one 1,000 yd back since ‘92!”
- “UGA had a pair of 100 yd rushers vs GT (Ealey and King) but just three 100 yd efforts all year and I look for significant improvement.”
- “Figgins returns and Green is back to full health making UGA my #2 receiving corps in the NCAA.”
- “The [offensive line] unit has an amazing 155 career starts (counting Justin Anderson who moved to the DL in spg) which is #1 in the FBS (my #1 OL unit).”
- “Even with the loss of their star [linebacker], provided this unit stays healthier, it should be stronger.”
- “This [defensive backfield] is a less exp’d unit and my biggest concern on the 2010 team.”
Interesting stuff once again, Phil Steele.
Also:
Click here for our latest UGA notebook, with items on new up-close basketball seats, fretting the Gators and the future of Foley Field.
And please follow @ajcuga on Twitter for Bulldogs news and notes.
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
537 comments Add your comment
Gus
May 31st, 2010
11:56 pm
Anyone heard, is #1 ranked defensive coach Charlie Strong still the DC at Florida?
Jeff
May 31st, 2010
11:57 pm
By the way, Bama fans, you have a great program, but don’t get too high and mighty… haven’t been a lot of repeat national champions in football in the last few decades, if you will check the history books. As good as Florida, LSU, Southern Cal and Texas were in recent years, none of them could repeat. It’s a tough road… be thankful for what you did and hope that your team is putting in the work to get back there.
Nobody should talk smack about the 2010 season until it gets here… that’s all i’m saying. That goes for all schools… just enjoy the games and the excitement, people, and remember that we are still THREE MONTHS AWAY from anybody playing a down… a lot can happen in that time.
Gus
May 31st, 2010
11:58 pm
Hey guys, Tebow is coming back to play for the Gators next year, right?
Jeff
June 1st, 2010
12:00 am
By the way, random thought… anybody else think that Jonah Hill is about the most un-funny, sophomoric clown in Hollywood these days? just sayin… it’s like he’s trying to be this generation’s Chris Farley. If I see another ad for that Get Him to the Greek movie, I might throw up….
DawgDad
June 1st, 2010
12:01 am
Predicting an undefeated season for UGA is quite simply blustery nonsense. Saying the Dawgs are no longer relevant in the SEC East is equally nutty, if not more so.
One of the luxuries of getting older is developing an appreciation of the quality product, program, and leadership at UGA, and simply sitting back and enjoying the games and competition. UGA has the quality talent, leadership, and support program to make this a very exciting and entertaining season. I’m looking forward to watching a talented young quarterback develop, watching an exciting big-play offense, and watching the new coaches develop the new defense under fire.
Justin
June 1st, 2010
12:01 am
I don’t think Florida will be quite as bad as some are saying here. 6-6? Come on guys. Probably 9-4 again for Meyer.
Of course Florida can’t hang with Alabama, Georgia, LSU, or Florida State this year, but they should win the rest of their games.
mdawg
June 1st, 2010
12:04 am
guess again….. no acc team will be playing for the national championship……ohio state is loaded this year and oregon has there entire team back except for their running back who was suspended for hitting the other teams player square in the mouth……
Jeff
June 1st, 2010
12:05 am
DawgDad — well said, excellent points, and I agree with you 100 percent. Sometimes people forget that these are 19-year-old kids trying to balance a full-time job in the national spotlight (D-1 college football, in the SEC no less) and a full-time class load. Oh, and all the typical life struggles that 19, 20-year-olds have….
I love watching the Dawgs, it tears me up when the lose, but I realize there is always next year… not like we’re trading AJ Green or Washaun Ealey is going to retire… it’s tougher to me when a pro team misses and opportunity, because the team can drastically change from one year to the next and you might never get that shot again.
Justin — good point as well. It’s Florida, people… don’t think they will curl up and disappear just because St. Tebow left. They are still a 9-3 team and probably the favorites (along with UGA) to win the SEC East… just like the balance of power in our division has been for a decade.
mdawg
June 1st, 2010
12:06 am
gus,
he number 1 DC was kirby smart at alabama not charlie strong
mdawg
June 1st, 2010
12:07 am
and no tebow is not coming back this year… that means florida will have a true qb who is more battle tested than murray
Jeff
June 1st, 2010
12:10 am
mdawg — you’re right about the ACC. The level of play in that league has slowly dropped over the last 10-12 years. FSU and Miami were supposed to raise the bar when they joined… instead, they have slipped, and no other team has become a national power (Sorry Tech fans — you’re good but not national-title-picture good).
Va. Tech, Clemson, Ga. Tech, Miami… all should be good this year but all have serious flaws. A game between them and a champ from the SEC, Big 10 or Big 12 would definitely be a loss. I’m no Bama or Gator fan, but those teams in 2008 and 2009 would have wiped the floor with the ACC champ. And in recent years, the SEC has dominated the ACC (save for a few wins by Ga. Tech over Vandy and Miss. State)….
The ACC still has a ways to go before it becomes a consistent power football conference.
Reality
June 1st, 2010
12:27 am
Crack is Whack.
Gus
June 1st, 2010
12:29 am
The 9 players from Florida all passed up on the NFL and will return this season right?
Tom Tom
June 1st, 2010
12:31 am
Can someone update me on the Florida WR situation? How much game experience, total, do they have with their WR corp?
gatorMan
June 1st, 2010
1:06 am
Get real Phil, Georgia is about to have another terrible season, Richts lasts season is the next.
GIBBS
June 1st, 2010
1:14 am
Gators will go undefeated. Phil Steele and Scout should change their opinion and ranking of the mighty Gators. Can’t see why no one has the Gators ranked #1. Well, they all must be blind.
Jeff
June 1st, 2010
1:25 am
Gatorman… sorry, dude, UGA is much better off this summer than last… more experience in key situations, better coaching, and better quarterback potential (Murray and Mason have a ton more talent than Cox ever did). And the schedule is not quite as tough… and Richt has a great way of rebounding after a tough year (see 2007: UGA coming off a “bad” year at 9-4 winds up winning 11 games, BEATING FLORIDA and winning a BCS bowl)… now in 2010, Georgia is coming off a “terrible” season by your accounts (really? 8 wins is terrible? ask tech over the last 25 years how much they would LOVE to have an 8-win season)…. sorry, gatorman, you’re off kilter. Richt will rebound with a better staff around him and more commitment from his players. Richt at UGA will outlast Meyer at Florida, mark my words.
The Thin Guy
June 1st, 2010
1:44 am
Normally a team that goes 12-0 or even 10-2 has an outstanding QB. Anybody think Logan Gray fits the bill? Georgia State has better QBs.
Jeff
June 1st, 2010
1:44 am
And by the way, shouldn’t Florida fans want to have a big rivalry with Georgia, where the win means something? I mean, how big is the Florida-Vandy rivalry when you win 800 games in a row? And if Georgia is going to be so terrible, why the heck are Florida fans on a UGA blog and trying to denigrate Georgia’s program? Seems like a lot of trouble for a team that, in gatorman’s words, is going to have a “terrible” season.
Jeff
June 1st, 2010
1:46 am
And no, Thin Guy, we’re not banking on Logan Gray… he will be 2nd or 3rd team. Georgia is building on Aaron Murray and Hutson Mason, two kids with great talent and a lot of potential. If they blossom like Greene, Shockley and Stafford all did, Georgia will be fine.
And I think even the biggest Georgia fans, when realistic, are not thinking 12-0… we’re thinking progress, one year to the next… 9 or maybe 10 wins this year, then 11 or more next season.
Bill Melater
June 1st, 2010
1:55 am
Ha. hahahahaha. Just ha.
Tim Buchman
June 1st, 2010
3:29 am
Mr. Steele is right about the dogs. They will win some sec games, but will lose some sec games as usual. Hope UF kicks their mongrel butts and Auburn does too. Richt is a good coach, so are alot of other NCAA coaches. Mr. Steele might can write a headline and smoke a fat cigar, but UGA going all the way is actually making most of us other sec fans laugh.
BuLLdawg
June 1st, 2010
6:40 am
Phil Steele RANKS UGA # 19 this up-coming season, the same as we are over the last 4 years at # 19 at 38-14.
Last 4 years :
48 wins Florida
40 wins LSU
39 wins Alabama
38 wins Georgia Bulldogs
In the last 4 years, 14 losses by Coach Richt.
9 points 2001 vs South Carolina
10 points 2001 vs Florida
17 points 2001 vs Auburn
16 points 2001 vs Boston College
13 points 2002 vs South Carolina
18 points 2002 vs Tennessee
13 points 2002 vs FL 0-13 3rd down
10 points 2003 vs LSU
16 points 2003 vs UAB
13 points 2003 vs Florida
13 points 2003 vs LSU
20 points 2004 vs South Carolina
13 points 2004 vs Marshall
14 points 2004 vs Tennessee
20 points 2004 vs Arkansas
6 points 2004 vs Auburn
19 points 2004 vs Georgia tek
17 points 2005 vs South Carolina
10 points 2005 vs Florida
14 points 2005 vs Georgia tek
18 points 2006 vs South Carolina
14 points 2006 vs Colorado
14 points 2006 vs Ole Miss
14 points 2006 vs Florida
20 points 2006 vs Kentucky
15 points 2006 vs Georgia tek
12 points 2007 vs South Carolina
14 points 2007 vs Tennessee
20 points 2007 vs Vandie
14 points 2008 vs South Carolina
10 points 2008 vs Florida
17 points 2008 vs Auburn
10 points 2009 vs Okie State
20 points 2009 vs Arizona State
13 points 2009 vs LSU
19 points 2009 vs Tennessee
17 points 2009 vs Florida
DISNEYdawg.scom
Bama 1
June 1st, 2010
6:47 am
All this hoopla and they will still suck! ROLL TIDE!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Dawgs Take Over
June 1st, 2010
6:59 am
Without Tebow, florida becomes ordinary again. UGA is loaded and on a mission. Dawgs win the SEC east—bet the house!
Drunken, delusional fan base = UGA
June 1st, 2010
7:04 am
Ha ha ha ha ha that headline is a joke in itself.
Urban Meyer
June 1st, 2010
7:13 am
“You’re a redneck if you’re fan base is on it’s 17th undefeated football season and your team actually only has one.”
This is too easy!
Rev. Mark
June 1st, 2010
7:32 am
What a bunch of maroons. Phil trying to sell magazines and the lemmings are buying it hook-line-and-sinker.
HBTD
June 1st, 2010
7:53 am
Bingo!!
AltamahaDawg
June 1st, 2010
8:00 am
If Phil really wanted to sell a bunch of magazines with a preview of the UGA football season, he would set up somewhere near the gtech campus. He’d run out as soon as those text alerts started getting out.
Jason
June 1st, 2010
8:11 am
Wait a minute! Are all you UGA fans that have been touting the almighty strength of schedule in the SEC now calling the SEC schedule a creampuff schedule?
Nolefan
June 1st, 2010
8:12 am
Is this guy smokin crack????? The only table they will run is the mess hall table full of food!!! They will be lucky to win half their games this year!!! They had a power house team 2 seasons ago and couldn’t do squat, they will always be good but not good enough!!
Nolefan
June 1st, 2010
8:15 am
I think this guy jsut knows how simple minded UGA fans really are and he hopes to turn them away from their only claim to fame (#34) The only thing they have to cheer about was over 20 years ago!!
Scott
June 1st, 2010
8:43 am
UNDEFEATED !!! LMAO
THAT’S THE FUNNIEST THING I’VE HEARD IN A LONG TIME.
THE DOGGIES…AMERICA’S ALSO RANS AND RUNNER UPS..WON’T WIN THEIR DIVISION OR THE SEC OR THE NATIONAL TITLE…
THEN ALL THE LITTLE REDNECKS WILL START YELLING FOR RICHT’S HEAD..BECAUSE HE DIDN’T DO IT…AS USUAL.
Yep
June 1st, 2010
8:46 am
YES, and they’ll be playing Louisiana Tech for the BCS Championship. Give me a BREAK!! I wonder what Phil Steele pulls down a year for his stupidity.
The Real World
June 1st, 2010
8:55 am
As I recall, wasn’t Florida pretty good before Tebow got there?? Didn’t they pretty much dominate Georgia before “the chosen one” showed up at UF?? That’s what I thought.
JB
June 1st, 2010
8:58 am
Let’s play the games……..everything else on here is wasted fodder…
The Real World
June 1st, 2010
8:58 am
I also remember all the Georgia fans saying that Florida football was DONE after Spurrier bolted for the Pros after 2001. How’d THAT work out??
The Real World
June 1st, 2010
9:02 am
Remember when Georgia fans were saying that once Leak was gone, Florida was gonna fall off because Tebow was just a runner and couldn’t throw the ball?? I remember reading alot of that right here in the AJC blogs comment sections. Gee wiz, are you guys EVER right??
Bo Dudley
June 1st, 2010
9:02 am
Run the table. Run the table. What a freaking ludicrous idea.
It’s kind of sad to see all the Dawg fans getting so excited this year (just like the year before, the year before that, etc.). How long is it going to take for UGA fans to realize that UGA is simply no longer relevant in the SEC? In the national picture, UGA isn’t even a blip on the radar, and hasn’t
been since the preseason #1 ranking two years ago.
Sit back and be grateful for the seven or eight wins you’ll get every year. Coaching genius Mark Richt may take you to 10-2 or even 11-1 occasionally, but Florida will still win the SEC, meaning no BCS bowls and no top 15 final ranking. Most years, UGA will be very lucky to finish in the top 25, and only after a big bowl win over a nobody opponent.
It’s a different world now, and Dawg fans, like FSU and Ole Miss fans, need to adjust their expectations downward to reflect reality.
Unfortunately nothing is going to change until UGA changes its mediocre coaching. That’s where the difference is, and that’s why everyone outside Bulldog Nation just laughs at Dawg fans getting so excited year after year about what a great recruiting class UGA gets. It doesn’t matter how many
blue chip high school plays go to UGA, they simply don’t get the coaching they would get at Florida or Alabama, to name two schools whose programs are far ahead of UGA. And that’s not going to change as long as Mark Richt is in Athens.
Get your heads out of the sand and face reality. And mediocrity and irrelevance.
The Real World
June 1st, 2010
9:04 am
And remember last year about this same time when Georgia fans (and Paul Finebaum as well) were all harping on how Urban Meyer was gonna bolt for Notre Dame last year because that was really his “dream” job??? Wrong AGAIN.
Erin
June 1st, 2010
9:05 am
Until UGA offers Charlie Strong enough $$$ to lure him to Athens, nothing will change, and UGA will certainly not be running any tables.
Pope UGA XXIII
June 1st, 2010
9:05 am
This is a great idea and I would love to see it, but UGA needs to
beware of the Chickens in Columbia. I think the Evil Genius will
mess up the season of one or two teams and right now, the names
of UGA, Alabama, and Florida come to mind as potential “ruinees”.
Paul (you doesn't have to call me Johnson)
June 1st, 2010
9:05 am
Phil Steele
You have really put the Gator Fans jorts in a wad. If they didn’t have a losing record against UGA they wouldn’t be so upset. Or if they had as many SEC Championships or if their MNC’s were not diminished by losses to average teams or if they had as many Super Bowl MVPs or if their program had any history prior to Steve Spurrier, etc. etc
The Real World
June 1st, 2010
9:10 am
Also remember how Georgia fans were saying that Meyer was lying to all those five star recruits he signed up and was gonna retire/resign/whatever right after signing day. Well I believe he’s at the SEC meeting in Destin right now. Man, I could go on and on but maybe even some of you dumb dawgs are starting to get the picture. If I were all of you, I’d get out of the forecasting business. Good thing you’re not the weatherman!
shankit
June 1st, 2010
9:10 am
Hey Gaytor
Your lizards have never run the table.
Gatorbait 17-3
June 1st, 2010
9:12 am
The following will show why jawja won’t be running any table soon, they are more likely to waiting on tables in some dive after this year.
2006 RECRUITING CLASSES
1 Southern Cal 25 5 14 6 3.9 3,018
2 Florida 27 4 17 5 3.89 2,901
3 Florida State 31 2 18 10 3.68 2,703
4 Georgia 28 2 14 12 3.64 2,436
One more nail in Richt’s coaching coffin. Pat Forde looked at the 2006 college recruiting classes: “Only four of ESPN’s 2006 top 25 recruiting classes were signed by teams that played in a BCS bowl four years later: Florida (No. 1), Texas (No. 3), Ohio State (No. 10) and Alabama (No. 18).
USC had the No. 2 class and just finished its worst season since 2001. Georgia was No. 4 and performed so poorly that Mark Richt had to shake up his staff and has himself edged toward the hot seat. Notre Dame was No. 5 and fired its coach. Florida State was No. 6 and got its legendary coach pushed into retirement.”
"Home of Mediocrity"
June 1st, 2010
9:17 am
The Georgia football fans credo:
If stupidity and delusional thinking got us in this mess,
then it can get us out of it!
Phil Steele, one of the greatest football minds of our time.
Gator Mike
June 1st, 2010
9:18 am
I believe that UGA will be better than most anticipate, but Phil Steele is not doing them a favor. I am sure that the long time DAWG Fans will not drink this Steele’s nectar. If too many UGA fans buy into his proverb, they could set themselves up for another 2007 letdown when expectations were over the top as they were for UF last year.
It should be an interesting year and Jax will be intense again on 30 October.
Go Gators!
Gatorbait 17-3
June 1st, 2010
9:18 am
Ya’ll have got to realize that glory, glory to old jawja is a thing of past, actually the distant past 1980. Until you give Richt his walking papers, the glory days won’t return. I like Richt, but he’s just not a good head coach, great assistant coach. He is and never will be the league of Meyer, Saban, Peterno, Miles and Nutt.