Some quick thoughts on the upcoming season

Sick and tired of Georgia fans coming out of the woodwork. Tickets are now $10,000 when they used to be just $2,500 a few season ago. All of a sudden, message boards are filled with UGA fans, claiming that UGA is the best team ever and should have won the NC last year and is a lock to do so this year.

Again, I prefer to stick to the facts:

UGA beat Bama in a miracle OT comeback
UGA beat Vandy on a miracle fumble and last second FG
UGA was blown out by UT
UGA beat a Hawaii team that would have been a sub-500 SEC team (yes, I’m saying that it was the equivalent of beating an Ole Miss, Mississippi State, South Carolina or Kentucky). Actually, that was a pretty big win for the Dawgs since we lost to a team that we were supposed to blow out in our last BCS game (2005 Sugar Bowl against WVU).

Look, I know UGA is stacked at most positions this year and returns an absurd # of starters. But, I also know that UGA has an incredibly difficult schedule and has often been tripped up in the past. The last time we had the same SEC slate was in 2004 (Greene and Pollack’s senior year), when we were a shoe-in for the SEC East title. Then, we made it through Alabama and blew out LSU in a revenge game only to fall flat against Tennessee (19-14) led by freshman QB Erik Ainge (3-0 against the Dawgs in his career. I, for one, am glad to see he’s gone and wish another Clausen was there to take his place). Although we beat UF (which, combined with LSU, really made our season), we lost to Auburn (which went undefeated) and handed the SEC East to Tennessee. Oh, I would also like to point out that we will have a first-year placekicker. With all the right breaks that a SEC team needs to win the BCS, it makes me a little uncomfortable knowing that we will likely have to rely on a freshman kicker to win a game at some point in 2008.

I have always thought that 2009 looks to be the best year (assuming, Stafford and Knowshon return. At this time last year, I never thought that we would be concerned with losing either of these two before 2009.). Our non-conference slate is more difficult with three BCS teams (Ok. State, ASU, and GT – ASU will take a step back after losing QB Carpenter but GT will likely be better in year two of the Paul Johnson era and with dual-threat QB Josh Nesbitt entering his Junior year). We, however, will get Arizona State and LSU at home and drop Alabama for Arkansas. Our beginning slate will be just as difficult (@ OSU, vs. USC, @ Arkansas, vs. ASU, vs. LSU, @ UT), but we will have a bye ahead of the UF game (remember the importance of the bye week in this series) and Tennessee Tech before Auburn.


2008 Predictions
- The SEC East will be won on November 1 in Jacksonville, FL
- Notre Dame will win 9 games
- USC will win the Pac-10
- North Carolina will go to a bowl game
- Clemson will win the ACC
- Ohio State will win the Big-10/11
- LSU will not win the SEC West – it will be down to Auburn and Alabama in the Iron Bowl