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Home > Mark Bradley > Archives > 2008 > September > 17
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
Why the nitpicking with UGA’s start?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Athens - In three weeks Georgia has dropped from No. 1 to No. 3 in the polls. CBSsports.com suggests the Bulldogs are no better than fourth-best in their conference. SI.com no longer lists Knowshon Moreno among the top 10 Heisman contenders. Has a 3-0 start ever been so devalued?
And an even more salient question: Do the objects of this derision still believe they’re any good?
Said Mohamed Massaquoi, the wide receiver: “Oh, yeah. I’m obviously seeing us perform every day, but we’ve got so many playmakers on both sides of the ball. We’re winning. We’re moving in the right direction. We’re getting better every week.”
Said Matthew Stafford, the quarterback: “I think so. We’re winning games and playing tough teams.”
Said Moreno: “I feel like we’re making progress.”
If that’s true, why have these three games been characterized as a retreat? From the 21 points yielded against Georgia Southern to the 14 mustered in Columbia, every facet of the preseason No. 1 team has been nitpicked to the point of belittling. The Bulldogs have been held to some ineffable higher standard, and twice they’ve been found wanting.
Southern Cal leaped them in the season’s first week on the dubious strength of a rout of a terrible Virginia team that has since been beaten nearly as badly by Connecticut. Oklahoma just shot past them after having beaten winless Washington. When did winning become grounds for demotion? And why?
Said Stafford: “I don’t care. People are going to talk and say what they want to say.”
Moreno: “It’s kind of cliched, but we have to let the polls do what they do and worry about ourselves.”
Massaquoi: “It doesn’t bother me. The rankings are rankings. At the beginning of the year, it looks good.”
That’s the point, kind of. People spent eight months building up Georgia, and some of those same folks are experiencing builder’s remorse. It mightn’t make much sense, but it is human nature.
Said Mark Richt, the coach: “I really haven’t paid that much attention to it. Because I just know how big a stab in the dark the preseason poll is.”
Does he believe his team was overblown? “I don’t think we’re any better or worse than I thought we were going to be,” Richt said. “I do think we have a legitimate shot to win the division and get into the SEC championship game.”
Will that be enough to buy Georgia, now No. 3, a spot in the BCS title game, where only two can play? Richt again: “I think we’re good enough to win the East, and if you’re good enough to win the East you’re good enough to win the SEC. There are probably at least six legitimate contenders for [the league title], and any one of those six could be considered the best team in the country at the end. I think the winner of the Southeastern Conference is going to be considered one of the best teams in the country — I do believe that.”
And there’s your bottom line. The SEC has produced the past two BCS titlists, and it’s hard to imagine an unbeaten SEC champ would be any worse than No. 2 come December. (Lose a game and the equation changes, but that’s another matter for another day.) So long as Georgia keeps winning, it will be fine.
Already one curious truth has become evident: Voters treat the top of their rankings differently than the middle portions. Ninth-ranked Auburn won 3-2 at Mississippi State and stayed No. 9 in the coaches’ poll and slid only to No. 10 in the writers.
Said Richt, smiling: “If we’d have won 3-2 in like the first game or something, we’d have been No. 5 or 6.”
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