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As of Thursday, Feb. 12, this little blog has relocated to a new home on AJC.com. It’s the same newspaper, the same Web site and the same writer (feel free to groan) — there’s just a new URL.
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Home > Mark Bradley > Archives > 2009 > January > 02
Friday, January 2, 2009
Could Dogs be preseason No. 1 again?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
I think Matthew Stafford and Knowshon Moreno will leave. Were they planning to stay, wouldn’t they have said so in the flush of emotion, such as it was, that followed the Capital One Bowl victory? And now they’re away from their teammates and surely huddling with family and friends, and any decisions won’t be made in the heat of a moment but in the colder light of economic reality.
So I’m betting they leave, both of them. But I have, as the world knows, been wrong a time or two. What if I’m wrong this time? What if they stay? Would the team that didn’t know how to handle being preseason No. 1 be preseason No. 1 again?
In a word, no. Too many better teams from 2008 should be strong again. Florida, Oklahoma, Texas and Southern Cal all have starting quarterbacks with eligibility remaining, although expectations are that the Sooners’ Sam Bradford will leave, and it wouldn’t be a shock if Tim Tebow did.
Alabama loses John Parker Wilson and surely Andre Smith but looks to have just gotten started. Ohio State could lose Beanie Wells but might have the 2009 Heisman winner in Terrelle Pryor. And don’t forget the North Avenue Trade School.
You could again make the argument that nobody would have a better quarterback/tailback tandem than Stafford/Moreno — and that this time they’d be working behind a more seasoned line — but that contention wouldn’t have the same oomph. We genius prognosticators don’t care to get burned by the same team twice.
Remember Auburn in 2003? Preseason No. 1 according to the Sporting News? Those Tigers wound up 8-5 and were a dud of megaton proportions. The next summer preseason, with Cadillac Williams and Ronnie Brown and Jason Campbell all returning, Auburn was only No. 17 in the preseason Associated Press poll. (This became a massive issue when those Tigers wound up undefeated but were barred from the BCS title game.)
Some back-of-the-envelope estimates: With Stafford and Moreno, Georgia would be preseason No. 5. With Stafford but without Moreno, they’d be No. 7. With Moreno but without Stafford, they’d be No. 13. Without both, they’d be No. 21.
Which would put them 12 spots behind those new lords of the ring, the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets.
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