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AJC > Sports > UGA > Blog > Archives > 2008 > January > 25
Friday, January 25, 2008
Who looks the most dangerous?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
It’s been kind of a crazy week, what with Fred Munzenmaier flagging down a cop car thinking it’s a taxi, Suzanne Yoculan trying to pink-out the Steg, and the latest installment in “Where in the World Is Brian Van Gorder?”
You know Steve “No Bowl” Superior has got to be plenty peeved at Van Gorder’s latest career lurch and, as has been discussed elsewhere on the site, that might make this year’s trip by the Dawgs to Columbia a little less complicated.
They can use all the help they can get, because the 2008 schedule, with 10 teams that were bowl-eligible this year, is going to be one of the toughest (if not the toughest) in the nation. The late-season stretch of consecutive games away from Athens (meeting defending national champion LSU in Baton Rouge, Heisman winner Tim Tebow and Florida in Jacksonville, a probably less dangerous Kentucky in Lexington and a new spread offense at Auburn) looks like a real Murderer’s Row.
One thing in the Dawgs’ favor is that the past couple of years they’ve tended to finish strong, so running that late-season gauntlet doesn’t look undoable.
But early in the season if Georgia doesn’t maintain the head of steam they had at the end of this past season, there are other potential stumbling blocks.
Which game in the first half of the schedule looks the most dangerous?
Barring a Michigan-like lapse against a 1AA team, Georgia Southern shouldn’t be one of them. Central Michigan (where Mark Richt got some of his original coaching staff) was the MAC champ, but the Chippewas got hammered by Clemson. They did push Purdue in the Motor City Bowl before falling 51-48, though, so the Dawgs certainly need to take them seriously.
Then there’s South Carolina. Ah, the Gamecocks and Spurrier. The Bulldog fan’s lament is that but for a couple of dropped passes in the 2007 game, the Dawgs would have been playing a week later in New Orleans earlier this month. Both teams looked pretty awful on offense last year but the Gamecocks defense was the difference. This year? Never underestimate the Prince of Darkness, but considering how the respective teams finished the 2007 season, if UGA doesn’t lay a major whuppin’ on the Cocks, a lot of us will be very disappointed. And surprised.
After that comes the road trip out West to Arizona State, which shocked a lot of folks this past season under new coach Dennis Erickson and got as high as No. 6 in the rankings before collapsing late in the season. Assuming the Dawgs have taken care of business up to this point and aren’t caught looking ahead, it should be an early-season statement game for Georgia.
Then comes a visit to Athens by Alabama and St. Nick, who will be looking to avenge last year’s OT loss and make their own statement. Despite a great recruiting year, it’s likely the Tide is still at least another year away from a return to greatness.
After an off week we get the game that many Georgia fans are circling in red: Tennessee in Athens. The Vols have embarrassed UGA two years in a row (and I’ve still heard no credible explanation for Georgia’s total lack of performance this past season in Knoxville), so this is a game you know the Dawgs want badly. And Erik Ainge is gone (thank goodness). After that, we get Vandy, which upset Georgia two years ago and gave us a scare last year in Nashville before the Dawgs turned things around. It shouldn’t be that close this year.
And then that Murder’s Row before another off week, and then we wind up in Athens with the Yellow Jackets. The main question: Will Georgia fans love the much-hyped Paul Johnson as much as they did Chan Gailey?
At this point, the odds against Georgia making it through all of that without a stumble or two look long. But if the Dawgs can do it, there shouldn’t be any question about who’s the No. 1 team in the land.
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