The Junkyard Blawg has moved!
Along with the other ajc.com blogs, the Junkyard Blawg has moved over to WordPress, where the blogging and commenting experience promises to be better. Join us over at the new WordPress version of the Junkyard Blawg by clicking on the link below.
AJC > Sports > UGA > Blog > Archives > 2008 > September > 18
Thursday, September 18, 2008
Uga VII knows what a poll is for
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
For whatever reason, this week in the beauty pageant that currently passes for national college football rankings the Dawgs have been relegated to Miss Congeniality status, found not to be quite as appealing as some other contestants who have bigger … numbers.
Whatever.
No. 2 or No. 3 doesn’t matter that much right now except in terms of pride. Once teams are well into conference play (and the BCS rankings begin, along with their computer component), strength of schedule tends to mean a bit more than flashy scoreboard totals, even to the seemingly easily dazzled coaches and media types voting in the polls.
Now, if Georgia wins its way through the treacherous Arizona State-Alabama-Tennessee-Vandy-LSU portion of the schedule and approaches the Florida game unbeaten and still No. 3 in the polls, then might be the time for the Bulldog Nation to start fretting a bit about those softer schedules that Southern Cal and Oklahoma play. (Ohio State, with a loss and cushy Big 10 opposition, shouldn’t even merit inclusion in the conversation any more.)
It’s also been kind of a weird week in that the Dawgs are traveling farther than they have in years to play on the road against a nonconference foe we don’t have any history with. We’re used to hosting these folks in Athens rather than hitting the road for a game like this, but we better get used to it. That’s what it takes to schedule a school that doesn’t have a directional name to play these days. I’m glad to hear Uga VII and the pep band are making the trip, and let’s hope the 10,000 or so Georgia fans expected to be at the game in Arizona make their presence known loudly.
As for the game against the Sun Devils, most Georgia fans I’ve talked to this week are cautiously confident the Dawgs can keep still another flashy quarterback with big passing stats under control with primarily the nickel defense. Of course, it was a not so flashy quarterback with not so flashy numbers who shredded the Georgia defense for most of the fourth quarter last week on South Carolina drives that thankfully were snuffed out eventually. So Georgia’s defense needs to play at a higher level in Tempe or we could end up in a shootout.
As for the offense, if the reconstituted line can play more cohesively, open a few more holes and protect a bit better, and the suddenly reappearing trend of dropped passes can be eliminated, Stafford, Moreno & Co. should be able to put the needed number of points on the board.
Whether it will be enough to impress the beauty pageant judges is another matter.
