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AJC > Sports > UGA > Blog > Archives > 2008 > September > 28
Sunday, September 28, 2008
We’re not dead yet
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
No, this wasn’t a funeral.
Just as surely as the bandwagon hoppers jumped aboard after the Dawgs’ strong finish in 2007 and again after the impressive win out in Arizona, they’re jumping off now with predictably snarky cracks about Mark Richt’s Blackout and how the loss to Alabama sounds the death knell of Georgia’s national championship hopes.
Not so fast my friend, as a recent visitor to Athens likes to say.
The Dawgs now join the ranks of the once-beaten, a group that includes Southern Cal, Florida, Wisconsin, Ohio State, Auburn and Kansas among others, and which is sure to grow as the season progresses. Are all these teams out of contention? Hardly, even if we don’t end up with as crazy a BCS scenario as last season, where even two losses weren’t a dealbreaker.
That doesn’t mean Georgia is sitting pretty at this point. The glaring problems (penalties caused by lack of focus, the offensive line, lack of a pass rush) that had been apparent in the previous four games finally proved insurmountable when the team was faced with the schedule’s first top-notch opponent. Georgia didn’t look too well prepared, either, and the coaching staff appeared slow to react and disorganized at times. (More on that later in the week.)
But the Dawgs didn’t quit Saturday night, even though the odds were stacked against them overcoming a 31-point deficit. They still have more talent across the board at skill positions than just about any other team. Linemen can mature. Defensive schemes can be reworked to improve the pass rush or someone may break out of the pack like Marcus Howard did late last year. And the Dawgs still control their own destiny in the SEC East, though the challenges ahead are daunting.
One thing you can take to the bank: Another strong finish like the end of 2006 and the latter half of last year, and those bandwagon hoppers will be scrambling to climb back aboard, throwing superlatives around like championship confetti.
And at that time those of us who were along for the entire ride should tell them to kiss Uga VII’s stubby tail.
