“Whether we man up or flinch.”

Rivals has an excellent piece up on Georgia’s chances for the big time in 2008.

There are a couple of interesting factoids in the article.

First, a sobering thought regarding highly touted incoming kicker Blair Walsh:

… Nobody has won a national title with a true freshman as its main kicker for the entire season since Kris Brown scored 97 points for Nebraska‘s 1995 championship team, though redshirt freshman Ryan Gaudet and true freshman Chris Jackson shared the kicking responsibilities for LSU in 2003.

Second, there’s a nice little graphic about how Georgia has done in the polls in each season under Richt.  Generally, the Dawgs don’t underperform, although 2004 – the season where the preseason hype was most like what we’re beginning to see now – did see a drop.

LIVING UP TO BILLING
Georgia isn’t accustomed to opening the year as the No. 1 or No. 2 team in the nation, but the Bulldogs typically have outperformed their preseason ranking during the Mark Richt era. Here’s a look at where the Bulldogs started and where they finished in the Associated Press poll during each of Richt’s first seven seasons on the job.
Year	Preseason Ranking	Postseason Ranking
2001	NR	22
2002	8	3
2003	11	7
2004	3	7
2005	13	10
2006	15	23
2007	13	2

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