It’s official – the Dawgs are ranked #1 in the preseason USA Today Coaches Poll. As the paper notes, it’s the first time ever that Georgia has been ranked #1 in a major preseason poll.
On a side note, maybe I’m missing something, but I’m not seeing a Spurrier vote for Duke this time around.
You can read USA Today’s write up of Georgia here. My favorite quote from the piece reveals that Katharyn Richt has better game awareness than Patrick Nix and Reggie Ball combined:
… Katharyn works on the sideline during games. “She can pour two cups, know that it’s a first down and 9 and where the ball is, and pass out cups at the same time,” cornerback Asher Allen says.
Get The Picture 
Well, here we go. Lets see if the boys can handle it.
Not to go on about the schedule, again, but 5 teams from the top 20 of this poll are on it. Not to mention AlaBAMA and So. Car. getting an honorable mention. Not to shabby.
Yet again I was wrong. I would have bet we’d be 3rd in this poll with (the real) USC and tOSU in front of us. Oh well, not the first time I’ve been wrong.
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Really good write-up by USA Today. Now our boys just have to go out and win.
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Congrats, guys. Don’t screw up–I want you undefeated when we take you down in Jax!
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Not to hate on my Dawgs any, but it would’ve been nice if Asher said “First down and 10” instead of “First down and 9.”
Not a big deal, just ironic there was a Reggie Ball reference in it right before.
I’ll be over here having bricks thrown at me.
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I was really not expecting that…when does the AP poll come out and is there any expectation that we will be #1 in that as well? What is the word? I had thought we would be #1 on AP but not coaches.
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So there it is. This really might be a watershed year in UGA history, for good or ill.
Wire-to-wires are notoriously hard to accomplish, and now a target is painted squarely on the Dawgs. When teams play you, they are facing “THE NUMBER ONE TEAM IN THE NATION” and not just Georgia.
I bet Ol’ Steve Spurrier will have that firmly in mind.
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Nice. Congrats, guys! Should be a fun season.
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Not picking on any one here, but wire-to-wire finishes are not difficult, as though the difficulty is heightened because you start out #1. What is difficult is winning the MNC (finishing at #1) no matter where you start.
Third-to-first finishes are also exceedingly rare. Tenth-to-first finishes are also exceedingly rare.
It is rare that people win the lottery with 32 as their first number. It is just as rare that they win with any other number as their first number.
If anything, there should be a SLIGHT advantage to the teams that start out high in the polls, assuming they truly are very good squads, because their losses don’t drop them all the way back down to the back of the line.
But it’s not like there’s some OTHER starting ranking that makes you MORE likely to win it all. It’s not being preseason #2 or #3 is a magic slot, or anything.
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Sorry, I should point out also that small sample size makes it difficult to “prove” much either way by looking at actual results. For instance, I don’t know, but perhaps 6 teams have won the MNC after starting at #3 while only 5 teams have won after starting at #2. That wouldn’t prove much, given the small sample size.
The theoretical probabilities are what matter, though, and there is little or no reason to think that #1 would make it any HARDER. Having a “target on your back” the whole season might make some difference, but any top 5 team is going to deal with the same thing. And being at the top also has advantages.
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Asher Allen comment…ouch
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1st and 9 is possible…isn’t it?
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First and 9 is possible. Here are two ways:
1. First down on the nine yard line is generally referred to as First and Goal, but it is actually First and 9 yards to go.
2. With a penalty of half the distance to the goal, followed by a 2nd penalty against the other team, it can create a First and 9.
Asher is obviously a deeper thinker than readers of this blog, or he plans on tripping on the 14 yerd line during an interception return and stumbling to the 9…which he might do to hold the scoring down against GSU!
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