As summaries go, this is, I think, quite good:
General: I’m giving a lot of credit to Mark Richt because, quite frankly, he’s Mark Richt. This has nothing to do with the cliche that Richt does well when expectations are low — Year2 has pretty well blown that notion up, or at least shown that there’s no real evidence of it. Instead, it has to do with the fact that Richt has a record of almost always fielding solid teams. And he can get the most out of a young team. That will be critical for a team that lost so much of its offense when Matthew Stafford and Knowshon Moreno headed to the NFL. This is, in my mind, an optimistic way of looking at Georgia’s season. But Richt has earned that.
His teams have never lost more than four games in a season. His record in opponents’ stadiums is ridiculously good. Schedule or no schedule, Stafford/Moreno or no Stafford/Moreno, I have a hard time seeing the wheels coming off the wagon in Athens this year. Just because it’s Richt’s program.
Get The Picture 
Senator,
I hope you are correct.
I’ve always been an optimistic Dawg fan, often time overly-optimistic. I shocked a few friends last week when they asked about my prediction for the upcoming season. I think the over/under on losses is around 4.5. Maybe we’ll find a good RB and I’ll be way off.
Again: I hope you are correct.
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The UT game concerns me because I don’t like where it is on the schedule. We would have played 5 tough games in row at that point, including 2 long-distance away games. UGA also seems to have at least one bang-your-head-against-the-wall game every year.
I know there’s not supposed to be much talent in Knoxville and Kiffin so far seems to be an embarassment, but then what did we all think of Zook going into the 2002 game in Jax?
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I think the first game will tell us a lot. A win in Stillwater, I think the Dawgs are looking at at least 9 wins, and probably 10. A loss in Stillwater might turn into a 7 or 8 win season quickly. I’m leaning toward the former, and think we have a good chance to pull off an “upset” against OKState
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We won’t know how good either of our teams are until a few weeks into the season. We could “upset” OSU and then they could go 7-5. Likewise, we could lose to an eventual Big XII South champ, and still have a 10 win season. OSU is too much of an unknown quantity for us to base our expectations of the season on that game.
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I agree with you in that aspect of it, but either way I think the psychological advantage of going on the road to play a big team and win the first week of the season is important, and has been somewhat demonstrated during the Mark Richt era. Also, a win will almost have to come from a big step up from our defense, which would be an excellent sign for the season.
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I’m with you Senator. I feel like with Richt he’s got the program at a level where 9-10 wins is just automatic. Maybe it’s blind optimism, but I just don’t see things falling apart when he’s at the helm. Now getting to the next level where you’re always competing for national championships is a whole other discussion…
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I’m as optimistic as the next Dawg…but the “automatic” part of that statement makes my hind quarters qwiver.
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Joe Cox won’t let the wheels fall off. I think this might be this kid’s moment. It sounds crazy, but the “D” just has to get better. Any improvement (and I think it will be significant) will make us a much better team. I’m really excited about this team. I think our coaches and players feel like they have something to prove, and they seem like they’re excited. For whatever reason, last season seemed like it felt like a chore to those guys.
We will not be more explosive, we will probably not have as many long plays, and we will not be more talented…but we just might be a better team than we were in 2008. And better than 10-3 will sit just fine with me. Good gracious, I can’t wait for Nov. 28. I…want…them…now!!!
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Year2 does a solid enough job at looking at the polls; less so on reading old punditry. Yeah, ’05 Georgia starting in the mid-teens wasn’t a slight, but having every schmuck in the football blogosphere ahemHPahem calling Boise with the big win certainly was. Same goes for hearing endless bull pre-season about the excellence of UT and UF.
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