In Jeremy Fowler’s mind, mediocre 2009 season + redshirt freshman QB in the SEC = 64th best team in the country.
At least he’s ranked Georgia higher than Kentucky.
************************************************************************
UPDATE: Pre Snap Read’s Paul Myerberg isn’t favorably impressed.
************************************************************************
UPDATE #2: My bad – Fowler didn’t assign the rating. His cohort Andrea Adelson takes the credit for that. She sees Georgia as a 6-6 team this season.
Andrea Adelson:
they also have to play arkansas and auburn from the west, too. i think those 2 teams are better than UGA. miss state is better, and a tough place to play (ask UF). georgia tech will be able to win this year.
There’s plenty more at the link, if you want it.
Get The Picture 
I’ll take the over for $42 bazillion, please.
LikeLike
If I knew how to get in touch with this guy, I would place a bet in a heart beat.
LikeLike
I love this kind of stuff, historically we have great seasons when conventional wisdom is against us.
LikeLike
Wisdom?
LikeLike
Conventional?
LikeLike
He’s a bad guy for posting that. If Mark Richt was my son, I’d be wailing on him right now.
LikeLike
Jeez, Fowler’s really kissing every corner of Urban’s ass. Got us at 64 and Tennessee at 75.
LikeLike
I obviously no nothing about football because I still believe that 2010 will see the Dawg’s have the best Team that they have had under CMR. Also, Could the worst team in the SEC possible be in the top 75 ?
LikeLike
best team we’ve had under CMR? Wow. I think we’ll bounce back this year but I can’t see how we have our best team under CMR with a redshirt freshman QB and a brand new defensive scheme.
Only way we can top his best team (2002) would be to play for the BCS title. I know some may argue that 2003 or 2007 were better teams, but I’m just going on the end results of those years.
I like your optimism, I do. But I worry a little about fan expectations when I see comments like this.
LikeLike
I will see your best team and raise you an unbeaten heading home from the WLOCP.
LikeLike
I’ll take that bet
LikeLike
Wow. I am always a Bulldog optimist. And, as much as it pains me, I could see us falling into the low 20s, just as much as I could see us rising into the Top 5.
But this is a Top 25 team. Period. This guys is out of his mind if he things the Georgia Bulldogs are as bad as 64 ranking.
Dang Lib’ral media!
LikeLike
Gotta love the fact that he uses Joe Cox as a weakness in the “Look back” and then drops him into the “Key Loss” catagory.
Also, if by “Most of the same players return from a secondary that allowed a league-high 23 touchdown passes” he means only one returning starter, then he’s spot on. How does somebody with such a limited knowledge of what he’s writing on get published?
LikeLike
category – when are we getting a spell checker on comments SB???
LikeLike
Lighten up Puff. All for fun.
LikeLike
Sep, agreed it’s all for fun for you and me but they get paid to post “legitimate” articles like that. At best it’s got to be mildly embarrassing for the OS. I hate UF but I’m not afraid to admit, after graduating what they did, they’re still a formidable team. That ranking is a joke.
LikeLike
Fowler has obviously spent a lot of time in the arena. His prediction is definitely a touchmybaby moment.
You homers need to recognize that we will have a hard time overcoming the loss of Joe C’s vast starting experience and Willie’s meticulous game planning and in game adjustments.
LikeLike
Fowler is so far removed from the arena he is in Never-Never Land. Maybe Corch made him write this embarrassing drivel since he couldn’t make him run wind sprints. Or maybe he made him do that, too.
LikeLike
I’m still trying to figure out what he means by “lack of SEC titles”. Did Georgia get stripped of something when I wasn’t paying attention?
LikeLike
Perhaps he meant “lack of SEC titles since Andre Woodson decided to shit his pants in overtime instead of walking in for a touchdown and sending the hottest team in the nation to the SEC championship game”?
LikeLike
Which also kept the Dawgs out of the BCSNC Game assuming a Dawg win in the SEC Championship Game (likely given the result of the 2008 UGA-LSU game). Is there much doubt that the Dawgs would have bested the vaunted Buckeyes, too?
LikeLike
Whiskey. Tango. Foxtrot.
Georgia at #64?
There are 65 BCS conference teams. There are 21 BCS teams ranked behind Georgia. So, Jeremy Fowler is saying there are twenty (20!) non-BCS schools that are better, right now, than Georgia?
If I give you TCU, Utah, Boise State, Notre Dame and BYU… where the hell are the other 15 teams going to come from?
From extrapolation:
Nevada, Fresno State, Idaho, Troy, Middle Tennessee State, Air Force, Southern Miss, Houston, SMU, Navy, Army, Ohio, Temple, UCF, and Northern Illinois.
So, according to Jeremy Fowler, Georgia is the 5th best team in the Mountain West, the WAC, and/or Conference USA, the 3rd best team in the Sun Belt, worse than all three service academies and Notre Dame, and the 4th best team in the MAC.
That’s borderline retarded. Georgia would be double-digit favorites against all of those teams.
LikeLike
I thought this exact same thing but I struggled to come up with names for any of these irrelevant teams “ranked” ahead of us.
LikeLike
This is what subscribers to the Orlando Sentinel get for their hard earned money?! With such insightful “journalism”, it’s hard to believe newspapers will exist by 2015. No wonder corch yells at the dumb assh—s.
LikeLike
The truth is fellas…we are 64th.
No doubt about it.
Alphabetically amongst all D-I…yep, we’re 64th.
LikeLike
And I’m sure he has Florida, minus baby rhino and Charlie, at #4 or so.
Very objective journalism.
Terrific Analysis.
Now GFY Jeremy.
LikeLike
It’s not journalism.
It’s poking a Dawg with a stick.
LikeLike
Indeed.
LikeLike
Lol, is this Jeremy Fowler trying to get back in Corch s good graces? Because there’s no way he seriously thinks this…. simply no way.
LikeLike
Beyond UGA…..I find it hard to believe that any Jim Grobe coached team would be as low as 92.
I don’t know a thing about Wake Forest football this upcoming season other than they have an excellent football coach and he is worth a win or two himself…..and they play in the ACC.
92?!? C’mon. Wake has earned a little more respect than that over the past few seasons.
LikeLike
I do not want to sound like Dooley or Munson, but… What if Murray goes down in late August and we have RB go down after that before the first game. I’m high on this team, but I don’t think they could be 64 if they start the freshman. There are some issues, but if they are 3-0 after SC, Ark, and MSU, then I think this team would warrant a serious look. All three of those teams are trouble. MSU will give the west a new look in ’10. All three have experienced, talented QBs. The new D will get tested here. It is going to be fun to watch this team. I’d stream that 64 in the locker room before each game. At the end of the season I’d find him a seat #64. Then I’d drop kick his ass to the fifty yard line.
LikeLike
With enough injuries, you can make any top 25 team #64 in the nation.
You get to play the hand you’re dealt, so it’s not worth worrying about injuries until they happen. If they happen, I mean. 😉
LikeLike
If Murray went down and one RB went down, do you think we would struggle in the least to beat:
Nevada, Fresno State, Idaho, Troy, Middle Tennessee State, Air Force, Southern Miss, Houston, SMU, Navy, Army, Ohio, Temple, UCF, and Northern Illinois
???
If that worst case scenario happened, we’d plug LG in and run the ball 65% of the time (like we’ll probably do anyway with AM) and hope to hit some big time PA passes (a legitimate 4 deep at TE along with best WR in country will certainly help that game plan). Our athleticism alone on defense would be enough to smother any team listed above (h/t The Realist) that Fowler ranks ahead of us. The point is that Fowler’s ranking is not conservative; it’s ridiculous. It’s not even fathomable. It’s clearly his way of saying he doesn’t think UGA will be any good this year, whcih is fine, only his method is sensationalism. Page hits, baby!!!
LikeLike
We need to save this and remind the guy (and everyone else in the sports reporting biz) about it in December.
LikeLike
I hate to go all Hanley Ramirez here, but who is Jeremy Fowler? If your most notable accomplishment in sports journalism thus far is managing not to piss your pants in front of cameras while being bitchmade by Urban Meyer, I’m not sure there’s much reason for me to care about your preseason predictions.
LikeLike
Anyone notice that he has UGA lower than every team in the SEC West?
LikeLike
64th is absurd, as is his statement that most of our secondary from last year returns, when in actuality, only 1/4 of our starting secondary from last year returns (even stranger is that this is an argument for a higher ranking, not a lower one).
On a side note…is HOODBOYZ really the demographic that is being marketed to here? That ad kinda caught me off guard.
LikeLike
It’s all on how you surf baby! You been shopping for dubs lately?
LikeLike
Will you still need me? Will you still feed me? When I’m 64.
LikeLike
If UGA is ranked at #64 and makes the top twentyfive do all the coaches get raises? Can we Dawg fans then say we own the state like the techies?
LikeLike
Even if UGA Dawgs win the BCS national championship this season. Fowler will still put the Dawgs behind FL is in his final poll. He just a blind homer. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHA
LikeLike
Urban Crier should have ordered Fowler to do this predictions, he now can watch practice from the fences of gayturds instead from a helicopter. It is also good for gayturds’ recruiting purposes for the 2011 Class.
LikeLike
I agree with most that at 64 we’re very underated. I think with a worst case scenario, AM goes down, and please no, or Ealey we have some good options behind them.
AM is a petigreed guy but we have some other guys who can hand the ball off or throw it 30 yards down the field to keep a defense honest.
My biggest concern is our defense and that’s a mild concern because we were bad last year.
LikeLike
I hate to do this, but ya’ll shouldn’t be mad at Fowler.
This was actually Andrea Adelson’s (writes for the OS) ranking for the Dawgs and Fowler just did the write up for her because he covers the SEC. So she should be getting the flak for 64, but Fowler is not saved from his terrible fact checking or total lack of logic when trying to explain said ranking.
Summarized quotes from her live chat today include–
“Georgia has a QB with no experience and a new defensive coordinator. I don’t see them winning more than 6 games.”
“Florida has a new QB and new DC and they need to step up in the running game. I won’t be shocked if they win 10 games. The schedule is bearable”
LikeLike
The difference is that Florida’s new QB has taken quite a few college snaps, many of those coming at the expense of Georgia.
And Florida is not trying to run a completely new defense, for which they may or may not have the right kind of players that fit the new scheme.
Georgia’s offensive line should keep a lot of pressure off the new UGA QB. But a lot is not all, particularly if UGA needs to score a lot to win or even catch up
LikeLike
“for which they may or may not have the right kind of players that fit the new scheme.”
At least we won’t be runnng a brand new offense. Unless of course you’ll be running third and Brantley.
LikeLike
Are you trying to justify this tripe? Please, explain how any of those teams I mentioned above should be ranked ahead of Georgia: Idaho, Army, Ohio, MTSU… any of those really sound like they could hang within two touchdowns of Georgia?
For that matter, please explain why Georgia Tech will win in Athens despite losing waaaay more players off the team that lost at home last year.
This team was a handful of plays from being a 10-win team last year when the defense was horrific, and the offense gave the ball away like it caused cancer. The offense will be better if it just doesn’t give the ball away. The defense will be better… well because it can’t get much worse.
I’m not suggesting that Georgia is a BCS title contender, but to suggest the team is #64 is equally intellectually dishonest.
LikeLike
oh stuff a pair of jorts in it, Mike.
Your defense may still be running a base 4-3, but you’re coordinator is entirely different and you have no idea what his strategy is going to play out like. To say that Georgia will struggle to win 6 because of a new QB and new d-coordinator, yet Florida will win 10 because of a new QB and new d-coordinator, is the very EPITOME of blatant homerism, and doesn’t deserve space in a rag, even as lowly as the Orlando Sentinal (which is saying a lot).
LikeLike
Not to mention that neither of the Gators co-defensive coordinators seems to have the resume(s) necessary for the(ir) position(s).
It strikes me that Urban (as is a meglamaniac’s wont) is now most interested in having absolute control of everything. Deferrence has become more important than skill in the hiring of assistants.
LikeLike
To paraphrase Dan Akroyd….Andrea, you ignorant slut.
LikeLike
Shockingly ….. she graduated from the University of Florida
I wonder how she is going to explain how Ole Miss with a new QB and no talent is better than UGA ….. or Miss. State……
LikeLike
FWIW, Bruce Feldman links the article on his blog and goes on to say he’d rank us at least 35 spots higher (21st if my math is correct) than these UF homers
LikeLike
ha, and of course my math is off…29th…
LikeLike
Unfortunately Andrea just took a collective step back for women as a whole in the world of journalism, because her ranking just proves that most women don’t have a damned clue about sports. Seriously, whose burrito did she wrap to get a job?
I’m sorry, but 6 games (if we’re lucky according to this biatch)? There is some bitterness involved here somewhere that provoked this…
and on a sidenote, Mark Bradley should take heart, because there is officially a “journalist” out there that is an even bigger moron than he.
LikeLike
OK, I read the log of that live chat – yep, she’s a dumb UF bitch, no doubt about it.
LikeLike
I had to stop reading the live chat. Was just p***ing me off even more.
An argument can be made that UGA won’t be very good this year. She, however, doesn’t make that argument.
LikeLike