Holy Mother of Crap, College Football News loves the Dawgs. And when I say loves, I mean loves:
Team That’ll Surprise
Georgia – Aaron Murray. If any coach in America actually knew the name of the Georgia starting quarterback, the Dawgs might have been given more respect in the early Coaches’ Poll. The preseason No. 21 team has top ten, possibly top five, talent with the deepest, and possibly the best, offensive line in America, a loaded defensive front seven, fantastic running backs and receivers, and the best kicking game in college football. If Murray is merely serviceable, the Dawgs might be playing in Atlanta in early December.
CFN is predicting a 10-2, 6-2 type of year. With a win in Jax, to boot. Whoa, baby.
It may not be a kiss of death, but let’s just say that CFN’s projections have been less than reliable.
Get The Picture 
too bad a.j.’s not a top 5 pro prospect in ol’ pete’s opinion. that omission alone allows you to disregard everything else in the column.
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Exactly! I had to do a double-take when I read that list. And am I still missing something about Julio Jones? Hell, I’d take Darvin Adams over that dude any day of the week and twice on Sunday.
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Since this is the year we hope everything will revert to the mean, maybe CFN will revert to the mean and be accurate this year.
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I like where your head’s at, but I’m not sure the “mean” for CFN is “accurate”.
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Yeah, it’s not the kiss of death, but it is definitely looking longingly into death’s eyes.
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I agree with Piper, I was thinking good column then I read his top 5 pro prospects and he lost me.
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Pete Fiutak is an idiot.
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Oh hell, he might be right about our finish – even a blind hog finds an acorn every now and then. I am not giving up yet.
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Prognosticators always seem to give no credit for unknown players (unless they play for Bammer or Fl). Murray was 5 star, kicked butt at the elite 11, and has shown a lot of poise. All he has to do is be average. He is a Soph (in the real world) by the way. With that and a decent job by Coach Lakatos and we’ll have a good year. The DB’s are fast and shouldn’t care about the change in system. They just needed better technique. If the DLine and LB’s can hold their own and learn quickly, then there’s no stopping them.
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CollegeFootballNews is a front organization for AIPAC.
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For all of the talk about our great OL, the one bit of hyperbole that continues to confuse me is the mentions about all of the depth. Where is the depth on this OL??? I am not seeing it. I think there is quality and a ton of career starts with the first 5, but after that it is scary.
Sturdivant is the only guy who is not currently listed as a starter who has had any meaningful snaps (meaningful generously as defined by > 5 or 10 snaps total). #77 is not even listed on the depth chart due to his uncertainty, which is still very much an open question marks as to when he returns and what type of player remains. Here is the current depth chart…..
http://www.georgiadogs.com/sports/m-footbl/depth-chart/depthchart940.html
Not good. If there is an injury or two among the starting 5 it could get ugly and quick.
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Sturdivant, Strickland, Harmon, Burnette, & lee may be a second team O Line that most teams would love to have. Except for QB ?, we are 2 deep at every position on O & D with players who can play. Just My Opinion.
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Says who? You may be correct, but none of the guys, apart from Sturdivant, have had meaningful snaps against first team conference players. Sturdivant and Strickland both have huge injury question marks.
I am not trying to be a pessimist, but anyone can project depth, but until you have had players actually playing and performing in game situations you don’t develop depth. The guys you list may be world beaters when all is said and done. However, right now, apart from Sturdivant, none of these cats have one quarter’s worth of snaps, much less any career starts, so I would not say that there is depth.
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Are you sure about that?
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I may be wrong, but I cannot recall these guys ever starting a game, nor can I recall where any of them ever had to come in and spell a starter for a quarter or half. I have seen a couple of them in mop-up duty at the end of one sided game.
Again, I hope we don’t have to call on them to make any starts. If they are forced into a starting role, who knows they may be All-Americans? My point is the fact that I think we are confusing the returning starters on the OL and the large number of career starts they have amassed with depth. We have plenty of experience returning with the starters, but I am not sold on the depth.
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In that case, who has depth? Which team out there has the kind of depth you defined? A two-deep with multiple starts among every backup is not realistic. A judgment can be made about that backups that gives us confidence in our depth. Our 2nd team O-line instills confidence in our depth, despite the face that not every one of them started every game they’ve played. Which if you think about it, would be impossible considering the number of starts on our 1st team O-line. There are only so many starts to go around. With the experience on our 1st team, you obviously won’t see as much on the 2nd team. That doesn’t mean it’s a shallow position, though.
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+ 1. Plus we have 3 seniors & some others who could leave early. If the # 2’s are not players we are in big trouble next year.
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Yeah, unless the backups get quality reps this year, next year is going to be a very green OL.
If C. Glenn departs, which is very realistic, it would mean 4 out of 5 would be gone in ’11.
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Of course, you are not going to have guys who have started games 2-deep across all five positions. However, it would be nice to have 1 or 2 guys have started games that can be plugged in at multiple positions. For example, last year we started week 1 with the following 7 guys available, who had career starts under the belt, to spread across 5 spots…
Justin Anderson
Chris Davis
Josh Davis
Clint Boling
Cordy Glenn
Ben Jones
Trinton Sturdivant
As we know, each one of these guys ended up having to start games in ’09 due to injuries across the line.
My point in all of this, is we only have 5 guys currently available who have career starts and meaningful playing time. Sturdivant may end up getting us to 6 if he is healthy, but right now the jury is still out.
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Don’t need to take it further but the same 7 guys you named or still on the team & with the injuries & position changes, some of the other players have been getting in some good reps in practice.
Either we recruit well & Searels gets them ready to play or not. We have 16 or 17 Ol on scholarship & on campus this fall. That means depth to me. Just my opinion.
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Prithee, CFN, ‘splain to me how Auburn can go 4-4 in the SEC but 9-3 overall.
As much as I’d like to put stock in this preview, CFN has been hovering around Bleacher Report levels in terms of credibility the last few months.
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I have to admit I didn’t get that far. Ever since I read that CFN projects Georgia’s defense as the second best in the SEC this season, I’ve been on the phone all day trying to make reservations for Glendale.
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You folks are very pessimistic… The reason why fans interest in college football is high is because there is constant flax in the players in all schools….. that is why recruitment is important………………Think of this year, do not th
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(continue)
think of next year. Next year is another year and another year of preseason guessing.
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I am already on record as believing that this year, 2010, will be “The Year Of The Dawg”. First year since CMR took over that I really believe that. Time will tell. GATA.
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