I hope I’m not headed towards another true confession like this one from last year by posting this, but there’s no way I see Georgia’s 2011 season playing out like CFN predicts:
25. Georgia 8-4
The Spring Call: The Dawgs will bounce back to be respectable, and a 2-0 start against Boise State and South Carolina will get everyone talking, but back-to-back losses to Mississippi State and Tennessee, and a loss to Florida, will get the Mark Richt detractors screaming.
It’s not that I disagree with that last observation (or that Georgia could go 8-4 this year, for that matter), but losses to Tennessee and Mississippi State after beating Boise State and South Carolina to start out 2-0? Not gonna happen… at least not if Aaron Murray doesn’t sell any of his jerseys.
Get The Picture 
And exactly why is everyone so high on Tennessee? Even Tennessee fans aren’t that optimistic right now. Maybe next year but most of the team is in massive rebuild mode.
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CFN calls for UT to go 7-5, which looks about right to me, given the Vols’ schedule this year. They’re just predicting an upset in Knoxville, basically.
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That sounds reasonable but that’s a bold prediction to be good enough to beat Boise and USC but lose to MSU and UT. (Not that that would surprise me, we are talking about Georgia football here)
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There’s good evidence we could be upset in Knoxville, even by a horrible UT team. See 2007 and 2009-the last two times we’ve played them at UT.
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Again, I’m not questioning that Georgia could lose some games this year, including the one in Knoxville. But if Georgia beats two top 10 teams to begin the season, I feel pretty confident that the Vols will go down, too.
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If we’re good enough to beat Boise and SC, we should be a very good team and shouldn’t lose either of those games. But I never thought we could have lost at UT in 2007 and 2009 like we did either.
And UT probably has pretty good shower discipline by now…
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A 1-4 Georgia team depantsed Tennessee last year.
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I don’t put anything past this staff, including either winning the east or losing in spectacular fashion.
Never would have said we would lose to UT the week after I saw us throttle LSU in ’04.
Never would have said we would lose to half to teams we lost to last year. Colorado? Really?
Unfortunately last year proved anything is possible with these guys
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Unfortunately, I agree with you. I’m usually wildly optimistic before the season (and there are plenty of moments when I see us running the table this year). But then I think back to some of the stinkers we’ve laid over the past couple of years and realize we can play down to the level of anyone.
However, I do think it’s pretty improbable that we start 2-0 against two good teams, and then crap our pants against UT and MSU.
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If you open 2-0, you’ll win 10 games. That UT prediction is nonsense.
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This. While entirely possible, believing we will win opening 2 is optimistic. I think CFN just thought UT would upset someone and they picked UGA – we win the first 2 games, we’ll win 10.
The MSU game, on the other hand, looks easily loseable no matter how we look early in the season.
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That is where I am as well. The first two games look to be the toughest on our schedule and I would take 1-1 right now, preferably a W against the Cocks. Should we win both of those, I think we win 10 before the bowl game. We will lose one we should win, and maybe one toss-up game, but BSU and SC are the only ones I see us as underdogs in at this point.
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If you’re good enough to beat Boise and South Carolina on back-to-back weeks, you’re good enough to beat Mississippi State and then throttle Tennessee. Mississippi State is good, but come on people. Georgia was pretty damn close to beating them at their place last year, despite one of the most inept performances by a UGA offense that I’ve ever seen. Bobo still didn’t trust Murray in that game. He will this time.
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Tennessee is a real trap game for us.
We play in Knoxville, we haven’t played well there historically, and, unless we’ve just lost to Mississippi State, there’s the risk we’re overlooking the State of Tennessee games, looking forward to the big Halloween weekend in River City. Vanderbilt, too, is a potential trap, but less of one.
And, of course, there’s always Florida.
I’m afraid I can see us off to a great 2-0 start, then bogging down in the middle.
It’s up to CMR to exorcise those complacency demons and keep them exorcised all season long.
How are Baptist Sunday School classes on exorcism? Maybe one particular Sunday School class will get up to speed on exorcism, telling complacency to get the “H -E – Double Toothpicks” out of our ‘Dogs!
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Exorcism is what those Catholic-Christians do. Baptists — to the extent they know the Pentecostals won’t hear about it and claim doctrinal superiority — engage only in the casting out of demons. Nonetheless, the core rituals of such a ceremony (huddling, laying on of hands, and creating a ‘push’ at the opportune moment) … if they work against demons, they might just work against Tennessee as well.
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I recall in Scripture Jesus casting demons out of a child and into a bunch of pigs instead.
Now, I wouldn’t necessarily want our troubles cast upon the Arkansas Razorbacks, at least ’til when we next play them (not so, the Gators; demons are welcome to possess them anytime), but casting out demons, exorcism, whatever Pentacostals do, I’m up for any kind of divine help we can get.
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Did Jesus – or for that matter, anybody in the OT – say anything about casting out reptiles? If so, please tweet chapter and verse to Mark so he can get jacked up before Jacksonville.
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I kind of like this one:
Revelation 12:9
The great dragon was hurled down—that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him.
(New International Version 1984, ©1984)
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Excellent! Will as the Little Angel and Charlie as the Big Angel.
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Miss State is at home….. and we won’t make as many miscues on offense and the D will be much inproved. Tennessee is a dumpster fire. I don’t see D Dooley as anything but temporary with a career at UT similar to Mike Shula’s at Alabama. Actually, the similarities between Shula and Dooley are surprising.
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I keep looking at UGA’s schedule and thinking undefeated. I think this will be one of those years where I won’t be surprised if you guys end the season with one or fewer losses.
But, I think they should have had a much better record last year.
There’s certainly talent, but it’s kinda been like AU for most of TommyT’s tenure – lots of players, lots of performance, occasionally puzzling results.
A big part of that is the thoroughly competitive nature of the SEC.
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You did see that the Dawgs still play Florida, right? 😉
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Also, “…I won’t be surprised if you guys end the season with one or fewer losses.”
Maybe FU is the one.
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I was surprise CTT got the boot. Didn’t he win 80% of his games. SEC is sure not forgiving.
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He was 85-40 at Auburn. That’s a 68% clip.
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and, fyi, Mark Richt is 96-34 here. That’s just a hair under 74%. And that’s after 2 consecutive shitty seasons.
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I think people are overlooking the impact the loss of Manny will have on the CowBells. And we are not losing to Tenn. They lost a lot of numbers (transfers and arrests) in the last few years and haven’t had a chance to build back yet. Though Dooley did a lot better than I thought he would. I’m not counting the poultry as a win but we can easily go 3-1.
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Well I hope we end the Florida curse this year. It would be nice to beat Florida, Tennessee, Auburn and Tech all in the same year. Auburn has a lot of shoes to fill, Tennessee is a mess and Florida is going to be figuring itself out on O much like Georgia did on defense. With all that returning experience on the O line its sure hard to figure why we couldn’t run block in 2010. Is it as simple as strength and conditioning? Boise State can’t get here soon enough.
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We beat Tennessee by four touchdown last year. Why? Because they aren’t even close to as talented as us. That isn’t going to change in the course of a year. Just my opinion, but I think it’s just a trendy upset pick not based in much reason.
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I think UT has a chance to be pretty decent on offense. But the Vols look like they’re a mess on the other side of the ball.
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If Janzen Jackson doesn’t come back, Tennessee will return I think four starters on defense. This from a unit that wasn’t especially deep last season. Bray, Poole and Hunter are a fantastic trio to have on offense, but the Vols could look like a late-’90s Pac-10 team by the team the season is over.
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And we know what a good offense a shitty defense results in.
Heartbreak. That’s right. Heartbreak, and lots of it.
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Well, no one asked. I thought this interesting.
Shula – 1.Played HS ball in Miami lead his team to a State Championship (Father was a HC ;-)coached in Miami it was a pro team , but many expected him to play his college ball in Florida some say he wanted some space . Went out of state to Alabama , played 3 years…not a great player but played with heart. Short career in pro’s.
2. Coached as an assistant at Miami Dophins, was the offensive coordinator for Tampa Bay made it to NFC playoffs under Dungy. Became Head Coach for Alabama ..6 year deal 5.4 million.
Dooley- 1. Played his HS ball in Athens and helped lead his team to a State Championship(Father was a HC for a college team. Many expected him to play his college ball in Georgia …some say he wanted some space. Went out of state to Virginia , walked on yet earned a scholarship. Not a great player but played with heart. No pro career.
2. Assistant coach for LSU/Saban, went with Saban to Miami Dolphins for two years. Hired as hc and latert HC/AD LaTech. Became HC at Tennessee 4.5 mil for 4 years????(guessing here)’
Other than the type of experience although I would say that Shula NFL O coordinator is at least as respectable as Dooley’s HC position at LaTech. –they are very similar and have a lot in common. I would give Shula the edge in football experience .
AND …. no way do the Vols beat Georgia in Knoxville. Not happening.
Just sayin’.
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Knoxville is so historically unpredictable for the Dawgs. I mean some of our best moments (Hershel in ’80, Hobnail ’01, ’03 Blowout, Shockley & punt returns ’05) have been there, then you got the Manning years plus ’07 & ’09…how can you feel comfortable calling that game in May?
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Well there is this:
“When Georgia heads to Knoxville it will have played 3 SEC games, 2 games away from Athens, and 1 highly ranked non-conference opponent. The Vols will have played 0 road games, 0 SEC games, and 0 ranked opponents. Everyone has different views on being rested vs being in the swing of the season, but I have to think that this benefits the Dawgs. Georgia will have been tested in every way by this point in the season and will hopefully be at full speed in this one. The Vols will be rested and perhaps have begun to find their way as a team, but there is no substitute for playing against SEC speed. More importantly, this will only be Derek Dooley’s second season trying to turn this program around from several disppointing seasons and 3 coaches in as many years. Quarterback Tyler Bray showed flashes of brilliance last season but has proved this spring that he is still a youngster surrounded by a young team. The Vols may be improved from last year but this would be an unacceptable loss for Georgia.”
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That and my clumsy comparison of Shula and Dooley….. and Coach Richt handled him (Shula) quite nicely and owned young Dooley with a 1-4 (?) team. Thank you very much.
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I’m sold! Dawgs 31 vols 14. I can dig it!
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