He doesn’t think Georgia will cover. (PHIL’S FORECAST: GEORGIA 44 BUFFALO 17)
Georgia enters the season with high expectations once again and it will be interesting to see how they handle them just one year after HC Richt was on the hot seat after a 6-7 2010 campaign and a 0-2 start to LY. UGA has won 29 str HG’s by 30 ppg vs non-conf/BCS schools (last loss in the ‘97 opener hosting SM). The Bulldogs are without 4 susp’d players and have a big SEC gm next week with their first road trip to Missouri. On the other side, Buffalo does have 15 returning st’rs and only has Morgan St and a bye on deck but are will be playing without the heart and soul on their D in LB Mack. With a veteran QB the Dawgs will give some playing time to the bkps and expect to see a lot of true frosh in this one incl RB Marshall (PS#2) and OL Theus (PS#3) as UGA rolls.
I can see the defensive backups giving up a late score. I’m not seeing seventeen points, though.
Get The Picture 
Quite the disinformation campaign you’re running this morning, Senator. Wouldn’t be trying to influence our picks or anything, would you?
LikeLike
I’m thinking Phil has stopped using his eyes as a means of evaluation.
Numbers and stats are great, Phil….but they don’t tell the whole story.
Ain’t no way in hell UGA gives up 17 to Buffalo.
LikeLike
Grantham will only be happy with the Nata, Zilch, goose egg.
LikeLike
If this year’s O is anything like our past offenses, they might fumble or throw a pick for a TD (or both). And the STs have been prone to give us headaches too. Maybe we reinstate the idiotic idea of directional kicks and they begin each drive near the 50. Maybe our new punter muffs one or gets one blocked. I’ve seen us hand over many easy scores to opponents over the years. So buffalo getting 17 wouldn’t come as a surprise – even if our D throws a shutout. Having said all that I am still optimistic about this season and looking forward to Saturday.
LikeLike
+1
LikeLike
What’s up with all the abbreviations? Did Steele upload this to his blog via text?
LikeLike
He does that in his mags to keep his page count down and now he’s doing it on his blog, lol. Kind of retarded, if you ask me.
LikeLike
I like it because I would hate to lift an annual magazine where he spelled all that out. The man gives you your money’s worth for a research resource. I appreciate him but he cannot have much of a life with all the background info he provides.
LikeLike
Did I misread? Our last non conf home loss was in 2008, not 1997.
LikeLike
He was saying non-conf/non BCS opponents. But he had a mistake there also, Southern Miss beat us in 96, not 97
LikeLike
I thought it was ’96 – Donnan’s first year, first game, right ?
LikeLike
It was 1996 and that was an ugly, ugly game.
LikeLike
That ’96 Southern Miss game was horrible. Lots of optimism with Edwards and Bobo returning from injuries, but that game made it clear we were in for a long season. One of my most depressing Sanford Stadium experiences.
LikeLike
As my dad and I walked out of the stadium that day, we were walking right behind Tubby Smith and his wife. Georgia fans were saying hello to them but it had a “leaving a funeral” feel to it. That was a dark day, indeed…
LikeLike
The spread is 37.5 pts.
44-17= 27, not a spread cover.
LikeLike
Sorry. Misread. See what you did, AHD? Now we all are blogging w/o coffee.
LikeLike
My bad. I’m ready today … on my second cup. 😉
LikeLike
Umm, if Buffalo scores 17 points I’m going into full-on panic mode.
LikeLike
“if Buffalo scores 17 points” fire Bobo
Am looking forward to the Marshall Plan and the Hurley Gurley Man
LikeLike
+1. Would have given 2 but no links.
LikeLike
oopsie daisy
LikeLike
Marshall Plan/Blue Oyster Cult. Does anyone know why they name it that?
LikeLike
They go to 11?
http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2012/04/how-the-marshall-amp-changed-rock-and-the-meaning-of-loud/255705/
LikeLike
You’re good. But I thought the Senator was gonna be all over it. He’s sandbagging me.
LikeLike
He would have but he’s busy with dog stories now
LikeLike
I’m sorry, but I am wondering how our opponent scoring 17 points dictates the team needing to fire the OC. We all like to call ourselves Dawg fans but do we truly stand behind our players and coaches? Are we looking for any excuse possible to jump on a Fire Bobo band wagon BEFORE the season even starts? These players and coaches are dedicated to UGA, Bobo has been dedicated to UGA for more years than most of these players knew what college was. As past year’s running back issues come to light, I tend to cut Coach Bobo a good deal of slack regarding what he has had to deal with regarding his offense. I am certainly not going to start stirring up the Fire Bobo punch before play 1. Lets give OUR team a chance to start out this year on a positive note by backing them with positive comments and showing them the Dawg nation is behind them.
LikeLike
“not going to start stirring up the Fire Bobo punch before play 1.” Too soon?
“I’m sorry, but I am wondering how our opponent scoring 17 points dictates the team needing to fire the OC.”
Apology accepted anyway and thank you but if you wonder how our opponent scoring 17 points dictates the need to fire Bobo, you need to spend more time with us geniuses around here
LikeLike
Dog, all your attitude shows me is you have been spending too long around those Gator fans. You can keep your cynical arrogance where it belongs; down in Florida. I for one have been keeping up with football long enough to realize that those coaches know alot more about the game than we do. And they can only coach from the sidelines. When a player fumbles the ball or throws an interception on our end of the field it’s always the brash brimstone guys that are ready to take down the coach. And no thanks but I would rather spend my time with Dawg fans that actually WANT the team to win, Coaches and Players.
LikeLike
FortWorth, I blame Bobo for my attitude and, as I like to do so often, let me quote myself on the Gators even though I and some of blood kin have spent hard-time there:
Dog in Fla August 27, 2012 at 3:09 PM
“Ed, I don’t think one can ever go wrong by having remarkably widespread contempt for the Gators regardless of whether they’re good, bad or, like last season, indifferent. For example, the thing I can’t figure out is the exact location where their HC proved himself to be a defensive wizard. I blame Bobo for torching him at Auburn. Granted, and Heaven forbid, if their HC gets a case of the second year charm, it will be bad down here but it was bad down here for a couple of decades already.”
LikeLike
Quoting yourself? OK. that explains alot, I won’t waste anymore time arguing with someone that quotes himself. We will just agree to disagree.
LikeLike
FortWorthDawg: the fire bobo or I blame bobo is generally used tongue-in-cheek around here. For example, the headline “Russ gets fleas”… could be met with commenters saying “I blame bobo’s vanilla play calling” or “Mark Richt has lost control of Sanford stadium pesticide application” etc. It is generally light hearted and meant in a sardonic manner.
LikeLike
Or Mark Richt’s hotseat has bred contempt among the flea nation
LikeLike
I’ll be watching the first-team mostly. Much of the 4th quarter should be a depth-building exercise, so if the Bulls throw 14/17 on the board let’s just hope 10 of that is against the second line defense.
LikeLike
Football has left the Phil Steeles behind. Those kind of guys are always of a certain mindset…”coaches who should be or on the hot seat”; “are they going to cover the points”, and “what the margin of victory should be.”
For me I want to see how vanilla they play; the play of the O line; the play of the RBs; how the special teams play; how many turnovers the defense gets; and the roster rotation….those are areas I think will factor into the Missouri game and the progression of the team into conference play, road play, and the season. I bet CMR wants to see how certain plays and players work in the game. Plus get some game reps for as many as he can…it is always a long, tough season in the SEC. Plus there are some players right out of high school who can play…want to see how they do in their first college game. It should be fun.
LikeLike
My eyes will be trained on AM (and not only because watching football usually dictates having to do alot of that). Does he take the back out in the flats if another throw could be too risky? Does he take off and run if he has an exploitable alley? Will he make any more bucaneering scrambling attempts that cause him to lose his grip on the pigskin? I’m hoping for a fundamentally solid (as much as a non-QB coach like I can discern!) afternoon from him as the Dawgs prepare for Missourah
LikeLike
If you like his predicted score of the UGA game, what do you think of this pronouncement?
“The Gators are my surprise pick to win the SEC East this year and have one of the best D’s in the country with 10 ret’g st’rs.”
From his keyboard to the eyes of the football deities.
LikeLike
I’d go w/ PS c/n be “am i rite?” all the tyme
LikeLike
Let’s talk about the two-headed starting QB conundrum in the swamps of Gainesville… plus the new coordinator. And even if y’all are bringing back said D, we similarly are bringing back 10 out of 11 D starters.
As I recall, the only thing that separated FU in Steele’s mind was special teams. I’m not sure why our QB instead didn’t separate us from the Easy pack in his mind.
LikeLike
Well Mike, I’d tell him that we beat those returning starters last year, and we are gonna do it again this year. No doubt, ya’ll will have a tough defense, but how are you gonna score?
LikeLike
I was surprised to see the 17 points as well, hard to envision how that happens. 10 points via garbage time an/or a ST mistake is worst case to me. I don’t think CMR pulls the starters before mid-3rd Qtr unless it gets really ugly; he doesn’t want to risk injury but he needs to get some reps before a challenging road game next week. I think we score more than 44 as well with the loss of their stud LB and short fields. Doesn’t matter to me if we cover because my goals don’t depend on rankings, just Ws, but I think we will probably cover despite our conservative approach. Just win baby!
LikeLike
A pick 6, punt return and fumble recovery could get us up quicker and further than CMR is able to contain.
LikeLike
That is what I think too, and I expect it to happen. Also believe he has to play the starters on O until at least early 3rd Qtr. We will be using several combinations of RBs and Receivers anyway. AM is the one to take out early to get Lemay some playing time, and protect the defensive stars to allow backups to get reps. But to your point, it could get ugly early (not that there is anything wrong with that!) due to our D and Buffalo mistakes…that is why we probably cover a meaningless spread.
LikeLike
What doesn’t get considered is the coach’s philosophy on how big you need to win. CMR has shown that he will run it up against a particuarly vile opponenet (Tech…Au…on special occasions). On the other hand, I remember taking a knee inside the five against AU.
Consider this…with fewer scholarship players and thin at some positions, why leave starters in once the game is safely away? Why not play and develop your second and third deep players. CMR doesn’t care about the spread. You cannot judge UGA’s team quality by the final score in a gimmie game. What we need to look for is how well our team plays in the first half. Once comfortalby ahead, CMR will just play it safe. He probably won’t show MO anything he doesn’t have to, just for the sake of the gamers.
LikeLike
A constant joke thread on the site. Blame Bobo for everything. It’s a way of pointing out how crazy/stupid some “fans” are. Another version is to blame Richt for all negative player actions on any team.
LikeLike
I don’t see how in Hell Buffalo’s offense will score 17 points against Grantham’s defense, and that goes for strings One through Four. If Buffalo scores that many points, it will be because of some mind-numbing turnovers and/or special teams breakdowns.
LikeLike