Pete Fiutak ranks Georgia’s schedule in order of toughness here. I might quibble a little here and there — I’d move South Carolina ahead of Georgia Tech, based on recent history — but overall, it’s a pretty decent reflection of what I expect.
What do you guys think?
Get The Picture 
I’m thinking move UF to 3rd between Ole Miss and UNC…and move GT below SC. For the most part, the list looks close to expectations this time of year. When things get rolling in Sept. it could all look different, of course.
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I am actually worried about the game against the Harvard of the Congaree. The Shamecocks are always up for us.
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Carolina always gives the Dawgs their best shot.
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Ole Miss 1, Tennessee 2, UF 3 in terms if what it SHOULD be for a neutral team, but perhaps UF deserves #1 until Kirby beats the Gators and proves himself uncursed.
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I think UT > OM just due to some of the losses they had from this year, but it’s probably only by a hair. OM has best QB still. I can agree with the “boost” to UF though until we prove that it’s just another game.
I did think the later rankings were a bit odd. Would probably move some things around:
5) Aub
6) Missouri
7) Kentucky
8) South Carolina
9) Tech
Yes, last year’s Tech game ended up being settled by one score, but we dominated the majority of the game and it wasn’t ever in question. The year prior was one of the best teams they’d fielded in 20 years. Color me skeptical that last year was the anomaly.
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Tennessee should beat us but we are at home and they have Butch, so I feel like we have a good shot at the upset.
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Agreed.
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I’m thinking we’ll be favored going into the ut game. We came off 2015 at 10-3, ut was 9-4. We should’ve beat them in knoxvegas w/o Chubb. Although we’ll be coming off our trip to oxford, ut will be coming to Athens after playing fu.
ut is wayyy over rated. So is fu.
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Nice talking point, we will all know by mid season how good or bad Aubum and Nerd U.
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Tech could be in for an extra rough year. At least three teams (not counting BC to start the year) get a bye week before playing them (Tech has to play before each, though one is a Thursday night game, because ACC). That’s on top of playing a Pitt team in the second season with Narduzzi’s defense, a VT that still has Bud Foster, but got an offensively-minded HC to replace the horrible Scott Loeffler, plus Clemson and UGA who are leaps and bounds more talented.
The offense probably improves some from last year, but the D (which was not bad in 2015) lost a ton, and is still coached by Ted Roof.
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I see Ole Miss, TN, Mizzou, Florida, UNC as toughest, in that order. Mizzou may seem high to some but I have them there based on the number of offensive questions we have to answer, their defensive front, and it being a road game. But it changes every week as we get more info and see what injuries everyone has to deal with for that particular week.
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Just curious as to why you view OM as the toughest. They don’t have the team they had last year and their replacements can’t walk in the same tracks as their predecessors. I know that’s about as generalized as one can make it, but their coach doesn’t have my respect as well since he has to cheat to get ahead. Does last two year’s play vs Bama increase their validity in your mind?
I’m soliciting for reasoning behind all our opinions to fill in my lazy research gaps. Am I taking something too lightly or are others basing their opinions upon something I can’t see or missed in reader comprehension?
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The two Bama wins aren’t much of a factor at all for me except to say this isn’t the same Ole Miss we have been stomping on for over two decades. It is more location, situational, and QB driven. They have the best QB we will face all year with mobility and quality receivers. They will be desperate to save their season after losses to FSU and Bama. Now if Kelly has been roughed up or injured, all bets for them are off as they don’t have a known RB threat. We will both be coming off physical games against Mizzou and Bama, but it is our 2nd straight road game. Add in the “look ahead” potential of us playing the biggest game of the year the next week against TN (who should be unbeaten and highly ranked), and a huge tie-breaker matchup, I think they have the mental edge.
We have beaten them ten straight, dare I say: we will get their best shot? We have a lot of offensive questions and the Rebels have a solid defensive front. points will be tough for us to come by unless our OL is really good, or our passing game is able to click by then. All of this isn’t to say we don’t have a reasonable chance to win, they are certainly beatable, but they have some factors that worry me more than the Vols, who are a better team than Ole Miss. Will our guys take a two loss team seriously enough, or look forward a game the next week against a Top 10 team for all the marbles in the East? Dunno just yet.
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All I know is the GT games have been damn close lately..time to put them away. GT/Mizz/KY/SC are all in the same bucket to me. UNC a step above those, Ole Miss/UF/UT at the top.
Agree about UF being the toughest, if nothing else, the mental aspect of getting absolutely embarrassed two years in a row in Jax…
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See it much the same way. While I feel FU was lucky to beat us when comparing athletes, they couldn’t be that lucky with their overall SEC record. There is something to their coaching capabilities that I gave short shrift to last year; something intangible that’s not in print and it sure ain’t player attitude. Since they have owned Tenn for yrs, that puts Tenn downward and FU up in my mind’s eye.
I believe that our player-ability vs 2016 opponents gives us a 50-50 chance of going 12-0. Tripping up on Mizzou or Ken has more possibility than losing to Tenn, FU and OM, i.e., mental lapse with lesser-talented teams.
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2013 was close only because Aaron was hurt. With him, we would have beaten them senseless. Without him, we had no downfield threat.
Beat Florida. That is all.
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I thought Aaron’s injury was against Kentucky, after the Florida game. Did he have an injury other than the knee injury in 2013?
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That’s right. He wasn’t available for tech because of the injury against UK. If he had not gotten hurt in that game, we would have beaten tech like a rented mule and probably gotten a better bowl bid because TV would have wanted his last game in a better slot.
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I think his list is about right. We’ll need to beat Florida at least three times in a row before I take them out of the number one slot.
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You mean like we did just two years ago? The last two losses suck, but prior to those, Richt had gotten the record to 5-5 over the previous 10 games. We need to quit obsessing over a “curse”. We still have the winning record in this series, and I suspect it will start widening again.
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Think most of us feel that way, but the mysterious suckitude that strikes us in that game is beginning to make me jittery.
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I agree about the jitters. I also think that McElwain is a good coach. If we can enter that game with a healthy Chubb/Michel combination and Eason has gained enough experience to start and not make too many mistakes, then I think we have an excellent shot.
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Forget it Jake, it’s J-Town.
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I do not believe in any curse. And I want the game to stay in Jacksonville. i went to school during the Dooley era. Beating Florida was a given at the time. But we have spit the bit down there a couple of times so I’m looking for us to reassert our dominance over the Gators. Five and five was certainly an improvement, but I’m looking for better than that quite frankly.
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Karma is a bitch and the modern Dawgs have been bitch slapped by Karma for all of the times Dooley pulled a horse shoe out of his butt to beat Florida. SOS was just Karma playing catch up on us.
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No, 69. FU outcoached the Dawgs. Look at their coaches’ records versus our coaches records. SOS against Ray Goof–no contest. Jim Donnan against SOS–no contest. Urban Meyer against Mark Richt–again no contest. I would argue that McElwaine was better than Richt, too’ during the last 2 seasons. FU won more because they had better HCes and consequently better teams. In the short time that Georgia had the upper hand Georgia won because Richt was better than Muschamp. Georgia won all those WLOCPs in the 60s and 70s because Dooley was a better HC than all those guys FU came up with during that period, too.
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Zook out coached us too.
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I count 5 wins since 04….and some huge head scratchers on our part…
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I’m a bit worried about Tech. The Genius tends to do well the first time he faces a DC, and I don’t think Smart or Tucker have a lot of experience against the triple option. For me it’s…
Ole Miss
UT
UF
UNC
GT
Auburn
Vandy
SCAR
Mizzou
Kentucky
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I’m thinking fishfry might be a lame duck by the time this game rolls around. If not, he probably gets the boot immediately after we beat them.
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Tech can’t afford to fire fishfry. The nerds are still paying off their ex-basketball coach. If they have to pay off fishfry too they won’t have the $$ to hire anybody as his successor. They are really in a bad spot.
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I think you are right about GT playing first year DC’s tough. I seem to remember good old GA Southern rushing for 400+ yards against Kirby’s Alabama bad boys. It’s hard to defend that knee killing offense until you’ve had to. Maybe the hold over coaches can be the lead for the game.
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They topped 300, and scored 21 (it was 2011 I think). Saban was pissed about it, but it was never close (and I think one TD was special teams.)
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