It’s been a while since we’ve had a reader poll, but with the recruiting hay in the barn, the staff reset and nothing else to chew over until G-Day, it seems like an appropriate time to calibrate everyone’s expectations for the 2017 season. So here goes nothing.
The choices are posed in increasing order of difficulty — for the team, that is.
Feel free to elaborate in the comments.
Get The Picture 
The Eastern Division is there for the taking. Easy, ripe, and luscious.
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Toe it up, Lucy. (But I think we have a great shot if the coaching staff is even a little bit clever).
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Beat Florida.. you know baby steps ..
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Seems to me that Kirby needs to beat Florida and Tennessee. So, win the east. The rest is just for fun.
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Maybe it’s my browser, but I don’t see the option of “Georgia beats the ’72 Dolphins and the ’85 Bears”
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Given Bob Griese is 72 years old, I like our chances against the ’72 Dolphins, as long as Greg doesn’t schedule a noon game.
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I’m kind of in between 2 and 3. If we back our way into the SECCG, barely winning a very weak East, then get blown out by the west opponent, I won’t feel a whole lot better than I do now. For me I want to see us win the East, and then show and play in the SECCG like we actually belong there. Winning or losing won’t be the issue for me as long as we are competitive and at least have a chance to win. That would be a big improvement in my mind.
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Exactly where I am. Win the East and win, or be in the SEC Championship game in the 2nd half, staying within 14 points. That demonstrates a definite step forward and can allow the staff to have a message to take on the recruiting trail to sell the 2018 class. I think not winning the East could be a serious obstacle to UGA since the “East is down” mantra is being sold nationally by everyone with a voice. Plus we will have some serious talent stacked up in front of potential recruits; it is one thing to wait your turn while winning championships, but another to justify riding the pine on an average team.
Won’t name any one specific game we have to win just cannot lose to both TN and FU in 2017. I expect 10 wins, but nine is also a possibility and could be acceptable if an East title is achieved.
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^What he said.
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Same here. I want to WIN the East with conviction and compete against the West representative like we belong there. If it is Bama I understand they are ahead of Georgia as a program but at least battle, scrap, and test them so the team understands where they need to get to win the SECCG and/or more.
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Win the East? Sounds like bigotry of low expectations or something…
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It’s more than UGA’s done in four seasons.
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Did the last 4 seasons make you happy?
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LOL, another swing and a miss.
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I can’t put it in terms of Ws and Ls other than to make three of the Ws UT, UF, and Tech. I would like improved offensive line and special teams play. Improved offensive play calling and attention to game time decisions by the coaching staff would be nice also. Also improved accuracy, touch, and timing by our QB would be sweet.
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And beat Auburn… and get a pony
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Thanksgiving and beating Auburn. These are things that happen in November.
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Win the East. If Kirby can’t take advantage of the weak schedule and down division, then he is just an excellent recruiter.
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It’s not just Kirby. It’s the whole staff especially Chaney that we have to overcome. IMHO Kirby’s greatest failure is in hiring assistant coaches. If the guy is so good at recruiting why can’t he get better assistants?
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I voted win the East, but if we’re just replacing Florida as the team that barely gets in even with a weak East then gets absolutely steamrolled in Atlanta… not so much.
I’d just like a season where we finally beat the teams we’re supposed to, and be competitive with anyone. Sometimes you just face a better team, but be competitive if thats the case (which this year should only really be relevant in Atlanta or maybe against Auburn if they’re legit).
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Win the east minimum. Some type of championship is needed to validate that this flyer our Dawg overlords have taken has any chance of working. Winning the SEC would be even better…
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We have to see better OL play and better play calling from OC Chaney. Between the RBs, TEs, and improved receiving corps, and Eason is improved as he shouls be, he has many weapons to choose from if Chaney puts them in the right situation. If thesee things happen and the play like they are capable, winning the East should be the minimum.
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We should not minimize “just winning the East” anymore. Florida owns us. The stakes are much higher for CKS this year than last. If Florida and Tennessee beat us again this year, with less talent, then recruits and everyone else will move on to Florida or some other program. I think it is now or never for the East, or CKS is at risk of joining the last 3 UGA coaches who met their demise in Jax.
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Kirby will have blow torches under his seat with any result short of winning the east.
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Seriously, though, I think we have a good team and I’m ready for football season. So a time machine would make me happy. February is the worst.
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Win the East and be competitive in Atlanta, but we’re not supposed to have expectations on results because practice is more important. The Process and all …
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The east should be ours. The division has been weak for years, and this year may be a new low. DC Collins gone at fu, Dobbs gone at ut. I’m having a hard time thinking of any player or coach in the division that poses a serious obstacle.
But I have strong doubts about the staff. Frankly, if I were head coach of this team I’d dump at least 3 of the assistants immediately.
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South Carolina. I know we beat ’em last season and Boom is an indiot but watch out for the Cocks. They overachieved last season.
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Beat. The damn. Gators.
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I’m a broken record on this one, but winning the east, 10+ wins ought to be the expected outcome, under any schedule in year 2 of CKS. with the softball toss dick high down the middle that we’ve been gifted this year, anything else is a major disappointment.
I’ll say it till I”m blue in the face. Coaches that win championships show a logarithmic jump in results in year 2. Going back to 2000, coaches either win some hardware in year 2 or don’t ever. Dabo breaks that mold, but only with the assistance of the best all around quarterback since Cam Newton.
Also, Clemson was a mess when Dabo got that job. There is no objective standard that shows UGA at the same place as Dabo in 2008.
Kirby has talent coming out his ears(much of it young), experienced players littered across the field, 2 of the best running backs in UGA history, and a front 7 that is the envy of everyone, perhaps even Alabama this year.
This is a team that can square up against every team it will play in 2017. Do our coaches have the chops to make the right call on those 2-3 plays a game that define the outcome? Those 5-10 plays a season that define the outcome? Good lord I hope so.
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Generally agree with all this post but do not minimize the outcome of 1-2 plays a season being the difference between great and disappointing. Just one play (a 30 yard FG miss by UNC) allowed Clemson to win a NC last month that would have otherwise been a disappointing miss for from the CFB playoffs with Watson & company. One play for UGA against Florida in 1980 allowed to us play ND for that MNC. One Disaster in the Pasture miracle play against Auburn in 2010 got them an SEC title and a spot in the BCS final game, plus the Pick Kick miracle against Bama. One play for TN against Arkansas with a weirdly timed fumble in 1998 allowed them to win a BCS title. And the list is way too long to go on about because someone gets that break every year it seems. To say we are overdue seems trite but it is true, we have had 3 near misses since 2002, so yeah, we are definitely overdue for some good fortune to match up with a solid team….it does take some luck.
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I agree with every word you said. Many of those 5-10 plays a season that define it all come down to coaching, execution(coaching by another name), and/or dumb luck.
See SECCG 2012 for pure dumb luck keeping us out of the title game. defensive player makes wrong pre-snap call, is in wrong position, attacks the wrong space to defend the wrong player, and gets a finger tip on a ball.
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In the history off UGA, only 1 coach won the conference in his 2nd season at UGA, that was Richt an offensive guy. So the chances are almost impossible.
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I may be going out on a limb here, but I think we fired one guy because we thought the other guy would be better.
To what I think your point is, I don’t hold Kirby to a standard against other UGA coaches. I’m 32. I only really know 3 coaches, including Kirby. I have vague awareness of life under Goff.
That said, the standard for Kirby is Nick Saban. Can he beat Saban and win the SEC and go on to win the National Title. I don’t care if Dooley, Goff, Donnan and anyone else couldn’t do it. You know who wins conference championships? Great coaches. Who does it early in the their career? In the modern era, everyone except Dabo.
I don’t expect Kirby to be at his best in 2017. That said, if our coaching staff is what we hope it is, we’ll be hell on wheels in 2017 and ought to be making a serious push for Playoff consideration in 2018. The talent is there. can the coaches do it?
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I said the same thing entering this past year. Ten wins with this schedule, easy. Best running back tandem in the East and possibly the SEC. Expected to do it with our eyes shut. Great start with NC and the confidence swelled. After the next couple of games, my expectations were a bit different. Nichols really changed everything for me. Despite the no talent propaganda that was spread, there was a reality that the talent was still there to be much better than we were. That’s the worry going into 2017. Yes, 10 wins should be a shoe in with the talent and schedule. The East is ripe for the taking but has been for a few years. The question is, what gets done differently? A failure to make changes most likely returns similar results. I’m hoping a second year head coach recognizes what those changes need to be. If not, a second throw away year probably won’t fly.
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The Georgia luck would be to win the SEC championship and get left out of the CFP semifinals.
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While that would suck, I would take it.
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I would be disappointed if such were the outcome, but not in the team.
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My inner “Munson” made me type that. And I would not be disappointed in the team either.
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I expect the offense to struggle early in the year with an inexperienced OL. The defense, particularly the front seven, should be stout and will have the burden of compensating for lackluster offensive production. I don’t see much improvement in ST personnel, so it’ll be up to the coaches to improve the God awful ST performance from last year.
So, I can realistically see anywhere from 7 to 10 wins in the regular season. Just too many remaining question marks returning from last year. (I reserve all right to change said opinion on further review of GDay QBR #s)
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It is absolutely reasonable to expect an SEC East Championship this year. On paper, Georgia is the most complete team in the division this year. And, despite the fact that all of the tougher league opponents are road games this year, the schedule still stacks up to be quite manageable in terms of the SEC West opponents. Georgia should have been the SEC East Champion the last three years in a row. If they aren’t this year, that’s a huge disappointment.
Also, beat Tech.
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I’m missing the option to not lose to both Vandy and Tech in the same season. Doing just those alone won’t make me happy, but it sure as shit would make me less sad.
All that said – Kirby wasn’t brought here to finish 3rd in the East as the previous guy could do that in his sleep if that’s all we wanted. If the team is out of serious East contention again by the time they had to Jax, I can’t imagine any of us are going to be very happy.
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80% +, sounds like we are of like mind.
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Yep… looks like a consensus to me. Wonder if it permeates in bm as well. Would also like to see a poll on consequences if we don’t win the east. Would bet that fire Chaney would garner well over 82% as well.
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SEC East and a New Years Six Bowl minimum
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The coaches are gonna have to show me they can coach up/develope the players and have them game ready. In all honesty, I have yet to see anything to suggest that they can. (See Nichols St., Vandy, etc.). The two areas that I feel performed at or above expectations last year were QB and the DL, and now Rocker is gone.
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True dat. Not one Soph, Jr or Sr made all conference. So you don’t have coaches able to develop anyone, and you have no All SEC type talent returning. It’s not looking good for UGA in 2017 again. DL will be worse, the new DLine coach was a downgrade for sure on his coaching development, upgrade at recruiting, though, but if you can’t develop them so what?
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Winning the eas(y)t sure is a low bar for someone of you. What happened to all of the excellence demanders?
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Just too soon to demand excellence.
The offense was terrible bottom 20 nationally only averaged 24 a game, if you do that, the only way to win the East is have a top 10 defense like Florida always does, and our D was around 35, so nope, excellence ain’t realistic this soon. How do folks see a #100 offense improving when it’s the same offensive starters and coaches returning, except less experience on the offensive line?
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Senator, there’s a voting option missing.
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Agree, how about an option of 7 wins or less.
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Win more games and championships than Mark Richt. If that’s not the goal then why?
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I’m guessing, but I’m betting the 5% who would be happy with more than 8 wins are the same people who were the loudest about firing Richt. Just a guess, though.
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I do not have great expectations for 2017. It takes time to develop a dominant OL and therein lies the path to the top. If UGA wins 9, or at most, 10 and perhaps a decent bowl, I will be satisfied. As I said in a previous post, 2018 is the “make or break” year. If Smart is not “smart” in 2018, then the B-M losers better start looking around. Next time hire a competent experienced HC instead of a coordinator. As Furman Bisher used to say, “Selah”.
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“Next time hire a competent experienced HC instead of a coordinator.”
There’s a palate cleanser for that
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I was OK with letting CMR go but I expected an experienced HC of top quality to be hired. B-M choked on the hire IMHO and I fear we will be doing it all over again after 2018 or 2019.
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Really looks that way. It appears Kirby can recruit, but cannot coach. And his offensive staff sux. His DC is unproven. The offense sucks at every level, offensive line loses 3, wr’s lose McK top producer, rb’s were not productive and return, Qb was among the worst nationally and returns. Just don’t see where the points will come from. I agree, hiring Kirby Smart was a terrible move.
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Eight posts from a new moniker in 20 minutes.
I do believe I’m on troll alert.
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Sorry, I’ll slow her down. Just want to temper expectations, care to comment on what I wrote about the offense?
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One year, way too early to judge..
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You don’t know any more than anyone else does at this point, comment volume notwithstanding.
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many things are known about UGA’S offense.
1- We know Chubb or Michel didn’t crack the top 15 in the conference in yards per carry.
2- Eason finished next to last in conference in both yards per attempt and passer rating. Nationally, Eason finished @90th in yards per pass, rating, and accuracy.
3- The two above means the offensive line of course got manhandled, and lost several starters and will likely be forced to start a freshman and a JUCO so might be worse, will not be better.
4- No returning receiver even finished in the top 30 in yards per game in the conference.
5- And Chaney’s offense finished 11th in the conference in scoring per game.
6- The special teams finished almost dead last as a unit.
7- Smart’s defense regressed with largely the same players as Pruitt coached.
That’s what concerns me. It’s what I know about the returning offensive starters and coaches from a productivity standpoint. 15 games to me isn’t a small sample size.
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Many things are known about Georgia’s 2016 offense. What that says about 2017 is a matter of opinion. You are certainly entitled to yours.
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DUP has the same writing style of the Greyson Lambert = Aaron Murray guy.
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Good reasoned analysis. Not many coaches win a National Title in their second year as a Head Coach. That’s hilarious some expect this. You are right, offensive line sux. Yep, 2018 is the year of testing needs to win the East by 2018 or fire his ass.
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Hey, look at the sole commenter on the Poll Daddy site…ha! Cannot say I’ve missed his failed attempts at the English language.
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He figured out the back door around the site block. Good thing I don’t run many reader polls.
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Failed attempt. Lacks authenticity. Not all caps.
THE SECURITY OF OUR COMMENTS IS AT STAKE!
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I expect losses to:
Notre Dame, Florida & Tenn as usual, GTech and Auburn.
7-5 so far.
Should win the rest except lose one to either South Carolina, Appalachian State, Vanderbilt or Kentucky.
Ends up at say 6-6, absolutely no way we win the East, can’t beat UF or UT anymore.
Why 2017 will be worse?
1- Chaney sux tomatoes, nuff said.
2- offensive line inexperience
3- No healthy running backs, all are coming off major injuries
4- no productivity at WR
5- hideously bad quarterback returns
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Chubb and Sony looked healthy to me over the last 4 games and the bowl game. Herrian looked good all year.
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It’s the O-Line, stupid. Improve the blocking and Chubb/Michel run over under around and through the other team and Eason throws 3 TDs a game. Also, take my advice–you need to quit while you’re ahead, Bro. Just sayin.’
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CKS certainly concerned me in 2016 by taking a step backward. But even if we don’t win the East in 2017, I’ll withhold judgement after year 2. (Hopefully at least taking a step forward). I know it doesn’t fit with the current mindset, but I’m a proponent of giving a new coach an entire recruiting cycle to prove himself (in most situations).
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Yep, 2017 is another throwaway season, no one has a substantial reason to predict an East title for UGA, my guess is Florida will win it with another top 10 defense. 2018, I’m expecting a whole bunch of wins.
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I chose the “more than eight wins” option, but the magic number for me is more like ten wins, plus winning at least two of the three games that matter most: Auburn, Florida, Tech. I’ll settle for eight/nine wins as long as none of them are faceplants.
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I chose “Georgia wins the SECCG and reaches the CFP semi-finals” because I’m a believer that Kirby reads GTP and I don’t want him to slack off
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If Kirby reads GTP, the program is in worse shape than I thought. 😉
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Probably reads here for the laffs
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To paraphrase the great Easy E : ” I just want the Dawgs to be legit”.
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Expectations?
Is it too much to ask to beat Tech? So that’s number one because … well, a coach can’t lose to them two years in a row and still get to be the coach, right? (1-0)
Win the east means beat UT, beat UF, beat SC, etc. Honestly, shouldn’t we sweep the east? (6-0)
Gotta beat Auburn because [reasons]. (7-0)
I don’t want my trip to Chicago ruined because Kirby cacked up our perfect record versus the Domers. Gotta beat Notre Dame. (8-0)
I expect us to be undefeated at home because that’s where winning starts. We have to protect our turf. (12-0)
So by my measure that means I need UGA to go 12-0.
shrug
Sorry. I could probably flip Auburn and Notre Dame.
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I know everyone predicted that Saban’s 7-6 team 2007 would go 12-0 in the regular season in 2008 because you all are so damn smart. Everyone saw it coming a mile away. It was obvious.
But then again John Parker Wilson, a high school recruit named Mark Ingram and Junior Glen Coffee are SO much better than Jacob, Nick and Sony. No reason to expect anything out of those three.
Yep, if we were gonna do anything special in 2017 it would be obvious to everyone. That’s why the press had Alabama No. 1 in the off season and not us.
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I don’t see a single game in the 2017 schedule that Georgia shouldn’t win based on the 2016 season and what little I know of each team’s returners. That being said I’m sure there will be a misstep or two, but I can’t think of a good reason why we can’t at least return to the Richt standard of 10 wins and an East title in ’17.
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You could ask this poll in any year and the results will be the same. Win the East, yada, yada, yada, followed by the delusional who think we’re going to win the National Championship every single year. Our fans had the same expectations in 2016, but nobody seems analyze the details. In 2017 we’re replacing 3 starting OL, including the QB of our OL (Center) and will most likely be mixing and matching right up until Game 1.
We still need to find WR’s that can get separation and catch the ball, while our D has to learn to stop teams inside the red zone. Lastly, we need to find an OC that isn’t telegraphing his play selection. ,When everyone in the stadium isn’t shouting “IT’S A RUN UP THE MIDDLE.!!!”, you know you have a problem.
The realistic expectation is radio button #1.
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I answered “SEC East title” like most people. But gotta say, that’s hardly a gimme. My optimism was reduced by Bill Connelly ranking us 41st in returning production (we have a lot of starters back, but they weren’t, as a group, all that hot in 2016)–significantly below Florida, and even a bit below Tennessee–and by doubts we can get a major OL upgrade with 3 starters gone and with freshmen likely starting.
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I just looked at the roster. We have about 10 young O-Linemen most of whom are 300 pounds plus. Three are freshmen who were redshirted last season so they are really going to be sophs. There is also a redshirt soph who will be an academic junior. Plus we have the best HS O-Lineman in the nation coming to school. I have to believe that out of that group we can come up with 5 guys who can play particularly if we can rotate a little with the others to keep the starters fresh. This is college ball. Some graduate or leave every year and new kids come in to take their places. That’s true for every school. I’m actually optimistic about the O-Line next year. Just don’t ask me about the in game decision making and game plans. I keep saying this but it’s the truth–last year wasn’t on the players in spite of the efforts of our vaunted HC to imply otherwise. The players didn’t call a pooch kick-off that let UT get the ball within hail mary range. If the Vols can’t get the ball into the EZ on the fly even if the UT player catches it he’s tackled short of the goal line and the Dawgs win. And which player decided to hand the ball to the smallest Dawg on 4th and 1 in the Vandy game on the most critical play of the game? I could gone on but……..
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Agree with you about the O-line being better next season. We won’t be dominant by any stretch but we will not get totally stymied next year by almost every opponent, and we shouldn’t whiff on assignments. With the RB talent we have, that should be enough to win the East if the East doesn’t totally collapse.
And the reason for TN being able to throw a Hail Mary wasn’t on the pooch kick, it was totally due to a call against UGA for helmet violation (one that was not called against multiple TN players earlier in the game or any other team that I saw play the remainder of the season), well, that and not rushing Dobbs on the play for some mysterious reason.
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We have to win the East and it’s that simple for me.
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