… is made by ESPN’s Alex Scarborough, as follows.
I can’t believe I’m counting wins right now. This is the one thing you should never do. But here I am wondering whether Georgia can get to 9-10 wins. And I think, very tepidly, that it’s possible. With Jacob Eason, Nick Chubb and Sony Michel, the offense should be in great shape. The defense should be better, too. But the real reason I like Georgia is the schedule. The East is ripe for the taking, and the nonconference schedule isn’t that bad. Appalachian State should be a relatively easy win, Georgia Tech isn’t unsurmountable because of its mediocre defense and Notre Dame is an utter mess right now with Brian Kelly on the hot seat. With Mississippi State and Auburn — which Georgia has owned for a decade now — out of the West, I think things set up nicely for coach Kirby Smart and Co.
I can’t argue with a single thing he says, including the fact that he’s tepid about going there. Which is kind of sad, when you think about it, but certainly justifiable, given what we’ve seen from the program over the past four seasons.
Get The Picture 
“Georgia Tech isn’t unsurmountable”
I laughed.
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and by not mentioning FL, he is conceding that as a loss no doubt
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Based on recent history (and I use the word recent quite loosely), its hard to argue with anyone who concedes UF as a loss
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“The East is ripe for the taking…” Broken ass record. Looking at the schedule and penciling in wins for Vandy, Kentucky, Missouri, Miss State, etc. is a big mistake. Georgia fans have been waiting four years for a program that can efficiently kick eveyone’s ass that we should easily dominate on our schedule and it never plays out that way.
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Hey, at least we learned our lesson about penciling in South Carolina as a win.
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He’s tepid cause we’re Georgia.
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We don’t count wins here. We count pennies.
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Why be tepid at all? You can always hide behind the usual “way too early” label, or any number of other legit disclaimers (my favorite is “barring major injuries”) capable of providing cover. Be bold and tell it like it is, UGA wins the East and a minimum of 10+ games during the regular season or we fall short of expectations. UGA has the talent, depth, experience, and the schedule…no reason for tepidness or waffling.
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One thing appears to be missing Mac….coaching.
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yEiGh!!!….Richt had the bar set at 10…we’re almost there.
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Yeah, because nothing beats being the 10 win champs
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11 is greater than 8, right??
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So they’re giving out rings and trophies for winning 10 or 11 games now?
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It’s all about perception, man. It makes everybody feel good to win ten games, even if you can’t beat the better teams on your schedule nor win anything significant for ten years. And didn’t you know? Rings just collect dust.
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People like to joke about how “we’ve heard this before.”
Either we’re going to underachieve in perpetuity because we’re Georgia, or else one of these days we’ll break through and get back to being a top 5-10 program and maybe even reach the mountaintop.
Different players, different coaches, different players and coaches on the other teams, etc. This doesn’t guarantee a different result than the Goff, Donnan, and Richt years, but it certainly allows for it.
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Don’t count the Richt years in with Goff and Donnan. Richt won the SEC Championship twice and the East 5 times outright and tied for it 2 more times. Until CMR showed up UGA had never even won the East much less an SEC Championship in the SECCG era. I’m glad Richt is gone because of consistent underachievement but some underachievement is worse than others.
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First person I’ve heard penciling in a near-guaranteed win in South Bend. Early in the season, I’m certain that ND will be up for that game and will give us their best shot.
Otherwise, I expect 10 wins this year (at least). Offense is the key, and if what we’re hearing is true, we should have a good year.
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We have been waiting for ND for years and the coach that fires his team up the most can win, but the coaching and talent difference there now tilts more to UGA. Quite often that observation goes into the shitcan when playing ND at home and after the pundits get through sticking knives into them leading up to our game, South Bend can be a bad place. However, this year is doubtful for them having 25-30 Rudys running around like their hair’s on fire.
Here’s to Touchdown Jesus having a bad hair day.
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“Coaching difference tilts more to UGA”…….Really? I can see talent difference. But coaching? We tried our best to lose to McNeese last season. And we lost to Vandy. And Hugh Freeze ran through us like Jim Chaney at a Chinese buffet. And Chaneys our OC. So. I wouldn’t make any assumptions on coaching.
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Actually, the coaching arrow goes to ND. Kirby made multiple game losing mistakes last year and I haven’t seen anything that tells me he won’t do it again this season. In a close game when it comes down to coaching decisions at the end……….
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Did you just seriously use the phrase “…give us their best shot”? C’mon, man! 😉
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That one is long overdue for enshrinement in the GTP lexicon.
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We’ve been having this same conversation for a few years now. The East has been ripe for the taking and the schedule has been our friend for quite some time. And yet we continue to seek out new ways to not to win. Tepid is way to optimistic in my mind. I’m flat out skeptical. Having said that, if Kirby doesn’t produce big time this year or next, both he and McGarity are in serious trouble.
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I continue to be mystified by the idea that our schedule is a cakewalk. If it was an even-numbered year, sure. But we’re AT Tennessee. We’re AT Auburn. We’re AT Georgia Tech. We’re AT Florida in Jacksonville. We’re AT Notre Dame.
Game 3 is a snoozer. Samford, that’s a win. The others? Opening vs. Appy State is likely to be a challenge based on their history and the fact that it’s an opening game. South Carolina and Mizzou stand to be improved. I guess I’m glad we’re getting Miss State out of the West at home? I’ll agree that the schedule isn’t necessarily murderer’s row, but I see us playing our toughest games away from Athens and I don’t see a lot of “easy” games on the slate.
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Bill Connelly’s preseason 2017 S&P+ has Appy State at 2.7, which is good for 62nd. Georgia’s is 13.4, which is 20th.
None of which is to say that Georgia can’t struggle — Nicholls proved that last season — but to insist that ASU is a realistic challenge is the kind of thing you say when you’re familiar with one team and not so much the other.
BTW, if history is so important to your analysis, when’s the last time Georgia lost at Auburn?
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I’ll channel Munson on that one. As you are want to say everything eventually evens out. So Auburn is due to beat us at the Barn. I watched the Auburn Spring game and that transfer from Baylor is the real deal. He has an arm like Eason but he is way more accurate on the long passes. If Gus wanted a passing QB he has one and we are still hoping.
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“AT Tech”…….wow. We haven’t lost at this powerhouse location since the 20th Century.
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