I’ll just put these Michael Elkon observations out here as food for thought.
Here’s Georgia’s historical SRS chart, if you’re interested. Michael may have skipped past the ’81 team (turnovers at Clemson, plus Dan Effing Marino ruined what should have been a helluva year), but his overall point is worth debating.
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Great season. Very pleased but the passing game offensive line are not good enough yet to make that claim. The SEC east was a beast from the 90s until Saban and Miles got things rolling in the west. This year’s Cocktail party is still the most fun I’ve had watching football in years. Thanks again team.
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Short answer yes. The lid is being knocked off.
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Agree. At the very least, the lid has been loosened up a lot.
Personally, I was just hoping to see some meaningful steps forward in the 2017 season. I had no idea an 11-1 season with a legitimate shot at the playoff was in the cards.
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Blown off…..
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Looking at recent history, not coaches…2014 was next highest SRS (10 wins again!) and 2013 was highest SOS (injuries plus tough schedule…ouch!). Those stats are…interesting?
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2014 dominated good teams except for Tech. It was the two faceplants against bad ones that kept them from being better.
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It was the highest SRS of the Richt era and it was one of the quietest 10 win seasons of any team in the Power 5 in recent memory. Nobody thought much of that team aside from the players and coaches on it. They had very little coverage nationally and I don’t think the fans were all that enthused.
Of course it was followed up by the 2nd lowest SRS in the Richt tenure and everyone was out.
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That 2014 team will forever be remembered for 3 things – Bobo’s 1st down call on the goal line against USCe, the failure of the defense to show up in Jacksonville and the pooch kick against tech.
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I remember the beatdown of Clemson.
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Beatdowns of Missouri and Auburn, too.
But the season was defined by the Gurley fiasco.
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I loved the Clemson beatdown. Didn’t Gurley and Chubb score on 3 consecutive plays?
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the related question is: is the lid being closed on Alabama? Was Kirby the secret sauce behind Saban’s unparalleled string of excellence? Can he really lose Kirby and Pruitt in a 2 year stretch (not to mention Cristobal) and not see a slide?
Too little information to call it today, but that was the most un-Alabama game in Saban’s recent history and UGA seems to be making the turn… correlation or causation?
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Honestly, I think its mainly due to Saban getting close to retirement – perhaps as soon as this year. Their ’18 class alone screams to me that something is amiss, as Bama has never been ranked this low this late in the recruiting season.
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I’ve had the same question willy. Things just seem to have taken a turn against the Tide. Alabama had an easy go of the schedule early on..and just didn’t look like they were as seasoned as Auburn. I think the days of it being Alabama and then everyone else are coming to a close. Losing Kirby and Pruitt has to hurt them.
It would be interesting to see how many Iron Bowl losses in a row it would take to put Saban on the hot seat. Almost unthinkable not long ago. But I’d bet if Saban won every other game but continued to lose to Auburn, it would happen. Crazy.
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“Losing Kirby and Pruitt has to hurt them.” Did I miss something? Did Pruitt take a Head Coaching job somewhere? I’ve Googled it but could not find any mention of that. If that is correct then you bet it hurts. That is the loss of 2 great DC’s and recruiters in a very short period of time.
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He is being mentioned as a head coach candidate at MIss State.
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Not sure why SRS says what it says, but we’ve had several teams better than the ’71 team.
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Actually, I have thought for a very long time that the 1971 team was the best Georgia team I ever saw. Even better than the teams Herschel was on. This confirms that.
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I’d put the 1982 Dawg team up against them. It would be a great matchup.
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The ’71 team killed everyone up to the Auburn game. It was an extremely good team.
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Another example of a season that could have been great ruined by a loss to Auburn.
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At least this team gets a do-over. Hopefully, they’ll take advantage of it.
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Yes, the lid is knocked off. I predicted as much numerous times here and elsewhere during the long off-season, yet even this season has slightly exceeded my predictions/expectations (I had us losing a close one to ND and AU). And just look at our ’18 and ’19 recruiting classes, both of which are, like ’17, on another level compared to anything CMR ever hauled in.
A few predictions moving forward: Saban will retire either after this year or next; UF will rise under Mullen but not to SOS/Meyer levels; UGA will be the top Dawg in the SEC after ’18; UT will continue to mire in mediocrity or worse. The next 7-8 years are looking like halcyon days for us barring something totally unexpected.
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I disagree that Saban retires. He knows nothing else.
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Agree that recruiting at the next level is key to knocking the lid off and keeping it off. IMO Richt was overrated as a recruiter, especially if you consider the recruiting as part of roster management, or vice versa.
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Agreed. In college football, recruiting is the lifeblood of the program. We have never seen the level and depth of talent that Kirby and Company is bringing in. Combine that with really great coaching and the future looks extremely bright.
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I still remember that 4th down play. What a heart breaker. And then Blackledge did something similar the next year (or maybe it was the year before). Man, those early 80 teams were something to behold! My all time favorite UGA team is the ’82 team that beat UT 10-9. (My year may be wrong but I think it was the ’82 team that beat UT.)
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’80 and ’81 beat UT Vols, ’83 beat Texas 10-9. Gotta love knocking Texas one of the most overrated programs out of a National Title.
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Loved that game! I remember it well. UGA hadn’t done much offensively all night. Then that muffed punt. Lastinger took it on 3rd down. I was jumping up and down like crazy. What I loved about that team was so many people were saying it was a HW team and without him, we wouldn’t be very good. We lost 1 game that year and we did it with Lastinger and without HW. Loved HW but that year we overacheived and it was awesome! Thanks for posting the clip. Great memories.
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The ’83 team was another good team that could have been great except for that lone loss to….(wait for it)…Auburn. 10-1-1 with a loss to Auburn and a tie with Clemson.
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Lid is still closed. Great opportunity to remove it Saturday.
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Agreed.
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Tough crowd
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With all the 4&5 star talent we have in the Senior and Junior classes, I’m shocked that folks are so surprised by this year’s team. It’s been a long time since we’ve had this many quality upperclassmen. They were supposed to be good.
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