I am hard-pressed to come up with anyone in the media who’s a more unabashed supporter of Georgia football than CFN’s Pete Fiutak. His latest post on the subject explores the five things he believes the program has to do to get back to the CFP.
- 5. Decide On A Quarterback
- 4. Don’t Lose At South Carolina
- 3. Be Angry And Focused
- 2. Look The Part
- 1. Duh … Win The SEC Championship
#5 is the most overrated part of that list, but more interesting to me is the most underrated item, #2. That is a spot on argument for the need to convince the selection committee that while Georgia’s schedule this season might be a little on the soft side, the Dawgs handled it like champs. I’d argue that was the case in 2017, but going forward you don’t get the benefit of the doubt for one good season. You get that over time with consistency. (Kirby should know that better than most, given his time in Tuscaloosa.)
The biggest stretch in his piece — something I’m not sure even the most rabid of us here would argue — is his conclusion:
But even if there happen to be two losses in the regular season, as long as Georgia wins the SEC title, it should find its way in …
Because it’s Georgia.
Alrighty then. Can’t wait to read the Stewart Mandel piece in the wake of that happening.
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2 loss sec champs aren’t getting in if there are 4 1-loss eligible teams imo.
If USC, OK, OSU and Clemson are all 1 loss champs and the sec champ comes in at 11-2, we’re out.
The sec champ would be first in among 2 loss eligible teams.
Put me down for believing that 12-0 UGA plays 12-0 Alabama on 12/1 in the biggest game of 2018.
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I hope so. It takes a lot of things going right to be 12/0. If it gets to that, I really like Georgia’s chances over Alabama this time around.
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I think everyone is talking about SC upsetting us so much so that it ruins their chance to sneak up on us. The ‘upset’ talk will be on our minds big time when we play them. I expect at least one team, that we expect to walk over, will make it tough for a half but not be a threat by the 4thQtr. If we are focused at SC, UF, LSU and Auburn….we will be 12/0. I’m a believer. Everyone seems to be focused on the talent we lost. And sure, we lost more talent than others, but we also reloaded with more talent than they. So, we are still better. JMO.
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Good points. I’d add that it’s our first ‘real’ game of the season. We’ll be ready, it aint going to be an upset. Can’t wait for Justin Fields to get mop up duty in back to back weeks.
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In this case I think it’s avoiding things going wrong.
There’s just so much depth and talent everywhere that no one really matches up. No single injury would be fatal against the schedule we have. Tho one might be vs. Alabama. We’ll need to be full go for that one.
The gap between our roster and everyone on our schedule is difficult for anyone to bridge over 60 minutes.
Auburn is the closest. If they can replace Kerryon, and I don’t think they can, they’d be the closest. Kerryon was a beast. Not sure we have the two trophies if that kid had stayed healthy. Would have been much tougher to win in Atlanta.
I just think last year is the perfect ending for a run this year.
You know you’re good enough. You just have to play every down perfect. You lose focus for a second and all your work goes to shit.
I think we’ll be hungry and focused and I think every week Kirby will be focused on how do we beat Bama in December? Think alabama in 2009 and Tebow crying. And Bama got beat down in 2008 vs. UF and blown out in the sugar bowl by Utah. We had a better year 2 and have a more talented team.
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first thought was the ’07 season and LSU, but there were a bunch of 2 loss teams that year (OSU – 1 loss)……yeah, odds are, a 2 loss SEC team in that scenario wouldn’t get in.
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2007 season was really unique. Also, my favorite regular season of CFB ever.
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What a fun year! I think I watched the replay of that season more than any other, the Hawaii game at least 6 times.
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My favorite game of that season was the 3OT LSU-Arky game.
Still think McFadden should have won the Heisman that season.
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My favorite outcome of that season were LSU fans bragging about how they were undefeated in regulation. Funny enough – I don’t remember them feeling that same way about splitting the national title with an undefeated in regulation USC in 2003.
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Hard to appreciate that season given how it ended.
The talking heads at espn like Herbie buried us after the pieces came together for us to be in.
We would have be 6.5 point favorites over LSU (and anyone else) had UK and Vandy been able finish off UT. We were the best team in the country at the end of that season. May have been better than any team, relative to the rest of the country, we’ve had. Not the most deserving for sure but the most likely to beat anyone in December you could throw at it.
I’m probably more frustrated with how that season went than 2012 or 2017. At least we were in the damn game in those years instead of playing a Polynesian HS squad from the territories.
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Sorry, but I disagree. I did a lengthy post about the stats for the teams in consideration to play for the national title that year and thought LSU was the best team in CFB.
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Stats? Stats!?!?!
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The stats may be with LSU, but I’m with Derek.
I would’ve bet my house that there wasn’t a team in college football that could’ve beaten us at the end of 2007. That season had more than it’s share of frustrating moments for us as Dawg fans, but damn if it wasn’t a hell of a lot of fun.
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LSU was probably the best team in the country for the whole of 2007 but they were not healthy at the time of the SECCG. We would have eliminated them that day in Atlanta. TN had 2-4 semi-miracle wins the 2nd half of that year to get the chance to play a game against LSU. We certainly did our part to give it to them but they were damned lucky in the SC, Vandy, and Kentucky…very damned lucky.
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Obviously, there’s no way to argue with a hypothetical, but I’ll just say in rebuttal that LSU still managed to do one thing at season’s end that UGA didn’t: they beat UT.
And this really is the mootest of points. As I wrote at the time,
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Absolutely, we will never know what the outcome would have been, but UGA was a different team after the Cocktail Party and LSU was weaker at the end than when they beat TN. I acknowledged that we did control our own destiny so had to accept the result, doesn’t change the point that UGA certainly looked superior to TN when November ended. If I didn’t think we were better than TN, I wouldn’t still be bemoaning our missed opportunity 11 years later. I am not a believer in the best team always wins on Saturday. Just an opinion.
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I still can’t figure out how they thought throwing 44 times vs. USC at home was the way to go. I never blamed Bobo that much, but DAMN Bobo!!!! RTDB!!!!
And then we don’t even get off the bus in knoxville.
Then CELEBRATION!!! happens and its a different team.
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More fun than 1980?
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From an overall perspective, yeah.
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I certainly hope so. I want it to be difficult, and I want us to beat a full strength Bama. And then bathe in the tears of the Gumps.
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and blood, right?
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No way we get in with 2 losses and our soft schedule.
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We aren’t in with 2 losses unless there are multiple 2 loss teams … maybe not even then because of our soft as a baby’s bottom schedule. A 12-1 West champion may get in over us in that scenario especially if it were a close loss. Wouldn’t that be a pisser?
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If it comes down to two two-loss conference champions battling over the last playoff spot, and one of those two teams is the SEC champ, the SEC champion is going to get it for the foreseeable future. Not that I think it will come to that. If Georgia wins the SEC, they’ll have one loss or none.
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I agree with you unless the committee (read the WWL) decides they want to use the opportunity to punish the SEC for an 8-game conference schedule and the cupcake OOC scheduling. I wouldn’t be surprised to see Alabama get in ahead of us if their only loss was a close loss to a 2-loss SEC champion.
I agree that if we win the conference, we’ll likely be undefeated or have only 1 loss … in that case, the schedule won’t keep us out.
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Noteworthy is the wording of #4. Fiutak doesn’t say, “beat SC”, but “Don’t lose”. While technically the same, I think we know the difference. “Don’t let the most Georgia thing ever rear it’s ugly head”. I hope that snake is dead.
While I know a lot of GTP readers and posters can’t bring themselves to believe that South Carolina is a problem, It is.
Here’s why.
For them, the whole of their season rests on this game. Their schedule is pretty soft too, AFTER the UGA game.
If the Dawgs stumble there, they will be behind the eight ball for the rest of the season. South Carolina will probably not lose two conference games post Georgia.
It would leave Georgia with no wiggle room.
Reverend Muschamp is preaching this to his flock. It’s the best shot they’ll ever have at the dream.
I believe we will win,but I”m sweating out.
It’s the event that will light the fuse for one team or the other.
Don’t lose at South Carolina.
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Agree.
Especially since I live right on the GA-SC border.
We usually get USCe early while they are still excited and before their dreams have been crushed and injuries have taken their toll, and typically-slow-starting-Auburn after they have gotten their act together and are playing good football.
Not complaining, really–it makes the games more fun. Plus Florida (when we get the off-week before that game) lines up well, so there is that.
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Uglydawg, did you have to mention snakes? I hate snakes.
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I’ve got a bunch of really long Coachwhips and King snakes that stay around my place. They even go under my house. I never see a poisonous snake. Now back at the pond…better watch where step or sit down…and be careful when turning the old boat over. But you’re more likely to be hurt by ticks (long term, debilitating illnesses) or wasps (if you’re allergic) or even miss-keeters (debilitating illnesses) than you will by a snake. It’s just not as dramatic when it happens
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I live on St. Simons, so we have more than our fair share of bugs, ticks, wasps, snakes and gators. They still run mosquito trucks around the island during the summer months. We even have legless lizards that look very much like snakes. I mostly see black racers and garter snakes, both harmless to humans, so I leave them alone. But I still have a visceral reaction to them, I just can’t help it. Not sure when or why it started. Snakes didn’t bother me when I was younger.
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Family has a place on SSI…Sister in law’s really..but we go a lot. There is a pond behind the house with 40,000,000,000.0000.000 turtles in it. I keep waiting for an alligator to show up.
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…Except for the fact that SCU will lose to Kentucky yet again 3 weeks after we play them. For whatever reason, UK owns them.
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Just win the SEC everything else…and I mean everything else…. is just bullshit…on to my next world problem.
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yeppers
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The SEC Champ getting into the playoff…things I am not worried about. Just win it.
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Well, a two loss Auburn was on the verge of a playoff birth last year, but as we know, they had a Clemson loss and wins over UGA and Bama. UGA may not be able to absorb two losses to teams on the 2018 schedule unless those losses were to Auburn and Bama, which of course then means UGA wouldn’t be SEC Champ and wouldn’t have the two quality wins it needed to have a strong 2 loss resume. Surprising things happen, but it seems one loss may be the most UGA can survive minus CFB chaos around the country.
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They lost to LSU, too. 3 loss team after losing the SECCG.
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SEC title or not, UGA can not lose two games with this schedule and get in the 4 team playoff unless the other contenders have 2 losses that aren’t blowouts. Perfect opportunity for the Committee to send a message for ridiculous OOC scheduling by McDoofus. Combo of OOC schedule, weak East, and only eight conference games make this a fantasy everyone can forget…and rightfully so.
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I may be wrong here, but I think this could be the year that, top to bottom, the East will be stronger than the West. I expect the top of the West to be good-excellent, but the bottom will be worse than dog shit. The East however, outside of UTK, will be better than last year or about the same.
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Really? Who is gonna be at the bottom of the West? Arky? Ole Piss? ATM? Missy State? All of those are going to be decent except Arky. Bama, Auburn and LSU should be at/near the top.
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Tagging ole’ Stewie for a laugh, love it.
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No way in hell UGA gets in with two regular season losses. Under any circumstances.
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Just #4 for starters…
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