Still having trouble breaking through in Montana

Stewart Mandel, in today’s piece about ten spring football story lines he’s following ($$), doesn’t have a word to say about Georgia, but manages to bring up Justin Fields and Jacob Eason in the first two items on his list.

He’s not alone.  SI.com’s SEC spring preview is also silent about Georgia, other than listing the time of its spring game.

Hey, I’m not expecting wall-to-wall coverage of all things Dawgs, but it’s little weird to see the national media taking a top five preseason team expected to contend for an SEC title and a CFP semi-final slot almost for granted this early on.  Should I take that as a compliment?

20 Comments

Filed under Georgia Football, Media Punditry/Foibles

20 responses to “Still having trouble breaking through in Montana

  1. ChiliDawg

    I expect it will be the same throughout the regular season pretty much. 90% talk about Alabama, 10% talk about the other conference favorites. We’ll be flying under the radar inside the top 5. We’ve made that a thing.

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  2. Just Chuck (The Other One)

    Probably should take it as a compliment. Given the way sports media usually likes to stir up things and ask ridiculous questions just for clicks, especially in the offseason, this probably means there’s nothing people would buy and we don’t have any obvious weaknesses. But then, there is Mudcat’s car.

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  3. Uglydawg

    I’ve noticed the same thing in other articles. It’s a curious thing.
    And I choose to be insulted.
    But here’s why I think UGA is being ignored…these people want to sell their stuff nation wide. Outside of the SE, CFB fans are resentful of and jealous of the SEC. It pisses them off to see stories of the SEC and they might reject the whole kit and kabootle. At the very least they will bitch and moan about so much attention being placed on the conference.
    So for the writers (and guiding publishers), concerning the SEC…Less said is best said.
    Since the writers obviously can’t ignore Alabama, the slight falls on Georgia.
    If and when the Dawgs ever come up short against a BIG team…there will be plenty written about it.

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    • Mayor

      ^^Hammer meet nail. Nothing those media assholes ever do is by accident. They have smoked this over in meetings 100 times before deciding their strategy. It’s all about selling mags and airtime with them which really means it’s all about money—as usual.

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      • ChiliDawg

        How dare people involved in a business make business decisions! How dare they!

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        • Mayor

          When you are in the journalism business (including sports journalism) it is supposed to be truth first, business second. When you throw truth out the window and make decisions on what to print and how to print it only on $$ what you get is Fox News.

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          • ChiliDawg

            You’re not talking about truth. You’re talking about the amount of coverage spent on particular teams. If you think that the same amount of coverage should be spent on all teams and programs across the board in the interest of “journalistic fairness,” then you’re a rube. That’s not how business works, and it’s not how journalism works. If I’ve got 100 readers and 65 of them want to read about the Red Sox and Yankees, 20 of them want to read about the Dodgers and Giants and 15 of them want to hear about a smattering of other teams, guess who I’m going to write about the most? This isn’t rocket science and it’s not “fake news” because you don’t like how much time is spent on subjects you want to read about. There are business reasons for how they distribute coverage and it has nothing to do with them having a vested interest in sticking it to you, Mr. Important Fan. And there are plenty of outlets dedicated explicitly to the teams you want to read about. Grow up.

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    • Dylan Dreyer's Booty

      Well, while there is no doubt that ratings are a factor in virtually everything, I disagree that “CFB fans are resentful of…the SEC”. Some of the top-rated games from last season and the previous one are specifically our games. Wasn’t the 2018 Rose Bowl a ratings bonanza, for example? No, I think the reason is that then journalists, etc. don’t see a need to promote us. Still, I hope Kirby is making copies and posting them where the players can see them. Can’t hurt.

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      • macallanlover

        Very true, UGA has become somewhat of a national fan favorite recently, maybe because we challenge everyone’s “black hat” program, Alabama. Not only was the Rose Bowl game highly rated, but the MNC, ND, and SECCG games all had large audiences (even after the dire predictions for all SEC match ups due to “SEC fatigue”.)

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  4. Brandon

    This is all to the good.

    Liked by 1 person

    • Russ

      Yeah, doesn’t really worry me either. I like being under the radar. To be honest, once the Fields show was over there isn’t much left to wonder about with Georgia, at least to a national audience. We still need to know QBRs.

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  5. Go Dawgs!

    I have gotten the impression from reading national media stories and communicating with other fans on sites like EDSBS that the Sugar Bowl more or less made people write off Georgia and forget about us. The perception is that we had our shot, we blew it, and now we’re fading just like Richt’s program did.

    Can’t wait to see these guys prove them wrong.

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  6. NCDawg

    I’d rather fly under the radar personally and put a chip on the players shoulders in the process.

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  7. mwo

    The national media isn’t writing about UGA yet because they haven’t decided what the controversy is gonna be this year. Last year they invented the Fromm – Fields issue and repeated it so much that it became real. Not as much low hanging fruit for clickbait this year. Give them time, it’s early yet.

    Liked by 1 person

  8. 92 grad

    I kind of think that its ok. Hiring Kirby was newsworthy and his first season was interesting enough to cover. The season two bump was off the charts spectacular and worthy of national coverage, lots of interesting stuff early on and it only gained momentum as the season went on. Year 3 seemed somewhat boring in comparison. Aside from recruiting news and the transfer nonsense there hasn’t been much to write about lately. I think the coming year will be more about the east division and developing narratives around Florida and Tennessee. If Georgia ends up winning the east it will generate a kind of flat year in terms of national news.

    I just hope we win the east.

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  9. Dawg in Austin

    I’m not sure there’s anything going on with UGA storylines right now anyway. Hell, the beatwriters’ material has been pretty ho-hum lately as well. I like the idea of the team being allowed to grind without a whole lot of unnecessary attention. National writers will always choose the juiciest stories from each conference and then move on. Bama replacing their entire coaching staff over 2 years and after getting clobbered by Clemson is more interesting than us replacing 2 coordinators and chucking the Sugar Bowl.

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  10. 4th & Kirby

    As a program, we’ve already lost our national luster from Kirby’s year 2 bump. Seems to be back to normal at UGA. 10-11 win seasons. Eventual losses to Alabama.

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  11. Rebar

    After our showing in the bowl game, I wouldn’t blame anyone for not seeing much with Georgia. We had clearly superior talent but failed miserably.

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