DawgNation grasshoppers, pay attention to Mike Bianchi. He’s the master.
The fact is I’ve always thought Georgia was the most overrated program in college football and I still do. And the Gator-concocted 14K Day drives that point home even further.
I’ve written it before and I will reiterate it here:
Georgia fans have way too high of an opinion of their program. The Bulldogs have won one national title in the modern era and that came nearly 40 years ago in 1980. And the only reason it happened then is because of two lightning-in-a-bottle twists of fate: The Bulldogs were fortunate enough to sign arguably the greatest player in college football history (see Herschel Walker) and they were lucky enough to take advantage of one of the biggest fluke plays in college football history (see Lindsay Scott’s catch-and-run against Florida during the national-championship season).
I once wrote that without Herschel Walker and Lindsay Scott, Georgia would be closer in history and tradition to South Carolina than it is to Florida. I’ll admit now that’s probably taking it a bit too far and, therefore, I’d like to amend that statement to say this: Without Walker and Scott, Georgia would be closer in history and tradition to Wisconsin than Florida. For most of its history, Georgia has been a good, solid program; just not an elite program.
That’s good trolling. You can get mad at the editorializing, but the underlying facts are the underlying facts.
Of course, the mark of a master troller is going too far and Bianchi doesn’t disappoint.
Plus, it doesn’t help that Smart may have met his match in Mullen, who turned UF’s program around in one season and is starting to challenge Smart’s superiority on the recruiting trail.
And there’s no higher praise of a good troll than another master of the art’s recognition, which of course followed yesterday like the day follows night.
I hope you DawgNation fellas are taking notes.
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UPDATE: If you’ve got the time, you ought to listen to the first hour of yesterday’s Finebaum show, not so much for Bianchi, who just repeats his column, but for what Seth Emerson had to say afterwards.
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Didn’t corch almost/or did ban the orlando writer back in the day from practice interviews or something about team access?
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Corch challenged Jeremy Fowler to a fistfight because he accurately quoted a Florida player saying something impolitic. Called him a ‘bad man’ and threatened to ban his paper from access. Just another highlight in Corch’s long history of winning friends and influencing people.
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Oh gee, we are only like 7th in wins since segregation ended about 50 seasons ago. We have the second most SEC titles (more than UF) and still have a healthy lead in the head to head. Florida had never won ten games until the 1990’s.
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Florida never won an SEC title until the 1990’s! Spurrier thought they were going to get one his senior year as most Dawgs know, until Georgia showed them who was boss in Jax.
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Shorter Mike Bianchi – the only thing that matters is what has happened since 1990 because that’s when college football started to matter
Of course, this is the same guy who recognizes UCF as the 2017 national champion.
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Mike who?
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Bianchi’s whole shtick is trying to troll people. It seems to be the go-to shtick of most of the local guys who got into sportswriting in the last couple of decades before newspapers became antiquated.
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Bianchi is probably too young to remember, but the Lindsay Scott play was no fluke. UGA routinely beat the crap out of Florida in Jacksonville before 1991 and now does the same again. Florida’s 15-year history that culminated when Corch road out of town on Tebow is more of a fluke in history.
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Pay no attention to their program before Spurrier.
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Since 1997, only Ohio State, Boise State, and Oklahoma have a higher winning percentage than Georgia. Everybody else, like Alabama, Notre Dame, Michigan, Nebraska, Penn State, Texas, USC, Oregon, LSU, FSU, and Miami have a lower winning percentage than UGA over that time period. Wisconsin came in at 7. South Carolina is 51st.
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Since 1920 the top 20 teams in wins (in order):
Bama, Okla., N. Dame, USC, Texas, Ohio St., Tenn., UGA, Neb., Mich., Penn St., LSU, Fla, ‘Burn, Clemson, W. Virginia, Ga. Tech, Wash., Miami, Ark.
Georgia is 8th.
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As far as I’m concerned, everything from the segregation era is irrelevant. Since that time (1972 was the first fully integrated season), we are 7th. Tennessee is a segregation era power, if you take that period away from them, they are barely top 20.
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My point is that whether you look at it from 1920, 1972, or 1997, Georgia has been a top tier program. Only hype has kept others from seeing that.
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I don’t disagree with you, I’m basically just taking a shot at Tennessee. Really, a lot of teams were powerhouses in the 30’s through 60’s, Vandy, Ole Miss, Minnesota, they are all also-rans now. Their success during those days is practically irrelevant.
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Of those 20 teams, how many did each win against the OTHER 19 teams? The results:
Bama322, UGA266, ‘Burn238, Fla217, Tech196, Tenn181, LSU175, N Dame172, USC and Tex146, Okla127, PennSt114, Miami113, Ohio St109, Mich100, Neb90, Ark72, Clemson68, Wash46, WVA27.
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Please look at these numbers closely. They are startling. Over the last 99 years, other than Bama, Georgia has won more games against big time opponents and it isn’t even close. The big northern programs would play 1 or 2 big games a year, clean up versus the little dogs, and wait for a fawning press to anoint them champs. Meanwhile 1/2 our regular schedule was on the way to becoming top programs.
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A year or so ago the Senator posted a site that showed we first in strength of schedule since 1920. These numbers back that up. We are a first tier program and we should strongly stick up for that.
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Can’t be. Every coach we had prior to Kirby either craps the bed or had brain farts against good teams.
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Lol! Respectfully disagree!
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The fluke is that we won in 1980 and have had several better teams since then that have faced one type of misfortune or another that has kept us from getting another. Florida came in the back door for 2 of its 3 titles. Lots of “flukes” to their benefit in both the 1996 and 2006 seasons.
Belue to Scott was lucky, but we’ve had nothing but bad luck since.
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Yeah, we’ve had about 6-7 other teams since then who could have won it all with a +38 turnover margin.
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Where you at, Stoopnagle?
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I’m not sure how I missed this yesterday. But:
#ftmf
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“starting to challenge Smart’s superiority on the recruiting trail.” So that is why FU has absolutely ZERO 5 star recruits on the roster or for that matter in the pipeline? That’s why the top running back in the state chose Clemson over FU? That’s why their expected QB of the future selected UGA? That all happened because Mullet is challenging Kirby’s recruiting superiority? Man oh man, how things have spiraled down the rabbit hole in Gainesville. Imagine how bad things would be if he was not “challenging Kirby’s superiority in recruiting”.
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Imagine Florida without Tim Tebow and Danny Wuerffel. Imagine if they didn’t get lucky with Georgia’s all time leading receiver dropping a crucial 4th down pass.
There’s a much stronger argument that bad luck prevented Georgia from winning 3 straight titles with Walker, with the possibility of a 4th if he doesn’t lose his final year of eligibility.
As for Walker and Scott as recruits. If signing two in state players is lucky, what would it be called if another program earned their signatures?
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In 2006 if UCLA doesn’t stun USC…UF is outside looking in.
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Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. I have said that for years.
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The Herschel thing makes no sense – I mean, you could just as easily ask where Corch would’ve been if the Teboner doesn’t pick Florida???
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Herschel had a lot of good teammates too, if you look at his recruiting class, they were seniors in 1983 and went 10-1-1 without him. That’s still one of the best defenses we ever had. Texas simply could not deal with Freddie Gilbert in the Cotton Bowl.
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Plus, Tebow was a Zook recruit.
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So what did Seth say? I’m not listening to Fbaum.
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Am I the only one who feels like Mullen’s in trouble? In many way’s a great coach, but I don’t think he’s up to the task of directing UF back to glory.
It’s one thing to pleasantly surprise folks in Starkville. Making the UF base happy is going to require more than he’s got to give, in my opinion.
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Losing by two plus touchdowns in the cocktail party and falling further behind in the recruiting rankings is regaining superiority? Um ok.
Actually never mind, you’re absolutely right gators. You guys need to do everything in your power to ensure this dynasty lasts for a thousand years. First order of business is a MAJOR contract extension with a monster buyout clause for Mullen and more importantly Grantham. Can’t have the latter’s annual NFL interviews turn into an actual job offer.
Also our national championship was totally a fluke. Unlike getting a rematch with FSU in 1996 coinciding with undefeated Arizona State losing as well. I’m also totally sure you guys would have beaten Pete Carroll’s USC team in 2006 had they not stubbed their toe against UCLA. I mean sure Carroll lost a grand total of 2 out of conference games during his entire tenure at USC (one of which was Vince young Texas). AND was undefeated against the sec including a 70 point case of aggravated assualt against sec west champion Arkansas that same year who you guys struggled with in the sec CG. But yeah I’m sure you guys would have beaten them because hey Florida has never ever in the history of football (which began in 1990) benefited from lucky bounces.
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Nice smackdown, Charlotte.
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Correction, USC lost 5 OOC games from 2001-2009 but only 2 between 2002 and 2009. They also only scored 50 points IN FAYETTEVILLE against the razorbacks, not 70.
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The one thing he got right. He correctly identifies Hershel as the greatest player in the history of the college game.
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The older I get, the less attention I pay to stuff like this. Most of it doesn’t bother me, and this doesn’t either. As the Senator said, “the underlying facts are the underlying facts”.
But I have to say I was amused that he went so far as to disrespect the GPOOE by praising Herschel – but only as a cudgel to bash the program. I have to wonder if he would say that about Herschel in any other context.
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The “If you take away [insert X great player]…” argument is one of the dumbest in sports, and in Bianchi’s case, it’s completely disingenuous. If you’re going to take away the best player in the history of one program, it’s only fair that you do it for the program it’s being compared with. So, for the sake of impartiality, let’s subtract the Tebow years from Florida’s history and see how it stacks up against Georgia’s sans Herschel.
Georgia (adjusted without Herschel):
Wins: 786
Winning %: .645
SEC championships: 10
National championships: 1
Bowl appearances: 52
Head-to-head record vs. Florida: 49-43-2
Florida (adjusted without Tebow):
Wins: 677
Winning %: .630
SEC championships: 6
National championships: 1
Bowl appearances: 40
Head-to-head record vs. Georgia: 40-51-2
One of these schools does resemble Wisconsin when you remove the best player from its history, but it’s not Georgia.
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Excellent work, JM.
There’s a reason that troll has only been at the Florida Times-Union and the Orlando Sentinel … he sucks at his job and could never get hired in a major media market.
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Predictably, neither Finebaum or Bianchi are considering the championship-eclipsing bliss that comes from believing you are morally superior to those other programs winning crystal footballs. Its sad.
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Saturday down south says gators is our first loss. Now that’s trolling
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Mike who?
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#ftmf
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Who?
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